ISSUE 379|COMPUTERSHOPPER|SEPTEMBER (^201993)
2-IN-1sANDCONVERTIBLES
LENOVO PROVEDTObe ahead of the game
with its Yoga series of rotatingconvertibles,
and even if not every laptop in the series has
brokennew ground,it’s still finding ways to
switch things up.Case in point: there nothing
tooinnovative about the Yoga 530’s design,
but it’s what lies within this convertiblethat’s
most interesting:aRyzen 72700U processor.
So far, we’ve only seen this in the business-
focused –and farmore expensive–HP
EliteBook 745 G5, so the prospectof this
high-endchip poweringamore affordable
consumerdevice is an enticingone.
It’s ashame,then, that it’s so
humdrumon the outside.At1.67kg and
328x229x17.6mm, it’s neitherparticularly
light nor unusuallythin, and you get only a
basic selectionof ports: two USB3, one USB
Type-C, an HDMI output and an SD card
reader.Next to this card slot is the awkwardly
placed power button; we repeatedly ended up
pressingit by accident.The fingerprintsensor,
on the other hand, is agreat inclusion,capable
of unlockingWindowsin less than asecond.
PROCESSEDBEATS
The laptop has apair of HarmanKardon-
brandedspeakers,either side of the laptop’s
keyboard,completewith DolbyAudio
Premiumprocessing.While these sound fine
up close,they’re not strong enoughto fill a
room; walk back several paces and the quality
drops off significantly.Vocals and guitars
pick up well, but when aheavy drum solo or
bass drop kicks in, things get alittle fuzzy.It
doesn’t enjoysharp increasesin volumeeither,
cracklingatad throughthe transition.
The keyboard,happily,issensible and
satisfying.The keys are well spacedand
provide pretty decent tactile feedback,and a
cool blue backlightmakes the Yoga 530 plenty
practicalwhen workingin dark conditions.
The touchpadis pretty good as well. It isn’t
quiteasgood as aMacBookPro touchpad
and, initially,itseemed to have trouble
differentiatingbetweenthree-fingerand
four-finger commands,but it workedwell once
we bumpedup the sensitivity.
One of the more disappointingelementsof
the 14in Yoga 530 is its displayquality.The
resolutionis 1,920x1,080,which is fine; it’s just
that the colourslook flat and dull. This lack of
vibrancywas confirmedin our technical
tests, in which the Yoga 530 was able to
reproduceonly 54.6% of the sRGB colour
gamut. It’s not unheardof forlaptops to go
this low –the Acer Swift 3(Shopper364) isn’t
much better,at57% –but that doesn’t
diminishthe fact that this is apoor result.
LENOVOYoga530
★★★★★
£750•From http://www.currys.co.uk
VERDICT
Lenovo’slatestflippyhybridisweigheddownby
poorbatterylife, despitesuccesseselsewhere
Maximumbrightnessis also deeply
average at 250cd/m^2 ,and the contrastratio of
1,178:1 is fine,ifnothing special.At least it’s
also atouchscreen,and as an input method,
the displayworks well. We found it
fantasticallyresponsiveto taps, swipes and
pinch gestures,and it works with styluses,too,
althoughthe Lenovo Active Penisn’t included
in the box, sadly.Instead, it’s a£37 extra.
RYZEN SHINE
Moving on to the aforementionedRyzen chip,
it puts this particularYoga 530 spec at the top
of the range –you can also find cheaperRyzen
5and Intel Core i5 versions,and even an Intel
Pentium Gold 4415U model for£379,although
this also has only 4GB of RAM and a128GB
SSD.Our £750 model, by contrast,is equipped
with 8GB of RAM and a256GB SSD.
It finishedour 4K applicationbenchmarks
with an image score of 109,avideo score of
75, amultitaskingscore of 54 and an overall
score of 70. That puts it in avery similar
positionto the EliteBook 745 G5: it’s a
powerfullaptop,althoughperhapsnot quite
as powerfulas could be expected, given the
hardware.For one thing, the Acer Swift 3–
which we tested with alower-spec Ryzen 5
2500U –scored aslightly higher 74 overall,
while the Core i5-8250U-poweredHP Envy 13
scored 76 (thoughthis is, unlike the Swift 3, a
more expensivelaptop than the Yoga 530).
At the same time,any disappointmentis
temperedby the fact that it also beat the
pricier MicrosoftSurface Laptop,which
scored 49 overall. Besides,for£750, ascore of
70 isn’t even that low –it’s just not the best.
Most users will be happywith how the Yoga
530 tackles everydaytasks, as well as basic
media editing and content creation.
The 256GB storage drive also showcased
some impressivespeeds.Tested with AS SSD,
we recordedsequentialread and writespeeds
of 1,334MB/sand 706MB/srespectively.
That’s quickerthan several of the high-end
devices we’ve looked at, includingthe
MicrosoftSurface Pro 6.
DOWNTHE DRAIN
Unfortunately,battery lifeisadisaster.The
Yoga 530 lasted amere 3h 47m of continuous
video playback, makingit unsuitablefor
mobile workingand use on long journeys. The
Envy 13 lasted almost twice as long.
That doesn’t make the Yoga 530 abad
laptop.It’s roughlyas fast or faster than most
of its closest rivals, the SSD is quick, the 360°
hinge works as well as any on the market,and
the keyboardand trackpadare both excellent.
Nonetheless,the Ryzen 72700U chip is
clearly not as efficient as its Intel
counterparts,and that woeful battery life
limits the Yoga 530’s flexibilityas amobile
computer.Displayquality is aletdown,
too. Foranextra £49 you could have
the HP Envy 13, which has aslightly
smallerscreen but is otherwisea
better deal, thanks to its more vibrant
displayand vastly superiorbattery life.
c. jardin
(C. Jardin)
#1