The Lenovo Yoga C930 Review: Atmos Acoustics
by Brett Howse on March 1, 2019 8:00 AM ESTGPU Performance
Since Intel’s integrated UHD 620 hasn’t seen any real architectural updates in quite some time, it’s feeling dated in terms of 3D performance, although it definitely has its strengths as well. Intel’s media block offers some pretty incredible efficiency, excellent hardware decode for H.264, HEVC, and VP9, and QuickSync capabilities for encoding in those codecs as well.
Still, until we see an update architecture from Intel, there’s definitely a GPU gap in terms of overall 3D performance compared to AMD’s Raven Ridge platform.
The Yoga C930 was run through our Ultrabook suite of GPU tests, and once again, if you’d like to compare its performance to any other laptop we’ve tested, please check out our online Bench.
3DMark
3DMark offers multiple tests with varying levels of scene complexity, with Fire Strike being the most difficult we run on notebooks, and Ice Storm Unlimited at the other end. There’s not a lot to highlight here other than the better CPU performance in the Ice Storm Unlimited Physics test, putting this laptop ahead of the rest of the Ultrabooks, but overall the performance is similar to other UHD 620 equipped devices.
GFXBench
GFXBench revamped their suite in summer 2018, and GFXBench 5 brings some DX12 based tests with Aztec Ruins. This will be our new test going forward, and as such we’re still filling out our Bench data with the new version on new reviews. There’s not a lot of good to say about UHD 620 performance here though.
Dota 2
Valve’s Dota 2 offers support for a wide range of hardware and is one of the few 3D games that would be playable on low-end GPUs like those found in Ultrabooks. Once again Ryzen is the real winner here for integrated graphics, although the Huawei MateBook X Pro shows how much performance you can add with even a small dGPU added to the mix.
GPU Summary
Although Intel’s UHD 620 offers excellent media playback capabilities, it is feeling quite dated in modern devices for 3D performance. We shall see what the future brings. The slightly higher CPU performance in the Yoga C930 does help draw out more of the GPU performance in situations, but not enough to really change things by more than a few percentage points.
Storage Performance
The review unit shipped with just a 256 GB SSD, and with the parallel nature of SSDs having less capacity means this will be the least performant version available. It shipped with the SK Hynix SL300 SSD, although drives are typically multi-sourced. This particular model features MLC NAND, which is a bit of a surprise.
As a full NVMe PCIe drive with x4 capabilities, the performance is much higher than SATA based SSDs, and we see sequential read speeds coming in at over 2600 MB/s. Write speeds are quite strong as well, although the higher capacity version would do better here.
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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.