Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga review: A sub-$1,000 biz laptop with a stylus | Laptop Mag
Our Verdict
The Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga is a sub-$1,000 business convertible equipped with a snazzy stylus.
For
- Robust build quality
- Smart Pen included
- Fingerprint reader in power button
- Service Hotkey via F9
- Reasonably priced
Against
- Serenity speakers
- Fingerprint-alluring chassis
Laptop Mag Verdict
The Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga is a sub-$1,000 concern convertible equipped with a snazzy stylus.
Pros
- +
Robust build quality
- +
Smart Pen included
- +
Fingerprint reader in power button
- +
Service Hotkey via F9
- +
Reasonably priced
Cons
- -
Tranquillity speakers
- -
Fingerprint-attracting chassis
The Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga dares to be unlike — it wants to stand out from all the other sub-$1,000 business concern convertibles on the market. Unlike all the other notebooks I've reviewed, Lenovo said, "The fingerprint reader doesn't have to live on the deck! Information technology can be moved to the side and integrated into the power button."
I was skeptical at first, but subsequently reaching out for the laptop's border for biometric authentication, it felt more natural and comfortable. I'm too a sucker for a garaged stylus. The all-aluminum ThinkBook 14s Yoga includes a Smart Pen that has its ain silo for rapid charging while it's not in employ.
The ThinkBook 14s Yoga did well on our tests, just information technology didn't blow usa away. Here's the best way I can describe it: the Yoga consistently won silver medals, but it couldn't snatch that highly coveted gold trophy. However it'southward reasonably priced so those results are understable.
Although you won't observe me standing on a soapbox raving about the ThinkBook 14s Yoga's awesomeness (information technology doesn't have enough "oomph" for that), I'll gladly recommend this Lenovo 2-in-1 to business users who'd rather cutting off their pinky than spend a penny more than $1,000.
Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga price and configuration options
The ThinkBook 14s Yoga currently starts at $889 on Amazon and comes with a 14-inch, 1080p display, an Intel Core i5-1135G7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and Intel Iris Xe graphics.
Our review unit of measurement, priced at $951, upgrades your processor to an Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU. If yous need more RAM and storage, take hold of the $1,109 configuration, which sports 24GB of memory and a 1TB SSD. The ThinkBook 14s Yoga is available in Abyss Blue and Mineral Grey.
If the ThinkBook 14s Yoga doesn't fit into your budget, consider checking out our all-time laptops under $500 or best laptops under $300 pages.
Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga design
The ThinkBook 14s Yoga is the laid-back cool cucumber at business mixers. It's urbane enough to emanate stylish minimalism vibes, but it as well has a toned-down, groomed look that screams "I'grand serious about making meaningful connections!" This cool-to-the-touch aluminum chassis, coated with an Completeness Blue terminate, won't turn whatsoever heads, but it will earn your colleagues' respect with its professional appearance.
A gaudy, white ThinkBook logo is stamped on the lesser right of the hat. You lot'll also find a Lenovo badge on the chapeau's top-left corner. One aspect I don't like most the ThinkBook 14s Yoga is its fingerprint-alluring chassis.
The Yoga'southward robust build quality is impressive. There's little to no flex on the deck, display and chassis as a whole. The 360-degree hinges allow this 2-in-1 laptop to transform into several different positions, including tent fashion and tablet mode. The side bezels on the 14-inch bear on display are ultra-slim, but the mentum is prominent. The top bezel is slim-ish and houses a 720p Hard disk camera.
Moving on to the Abyss Blue deck, you'll notice white symbols and letters superimposed on gray keys. Below the island-style keyboard, you'll find a touchpad that is bordered with a reflective silvery trim.
The ThinkBook 14s Yoga isn't heavy, simply there are laptops on the market that are more than lightweight. The Yoga weighs 3.iii pounds and is 0.7 inches thick. Its rivals — the Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 (2.seven pounds, 0.6 inches thick), the HP Spectre x360 14 (iii pounds, 0.7 inches thick) and the Acer Swift 3X (three pounds, 0.7 inches thick) — are all lighter.
Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga ports
The ThinkBook 14s Yoga has a decent stock of ports that will satisfy business organization users.
On the left side, you lot notice a USB Type-C iii.2 Gen 2 port, a Thunderbolt four port, a USB Type-A 3.two Gen 1 port, a headset jack and an HDMI ane.4b port. It'south worth noting that HDMI ane.4b offers less bandwidth than HDMI two.0, but is still compatible with whatever standard HDMI cable. The regressive HDMI port is bizarre, but it shouldn't be a dealbreaker.
The correct side features another USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, a Kensington lock slot, a microSD carte slot and a stylus garage for the included Smart Pen.
Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga display
The ThinkBook 14s Yoga has a 14-inch, 1080p Corning Gorilla Glass display with a screen-to-body ratio of 86%.
I watched an epic, savage fight between two legendary beasts in the Godzilla vs. Kong trailer. I could spot the gnarly scars on King Kong'due south chest and deep wrinkles on his face up. A little girl walking through a lush, verdant jungle with a blood-scarlet scarf showed off the display'due south color accurateness. I noticed tiny beads of sweat on a naval captain's brow equally Godzilla made an unexpected, fiery advent.
According to our colorimeter, the ThinkBook 14s Yoga reproduces 76% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is greater than the average mainstream laptop (65%) and the Spectre x360 14 (75%), but the Lenovo 2-in-1 couldn't compete with the ZenBook Flip S (113%) and the Swift 3X (79%).
The Yoga's brightness level is dim at 313 nits of effulgence, only I've seen worse. The average mainstream laptop emanates 297 nits while the Swift 3X only emits 294 nits. The ZenBook Flip Southward and the Spectre x360 14, on the other hand, are brighter than the Yoga with 375 nits and 365 nits, respectively.
The Yoga shares the same colour-accuracy score every bit the Spectre x360 xiv — its Delta-E is 0.ii (lower is better), which is pretty damn skillful. The ZenBook Flip S (0.3) and Swift 3X (0.35) are less colour authentic.
Let's not forget that the ThinkBook 14s Yoga has a touch display, which unshackles you lot from the deck and invites yous to explore the interactive screen. I had no bug navigating the web via tablet mode — I used the pinch-to-zoom gesture with ease and I whizzed dorsum to previous pages with shine swiping motions. When I was ready to swoop dorsum into using the keyboard and touchpad, the sturdy 360-degree hinges allowed me to transfigure the Yoga back into clamshell mode swiftly and effortlessly.
Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga keyboard and touchpad
I typically adore Lenovo's keyboards, but the island-style keyboard on the ThinkBook 14s Yoga is just OK. It won't win whatever awards, but it does the job. Compared to other cracking keyboards (I love the keyboard on the Lenovo Legion 7), the shallow keys don't jump dorsum equally quickly every bit I'd like after actuation. Still, l had a satisfactory typing experience. On the 10fastfingers.com typing test, I reached 85 words per minute, which is slightly lower than my 87-wpm average.
On the plus side, I dear how repose the Yoga'due south island-style keyboard is — you lot could be typing an angry alphabetic character to an ex with rage and aggression, but no ane would know because the keys are damn-most silent. Below the infinite bar is a iv.one ten two.viii-inch touchpad that feels similar silk to the touch, yet has sufficient resistance for speedy mouse movements. Thanks to its Windows x Precision drivers, gestures, such as three-finger tabbing and ii-finger scrolling, were super responsive.
Dissimilar most laptops, the Yoga's fingerprint scanner isn't located on the deck — it is integrated into the power button, which is nestled on the right side of the laptop. Setting up the fingerprint sensor was a breeze and information technology works like a charm with Windows Hi.
Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga Smart Pen
The ThinkBook 14s Yoga includes a Smart Pen that is housed on the right side of the chassis. The stylus garage charges the pen while yous're non using it. It charges upwardly to 85% in 15 seconds and 100% in five minutes. The Smart Pen has iv,096 levels of pressure sensitivity.
