This holiday season, Lenovo attempts to teach its Yoga convertible a couple of new tricks. While its model number has ticked up by only one digit, the new Yoga C930 makes some not insignificant changes to the C920 which it replaces. The most noteworthy is the ditching of a key design feature that has defined the Yoga 2-in-1 line for years: The watchband hinge that stood as the ThinkPad owner’s most innovative laptop feature since 1995’s butterfly keyboard.
In place of the chassis-wide watchband hinge is a sizable hinge that contains the Yoga’s speaker. It’s not as clever as the watchband, but it does offer some real utility. Instead of relying on speakers that are muffled from firing down into the table when the laptop is positioned a certain way, the new speaker design (which features Dolby Atmos audio) ensures audio is loud and clear no matter how you position it. In standard laptop mode the speaker works as a soundbar that fires up from the base of the machine; in tent mode, audio shoots out from the apex of the inverted V to fill the room.
That said, audio quality is rarely a key consideration in an ultraportable laptop purchase, but the C930 has other upgrades in its arsenal. A slim stylus is included, which stows away in a spring-loaded slot on the rear of the device. It’s a bit out of the way, but it’s so much more convenient to have it always at the ready, where it’s harder to lose and always charged up, than a standalone pen like the Microsoft Surface’s.
A revamped privacy shutter, with its tiny, physical on/off switch, is also a boon for the paranoid—though I found it difficult to tell at a glance whether the shutter was opened or closed. I’m unsure if the keyboard has been revised, but if it has, it’s not for the better. Its lack of travel is particularly noticeable in this version of the laptop.
