92 SEPTEMBER 2019 |COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE 379
THISTHIRD-GENERATIONThinkPad X1 Yoga
brings together two of Lenovo’s great laptop
lines: the high-performanceThinkPad range
and the versatile,360°-rotatableYoga series.
Such acombinationsoundsappealing,but
it’s acostly proposition.Forthe model we
tested, with a14in, 2,660x1,440 touchscreen,
an Intel Core i7-8550UCPU, 16GB of RAM
and a512GB SSD,you can expect to
pay£1,871. Upgradeto afaster Core
i7-8650Uchip and a1TB SSD and this
becomes£2,217,and even the most basic
model –with aCore i5-8250U,Full HD screen,
8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage –is£1,360.CLONE’STHROW
ThinkPads tend to look similar,and the X1
Yoga’s convertibleDNA hasn’t made it much
of an exception.The body materials are similar
to other ThinkPads: carbon,glass, plastic and
magnesiumcombineto make forasturdy (but
not tooheavy) chassis.The X1 Yoga tips the
scales at 1.4kg, and measures333x229x17mm.
If it weren’t forthe touchscreenand the
360° hinge we might have struggledto tell it
apart from the ThinkPad X1 Carbon(Shopper
370). Both includetactile,grippysurfaces that
are perfect forcarrying around,and the
reversiblehinge fitted under the screen works
beautifullywell, rotatingsmoothlyto your
desiredviewingangle.
The X1 Yoga has apoweredstylus that
slots intothe right-hand edge of the base.The
relativelysmall pen is made of plastic and feels
rather flimsy,but it is nice and responsive.
Crucially,it’s includedat no extra cost.
The webcamshutter is the most welcome
new feature.Itcan quicklyblock out the
front-facing camerawith asmall slider
situated above the screen –anincreasingly
fundamentalsecurityrequirement,yes, but
one many other business-focusedultrabooks
fail to deliver.For even more securitypoints,
the ThinkPad X1 Yoga has afingerprintreader
located to the right of the trackpad.
Connectivityoptionsare as good as you’d
expect from apremiumbusinesslaptop.On
the leftare two USB Type-C ports (the charger
plugs intoeither of these), both of which are
Thunderbolt3-enabled.There’s also afull-size
USB3 connector.Onthe right is an HDMI 2.0
slot foroutputtingvideo,aswell as another
USB3 port, an Ethernetport and a3.5mm
audio jack. With the lid closed, you can
access the hatch tucked awayonthe
back edge,which reveals anano-SIM
slot and microSDcard reader.LENOVOThinkPad
X1Yoga
★★★★★
£1,871•From http://www.lenovo.comVERDICT
ThiscrossbetweenLenovo’sThinkPadand
YogaseriesisalmostamatchmadeinheavenAnotherstaple of Lenovo laptops is a
quality keyboard,and that tooispresent and
correcton the ThinkPad X1 Yoga. Travel and
feedbackare excellent,producingasatisfying
clickysound, and the chiclet-style keys are
subtly curved to improve comfort.
One complaint,which could also be levelled
at the ThinkPad X1 Carbon,is the placement
of the PgUp and PgDn keys. These two keys
sit very close to the leftand right of the arrow
keys and are easy to press accidentally.FAIR POINT
Another problem is heat.This was aminor
issuewith the ThinkPad X1 Carbon,but with
the X1 Yoga, the upper base of the laptop
becameworryinglywarm during some of our
benchmarkingtests. Using an IR Thermometer
gun during one such test, we found that the
upper base had reachedahigh of 50°C. When
it’s this hot, it’s actuallyuncomfortableto
touch the topfew rows of the keyboard.
The red TrackPoint, fitted betweenthe G, H
and Bkeys, is acore componentof the design.
That said, it can be easily ignoredif you’d
prefertouse the trackpador touchscreen;it
doesn’t get in the waywhen typing.
Speakingof the trackpad,this gets the
cursor moving with perfect precisionand has
acomfortabletexture as well. The leftand
right click buttons sit above the pad ratherthan below it, which might catch out some
users, but should prove familiar to anyone
with experienceof using businesslaptops,
where the layout is more common.
Lenovo claims the IPS displaydelivers not
only ‘500nitbrightness’,but ‘complete’ colour
gamut coverage as well. Happily,this isn’t just
empty marketingbluster: we measuredsRGB
gamut coverage hitting 99.6%, which is close
to perfect. That said, we don’t recommendit
forphotoediting, as average delta-Ecomes in
at 3.87,which is toohigh forprofessional use.
Youdon’t need acolourimeter to tell that the
screen looks oversaturated, either.
More positively,wemeasuredpeak
brightnessat 516cd/m^2 ,living up to Lenovo’s
claims. This is brilliantlyhigh, and while
crankingbrightnessup this farwill reduce
battery life, it makes short work of reflections.
If only CPU performancewas as
exceptional.Consideringboth the high price
and the Core i7 processorwithin, the ThinkPad
X1 Yoga’s overall score of 59 seems rather low:
the Core i5-poweredMicrosoftSurface Pro 6
whizzespast it. Judgingby previous experience
with the heat this laptop produces,throttling
is the most likely culprit.FAST READER
Business-grade laptops need to be equipped
with speedySSDs, and in this department,the
ThinkPad X1 Yoga excels. With sequentialread
and writespeeds of 2,246MB/sand 1,750MB/s
respectively,the spacious512GB PCI-E NVMe
SSD steams throughtransfers.
Battery lifecould be better,however.The
ThinkPad X1 Carbonreachedonly 6h 3m in
our video playback test, so will struggleto last
awhole workingdayawayfrom the mains
unless you’re particularlyfrugal with it.
In most regards,the ThinkPad X1 Yoga is
aformidablebusinesslaptop that doubles
up as aflexible tablet. It has its problems,
namelyexcessiveCPU heat and poor
battery life, but on the whole,it’s a
competent multipurposemachine.2-IN-1sANDCONVERTIBLES