New Lenovo Yoga 910 Review

VERDICT

Lenovo's flagship 2-in-1 laptop slims down while gaining an inch of screen real-estate, but not all is perfect about this most impressive model update.

PROS:

Substantially larger screen,Rocking speakers,Edgier looks

CONS:

Large chin,Heats up (and gets loud) fast,Disappointing battery life

After sticking with the same design for two years, Lenovo is giving the Yoga 900 a dramatic makeover – so much so that it's fair to say the Yoga 910 is completely different 2-in-1 laptop . Lenovo has tweaked or completely changed every element of its flagship convertible with a slimmer chassis, larger 13.9-inch UHD screen, smaller bezels, revamped keyboard layout and Intel’s latest 7th generation processors.

However, all these little improvements have made the Lenovo Yoga 910 a slightly more expensive device, starting at $1,049 (£1,299, AU$1,999). Aside from the higher price tag, a few new longevity and comfort issues prevent it from being the best hybrid machine on the market.

Lenovo Yoga 910 review

Pricing and availability

With that starting price, the Yoga 910 isn’t the world’s most affordable flagship 2-in-1. However, for this premium, you get a loaded starting configuration with a 1080p touchscreen, a speedy Intel Core i7-7500U processor, a respectable 8GB of memory and a 256GB SSD.

For a slightly pricier $1,159 (£1,399, AU$2,499), the 13-inch HP Spectre x360convertible offers twice as much storage.

Alternatively, the Samsung Notebook 7 Spin is outfitted with discrete Nvidia GeForce GT 940MX graphics and 16GB of RAM for $1,199 (or £899 in the UK minus 4GB of RAM and flash storage). It’s arguably the most powerful machine in this lot, thanks to its dedicated graphics chip, but you’ll too be limited to a 1080p screen and a last-generation Intel Core i7 processor. Though, the combo of a 128GB SSD and a 1TB HDD is tough to ignore.

Our review configuration bumps things up quite a bit with more storage and memory, but it will cost you more dough at $1,349 (£1,749, AU$2,799). HP recently introduced a new 4K Spectre x360 at a kingly sum of $1,599 (about £1,290, AU$2,090).

Design

The Lenovo Yoga 910 is among the thinnest convertible laptops in the world, measuring in at just 0.56 inches (1.43cm). The 0.54-inch thick HP Spectre x360 just manages to edge it out by a few hundredths of an inch.

Compared to the last-generation Yoga 900 , the Yoga 910 is only a sliver thinner by 0.03 inches (0.01cm). Lenovo’s latest flagship convertible is also 0.2 pounds heavier than last year’s model, and this is due to its denser 79 Watt-hour battery and 0.6-inch larger display.

While it isn’t that much thinner, this new hybrid has a new sleeker and sharper styling rather than the slightly curvy frame of yesteryear. The Lenovo Yoga 910 exudes a starkly modern design with straight lines forming sharp angles, including places you wouldn't expect such embellishment. For example, the top and bottom half of the notebook meet to a slightly indented V-shape, aligning into a more prominent gap near the watchband hinge.

The modern touches are a welcome change after seeing practically the same design for the last two years, though it also feels as if Lenovo went too far in certain respects.

The leatherette interior made the Yoga 900 so comfortable to use, and now it has been replaced with a cold, aluminum sheet. Lenovo’s use of a harder metal for the entire chassis proves to be more scratch resistant, but it’s also more abrasive to the touch than a MacBook Pro or the Asus ZenBook 3

As with all other Ultrabooks of this generation, the Yoga 910 adopts USB-C for charging, video out and fast data transfers. However, it hasn’t subbed out every USB-A port, leaving one to connect your legacy peripherals. A newly-added fingerprint reader also makes its way onto the keyboard deck, and we love using it to sign in via Windows Hello with a single tap.

Lenovo Yoga 910 review

Make my screen grow!

The Dell XPS 13 and XPS 15 blew us away by packing larger screens into smaller chassis, and now Lenovo captures the same magic with the Yoga 910.
The display panel size has been bumped up from 13.3-inches to 13.9-inches without drastically increasing the size of the frame. In fact, this laptop features some of the thinnest bezels we've ever seen on a Lenovo device, save for an unsurprisingly fat bottom lip.

This is thanks to Lenovo slimming down the bezels along the top and sides while moving the webcam to the sizable chin beneath the screen. It effectively apes Dell’s InfinityEdge screen; the only discernible difference being that Lenovo has smartly placed the webcam in the center of the screen rather than off to the left.

