Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i Review: A Laptop that can do it All!

Lenovo is one of the biggest brands in the global PC market, in part thanks to its huge portfolio of gaming, professional, business, and consumer notebooks. However, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i (14IRH8) is unlike some of its counterparts, offering something for everyone.

But is a mix of everything better than specializing in one area? Let's find out in our full Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i review. Before diving into our review, let's look at pricing. Lenovo's Yoga Pro 7i features a starting price of Rs 99,990, with our model retailing for Rs 1,29,990.

Design and Build

Despite its lightweight build, coming in at just 1.49 kg, the Yoga Pro 7i boasts an aluminum construction. Yes, there's no cheap plastic here! The notebook also measures 15.6mm thick, giving it a sleek look. Moreover, the laptop comes in a sole Tidal Teal color option.

The aluminum lid has both the Lenovo and Yoga branding, while the Lenovo Logo is also spotted on the palm deck. The notebook is also MIL-STD 810H military-grade certified, while the lid goes all the way up to 180 degrees. Unfortunately, the lid's finish wasn't smudge proof but the finish was attractive.

Connectivity

In terms of ports, the Yoga Pro 7i has two USB Type-C ports (one of which supports Thunderbolt 4) and an HDMI 2.1 port on one side. On the other side sits a power button, a physical webcam shutter switch, a combo audio jack, and a full-size USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port.

The laptop runs on Windows 11 Home edition, while wireless connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1. While there was no Ethernet port, connectivity options on the Yoga Pro 7i are quite good, although the notebook could have used another USB Type-A port.

Keyboard & Touchpad

The Yoga Pro 7i has one of the best keyboards we've used on a commercial notebook. The keys are well-spaced out with a good bit of tactility, making it incredibly comfortable to type on over long periods. The keyboard features LED backlighting, while the levels can be automatically adjusted based on the lighting conditions.

Overall typing on the Yoga Pro 7i was both fast and accurate. The trackpad on the Yoga Pro 7i covers a considerably large area with a smooth glass surface. The trackpad is smooth and responsive and features Windows Precision drivers. It was excellent for navigation and works well no matter the surface.

Display

For the display, Lenovo's premium laptop features a 14.5-inch IPS LCD panel with a 3K (3,072 x 1,920 pixels) resolution. The screen boasts a peak brightness of 400 nits and up to 120Hz refresh rate. The display supports 100 percent DCI-P3 color gamut coverage and Dolby Vision for an enhanced viewing experience.

The screen has minimal bezels and a pleasing 16:10 aspect ratio, while fitting a 14.5-inch display in a 14-inch chassis. The display is excellent for consuming entertainment, reproducing content with vibrant colours that are quite accurate. The screen also has excellent viewing angles and comes with Eyesafe Certification 2.0.

It is also TÜV Rheinland Low Blue Light certified, which are tailored to reduce strain on the eyes. Additionally, you can also use Lenovo's Vantage software to fine-tune colors and other aspects of the display's settings, according to your liking. Overall, picture quality is not quite the same as what you'd expect from an OLED or Mini-LED panel but the LCD screen here is top-notch.

Performance

Our model of the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i is equipped with an Intel Core i7-13700H CPU paired with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 laptop GPU. The CPU features 14 cores and 20 threads. Furthermore, the laptop also comes with 16GB of LPDDR5 (5200MHz Memory) RAM and 1TB of M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSD storage. Here are some real-world results:

The Yoga Pro 7i isn't primarily designed for gaming but we managed to run a couple of titles on the notebook thanks to the RTX 4050 GPU. We tested three titles on the Yoga Pro 7i, including Overwatch 2, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Overwatch 2 managed an average of around 80 fps on High settings. On the other hand, Apex Legends was tested on medium settings and delivered 90 fps on average.

Lastly, Call of Duty also managed an average of around 60fps on medium settings. All three titles were tested in 2560 x 1600 pixels resolution. Our results suggests that the Yoga Pro 7i can run e-sports as well as AAA titles, although some concessions will have to be made to run the latter with playable frame rates.

The Intel CPU managed a multi-core score of 12391 points and a single-core score of 2591 points on Geekbench 6. Moreover, in Cinebench R23, the Yoga Pro 7i managed a single-core score of 1832 points and a multi-core score of 16349 points. It is worth noting that both tests were conducted in the Yoga's Extreme Performance mode.

Despite being an ultrabook, the Yoga Pro 7i is equipped with two fans that ensure the keyboard surface doesn't get uncomfortably warm. While in idle or perform regular multitasking work, CPU temperatures fluctuated between 50 to 60 degrees Celsius. However, this changed while gaming, with the CPU consistently hitting 95 degrees.

Now, this shouldn't come as a surprise as the Yoga Pro 7i is packing a lot of heat in a very sleek form factor. Can the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i handle games and 4K video editing, we'd say 'yes'. However, that isn't its primary purpose, so don't expect it to go the distance during long gaming sessions. This is very-much a consumer 'first', gaming 'second' laptop.

Battery

The 14-inch Lenovo laptop packs a sizeable 73Whr battery with a 140W charging adapter bundled in the box. Lenovo claims that the battery can deliver up to 10 hours of battery life on a single charge. We got around 8 to 8.5 hours of battery life on a single charge.

Our workload included multitasking between MS Word, Google Chrome (5 tabs), and playing videos on YouTube. However, to get to the 8-hour number, we had to lower brightness to 60% and listen to music on 50% volume.

This wasn't the case with gaming as the laptop barely delivered over an hour of battery life while playing. The Rapid Charge Express technology delivers fast charging support and is relatively portable.

Audio & Webcam

The Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i boasts a quad-speaker system with Dolby Atmos support. The sound quality was well-above the average for a 14-inch laptop, while there was minimal distortion at higher volumes. While there's a good amount of clarity, the speakers do lack bass.

The notebook is also equipped with a Full HD webcam that comes with facial recognition (Windows Hello Support). The webcam works well so long as you're in a bright room and face recognition is accurate and snappy.

Verdict

The Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i just about does it all. The laptop features a premium design, while maintaining a relatively lightweight build. It also has one of the best keyboards and trackpads we've tested on a 14-inch notebook. Then there's the battery life, which isn't great by any means, but can easily get you through an entire workday.

In the brief period we used the laptop, performance was never an issue. This machine could get you through any task, including video editing and gaming, without any hitches. While the screen does appear to be a letdown when compared to OLED and Mini-LED options, the 120Hz IPS LCD panel is surprisingly good for gaming, particularly if you are running e-sports titles, where the laptop can easily reach the 120fps threshold.

However, the notebook wasn't without its drawbacks like the single full-size USB Type-A port and soldered RAM, although these were minor flaws and far from dealbreakers. The one major drawback of the Yoga Pro 7i is that it gets hot under pressure, which doesn't come as a surprise given its form factor. But that didn't come as a surprise as we are dealing with an ultrabook.

The Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i doesn't really specialize in anything. But that's hardly a bad thing. Instead, it does everything well. It is a premium laptop to suit your style, a productivity workhorse for your business, a more-than casual gaming companion in your downtime, and a lightweight entertainer for your travels. And in our book, that earns the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i an easy recommendation for anyone looking for the laptop that can do it all.