The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Review: OLED and LCD Tested
by Brett Howse & Brandon Chester on September 29, 2016 11:30 AM ESTWireless Performance
There was a time when Intel wireless cards were better known for stability than speed, but now they can be known for both stability and speed. The Intel 8260 wireless adapter which has been in the latest Skylake notebooks has set some pretty lofty levels of performance. Lenovo has used the 8260 in the X1 Yoga, and to great effect. The one thing Intel has been missing is MU-MIMO, but it is arriving in the updated 8265 which we should see with Kaby Lake devices.
At about 600 Mpbs, the 8260 is one of the few wireless cards where I don’t feel the need to hook up to Ethernet for large file transfers. At the moment it’s going to be tough to compete against Intel right now with good driver support as well as top tier performance, which will be interesting with the new Dell XPS13 being announced with a Killer AC1535 WiFi solution.
Noise and Thermals
When you go thin and light, one drawback can be thermal load capability. This can be offset by good design, or loud fans. The latter is not something you really want in an Ultrabook. When performing light loads, the fan in the X1 Yoga appears to be turned off, even when the notebook is plugged in, which makes it silent at idle. When working, you can hear the fans ramp up, but they never get too loud, We measured the maximum SPL of the X1 Yoga, and it achieved 43.5 dB(A) when measured one inch over the trackpad.
To test the thermal capabilities, our Dota 2 test was run for the full duration of the match, which is about 40 minutes.
Thermals are a bit of an issue in a high demand task like gaming. The GPU frequency does fluctuate from 950 Mz to 900 MHz, but the SoC is rated up to 1.05 GHz on the GPU. The CPU also throttles quite a bit in order to keep the SoC temperature under 80°C.
Audio
The X1 Yoga features stereo speakers on the bottom of the notebook, which is not ideal for use on a desk, but once flipped around the speakers would be pointed towards the user. Maximum volume, measured one inch over the trackpad, was only around 80 dB(A). This, by comparison to other notebooks, is on the low end. There is not a lot of room in an Ultrabook for quality speakers, and even the loudest laptops struggle with any low frequencies, and the X1 Yoga is no exception. For conference calls and such, it would be fine, but for music a good set of headphones would be in order.
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JoeyJoJo123 - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
If it wasn't explicitly mentioned to be one, then chances are no, it's not. It's probably your run of the mill low-end webcam, with poor quality, and an integrated mic that's both too quiet and peaks too easily at the same time.Brett Howse - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
No it has a fingerprint reader instead for Windows Hello.grant3 - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
Not type-C port, "... but the X1 Yoga does have MicroSD support for additional storage"Huh?? How does MicroSD make up for the lack of type-C ports?
Do the reviewers have the delusion that people only want type-C to plug in portable storage?
Unsure if they're clueless, or shilling for lenovo....
Brett Howse - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
It doesn't make up for anything. Just pointing out what ports are there. You're reading a bit much into it.grant3 - Friday, September 30, 2016 - link
The conjunction "but" implies the second statement (partially) excuses the first. My perception is that reviewers have learned to soften their criticisms of preferred vendors.SeannyB - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
Thanks for the exhaustive display review. The lack of individual calibration is a big missed opportunity by Lenovo considering the development they did on the software side.I also have to wonder what the native gamut of the panel looks like. In a perfect world where Windows is fully color-managed, one would be more concerned about the panel's native gamut covering the common targets (AdobeRGB, DCI-P3, etc.) than whether it has explicit modes for them. Unfortunately the years tick by and Windows still lacks OS-wide color management. Maybe the advent of OLED consumer monitors and the "HDR" push will finally force the issue.
BiggerInside - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
The native primaries/gamut volume are important, and for HDR standards (which are aiming at a future with Rec2020 primaries that far exceed what we can achieve on consumer panels right now) it seems like more must be better... but for someone actually using a display, even with HDR, saturation accuracy should tell you everything for all practical purposes--that is, we are well beyond the problems of LCD panels that missed some SRGB gamut, so the real question is not "do I see all the green in fully-saturated SRGB images?" but "how accurate are the fully-saturated colors I see?""99.8% of DCI-P3" looks impressive on a chart next to displays that don't have as much coverage, but if you want to use the display for real imaging, the important question is "how accurate is the display (at DCI-P3 or whatever your target is) before/after calibration?" 100% DCI-P3 is basically a worthless number (without accuracy numbers) unless the only colors you render are exactly DCI-P3 100% R/G/B.
BiggerInside - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
Would really, really like some details on brightness levels, too. Assuming they/intel used a 10-bit display interface, HDR should be easily supported once application software catches up--but if the peak brightness is less than 500nits the payoff is diminished.Brandon Chester - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
It's standard 8bit per channel. Assuming 10bit color on an Intel laptop is generally going to be a losing bet :)Arbie - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
Please state in your reviews whether the micro/SD sticks out the side of the laptop, because it's pretty much useless if so. Thanks.