Lenovo Yoga 7i review: A 2-in-1 laptop worth your money

Lenovo’s Yoga lineup of laptops offers flexibility in terms of how you want to use your laptop. It can be a laptop or a tablet, depending on what you want from these laptops. The Yoga 7i was launched in India earlier this year and comes across as one of the best options for people who want 2-in-1 devices. The latest model brings a major overhaul, and these changes greatly enhance the user experience. The design, on the other hand, makes it stand out from the crowd. Other bells and whistles just add to the overall experience, which was great for me at least. Based on my experience with the Lenovo Yoga 7i, I can easily recommend it to anyone looking for a 2-in-1 laptop. Before I talk about why the Lenovo Yoga 7i can be a good buy, let us get the specifications of the laptop out of our way first.

Lenovo Yoga 7i (14-inch, Gen 7)

Lenovo Yoga 7i: Design and display

Simply because it requires to be flexible, the Yoga 7i uses lightweight anodised aluminium, which also gives it sturdiness. Just to validate the ruggedness, Lenovo has obtained the MIL-STD-810H certificate for the Yoga 7i. You will immediately fall in love with its sobre approach to the design, which also includes glossiness in some parts of the lid. Lenovo is pitching this laptop to business-class users more than creators, which sort of justifies the no-funk look. But if you are a creator with no particular preference for looks, this can be a good option. Its 1.49kg weight was never an issue for prolonged handling.

I could open the lid very comfortably with one hand. Inside it, there is a well-spread chiclet-style keyboard with backlight. I had a great time typing on the keyboard. After a small hiccup that was probably because I was getting used to the new style, I began using the Yoga 7i for typing my articles. The key travel is good and the keys are tactile. The trackpad is also big enough to accommodate your fingers conveniently. I never felt the need to be precise while hovering over the trackpad. The entire bottom portion of the laptop uses a durable hinge to connect to the one with the display. While Lenovo has not shared any numbers on how many folds it can endure, it feels quite solid, so much so that you will not hesitate to bend the lid however you want.

The lid has the display, the Full-HD webcam and a privacy shutter. The full-HD resolution on the display makes everything look crisp and sharp. Although it is not an OLED panel, I never found its LCD’s colour reproduction any less appealing. I enjoyed watching movies on the Dolby Vision-tuned display, while games looked stunning sometimes. The brightness, however, is average especially when you put the laptop under direct sunlight or just are working on it on the go. People who require to be in video calls a lot will also appreciate the 1080p webcam, which can be shut closed when not in use.

Although 2-in-1 laptops compromise on the number of ports, the Lenovo Yoga 7i has the right kind of ports that will mostly suffice your needs.  There is also a microSD card reader, which creators will appreciate.

Lenovo Yoga 7i: Performance and battery

The Yoga 7i is one of the top-notch machines you can get in the 2-in-1 category. It’s beefy enough for multitasking and holds ample power for when you have to take it for an overdrive. I am talking about uses that involve software applications such as Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Premiere Pro. Since the display supports a 100 percent DCI-P3 colour gamut, managing colour profiles in videos and photos is easier. I am also glad Lenovo has obtained a TUV Low Blue Light certification that promises safe light emission from the display over prolonged usage.

If I were to nitpick, I would say the 60Hz refresh rate on the LCD could be a tradeoff for some customers. But it is not a disappointment. That is because Lenovo is not pitching the Yoga 7i as a gaming laptop and everything else that you are likely to do on this machine does not hold much relevance to the display’s standard refresh rate. On the other hand, the aspect ratio of 16:10 makes for a larger real estate, which will help you view more cells in an Excel sheet or a larger area of the canvas on your photo or video editing app.

While I do not see a concrete advantage of having a touchscreen display for business-class users, creators will have a good experience. Creators will appreciate the fact that they can touch the display to navigate around. You get the Lenovo Digital Pen along with the laptop. You can use it to scribble and doodle on the touchscreen, but sometimes the recognition is a miss. Maybe a software update can help weed out the minor issues. In the tent mode, the laptop offers a convenient way to enjoy movies and shows. The speakers are pretty loud too, and with Dolby Atmos, the movie-watching experience just gets better.

Considering the power this laptop can drive, most AAA games can run smoothly on this laptop. I tried playing God of War and was not exactly disappointed with my experience. But that does not mean I enjoyed it. That is because the ergonomics of the laptop do not allow you to go hyperintensive when playing games. Moreover, the 60Hz display kind of makes the visual experience slightly underwhelming.

All of the things I normally did on the Lenovo Yoga 7i had a moderate impact on the battery life. A single charge lasts about 8-9 hours. And battery draining is not an issue because Lenovo offers a 65W fast charger, which takes about two hours to fully charge the battery.

Lenovo Yoga 7i review verdict

The Lenovo Yoga 7i is one of the few 2-in-1 laptops that offer both high performance and the ability to attain maximum productivity as long as your needs are in line with the hardware. It is a premium machine that will not disappoint creators or business-class users. It is suitable for anyone who wants a tablet but is hesitant to buy one because of how limited its usage can be. And since it is solving that problem of yours, it demands a price of around Rs 1 lakh. You can easily get a high-performing laptop for around Rs 60,000, but that added premium is what makes the Lenovo Yoga 7i a must-buy for a 2-in-1.