The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Review: OLED and LCD Tested
by Brett Howse & Brandon Chester on September 29, 2016 11:30 AM EST
Earlier this year at CES, Lenovo took the wraps off their latest lineup of premium business class notebooks, and they revamped the X1 lineup completely. Originally the X1 was just the X1 Carbon notebook, but Lenovo has decided to expand the X1 series to include the aforementioned X1 Carbon, along with the X1 Yoga and X1 Tablet. So the ThinkPad Yoga is now the ThinkPad X1 Yoga, and as such it keeps the same thin and light design of the X1 Carbon.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Review
Thin and light is the key here, and the X1 Yoga doesn’t disappoint. The X1 Yoga is only 16.8 mm (0.66”) thick, and weighs 1270 grams (2.8 lbs). While not the thinnest and lightest notebook around, don’t forget that the X1 Yoga also features a 360° hinge, allowing it to be used exclusively with touch with several modes, including tablet, stand, and tent, just like the other Yoga devices they sell. Lenovo also pointed out that the X1 Yoga is thinner and lighter than the original X1 Carbon even, despite including touch and the convertible hinges.
Lenovo is offering plenty of choices here to outfit the X1 Yoga, with the baseline offering of an Intel Core i5-6200U and 8 GB of LPDDR3-1866. You can upgrade to the i5-6300U, i7-6500U, and i7-6600U, with RAM offerings up to 16 GB. On storage Lenovo has gone all NVMe, with choices from 128 GB to 512 GB. On the display side, the 14-inch panel can be either a 1920x1080 IPS, 2560x1440 IPS, or a 2560x1440 OLED model.
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga | |||||
| As Tested: Core i7-6500U, 8GB, 512GB, 2560x1440 LCD | |||||
| CPU | Intel Core i5-6200U Dual-Core with Hyperthreading 2.3-2.8 GHz, 3MB Cache, 15W TDP Intel Core i5-6300U Dual-Core with Hyperthreading 2.4-3.0 GHz, 3MB Cache, 15W TDP Intel Core i7-6500U Dual-Core with Hyperthreading 2.5-3.1 GHz, 4MB Cache, 15W TDP Intel Core i7-6600U Dual-Core with Hyperthreading 2.6-3.4 GHz, 4MB Cache, 15W TDP |
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| GPU | Intel HD 520 300-1050MHz, 24 EUs |
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| Memory | 8GB to 16GB LPDDR3-1866 Dual-channel | ||||
| Display | 14-inch 1920x1080 IPS Optional 2560x1440 IPS Optional 2560x1440 OLED |
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| Storage | 128GB to 1TB SSD, PCIe and SATA | ||||
| I/O | OneLink+ USB 3.0 Type-A x 3 Headset jack 720p Webcam Mini DisplayPort microSD |
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| Dimensions | 333 x 229 x 16.8 mm 13.11 x 9.01 x 0.66 inches |
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| Weight | 1.27 kg / 2.8 lbs | ||||
| Battery | 52 Wh, 65 W AC Adapter | ||||
| Keyboard | Spill-Resistant with TrackPoint | ||||
| Wireless | Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC8260 2x2:2 with Bluetooth 4.1 |
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| Price | Starting at $1400, as tested $1871.10 | ||||
Lenovo also offers plenty of connectivity on the X1 Yoga, including three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, DisplayPort, and a OneLink connector for its docking stations. There are no USB Type-C ports, but the X1 Yoga does have MicroSD support for additional storage, and LTE-A as an option for those that want to be as untethered as possible. Wireless is supplied via the Intel 8260 wireless card, and as a business focused device it can be had with vPro as well.
They also include a stylus built into the laptop which will charge while docked. It’s not as big or as comfortable as the one included with something like the Surface Book, but the fact that it is docked will more than make up for that for a lot of people, because that means it’s always available, and less likely to get misplaced.
Lenovo has gone with a 52 Wh battery for this laptop, meaning it is over the 50 Wh baseline for Ultrabooks. That’s pretty good considering the inclusion of a stylus, and the thin nature of this device.
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Inteli - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
Control does have a default/standard location, though. Both the ANSI and ISO standard keyboard layouts put left control in the bottom left corner.lefenzy - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
Well looking at wiki, the layout doesn't have a Fn key placement specification, and so having a Fn key is in itself non-standard. There's no default choice here.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fn_key#Fn_and_Contro...
Thinkpads used to have an excuse that Fn + the top right key would activate the keyboard illumination, and so having Fn in the bottom left would facilitate finding that key combo in the dark.
BrokenCrayons - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
The ANSI and ISO standard layouts are shown in images here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ANSI_Keyboard_L...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KB_United_Kingd...
You can read the full article here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout
Placing the Function key in the lower left corner and moving the control key that should be there to someplace else deviates from those standards. The language used in the article is indeed reasonable.
lefenzy - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
Well looking at wiki, the layout doesn't have a Fn key placement specification, and so having a Fn key is in itself non-standard. There's no default choice here.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fn_key#Fn_and_Contro...
Thinkpads used to have an excuse that Fn + the top right key would activate the keyboard illumination, and so having Fn in the bottom left would facilitate finding that key combo in the dark.
Brett Howse - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
If it wasn't an oddball placement on a Windows laptop, Lenovo wouldn't offer a switch in the BIOS to reverse their function. Even other Lenovo laptops have Ctrl on the outside. I don't think it's a big deal, and you can switch it if you do, but it's worth pointing out that it's not the same as what someone coming from a non-ThinkPad would be used to.Badelhas - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
Is there a real world difference between using the SSD or NVMe storage option?Brett Howse - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
It depends what you are doing I guess. It's not anywhere near as big of a difference as when we first got SSDs though. If you work with large files though, the read and write of something like a 950 Pro is kind of mind-boggling.cptcolo - Saturday, November 12, 2016 - link
Yes. The difference is huge. I have the X1 Yoga with the 1TB PM961 NVMe. It is simply amazing how fast it is with the supercharged SDD. It is definitely worth the price difference over the SATA SSD.fanofanand - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
I recently received a new laptop at work, replacing an old thinkpad. It's weight is similar but is half the thickness. Battery life increased from 95 minutes to 8 hours. I was a believer in battery life over thin, but it seems like they can finally match the two together, assuming you aren't trying to game on battery. This is a really cool device with a really high price. They will sell plenty, but not to me. If they had a version around $1,000 with a few less bells and whistles, it would be a game changer.snakyjake - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
Is the camera an Intel RealSense camera for biometric facial recognition?