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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mooninite - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
$1800 and no Iris graphics? I'll pass.ddriver - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
Knock yourself out.JoeyJoJo123 - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
After you, ma'am.ddriver - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
U his boyfriend?The device scores in the top of its class as it is. Iris graphics won't make it more useful in its intended usage context, only more expensive. But I guess the important part here is that your boyfriend won't be buying a device cuz it didn't have a component that makes no sense having. Good to know.
JoeyJoJo123 - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
Another *simply epic* post by ddriver!forgot2yield28 - Friday, September 30, 2016 - link
You're joking, right? I run procurement for an architecture office. I wouldn't order this over an XPS 13 because you can get the XPS with Iris. They're not the workhorse of our office, but for getting some work done on an airplane and giving a presentation while manipulating CAD drawings, something with Iris or discrete graphics is critical. I can appreciate that the niche for professional ultrabook users who demand higher graphics performance is small, but to say that it wouldn't make the product more useful to professionals is simply shortsighted.close - Friday, September 30, 2016 - link
ddriver is usually here for two purposes:-some pseudo-engineering rants that are laughable until you realize he might actually believe them (then it feels like you're laughing at an autistic kid).
-make some sort of homophobic remark, or any kind of insult really. The kind that suggests he was raised and educated by 4chan.
ddriver - Friday, September 30, 2016 - link
I am glad you finally found a purpose in life. As pathetic as it may be, that's a huge step up for you LOL, your peak lifetime achievement really.ddriver - Friday, September 30, 2016 - link
You are joking, right? This is a convertible device that can be used as a tablet and comes with a stylus while the xps 13 is an ultrabook without tablet mode or stylus support. Which explains why the xps in a matching configuration is 100$ cheaper.If you are a professional and need to work with CAD you don't get a "business class" generic ultrabook, you get a laptop with dedicated professional graphics, or the very least, something with a decent discrete graphics, like the xps 15
Iris critical for CAD - that's laughable to say the least. But wait, since you did say "drawings" I can only assume you mean 2D in autocad, which, and I hate to break it to you, will show exactly ZERO advantage for iris over the plain integrated graphics. It will be marginally better for 3D, but nowhere near the 960m in the xps 15, which also has a bigger display at the same price point. Or maybe now you are also going to tell me that a smaller screen is also critical to working with cad and making presentations?
LordOfTheBoired - Friday, September 30, 2016 - link
*doesn't know CAD workload or terminology**is qualified to dictate CAD hardware demands*