Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga review: A sub-$1,000 biz laptop with a stylus

The Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga dares to be different — it wants to stand out from all the other sub-$1,000 business convertibles on the market. Unlike all the other notebooks I’ve reviewed, Lenovo said, “The fingerprint reader doesn’t have to live on the deck! It can be moved to the side and integrated into the power button.”

I was skeptical at first, but after reaching out for the laptop’s edge for biometric authentication, it felt more natural and comfortable. I’m also a sucker for a garaged stylus. The all-aluminum ThinkBook 14s Yoga includes a Smart Pen that has its own silo for rapid charging while it’s not in use.

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga did well on our tests, but it didn’t blow us away. Here’s the best way I can describe it: the Yoga consistently won silver medals, but it couldn’t snatch that highly coveted gold trophy. However it’s reasonably priced so those results are understable.

Although you won’t find me standing on a soapbox raving about the ThinkBook 14s Yoga’s awesomeness (it doesn’t have enough “oomph” for that), I’ll gladly recommend this Lenovo 2-in-1 to business users who’d rather cut off their pinky than spend a penny more than $1,000.

Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga price and configuration options  

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga currently starts at $889 on Amazon and comes with a 14-inch, 1080p display, an Intel Core i5-1135G7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and Intel Iris Xe graphics. 

Our review unit, priced at $951, upgrades your processor to an Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU. If you need more RAM and storage, grab the $1,109 configuration, which sports 24GB of memory and a 1TB SSD. The ThinkBook 14s Yoga is available in Abyss Blue and Mineral Grey.

If the ThinkBook 14s Yoga doesn’t fit into your budget, consider checking out our best laptops under $500 or best laptops under $300 pages. 

Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga design  

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga is the laid-back cool cucumber at business mixers. It’s urbane enough to emanate stylish minimalism vibes, but it also has a toned-down, clean-cut look that screams “I’m serious about making meaningful connections!” This cool-to-the-touch aluminum chassis, coated with an Abyss Blue finish, won’t turn any heads, but it will earn your colleagues’ respect with its professional appearance.

A gaudy, white ThinkBook logo is stamped on the bottom right of the lid. You’ll also find a Lenovo badge on the lid’s top-left corner. One aspect I don't like about the ThinkBook 14s Yoga is its fingerprint-attracting chassis.

The Yoga’s robust build quality is impressive. There’s little to no flex on the deck, display and chassis as a whole. The 360-degree hinges allow this 2-in-1 laptop to transform into several different positions, including tent mode and tablet mode. The side bezels on the 14-inch touch display are ultra-slim, but the chin is prominent. The top bezel is slim-ish and houses a 720p HD camera.

Moving on to the Abyss Blue deck, you’ll find white symbols and letters superimposed on gray keys. Below the island-style keyboard, you’ll find a touchpad that is bordered with a reflective silver trim.

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga isn’t heavy, but there are laptops on the market that are more lightweight. The Yoga weighs 3.3 pounds and is 0.7 inches thick. Its rivals — the Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 (2.7 pounds, 0.6 inches thick), the HP Spectre x360 14 (3 pounds, 0.7 inches thick) and the Acer Swift 3X (3 pounds, 0.7 inches thick) — are all lighter.

Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga ports  

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga has a decent stock of ports that will satisfy business users.

On the left side, you find a USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, a Thunderbolt 4 port, a USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, a headset jack and an HDMI 1.4b port. It’s worth noting that HDMI 1.4b offers less bandwidth than HDMI 2.0, but is still compatible with any standard HDMI cable. The regressive HDMI port is bizarre, but it shouldn’t be a dealbreaker. 

The right side features another USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, a Kensington lock slot, a microSD card slot and a stylus garage for the included Smart Pen.

Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga display  

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga has a 14-inch, 1080p Corning Gorilla Glass display with a screen-to-body ratio of 86%. 

I watched an epic, vicious fight between two legendary beasts in the Godzilla vs. Kong trailer. I could spot the gnarly scars on King Kong’s chest and deep wrinkles on his face. A little girl walking through a lush, verdant jungle with a blood-red scarf showed off the display’s color accuracy. I noticed tiny beads of sweat on a naval captain’s forehead as Godzilla made an unexpected, fiery appearance.

According to our colorimeter, the ThinkBook 14s Yoga reproduces 76% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is greater than the average mainstream laptop (65%) and the Spectre x360 14 (75%), but the Lenovo 2-in-1 couldn’t compete with the ZenBook Flip S (113%) and the Swift 3X (79%).

The Yoga’s brightness level is dim at 313 nits of brightness, but I’ve seen worse. The average mainstream laptop emanates 297 nits while the Swift 3X only emits 294 nits. The ZenBook Flip S and the Spectre x360 14, on the other hand, are brighter than the Yoga with 375 nits and 365 nits, respectively.

