Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 Review: Business 2-in-1 With Right Size, Wrong Resolution

7.5/ 10
SCORE

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8

$1,671 at Lenovo

Pros

• Compact and rugged all-metal chassis
• Comfortable keyboard
• Lengthy battery life

Cons

• Display options miss the sweet spot
• Sharp edges on its border make the display uncomfortable for tablet mode
• Touchpad is undersized

Lenovo's premium two-in-one for the business set, the ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 boasts a compact and solid design along with excellent battery life and a keyboard that's up to the ThinkPad standard. The 14-inch, 16:10 touchscreen offers enough screen space to get work done while allowing the system to be an easy, thin-and-light travel mate. It's also small enough that the X1 Yoga doesn't feel unwieldy in tablet mode. And with a runtime that exceeds 12 hours, it will get you through the longest of work days on a single charge.

The X1 Yoga Gen 8's display may be the right size for a business two-in-one, but the display options Lenovo offers for it take an all-or-nothing approach that skips the sweet spot for a 14-inch panel. I prefer the HP Spectre x360 14 for smaller businesses in search of a two-in-one with the latest Intel silicon, a sublime design and a display with the right resolution for its size. Granted, it lacks the vPro options of the X1 Yoga, but if that's not important for your needs, the HP is the nicer option. 

The ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 is based on 13th-gen Intel Core processors; Gen 9 models will feature next-gen Core Ultra chips but they won't arrive for another couple of months. Thus, Gen 8 remains the X1 Yoga available right now. The baseline model features a Core i5-1335U processor, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB solid-state drive and a 14-inch touchscreen with a 1,920x1,200-pixel resolution. 

It's hard to pin down pricing because Lenovo's discounts are constantly fluctuating, but at the time of this review, the base X1 Yoga was selling for $1,457. Our test system upgrades the CPU to a Core i7-1355U and doubles the SSD to 512GB and costs $1,671. Our test system doesn't feature a vPro processor, but Lenovo offers a trio of vPro options for enterprises that need the remote-management features this Intel features provides. The ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 starts at £1,930 in the UK and AU$2,676 in Australia.

In testing, the efficient, 15-watt U-series processor allowed the X1 Yoga to produce an outstanding result in battery testing and middling scores elsewhere. It lasted more than 12 hours on our online streaming battery drain test. That's longer than most 14-inch Windows laptops, with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 as the rare exception. (Scroll to the end of this review to see the battery life scores and the results of our other performance tests.) 

The combination of the Core i7-1355U CPU and integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics make the X1 Yoga better suited for general office work rather than creative, graphics-intensive endeavors. It was a step slower than other models based on 13th-gen Intel processors on most of our benchmarks, and was a couple steps behind on our 2D graphics tests (Cinebench) and 3D graphics test (3DMark). The Core Ultra-based HP Spectre x360 14 led the way on every test except battery life, and its merely average runtime can be explained in part because it features a high-resolution OLED display that consumes more energy than a lower-res IPS panel.

X1 non-Carbon 

With its dark gray enclosure, the X1 Yoga gives off business vibes. It looks a bit dull unless you are ready to fully embrace the ThinkPad aesthetic. It's boxy and almost entirely gray, with a few red highlights that include the ThinkPad X1 logo on the lid and wrist rest and the venerable red eraser-nub pointing stick in the center of the keyboard. 

The X1 Yoga is sleek and rugged, but the aluminum chassis pales in comparison to Lenovo's flagship ThinkPad laptop, the X1 Carbon. You'll notice it's labeled the ThinkPad X1 Yoga and not the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Yoga. That's because it lacks the carbon-fiber lid of the flagship laptop as well as its magnesium-alloy keyboard deck. These advanced materials make the X1 Carbon laptop incredibly lightweight, whereas the all-aluminum X1 Yoga is merely average in weight for its size. It weighs a trim 3.1 pounds, which is a hair lighter than the 3.2-pound HP Spectre x360 14. The 14-inch, laptop-only ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11, however, is even more easily transported at only 2.5 pounds.

