Lenovo - LABFREQ

September 18, 2020February 18, 2021

Lenovo Chromebook Duet Review:

Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet detachable 2-n-1 is the perfect mix of tablet and laptop all in one. The Duet can be used as a stylish sleek tablet or transformed into a portable laptop for on the go. Whether you are a student or a buyer the affordability, functionality and versatility will fascinate all users. Ideally the Chromebook duet is geared toward a person who likes to have options.With it being priced at $249, this device is super affordable that definitely packs a lot of power in such small package.

What is the Build:

The portable 10.1” screen switches from tablet to laptop in seconds with the detachable keyboard. Being that the price starts at $279 it’s ideal for anyone on a budget. Not to mention it’s amazingly fast boot up time requires no need for any other laptop. The Chromebook definitely outranks others by far, its device offers 4gb of RAM along with 64-128gb. I’m able to do a significant amount work and have all my entertainment needs right in the palm of my hands. Having 11-13 hours of battery life gets me through a whole entire 9 to 5 work day without needing to be charged. For such a small device.

How Does it Look?

It features a two color combo of grey and light blue. While the tablet stand itself, consist of material that is a marbled grey color. The screen measures out to be 10.1” according to Lenovo. While watching The Netflix original “Work It” on the screen, I noticed crisp color productions and sharp screen images. Tablet mode offers wonderful entertainment right at your finger tips. Not only does the image have exceptional quality. With the detachable keyboard, the display screen has quite the eye catching display visuals. For such a small device I was not expecting the quality to be on par with other major laptop brands, but I was proven wrong. The Chromebook Duet in my eyes has been one of the best portable devices I’ve ever used. I choose to use it over my laptop any-day.

Is it Affordable?

The best part about it is being priced at just $249, there is no way you could pass up getting this amazing portable Chromebook. As a student that’s on budget I’m able to get all my task done and still enjoy watching the latest movies and TV shows whenever I want all thanks to Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet. It is absolutely worth spending $249 on trust me when I say “don’t hesitate just buy it”. You won’t regret buying it for yourself. Wait till you see how much you’ll love using it, you’ll never want to use a bulky heavy laptop ever again.

Overall, Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet is an exceptional device everyone should invest in getting one, no matter what it is you do. All I need is my headphones and I’ll be good for the whole day using this device. It’s definitely ideal for on the go and small enough to fit easily into backpacks,purses, or just to carry around in the palm of your hands.

July 25, 2020February 18, 2021

Lenovo Chromebook Duet: First Look

The Chromebook Duet is a 2-in-1 laptop/tablet hybrid by Lenovo that many people have been clamoring to the local Best Buy and seeking its availability on Amazon to purchase recently. With it’s included detachable keyboard, protective back cover and quality build for a reasonable asking price (starting at $279/64GB) – I begin to understand why, as my curiosity in the Duet as a tablet grew. Now that I have had the device for a few days, these are my impressions.

The Chromebook Duet has a 10.1 inch FHD IPS touchscreen with 400 nits of brightness, and USI pen compatibility. It packs an 7000 mAh battery that offers up to 10 hours of battery life, has 4GB of RAM and up to 128GB of internal storage. The two-tone Ice Blue + Iron Grey design is made of aluminum alloy, and I must say – I like the look and feel of the Ice Blue and how it offsets the ‘serious’ metallic Grey.

In-Depth Review : In Progress

This is my first time interacting with Google’s operating system – ChromeOS, which powers the Chromebook Duet. We’ve all heard the whispers of rumors around the internet about the web-centric OS being little more than the Chrome browser, but I beg to differ. Having only used Apple products, my Macbook Air and iPhone Xr – I felt right at home transitioning from macOS to ChromeOS – and the experience is quite similar to the one on my iPhone, particularly with gesture navigation. Will it be able to converge my desktop/tablet workflow? Time will tell.

I will be using the Chromebook Duet as my primary computing device for the next few weeks. Be one of the first readers to be notified when my in-depth review goes live, subscribe to Labfreq below!

