While we don’t expect too much from ultrabooks due to the corners they cut to save weight and space, it should do everything it should well, with little to no compromise. So no, there's no Yoga logo on it. 10th-generation Intel "Ice Lake" CPU. The eye tracking feature is weird, because it can switch content to a secondary display by looking over at the other display. Windows 10 Pro ran smoothly, and the laptop handled multitasking and media editing without any hiccups. The PCMark 10 test we run simulates different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows. Yoga now means premium, and IdeaPad means budget or mainstream. The IdeaPad S940 sports a similarly understated design as the Lenovo Yoga C930 and, oddly enough, the same forward-sweeping lines of the Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1. There's a power button above it, and a trackpad below it. If it's not at the top, it's close. The Lenovo IdeaPad S940 is a gorgeous ultraportable but forces you to decide between 4K fidelity and full-day battery life. It's also remarkably quiet. The real problem with battery life is standby, and it's the only major drawback to the IdeaPad S940. And yet, it isn’t for the faint-hearted as it’s RRP is €1,439.99. Same story here—none of these laptops will be mistaken for a gaming rig. On top of that, it weighs in at 2.64 pounds, still packing a full U-series processor and a 4K Dolby Vision display. And those side bezels are just 2.4mm, with a 3.6mm bezel on top and a 4.4mm bezel on the bottom for a 90% screen-to-body ratio. (We also turn Wi-Fi off, putting the laptop into airplane mode.) We use it to assess overall system performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheet jockeying, Web browsing, and videoconferencing. He covers computers of all types, tablets, various peripherals, and Apple iOS-related topics. I think it's worth it though. By using an inverted notch above the screen and curved glass along the edges of the display, the Yoga S940 … It actually first caught my eye at CES. In terms of availability, we’ve been told that all good Irish electrical stores should be stocking it such as Curry’s/PC World and Harvey Norman. It … I really can't say enough about the display, as it's so good and it's the best part of the IdeaPad S940. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product or service, we may be paid a fee by that merchant. PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering Labs-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. By the day after that, the battery might be dead. Active stylus with built-in holder. It's very immersive, and streaming videos that support Dolby Vision look amazing. But there are still four Dolby Atmos speakers, and combined with the Dolby Vision display, the media consumption experience is phenomenal. Despite its trim dimensions, the Lenovo offers a wonderfully comfortable keyboard and surprisingly powerful speakers. 70% Lenovo Yoga S940 Review Source: Trusted Reviews The Lenovo Yoga S940 is a top contender for the most stylish laptop, but it's held back by poor battery life and a disappointing keyboard. Its four-cell battery lasted for 7 hours and 42 minutes, slightly exceeding Lenovo's estimate but far short of the 11-plus hours that the Dell XPS 13 managed with its 4K display. The Yoga S940 is set apart from the crowd by its display. Instead of notching downward into the display, phone-style, it's cut upward into the bezel so it doesn't interfere with the shape of the screen. The S940 is thinner, lighter, and more compact, which means that the cooling isn't as good. It's interesting, since there are also two speakers next to the keyboard that fire up. Squeezing a 14-inch display into a sleek aluminum chassis that would otherwise hold a 13.3-inch panel, the Lenovo features contoured side bezels that slope away from the screen, making them appear even thinner than they are. This isn't the case anymore. Comfy keyboard. Lenovo IdeaPad S940 (14″) in-depth review. A more practical use case would probably be that it can wake up when it senses that you're in front of it. The S940 claimed another fourth-place finish in this event, well off the pace of the other three ultraportables with the same processor. Like the VAIO SX14, the S940 does not offer a touch screen. Opening it that way means touching the webcam, and that means fingerprints. It has an amazing display, and the reverse notch provides an innovative solution to the old problem of narrow bezels and moving the webcam to below the screen. In it, we put a stopwatch on test systems as they transcode a standard 12-minute clip of 4K video (the open source Blender demo movie Tears of Steel) to a 1080p MP4 file. We time each operation and, at the end, add up the total execution time (lower times are better). Confused? The nice part is that the reverse notch serves as a tab to open up the laptop. First up is the Home test, which checks common things like web browsing, video chat, and more. He was an editor for PC Magazine back when it was a print publication, and spent many years with CNET, where he led its coverage of laptop and desktop computers. As you'll see in the next section, our test results are in line with this forecast. There would also be a Yoga logo if Lenovo chose to have consistent branding. Read on. Too often, a PC comes with two Type-C ports on one side, which always gets in the way sooner or later. On the top bezel, the S940 also has what people are referring to as a 'reverse notch', which is exactly what it sounds like. It's a notch that sticks out above the screen. Cinebench is often a good predictor of our Handbrake video-editing trial, another tough, threaded workout that's highly CPU-dependent and scales well with cores and threads. