Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Yoga series has been the company’s high-end corporate 2-in-1 for a while now, and while the X1 family has grown, the 14-in convertible remains one of the top choices if you’re looking for a solid, enterprise-grade notebook.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been working with the latest model, known as Gen 6, and I’ve found some of this year’s improvements—including a new 16:10 screen ratio and an updated fingerprint reader—to be quite nice.
The basic machine doesn’t look all that different from previous models. It is only available in “Storm Gray,” which shows off the Aluminum casing, not the classic ThinkPad Black. It weighs 3.08 pounds and measures 0.59 by 12.3 by 8.8 inches (HWD), which is a little deeper than last year’s model, probably to accommodate the 16:10 screen ratio on its 14-inch display. The deeper ratio is becoming a bit more common again, and it does allow you to see more of a web page or a word processing document, so it’s a good convenience feature. The bezels are a bit larger than I’ve seen on some machines, but still relatively small. It looks good, if not flashy, and feels exceptionally solid.
The unit I tried had a 500-nit 3,840-by-2,400 display said to be anti-reflective and anti-smudge; it looked great. Lenovo also offers 1,920-by-1,200 displays in both regular and Privacy Guard variants.
Another change to this year’s model is an improved fingerprint reader built into the power button that saves the user information on the fingerprint sensor itself for better security. The version I used also had face recognition with a 720p webcam and an optional IR sensor with presence detection. I’ve seen this on other laptops, and it’s quite convenient to have the machine lock when you step away. Both methods of security worked quite well.
In terms of performance, the X1 Yoga was excellent. The unit I tried had an Intel Core i7-1185G7 CPU, a 4-core, 8-thread processor with a base speed of 3.0 GHz and Turbo up to 4.8 GHz, and vPro support; along with 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SK Hynix SSD. As I saw with the ThinkPad X1 Nano, the 10nm Tiger-Lake U processors provide a nice performance boost over last year’s Comet Lake processors. Interestingly I didn’t see much of a difference between the Core i7-1185G7 in the Yoga and the Core i7-1160G7 in the Nano, despite a slightly higher clock on the former.
On my toughest performance tests, it executed a complex MatLab portfolio simulation in 47 minutes, compared with 48 minutes on the X1 Nano and 63 minutes on last year’s Comet Lake-based X1 Carbon. It completed a large Excel model with a data table and Monte Carlo simulations in 43 minutes, the same as on the Nano, compared with 54 minutes on the Comet Lake system. It’s a very good jump year over year.
It has a 57-watt-hour battery, which is better than in previous years; in practice, it got me through a full day but wasn’t as strong as some competing machines.
In terms of other features, the 720p integrated webcam has a narrower field of view than some competing models but seemed sharp and worked well in video calls. As with most business laptops, it has a physical shutter for camera privacy. It has special call control keys on the function keys that can answer or reject calls for Skype or Microsoft Teams, but I didn’t have much occasion to use them. It comes with two upward-firing and two downward-firing speakers tuned for Dolby Atmos on the sides of the keyboard, and the sound seemed quite good for an enterprise laptop. It has four far-field microphones and Dolby Voice, with features such as noise suppression. As a result, it’s a fine machine for video conferencing, something we’ve all done more of in recent months.
As usual for ThinkPads, the keyboard felt quite good. It has a larger 4.33-inch trackpad, as well as the traditional TrackPoint pointing stick that has long been the ThinkPad’s most distinctive feature.
As with all the members of the Yoga family, and with most 2-in-1s, you can flip the display completely around to use the device as a tablet. Of course, the downside of this is that you have the keyboard on the bottom of your tablet, and the unit (like most 2-in-1s) feels a bit heavy to use as a tablet. Of course, Windows tablet apps remain limited compared to those on other platforms. On the other hand, I continue to like touch screens, and for those who do draw on their devices, this can be quite convenient. One nice thing is that the pen is included, and slips nicely into the base of the unit, where it can be 80% charged in about 15 seconds. It’s a relatively small pen, but quite convenient.
It has two Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports on the left side of the unit, one of which you’ll use for charging. It also offers full-size USB-A ports on both sides of the unit, as well as an HDMI port on the left, and a headphone jack on the right.
I’ve been trying laptops with docks and both HDMI and DisplayPort monitors. With Lenovo’s Thunderbolt 3 Dock Gen 2, I noticed that sometimes the HDMI monitor would flicker; interestingly, I did not have that issue with OWC’s Thunderbolt dock.
Currently, on Lenovo’s website, I see prices starting at $1,493.40, with a Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, 256 GB SSD, and 1920 by 1200 touchscreen; and a model close to the one I tested with core i7-1185G7, 16 GB, and 1TB SSD, and 3840-by 2400 display for $2,393.40 (my unit only had a 512 GB SSD, though that’s plenty for most people). As always with most enterprise notebooks, if you’re buying a fleet of notebooks you can negotiate pricing, although you should keep in mind that most such notebook purchases now require a significant lead time.
Lenovo offers a variety of machines in the ThinkPad X series, including the 14-inch Carbon traditional laptop, the 13-inch Nano, the very light 13.4-inch Titanium Yoga, and the 12-inch X12 Detachable. My guess is most enterprise buyers will stick with the Carbon if they want a traditional non-touchscreen laptop, and the Yoga if they want a 2-in-1 with a touchscreen. The primary competition to the X1 Yoga will be the Dell Latitude 7420 and the HP EliteBook x360 1040, both solid offerings in the Enterprise Notebook category. The X1 Yoga stands out with very strong build quality, a 16:10 display, and more ports than the Dell.
Here’s PCMag’s full review.
