Lenovo Yoga C940 Palms-on Overview: All of the Sights and Sounds

Lenovo Yoga C940 hands-on

“New elements apart, high quality of life enhancements make the C940 a properly rounded fashionable 2-in-1.”

New hinge grip makes opening the lid far simpler

Up to date graphics and 10th-gen processors

Undertaking Athena certification ensures lengthy battery life

Sturdy sound bar boosted by new keyboard-tray audio system

Iris Plus graphics aren’t included

With a pedigree just like the Yoga C930 behind it, the Lenovo Yoga C940 each wanted to impress for attainable upgraders, and construct on robust foundations to be a worthwhile buy for potential new consumers.

It brings the everyday generational enhancements like a brand new 10th-generation Intel Ice Lake CPU and an Nvidia GTX 1650 for individuals who need extra graphical energy. Nevertheless it’s the small stuff that might greatest outline this new Yoga 2-in-1, with mild tweaks to sound, hinge design, and lid form.

We received our palms on the brand new Yoga C940 at IFA 2019 to see if it might be a worthy successor to the C930’s achievements.

Multi-generational

With Intel promoting eighth, ninth, and two 10th-generations of CPUs concurrently, there’s some actual potential for confusion within the market. Lenovo is taking full benefit of that broad vary of chips all through its product vary, however the C940 retains issues comparatively easy by solely providing two generations and it splits them by measurement.

The 14-inch Yoga C940 options the most recent improvement from Intel within the type of 10th-generation, 10nm Ice Lake processors, in both a Core i5 or Core i7 variant. Each function Intel’s UHD 900-series graphics, relatively than the extra succesful Iris Plus choice, which was a disgrace to see, however there’s way more graphical energy accessible within the 15-inch model.

That mannequin comes geared up with Intel ninth-generation Core i7 or Core i9 CPUs, providing as much as eight-cores for some extra processing grunt. They are often paired up with an optionally available Nvidia GTX 1650 too, for excellent entry-level gaming capability that may far outstrip something the Intel onboard options can provide.

All fashions provide as much as 16GB of RAM, although the 15-inch mannequin has the choice of as much as 2TB of PCIe storage, whereas the 14-inch model is proscribed to a terabyte.

Sound and display screen

A significant promoting level of the Yoga C930 was the Dolby Atmos soundbar that Lenovo constructed into the hinge, providing forward-facing audio in no matter configuration you had it. We liked it the primary time round and are completely satisfied to see it again with the C940, however this time, Lenovo has taken it even additional. The C940 additionally has a built-in a pair of audio system on the underside of the physique, giving slightly extra bass to the general sound.

The sound bar nonetheless doubles because the hinge makes certain to maintain the audio going through you always and delivers a fantastic 3D sound expertise in small to medium-sized rooms. However now, there are additionally underside audio system inbuilt beneath to fill out the general sound profile. That is particularly useful in clamshell mode, offering some further oomph over final 12 months’s mannequin.

Final 12 months, we weren’t notably impressed with the show on the C930, discovering it a bit washed out in subjective testing, and missing distinction in our artificial checks. Our take a look at mannequin of the C940 appeared noticeably higher, regardless of harsh lodge lighting, with wealthy colours, and reasonably deep blacks.

We are able to’t attest as to if the identical high quality will be present in each the 1080p and 4K panels, but it surely seems Lenovo has made some enhancements on this entrance which was good to see. The 1080p panels provide between 400 and 500 nits peak brightness (on 14-inch and 15-inch fashions, respectively) whereas the 4K screens ship 500 nits brightness and HDR help.

Lids, ports, and hinges

The hinge on the Yoga C930 was one in every of our favourite components of it. That continues to be true with the C940. It’s robust and versatile, retaining a rigidity in all 2-in-1 configurations, with out making it troublesome to regulate between them. It appears to be like slightly totally different this time round too, with Lenovo switching to a extra unibody look. This variation doesn’t have an effect on the nice audio high quality, nor the power of its rotation, however provides a cleaner total look that’s pleasing to the attention.

The 14-inch mannequin weighs in at just below three kilos, so is the better of the 2 C940s to regulate, however the 15-inch mannequin isn’t way more at simply over 4 kilos. Each are simple to deal with, though in case you’re planning to make use of yours in pill mode repeatedly, the 14-inch variant will likely be extra snug over longer durations.

Ports stay unchanged from the C930, with a pair of USB-C three.1 Gen 2 ports with Thunderbolt three compatibility on one aspect, and a legacy USB-A three.1 Gen 2 port on the opposite, alongside a three.5mm headphone jack. We’re glad to see that latter connection choice retained, because it’s turning into all too uncommon in modern notebooks.

As a closing quality-of-life enchancment with the C940, Lenovo has tweaked the design of its lid. There’s now an angular protrusion within the middle, simply above the webcam that measures a number of inches throughout. It makes it far simpler to get a grip on the in any other case svelte lid, easing opening it with one hand.

Athena licensed

The 14-inch Lenovo Yoga C940 is likely one of the first laptops to obtain the official Intel “Engineered for Cellular Efficiency,” badge, in any other case often called being Undertaking Athena licensed. That is designed to offer customers a sensible concept of what they will anticipate from a lot of helpful metrics like battery life, efficiency, and wake from standby responsiveness.

Whereas we had no considerations over efficiency with the C940 primarily based on its make-up, battery life approval is extra noteworthy. With no capability to place it by way of its paces in our typical battery life checks simply but, getting the nod from Intel’s Athena program provides us confidence that Lenovo’s personal battery life numbers aren’t essentially simply greatest case situation.

Lenovo claims that the 14-inch mannequin can obtain as much as 17.5 hours and 9 hours for the 1080p and 4K fashions, respectively. The 15-inch model presents 12 and 9 hours with the identical display screen configurations. All fashions help fast charging for as much as two hours of battery life in simply 15 minutes.

Though we don’t know why, the 15-inch mannequin has but to be licensed in Intel’s program.

Modest enhancements tick all of the containers

The Lenovo Yoga C940 is not any revolution, but it surely builds on the best strengths of its predecessor, making it an all spherical higher system. It has barely higher audio, a greater trying hinge, and enjoys the newest choices from each Intel and Nvidia by way of processor and graphics.

The C940 is a flexible and properly rounded system that isn’t price upgrading to you probably have a latest era of Lenovo 2-in-1, however in case you’re searching for one thing new, there’s little cause to go for what’s come earlier than.

The Lenovo Yoga C940 goes on sale within the U.S. in October, beginning at $1,250.

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