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Lenovo Yoga 7i 14 Gen 7 review: refinements galore

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July 29, 2022

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Lenovo Yoga 7i Gen 7

MSRP $1,050.00

“The Lenovo Yoga 7i Gen 7 is fast, has decent battery life, looks great, and is built like a tank.”

Pros

• Gorgeous aesthetic
• Solid construct quality
• Above-average battery life
• Fast productivity performance
• Colourful display with deep blacks

Cons

• Display not as shiny as competition
• Creativity performance is lacking

Lenovo invented the convertible 2-in-1 form factor. For the uninitiated, that’s where the display swivels 360 degrees from clamshell to tablet mode. The Yoga lineup has evolved through the years, and the redesigned Yoga 7i and the Yoga 9i are a few of one of the best models yet, now of their seventh generation.

The cheaper of the 2, the Yoga 7i Gen 7, carries over the rounded aesthetic and solid performance, making it one in every of the higher 14-inch laptops you possibly can buy.

Price and configurations

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

I reviewed a high-end configuration of the Yoga 7i 14 Gen 7, priced at $1,050 for a Core i7-1255U CPU and a 14-inch 16:10 2.2K IPS display.

The Yoga 7i Gen 7 starts at $880 for a 15-watt 10-core/12-thread Core i7-1235U CPU, 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM, a 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD, and a 14-inch 16:10 2.2K (2240 x 1400) IPS display. The present high-end model is $1,110 for a 15-watt 10-core/12-thread Core i7-1255U, 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, and a 14-inch 16:10 2.2K IPS display. Those prices represent a discount from the retail price listed at Lenovo.com and are quite attractive. A 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED display might be available for the Yoga 7i Gen 7 sooner or later.

Similarly priced laptops include the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 7420, the Acer Swift 3 (2022), and the HP Pavilion Plus 14. The latter two laptops equip the faster Core i7-1260P CPU, and the HP offers a 90Hz OLED display for $1,000.

Design

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

A laptop doesn’t need tons of chrome or extravagant colours to face out. Sometimes the best angles, lines, and curves could make all of the difference. Lenovo clearly understands that and applied those principles to the redesigned Yoga 7i Gen 7. It received the identical rounded chassis edges and sharper display edges because the Yoga 9i Gen 7, with Storm Grey and Stone Blue colours which might be elegantly understated.

Most laptops today attempt to apply minimalist philosophy to their designs, but few hold a candle to the Yoga 7i Gen 7. One which does is HP’s Spectre x360 13.5, which also a more rounded look and a color scheme that works to create its own elegant aesthetic.

Lenovo clearly paid attention to the fit and finish of this laptop.

The Yoga 7i Gen 7 is constructed entirely of aluminum, and Lenovo paid attention to the fit and finish. There’s zero bending, flexing, or twisting within the lid, keyboard deck, or chassis bottom, making this a rigid laptop that rival one of the best around including the Yoga 9i Gen 7 and the Dell XPS 15. Neither the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 nor the Acer Swift 3 (2022) were as solidly built. As well as, the hinge allowed opening the lid with one hand, and it kept the display firmly in place in all 4 modes, clamshell, tent, media, and tablet.

Because of its 16:10 display with reasonably small bezels for a convertible 2-in-1, the Yoga 7i Gen 7 has a small chassis that’s thin at 0.68 inches and lightweight at 3.1 kilos. The Yoga 9i Gen 7 is barely wider and deeper, however it’s thinner at 0.6 inches and almost equally heavy at 3.09 kilos.

The Yoga 7i Gen 7 has the identical reverse notch because the Yoga 9i Gen 7 that houses the webcam and infrared camera. The HP Spectre x360 13.5 has a smaller 3:2 display and is narrower and just as deep while being barely thinner at 0.67 inches and lighter at 3.01 kilos. Overall, the Yoga 7i Gen 7 isn’t the thinnest or lightest 14-inch 2-in-1, however it’s a cushty size nonetheless.