June 25, 2020October 27, 2021

Review: Lenovo Yoga C940

Lenovo’s pioneering 2-in-1 Yoga brand manages to refine a near-perfect model

The Lenovo Yoga brand is known for being the pioneer of the 2-in-1 category, offering convertible laptops with touchscreens that double as large tablets. The Lenovo Yoga C930 is the top-tier in the brand, replacing 2018’s watch strap-like hinge for a soundbar with a Dolby Atmos Speaker System. As great of a laptop as the C930 is, everything (literally) revolves around its soundbar hinge – which has to be the all-time cleverest innovation to laptops – at least where audio is concerned.

The sleek aluminum alloy shimmers off the etched Yoga branding on the lid

The entire laptop hinge is a Dolby Atmos powered 5.1 soundbar, that rotates so the subwoofers always face downward, no matter the orientation of the laptop. It’s the perfect union of style and function, the result of some pretty innovative engineering.

“Dolby Atmos delivers breathtaking, three-dimensional audio that flows above and around you with depth and precision. Combining two sets of speakers – featuring powerful down-firing woofers, custom tweeters, and unique vibration buffers that reduce unwanted noise – your audio will sound bigger, deeper, and more accurate. It’s sound you can feel.”

The Internals

Processor	Intel® 10th Generation Core™ i7-1065G7 (1.30GHz, up to 3.9GHz with Turbo Boost, 8MB Cache)
Operating System	Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Display Type	14.0″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, glossy, multi-touch,400 nits
Memory	12GB LPDDR4X 3733MHz (Soldered)
Hard Drive	512GB Solid State Drive, PCIe-NVME M.2
Graphics	Integrated Intel® Iris® Plus Graphics
Camera	720pHD Camera
Security	Fingerprint Reader
Pen	Lenovo Active Pen
Keyboard	Backlit Keyboard – US English
Wireless	802.11 AC (2 x 2) & Bluetooth® 4.1

The review unit we received from Lenovo came equipped with an Core i7 processor, 12GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. All Yoga c930s come with security focused features like fingerprint readers and Lenovo’s Thinkshutter cover for the 2MP webcam, which is pretty much useless in all scenarios except for the most well-lit environments. On the creative side, it also conceals an active stylus in a slot right behind the screen that charges the pen when it’s stored away.

Boot up time is impressive, getting you from the Lenovo boot up logo to the log-in screen in under 10 seconds – thanks to Yogo c940 having Intel’s Project Athena certification. While it’s not quite matching Chromebook times, that’s darned close.

Battery life is impressive as well, averaging about 8 hours on performance-focused settings, and getting well over 10 with battery conservation on.

Display

(In Progress)

Our review model came with a 15.6″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, touchscreen, that can get as bright as 500 nits – which is the model to go for if you’re concerned with battery longevity. You can equip it with a 15.6″ UHD (3840 x 2160) 4K display, though the crisp and vivid visuals the Full HD display provides is more than adequate enough for all but the most demanding spec fanatics.

Conclusion

The Yoga C940 is one of the best laptops that I’ve ever used, the accurate glass trackpad and comfy keyboard are great input devices and the speakers are only rivaled by the latest Macbook Pro’s audio. The 360-degree hinge, touchscreen, and active stylus put the c940 firmly in a unique category where owning a tablet and laptop (iPad and Macbook) feel redundant. Why own a tablet and a laptop when you can have a reliable 2-in-1 with a 5.1 soundbar and active stylus included? Why buy a Wacom drawing pad, when you can just flip the keyboard back on your laptop and draw right on the screen? Sure, you can do this on a lot of laptop models today, but very few (if any) bring every aspect of media creation into one package for the creative professional.

July 15, 2019July 25, 2019

Lenovo Legion Y740 Review: Mobile, PC-class gaming refined

(Ongoing Review as of 7/15)

The Legion Y-740 is one of Lenovo’s latest gaming laptops, equipped with the one NVIDIA’s Geforce RTX 2080 dedicated Graphics Cards. It’s a Gaming Rig in the body of an Ultrabook, with enough ports to be a Workstation Tower replacement. Does it gave the goods to be your next do-it-all laptop? I have taken the Lenovo Legion Y-740 through paces as a creative workhorse and game console replacement for the last few months and I would like to share my experiences with the sleek, mobile gaming rig.

