This year at IFA it felt like convertible laptops
and 2-in-1s have taken over the world. Lenovo is a stalwart in this field and
it brought two Yoga convertibles and a Miix 2-in-1. All three are thin and
light and lovely.
Indeed, the Yoga 920 has a 13.9" touchscreen with
vertical bezels that measure just 5mm. The IPS touchscreen flips around 360° on
a hinge built from machined aluminum (for extra durability). The Lenovo Active
Pen 2 can be used if you prefer a stylus to finger input. Note that the screen
is also available in 1080p resolution, which you might want to consider since
battery life goes up from 10.8 hours to 15.5 hours. Either way, the whole thing
weighs just 1.37 kg.
You can configure the Lenovo Yoga 920 with up to an
8th generation Intel Core i7 processor, between 8GB and 16GB of DDR4 RAM and
256GB to 1TB of SATA SSD. It runs Windows 10 Home with with Cortana.
Microsoft's assistant listens to you through
far-field mics (though a 720p camera feels silly on a 4K laptop). Audio also
boasts JBL speakers and if you connect headphones to the 3.5mm jack, there's
Dolby Atmos. Additional connectivity includes 2x USB-C (Thunderbolt and USB-PD
is supported) and one regular USB 3.0. This one is smaller, it comes with a
12.5" IPS touchscreen with 1080p resolution (no 4K option) and anti-glare
coating. The Yoga 720 supports the original Lenovo Active Pen.
You can configure it with 7th generation Intel Core
chips (up to i7), 4GB to 12GB of DDR4 RAM and 128GB to 512GB SATA SSD. On the
audio front, the Lenovo Yoga 720 has Harman Speakers and a digital microphone
array. This model is is lighter - 1.15kg - but it's battery doesn't
last as long, 8 hours. Connectivity has been simplified - one USB-C
(DisplayPort is supported) and one regular USB 3.0.
If you want to go lighter, you need to ditch the
keyboard and go for the Miix 520. It splits in two - a tablet that weighs 880g and a keyboard that adds 180g. Note that the tablet
measures only 9.9mm thick, adding the keyboard brings the total to 15.9mm. That
keyboard is backlit and offers a key travel of 1.5mm.
No need for a keyboard, if you're just going to use
the Lenovo Active Pen 2 stylus on the 12.2" IPS touchscreen. You get
better cameras too - 5MP sensors with autofocus on both the front and back. The
optional 8MP WorldView can capture photos that you later edit in 3D, at least
after you install the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.
Anyway, the top-specced model has an 8th gen Intel
Core i7, but you can go as low as 7th gen Core i3. The memory situation is
better though, you can have between 4GB and 16GB of DDR4 RAM and up to 1TB PCIe
SSD (no SATA here). Battery life is rated at 7.5 hours.
The Lenovo Miix 520 boasts stereo speakers and Dolby
Audio along with a total of four microphones (two on the front, two on the
side). The connectivity is similar to the Yoga 720 - one USB-C (no Thunderbolt)
and one regular USB 3.0.
