Since Ultrabooks or laptops that are premium and portable came into the PC market, it’s been hard to ignore their appeal. They’re sleek and at the same time powerful. There’s no sacrifice needed just to have a reliable notebook that you can put in your bag with ease.

A number of manufacturers have come up with their own style for the next-gen laptop, but it was Lenovo who inked the Yoga brand into our minds. A Yoga laptop can instantly transform into multiple modes, but the one I have here is different.

Let’s take a look at the Yoga S730.

It has a 13.3-inch IPS display…

With a full HD resolution

… that can lay flat on a table

Might come in handy when presenting

There are two Thunderbolt 3 ports on the right…

You may connect a 4K monitor or an eGPU

… and a USB-C port for charging on the left

It supports Lenovo’s RapidCharge technology

It has a pretty large touchpad

It uses Windows Precision drivers

Windows Hello is present via the fingerprint reader

Login without typing a long password

It’s indeed a lightweight notebook

One of the lightest in its class

Thin and really light

First things first, the Yoga S730 doesn’t have a 360-degree hinge despite having the “Yoga” moniker attached to it. Lenovo now has a new naming scheme that classifies all of its premium notebooks as Yoga. What matters now is its model name, which is S730. The “S” denotes that it’s part of the slim and sleek lineup. If you want a true Yoga that’s a convertible, you gotta look for the letter “C” in the name.

I know it’s confusing, but that’s what Lenovo is pushing for now. So now, not all premium notebooks from Lenovo will have a bendy display; however, the 360-degree hinge is part of the premium package a Yoga offers, right?

Anyhow, the Yoga S730 features a 13.3-inch IPS LCD with a Full HD resolution. It’s nowhere near the sharpness of MacBook’s Retina Display, but it’s crisp enough for its size. I even find it even more pleasant to look at than my other 13-inch notebook with the same resolution. Perhaps, the Dolby Vision feature really works on Lenovo’s screen.

I also do appreciate the slim bezels surrounding the display. It’s not edge-to-edge like Dell’s XPS 13, but it’s close enough. Despite having a 13-inch screen, the Yoga S730 is just as big as a good old 11-inch netbook from yesteryears.

With its size, it’s pegged as an ultraportable notebook. At just 11.9mm thin, the Yoga S730 is Lenovo’s slimmest Yoga notebook. With that, I worked on the laptop for a few days at a coffee shop. Indeed, it’s light and easy to carry around; however, I find the keyboard to be a bit shallow. The typing experience is not quite what I expected from a high-end Lenovo notebook.

The whole body of the laptop is made from sand-blasted aluminum. It’s cold to touch, which is always welcome.

Capable of more

Inside, the Yoga S730 is powered by an 8th-gen Intel Core i7 processor with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage. It’s a specced-up variant, so you don’t have to compromise performance over mobility.

Without a dedicated graphics unit though, the Yoga S730 won’t be able to handle intensive games as well as gamers would like. Casual titles will run just fine (even CS:GO and Sims 4), but don’t expect it to be a portable gaming laptop despite its high-end specifications.

The Yoga S730 doesn’t have any full-size HDMI or USB ports, a sacrifice that has to be made in order to keep the laptop slim. Instead, it has three USB-C ports; two of which supports Thunderbolt 3.

If you fully take advantage of Thunderbolt for extra graphics oomph and external 4K displays, the Yoga S730 will please you. If not, you better do because having Thunderbolt 3 is an added premium you already paid for and it doesn’t come cheap.

Battery-wise, Lenovo promises up to 12 hours of continuous use. Real-life usage might clock in around nine to 10 hours only, though. Also, Lenovo’s RapidCharge technology will fill up the battery up to 80 percent in just one hour.

Is this your GadgetMatch?

For PHP 69,995, the new Yoga S730 is one of the premium yet not-so-expensive laptops in the market. It’s portable thanks to its slim and light body, but it has more than enough power for everyday computing. With its Thunderbolt 3 ports, it also has the ability to have external graphics power when needed.

Lenovo has a competitive laptop here, and it’s an easy recommendation for its specs and price. Just keep in mind that it’s not a convertible despite having the Yoga brand.

SEE ALSO: This is the World’s First Foldable Computer by Lenovo

K-Pop girl group TWICE is currently on their first world tour called TWICELIGHTS and due to schedule conflicts as well as an inability to camp out for tickets, I missed all possible chances to see this nine-member group live.

I was devastated after being told that the tickets had already been sold out. This, despite me waking up much, much earlier than I usually do on a weekend and lining up for hours.