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The contoured glass not only makes it a pleasure to look at and use but also allows the … MacBook Pro vs. MacBook Air: Which 13-Inch Apple Laptop Is Best for 2020? The bottom panel also features a wide grille for dissipating heat. I've only used this reference a couple of times before, but it reminds me of a 2008 Cadillac ad where Kate Walsh asked, "When you turn your car on, does it return the favor?" Ultimately, it's just a very pleasant display. Other things that it can do is darken the display when you step away from it, saving your work. The Lenovo Yoga S940 is an ultrabook that’s part of Lenovo’s premium lineup. On the right side of the device, there are two Thunderbolt 3 ports, so you can hook up some 4K displays if you want. It's there if you want it, but if you're not interested, just take the IdeaPad S940 for what it is, a great laptop. Despite its good looks and innovative contoured bezels, however, it fails to unseat the Dell XPS 13 as our Editors' Choice. Please enter your reason for reporting this comment. It still finished next to last but was much closer to the other three Core i7-8565U machines. Lenovo Yoga S940 review: Sleek ultrabook with impressive bezel-less display. It features an amazing display, an 8th generation Intel Core i7 processor, and weighs only 1.15kg. Another media test, another disappointing result. The MacBook has just been killed off, but Lenovo's Yoga S940 is now available in India to tempt buyers who don't mind spending a lot of money. Let’s find out whether the Lenovo Yoga S940 is worth its hefty price tag. with 14 comments. Next is Maxon's CPU-crunching Cinebench R15 test, which is fully threaded to make use of all available processor cores and threads. While those productivity tasks do just fine, it will start to choke up a bit more than normal when trying to do heavier tasks like photo or video editing. https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/lenovo-ideapad-s940. The only breaks from Iron Grey are the glossy black, barely-there screen bezels and two small silver Lenovo badges on the edges of the lid and keyboard deck. The IdeaPad S940 felt peppy throughout my testing. This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. The base configuration of the IdeaPad S940 features Intel's 8th Generation Core i5-8265U processor, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB solid-state drive, a 14-inch screen with 1,920-by-1,080-pixel resolution, and Windows 10 Home. It's a timed test, and lower results are better. Our test model stepped up to a 1.8GHz Core i7-8565U CPU, 16GB of memory, a 512GB PCIe SSD, a 4K (3,840-by-2,160-pixel) display, and Windows 10 Pro. Lenovo had announced the Yoga S940 and the Yoga C730, the latter of which offered a 4K OLED display. Having speakers on both sides of the device is rare for something that isn't a convertible, since that bottom side will never be firing at you. The issue with 4K is that it has about 8.3 million pixels, or four times as many as 1080p, so it always uses more power. It also has 500-nit brightness and it supports Dolby Vision and meets the VESA400 HDR standard. It definitely has one of the most stunning and beautiful displays that I've ever seen. I ran the test a few times to be sure, but got similar results. As I noted earlier, there are speakers on the left and right sides of the keyboard, and they sound great. My only complaint was that the rear edge of the system tended to heat up during demanding tasks. Other than that, the IdeaPad S940 is pretty much perfect. Together, these design elements look more like something you'd see on a cutting-edge smartphone than a laptop, and they help the IdeaPad S940 stand out among uber-thin ultraportables—and join the Dell XPS 13 and VAIO SX14 as one of our very favorite entries in the category. The display sits under a glossy screen coating, but it's not too bad in terms of glare and reflections. I walked in expecting to be impressed by the C730, and then the S940 blew me away. Announced at CES 2019, Lenovo's IdeaPad S940 is a beautiful device, with a 4K Dolby Vision display that has curved edges. Do you remember a couple of years ago, when Apple released its MacBook Pro with only USB Type-C ports with the excuse that their device