The Lenovo Yoga 730 is a laptop with a great design and cutting-edge hardware features. The 15.6-inch model is the largest but also the most versatile. It has discrete graphics, quality processors and RAM and some gems that make it perfect for many occasions, both professional and entertainment. The strong point, like the previous Yoga range, is the 360-degree rotating screen.
Of course the card is important, € 1,699 list, but they are well justified: the Lenovo Yoga 730 is a solid and functional product, with a finished zipper, software that runs perfectly and a pen that gives that extra touch of usability to the whole . Let’s go into detail.
The Yoga 730 is designed for maximum flexibility and, as the name suggests, to be used in many different ways, thanks to the hinge that rotates 360 degrees, allowing at least three peculiar uses: laptops, stands and tablets.
The screen is sensitive to touch and boasts the Active Pen 2 already supplied in the package. The pen supports 4,096 levels of pressure and, finally, the company has worked to match a plastic dongle that occupies a USB 3.0 port to connect the stylus. The only drawback is that when the input is occupied by the Pen, all other ports on the selected edge are locked.
Like other convertibles, the speakers are not exceptional, so do not expect miracles in this regard but the quality of hardware and drivers is there and is appreciable with a pair of headphones, where the sound like magic becomes enveloping. To customize the sound, at least in part, you can use the Dolby Atmos software , which includes presets and a 20-band equalizer.
The Yoga in question does not revolutionize but affirms its position in a world of well-defined consumption, which looks to those who need a computer balanced for work and entertainment. It’s a well-built 2-in-1 laptop with simple and light design lines (at least for a 15-inch product). It mounts modern hardware and can easily handle daily tasks and more demanding loads, but sacrificing performance and battery life to remain “portable”, in fact.
As for the overall structure, the ultrabook is well done, thanks to the double hinges that hold up the display with a certain quality, bringing home a thick result, often problematic for a lot of 2-in-1 similar. The Yoga 730 instead prevents the display oscillates when it is oriented towards the standard mode.
The trackpad is definitely one of the strengths of this Yoga 730. Unlike low-cost models, when used in the traditional way does not separate too much from the display, giving the feeling of continuity and classic functionality. It will not be the best to play, but for productivity needs it will be just fine. To appreciate also the white backlight , to be activated or deactivated as desired.
The Lenovo Yoga 730 is a good mix of durability, portability, performance and affordability. It is a compact and well-made device that allows you to approach digital tasks without too much trouble. The battery life could be better, as well as the speakers, but it is still a reference machine for the sector. The price list starts at 1,699 Euros, depending on configuration.
When you have smartphones, tablets, laptops and maybe even desktop computers, very often you find yourself in the condition of not knowing what is the perfect device to perform a certain activity. The role of the 2-in-1 convertibles, some years ago, has been to combine the needs and functionality of laptops and tablets in a single device, avoiding making it a niche product with an exorbitant price.
With Yoga 730 (15IKB), Lenovo aims to not simply satisfy multiple user groups, but to fully satisfy the type of user who does not want to compromise on most daily tasks.
Yoga 730 is a convertible 2 in 1 devoted to productivity but also entertainment: the 15.6-inch display with native 4K resolution (and the HDCP 2.2 driver integrated into the motherboard) allows you to have a large space for windows, not sacrificing sharpness and above all, not straining your eyes.
During the test period , which lasted for about a month taking advantage of the Christmas break, there were stress tests with multitasking, alternating with video game sessions and watching movies and TV series on Netflix and Amazon Prime, not neglecting web browsing and music reproduction, passing through programming through development environments (NetBeans, specifically).
In general, Yoga 730 seemed really good in every situation, not making us regret or a traditional desktop, or a tablet like the iPad Pro: the display 15.6-inch, in fact, also it is oriented in portrait mode when Windows 10 is in mode tablet, and the reading experience is almost pleasant: the weight is well distributed over the entire surface, but care must be taken to exert a greater force on the hand that holds the part of the hinge, which is obviously significantly heavier.
