Test of the Lenovo Yoga Book C930: an E Ink keyboard makes it the most unusual notebook of the year

You have the choice between many high-end laptops perfectly portable and upscale, but it must be admitted that in the end, they are more similar than different. The Dell XPS 13, Acer Swift 7 ($ 886 on Amazon), HP Specter or MacBook Air ($ 900 at Walmart) all have a double-hinged hinge that connects a color LCD to a physical keyboard and touchpad. Some have touch screens, other ports or different LTE antennas, but when did you last see a laptop that was fundamentally different?

The Lenovo Book C930 is certainly different. That these differences are for the better must be debated. But it's hard not to like a laptop that respects the conventions of the industry and throws them out the window. What makes the yoga book ($ 269 on Amazon Marketplace) It stands out by the fact that it combines an LCD touch screen with a second E Ink touch screen, sharing a 360-degree hinge. The unique configuration available is $ 999. International price and availability are not yet available, but that equates to £ 770 or AU $ 1,400.

Keyboard on screen, on demand

How can you tap on such an unusual device? The E Ink display is considered the lower half of the hull. There, a keyboard with monochrome screen appears on demand, with a touchpad. An options menu offers several keyboard layouts and levels of fake keyboard snap sounds and haptic feedback (but the buzz is very general and is not specific to the key you press).

The keyboard choices are a standard design with a permanent touchpad area and a version with larger keys and a touchpad that only appears when summoned. This larger version certainly provides a better typing experience, or at least it is more tolerant given the lack of tactile feedback.

According to Lenovo, the software behind the keyboard application will adapt to your luck by tapping the totally flat keys. But my biggest problem was that I could never get used to calling and removing the touchpad. This led to too much tapping on the spacebar when you tried to click a button, or fumbling when your finger went to where my brain expected the touchpad to be ( if you press a letter on the keyboard, the touchpad is returned and returned). the spacebar).

The actual seizure, including most of this review, was surprisingly better than I expected. I am not an expert in typing, but I'm moving into a new computer at least once a week, so I'm good enough to acclimatize to new keyboards. This helps that the keys are usually in the right place with good spacing. But, you must also keep an eye on the keyboard while typing.

The touchpad is harder to use. It's all too easy to let your finger slip from the touchpad outline on the keys, and the auto-hide version of the touchpad gives the impression that it's never there when you've got it need but still there when you do not use it.

Windows 10 ($ 99 at Amazon) is still much easier to use with a keyboard and touchpad than with touchscreen controls. Therefore, not having a great keyboard / touchpad experience is a sign against this otherwise smart PC.

Second chances

The idea of ​​a laptop with a keyboard on the screen is rare, but it's not new. In fact, this is the second generation of the Yoga Book range. The original 2016 (available in both Windows and Android versions) featured two LCD screens, one in the form of a main screen, the other in the form of a keyboard on the screen, from a graphics tablet or from a secondary screen. The typing experience was mediocre, but the idea of ​​being able to use the screen for an application or browser window was great. It has also been retained by a slow Intel Atom processor. True old people will remember the same Acer Iconia, also equipped with two LCD screens, which I reviewed in 2011.

Since this new version swaps the lower LCD screen against E Ink, it takes advantage of E Ink's battery benefits and readability. Switch the screen to "tablet" mode and you can only use the E Ink screen, which any Kindle owner will tell you as a true battery saver. But with the LCD streaming video, the battery life is only about six hours, which is mediocre for a super slim and superportable laptop that is supposed to travel with you.