Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga 3rd Gen review: A speedy, premium 2-in-1 with a lofty price tag - campbellsaidence

Tough, fast, and bountiful with battery life, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga has a lot going for it, but a buy price isn't one of them. We certainly admire the ThinkPad's apical-notch construction, majestic performance and clever touches, comparable its retractable keys, built-in pen charger and privacy-minded webcam shutter. That same, expect to pay finished for the ThinkPad X1 Yoga's premium features.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga price and specifications

We tested the ThinkPad X1 Yoga model 20LD0015US ($1,673.10 from Lenovo), which packs in an quad-core 8th-gen i5-8250U processor, 8GB of LPDDR3 RAM, a 14-inch 1920-by-1080 touch video display, a 512GB solid parkway, integrated Intel UHD 620 graphics, and a Bluetooth-enabled ThinkPad Compose Pro.

Ace of the first things we should flag close to the X1 Yoga's specs is its $1,673 price tag (as of this writing, anyway). For comparison's sake, our present-day editor's choice for 2-in-1 laptops, the HP Phantasm x360, packs in a more potent i7-8550U C.P.U., a 13.3-inch touch display, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD for $1,270, while a version with a roomier 512GB drive goes for $1,430—still $200 to a lesser degree the X1 Yoga. Granted, specs don't tell the solid write up and prices change, only for now, this particular ThinkPad comes with a somewhat hefty price tag.

There are early useable SKUs for the ThinkPad X1 Yoga, of course, including a $1,484 version with a smaller 256GB SSD and no pen. On the other end of the spectrum, the top-of-the-line $2,465 model of the ThinkPad boasts an i7-8650U C.P.U., 16GB of Wa, 1 TB of solid-state storage, and a 14-inch 2560-by-1440 display with Dolby Vision HDR support.

Measuring 13.1 by 9 by 0.7 inches and deliberation a tiny over 3 pounds (or three pounds and 12 ounces formerly you sky in the Alternating current charging brick), the ThinkPad X1 Yoga is a tad thicker and heavier than some of the recent 2-in-1 laptops we've tested, and same ThinkPads of yore, it lacks the snazzy design details you'll see in systems like the Asus ZenBook 13 (with its shiny, eye-popping case) or Lenovo's own Yoga 920 (with its elegant watchband flexible joint).

lenovo thinkpad x1 yoga 3rd gen black lid — The ThinkPad X1 Yoga's may await a tad dull, only it's likewise tough, with a fingerprint-resistant lid. (Watch out for oily hand smudges, though.)

Dull though information technology may look up to, the ThinkPad X1 Yoga's slenderly rubberized exterior feels reassuringly hardened, and the like other systems in the ThinkPad line, the X1 Yoga boasts field of study-grade security against shock, vibration, dust, and even fungus. The ThinkPad's melanize plate is also fingerprint-proof, although it does rich person an annoying tendency to pick up oily hand smudges.

Being the convertible laptop that it is, the ThinkPad X1 Yoga's display can be swiveled a full 360 degrees, meaning you can sway information technology all the way around for use as a (middling cloggy) tablet, tent it in a "V" shape, or sit down the laptop keyboard-down pat with the presentation angular back.

lenovo thinkpad x1 yoga 3rd gen black tent mode1 — As with other 2-in-1 laptops, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga's exhibit bathroom swivel all the way back for tablet use, operating room you can tent it in a "V" shape.

Particularly impressive is the fact that whenever you close the lid Beaver State pivot its display more than than 180 degrees, the ThinkPad automatically retracts its keyboard keys and locks them securely into place.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga show

The 14-inch 1920-aside-1080 touch display on the ThinkPad X1 Yoga looks about as vivid and sharp as the screens connected competing laptops we've tested. Measuring nigh 270 nits (OR calendas) with its luminance setting turned all the way sprouted, the X1 Yoga's screen exceeds our 250-nit minimum standard for comfortable indoor viewing by a decent edge, although IT's a shade dimmer than the 300-nit displays we've seen connected separate systems.

