Getting creative with YOGA
The new and very affordable convertible from Lenovo is the ideal tool for students
A STYLISH and powerful convertible 14-inch laptop computer, the Lenovo Yoga 530 AMD is also affordable, making it the perfect choice for students to be creative both in and outside the classroom.
Weighing a mere 1.6kg and just 17.6mm thick, it is easy to heft around between school and home as well as on assignments.
The Yoga 530 AMD is powered by AMD Ryzen 5 2500U quad-core processor running at 2 GHz, quipped with 8 gigabytes of DDR4 RAM or working memory and comes with a fast 256 GB SSD (solid state drive) storage.
The AMD cpu is integrated with AMD Radeon Vega 8 Graphics processor that shares the RAM for graphics memory. The Radeon Vega 8 is fast and able to handle smooth gameplay in titles that do not require very complex graphic rendering. AMD Radeon Vega 8 has eight cores and it also supports the DirectX 12 graphics platform.
The Yoga 530 AMD runs on Windows 10 Home 64-bit operating system and comes with the Microsoft Cortana Intelligent Personal Digital Assistant allowing you to give voice commands conveniently.
It has eight hours battery life, more than enough for students to work on the go. And its power adapter is compact and light enough to be carted along. Moreover, the Yoga 530 AMD supports Rapid Charge technology that comes in handy when you need extra juice. The Rapid Charge technology gives you two additional hours of use from just 15 minutes charging.
The laptop looks sleek in black with polished aluminium surfaces. It comes with a 360-degree hinge that effortlessly transforms the laptop mode into a tablet mode and back.
Just fold the display onto the back of the keyboard and Windows 10 will ask you if you want to switch the mode into the tablet mode. When it is in tablet mode, you don’t have to worry about pressing keys on the keyboard when you are holding it.
And its 14-inch touch-screen IPS display with 1920x1080-pixel resolution is responsive as a tablet function.
Best of all, the tablet mode can be used with Lenovo Active Pen 2, a stylus with battery. The active stylus lets students to take complete control of graphic designing and digital sketching.
During the test, I found that the stylus worked effectively for drawing and painting on support apps, such as Microsoft Paint 3D, Concepts, and Bamboo Paper.
I was pleased to find that the AMD Ryzen processor handled business applications like Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint fast and was also pretty good when I wanted to edit photos.
AMD says its Ryzen 5 2500 Mobile processor consumes less battery while the processor uses high-performance x86 Core “Zen” architecture to deliver considerably more in the instructions-per-clock cycle than the previous generation AMD core.
Moreover, the Ryzen 5 2500 uses AMD's SenseMI technology, which is a set of learning and adapting features that help the processor customise its performance to your applications with true machine intelligence or MI.
Thanks to the fast processor and speedy integrated GPU, Yoga 530 AMD played Full HD video very fast. So, you can use Yoga 530 AM D as a portable home theatre. The movies I watched were crisp thanks to the 1920x1080-pixel wide-angle IPS display with narrow bezels and the high 250-nit brightness.
Movies also sounded great on the laptop with the virtual surround sound experience of the Harmon Speakers optimised with Dolby Audio Premium. Since the Yoga 530 AMD can also be used in Tent Mode, the movies sound louder when the speakers at the back and bottom point upwards.
The Yoga 530 AMD comes with large backlit keyboard that is convenient for typing. Its touchpad is also good on cursor control.
I tested the laptop with my Linksys EA8500 router and it had no problems sharing files and streaming videos with my network-storage DiskStation DS418j.
For security, the Yoga 530 AMD comes with fingerprint reader under the bottom right corner of the keyboard. With the fingerprint reader, you don't have to remember the password as you can unlock the laptop with one touch of your finger by using Windows 10’s Windows Hello function.
The Yoga 530 AMD comes with all necessary ports. There is an HDMI port on the left side for connecting to a TV. A full-size USB 3.0 port, a Type-C USB and audio jack are also provided on the left side. You can also find a 4-in-1 card reader and a full-size USB 3.0 port on the right side.
Lenovo Yoga 530 AMD has a suggested retail price of Bt25,990.
>> Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2500U 2 GHz
>> Operating System: Windows 10 Home (64 bit)
>> Display Type: 14.0-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS Touchscreen
>> Memory: 8GB (2x4GB DDR4)
>> Storage: 256GB SSD
>> Warranty: One year Carry-in
>> Graphics: Integrated AMD Radeon Vega 8 Graphics
>> Camera: HD 720p Camera
>> Security Feature: Fingerprint Reader
>> Keyboard: Backlit Keyboard
>> Wireless: 802.11 AC Wireless Bluetooth Version 4.1
>> AC Adapter: Rapid charge 65W Adapter – charge 15 minutes for up to 2 hours use
>> Battery: Up to 8 hours
>> Dimensions:(W x D x H): 328 mm x 229 mm x 17.6 mm
>> Weight: 1.6 kg
