Lenovo Yoga 7i review: A long-lasting 2-in-1 with tradeoffs

IDG / Mark Knapp

IDG / Mark Knapp

            <div class="scrim" style="background-color: #fff" aria-hidden="true"></div>
    </div></figure><p class="imageCredit">IDG / Mark Knapp</p></div>

The design is perhaps the highlight of the Lenovo Yoga 7i.There’s little noticeable change from last year’s model. It’s still a smooth, aluminum laptop coming in a smoky gray finish Lenovo calls Storm Grey. With all that metal, it comes together solid, with minimal flex. The display hinge has some wobble to it, but that’s perhaps unsurprising from a hinge that’s responsible for letting the display flip over a full 360 degrees.

This flexible hinge is a signature of the Yoga series, letting it sit in a typical laptop position, fold flat onto a table, flip over into a “tent” mode, or flip all the way over into a tablet mode. The tent mode has some practicality for a laptop with a 16-inch screen, providing a good view of the while allowing it to be set in places without taking up as much surface area — think a table on an airplane or a kitchen counter where space is precious. 

Its size does put it at odds with the tablet use, but it can easily be folded flat to rest on a tablet and take advantage of its touch and stylus inputs. When it’s fully opened, it holds firm, which is crucial for stylus use. If the display were bouncing up and down with every pen stroke, the experience would be ruined, but Lenovo’s design avoids that successfully.

Lenovo managed a reasonably thin design, though keeping the weight down would have been difficult. It’s still impressive that it managed to just narrowly exceed four pounds, but there are other large laptops managing to slip under four pounds, such as the MSI Prestige 16. 

Lenovo’s 2-in-1 design results in a somewhat large bottom bezel, which has proven itself difficult to avoid on folding laptops like this. The rest of the bezels are fairly thin though. Lenovo expanded the area where the webcam sits to also create a lip for easily opening the laptop’s lid. Unfortunately, the base of the laptop isn’t quite heavy enough to stay down while opening the lid, so it still ends up being a two-handed task.

While the design is fairly simple beyond the hinge, one unusual aspect of it is that Lenovo has put the power button on the edge of the laptop instead of somewhere around the keyboard. So far, I’ve found it all too easy to hit the button and put the laptop to sleep any time I grab the sides of the laptop to move it.

Lenovo Yoga 7i: Keyboard, trackpad

IDG / Mark Knapp

            <div class="lightbox-image-container foundry-lightbox"><div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large enlarged-image"><img decoding="async" data-wp-bind--src="selectors.core.image.enlargedImgSrc" data-wp-style--object-fit="selectors.core.image.lightboxObjectFit" src="" alt="Lenovo Yoga 7i 16 keyboard" class="wp-image-2317626" width="1200" height="675" loading="lazy" /></figure><p class="imageCredit">IDG / Mark Knapp</p></div>

    </div></figure><p class="imageCredit">IDG / Mark Knapp</p></div>

The Lenovo Yoga 7i just doesn’t have a great keyboard. It’s a shame to say when so many Lenovo laptops have great keyboards and the Yoga 7i’s looks almost identical, but it simply lacks the stabilization it needs to feel good. Any pressure near the edges of keycaps will see them wiggle considerably, and this makes for an insecure feeling.

Ultimately, I managed to reach a typing speed of 122 words-per-minute with 98 percent accuracy in Monkeytype, which was still quite respectable, but I have a lot of time on Lenovo keyboards behind me, and none of that made it feel any better underneath my fingertips. The mushiness of the keys near their edges can also make repeated presses hit or miss, so consistency proves difficult. 

A small concession is that Lenovo includes a number pad with all the keys in their standard places (albeit with slightly narrow keys), which is a huge win for anyone doing data entry.

The trackpad is at least quite smooth and spacious, providing an easy means of navigation. It responds consistently to clicks and taps as well as multi-finger gestures. While it’s centered below the alpha keys of the keyboard, this does see it left of center on the laptop itself, which can make right-handed navigation less ergonomic. 

Lenovo Yoga 7i: Display, audio