The Lenovo C940 is a smaller 14” 2-in-1 premium laptop, let’s check it out in this
detailed review and help you decide if it’s something you should consider.
For the specs my config has a 10th gen Intel i7-1065G7 quad core Ice Lake processor, just
Intel Iris graphics here, 16gb of faster LPDDR4X memory in dual channel, there’s a 512gb
NVMe M.2 SSD, and a 14” 1080p 60Hz touchscreen.
For network connectivity it’s got WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5, however it’s too thin for
ethernet, so you’ll need to use a dongle if you need that.
The C940 specs can be customized when ordering, you can find examples and updated prices linked
in the description.
The laptop is made out of aluminium and it’s available in two colours, I’ve got the iron
grey version here and it looks clean and professional.
For a thinner machine, the build quality feels quite solid, there are no sharp corners or
edges anywhere.
Lenovo lists the weight as starting at 1.35kg, and mine was just a little more than this.
With the small 65w power brick and cables for charging included, the total weight rises
to 1.7kg
The dimensions are on the slimmer side for a 14” laptop, coming in under 1.6cm thick.
This allows it to have just 7mm thin screen bezels on the sides.
Generally 2-in-1 touchscreen devices like this have thinner bezels to help you avoid
accidentally pressing the screen, but I found the bottom chin large enough to fulfil this
role.
I found it to work fine as a touch screen, and it apparently supports 10 finger gestures,
so make sure you don’t have any more!
There’s a pen included, it’s around the back on the right corner and charges while
inserted into the machine.
Due to its position I had great difficulty trying to pull it out with the laptop in front
of me on a desk.
It was much easier to pull it out once you flip it over into tablet mode, which to be
fair is probably when you’re most likely to want to use the pen, though I think it
still would have been useful to have easy access in laptop mode too.
I expected a nice satisfying magnetic click or something when putting the pen back in,
but that wasn’t the case, though it does stay in place once you slide it back in place.
The touch screen otherwise worked well for me, no issues to report.
It’s got a glossy finish, and Lenovo says the 1080p version uses a 400 nit panel, while
the 4K model is brighter at 500 nits.
Using the Spyder 5, I found my 1080p model a bit under the 400 nit mark, but this can
vary between panels, the contrast ratio was above average compared to most I’ve tested
too.
As for colour gamut, we’re looking at 95% of sRGB, 66% of NTSC, 71% of AdobeRGB, and
71% of DCI-P3, so alright results, plenty if you’re just using it for office work
or ok for some content creation.
The 4k 500 nit panel is HDR and supports 90% of DCI-P3, so definitely worth considering
if you need better colours.
There was no backlight bleed in my unit, an excellent result, however this will vary between
laptop and panel.
Screen flex was very minor when intentionally trying to move it due to the metal lid, however
it highlighted that the laptop was easier to slide around than expected.
The feet underneath didn’t really feel rubbery or sticky, it’s hard to describe but I guess
it seems closer to a plastic so there may be some slippage when pushed.
The Yoga 360 degree hinge also contains the speaker, so it basically faces you when in
laptop mode, but still also faces out in tablet mode.
The speakers sounded excellent, far above average and some of the best I’ve ever tested
in a laptop, they were clear, there was some bass, and they were loud enough at maximum
volume.
The latencymon results looked alright too.
The laptop can be opened up with one finger until the screen gets to 90 degrees or so,
then it starts to tip back, demonstrating that in laptop mode there’s more weight
towards the back, however it did sit fine on my lap.
Despite the thinner bezels, the camera is found above the display in the center, there’s
no IR for Windows Hello but it’s got a physically sliding privacy shutter.
The camera looks pretty decent for 720p and sounds pretty average.
Typing makes a kind of weird sound on the keyboard.
The keyboard has white backlighting which illuminates all keys and secondary key functions.
There’s no numpad in the 14” model, however the larger 15” version does have that.
I liked typing on the keyboard, the keys felt a little clicky to press, here’s how typing
sounds to give you an idea of what to expect.
There are 2 levels of key brightness which can be adjusted by holding the function key
and pressing the spacebar.
Keyboard flex was on the lower side considering how thin it is, likely owing to that metal
body.
The precision touchpad clicks down anywhere when pressed, I found it to work quite well
without any problems and was happy that it’s basically taking up as much space as it can.
There’s a fingerprint scanner to the right of the touchpad just below the keyboard, I
found it to work fast and with good accuracy.
Fingerprints and dirt didn’t show up very easily on my darker matte finish, but as a
smooth surface it’s easy to clean with a cloth.
Like all glossy touch screens, fingerprint build up will occur over time unless you just
stick to using the pen.
On the left from the back there’s a USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A port, two Type-C Thunderbolt
3 ports with DisplayPort support, and either can be used to charge the device, followed
by a 3.5mm audio combo jack.
The right just has the power button towards the back, I pressed it a couple of times while
picking it up before I got used to it which puts it to sleep by default, but you can always
change what the button does in Windows if this is an issue for you.
The back has air exhaust holes, while the front sticks out a little for you to get your
finger in and open the lid.
Underneath is pretty clean, with just some air intake vents towards the back.
