Sometimes playing it safe really is the best move to make.
The 13.3-inch LenovoYoga 720 was an excellent two-in-one for the money, and its follow up, the Yoga 730 (Intel Core i-series processors is the biggest change, and it results in a noticeable performance boost.
There are a handful of other changes, like it now has two Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports instead of only one, and Lenovo added far-field microphones letting you call out to Microsoft’sCortana digital assistant and eventually Amazon Alexa services from up to 13 feet (4 meters) away.
The 730’s design changes slight, too, but you probably wouldn’t notice unless it was next to the 720. it’s a little thinner and lighter, and the edges are rounded more, especially at the back. All the changes make it more comfortable to use as a tablet, whether that’s with your fingers or the optional $60 Active Pen 2 with 4,096 levels of pen sensitivity.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Despite the improvement, the pricing stays about the same as the Yoga 720: The 730 starts at $880, but my review system is priced at $950, which gets you a storage increase from a 128GB PCIe SSD to a 256GB drive. The Yoga 730 isn’t yet available in the UK or Australia, but the US price converts to about £700 and AU$1,265. For office work, for school work, this is just a solid pick and a good value to boot if you want a thin and light laptop.
Lenovo Yoga 730-13IKB
Price as reviewed
$949.99
Display size/resolution
13.3-inch 1,920×1,080 touch display
CPU
1.6GHz Intel Core i5-8250U
Memory
8GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,400MHz
Graphics
128MB dedicated Intel UHD Grphics 620
Storage
256GB SSD
Networking
802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.1
Operating system
Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
More and less
Basically, everything that made the 13.3-inch Yoga 720 an excellent two-in-one is still present in the 730, albeit in a slimmer, lighter package at 2.7 pounds (1.2kg) and 0.55-inch (14.1mm) thick. The iron gray metal chassis gives it a premium look and feel as do the slim bezels around the full-HD-resolution touchscreen. The screen’s hefty 360-degree hinges keep the Yoga Benefits: Emotional Benefits of Yoga in just about any position you could want it in. They’re stiff enough that it will require two hands to open it, but not so much that you’ll have problems adjusting it.
The display has good color performance, but not good enough to recommend for critical photo and video editing (though this isn’t designed for that in the first place). It gets adequately bright for outdoor use, though with the glossy coating you might still struggle. One nice extra, though: The display also supports Lenovo’s optional $60 Active Pen 2 if writing or drawing on the screen is a necessity for you.
The Internal Revenue Service divided eligible people into priority groups and sent out the first stimulus payment in waves, which meant that some people got paid months before others. Keep reading for a primer on which priority groups the IRS is expected to use in second stimulus check and some potential timelines for when money could be sent out. We recently updated this story.
When will a new stimulus check arrive? Some post-election guesses
With talks shifting to after the election, we’ve mapped out some potential dates a bill could pass, and what it means for your check, depending how you’ll get your money. (More on that in the next section.)
These dates, which are speculative, show you might possibly see a check if a bill becomes law in the period after the Nov. 3 election and before or after Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, including Dec. 11, the deadline for Congress to pass the next federal budget.
One important note is the speed at which the first checks would arrive. In August, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said it would take about a week to process the first payments. “I can get out 50 million payments really quickly. A lot of it into people’s direct accounts,” he said. But that doesn’t necessarily mean your stimulus money will arrive a week after a bill goes live.
Possible dates a second stimulus check could go out
Scenario 1
Scenario 2
Scenario 3
Scenario 4
House passes final bill
Nov. 30
Dec. 11
Feb. 1
Mar. 1
Senate passes final bill
Dec. 1
Dec. 12
Feb. 2
Mar. 2
President signs
Dec. 2
Dec. 13
Feb. 3
Mar. 3
First direct deposits issued
Week of Dec. 21
Week of Dec. 28
Week of Feb. 8
Week of Mar. 8
First paper checks sent
Week of Jan. 4
Week of Jan. 11
Week of Feb. 15
Week of Mar. 15
First EIP cards sent
Week of Feb. 1
Week of Feb. 8
Week of Mar. 15
Week of Apr. 12
What do the IRS’ priority groups mean?
The IRS has so far sent money to at least 160 million people three ways, starting with people the federal government has direct deposit information for. Some people with more complicated personal situations are still waiting for their checks or even for catch-up payments. This creates a de facto priority order that could result in some Americans receiving their checks days or even weeks before others.
Direct deposit recipients: People who already have their direct deposit information on file with the IRS or who provide that info when and if registration opens again should be first in line to receive a stimulus check. An electronic transfer of funds is faster and more efficient, which is why this group largely got their first payment faster.
Social Security beneficiaries: With the first stimulus payment, many Social Security beneficiaries who had direct deposit information on file with the federal government received checks in the first week, though not always the first day.
People who get paper checks:The IRS began to mail checks about a week later to those without direct deposit data on file.
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EIP card recipients:Economic Impact Payment debit cards are prepaid Visa cards the IRS sent to about 4 million people starting in mid-May. If the IRS follows the same payment priority order, this group could begin to see their checks weeks after the first direct deposit transfers go out.