is too thin for a Type-A port? Naturally, a rotating soundbar wasn't necessary for this one, since it's not a convertible. This is a productivity device, and I want to emphasize this more than I do on other laptops I review that don't have a dedicated GPU. The bad news is that if you frequently use your webcam, you'll find yourself frequently cleaning it. The result is also a proprietary numeric score; again, higher numbers are better. Hot! Using an early 2018 release of the Creative Cloud version of Photoshop, we apply a series of 10 complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG test image. Typically, it's business laptops that are aimed at quiet keyboards, so it was nice to see it on a consumer model. Your subscription has been confirmed. The IdeaPad S940 ran into the same problem as the VAIO SX14—its 4K display consumes more power than a 1080p panel would, exacting a heavy toll on battery life. On the left side, there's a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C port and a 3.5mm combo audio jack. Sign up for What's New Now to get our top stories delivered to your inbox every morning. Still, it has more than enough muscle for general Windows use and offers a host of winning design elements, including a comfortable keyboard (check out the narrow palm rest before proceeding, however), surprisingly sufficient speakers, and Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. Finally, the Work test checks productivity-related tasks like writing and spreadsheets. The Lenovo IdeaPad S940 could possibly be the most beautiful display I've ever seen on a laptop, and I've reviewed OLED PCs. Lenovo Yoga S940 review: Early verdict. Despite its good looks and innovative contoured bezels, however, it fails to unseat the Dell XPS 13 as our Editors' Choice. But despite that rather major branding change, Lenovo just tossed whatever logic was left away for this product, and the company is calling it the IdeaPad S940 in the U.S. The keyboard also features backlighting, always an appreciated addition. The aluminum chassis is thin yet rigid, with a footprint of 12.6 by 7.8 inches. The model that Lenovo sent me is the 4K one (14 inches), although it also comes in 1080p, neither of which have touch support. Lenovo IdeaPad S940 (14-inch, 2019) With its lid closed, the $2,000 Lenovo IdeaPad S940 laptop doesn't look too different from other premium ultraportable laptops from Asus, Dell and Acer. At the end of the day, you probably won't end up using any of the AI sensor stuff. For something like this, you might have expected a fanless design and a Y-series processor. And let me clarify that, because this was announced at CES as the Yoga S940. It goes up against Dell’s XPS 13 (Review) as well as HP’s Spectre x360 13 (Review) and Acer’s Swift series. (My primary laptop is a MacBook Pro with Apple's butterfly keyboard, so I may be more accustomed than most to shallow travel.). And it doesn't matter what position you're using the C940 in, either. Narrow palm rest might annoy some typists. The XPS 13 has the looks department covered, too, and offers superior battery life with a 4K display. With these two things, Lenovo says that it can decode a 12-bit PQ signal from a video and adjust the content to the capabilities of the display. Lenovo made its unique soundbar hinge a single piece that gives it a cleaner look and better audio than the competition. The most striking elements of the IdeaPad S940's design are the curved bezels on either side of the display. Lenovo Yoga S940 is officially released in April 2019. The only caveat is the relatively narrow palm rest below the keyboard, which might not be ideal for typists whose palms press not against the top surface of the keyboard deck but against the sharp front edge of the laptop. And of course, it has an awesome keyboard. Like any laptop that relies on integrated graphics, the Lenovo is strictly for casual and browser-based games and unable to play the latest, demanding titles. Good, that means you're paying attention. Lenovo Ideapad S940 Notebook, 14-Inch FHD (1920 X 1080) IPS Display, Intel Core i7-8565U Processor, 8GB DDR4 OnBoard RAM, 256GB NVMe SSD, Windows 10, 81R00004US, Iron Grey Lenovo 20NF0018US TS Tp E595 AMD Ryzen 7 3700U Syst 2.3G 8GB 256GB SSD 15.6In W10P This PC starts at $1,399.99, and that gets you a 1080p display and a Core i5-8265U. As you can see, some of this stuff is somewhat useful, and some of it isn't. In general, it gets five or six hours of screen-on time without going near a charger. Natural Silver Our $1,299 review unit ups the storage to a 512GB SSD. But while the keys are shallower, one sacrifice that wasn't made to make the device thinner is the clickable trackpad. The IdeaPad fared a little better in our Photoshop test. Wake up when it senses that you 'll see in the way sooner or later next! Now means premium, and it even has eye tracking not the case,! … the Lenovo Yoga S940 offers solid performance for a number of outlets, CNET. 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