Viewing angles on the ThinkPad's IPS expose are quite an good. The screen dims slightly when viewed from from the sides, above operating theater below, yet on-screen text corpse perfectly clear even at more intense angles.

The ThinkPad X1 Yoga's touch display responded gamely to lights-out and swipes from my fingers and the included "active" Bluetooth pen, which sits in a slot on the right boundary of the laptop. In a particularly thoughtful design pinch, the slot charges the pen to boot to securely storing it.

The ThinkPad X1 Yoga's snappy, slightly concave keys make for a pleasurable typing experience, complete with hotkeys for such functions A Bluetooth, airplane mode, settings (the actual Windows settings, not Lenovo's), and even the inbred Snippet Tool app. There's no dedicated numeric keypad, but the unnecessary room leaves plenty of space for the main keys to spread, fashioning discovery a breeze through. My one ill was that I unbroken circumstantially impressive Page Up/Page Depressed keys, which flank the up-arrow key and seat just above the left and right arrow keys.

lenovo thinkpad x1 yoga 3rd gen black tent keyboard — The ThinkPad X1 Yoga retracts and locks its keys in property whenever you end its eyelid or pivot the display back for pad practice. And yes, there's the ThinkPad's key signature red sneak away stub, along with physical computer mouse buttons supra the trackpad.

The ThinkPad's smooth, sensitive trackpad is unsurprisingly busy snuff, while the physical mouse buttons and telltale red navigational nub remain welcome (and rare, as far A modern laptops go) bonuses for those who've never quite warmed up to a clickable trackpad. On the right side of the trackpad sits a fingermark reader for unlocking your user profile or logging into certain Windows Hello-compatible apps.

The ThinkPad X1 Yoga's built-in speakers crank knocked out loud but bass-free sound, although built-in Dolby audio frequency processing (not Dolby Atmos, sadly) warms up the sonics a shade. "Live and Let Die" by Paul McCartney and Wings measured reasonably detailed in its opening moments, simply collapsed into a puddle once the pounding title chords hit. Same goes for Mozart's 27th Symphony, which sounded harsh and compressed during its busy first movement.

Sitting in the top bezel to a higher place the display, the ThinkPad X1 Yoga's 720p webcam delivers reasonably sharp if occasionally blotchy video, fountainhead improvident of broadcast quality but perfectly fine for Skype. Setting the ThinkPad's webcam apart is its included ThinkShutter characteristic, which is basically exactly a physical shutter that you derriere slide over the lens with the flick of a tack. While not as fancy atomic number 3 its name implies, ThinkShutter makes for a ovate and effective way to foil any snoopers trying to hijack your webcam. Just keep in psyche that the ThinkShutter isn't included in pricier ThinkPad Yoga X1 models helmeted with IR cameras.

The ThinkPad X1 Yoga Marks yet another laptop that comes with an set out of 360-arcdegree "far airfield" microphones, designed to pick up your vocalisation even when you're across the room. Lenovo says that the ThinkPad's far study microphones will let you chew the fat with Cortana from every bit far as 13 feet away. In my tests, I was able to pepper Cortana with questions from 25 feet gone, even when oral presentation in a quieten voice.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga ports

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga's selection of ports is a miscellany. Starting with the good stuff, you get a pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports (complete with Power Saving and DisplayPort support, with information transfers up to 40Gbps) along the unexhausted side of the Thinkpad, plus the first of 2 USB 3.0 ports.

lenovo thinkpad x1 yoga 3rd gen black right side — The right sidelong of the ThinkPad X1 Yoga boasts a nourished HDMI port, a USB 3.0 port and an ethernet extension larboard, while a brace of Bolt 3 ports and another USB 3.0 port sit on the left side.

On the right side, you'll find a full-size HDMI port, an ethernet extension connexion (you'll have to provide your own ethernet dongle), a combo audio jack, and a intermediate USB 3.0 port, along with the power button.

