The Lenovo Yoga C930 Review: Atmos Acoustics
by Brett Howse on March 1, 2019 8:00 AM ESTSystem Performance
Lenovo offers both Core i5-8250U, and Core i7-8550U options on the Yoga C930, and both are quad-core Kaby Lake Refresh U series SoCs. As with most review units, Lenovo has sent us the Core i7 model to test out. It’s outfitted with 12 GB of DDR4-2400 in dual-channel configuration as well.
The Core i7-8550U caps out at 4 GHz maximum, with a nominal TDP of 15 Watts, but for shorter workloads, the Kaby Lake Refresh can usually draw quite a bit more than that, depending on how the OEM has the power level states configured.
We ran the Yoga C930 through our standard Ultrabook suite of tests, and comparisons will be against similar devices on the market. If you’d like to compare the performance against any other laptop we’ve tested, please check out our online Bench.
PCMark
PCMark 10 is a comprehensive system test offering several workloads to stress different aspects of a system. The Lenovo Yoga C930 aces these tests, offering some of the highest performance of any Ultrabook without a discrete GPU we’ve seen.
Cinebench
Cinebench is a purely CPU based test, and it offers both single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads. Clearly Lenovo has done a nice job on cooling, because once again the Yoga C930 is near the top against other U series laptops.
x264
This test uses the CPU to encode video, and it performs well with more cores and more threads. This test is also quite lengthy, meaning you’re more likely to run into thermal limits than shorter tests. The Yoga C930 is once again at the top, and by a wide margin here. It’s clearly able to deliver higher power levels without throttling, which we’ll dig into later in the review.
Web Tests
Web tests are important but are impacted immensely by the underlying web browser and its scripting engine. We run all of our web tests in Microsoft Edge, although it is updated several times per year as well, so these results are a snapshot in time.
Although not quite a the top of these charts, the Yoga C930 still performs admirably. In general use, most web workloads should not be too taxing on this device.
System Performance Summary
We’ll dig into this later on, but Lenovo has provided a laptop that is a class leader in performance, and is able to maintain higher power levels for longer, allowing the Yoga C930 to pull ahead of the competition when the CPU is being stressed heavily.
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HStewart - Friday, March 1, 2019 - link
But Intel completion is upper end of laptops is really subpar in performance level. They might want to believe they compete on that level but manufactures understand this and they are not going waste there time - on a product that fans want in mobile industry but they don't buy mobile but instead purchase desktops. There are of course exceptionCHUWI - in my experience with them they are trying to implied that they have high end competitor but actually use the lower end chips. To me this is misleading the customer - to have a Surface Pro looking device with a lower end performance.
Windows for ARM tablets - this is strange part of mobile industry, I personally think a better fit would Chromebooks where native x86 performance is likely not required - but to fool a customer to think they have a full speed notebook to run existing apps is insane. I think they do have limited uses if only web browsing, and Microsoft office applications required. They do have good battery life but the latest generation of notebooks come very close and with Intel Lakefield on the horizon, I believe battery advantage will be gone. But there is not much on this but I believe a combination of 4 low power efficient cores combine with Sunny Cove performance core combine with Gen 11 graphics core - with close to discrete level performance in size of chip that can fit on tip of your finger is going to be quite awesome. This is likely going to remind of days when Intel went from Core 2 to i7 technology.
I loved the EMiB technology and with Lakefield they take it step farther with Foveres technology is going being better. Just image a notebook with more IO on one level, power mult-core logic on next level and high performance discrete GPU on next level. With this technology they could package 100 if not 1000's of cores on desktop size chip.
ChickenLegsxx - Thursday, June 20, 2019 - link
Download Popcorn Time for android from this page https://getpopcorntimeapk.comUpSpin - Friday, March 1, 2019 - link
It the Pen WACOM AES, or N-Trig or Synaptics or ....How does the pen get charged? Inductive in the storage slot? Are you sure? Maybe it's Wacom EMR, as in the Wacom Intuos series/Samsung Galaxy tablets/Samsung Note smartphones, then there's no need to charge the pen at all, because it's coupled inductively with the display.
How good is the accuracy of the pen? Can you draw straight lines or do they wobble?
How is the pressure sensitivity of the pen? How many levels, how sensitive?
Does the pen have an eraser on the back? Does the pen have some buttons? Does the peen offer some other functionality.
How does the pen feel on the display? Is the surface good to write on?
How does the pen perform on the edges of the display?
Please, it's a tablet you can write on, why don't you include this in your review. Just because the delivered pen is small doesn't mean the you can't buy a better larger one afterwards, as long as you know which one. Maybe the HP Active Styli work, or do we need N-Trig?
Brett Howse - Friday, March 1, 2019 - link
It's Wacom AES and feels good on the display and works well. It's not a top-tier stylus but for writing it's great.Thud2 - Friday, March 1, 2019 - link
Are you practicing your typing skills. 300 words to say "What about the pen?"heffeque - Saturday, March 2, 2019 - link
Laughed harder than I should have.Prestissimo - Friday, March 1, 2019 - link
Wacom AES 2.0 technology, 4096 pressure levels, official name is Lenovo Active Pen 2.For compatibility with both Wacom AES and N-Trig / MPP, get the Bamboo Ink Pen which is currently regarded as the best 2-in-1 laptop stylus you can buy.
imaheadcase - Saturday, March 2, 2019 - link
Because most our touch screen and no one uses a pen is why. loleastcoast_pete - Friday, March 1, 2019 - link
@Brett: Thanks for this review. Question: In addition to the soundbar, what kind of audio chipset does this Yoga use? Dolby Atmos usually implies 7+1 or more channels to get the Atmos surround effects. I don't expect that from the built-in speakers, of course, but can this thing provide 7+1 or 9+1 output to amplifiers to really get Atmos surround sound? To member the Atmos branding implies that. Thanks!Brett Howse - Friday, March 1, 2019 - link
Dolby Atmos on PC doesn't require or imply 7+1. Even in the HT world you can get Atmos sound bars. Will it be as immersive as a 7 channel setup with true height speakers? No of course not. But it still provides a wider sound stage from the included speakers in this sound bar.You can get more info from Dolby's website.
The laptop has an Intel audio chipset (SST) and Realtek codec. As for outputting to a receiver, there's no specific digital audio output like HDMI to carry the signal. You'd have to go over the USB/TB3 connections.