With the collaboration of the Gearbest.com store, today we present the analysis of the YEPO 737A ultrabook, one of the most interesting models on the market due to its quality / price ratio. A model that represents a leap in quality of this brand with respect to the previous model YEPO 737S, this time we have very well finished aluminum case, Apollo Lake processor and 6 GB of RAM that give it much more agility moving the Windows OS. As we will see a very interesting device that leaves the bar very high in this sector for the price it has.

ESPECIFICATIONS

PACKAGE CONTENT

The YEPO 737A ultrabook is presented in a natural color cardboard box with the company logo. Included with this notebook we have a 12V 2A power adapter with a round connection and a short cable. We also have a small manual in English with the basic steps to get it going although it is very generic.

CONNECTING THE DEVICE

Product Details

The YEPO 737A is manufactured externally in aluminum, has measures of 13.19 x 8.86 inches, in the thicker rear area only measures 0.71 inches while the total weight is only 2.75 lbs. A really portable laptop that also gives a very good feeling when touched thanks to the aluminum finish that gives it a premium design.

This ultrabook opens with a classic hinge mechanism, in the top cover we have the 13.3-inch IPS screen with FullHD resolution, the design is the conventional one of this type of models that try to imitate the Macbook Air.

As we see in your profile the YEPO 737A goes from less to more and in the thickest part it has the minimum measures to accommodate their few connectors. In one of the sides we have a led that tells us if it is connected to the electrical network, round power connector, USB 3.0 port and miniHDMI video output.

On the opposite side we have a audio jack, USB 3.0 port and a microSD card reader.

In the back we have the thickest area of the laptop, being a passive system we have no ventilation of any kind and therefore we have no acoustic emissions, we only have a sticker with the serial number.

In the lower part we have four rubber feet that prevent the laptop from slipping, we have a good number of screws that give us access to the interior area, here on each side we have the two speakers.

In this model we can mount a M.2 disk (2242) of 42mm in length we can access unfixing the little trapdoor, an interesting point to increase the internal storage or change the unit of the operating system as we will explain later.

If we open the cover of the YEPO 737A, it stands out the batteries that add up to 8000 mAh, in the upper left area we have the small base plate with a fanless cooling system with copper pieces that are quite efficient.

Screen

The IPS screen of the YEPO 737A has a diagonal of 13.3 inches with a FullHD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixel, a screen that looks very good in correct light conditions, perhaps it remains a little short of illumination when is in a bright ambient, but in general the results are positive for a product of this type.

It is necessary to emphasize the good angles that this screen has and the narrow lateral frames that we have. The screen has a protection against reflections that gives good results.

Keyboard

The keyboard of the YEPO 737A is quite good because it does not flex excessively, the response when typing is pleasant. The default keyboard comes in English, although we can change yo any language using stickers. The trackpad in this model behaves normally but does not convey an excellent feeling, we can make a basic use but it can be better.

There are missing Pag, Pag, Pag, start, end and insert keys, but we can redefine them with the Autohotkeys app. Create a new script by adding these lines and execute it, pressing Ctrl + Arrows of cursors we will have the first missing keys:

• Example of Autohotkeys code:
  ^Left::Send {Home}
  ^Right::Send {End}
  ^Up::Send {PgUp}
  ^Down::Send {PgDn}

Under the screen and above the keyboard we have three status LEDs, one for power on, one for the uppercase key and for the numeric keypad, in the central part we can see two microphones. We have shortcut keys to regulate the brightness.

Camera and speakers

The front camera of this ultrabook is only 0.3 Mpx and its quality is very basic, it only serves to make videoconferences because as a photo camera it has a really bad quality, it is less appreciated in video conference. The two speakers mounted on the bottom are correct, at high levels are heard quite well but if we put them to the maximum they distort.

STARTUP

Installed OS

In this ultrabook YEPO 737A as we see it has installed Windows 10 Home 64bit by default and is correctly activated, we can see that the processor data and the available RAM match the specifications.

• Boot time: 19 seconds

The Windows 10 Home system that comes bt default has all the drivers correctly installed and all their peripherals work without problems. We need to install various system parches to update to the last version.

User experience

The YEPO 737A notebook, thanks to the hardware components chosen, moves the Windows 10 Home system to 64bit with agility using the Intel Celeron N3450 Quad core processor. We notice how it is logical some drop in the performance in very heavy applications or when browsing many open websites at the same time since we only have 6 GB of DDR3 RAM at 1600 MHz, the eMMC 64GB disk complies with speed but we add an M.2 disk we will have a substantial improvement when loading apps. For normal desktop use, surfing the internet, watching videos and using office applications, this hardware is more than enough and transmits fluency.

