The Lenovo Yoga C630 is a unique laptop that uses Qualcomm’s mobile computer processor – the Snapdragon 850 – instead of AMD or Intel hardware.
There have been many attempts from Windows on Snapdragon laptops to bring out the best of PC and mobile technology, but they’ve been unsuccessful due to weak performance or high price range.
Now with the Yoga C630 accompanying a Snapdragon 850, Lenovo is claiming up to 30% increase in performance, 25 hours of battery life, and faster 4G LTE speeds. But can the Yoga C630 surpass its predecessors and give us a Snapdragon-powered laptop that’s worth our hard-earned cash? Read further to find out.
Specifications
Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 / 2.9 GHz |
Display | 13.3-inch Full HD Display (1920 x 1080) Resolution |
RAM | 8 GB |
Storage | 128 GB UFS 2.1 |
Graphics | Qualcomm Adreno 630 GPU |
Operating System | Windows 10 S |
Design
The Yoga C630 looks similar to previous Intel-based Lenovo Yoga series. Even if you have a Qualcomm processor, it doesn’t mean drastic changes to the external design. The Yoga C630 is like most Lenovo laptops; attractive without being flashy.
The Yoga C630 also has a solid build quality like most Lenovo Yoga laptops. Its made from aluminium and doesn’t have any bending or flexing in the chassis, keyboard, and lid. It doesn’t feel cheap. In fact, it feels very solid in hand. We would even go as far as to say that the Yoga C630 is more rigid than its 2-in-1 rivals.
We’re also satisfied by the Yoga C630’s dimensions. It’s 0.51 inches thick and weighs 2.6 pounds. This size is ideal for convertible laptops and makes the Yoga C630 a pleasure to carry around.
There’s not a whole lot of ports here. You’ll get two USB-C Gen 1 ports, with one for power. There’s Nano SIM card support for LTE and a 3.5mm audio combo jack. Aside from LTE, wireless connectivity includes 2X2 MU-MIMO 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2.
Display
The Yoga C630 comes with a 13.3-inch Full HD IPS display that’s sharp enough for most people. The screen has a good resolution for its size and didn’t make us wish for a sharper display.
We carried out some real-life tests on the Yoga C630 to see if it can display text, play videos, and show off sharp and vibrant images at a high level.
And the results were better than expected. Its brightness, contrast and colours all turned out better than its convertible competitors. That makes it a great display for productivity tasks.
Watching a movie or TV-show on the Yoga C630 was a pleasant experience. The movies were neither too light nor too dark to our eyes. The sound was clear and had plenty of volume, but bringing out your headphones will provide a better experience.
Performance
As mentioned before, the most glaring problem with previous Snapdragon-powered Windows laptops was the performance. It wasn’t powerful enough. The advantages of mobile platforms always ended up getting overshadowed by a sluggish Windows 10 performance.
But it seems like Lenovo has finally cracked the code as it claims that the Snapdragon 850 delivers a 30% increase over previous Snapdragon processors. We were sceptical about these claims at first, but are now pleased to report that they are largely true because the octa-core Kyro 385 processor running at 2.9 GHz delivers a better experience than older Snapdragon laptops.
It may not be able to match the performance of the latest Intel or Ryzen CPUs, but if you plan on using this laptop for everyday tasks like web browsing and word processing, the Yoga C630 will be more than enough. We didn’t see any lag or delay during our tests as the laptop handled all kinds of tasks like a champ. This laptop performed so much better than its predecessors and its all thanks to the Snapdragon 850 platform.
Battery Life
Snapdragon-based laptops always shine when it comes to battery life, and the Lenovo Yoga C630 is no different. In fact, it achieved one of the best results we’ve ever seen on a laptop. In our test, we played a looped 1080p video with 50% screen brightness, and the C630 managed to last 23 hours and 46 minutes.
That’s truly impressive. It’s one of the longest battery lives seen on a laptop and quite a bit longer than its rivals. We got at least two whole workdays from a single charge in our tests.
In short, this is the ideal productivity laptop that can even last multiple days on the road while connected to the internet.
Verdict
If you want a sturdy convertible laptop that delivers great performance, comes with a sharp Full HD screen, and has a freakishly long battery life, give the Lenovo Yoga C630 a try. It’s better than most of its convertible competitors and is in the affordable range as well. You’ll be hard-pressed to find better deals on the market.