At just over 3 pounds and with a 14-inch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio that's neither as wide in laptop mode nor as narrow in tablet mode as wider 16:9 panels, the X1 Yoga is a great size for pulling off double duty. It's light enough to hold with one hand in tablet mode and still provides enough screen real estate that I was able to work on it for long stretches in laptop mode without feeling I needed to connect to an external monitor. 

I do have one gripe about using the X1 Yoga in tablet mode. The metal edges that border the screen bezels are rather sharp and make it uncomfortable at times when gripping the X1 Yoga. I wish the transition from screen to the edges of the lid was smoother.

The X1 Yoga, however, provides a smooth typing experience. As with most ThinkPads, the keyboard manages to thread the needle offering a lively and snappy response and yet feeling soft and buttery. Longtime ThinkPad fans may still cling to the pointing stick, but I'd be happy to lose it and the dedicated mouse buttons that come with it because they take up valuable space that could otherwise be allocated to the touchpad. It's much smaller than what you get on other 14-inch models, including the HP Spectre x360 14. I much prefer the HP's touchpad -- not only for its generous dimensions but also for its springy and accurate haptic feedback.

Lenovo includes a garaged pen with the X1 Yoga that can be stowed on the system's right side. It suffices for tapping on small icons to navigate Windows in tablet mode, but it's too skinny to be used as a serious writing implement. 

Our X1 Yoga test system features the baseline display option, which is a 1,920x1,200-pixel, IPS panel rated for 400 nits of brightness. You can also get this panel with a brighter, 500-nit rating and Lenovo's ePrivacy filter that makes it harder for people near you to view your screen. The only other upgrade bumps you up to a 4K OLED panel, which is overkill for a 14-inch laptop and will almost assuredly have a detrimental effect on battery life. If you want an OLED you should wait for the Gen 9 model, which will have a more reasonable 2.8K resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. That would offer more than enough pixels to create sharp images and text on a 14-inch screen while also having a milder effect on shortening battery life.

Text looked fuzzy on our test system's 1,920x1,200-pixel panel and lacked the inky, black sharpness you get at a higher resolution. I would not want to read emails and spreadsheets all day on the X1 Yoga, but I also think a 4K OLED isn't the answer. The display did cover 100% of the sRGB gamut, according to tests I conducted with a Spyder X Elite colorimeter, but dropped to only 77% for AdobeRGB and 78% for P3. This performance, combined with the integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics, makes the X1 Yoga ill-suited for detailed creative work but fine for creating presentations. Its brightness did come close to matching its 400-nit rating; I measured a peak brightness of 385 nits.

The webcam above the display has a 1080p resolution, an IR sensor and a physical privacy shutter. I like getting all three of these items in a webcam, especially on a business laptop. The camera produces images that are finer than what you'd get from an older 720p, but we are starting to see 1440p and even 4K webcams, so suddenly a 1080p webcam is merely average. Still, you'll appear crisp in video conferences. The IR sensor lets you use facial recognition for easy, secure logins (there's also a fingerprint reader integrated into the power button), while the shutter protects your privacy when you aren't using the webcam.

With two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports and two USB-A ports, you won't need to worry about carrying an adapter with you unless you need an Ethernet connection. The X1 Yoga also supplies an HDMI port and a headphone jack. 

The ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 hits many of the right notes for a business two-in-one. It provides a rugged, all-metal chassis that ought to withstand the rigors of daily use and travel along with a screen that's both useful and comfortable in both laptop and tablet modes. And its battery life is outstanding. If your enterprise doesn't require the remote management features of a vPro processor or the X1 Yoga's additional security features, however, I would recommend the HP Spectre x360 14 for its next-gen Intel Core Ultra processor, superior design, 4K webcam and sharp 2.8K OLED display.