The Yoga shares the same color-accuracy score as the Spectre x360 14 — its Delta-E is 0.2 (lower is better), which is pretty damn good. The ZenBook Flip S (0.3) and Swift 3X (0.35) are less color accurate.

Let’s not forget that the ThinkBook 14s Yoga has a touch display, which unshackles you from the deck and invites you to explore the interactive screen. I had no issues navigating the web via tablet mode — I used the pinch-to-zoom gesture with ease and I whizzed back to previous pages with smooth swiping motions. When I was ready to dive back into using the keyboard and touchpad, the sturdy 360-degree hinges allowed me to transfigure the Yoga back into clamshell mode swiftly and effortlessly.

Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga keyboard and touchpad 

I typically adore Lenovo’s keyboards, but the island-style keyboard on the ThinkBook 14s Yoga is just OK. It won’t win any awards, but it does the job. Compared to other great keyboards (I love the keyboard on the Lenovo Legion 7), the shallow keys don’t spring back as quickly as I’d like after actuation. Still, l had a satisfactory typing experience. On the 10fastfingers.com typing test, I reached 85 words per minute, which is slightly lower than my 87-wpm average.

On the plus side, I love how quiet the Yoga’s island-style keyboard is — you could be typing an angry letter to an ex with rage and aggression, but no one would know because the keys are damn-near silent. Below the space bar is a 4.1 x 2.8-inch touchpad that feels like silk to the touch, yet has sufficient resistance for speedy mouse movements. Thanks to its Windows 10 Precision drivers, gestures, such as three-finger tabbing and two-finger scrolling, were super responsive.

Unlike most laptops, the Yoga’s fingerprint scanner isn’t located on the deck — it is integrated into the power button, which is nestled on the right side of the laptop. Setting up the fingerprint sensor was a breeze and it works like a charm with Windows Hello. 

Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga Smart Pen 

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga includes a Smart Pen that is housed on the right side of the chassis. The stylus garage charges the pen while you’re not using it. It charges up to 85% in 15 seconds and 100% in 5 minutes. The Smart Pen has 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity.

Using the Smart Pen, I launched one of my favorite multiplayer browser games, Skribbl.io, which lets you play online Pictionary with strangers all around the world. As I was prompted to draw a log, the Grinch and a snowman, the Smart Pen’s smooth input allowed me to quickly sketch the drawings with accuracy. I racked up many points as the online room immediately caught on to what I was drawing. The Smart Pen gave me an upper hand over my opponents as it was clear some players used a touchpad to draw their Pictionary words, leaving the room confused on what the heck they were sketching.

I also had fun drawing funky portraits and jotting down notes on the Whiteboard app. Don’t expect the ThinkBook 14s Yoga’s Smart Pen to be as ergonomic as the Apple Pencil or the Surface Pen, but it does the job for quick sketching and note-taking sessions. 

Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga audio  

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga features dual Harman-branded speakers located on the laptop’s underside. I hope you’re not a music producer or a podcast editor because the Yoga’s speakers aren’t meant for anything more than just a solo jamming session in a quiet room. I turned the volume up to the max and played “Up” by Cardi B, but instead of filling my small testing room, the catchy tune played at a low decibel level. It was very anticlimactic.

If you have plans of placing the Yoga on a table and watching Netflix with loved ones, be prepared to have tomatoes thrown at you for the hushful sound. However, if having thunderously loud speakers isn’t your thing, the Yoga’s low-volume speakers won’t irk you — especially if you’ll be working in a quiet office. 

The Yoga has a Dolby Audio app to tune the speakers to your liking. There are four audio presets: Movie, Music, Game and Voice. Strangely enough, I preferred the Movie profile because it placed more emphasis on mids and lows that seemed more flat with the Music preset. When I tried to listen to my favorite podcast “Brilliant Idiots,” I cringed when I used the Voice preset that the Dolby Audio app claims to be optimized for podcasts. It made the hosts sound like they’re talking in a hole. I preferred the Game preset, which accentuated and highlighted the hosts’ voices.

Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga performance  

I swarmed the ThinkBook 14s Yoga, powered by an Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU and 16GB of RAM, with a deluge of 36 Google Chrome tabs. I also threw in a duo of YouTube pages playing 1080p videos for good measure. The Lenovo 2-in-1 didn’t even bat an eye, refusing to lag and slow down despite my avalanche of RAM-eating processes.

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga shares the same CPU as all three of its competitors. Although the Lenovo convertible output a score that was close to most of its rivals, it wasn’t enough to surpass them on the Geekbench 5 overall performance test. The ThinkBook 14s Yoga achieved 4,865, which bested the average mainstream laptop (4,728). However, the ThinkBook 14s Yoga couldn’t beat its opponents: the ZenBook Flip S (4,952), the Spectre x360 14 (4,904) and the Swift 3X (5,846).