BIOS

We can boot the BIOS from the system repeatedly the DEL key while we reboot the ultrabook, the system BIOS is the classic AMI with many options to do OC, we recommend not to touch it if we do not control them. From the Boot menu we can change the boot unit permanently or from Save & Exit we can boot directly from another USB drive.

Soporte de marca y drivers

The YEPO brand has an official website but we do not have any direct support or driver download area.

Linux

We tried to boot the latest version of Ubuntu but it seems that it is not possible, to select the USB boot drive remains with the screen in black, it seems that it lacks some module for this hardware.

Remoto Control

To remotely control the YEPO 737A we can install Intel Remote Keyboard Host on the the mini PC, and then we can use our mobile or tablet to control it installing the Android or iOS app. We can use tactile gestures, virtual mouse or remote keyboard, we just have to have both devices on the same Wi-Fi network.

HARDWARE REVIEW

Processor

The YEPO 737A ultrabook mounts the extended Intel Celeron N3450 Quad Core SoC with a maximum speed of 2.2 GHz that integrates an Intel HD Graphics 500 GPU with 12EU up to 650MHz. The normal working speed of the GPU is 200 Mhz although it can arrive punctually up to 800 MHz when more power is required, a processor that controls its speed so that the passive system can withstand performance problems as we will see later.

RAM

We perform several tests with the RAM of the YEPO 737A system and we have quite good results within the products based on a similar hardware, the speeds agree with a Dual Channel system with which the performance in this aspect is positive.

As we can see the values of the ultrabook YEPO 737A are correct and we have a performance in line with those of this range of processors.

Storage and ports

In the primary partition of the 64 GB of installed eMMC 5.1 memory we have 35 GB free by default that is enough to not have problems with Windows itself to update and install classic office applications.

In this ultrabook we have an eMMC 5.1 memory soldered on motherboard with a 64 GB capacity with SanDisk DF4064 reference. As we can see, the working speeds are quite good compared to other similar devices, correct values but of course can not be bought with conventional SSDs.

• The speed of the SD card reader is limited to those of a USB 2.0 port, with 24 MB/s

As we see in the comparison of the internal eMMC disk against a Chinese M.2 disk we see that this unit defends itself quite well, if we want we can add an SSD disk to improve the speed and increase the available space.

Installed eMMC	M.2 Disk

Temperature and noise

Inside the YEPO 737A, as we have seen, we have a plate of copper that dissipates heat quite efficiently. Within a normal use at rest we stay at about 37 º C, if we are using the system to navigate and work in office we go up to about 43 º C if we give a somewhat more intensive use we get close to 56 º C. Fully positive values inside a computer with passive cooling with this SoC Apollo Lake.

In the extreme performance test with the CPU and the GPU at 100% and the system rises temperatures while it begins to limit the maximum speed of the processor, the system goes up to 70°C as a stop but the processor remains at a speed maximum of 1.67 GHz which is normal in the use of this type of Intel Atom. With 3D games we can get some quite high temperatures for its closed box design.

The upper and lower parts of the YEPO 737A get quite hot but it is normal in a system with passive cooling, it is not worrisome in normal use. As we can see in the picture superficially we reached up to about 39ºC.

Batttery

The ultrabook mounts inside a battery with capacity of 8000 mAh, a model that gives us a correct autonomy, to recharge we have a round external connector that will take a couple of hours to complete.

In our screen tests with medium brightness in continuous use reproducing video has given us a duration of 8 hours, if we make intensive use of playing or using the processor a lot we will stay in about 4 hours and with a mixed use with adjusted brightness we can reach about 6 hours without problems.

Wifi and Bluetooth

In the YEPO 737A we have an adapter Intel Dual Band AC 3165 wifi that also integrates Bluetooth 4.2. In terms of Wi-Fi performance we can see that it is capable of reaching 36 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band, we get 101 Mbps using the 5 GHz band. We have tested the Bluetooth connection and we have not had problems when connecting with our peripherals and with a bluetooth headset.

We also ran tests on the network adapters for streaming using the iPerf measurement tool with which we have the maximum connection speed in each type of network. With this figure we have how far we can reach using the available connections, the final performance will depend on our internet provider, the contracted speed, the distance of our Wi-Fi network and other factors. As we can see from the results we have good acceptable figures to play streaming content.

