The true core of the Lenovo Yoga line is that it has convertibles which can be tablet, laptop and everything in between. If you don’t need a convertible, there are other Lenovo product lines to turn to. However, I couldn’t think why you would after using the firm’s latest Yoga 7 2-in-1 laptop for more than seven days. Indeed, using the Lenovo Yoga 7 as a traditional laptop exposes few downsides that come with being convertible. It is just like your normal laptop and only has a 360-degree hinge which can change the Yoga 7 into a tablet or stand. Moreover, all these could be yours for less than $1000, and this is something worth considering.
However, the Lenovo Yoga 7 will not replace your gaming or workstation-grade laptops but did replace M3 MacBook Air and Lenovo Yoga Book 9i without any drawbacks for me in my workflow. It was fine with photo editing in Affinity Photo 2 as well as web based content creation and productivity tasks. In general terms I would expect most people in the market for a convertible like the yoga seven to have similar performance needs as myself; this laptop simply smashes those needs. The real hiccups are on the display of yoga seven and configurations are quite far apart from each other here too which makes things even worse.
Pricing and availability
CES 2024 saw the announcement of Yoga 7, a 2-in-1 by Lenovo, and this month it will be eventually sold for $900. The choice of processor is one of the various configuration options available. Its laptop runs on AMD Ryzen 8040 mobile platform with a choice between either Ryzen 5 or Ryzen 7 processors. You can also choose to have an IPS or OLED display panel whereby the latter is brighter and more color accurate. Our review unit had the Ryzen 7 chip and IPS display. Pricing and availability details about Yoga 7 are expected in April later this year, in case there are any changes we shall notify you accordingly.
Design and ports
A solid selection of ports, but I wish there was USB-C on both sides
With more work to be done concerning its names, Lenovo nonetheless got the design and branding of the Yoga line right. The Yoga 7 from Lenovo looks like other recent Yoga laptops such as Yoga Book 9i, which is my Windows daily-driver. That’s not bad at all because this laptop appears well made and professional despite being in the midrange category. In fact, while in some aspects it doesn’t feel so, the Yoga 7 seems more premium. Easily you can bend the screen, top half of the laptop, keyboard and deck area. It is made out of aluminum rather than plastic but sturdier would have been better too. This is where you will see how far apart a cheaper option like that and a high-end model such as Slim Pro 9i or Lenovo Yoga 9i are. Despite its moderate price, this laptop looks top-notch and business-like.
Since the Yoga 7 has a convertible design, it is very flexible. Stable with the hinge of 360 degrees can be adjusted more easily but doesn’t work as a speaker bar on this mid-range laptop. I quite often found myself using the touchscreen on Yoga 7 and noticed that the glass didn’t seem to pick up fingerprints like even my non-touch computers. I can’t say that I used tablet mode, tent mode or display mode much, but it was nice to have something so versatile. Most importantly, when employed as a traditional notebook computer, I felt that the two-in-one design did not detract from Yoga 7’s functionality.
In general, I must commend the port selection of the Yoga 7 series though I would have loved to see USB-C ports in two locations. Instead, you’ll find both USB-C ports and HDMI ports as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack on the left side, next to the microphone. On the right side there is a microSD card slot and USB-A port. Another thing that annoys me slightly is how different these two specs are since there are no signs to differentiate them. The nearest one to the HDMI port is a USB-C that supports USB 3.2 Gen 2 while the other one is fully USB 4 compliant.
Keyboard and touchpad
The same great keyboard and touchpad from Lenovo is still here
Among the things that make Lenovo laptops great, their keyboards and touchpads deliver a highly consistent experience across models. Before using the Lenovo Yoga 7, I reviewed the Lenovo LOQ 15 (a gaming laptop), and the typing experience felt nearly identical. The Yoga 7’s keyboard has a nice layout with just the right amount of key travel for this form factor, and its design allows stereo Dolby Atmos speakers to be placed on either side. At least there is a Copilot key located on the right side of the keyboard but it may not be functional at present. I could use it while testing my device; nonetheless, final availability depends on your region and Microsoft account details. In case Copilot becomes unavailable, then its dedicated key will revert back to Windows Search.
The touchpad is okay for use too, but I miss the MacBook trackpad every time I use Windows laptops. At the right side of the touchpad there is a fingerprint scanner used for convenience. When in 2-in-1 mode, Lenovo software will attempt to identify position changes on Yoga 7 and switch off keyboard and touchpad I/O as appropriate. Not a great solution, but it works fairly well. While using Yoga 7 as a tablet, while inside text fields an onscreen keyboard pops up with quite a big default size.