Yoga 730 looks like it is not: the weight of 1.89 kg makes you think of a heavy 13-inch notebook, and instead Yoga 730 is a very light 15.6 almost borderless at the upper and side ends. The lower end, on the other hand, contains a decidedly large edge, which is not very clear what purpose it has, since the camera is present in the upper edge – perhaps to make room for a mechanism that allows the two hinges to rotate 360 degrees.
The size of the display therefore leaves the possibility of having an equally spacious base, which is occupied by a touchpad that could be wider, a keyboard that does not have the numeric keypad and the fingerprint sensor that is positioned immediately under the arrow key right’. Last, but not least, the Active Pen 2, which is separate from the laptop, but occupies a position within the overall design because it can be included, via a hook that attaches directly to the USB-A socket, on one of the sides of the base.
The inclusion of the Active Pen 2 in the overall design is not trivial: although it hooks to perfection and does not fall into normal use situations, it is very easy to unplug the hook when you take the laptop from the bag or put it back, if not we are careful.
To complete the questionable choices that stand between design and functionality, the charging cable: it is not USB-C, it is not USB-A but has the form of a reversible USB-A. It is not possible to charge with USB-C.
During the test period, various applications were used, which did not slow down the system: Windows 10 appears fluid and without lag, the app loads in a few moments, multitasking is managed very well – except for Chrome that However, it is known that it is very heavy when many cards are open.
There are, however, some situations in which the CPU, an eighth-generation Intel Core i7 with a base frequency of 1.8 GHz and Turbo Boost up to 4.00 GHz, turns on the fans , which run at a rather high frequency causing an annoying noise of background.
To improve the user experience is the keyboard , which has a long or short run, that is neither like the one present in notebooks 3-4 years ago, nor like the one on the latest MacBooks. Result: a pleasant writing experience, which does not tire, also because the space on the base creates ample space for the palm rest.
Given the versatility with productivity and entertainment applications (content on Netflix can be played in native 4K and with support for Dolby Atmos and 5.1), a stress test has also been performed that has little relevance for the laptop in question, but which better positions its range of uses. The No Man’s Sky and Destiny 2 games were installed , the first known for its real-time rendering capabilities, the latter for the need for low latency not only for connectivity but also for rendering the image, to push the laptop to its limits. Both tests produced a discrete result, certainly not satisfactory for the band of users accustomed to gaming with high performance, but generally discreet for casual players.
No Man’s Sky was rendered in full HD 1920 × 1080 resolution with texture details and medium-low shadows and framerate stuck at 60 fps, while Destiny 2 worked only acceptably with Full HD resolution and low details, with framerate and VSync locked at 30 fps. It’s not a laptop for heavy video games, but many of the indie video games on Steam can run without too much trouble.
The autonomy is not exactly 10 hours as indicated by Lenovo, or rather, it could be 10 hours just watching series on Netflix for 5-6 hours and then doing the simple web browsing by not opening too many cards. A more realistic evaluation, using multiple apps at the same time, such as word processing, music reproduction and web browsing, results in about 6 hours of battery life, quite a bit below the average of 2018 laptops.
Yet, with all these flaws and inaccuracies (not least, the speaker that reproduces well the high and medium frequencies, but little those low), Yoga 730 surprises, if looked at the whole, and especially if used in everyday life. Uninstalling Lenovo’s suite of applications immediately (which is not yet clear why it is still there, but this is a problem of many manufacturers), Windows 10 seems to have been developed specifically for this laptop. The Active Pen 2 works well, despite the ‘only’ 1024 levels of pressure, with apps like OneNote and Edge, both in tablet mode, and in table mode and with keyboard.
€ 1,699, the list price, fully justifies all the features offered, because the defects are irrelevant or largely surmountable: the noise of the fans helps to lower the temperature of the base, the charging cable is proprietary but loads very quickly, the hook for the Active Pen 2 can come off but it is very useful to have it removable.
The conclusion always answers the same question: should buy this product? Yes, it’s a great substitute for the laptop + tablet combination, it’s light and compact, it’s very powerful and above all it has technical features that will keep up with the 2019 laptops.
