We reviewed its smaller brother, the 11.6 inch Voyo A1 Plus, a while ago, and one of our team members has been using it as an everyday companion for the past six months. We decided to simply swap them and take the larger 13.3 inch model for a spin during our summer vacation.
The Voyo V3 is also an obvious Lenovo Yoga clone, just like the 11.6-inch model. In fact, in most respects it is just a scaled-up version of the smaller model, built around a larger 13.3-inch IPS screen, with some minor improvements to the chassis and a few extra features.
The Voyo V3 is based on the same hardware platform as the smaller Voyo A1 - Intel’s Cherry Trail Atom x5-Z8300 with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC storage, the favorite go-to platform for value tablet and mini PC manufacturers.
The Voyo V3 is obviously based on the Lenovo Yoga design, and for us this design concept seems more practical than most detachable 2-in-1 type devices, because you always have the keyboard in tow, ready to go.
It’s not a tablet mated to a physical keyboard, because the battery, motherboard, along with all ports and controls, are placed under the keyboard, as you’d expect in a real notebook. This allows for a thin and sleek screen design and a well-balanced device that’s not top-heavy and doesn’t tend to tumble when you use it in your lap.
The lid is just a few millimeters thick, while the whole device measures 16mm thick (not counting the rubber feet, obviously).
The attractive orange and black color scheme makes the Voyo V3 stand out in a crowd and attracts a lot of attention. If you don’t like attracting attention, a dark gray - black color scheme is also available.
Like we mentioned in our review of the smaller Voyo A1 model, we love the soft rubbery finish used on the outside of the lid and the bottom. This material provides a soft, silky feel and great grip, and based on our extensive experience with the smaller model, we can say it’s very resilient to scratches and fingerprints.
The keyboard has a matte plastic finish, and unfortunately it proved to be a magnet for smudges on the palm rests. The keyboard sports a standard layout, with three small status LEDs placed below the cursor keys. We love the fact that Voyo decided to add these LEDs, as we missed them on the smaller A1 model.
Otherwise, the build quality is very good considering the price. The Voyo V3 measures 330 x 220 x 16mm (12.99 x 8.66 x 0.63 inches) and weighs a modest 1659 grams, thus it is very compact and lightweight for a budget 13-incher. The sleek lid is just 6mm thick, while the bottom part with the keyboard is 10mm thick, not taking the rubber feet into account.
In full tablet mode, with the keyboard fully rotated under the screen, the device is 19mm thick.
The highlight of the device remains its 13.3-inch IPS 1080p panel with great viewing angles and image quality. To be honest, we weren’t expecting such a good display on a cheap device, but we will get to that later.
The plastic power and volume buttons are located on the left side, along with the keyboard lock switch, a single USB 2.0 port, and standard 3.5mm audio output. A SIM slot is present as well, but we tested the WiFi only version, without the integrated 4G modem. The power button is sometimes hard to distinguish from the volume buttons, so you can accidentally press it while trying to adjust the volume. This is not much of an issue once you get used to it, but the designers should have gone the extra mile to make it a bit different and easier to distinguish from neighboring buttons.
Unlike the original Yoga, the Voyo V3 has front and back cameras. The rear camera is useless in tablet mode, since it is completely covered by the keyboard when it’s rotated. We think Voyo would have been better off ditching the rear camera altogether and going for a better front-facing unit.
The micro SD slot, micro HDMI, one USB 3.0 port and a power connector are all located on the right side of the device. There is also a blue charging LED next to the power connector.
The screen hinges are made out of metal and they work quite well, providing just the right amount of resistance in all configurations, whether you want to use it as a tablet, notebook, or something in between.
Voyo V3 also ships with an interesting looking metal stylus. The stylus itself looks great and we were eager to try it out. Sadly, the stylus is not pressure sensitive and needs to be charged before use, via a micro USB cable. It works fine, but the need to charge the stylus put us off using it. In the end, our fingers are always there, ready to go, and don’t have to be charged. We guess the stylus could come in handy for some basic sketching, but passive, pressure sensitive solutions are much better.
