Lenovo Miix 630
Price: To be confirmed
The Lenovo Miix 630 two-in-one is one of the first three Windows 10 devices powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor – rather than an Intel chip. The HP Envy x2 and Asus NovaGo released earlier this year, but Lenovo has waited a little longer to release the Miix 630.
The upshot of using the Qualcomm chip is that the Miix 630 enjoys always-on LTE connectivity along with a mammoth battery life of 20 hours – though can the Snapdragon power a Windows 10 laptop as smoothly as it does a flagship phone? Read on to find out.
Price and availability
The Miix 630 is on sale now in the US, where it costs $899 (around £685). That’s just over £300 less than the £999 HP Envy x2, but slightly more than the £599 Asus NovaGo, the only other two Snapdragon 835 devices running Windows 10. It’s worth bearing in mind that other Snapdragon 850 devices are on the way though, including Lenovo’s own Yoga C630, promising better performance for a similar price if you can wait until early 2019.
It’s not out in the UK right now, but will be soon, and if not you can always import it from the US, though you should naturally expect to pay a little extra for shipping and customs.
Design
In terms of design, the Miix 630 is a standard two-inone with a detachable keyboard. It’s attractive enough in an understated way, but it’s clearly not a designdriven device. In essence, the core of the Lenovo is a 12in tablet bordered by some thick bezels. Most of the time though, you’ll probably use it with the included keyboard cover and kickstand, which does a pretty good job of replicating the laptop experience.
The body of the main tablet is metal, which leaves it feeling substantial and premium without weighing it down too much – it’s still just 7.3mm thick and 770g without the keyboard – slightly chunkier than HP’s Envy x2, but still comfortably portable. Adding the keyboard takes it up to 15.6mm and 1.33kg.
The rear is finished in a sort of slate grey with a lighter band of grey along one edge, with a single
camera lens tucked into one corner. Then there’s just a power button, and two volume buttons, keeping things pretty minimalist.
Keyboard and trackpad
With a full-size backlit keyboard and touchpad, the keyboard cover is a respectable substitute for a proper laptop. It comes in a slightly plain dark grey, but the leatherette finish looks and feels great, and the internal body of the keyboard part is a sturdy plastic that adds to the ‘proper laptop’ feel.
The keys feel surprisingly impressive, without the mushiness you often find on detachable keyboards, though we did experience a frustrating number of dropped key presses when typing quickly. You probably won’t want to use this for extended writing sessions, but it’s fine for dashing out emails or notes. The
trackpad is slightly small for our tastes but gets the job done for the most part.
There’s also a small strap on the right edge to attach the Lenovo Pen, a simple stylus that comes included with the device. Again, this won’t compete with serious artistic stylii, but for doodles or taking notes it’ll more than hold up its end.
Display
The Miix 630 has a 1,920x1,280 touchscreen display, which is crisp and bright, with a maximum brightness of around 315cd/m2 – that’s about what you’d expect from a device at this price, but nothing to write home about. Still, it’s bright enough that it can just about hold its own even if you want to use it outside. That’s crucial for a device like this, which will be sold mostly on the basis of its portability and always-on Internet.
Performance
The big selling point for the Lenovo is that Snapdragon 835 chipset lurking inside, which promises a few big benefits over Intel’s equivalents – with a couple potential downsides, too.
The improved battery life and LTE connectivity sound like big benefits, but there’s still the question of performance hanging over this and similar devices. The Snapdragon 835 is a powerful chip, capable of silky smooth performance on a flagship phone, but can it manage the same running Windows 10?
The Miix 630 runs Windows 10 S out of the box, but Lenovo is offering users a free upgrade to Windows 10 Pro within 180 days of activation, which offers more
functionality. Note that doing so hits performance and battery life slightly, and risks compatibility issues, as not every app outside of the Windows Store is guaranteed to run smoothly on the Qualcomm chip.
We didn’t run into too many issues with apps, but found that some of our usual benchmarking software wouldn’t run on the Snapdragon, and it’s likely that other demanding programs – think games, or photo-, audio-, and video-editing software – might either refuse to run, or run with a few extra bugs and issues.
For its part, Qualcomm says it’s working on improving compatibility issues, so you can probably expect this to improve over time at least.
Speaking of benchmarks, it’s no real surprise to see that the Miix 630 struggled here. A Geekbench multi-core score of 3,077 is in line with the HP Envy x2, but to find an Intel device with similar performance
you’ve got to go right down to the budget end of the market, which is worrying for a device that costs four times as much as those.
In real-world use, performance is perfectly smooth if you stick to web browsing, email, or streaming, and it even keeps up with light multi-tasking well, but don’t expect this to handle anything much trickier than that. With only 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage this is clearly not a powerhouse, so it’s best approached with that in mind.
Connectivity and audio
The flip side of that limited power is one of the big perks of the Snapdragon processor: this is an alwaysconnected device, with Qualcomm’s X16 modem offering Gigabit LTE through a Nano-SIM slot.
Access to 4G Internet on a laptop could be a huge boon for some users, freeing you from the need to track down Wi-Fi everywhere you go, but it naturally comes with the additional ongoing cost of a data plan, so bear that in mind. Still, access is smooth and fast, and Windows does a good job of switching between LTE and Wi-Fi as and when connections are available.
As for ports, you get one USB-C port, a headphone jack, and a microSD card slot – it’s built into the SIM tray though, so it’s more for expanding the internal storage than quickly transferring files. The single USB-C is a big limitation when it comes to using this as a laptop, as it means you can’t simultaneously charge the device and transfer data – and you’ll obviously need a dongle or USB-C hub to use HDMI, USB-A, ethernet, or anything else.
Battery life
Finally, battery life, which is the other area where the Snapdragon excels, with Lenovo promising up to 20 hours use. In our continuous video playback test, the Miix didn’t quite manage that, dying after a very respectable 17 and a half hours.
Real-world usage is better than that, as nonstop video is among the more battery-intensive things you’re likely to use it for, and the Miix really is impressive in that respect. It’s the sort of device that lasts for so long that you forget about charging it, especially if you’re only grabbing it for the odd meeting rather than using it all day.
Still, you don’t have to jump to Qualcomm to get similar performance. Some of Microsoft’s Surface devices have lasted just as long, while Dell’s XPS 13 does almost as well while offering much more power, which slightly negates half of Qualcomm’s USP.
Verdict
The Miix 630 is basically budget performance in a premium body, with 4G and a big battery to help sweeten the deal. It could be a great option for users who want a two-in-one laptop that’s easy to use on the go, without worrying about battery life or Wi-Fi connections, but only if you’re happy to stick to word processing and web browsing. If you need anything much more intensive than that you’re probably better off looking elsewhere – which would be easier to swallow from a cheaper device, but for something nearing a grand it’s a harder sell. Dominic Preston
Specifications
• 12.3in (1,920x1,280) WUXGA+ display,
• Windows 10 S (upgradable to Pro)
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 (2.6GHz, 8 cores)
• Adreno 540 GPU • 4GB RAM • 128GB storage
• USB-C
• MicroSD card slot
• 11ac Wi-Fi
• 4G LTE (Nano-SIM)
• Bluetooth 4.1
• Stereo speakers
• Headphone jack
• 13Mp rear camera, 5Mp front camera
• 293x209x7.3mm
• 770g (tablet), 1.33kg (with case)
• Keyboard case included
• Digital Pen included