Hands on with Lenovo's Snapdragon 8cx-powered Yoga 5G

Lenovo first announced Project Limitless back in May of last year, packing Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8cx 5G Mobile Platform. The Snapdragon 8cx is meant to provide performance that's similar to an Intel Core i5, and of course, 5G connectivity can offer computing in the cloud, while on the go.

What's particularly interesting about this PC is that it supports both sub-6 and mmWave 5G, and it's one of few devices that do, if there are any others. All of the other 5G PCs, which are all Intel-based, are sub-6 only. Millimeter waves are super fast, offering multi-gigabit speeds, but they can be blocked by literally anything, such as a window or a piece of paper. That's why mmWave is only part of the 5G puzzle, with lower sub-6 frequencies able to penetrate walls and such.

Another thing that's important about the combination of mmWave and sub-6 is that while a powerful mmWave base station might be able to hit your device from far away, your device might not be powerful enough to send a mmWave signal back to the base station. That's where longer-range low-band and mid-band frequencies come in, so you can use mmWave on the download and sub-6 on the upload.

The Yoga 5G is very similar to Lenovo's last Windows on ARM PC, the Yoga C630; however, it's a bit bigger, with a 14-inch screen instead of a 13.3-inch screen. The reason for this is actually because the base is lined with mmWave antennas, and extra space was added. Remember, mmWaves can be blocked by anything at all, so the antenna always needs a clear line of sight to a base station. That means that devices need to have antennas on every possible side.

Unfortunately, Lenovo used the same kind of display that it did on the C630, which I found to be somewhat mediocre. It feels a bit plasticky, so it's hard to use with a pen comfortably. And aside from the 1080p resolution, other mid-range specs in this $1,499 PC include 8GB RAM.

Aside from the slightly larger chassis and display, the faster chipset, and 5G, it's pretty much the same as the C630. And aside from my issues with the display, that's a good thing. It has a great keyboard, Dolby Atmos front-facing speakers, and more. The Yoga 5G is coming this spring, so expect to hear more about it then.