So I did the next best thing — watch fancams on the 75” Q90R Flagship QLED 4K HDR 2000 Smart TV.

4K in all its glory

My advice in watching 4K fancams is to select the ones that focus on a certain member. This will give you a better and closer look and really feel that 4K goodness.

That said, the 4K footage will vary depending on the device it was shot at. Some 4K footage don’t do well in concert lighting conditions and when zoomed in which is the case for most fancams.

Despite this, the Samsung Q90R more than delivered. It didn’t matter if I was sitting on the couch directly in front of the TV or over to the side at our dining area. I was getting the same quality no matter the viewing angle.

TWICELIGHTS on the 75” Samsung 4K QLED TV is an absolute joy to watch. Instead of being stuck with a single view, you get to experience the concert from a multitude of perspectives thanks to the various fansites that cover TWICE.

I put together a playlist on YouTube which you can find towards the end of this article. If you see an abundance of Momo and Chaeyoung fancams, this is because those two are my biases.

After watching (and *ehem rewatching) the concert, I had to test what else this TV can do.

4K upscaling

The girls already look good in HD, and they look even better when upscaled to 4K. You see, this is what the TV is capable of. Much like its 8K counterpart, the Q90R is equipped with a chip that upscales footage to 4K.

The music videos, which are mostly just in 1080p, look stunning on the 75-inch 4K QLED display. This is especially true for K-Pop videos that are known to be colorful.

Something we quickly noticed though is that some of the upscaled videos appear a little more saturated than usual. Personally, this didn’t really bother me but it might be important to note for those considering to purchase this TV.

Gaming and watching movies

The saturation doesn’t stop at upscaling. When you switch to game mode, the colors tend to switch to colors that some people might find too aggressive.

We played NBA 2K19 on the monitor and some courts almost hurt your eye because of how strong they appear. This wasn’t the case for other games though.

Try playing God of War or even Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice on this thing and you’ll be exposed to some of the best video game visuals you will ever lay your eyes on.

The same is true when watching movies built for 4K machines. It’s a perfect blend of “damn this looks like I’m actually seeing them in real life” while maintaining that cinematic feel. Words aren’t enough, you truly need to see this in person.

With Netflix, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime Video pre-installed, you won’t run out of 4K content to go through. My only gripe is that the TV doesn’t support the NBA App. Basketball is one of the few things I actually try to watch live but that’s not possible unless I have a cable subscription which I have no plans of getting any time soon.

At first I thought this was just a glitch on the particular unit we were lent but Samsung confirmed that they currently do not support the NBA app. However, they added that they are “looking to find ways to improve customer experience by expanding our content services and apps available in our smart TVs.”

Casting issues

There weren’t a lot but I did experience some casting issues on the Q90R. YouTube worked perfectly but other apps like VLive struggled to connect right away unlike when I’m just using a chromecast.

There’s also this little hiccup when you want to watch Facebook videos. The TV will force you to use the Facebook Watch app and have to connect a single user’s account to the TV versus anyone just being able to cast a video as long as they are connected to the same wifi network.

It’s a minor inconvenience although it could be an issue if you have to have more than one person connect their Facebook account to the TV just so they have easy access to the Facebook videos they prefer watching. That said, I don’t imagine a lot of people need to use Facebook Watch to begin with.

Truly a Smart TV

One of the things I truly appreciate about the Q90R is how seamless you interact with it. The remote and the TV’s interface is well thought-out.

The Q90R foregoes the usual remote in favor of what looks like a circular directional pad which works perfectly on the TV’s interface. The other buttons can also be easily located by feeling your way on the remote. Adjusting the volume is as simple as pushing up or down on a button.

You can, of course, use the mic and ask Bixby to do things on the TV for you but personally that’s not my thing. I don’t want to have to speak when interacting with my TV but I find that this can be a useful way for other people.

Is this your GadgetMatch?

The 75” Q90R Flagship QLED 4K HDR 2000 Smart TV is an entertainment powerhouse. It’s perfect for family gatherings and inviting a large group of friends for some Netflix and chilling. It’ll set you back at PhP 359,999 (roughly around US$ 7010).

However, if you have an extra PhP 240,000 lying around, you might want to opt for the 8K version which retails for PhP 599,999 (roughly around US$ 11,700) which puts you in better position to be ready for the future. If not, the 4K isn’t shabby at all.

Let’s take a break from laptops and check out this desktop PC from ASUS. This is the Zen AiO 27 and it looks so much better than any of the previous all-in-ones we reviewed from the Taiwanese company.