On the HandBrake test, theThinkBook 14s Yoga transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in 16 minutes and 28 seconds, which is zippier than the average mainstream laptop (19:13), the ZenBook Flip S (22:05) and the Spectre x360 14 (17:02). However, the Swift 3X kicked some serious butt with a stellar time of 11 minutes and 54 seconds.

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga’s 512GB SSD duplicated 25GB of multimedia files in just 30 seconds for a transfer rate of 886.4 megabytes per second. This rate is faster than the category average (446.8MBps), Spectre x360 14 (764MBps, 1TB SSD) and the Swift 3X (771.5MBps, 1TB SSD). However, the Asus ZenBook Flip S (1TB SSD) put all of its rivals to shame with an ultra-fast rate of 979.4MBps.

Save for the Swift 3X (powered by Intel’s Iris Xe Max graphics), the ThinkBook 14s Yoga, Asus ZenBook Flip S and Spectre x360 14 have the same GPU: Intel Iris Xe. The Lenovo convertible isn’t ideal for graphics-intensive tasks like gaming, but if you wanted to play Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm, for example, the ThinkBook 14s Yoga would produce 17 frames per second. This is only a frame higher than the average mainstream laptop and the ZenBook Flip S (16 fps). Unsurprisingly, the Swift 3X — thanks to the added boost from the Iris Xe Max GPU — offered the best frame rates (26 fps) followed by the Spectre x360 14 (20 fps).

Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga battery life

On the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness, the ThinkBook 14s Yoga lasted a respectable 9 hours and 55 minutes. This is 48 minutes longer than the average mainstream laptop (9:07). The ThinkBook 14s Yoga also beat the Asus ZenBook Flip S (8:07) and the Acer Swift 3X (7:53). The Spectre x360 14 had the best endurance of them all with a battery runtime of 12 hours and 11 minutes. 

Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga webcam  

The 1280 x 720-resolution HD webcam, located on the top bezel, isn’t half bad. Some positives include a privacy shutter that blocks your webcam feed while it’s not in use, decent color reproduction and satisfactory details. On the downside, the picture quality has some visual noise and it overexposes light sources.

I loved that the camera picked up on my dark-blue hoodie and the intricate details of a bronze frame that bordered a painting on my bedroom wall. The ThinkBook 14s Yoga’s camera will do just fine for personal Zoom calls with loved ones, but if you prefer a professional, sharp, high-quality look for hosting virtual conferences or vlogging, I’d recommend purchasing an external webcam.

Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga heat 

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga remained as cool as the other side of the pillow. The touchpad reached 75 degrees Fahrenheit, which is way below our 95-degree comfort threshold. The keyboard and bottom of the laptop also remained temperate, reaching only 82 and 87 degrees, respectively. The ThinkBook 14s Yoga’s hottest location — an area near the vents on the underside — peaked at 91 degrees. 

Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga software and warranty   

If you can’t stand bloatware, you’ll appreciate that Lenovo didn’t load up the ThinkBook 14s Yoga with unnecessary, useless pre-installed software. Other than Microsoft Solitaire Collection, there’s no Farm Heroes Saga, Candy Crush Soda Saga and other silly games.

With the ThinkBook 14s Yoga being equipped with a stylus, apps like Snip and Sketch, Lenovo Pen Settings and Smart Note will be useful to you. The latter lets you write notes on the display even when the screen is locked.

You’ll also find a Service Hotkey, decorated with a cute customer-service agent logo, that can be accessed via the F9 button. It launches a web page that features useful information about your device, including its warranty status, serial number and more. On top of that, the Service Hotkey lets you scan for updates, run system diagnostics, contact Lenovo support, purchase parts and other helpful resources.

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga is equipped with Windows 10 Pro and it comes with a slew of typical Microsoft properties, such as Your Phone, Xbox Game Bar, People, OneNote and the Mixed Reality Portal.

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga ships with a one-year limited warranty. See how Lenovo did on our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands ranking. 

Bottom line 

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga is a 2-in-1 that’s ideal for business users who hate scrambling for pens that never seem to be within reach. They can simply whip out the included Smart Pen and jot down notes without missing a beat.

The Lenovo 2-in-1 had some difficulties nabbing first place on our benchmarks, but at the same time, its scores were decent. The convertible often landed in second place. It outperformed two-out-of-three competitors on the battery test (it lasted nearly 10 hours), the video-transcoding benchmark (it completed the task in 16 minutes) and the file-copy test (25GB of data copied in just 30 seconds). 

If you want a top performer, the Acer Swift 3x is a decent choice, but it’s $250 more, its battery life is shorter, and it doesn’t come with a stylus.

Overall, if you don’t want to spend a penny more than $1,000 — and you want an impressive 14-inch business-oriented convertible with an included Smart Pen — you can’t go wrong with the ThinkBook 14s Yoga.