Review of the Lenovo Yoga Book C930: two screens and a lot of compromise

If you have gone back five years to ask what a future 2018 computer would look like, there is a good chance that someone will describe something that looks a lot like the Lenovo Yoga Book C930. It's a slender, small, and powerful computer with so many different modes that it's hard to call it one thing, and there's not much else like it.

This is not a laptop, tablet or note-taking device. It's more about trying to be all those things at the same time, depending on your needs. It's smaller than any Windows computer you've probably tried (except maybe the Surface Go), and it has two screens. One is a traditional LCD touch screen and the other is an E Ink screen that can change function depending on the task. Sometimes it's a tactile keyboard and sometimes a sketchbook or an electronic reader.

Almost everything in the new Yoga Book makes you want to l & # 39; love. This is the kind of device that gives you the impression that you live in a future that would be more mundane if only computer companies were a little more daring. But it's also the kind of device that, once you use it, makes you understand why everyone has been so reluctant to take risks. It is much easier to love the idea of ​​the Yoga Book C930 than to live with its reality – especially when this reality costs at least $ 999.99.

This is the second time that Lenovo is trying to release a futuristic computer without a traditional keyboard. The general conception of the new Yoga Book has hardly changed. It's incredibly thin and lightweight for a complete Windows PC, measuring just under 10mm thick when it's closed and weighing only 1.71kg. Its screen of 10.8 inches, 2560 x 1600, is certainly a bit narrow, but you can do a surprising amount of work.

Apart from a mystifying design choice, the build quality of the C930 is excellent. Everything looks solid, from the "bracelet" hinge that rotates 360 degrees to the matte finish of the E Ink screen up to the textured power button. It's a device that will virtually force people to ask you questions about it because it's so small and unique.

This mystifying design choice simply opens the way. You have three choices: stall a fingernail between the two halves, literally "knock on the door" when it is closed or long press the volume down button. The first is super clumsy and strange, the second only works intermittently, and therefore, by elimination, you will press the volume button to open it. Why did not Lenovo make a small cut that your finger-to-grab will be a long time issue.

The first yoga book was littered with compromise: a tiny processor, bad ports and even a bad operating system. He did not have a second screen either, opting for a strange touch panel in which you had to slip a sheet of paper over to record your notes.

Lenovo has examined all the problems of the original Yoga Book and has tried to solve them with the Yoga Book C930. In some cases, this has been a success: this machine is a much more targeted and intentional device. It only works on Windows; it features a relatively modern 7th generation Intel Core i5 processor, the Y series; and, more importantly, it replaces this strange touch screen with an appropriate E Ink screen. This is where you tap, draw, and take notes using the stylus provided. There are now two USB-C ports for connectivity and charging (but unfortunately no headphone jack). Lenovo has also added a fingerprint sensor for the connection. It works, although I personally preferred a camera with facial recognition.

Battery life is not a favorite subject. Lenovo rated it over eight hours of use, but I did not really get there using only Windows. Six to seven seems to be a safer bet, depending on the applications you use. However, if you use it more as a mixed-use device – a bit of Windows here, a little bit of eBook reading out there – you risk reaching that figure or better.

Just like a Windows computer, it does its job and works pretty well (pretty much like a low-end device with 4GB of RAM). That is, it will run Office and let you do basic tasks, but do not force it too much. The little screen helps sort out the expectations here. You will never try to tackle a huge Photoshop project on this topic, and you should not.

Any new type of computer must justify its existence. Why would you want this instead of something simpler, like a Surface Go tablet or a traditional laptop (with a traditional keyboard)? And this bar is even higher for something that starts at one thousand dollars.

So let's talk about this E Ink screen.

The first and most important thing to know is that it's nicer to type than you'd expect, even if I guess your expectations are not that great. Lenovo has a special mode that maximizes the size of the keyboard and minimizes the touchpad, which only grows intelligently when you press the bottom when you want to use it. This little extra space makes the keyboard much more usable, and Lenovo also strives to correct typing errors due to its software with its software.

But banging on glass continues to tap glass, and no amount of haptic vibration can change that. You can not really rest your hands on the keyboard, long nails will be a problem and it becomes tiring after a while.

Honestly, it will probably be the end of the story for most people: an amazing device with a poor typing experience. The idea here is that there are other things you can do with the E Ink screen that outweigh the compromise on the keyboard. But I'm just going to tell you right now that they consist mainly of more compromise.

You can also use it as an e-reader and as it is so small and lightweight, it is comfortable to hold and read with it. Unfortunately, at launch only Supports PDFs Lenovo says ePub, .mobi and plain text support will come next year. It's nice enough for a simple read, but you can not mark or even highlight text. You can only use a resizable and resizable box to analyze parts of what you read. And never expect to be able to read your Kindle library on it. All is just a huge missed opportunity.

My favorite mode is note taking, which allows you to draw your notes on the E Ink screen. It's really nice to simply fold down the Windows screen and have a small notebook on which to write down your notes. You can automatically retrieve the OCR text and also transfer it into OneNote. You can also take a screenshot from Windows and mark it, but the experience of doing it is extremely tedious. Trying to crop the image on what you want to comment on is a big problem for the E Ink display.

Although the E Ink screen has a decent refresh rate compared to other similar screens, the overall experience of its use is extremely slow. You change the mode by pressing small buttons in the upper right corner. Change takes a lot of time. You can turn off the Windows display and use only the E Ink side, but you have to double-tap the screen to do it, and sometimes it just does not register. The unit tries to automatically show you different options, depending on the hinge angle or the orientation of the unit. But in practice, he is often wrong and you still have to twist the yoga book to make it work.

I admit: I really want to love the C930 yoga book. I like the fact that Lenovo is not only willing to try his luck with a strange design, but also to browse it and make it better. Just considering the device as a physical object and even as a concept, I love it.

But even if you can do without the delicate experience of typing on glass, the software that handles the E Ink screen makes the Yoga Book hard to like. There are probably niches in which this device will be interesting, for example for people who need a computer-type clipboard with all the power of Windows and able to take notes quickly.

For a thousand dollars, however, there are much better and more versatile options. They will not impress strangers in a cafe, but they will let you do your work without disturbing you.