Each well and good, just there's a get when information technology comes to the twin Thunderclap 3 ports—namely, you'll have to use unrivaled of them for charging the ThinkPad, given that there's no dedicated barrel-shaped charging port.

Even more annoying is the Micro SD memory card slot, which sits in back of the laptop (close to a nano-SIM time slot) behind a long, thin plastic tizzy that's in effect obstructed whenever the ThinkPad's lid is open to a higher degree a crack. It's amend than nary retentiveness card time slot the least bit, but placement-wise, it's a house pain.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga performance

Pricey though it is, the quad-core Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga earns its keep when it comes to operation, scoring some of the best bench mark results we've seen from a 8th-generation 2-in-1 laptop, along with especial battery spirit.

PCMark 8 Work Established

To test a laptop's agility when it comes to quotidian computation chores, we use PCMark 8 Work Conventional, a bench mark that simulates web browsing, video conferencing, spreadsheet tinkering, and other day-in-24-hour interval-out desktop duties.

lenovo thinkpad x1 yoga pcmark work8 conventional

Unsurprisingly, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga passed the test with ease, with its PCMark 8 score of 3,324 fit above our nominal 2,000 standard for smooth Office performance, and right in the intermixture with its quad-core 8th-gen competitors. Just keep in listen that cheaper dual-core laptops often notch similar results, so unless you'ray looking to encode telecasting or perform other CPU-qualifier tasks, a pricey quad-marrow laptop like the ThinkPad X1 Yoga May atomic number 4 overkill.

Handbrake

Next, we installed the free Handbrake video utility onto the ThinkPad X1 Yoga and converted a 30GB MKV video file into Android tablet-mixable data format, a task that reliably spikes CPU speeds and spins up cooling fans.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga handled our Handbrake essa well, simply brings skyward the rear versus the competition. Its Core i5 processor isn't As fast as the Core i7 models base in around rivals, and the X1 Yoga obviously throttles performance during sustained tasks more heavily than some other laptops with a Core i5-8250U wrong.

Cinebench

Another torturing trial run for laptops, our Cinebench benchmark measures a laptop's performance as it renders a 3D icon in real-time. While the Handbrake exam generally takes more an hr to perform, a Cinebench trial is usually all over within a few minutes, devising information technology a obedient test of how a system handles short bursts of stress.

Although the Yoga X1 trailed the pack in Handbrake, it excels here. In addition to marking one of the superfine Cinebench heaps we've seen from an 8th-gen 2-in-1, the ThinkPad edged a twain of laptops with beefier i7-8550U chips (the Lenovo Yoga 920 and the HP Specte x360) in the process.

3DMark 8 Sky Plunger

With its mainstreamed Intel UHD 620 nontextual matter burden, the ThinkPad X1 Yoga isn't intended to be so much of a gaming simple machine, and its tolerably 3DMark Sky Diver results bear that out. For those look to play anything beyond, aver, Chess or Minecraft on their laptops, consider a arrangement that packs in discrete graphics, like the Asus ZenBook 13 or a (typically thicker and heavier) gaming-familiarised portable.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga shelling life

We test battery lifespan on a laptop by looping a 10-minute 4K video clip using the stock Windows video player. We perform the test with screen light set between 250 and 260 nits (which, for the ThinkPad, clothed to cost a setting of 98 percent) with the intensity cranked virtually midway with headphones on.

Once again, the ThinkPad X1 Yoga and its 54Whr battery garnered an impressive result, clocking nearly 10 hours of battery life, a mark beaten only aside 8th-gen convertibles with considerably larger batteries.

Bottom furrow

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga is expensive compared to its peers, and its tough-to-admittance memory bill slot sticks out like-minded a sore thumb. Still, this new ThinkPad has a rugged design, rapid performance, impressive battery life and an array of high-end features, like its webcam shutter and retractable keys. If you can get over its gallant price tag—Oregon mayhap, symmetric better, wait for a price veer—the ThinkPad X1 makes for one of the stronger 8th-propagation 2-in-1s we've seen until no.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/401802/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-yoga-3rd-gen-review.html

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