Ports

Connectivity is solid with two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 support, a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, a full-size HDMI 2.0 port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a microSD card reader. Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 provide the fastest wireless connectivity currently available.

Performance

The Core i7-1255U in my review unit is a 15-watt, 10-core (two Performance and eight Efficient), 12-thread CPU geared toward thin and lightweight laptops and typical productivity tasks. Essentially the most common alternative CPU we discover in similar machines is the 28-watt, 12-core (4 Performance and eight Efficient), 16-thread Core i7-1260P. The Yoga 7i Gen 7 is the second laptop we’ve reviewed with the Core i7-1255U, and to date, there’s been a definite performance difference between the 2 CPUs.

The Yoga 7i Gen 7 and Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1, the opposite laptop in our database with the 15-watt CPU, performed similarly except in Geekbench 5, where the Lenovo was significantly faster. I used Lenovo’s thermal management utility to check in balanced and performance modes, and it was moderately effective in cranking up the performance as needed.

The Yoga 7i Gen 7 is fast for demanding productivity tasks, although creators will find it lacking.

In our Handbrake test that encodes a 420MB video as H.265, the Yoga 7i Gen 7 was well behind the Acer Swift 3 2022 and Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 7 with the faster 28-watt processor, and it was slower in Cinebench R23 as well. The identical held within the PCMark 10 Applications benchmark that’s probably the most accurate indicator of productivity performance. Note that the Asus ZenBook S 13 OLED with the eight-core/16-thread AMD Ryzen 7 6800U was also faster within the more CPU-intensive benchmarks.

In comparison with Intel’s Eleventh-gen 28-watt CPUs, nonetheless, just like the quad-core, eight-thread Core i7-1185G7, the Core i7-1255U is a marked improvement. The Yoga 7i Gen 7 is a quick laptop for demanding productivity tasks, although creators will find it lacking. Presumably, the lower power profile can pay dividends in battery life, making the processor a solid compromise.

Intel’s Iris Xe graphics hold no real surprises regarding gaming performance. The Yoga 7i Gen 7 is not any different, performing well given its 15-watt chip but under no circumstances qualifying as a gaming laptop. You’re limited to running older titles and esports.

Display and audio

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Two displays will eventually be available for the Yoga 7i Gen 7. My review unit featured the currently available panel, a 14-inch 16:10 2.2K (2240 x 1400) IPS touch display. Sooner or later, Lenovo will offer a 14-inch 16:10 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED display.

Out of the box, the display was shiny and colourful, with deep blacks. It was nice enough as I used to be writing this review, with sharp text that popped on a white background and natural-looking images and video.

My colorimeter largely agreed with my subjective evaluation. The display was shiny enough at 321 nits, above our 300-nit standard for indoor use but lower than a lot of the displays in our comparison group. Colours were wider than average at 99% of sRGB and 80% of AdobeRGB, whereas the common for mid-range and premium laptops is around 95% sRGB and 75% AdobeRGB.

As we will see, though, IPS displays have been trending up over the past couple of years. Color accuracy was good at a DeltaE of 1.89, where 2.0 or less is taken into account ok for creative work. Again, the Yoga 7i Gen 7 fell behind a few of the other IPS displays. Finally, the contrast ratio was excellent at 1380:1, in comparison with the 1000:1 or higher we prefer to see in premium laptops.

Colours aren’t quite wide or accurate enough for demanding creators, but it is a high-quality display for everybody else. Productivity employees and media consumers, particularly, will love the display.

Two upward-firing tweeters are sited on all sides of the keyboard, and two woofers fire downward on the front bottom of the chassis. The Yoga 7i Gen 7 may not have the spectacular soundbar of the Yoga 9i Gen 7, however it still produces quality audio. There was loads of volume, mids and highs were clean without distortion, and there was a touch of bass. You’ll have the opportunity to do your Netflix binging without headphones, although, as usual, quality music will profit from pair of cans.

