Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga ITL Review: Quiet, cool, enduring 2-in-1 device

[Redaktion]

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga doesn't attract attention by setting performance records but rather with its good ergonomics. The Lenovo engineers have focused on low emissions, good stamina and a decent keyboard. The touchscreen display can be used both with your fingers and with the included Smart Pen.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkBook-14s-Yoga-ITL-Review-Quiet-cool-enduring-2-in-1-device.514751.0.html

[AllahuAkbar!]

Quiet, cool and half the performance of a cheaper AMD Ryzen 7 4750U/5750U model.

No idea why you would give this slow potato 100% rating in CPU benchmarks. Are you receiving CCP bribes?

[Dorby]

Interesting... Apparently a ThinkBook Yoga has upgradeable ram, wi-fi and dual ssd which is better than most Thinkpad Yogas, and still retains all the ports except for full SD, which is better than all Ideapad Yogas. And unlike some Ideapads, both USB-C ports seem to fully support PD 3.0, DP 1.4 and GbE.

Only 1 year base warranty, 60Wh battery, no matte touch, LTE or IR are not big issues considering this price. TB4, built in Wacom AES and spill-resistant keyboard are great additions.

Of course, I'm mostly curious how the keyboard of the 14s Yoga compares to the Thinkpad X13 Yoga and Ideapad Yoga 7i 14. Would've liked to see some comparison in this review as I'm sure most people are wondering about the same thing with these new ThinkBooks.

Another fact to note, I believe this is the first 2-in-1 Yoga from Lenovo without a "Sensors" section under specifications page in the PSREF website. No accelerometer and gyroscope sensors that are always present, even on most low-end 2-in-1 laptops.

No official Linux support from Lenovo either it seems, from PSREF.

Overall a very good Intel convertible ultrabook. Wish there were more hardware options like i3-1125G4 CPU, 16GB base soldered memory (for dual-channel 32GB) and a QHD 500-600nits display.

[passenger]

I like what Dorby said; wanna share some opinions

In thinkpad X/T/L series, you can see on most of them the ports are 'shielded' on the inside: there are metal covers securing them. On thinkpad E series or ideapad or in fact most other company's laptops you don't quite see this kind of protective measure, even those marketed as 'business' lines. Presumably this boosts the endurance of the ports, but I don't have any experimental data supportting this.

Anyway, on this particular thinkbook yoga model, the metal shield IS present. Presumably this is signals that this is one of Lenovo's top of the line business model. If so, this brings some interesting question, like Dorby mentioned, why is this laptop comparatively more upgradable than the thinkpad X/T series, while having only a 300 nit 16:9 diplay? A ratio that's not particularly good for any use other than watching movie, a brightness level only suitable for indoor usage?

I never got to understand why laptop lines are positioned/designed like this.

[passenger]

Correct myself a bit:
Dorby did NOT say either 16:9 or 300 nit would pose any problem; He/She just mentioned he want 500 nit or up option.
Sorry for being misleading and wrongly quote Dorby.

[xpclient]

Thanks for explaining about the LPDDR4X RAM vs LPDDR4 vs DDR4. You learn something every day. :)

[Mothertrucker19]

Interesting... Apparently a ThinkBook Yoga has upgradeable ram, wi-fi and dual ssd which is better than most Thinkpad Yogas, and still retains all the ports except for full SD, which is better than all Ideapad Yogas. And unlike some Ideapads, both USB-C ports seem to fully support PD 3.0, DP 1.4 and GbE.

Only 1 year base warranty, 60Wh battery, no matte touch, LTE or IR are not big issues considering this price. TB4, built in Wacom AES and spill-resistant keyboard are great additions.

Of course, I'm mostly curious how the keyboard of the 14s Yoga compares to the Thinkpad X13 Yoga and Ideapad Yoga 7i 14. Would've liked to see some comparison in this review as I'm sure most people are wondering about the same thing with these new ThinkBooks.

Another fact to note, I believe this is the first 2-in-1 Yoga from Lenovo without a "Sensors" section under specifications page in the PSREF website. No accelerometer and gyroscope sensors that are always present, even on most low-end 2-in-1 laptops.

No official Linux support from Lenovo either it seems, from PSREF.

Overall a very good Intel convertible ultrabook. Wish there were more hardware options like i3-1125G4 CPU, 16GB base soldered memory (for dual-channel 32GB) and a QHD 500-600nits display.

This device looks really interesting. I think the part of the problem is intel and their vpro CPUs, which only have the older iGPUs.
The internal competition for this would be the L13 Yoga G2 as it has the same CPU options. It also has TB4, nearly the same weight, while being smaller, and only has a 46Wh battery, but has a better keyboard layout.
Also there's the Yoga 6. Has AMD, two USB As and Cs, but only one supports charging unfortunately.

[Dorby]

@Mothertrucker19
Yoga 6 is a good mid-range, however early users have reported thermal throttling and poor performance, so HP Envy 13 x360 AMD may be a better option. Denim looks really nice though.

I've tried one of the former L Yogas - I believe it was L390, but could be wrong - and while the keyboard was really nice, speakers were unusable and the display, while advertised as 300nits, was actually much dimmer than my reference laptop at equal brightness. As a non trackpoint user, the touchpad on that Yoga was also pretty bad.

Also I think Lenovo finally soldered the RAMs on all Thinkpad Yogas this year, including the L13. Whilte HP still has their ProBook and EliteBook 800 series completely socketed, I believe.

[Mothertrucker19]

@Dorby

My biggest problem with the HP convertibles, is they moved the power button to the keyboard so you can't really wake the device up outside of laptop mode. Also the Envy had a few driver issues.

The L series is worse than the others, but it's not on option to me because it's battery life.

Yeah, HP still offers ram slots, but on the 830 x360 G7 they only have one slot, and no soldered memory as far as I know. I could get one of those for real cheap, but the elitebooks weren't fast before, and I don't know how much the single channel memory hurts it. (and also no side power button)

[gandria]

Thank you for this review. I have been looking for a new laptop for my eGPU build. This pretty much checks everything :
- good thermals
- very low noise
- upgradable ram
- 2 SSD drives
- variety of ports, stylus as a bonus
- relatively light
- good battery life
- all this for 1149€ in France, or if you just wait for some special Lenovo sales every month, 1011€ (i7, 16gb ram, 512gb SSD).
With a 400 nits option, this would be the perfect choice.

[Lenovolicker94]

The only big issue I have with my Lenovo thinkbook is that the sound from the speakers is lagging each time I move the keypad too past or a typing at a normal speed. I have checked everywhere. Don't find an answer. Frustrate me to the core. -,-