Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga review

A 2-in-1 made for enterprise

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga

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We liked

There's plenty to get excited about here, including a good quality display (with an OLED option too), and particularly given this 2-in-1's size, it offers an impressive array of ports. The X1 Yoga also comes with a stylus, is very nicely built and designed, and performed well in our benchmark testing.

We disliked

This isn't a cheap hybrid, but there aren't many major issues here. Our biggest problem with the X1 Yoga is the battery life which is disappointing, and you can't switch the power pack out for a bigger capacity model. There are also a few slight niggles such as the size of the touchpad, and the fact that the default stylus isn't great.

Final verdict

The ThinkPad X1 Yoga will appeal to those looking for a great all-rounder hybrid, regardless of the cost. It is supremely versatile, switching between tablet and laptop mode and everything in between.

Blending the best of the ThinkPad and the Yoga ranges produced an exceptional piece of engineering with very little competition in the business laptop arena (Dell, hear us out!).

The 14-inch display provides just the right amount of real estate for the higher-than-average QHD resolution.

What sets this Yoga apart from its nearest rival though is its ability to be used, out of the box, as a note-taking device, one that can challenge even the iPad Pro.

The battery life is the biggest disappointment and the legacy of the Apple MacBook Pro which has spoilt us with 10+ hours of battery life means that the X1 Yoga has a lot to live up to.

Lenovo claims that it will last up to 11 hours when using MobileMark 2014, but we only achieved a fraction of that during our benchmarking, and sadly those looking to purchase the OLED model can expect battery life to be even worse.

Juan Martinez contributed to this review. Note that the pictures illustrating this review were taken by our US team. There may therefore be some cosmetic and hardware differences.

Desire Athow
Managing Editor, TechRadar Pro

Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.