Keyboard and touchpad

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

The Yoga 7i Gen 7 has Lenovo’s typical non-ThinkPad keyboard in its general design and layout. It has large, sculpted keycaps and excellent key spacing, with a switch that’s relatively shallow and has an abrupt bottoming motion. Lenovo seems to have two versions of this keyboard, one in every of which has more of a snap and higher precision. This wasn’t that keyboard.

Even so, while it’s a few steps behind one of the best Windows keyboards, Dell’s XPS and HP’s Spectre versions, it’s not a foul keyboard. I discovered it comfortable enough for longer typing sessions, and most users will find it greater than ok.

The touchpad was large and sported a smooth, comfortable surface and reliable support for Windows 11 multitouch gestures. Its buttons are responsive but a bit loud. The display is touch-enabled, as usual for a 2-in-1, and was reliable. The display supports Lenovo’s energetic pen, but one wasn’t included with my review unit.

Webcam and security

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

The webcam is a 1080p infrared hybrid, providing excellent image quality in most lighting conditions together with facial recognition for Windows 11 Hello passwordless login.

There’s also a fingerprint reader on the palm rest. Each methods for logging in worked quickly and reliably. The webcam incorporates a physical slider for added privacy.

Battery life

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

The Yoga 7i Gen 7 has 71 watt-hours of battery capability, which ought to be plenty for a 14-inch laptop with a 15-watt CPU and a high-res IPS display. Many 14-inch laptops I’ve reviewed currently have had significantly smaller batteries, and most suffered from it.

In our battery benchmarks, the Yoga 7i Gen 7 did reasonably well. It fell a bit in need of average in our web browsing test that cycles through some demanding web sites, coming in at seven hours. That’s about an hour lower than the eight hours or more that we prefer to see on this test.

In our video test that loops a 1080p trailer, though, it hit nearly 14 hours, which is a robust result. Finally, within the PCMark 10 Applications test that best indicates productivity battery life, the Yoga 7i Gen 7 did thoroughly at 10.75 hours.

Only the Acer Swift 3 and Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 7 did higher amongst our comparison group. The Lenovo benefitted from a low-power Full HD+ display, and the Acer was simply a robust performer.

Ultimately, you’ll likely get a full day of battery life out of the Yoga 7i Gen 7 in case you don’t push the CPU too hard. Meaning a typical productivity workflow, whereas demanding tasks and artistic work may need you pulling out the charger before the workday ends.

Our take

Lenovo’s redesign of the Yoga 7i Gen 7 completed the identical effect as with the dearer Yoga 9i Gen 7. The Yoga 7i Gen 7 is a lovely laptop with a high quality construct, and its performance and battery life are solid.

There’s a fair higher model on the best way, though, with the next resolution OLED display. That is perhaps price waiting for in case you want a really superior display.

Are there any alternatives?

The Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 is one other 14-inch laptop in the identical price range because the Yoga. Its display isn’t nearly pretty much as good, and its performance and battery life can’t sustain.

When you don’t need the pliability of a 2-in-1, then the HP Pavilion Plus 14 is a solid alternative. You’ll get a laptop with similar performance, if not a bit faster in some applications, together with a 90Hz OLED display that’s simply spectacular. Battery life isn’t even close, though.

Finally, I can’t help but mention the Apple MacBook Air M2. It’s a bit dearer, however it provides even higher construct quality with superior performance and vastly higher battery life.

How long will it last?

The Yoga 7i Gen 7 is built like a tank and can last for years. Its components are up-to-date and can run Windows 11 for just as long. We all the time lament the industry-standard one-year warranty.

Do you have to buy it?

Yes. The Yoga 7i Gen 7 is among the best 14-inch 2-in-1s you possibly can buy. When you want one of the best possible display, hold out for the OLED version coming soon.

Editors’ Recommendations