by Nicole on 2 January 2019
PER
Outstandingly processed aluminum housing
Flexible 2-in-1 design
Very long battery life
LTE
Average keyboard with little key stroke
The Snapdragon 850 with 8 GB of RAM is not intended for power users.
The speakers sound distorted at full volume and can hardly fill a medium sized room. I prefer to use external speakers.
The way we use our devices has changed their form factor. Snapdragon-based notebooks are targeted at a group of users that Intel does not really address. The long battery life and LTE make the Yoga C630 ideal for people who travel a lot.
design
The flexible hinges can be rotated 360 degrees and are similar to those of the original Lenovo Yoga. They are two-stage and although they do not require much effort to open, they also offer good grip in tablet mode, so you can easily tap on the display. What I like most about this form factor: I can watch Netflix without having to look at the keyboard. Being able to hide the working aspect of this device is very important to me personally.
Lenovo has done a great job in terms of display margins; without compromising on the placement of the webcam.
display
The 13.3-inch (33.8 cm) display of the Yoga C630 is sharp and colorful - but it could be a bit brighter and the colors a bit livelier. In addition, the screen seems to have a slight yellow tinge. Fortunately, the calibration software of Windows 10 can help.
As far as the touch screen is concerned, I did not notice any problems in 3D Paint and surfing in tablet mode.
keyboard
Lenovo is known for its good keyboards, but the C630 does not quite live up to these expectations. The key stroke is very low. We know that the notebook is only 12mm thin, but the key stroke is just 0.9mm. Usually this value is between 1.5 and 2.2 mm for laptops. The key feeling here is more like that of a Macbook, which has a keystroke of 0.7 mm.
However, the key spacing and layout of the keyboard are perfect and we had no problems typing. After about a week, I got used to the small key stroke. If the Yoga C630 were my only device, I'd get a decent keyboard for writing.
The keyboard is quite enough for users who do not need to work at their desks or sit in front of their computer all day long, but only have to write emails or reports for a few hours.
Also on your lap the Yoga C630 never gets warm.
Technical specifications of the Yoga C630
processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 850
R.A.M. 4 GB or 8 GB LPDDR4X
Storage 128 GB or 256 GB UFC 2.1
modem 4G LTE Snapdragon X20
1.2Gbps
display 13.3 inch IPS touch screen (1920 x 1080)
graphic Qualcomm Adreno 630
connections 2 x USB type-C
ports left: USB 3.0 / PD
ports right: USB 3.0 / PD / DisplayPort
headphone jack
SIM card slot
Biometric security features Windows Hello
fingerprint scanner
Audio Stereo speakers
battery pack Up to 25 hours of battery life
61 Wh
Dimensions 306.8 mm x 216.9 mm x 12.5 mm
mass 1.2 kg
Weighing 1.2 kilograms, the Yoga C630 is pretty lightweight for a 13.3-inch laptop. And with its thickness of only 12.5 mm (when closed), it is even one of the thinnest devices on the market.
The choice of connections is not necessarily great. There are two times USB Type-C 3.0 for power, video and data; a headphone jack and a power on / off button. The connections are sufficient, especially for charging, but for older peripherals you need a Type A adapter (not included).
performance
The Snapdragon 850 is a chip designed for PCs. In my usual workload, he was a little hard. I usually have around fifteen tabs in Chrome, and I often stream Netflix Full HD as well. The more tabs were open, the longer it took to load the web pages. There were also some delays when switching between tabs.
While I have not really been interested in benchmark scores in recent years, I find it interesting to see how the SoC compares.
benchmarks
3DMark Fire Strike
Tests the graphics performance.
754
3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited
Tests graphics and gaming performance with the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited benchmark.
26592
vs Core i5: 6239
Brightness 222 Nits
Geekbench 4
3368
Geekbench 4.1
3561
The benchmarks show a significant difference in performance between the latest Snapdragon chip and Intel's core line. The Yoga C630 is equipped with 8 GB of RAM and if you look at the test value of the Geekbench 4, it is easy to see how huge this difference is.
The Snapdragon reaches 3561 points, while the Intel Core i5 (2018) reaches 12000 points.
For my work, I often rely on Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Premiere to edit photos and videos. Unfortunately this is not possible with the Yoga C630. On the one hand, because the processor is not powerful enough and on the other hand, because the range of programs in Windows 10 S is severely limited. (That somehow reminds me of Windows RT.)
software
Windows 10 S only lets you download apps from the Windows Store. If you want to install third-party software, you'll probably have to upgrade to Windows 10 Home.
Pre-installed apps include Phototastic Collage, Candy Crush Saga, LinkedIn and Fitbit Coach. Lenovo Vantage is also in the game and was supposed to offer system updates and customization options. In my test, the app contained only a user manual.
For business travel, the Yoga C630 is highly recommended, even if I do not want to rely completely on the Microsoft ecosystem. For the seamless switching between devices I prefer to rely on Chrome. Switching from my Surface Book to the C630 was a bit more difficult than I would have liked.
camera
In good lighting conditions, the camera is relatively good, but as soon as the light gets a little weaker, there is a clear picture noise.
Battery life
My nineteen-hour flight from Istanbul to Toronto passed the Lenovo Yoga C630 with flying colors. The screen-on-time was 13.17 hours and the device was in standby mode even between two charges for ten hours.
In the airplane, it helps, of course, to turn off the Wi-Fi. With the WLAN or LTE on, the battery life would have been an hour shorter. However, I had a nine-hour stopover, in which I've used the C630 with Wi-Fi turned on for a full five and a half hours at a stretch.
In short: the battery life is excellent!
price
Prices for the Yoga C630 start at $ 850, which seems appropriate considering the high quality workmanship. However, I wonder how the device will feel in a year, because with me the Yoga C630 in terms of performance after three weeks pushed to its limits.
RATING
DESIGN / 8
CAMERA / 7
SOUND / 7
PERFORMANCE / 7
BATTERY LIFE / 9
SOFTWARE / 7
PRICE / 8
EDITOR'S CHOICE / 8
HARDWARE / 8
DISPLAY / 8
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LENOVO YOGA C630
The high-quality workmanship and versatile 2-in-1 form factor of the Lenovo Yoga make it an attractive device for people who travel a lot and need a long battery life. The biggest criticism, however, is the performance. The device is aimed primarily at users who mainly use web applications, Word and e-mail. Business users who need external screens for their work and like to have many tabs in their browsers will probably have to look for a more powerful second device. In addition, the choice of apps and programs available to you is severely limited by Windows S - but after all, Edge consumes significantly less resources than Chrome.
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