Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga (2nd Gen) Tested: the Ultrabook to Buy if Your Boss Is Paying for It

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga and Yoga 920 side by side

Sometimes a laptop manufacturer gets it just right. I’ve been living with a Lenovo X1 Yoga (2nd Gen) 14-inch review unit for the last few weeks as my primary computer, and my only problem is that I need to send it back. For anyone looking for a lightweight Windows notebook that still packs a lot of power and features, I haven’t seen anything better on the market.

By the Numbers

First, the second-generation X1 Yoga (Buy at Lenovo; $2,820 as tested) can be configured with a beefy processor by Ultrabook standards, up to a 7th generation Intel Core i7-7600U (dual-core) running at 3.9GHz. That’s plenty for anything most road warriors need to do. The unit I tested also featured Intel’s HD Graphics 620 GPU. I was pleasantly surprised by how well the combination of CPU and GPU handled the photo and video editing tasks I threw at it. Short of upsizing at a larger and heavier machine to get a quad-core CPU or discrete GPU, this is about as much power as you can pack into a thin machine weighing about 3 pounds that also has great battery life.

One pleasant surprise for an Ultrabook these days is that the machine has plenty of ports, including two Thunderbolt 3, three USB 3.0, HDMI, and a Mini-RJ45. You can drive two external 4K displays using the Thunderbolt ports. Unfortunately for photographers, there isn’t a full SD card slot. There’s a microSD slot, but it’s under a cover and not great for swapping cards. There’s also a slot for a micro SIM. You can pack in up to 16GB of RAM and a 1TB PCIe SSD in as well. Battery life is listed at 15 hours. Equally important for those airport layovers or lunchtime recharging, the unit can charge an impressive 80-percent full in in a hour.

An Amazing OLED Display

You can get the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga either in traditional black or a more contemporary silver colorPart of what makes this machine special, and potentially expensive, is the optional 2560×1440 pixel OLED touch-sensitive display. It’s really gorgeous. If you get one, you will probably find yourself wanting to upgrade all your other monitors.

Going by sticker price, the OLED display along with the top of the line options bumps the X1 Yoga to nearly $3,000. But Lenovo always seem to have some steep discounts running on its website, so you may be able to get one for less. You’ll still be paying as much as you would for a high-end 15-inch machine with a more powerful processor, so the key tradeoff is whether the lighter model with longer battery life is more important to you than the next bump up in power.

As far as the hardware, the only place where I was underwhelmed was audio. I didn’t find the speakers living up to the quality of the display. Of course, if you’re using headphones, you won’t care.

Plenty of Cool Features

As befits the Yoga name, the machine can fold back on itself for use in “tent” mode or as a large tablet. To accommodate tablet mode, the keyboard disappears into the machine when you fold the display back. Even better, the machine supports an active stylus that works seamlessly with Windows and Office inking features. There’s a small “garage” for the stylus in the side of the machine, which will also recharge it. As a result, the stylus is fairly small, but is comfortable to use and certainly more than adequate for taking notes or marking up documents. The only issue I found with using the machine as a tablet was the lack of a kickstand or similar native capability to have it rest at a slant, rather than flat on a desk or table.

Veteran ThinkPad users will also love that Lenovo has included a TrackPoint in the keyboard. It worked exactly as expected, although the need to push the mouse keys up the keyboard to allow room for a trackpad meant they were a little too close to the TrackPoint for my taste, but my hands are a little on the large side. Speaking of the keyboard, it is a complete joy to use. I never tired of typing on it. Our review unit’s keyboard was both backlit (a requirement for me these days) and featured a fingerprint reader (not as essential to me, but nice to have).

The ThinkPad X1 Yoga 2nd gen is remarkably thinIn one case, less really is more: Less bloatware. Lenovo has been in trouble over the years for cramming various pieces of software onto its laptops that caused all sorts of issues. The company has clearly listened, and the X1 Yoga is available as a Microsoft Signature Edition with Windows Pro and no extraneous software.

Is the ThinkPad X1 Yoga Right for You?

For shear features in a 3-pound package, I don’t know of a better machine. That’s especially true if you can afford the high-resolution OLED display. If you’re almost sold, but want a little different set of options, the new Lenovo Yoga 920 is another promising alternative. I’ve just started to work with a review unit, but in the meantime it impressed the team at our sister publication PCMag. The Yoga 920 is also one of the first to feature Intel’s new 8th generation CPUs, and can be configured with up to a 4-core CPU. However, it doesn’t offer the impressive OLED display option you can get with the X1 Yoga.

Both models do very well on PCMark’s Creative benchmark, with the X1 Yoga and its dual-core i7 scoring 4462 and the Yoga 920 scoring just over 4600 with its newer quad core i7.

Now read: PCMag’s Best Laptops of 2017

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