PERFORMANCE TEST

The performance of the YEPO 737A is correct in line with what is normally offered by the Intel Celeron N3450 Quad Core SoC, a processor with fine performance at the desktop user level. In this model the performance at a general level is quite good since the CPU and the GPU are not thermally limited and can get a good performance without throttling. In general, the performance is enought for multimedia playback, surfing the internet or playing multimedia content, but as you can understand will be limited in the use of heavy applications but the 6 GB of RAM gives us a plus compared to models with 4 GB.

• Most of the compared models that appear in the tables have been reviewed personally, you can read the reviews in this link.

Benchamarks

PCMark

With this test we can see the performance of the device in an office environment and common desktop use.

3DMark

Graphic performance test where we can see the gross performance capabilities in this environment and compare the performance of GPU’s historically.

Cinebench

A brute force tests on both CPU and GPU, this benchmark always help us to see a very clear reference of power.

Geekbench

This benchmark in SoC offers a fairly reliable numbers of CPU’s working in a single core or multiple cores ate the same time, it also has a section of GPU computing that gives us an overall result of the processing capacity.

Games

In the games section the YEPO 737A includes an Intel HD Graphics 500 GPU with 12EU (Execution Units). The performance is correct within this type of hardware, as we know with this SoC we will continue to be limited in most cases to 2D games and with basic 3D effects. As you can see in the review we have added demanding games that can give us an idea of how this hardware moves in current titles.

Test environment

• GTA V, Low settings, 720p resolution
• Overwatch, Low settings, 720p resolution
• DOTA 2, Low settings, 1080p resolution
• Fortnite, Low settings, 720p resolution
• World of Tanks, Medium settings, 1080p resolution

As always we perform our special test with DOTA 2 with a screen resolution of 1920 × 1080, in the lowest performance scenario the system runs at only 28 fps on average, a somewhat low number to have a completely fluid experience.

We can download simple games from the Microsoft apps store, many of these games are the typical ones we find in mobiles and in this model they run in a completely fluid way, they are also adapted to the keyboard and the mouse, so we can control them without problems.

TEST FORMATOS DE VIDEO

At the video playback level, the YEPO 737A ultrabook has a SoC that has hardware support for decoding the h.265 codec, this model also has support for video output in 4K resolution at 30hz. As a media player works correctly with any 1080p or 4K video, where we are limited is with some high-bitrate files compressed in h.265 with 10bit of color, but it has only given us problems in specific files.

Test results

• The MKV, Blu-ray ISO and BDRemux formats are only containers, inside we can have different codecs, resolutions, audio channels, chapters or subtitles. To play the Blu-ray format menus we need KODI or a compatible program.

Audio format test

Testing the YEPO 737A using a Yamaha RXV-577 AV receiver we checked that this mini PC supports 5.1 DD and DTS pass through sound. We recommend as always update to the latest all drivers with Windows Update before connecting the device to our AV receiver. Like the other Apollo Lake products we need to use directshow filters like the LAV to have multi-channel audio like for example with MPC-HC, the normal KODI version will not work we need to use KODI DSPlayer.

Test results

• PCM – Stereo downmix from DD or DTS
• Core – Only the core of the format Dolby / DTS is played
• * Our AV receiver does not support these native formats but we check that it does downmix fine

STREAMING

Youtube

We play streaming for test some content on the YEPO 737A in the usual channels like YouTube or other sources and we verified that we have no problems when playing videos. In YouTube we can play content with the VP9 codec quite correctly up to 4K with a 50% CPU usage, although if we look for better performance it is best to use another codec.

Streaming services with subscription

We check the most common streaming services playback various contents and we verified that all work properly, the power of this device is more than enough to see any kind of content with them. In Netflix we get to FullHD quality without complications, in the rest of services we get the maximum resolution possible.

CONCLUSIONS

Opinion

After perform our review of the YEPO 737A we can say without fear of making mistakes that we are facing one of the best ultrabook economic models in the market, a well-made product that thanks to its aluminum body has a very remarkable premium appearance. In addition to this improvement of exterior materials we have a good dissipation system, 6 GB of RAM, wifi aC with BT 4.2 in this version and sufficient performance for a proper desktop and multimedia use.

Another aspect to consider in this YEPO 737A is the ability to improve it by increasing its internal storage through the M.2 connector they have in the back, plus we will have an improvement in the speed of access to the considerable disk, you have to have this in consideration to improve the system speed. The screen and the rigidity of the keyboard also convey good feelings. The somewhat looser points are the bad front camera, the battery life which is somewhat scarce in high performance scenarios and the somewhat basic speakers. In general, a product with a very low price and high performance.

WHERE TO BUY