People with more complex situations: This category includes people who received a check after June, are still waiting to receive their stimulus payment or did not know they need to complete an extra step. Direct payments will continue through the end of 2020 for some individuals who weren’t part of the previous groups. Here’s what could be holding up the stimulus check delivery for some and how to contact the IRS to report a missing, lost or stolen check.
There are still people who haven’t received a check
While over 150 million Americans have received their stimulus checks now, seven months after the first payments went out, the IRS is still trying to track down millions of people who may be owed money, including for dependents.
There’s hope that the IRS could speed up delivery of a second check, if it’s authorized.
Angela Lang/CNET
If you’re a US citizen abroad or live in a US territory and didn’t receive a check as expected, you may also need to investigate. And a new ruling in California may bring hope for people who are incarcerated and didn’t receive the first stimulus check, or who received it and were compelled to return the money.
Congress and the White House have officially moved back the goalposts on the next coronavirus relief bill.
Angela Lang/CNET
A new conflict is brewing over America’s next stimulus package: when it should pass. “We will have a tremendous stimulus package immediately after the election,” President Donald Trump said Friday to reporters, indicating that negotiators will resolve their differences on the stalled stimulus deal and vote on a bill well before the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration. Earlier in the week, Trump seemingly based his commitment on the condition that he’ll win and that the House of Representatives and Senate have Republican majorities.
A mirror opposite, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that former Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden will win, and passing a sweeping bill before the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20 will provide a “clean slate.”
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“First and foremost, the American people need help. They need real help,” Pelosi said.
Throwing cold water on the optimism that a bill will pass sooner rather than later, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Friday that more aid should pass in January, which is two months away.
“We probably need to do another package, certainly more modest than the $3 trillion dollar [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi package. I think that’ll be something we’ll need to do right at the beginning of the year,” McConnell said on a radio show with conservative host Hugh Hewitt. “We could target it particularly at small businesses that are struggling, and hospitals that are now dealing with the second wave of the Coronavirus, and of course the challenges Yoga For Hair Growth | Yoga Asanas For Hair Gain education, both K-12 and college.”
McConnell has long opposed the $1.9 trillion stimulus package that’s stopped and started multiple times due to unresolved divisions between Pelosi, the Democratic negotiator and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who represents the White House administration. Although he has previously committed to bringing a deal to the Senate for a vote, Friday’s statement hints that he could delay a vote among his Senate members until at least after the new term is sworn in Jan. 3. If McConnell remains Senate Majority Leader, he’ll be able to set that agenda.
McConnell has also challenged the size and contents of the current proposal, which Trump has lavishly supported, at least in the abstract. Exactly what form the eventual stimulus funding takes — a brawny package that includes a second stimulus check, or a standalone bill with extended unemployment aid, for example — remains an open question and fertile ground for a future clash.
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Next stimulus checks: What to expect
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Depending on who wins, the current government may be more motivated to pass a bill before January — or not. It’s unclear what might happen if the results of the election were to shift the political majorities of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
“The motivation level on both sides will depend on how the election comes out, but I think either way we’ll do something,” Senate Republican Whip John Thune told The Hill. “The question is how much.”
An earlier passage would mean that Secretary Treasury Steven Mnuchin, who represents the Republican White House administration in stimulus talks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi representing the Democrats, could send the first stimulus checks within a week of a bill being signed into law, he said in August.
The period between Nov. 4 and Jan. 19 is a notorious dead zone when it comes to passing new legislation, with the exception of emergency measures like avoiding a US government shutdown on Dec. 11.
“We’ll come back in November. The question might be, will there be something then?” Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, said on Monday, Bloomberg reported. The Senate is now in recess until after the election. A bill is said to go through this committee before reaching a vote.
What happens now, and how could it affect Americans and the economy? Here’s what we know today. We update this story with new information when it’s available.
Democrats and Republicans have disagreed on how much relief aid should be included in the stimulus package.
Sarah Tew/CNET
These 4 things could happen after the Nov. 3 election
Here are some possible scenarios that could play out over the coming weeks.
A White House offer is finalized and fails in the Senate: In this situation, the House could vote on a deal after the election, but the current Senate, which is Republican-led, could vote it down, so the bill would not become law. In this case, Congress might try again after the next members of the House of Representatives and Senate convene Jan. 3, 2021.
Some funding could be included in a bill that also funds the government past Dec 11: It’s possible that one piece of funding, for example a stimulus check, unemployment aid or an extension of the eviction stay, could make it into a bill to keep the government funded past Dec. 11 and avoid a shutdown.
Talks stop until after the election results are in: If talks grind to a halt after the election, it’s likely they’ll restart in some capacity after the inauguration in January. It’s been speculated that if Trump loses the election and if the Senate loses its majority, there will be little incentive for Congress to pass a sweeping package until 2021 during the transition.
However, it provides the framework Pelosi is working from, and could figure into future negotiations, depending on election results that could potentially shift the balance one way or another.
The vote was thought to provide cover for House Democrats as they campaign without a new relief bill, much as the Senate did earlier in September for Republican members with its $650 billion skinny bill.
Although the Senate’s targeted bills, which did not advance, did not include stimulus checks, Republicans (including those in the Senate) have supported them.
Here are more details on the biggest points of contention between the White House Republicans and the Democrats.