Aside from simply being a physically bigger screen, this is the first Yoga laptop to feature a 4K display. It’s a flat screen real estate upgrade that’s roomier for multiple open windows. It’s also just big enough for watching movies with a friend, and the down-firing JBL speakers offer some surprisingly nuanced sound – so long as you’re not muffling the audio with your lap.

Unfortunately, the display is not completely perfect. The screen is a bit dim, and you’ll need to set the screen brightness at 70% or higher to see it clearly in the sun, which is a huge drain on battery life. Aside from that, there’s plenty to appreciate about the Lenovo Yoga 910 bigger, sharper, and more contrast-rich display.

The Lenovo Yoga 910 comes ready to get work done, and it ran flawlessly through multiple days of punishing tasks in our testing. There isn’t the slightest hint of slowness, even while editing multiple photos in Photoshop with a dozen websites open in both Firefox and Chrome, and yet another app streaming Google Play Music.

Although it’s great that the Lenovo Yoga 910 is powerful enough to keep up with our daily tasks, it doesn’t do so without protest. The laptop’s fans kick on regularly and loudly, even with a simple process such as a web browser. What’s more, the notebook gets noticeably warm on our lap, even with the cooling system operating at full blast.

The Yoga series has had a history of turning in lower benchmark numbers and better battery life in our testing; however, that trend doesn’t continue this time around.

Lenovo’s top 2-in-1 bests everyone – that includes the Razer Blade Stealth and HP Spectre x360 – in the graphics department with the highest 3DMark scores. However, it has a markedly lower score in PCMark 8 and other processor-testing benchmarks than HP’s rivaling hybrid and Razer’s Ultrabook.

We attribute these results to the fact that Lenovo may have tuned the integrated graphics on it’s 2-in-1 to better help it drive 4K screen, whereas the Blade Stealth is only QHD+ and the Spectre x360 features a Full HD display. 3DMark puts every machine on a level playing ground by running the tests at Full HD, allowing the Yoga 910 to pull ahead.

PCMark 8 and the other CPU-taxing benchmarks make no such accommodation, and so the Ultra HD resolution ends up hurting the convertible’s overall scores elsewhere. For instance, the Yoga 910’s results sit about even with and follow the same trends as the Dell XPS 13 .

Battery life

Lenovo rates the Yoga 910 for 10 hours of battery life with its new 79 Watt-hour cells, but it really should cut that estimate in half. The convertible laptop lasted an average of 4 hours and 23 minutes through the grueling PCMark 8 battery test, and then only nine minutes longer on our more conservative movie test.

We were also only able to put in about four hours of work – with an extra 30 minutes if we lowered the screen brightness – before we had to plug in the notebook.

That’s far less than the nine-hour marathon the Spectre x360 managed to run on our movie benchmark. Sure, HP’s 13-inch convertible has a far lower screen resolution, but even its bigger, 4K 15-inch brother with discrete graphics lasted a full hour longer.

Despite packing denser energy cells, they simply can’t keep up with the greater energy demands of the Lenovo Yoga 910’s 4K display and near-constantly running fans.

We liked

In an age of the ever-thinning Ultrabook , Lenovo dares to swim against the current to bring us an 2-in-1 laptop that’s bigger, badder and still a tiny bit thinner. What’s more, it doesn’t sacrifice a quality typing experience nor all its legacy USB ports to get there.

The added screen real estate and bump up in resolution rivals even the Surface Book ’s spacious, sharp display. Add a solid pair of speakers to back up the visuals, and the Lenovo Yoga 910 is one of the best 2-in-1 devices for watching video.

We disliked

Unfortunately, for all the good that comes with the Yoga’s latest revision, battery life takes a dramatic hit. How hot and loud this laptop runs, as well as almost always requiring maximum screen brightness, are both knocks against the Lenovo Yoga 910.

Final verdict

The Lenovo Yoga series has been a rollercoaster of admirable innovations and disappointments. The Yoga 3 Pro was a feat of engineering marred by poor performance and poorer battery life. Short after, the Lenovo Yoga 900 was a resounding improvement, adding more battery life and processing power. Unfortunately, the Yoga 910 feels like both an improvement and misstep for the storied laptop line.

On one hand, it’s one of Lenovo’s best designs yet, packing a 14-inch screen into a 13-inch chassis. On the other, we wish the machine’s thermals were more refined. The larger, sharper display would have been a welcome addition if it didn’t come at such a cost to battery life.

Ultimately, the Lenovo Yoga 910 is an undeniably unique 2-in-1 laptop in a sea of homogeneous hybrids. It’s sleek styling and gorgeous, larger display are well worth your attention. However, if you’re looking for something a little cheaper and longer lasting, the HP Spectre x360 (both the 13- and 15-inch versions) may better suit your needs.