Display
The resolution is good enough, but brightness and color are lacking
Like I said before, the Yoga 7’s display needs a big asterisk to it due to its quality mainly being dependent on whether you’re getting an IPS or OLED panel. The resolution and refresh rate of 1920x1200 and 60Hz respectively are the same across these two display types and so is the Dolby Vision certification. Nevertheless, other things that matter are not the same for both IPS and OLED versions of Yoga 7. One you will notice is that the IPS’ screen brightness level is very low, around 300 nits at best; this was confirmed with my review unit clocking in at about 220 nits. Color accuracy isn’t better with IPS model either as seen from our independent display tests:
In my experience, I have not come across a laptop with such a low score on SpyderX color accuracy tests. The Yoga 7 with its IPS display is just as poor as it covers only 65% of the sRGB color gamut. Furthermore, these are not an unusual outcome since my review sample covered 46% of the NTSC color gamut while Lenovo states that Yoga 7 has only achieved 45%. If you do any kind of color-accurate work, this makes the IPS version of the Yoga 7 a no-go. I think this might be better in the OLED version and according to Lenovo they claim it is required to cover 100% DCI-P3 color gamut and meat DisplayHDR True Black 500 spec plus an additional brightness of 100 nits. However, I can only speak for my review unit which had an IPS display.
The Yoga 7’s display should have a big asterisk next to it because quality will largely depend on whether you get the IPS or OLED panel. Does it mean you cannot deal with that? Maybe not. You might not even sense these Yoga 7 weaknesses if all you did was mostly simple productivity tasks that do not require accurate colors. In my case, there was a much more marked change in daily use due to reduced brightness levels than poor color accuracy. Nevertheless, it is evident that the displays on pricier Lenovo laptops like the OLED screen found on the Yoga 9i are way superior.
Performance
It handled my full productivity workflow with ease, with solid benchmarks
Even though the Lenovo Yoga 7 cannot be considered a performance powerhouse, it is on par with or surpasses many of the best thin-and-light laptops we have examined. The processor comes with AMD’s Ryzen 7 technology and an integrated AMD Radeon Graphics, which can compete with Intel Core Ultra 7 155H chip or even outperform it. In everyday life, I used Yoga 7 more than adequately; it handled such tasks as photo editing and web-based content creation quite well. However, if you plan to use your laptop for graphics-heavy activities, then the weaknesses of Yoga 7 could begin to manifest themselves; nonetheless, this was not a very bad laptop.
The Lenovo Yoga 7 is far from a performance powerhouse, but it performs in line with or better than many of the best thin-and-light laptops we've tested. Contrarily, even though this is not a gaming laptop, it had the ability to run Grand Theft Auto V in full resolution at frame rates that hovered around 30fps. Nevertheless, as old as GTA V may be, thirty frames per second is certainly manageable. However, newer and more demanding games will not run very well on the Yoga 7. The synthetic 3DMark Time Spy benchmark put a lot of strain on the Ryzen 7 chip and its integrated graphics; during the testing period, frame rates averaged roughly fifteen FPS and then scored lower than any Intel Core Ultra-based systems with integrated Intel Arc graphics.
Surprisingly enough, Lenovo Yoga 7 with Ryzen 7 chip outperformed my expectations. In our tests, both the Lenovo Slim 7i 14 and HP Spectre x360 14 laptops running Yoga 7 surpassed Intel Core Ultra7 processors in the PCMark10 benchmark. In Geekbench single-core tests, the laptop was far behind the M3 chip from the latest MacBook Air but in Crossmark it is quite close to it. The Lenovo Yoga 7 on the other hand costs less than any of them in the above tests and yet it did not fail a test.
The Lenovo Yoga 7 has a long battery life too as I was able to use it nonstop for about four to five hours before needing to charge again. This laptop makes use of a good quality battery that has a capacity of71Wh and features fast charging technology that allows you to get up to three additional hours of battery life from just fifteen minutes of charging. It takes power through its USB-C ports besides having an indicator light for when it is being charged and includes a power adapter which has an output rating of 65W.
Should you buy the Lenovo Yoga 7 2-in-1?
If you are:
- Looking for a convertible worth less than $1,000,
- Necessity for an efficient laptop capable of handling basic office work,
- Searching for a laptop that is versatile with diverse connectivity and ports options,
- Then you should buy Lenovo Yoga 7 2-in-1.
DO NOT buy if:
- You require a color accurate display for photo editing, video editing, or design work.
- Would like to have a bright display or matte finishing option
- Have the cash or the desire to make it into the 9i series.
Myself, a reviewer, and many other people in this field are constantly stunned by how good sub-$1,000 laptops have gotten, including the Lenovo Yoga 7 which outperforms its price. It will not always be the best performer, but its Ryzen 7 processor means that it can compete with the best mobile chipsets in 2024 such as Intel Core Ultra and Apple M3. In addition to this, even though it is a convertible laptop, its usability is still top class because of the great keyboard, touchpad, hinge and design elements. In conclusion, if I was to buy a 2-in-1 laptop under $1k of my own money then it would be Lenovo Yoga 7.
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