The Voyo V3 is based on a 14nm Cherry Trail Intel Atom x5-Z8300 SoC, so let's check out the full spec:
• Processor: Intel Atom x5-Z8300 quad-core, 1.44GHz base, 1.84GHz Turbo, 14nm
• Graphics: Intel HD Graphics Gen8, 12 EUs, 200MHz base, 500MHz burst
• RAM: 4GB DDR3L
• Storage: Toshiba 64GB internal eMMC 4.51, microSD slot with UHS support, up to 128GB
• OS: Windows 10 Home 64bit
• Rear camera: 2-megapixel
• Front facing camera: 2-megapixel
• Battery: 10000mAh lithium ion
• Dimensions: 330 x 220 x 16mm (12.99 x 8.66 x 0.63 inches)
• Weight: 1.659g
• Connectivity: 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI
• Ports: 1 x USB 2.0, 1 x USB 3.0, micro HDMI, 3.5mm audio, DC in (12V 3A)
• Sensors: G sensor
We monitored the thermals during our benchmarking sessions, and we did not encounter any noticeable throttling. It looks like Voyo did a good job in dealing with the heat from the CPU in this passively cooled device, but the real winner is Intel, with its low TDP 14nm silicon.
This time, Voyo decided to use a faster Toshiba 64GB eMMC, and the performance gain is obvious compared to the Voyo A1 we tested before.
On the whole, the spec is pretty good for the money, and real-life performance is more or less standard for Cherry Trail systems, so we won't get into the details. We already tried out a number of Cherry Trail-based tablets and mini PCs, and the biggest difference over Bay Trail Atoms is the integrated GPU - the Gen 8 unit in Cherry Trail processors significantly more powerful than Bay Trail graphics.
The storage performance has increased about 25-30% over the older Voyo A1, thanks to the Toshiba eMMC used.
As you can see, the biggest bottleneck is the eMMC drive. However, it’s not as bad as it looks. The device has 4GB of RAM, which helps, and you won’t experience much of a performance penalty in spite of the unimpressive drive (unless you plan to copy thousands of tiny files each day).
Other than that, this is a fairly powerful device given its price and size. Intel’s Cherry Trail Atoms feature a marginal CPU performance boost over Bay Trail, but they have a significantly more powerful GPU.
In terms of overall CPU and memory performance, the entry-level Atom x5-Z8300 tends to be on a part with the Bay Trai-based Atom Z3736F. However, it's a bit faster in GPU tests and should be more efficient (provided you don't push the GPU too hard).
In Cinebench, we can see the Z8300 falls short of the Z8500, which features dual-channel memory and a somewhat more powerful GPU.
We got a lower than expected score in the OpenGL test, and we suspect the display driver was the culprit.
We experienced the same issue in PCMark 8 and 3D Mark, where we ended up with GPU performance that wasn't quite on a par with other Z8300 systems, but the difference wasn't too big and it would be barely noticeable in real life.
On the whole, Intel's new 14nm Atoms are the best x86 budget platform. We already had a chance to try out Z8300 and Z8500 systems, and we can report they tend to offer much better performance than Bay Trail systems, especially in the GPU department. While they still don't come close to Skylake, these parts are powerful enough for casual users, yet they are incredibly cheap. Starting at about $20 per 1,000 units, Bay Trail Atoms are inexpensive even when you don't factor in Intel "contra revenue" tactics. (You mean monopolistic subsidies? Ed)
The increase in size from 11.6 to a 13.3 inch has brought benefits to the keyboard. The tactile feeling of the keys is very good, and the keyboard layout is standard.
We also tried using a Bluetooth mouse, and it worked well. Don't forget that you also have a touchscreen to play around with.
Also, swiping the touchpad from the right gives you the same Windows 10 action center panel as swiping the screen, which can be a useful shortcut.
Let’s not forget that this is a touch-enabled device, so you can also use the display for input. We did not experience any issues with the capacitive 10-point digitizer. It’s fast and reliable, nothing to report here. The really big deal is Microsoft’s effort to iron out a few kinks in the way Windows deals with touch input, and Windows 10 is a move in the right direction (although Win 8.1 wasn't bad either).
Ergonomics are not an issue. After all, this is a Lenovo clone, and Lenovo knows a thing or two about notebook design. We already pointed out that this is not a tablet, which means the lid is thin and light. This is good news for anyone who plans to use the V3 in their lap.
