The Lenovo Yoga Book C930 is the first two-in-one released by a major company that has an LCD and E Ink screen. This device is fairly expensive and it ranges from $950 for the 128GB version to $1050 for 256GB. Hopefully this tablet sells, so more companies will continue to develop products with E Ink.
As the world’s first dual display laptop with E Ink, the Yoga Book’s 10.8-inch high-resolution IPS display interacts with an E Ink display that functions as a notepad, sketchbook, eReader and a self-learning keyboard. And with the 7th Generation Intel Core processor which was purpose built to deliver incredible processing power for a fanless laptop, the Yoga Book C930 is designed to produce no thermal noise. It’s got a 10.8-inch QHD 2K IPS display, two speakers, and features Dolby Atmos immersive audio.
The Yoga comes with an optional Precision Pen5 and was designed for users to annotate on reports, jot down notes or sketch out ideas on either the LCD or E Ink display. It’s the latest Bluetooth active pen with Wacom technology, so users can now apply up to 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity, along with pen tilt support to achieve natural shading effects.
The big draw is the E Ink keyboard, which is 10 inches and it’ll show black-and-white keys that “depress” when touched, it vibrates to provide haptic feedback. Tap the function button on the top right, and the E Ink screen switches over to a notepad mode. You can write on the screen with an included stylus, and the system will not only save your sketches, but also translate them into text that you can copy and paste over into the primary display. You will also be able to read ebooks on the E Ink display with yet another function. Currently it only works for PDF documents, but Lenovo says they are adding EPUB/MOBI support soon.
Lenovo has briefly experimented with E Ink in the past with fitness bands that never saw widespread release. It will be interesting to see if people will pay iPad or Surface money to buy the C930.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