To get inside you need to take out 4 TR5 screws, then there are 3 more phillips head screws
hidden underneath the back rubber foot, I found it a little tricky to open.
Once inside we’ve got the battery taking up a large portion of space down the bottom,
and the single M.2 slot for storage towards the right just above it.
The WiFi chip is soldered to the board and so is the memory, so make sure you buy it
with enough memory for what you need.
We can also see the space that’s dedicated to the pen.
In addition to the speaker bar below the screen, there are a couple of speakers towards the
front on the bottom.
Despite the battery only being 60Wh, the C940 definitely knows how to use it.
I’ve tested it with the screen brightness at 50%, background apps disabled and keyboard
lighting off, and in my YouTube playback test it lasted for under 11 hours, putting it right
at the top, though due to the lack of discrete graphics the regular gaming test was not possible.
The Lenovo Vantage software lets you manage the system, you can change settings or update
software and bios through here, though with the C940 I didn’t see any option to change
performance modes.
I’ve tested thermals in a 21 degree Celsius ambient room temperature, at idle it was quite
cool at 29 degrees Celsius.
With the Aida64 CPU stress test running it did initially spike above 80 degrees celsius,
but before long it settled down in the mid 60s with a slight improvement once undervolted
with Throttlestop.
Although clock speed peaked at 3.5GHz on all 4 cores, around 2.7GHz was where things settled
in at, and this is due to the lower wattage applied to the processor, this is a 15 watt
chip after all.
It’s worth noting it was running up to 20 watts or so closer to the start of the testing.
When we look at 5 runs of Cinebench we can see how the result slows down over time as
these throttle limits get hit.
As for the external temperatures where you’ll actually be putting your hands, at idle it
was in the low 20s, a very cool result.
Even with the CPU stress test running it’s only around 40 degrees, just a little warm
to the touch owing to the metal chassis which will conduct heat, let’s have a listen to
fan noise next.
It was completely silent at idle, and then even with the CPU stress test going as a worst
case it wasn’t much louder at all.
Next let’s find out how the C940 holds up in games, we’re not expecting much due to
a lack of discrete graphics, so I’ll just test the Intel Iris graphics at 720p with
some basic titles to get an idea of what’s possible.
Dota 2 runs on basically anything, so almost 60 FPS was possible even at ultra settings,
with much higher frame rates at low, where even the 1% low is higher than the screen’s
60Hz refresh rate.
CS:GO was tested with the Ulletical FPS benchmark, and again around 60 FPS maxed out, though
well over 100 FPS was possible at minimum settings.
Overwatch was tested in the practice range, at high settings and above it felt pretty
stuttery and laggy, it wasn’t too bad at low though, not great, but usable.
I’ve used Adobe Premiere to export one of my laptop review videos at 4K.
As the C940 doesn’t have discrete Nvidia or Radeon graphics, it’s one of the slower
results out of the laptops tested, however it is beating the Acer Swift 5 with the same
processor which was in last place.
I’ve used Crystal Disk Mark to test the storage, and the 512GB NVMe M.2 drive was
performing well, but expect different results with different storage options.
For updated pricing check the links in the description, as prices will change over time.
At the time of recording, in the US the C940 is under $1100 USD though it is on sale.
Here in Australia the starting price through the Lenovo website is $2700 AUD, it’s higher
even after the currency conversion as the base spec seems to be higher than the US config,
which starts with an i5, but customizations can be made when ordering.
With all of that in mind let’s conclude by summarising the good and bad aspects of
the Lenovo C940 2-in-1 laptop.
Overall I thought the metal build quality was good, there was minimal screen and chassis
flex when intentionally pushing down and I personally liked the clean design.
The keyboard has a nice and clicky feeling, the touchpad works well and is a good size
despite it being a smaller 14” model, and the speakers sounded excellent.
The battery life was amazing, giving me one of the best results out of all laptops I’ve
tested in the YouTube playback test.
The C940 has Type-C charging too, along with Thunderbolt support, and the power brick is
on the smaller size, making the whole package fairly portable.
The 1080p touchscreen had basically no bleed, decent brightness and colour gamut, but consider
getting the 4K model if you need better colours and brightness for tasks like content creation.
Even when under heavy load the C940 ran on the cooler side and didn’t get loud at all
compared to most others I’ve tested.
Very light gaming is possible with the Intel Iris graphics at 720p, but don’t expect
much.
The lack of discrete GPU will also slow down other tasks like video editing, but for other
general tasks that don’t need GPU acceleration I found it to perform well, beating out the
Acer Swift 5 with same processor in my Premiere export test.
As for things I didn’t like, it could be a bit slippery when on a desk if you push
it lightly due to the lack of sticky rubber feet.
The pen was challenging to remove with the laptop in laptop mode, though this was much
easier once you fold it into tablet mode.
The price doesn’t seem too bad for a thinner and lighter machine, but that’s definitely
what you’re paying for here, as you can of course get more powerful specs in a larger
machine for less money, it just depends what your priorities are.
I could recommend the C940 for someone that needs portability with a long battery life
and isn’t looking for a gaming or hardcore video editing laptop, something for say office
use or travel, once that’s allowed again, would be perfect use cases for it.
Let me know what you thought about the Lenovo C940 2-in-1 laptop down in the comments, and
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