Coming from the iMac-like Zen AiO Pro and Vivo AiO, the Zen AiO 27 is a welcoming sight. But, is it any good?

Let’s find out in this hands-on.

This AiO has a gorgeous 27-inch UHD display

It’s also a touchscreen

The bezels surrounding the screen are slim

ASUS brings NanoEdge to desktop PCs

It has an outward notch at the bottom for the webcam

With an IR sensor for facial recognition

There are four speakers located at the back

ASUS claims it’s a 16W quad-speaker setup

Quick-access ports are on the right side of the base

L-R: USB 2.0, Thunderbolt 3, 3.5mm combo jack

The remaining ports are all at the back

L-R: Ethernet, 3x USB 3.1, HDMI-In, HDMI-Out, Power

The front has two LED indicators and an SD card reader

The LEDs show if your PC is on and functioning

The base even has a wireless charging pad

Charge your phone while you’re working

A full-size wireless keyboard comes in the box

It has all the keys but its very plasticky

There’s also a bundled wireless optical mouse

Pretty basic but it gets the job done

The Zen AiO design upgrade we’ve been waiting for

ASUS’ new Zen AiO 27 finally gets the design upgrade it deserves. It’s not an iMac copy-cat anymore and it looks even better than Apple’s desktop PC. ASUS certainly took a step forward in design; however, I’ve seen better-looking AiOs running Windows 10 like Dell’s new Inspiron desktops.

Perhaps, the best asset of the Zen AiO 27 is its display. It’s a 27-inch IPS LCD panel with a UHD resolution and multi-touch support. The display is Pantone Validated for color accuracy and it has ASUS’ NanoEdge design for slimmer bezels all around.

Although, like on smartphones, slimmer bezels come at a cost. ASUS had to put an outward notch to house a webcam and, for some reason, they placed it at the bottom. When I tested the webcam, it was showing myself from an awkward angle. As a consolation, it’s also equipped with an IR sensor for hands-free face login with Windows Hello.

The Zen AiO 27’s stand lets users view the display from multiple angles. It can tilt and swivel, plus the height can be adjusted with one finger. There’s no option for rotating the display, but that’s okay.

Design-wise, the Zen AiO 27 is a thing of beauty. I do appreciate its brushed metal-effect finish of really dark blue (darker than navy blue) with gold trims and accents. The audio and visual department of the PC delivers top-notch quality as well.

Slim and powerful, but not enough for 4K

All of the power of the Zen AiO 27 comes from beneath. The components are all housed in the base of the PC, which is neat and practical. How so? There are two storage slots and memory is user upgradeable up to 32GB.

The specs of the model I have are impressive with an Intel Core i7-8700T processor, 16GB DDR4 memory, 512GB M.2 SSD, and 2TB HDD. It also has discrete graphics using NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1050, which is kind of old but still very capable.

The base also has a Thunderbolt 3 port and features Bluetooth 5.0 and dual-band gigabit-class Wi-Fi. Needless to say, it runs Windows 10 Home out of the box.

I have no complaints with the general performance of the Zen AiO 27 thanks to its incredible specifications. I can easily multitask with multiple windows open and quickly render images from Photoshop. The configuration is also enough to ensure smooth video editing.

When it comes to gaming though, it doesn’t hit the mark. While the GTX 1050 GPU is good for games like Fortnite or anything with similar graphics power requirements, it’s not enough to push pixels in UHD.

This means you can’t take full advantage of the crisp display of the Zen AiO 27. It’s best to keep the game’s resolution in Full HD to have at least 60fps in not-so-demanding titles. Too bad I can’t enjoy Cities: Skylines in 4K.

I wasn’t able to try it out, but the Zen AiO 27’s can also act as an external monitor since it has an HDMI-in port. Any HDMI-connected source can use the UHD display as a second monitor.

Is this your GadgetMatch?

The ASUS Zen AiO 27 is indeed premium with an asking price of PhP 149,995 in the Philippines. It’s available through ASUS Concept Stores nationwide.

Of course, if you are to build your own desktop PC, you could get more power with the same budget. You could even still use an ASUS monitor, keyboard, mouse, and components since the company also sells those.

What you won’t get is the convenience of a plug-and-play, space-saving AiO. It’s like bringing out a laptop and plugging in the charger. If only ASUS included a better wireless keyboard and mouse, it would have been a better package.

SEE ALSO: ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo offers largest secondary touchscreen yet