A lot of hybrids and 2-in-1s have relatively thick and heavy displays, burdened by batteries, which means they tend to be “top heavy” and poorly balanced. Long story short, a lot of them have a tendency to roll over because of their light keyboards.
The bottom of the device hides the two speakers and non-slip rubber feet, covered with hard, semi-transparent rubber. It might not sound reassuring, but trust us, the device feels quite robust and you never get a feeling that the chassis is too thin or flexible.
We took the Voyo V3 ultrabook for a spin during our summer vacation, just to see how it will cope with some daily tasks like catching up on emails, browsing the news, checking out the photos we have taken, and watching IPTV or movies in the evening. It worked like a charm and we couldn’t find much to complain about, so let’s start with these minor issues.
The sound from the speakers is thin, almost without bass, and it is a pity as the device is otherwise great for media consumption, thanks to the excellent 1080p panel and generous battery. If you intend to use it for work, it’s not much of an issue, but if you like to enjoy some video on your notebook, the speakers simply don’t cut it.
The system is very responsive in everyday use, and the display looks good even at 50% brightness. We decided to try out the SD card reader, which is the only practical way of expanding on-board storage, and we were in for a pleasant surprise.
The high speed SD card from our SLR delivered read and write speeds of around 90MB/s and 50MB/s respectively, maxing out the card as per its spec. Also, both USB ports had enough power to drive a couple of 2.5-inch external USB hard disks we had laying around, and the USB 3.0 port is indeed, a full speed USB 3.0 port.
Heavy CPU or GPU bound tasks, or charging the battery, cause the bottom of the device to heat up to about 43 degrees Celsius, but this does not pose a problem.
Thanks to the very efficient Cherry Trail platform, we managed to get between 6 and 7 hours of battery running time with heavy WiFi usage and video playback. With a more conservative approach and less video, you should get a bit more. A single charge can easily yield a workday worth of work in office applications, or on the beach. And Intel’s Atom x5-Z8300 has enough punch for most every-day light computing tasks.
To be honest, we had trouble finding competitors with similar specs at nearly the same price..
The new Toshiba Satellite Click 10 comes to mind, using the same CPU with 2GB RAM and 64GB storage, but it has a smaller 10.1-inch display. Also, it’s not a real notebook, it’s a convertible, and at $399 via the Microsoft Store, it’s a bit more expensive. Both the Toshiba and Voyo lack USB 3.0 ports. If you like the Lenovo look, you could check out the proper Yoga 300, with a Celeron N2940 CPU, 2GB RAM and 64GB storage, but with only a 11.6-inch 720p display.
In our opinion, Voyo is on the right track with this device, offering a decent spec in a compact and attractive package. Unfortunately, the package is sort of the problem, since the device is a Lenovo clone. We think it would have been even more attractive in a different colour, to hide the Lenovo DNA.
Other than the appearance, there is not much to complain about. Considering the price, you get some quality components, and we’d single out the 1080p IPS display and Cherry Trail processor as the best components in the package. Battery life is impressive as well. The device is also available with a 4G modem, and on the other side of the spectrum, you can get an even cheaper model with no data connectivity and an “old” Bay Trail processor in lieu of the x5-Z8300. Too bad there aren’t more colour options, just orange and silver/gray.
The Voyo V3 Ultrabook WiFi Orange version that we reviewed is currently available at Gearbest.com for US $247.99, which is not a bad price for a 13.3-inch Ultrabook that comes with both Windows 10, Intel Cherry Trail quad-core SoC and high-quality IPS FHD touchscreen. The 4G version comes with a US $65 higher price tag.
So what are the downsides, apart from the Lenovo-esque design? The speakers are underpowered and not good enough for content consumption, which could be a deal-breaker for some people. The 3.5mm DC plug can mistakenly be inserted into the 3.5mm audio port, the touchpad buttons are a tad too hard, and we also experienced some performance issues with the Intel display driver (nothing too serious though, this isn’t a gaming device anyway).
Voyo V3 Ultrabook Pros and Cons:
Pros:
• Good IPS display
• 4GB of RAM
• Battery life
• Value for money
Cons:
• Unoriginal Lenovo clone design
• Weak speakers