Build Quality/Specs

Made of thin,sleek anodized aluminium, the Legion Y740 has the footprint of an Ultrabook, with workstation internals. Pretty much anything short of server-side operation is within reach of this beast.

Processor	9^th Generation Intel^® Core^™ i7-9750H Processor (2.60GHz, up to 4.50GHz with Turbo Boost, 6 Cores, 12MB Cache)
Graphics	NVIDIA^® GeForce^® RTX^™ 2080 with Max-Q with 8GB RAM
Display	15.6″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, Anti-glare, NVIDIA^® G-SYNC, 144 Hz, 500 nits, Dolby Vision HDR400
Memory	16 GB DDR4 2666 MHz
Battery	Up to 5 hours57 Wh3 cells
Storage	256GB PCIe NVMe SSD + 1 TB 7200 RPMDual Drive Configuration (HDD + SSD)
Camera	720p HD camera with microphone
Audio	Dolby Atmos^® Speaker System with Soundbar and integrated subwoofer with Smart AMP technology for gaming
Dimensions	14.2” x 10.5” x 0.88” / 361.42 x 267 x 22.45 (mm)
Weight	Starting at 4.85 lbs (2.2 kg)
Color	Iron Grey
Connectivity	Killer^™ Wireless 802.11 AC (2 x 2) + Bluetooth^® 4.1RJ45 Ethernet
Ports / Slots	USB 3.1 Gen 22 x USB 3.1 Gen 1Mini DisplayPort ™ 1.4HDMI^™2.0RJ45 EthernetKensington^® Wedge Lock slot1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2** Type-C / Intel Thunderbolt 3 (DisplayPort, Data transfer)3.5mm microphone/headphone comboNOVO hole
Keyboard	Backlit with Corsair^® iCUE RGB lighting

The 15.6 inch,Full-HD IPS display isnt a 4K touchscreen with a 10-point digitizer, but then if it was it would be a glossy, sun-glaring mess and a battery hog. The Legion Y740 already has enough on it’s hands keeping battery drain from the dedicated GeForce RTX graphics card and the gamers deLight show provided by the Corsair iCUE RGB lighting to a minimum.

The display’s anti-glare film does wonders deflecting light due to it being a matte screen.The Keyboard is signature Lenovo, meaning it’s as good as laptop keyboards come – only lacking the Thinkpad’s signature red cursor snub – which would have perfected its utilitarian usage.

Benchmarks

With all of the advances in the processing power of today’s smartphones and tablets many people question the necessity of desktops and laptops. The iPad Pro for example,while being faster than most laptops today- but this aint one of them. There are alot of powerful gaming laptops on the market today, and the Lenovo Legion 740 is right up there with the best of them.

Gaming

For those who have had a sip of PC Gamer’s Tea, know firsthand that the graphic capabilities of current generation consoles aren’t quite up to snuff compared to their PC counterparts. The question you’re probably asking yourself if your reading this article is if the Legion Y740 is one of those machines that will make your Xbox and PlayStation playpals give you the envy eye. I uploaded a video of PUBG Mobile running on the Bluestacks game emulator, along with a few screenshots of Gears of War 4 to give a glipse of the Legion Y740 Laptops capabilites below:

Gears of War 4

The Legion Y740 is fully prepared for Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality should you decide to invest in VR equipment in the future. The dedicated graphics card and 16GB RAM serves the system well, marking off all required checkboxes for the Windows Mixed Reality experience on Windows 10.

The all Aluminum chasis is booted up for gameplay, with an otherworld vent chamber engulfing the back half of the bottom of the laptop to ensure the inner circuitry stays cool,calm and collected.

Conclusion

Everytime I begin to step away from this laptop I take the first few steps backwards, glancing at it’s vibrant screen and backlit keyboard admirably- there’s something about this laptop that leaves me in awe – it’s that impressive. I dont think there has been this much innovation on a particular laptop model since the Yoga brand, and just like the Legion, it’s also made by Lenovo. And when you remember that they also make the ThinkPad, it becomes pretty obvious why Lenovo has been the #1 PC manufacturer for at least the last 5 years. Here’s to the notion they keep the run going for just as long, surely if the masses catch on to the Legion gaming laptop series.

*Source – Statista