Using the Smart Pen, I launched i of my favorite multiplayer browser games, Skribbl.io, which lets you play online Pictionary with strangers all around the earth. As I was prompted to draw a log, the Grinch and a snowman, the Smart Pen'south smooth input immune me to quickly sketch the drawings with accuracy. I racked upwards many points as the online room immediately caught on to what I was drawing. The Smart Pen gave me an upper hand over my opponents as it was articulate some players used a touchpad to draw their Pictionary words, leaving the room dislocated on what the heck they were sketching.
I also had fun drawing funky portraits and jotting downwardly notes on the Whiteboard app. Don't expect the ThinkBook 14s Yoga's Smart Pen to be as ergonomic equally the Apple Pencil or the Surface Pen, but information technology does the chore for quick sketching and note-taking sessions.
Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga sound
The ThinkBook 14s Yoga features dual Harman-branded speakers located on the laptop's underside. I hope you're not a music producer or a podcast editor considering the Yoga's speakers aren't meant for anything more than merely a solo jamming session in a quiet room. I turned the volume up to the max and played "Upwardly" by Cardi B, but instead of filling my pocket-size testing room, the tricky tune played at a low decibel level. It was very anticlimactic.
If you accept plans of placing the Yoga on a table and watching Netflix with loved ones, be prepared to have tomatoes thrown at yous for the hushed sound. However, if having thunderously loud speakers isn't your thing, the Yoga'south low-volume speakers won't irk you — peculiarly if you'll be working in a repose office.
The Yoga has a Dolby Audio app to tune the speakers to your liking. At that place are four audio presets: Movie, Music, Game and Phonation. Strangely enough, I preferred the Motion picture contour because information technology placed more accent on mids and lows that seemed more flat with the Music preset. When I tried to listen to my favorite podcast "Brilliant Idiots," I cringed when I used the Vocalism preset that the Dolby Audio app claims to exist optimized for podcasts. Information technology made the hosts sound like they're talking in a hole. I preferred the Game preset, which accentuated and highlighted the hosts' voices.
Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga operation
I swarmed the ThinkBook 14s Yoga, powered past an Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU and 16GB of RAM, with a deluge of 36 Google Chrome tabs. I besides threw in a duo of YouTube pages playing 1080p videos for skillful measure. The Lenovo 2-in-1 didn't fifty-fifty bat an eye, refusing to lag and irksome downward despite my avalanche of RAM-eating processes.
The ThinkBook 14s Yoga shares the same CPU as all iii of its competitors. Although the Lenovo convertible output a score that was close to well-nigh of its rivals, it wasn't plenty to surpass them on the Geekbench v overall performance test. The ThinkBook 14s Yoga achieved 4,865, which bested the average mainstream laptop (four,728). Still, the ThinkBook 14s Yoga couldn't beat its opponents: the ZenBook Flip S (4,952), the Spectre x360 xiv (iv,904) and the Swift 3X (v,846).
On the HandBrake exam, theThinkBook 14s Yoga transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in sixteen minutes and 28 seconds, which is zippier than the boilerplate mainstream laptop (19:thirteen), the ZenBook Flip S (22:05) and the Spectre x360 14 (17:02). Even so, the Swift 3X kicked some serious barrel with a stellar time of 11 minutes and 54 seconds.
The ThinkBook 14s Yoga'due south 512GB SSD duplicated 25GB of multimedia files in only xxx seconds for a transfer rate of 886.four megabytes per second. This rate is faster than the category average (446.8MBps), Spectre x360 14 (764MBps, 1TB SSD) and the Swift 3X (771.5MBps, 1TB SSD). However, the Asus ZenBook Flip S (1TB SSD) put all of its rivals to shame with an ultra-fast rate of 979.4MBps.
Save for the Swift 3X (powered by Intel'south Iris Xe Max graphics), the ThinkBook 14s Yoga, Asus ZenBook Flip S and Spectre x360 14 accept the same GPU: Intel Iris Xe. The Lenovo convertible isn't platonic for graphics-intensive tasks like gaming, but if you wanted to play Sid Meier's Civilization Six: Gathering Storm, for instance, the ThinkBook 14s Yoga would produce 17 frames per 2nd. This is only a frame higher than the average mainstream laptop and the ZenBook Flip S (16 fps). Unsurprisingly, the Swift 3X — thanks to the added boost from the Iris Xe Max GPU — offered the best frame rates (26 fps) followed by the Spectre x360 14 (20 fps).
Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga battery life
On the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness, the ThinkBook 14s Yoga lasted a respectable 9 hours and 55 minutes. This is 48 minutes longer than the boilerplate mainstream laptop (9:07). The ThinkBook 14s Yoga as well shell the Asus ZenBook Flip S (8:07) and the Acer Swift 3X (7:53). The Spectre x360 14 had the best endurance of them all with a battery runtime of 12 hours and 11 minutes.
Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga webcam
The 1280 ten 720-resolution HD webcam, located on the peak bezel, isn't half bad. Some positives include a privacy shutter that blocks your webcam feed while it'southward not in utilize, decent colour reproduction and satisfactory details. On the downside, the picture quality has some visual noise and it overexposes light sources.
I loved that the camera picked up on my night-blue hoodie and the intricate details of a bronze frame that bordered a painting on my bedroom wall. The ThinkBook 14s Yoga'due south photographic camera will do just fine for personal Zoom calls with loved ones, but if you prefer a professional, sharp, loftier-quality look for hosting virtual conferences or vlogging, I'd recommend purchasing an external webcam.
Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga estrus
The ThinkBook 14s Yoga remained equally cool every bit the other side of the pillow. The touchpad reached 75 degrees Fahrenheit, which is way below our 95-degree comfort threshold. The keyboard and bottom of the laptop also remained temperate, reaching just 82 and 87 degrees, respectively. The ThinkBook 14s Yoga's hottest location — an expanse near the vents on the underside — peaked at 91 degrees.
Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga software and warranty
If you lot tin't stand bloatware, you'll appreciate that Lenovo didn't load up the ThinkBook 14s Yoga with unnecessary, useless pre-installed software. Other than Microsoft Solitaire Collection, there'southward no Farm Heroes Saga, Processed Vanquish Soda Saga and other lightheaded games.
With the ThinkBook 14s Yoga being equipped with a stylus, apps like Snip and Sketch, Lenovo Pen Settings and Smart Notation volition be useful to you. The latter lets you lot write notes on the brandish even when the screen is locked.
You'll besides find a Service Hotkey, decorated with a cute customer-service agent logo, that tin exist accessed via the F9 button. It launches a web page that features useful information virtually your device, including its warranty status, series number and more than. On top of that, the Service Hotkey lets yous scan for updates, run system diagnostics, contact Lenovo support, purchase parts and other helpful resources.
The ThinkBook 14s Yoga is equipped with Windows 10 Pro and it comes with a slew of typical Microsoft properties, such equally Your Phone, Xbox Game Bar, People, OneNote and the Mixed Reality Portal.
The ThinkBook 14s Yoga ships with a one-year limited warranty. Run into how Lenovo did on our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands ranking.
Lesser line
The ThinkBook 14s Yoga is a two-in-1 that's ideal for business organization users who hate scrambling for pens that never seem to be inside achieve. They tin can simply whip out the included Smart Pen and jot down notes without missing a trounce.
The Lenovo 2-in-i had some difficulties nabbing get-go place on our benchmarks, but at the same time, its scores were decent. The convertible frequently landed in second place. Information technology outperformed ii-out-of-3 competitors on the battery examination (it lasted almost ten hours), the video-transcoding benchmark (it completed the job in 16 minutes) and the file-copy test (25GB of data copied in merely thirty seconds).
If you lot want a height performer, the Acer Swift 3x is a decent pick, but it'south $250 more, its battery life is shorter, and information technology doesn't come up with a stylus.
Overall, if you don't want to spend a penny more than $i,000 — and you want an impressive 14-inch business-oriented convertible with an included Smart Pen — you can't go incorrect with the ThinkBook 14s Yoga.
Source: https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/lenovo-thinkbook-14s-yoga
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