The first laptop to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 chipset, Lenovo’s Yoga C630 WOS, has made an appearance during IFA 2018, and it looks like it can achieve over a whole day of battery life.
Qualcomm is best known for making processors for smartphones and tablets, but in recent years has been applying its technology to Windows 10 laptops. Because of the power-efficient nature of Qualcomm’s chips, Snapdragon-powered laptops, like the HP Envy x2 which runs on the older Snapdragon 835 platform, are capable of incredibly long battery life.
The Lenovo Yoga C630 WOS looks set to blow past previous records by being able to run for more than 25 hours off a single charge. For people who need to use their laptops throughout the day without easy access to a power source, this will be exciting news.
Improved experience
While Snapdragon-based laptops have plenty of potential, the first wave of devices (like the aforementioned HP Envy x2) disappointed us with high prices and poor performance. However, Qualcomm was keen to highlight how its new Snapdragon 850 platform will address many of those concerns.
According to Qualcomm, Snapdragon 850 brings 30% higher CPU performance and a 30% increase in graphics performance. The new chipset has an X20 LTE modem for cellular data access, which we’ve been promised will allow you to download a 50MB file in just 10 seconds. The Lenovo Yoga C630 WOS is expected to benefit from all of these improvements.
Features
As with other Windows 10 on Snapdragon devices, the Lenovo Yoga C630 WOS has an always-on LTE connection (as long as you have a SIM card and subscription), so you can securely connect to the internet away from Wi-Fi hotspots – and updates, emails and more will always be available.
The Lenovo Yoga C630 will also benefit from extremely fast bootup times – similar to how instantly your smartphone or tablet wakes up.
It also comes with a 13.3-inch 1080p display, and as with other Yoga devices, the screen can be flipped to be used as a tablet-like device.
It comes with two USB-C ports, audio jack and SIM card holder.
The Lenovo Yoga C630 will go on sale in September for €999 ($849, around £900, AU$1,500). So, that means the high price for these Snapdragon laptops remains. We look to get our hands on one soon to see if it offers a drastic improvement over previous generations to justify the high cost.
- IFA 2018 is Europe's biggest tech show. The TechRadar team is in Berlin to bring you all the breaking news and hands-on first impressions of new phones, watches and other tech as they're announced.