Lenovo Yoga 720: Unbeatable Price and Performance – The Unbiased Review

Laptop, Tent, Stand, Tablet, and Repeat, that’s Lenovo Yoga for you! Since 2012, Yoga is not just a Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline. Now when you search the word ‘Yoga’ online, you do get photos with specific bodily postures but also a series of notebooks and tablets by Lenovo.

Being a tech journalist and a Lenovo Insider, I’ve been fortunate enough to test the industry leading Yoga series of Notebooks and Tablets from Lenovo. Be it the drool worthy Yoga 910 or the quintessential Yoga Tab 3 Pro. But what caught my attention was the latest of the Lenovo stable – the Yoga 720. If you are wondering what is so intriguing about the Yoga 720 then let’s find out in the unbiased review –

Box Contents

In the box, you get the Lenovo Yoga 720 notebook, power adapter, and the usual documentation. And, before we start our review, here is a quick look at the specs of this notebook –

Specs

Design

The Yoga 720 is obviously not as outstanding at the Yoga 910’s glass design but instead, you get a plain but professional and premium looking machine. The body is made up of sturdy but extremely light aluminum. On the top of the lid, the Yoga logo sits on the top left-hand corner. Under the lid, is a minimal bezel 15.6-inch FHD display, standard Lenovo notebook keyboard and an aluminum deck in the same coloring as the lid.

At 12.2 x 8.4 x 0.56 inches and 1.3 Kgs, the Yoga 720 has a good footprint for a convertible. Being a Yoga, you can use it as a Laptop to work on those excels, in Tent or Stand mode to watch your favourite movies and series, and as a Tablet to take notes directly on a work document or send a hand-drawn birthday card using Lenovo Active Pen 2.

In terms of Ports, you get the power jack, a full-size USB 3.1 port and the headphone jack on the left and on the right is another USB port, a MicroSD card reader and a Mini HDMI port.

But to future proof the machine a USB Type-C port should have been included.

Also Read – Rendevous with Brian Leonard, Vice President of Design at Lenovo

Display

The 13.3-inch, 4K UHD IPS display on the Yoga 720 is stunning, with vivid colors and sharp details. As I mostly used it while traveling, I could test it outdoors on the brightest of days and the display was always above my expectations. The sRGB color gamut on the 13.3 UHD IPS AntiGlare LED Backlight panel is simply wow!

Hardware

Lenovo’s hardware game has always been way ahead of the competition be it the choice of materials or innovations like the watchband hinge.

So, let’s visit each component and see how it fares on this machine –

Keyboard and Touchpad

The Yoga 720’s keyboard could use a bit more travel, but it’s not bad. Honestly, if you are switching from one PC maker to another, you would always need a day or two adjust. But once you get the hang of it the keyboards on Lenovo Notebooks are a delight to work on.

Moving on the touchpad, it’s 4.1 x 2.7 in dimensions and is spacious and responsive.

Audio

Dolby Atmos and JBL stereo speakers are a great combo for refined sound. I enjoyed watching music videos and movies on the Yoga 720 thanks to spatial sound experience. It was crystal clear and distortion free during VoIP calls and also during loud audio playback of my playlist. With Dolby Atmos, users can select sound profiles for music, movies, and gaming.

Webcam

The webcam on this machine is 720P and is certified for ‘Skype for Business’. During my VoIP calls, it was well lit and trouble free but the 4K Display demands a higher resolution webcam. If not 4K then at least 1080P.

Software

The device we tested came with Windows 10 pre-installed along with the software Lenovo includes with its machines. For starters, apps like Companion makes it easy for you to keep your system up to date and check its health, while the Settings app lets you take a deep dive into various settings and network options, among other things.

Performance

Graphics

I always thought that I’d need one of those bulky overclocked notebooks to do editing on the Adobe Premiere Pro but the Yoga 720 did it with ease, thanks to its GTX 1050 graphics.

Gaming

In our gaming test, the Yoga 720 played most games at 41 frames per second. In benchmark tests, it scored 119,006 on 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited.

Battery Life

The Yoga 720 lasts easily a day on a single charge. During our test, it lasted almost 9 hours of internet browsing.

Heat

Yoga machines are well ventilated in any mode you use them. I used it in Tent mode and Tablet mode for streaming 5 minutes of 4K video and the base was at 32 degrees Celsius, the center of the keyboard reached 26 degrees. While the charging was on, there was a slight difference of 0.75-1.25 degrees.

The Unbiased Verdict

The Lenovo Yoga 720 is a rare combination of high performance at an affordable price. This beast can handle whatever you throw at it thanks to the 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 processor, NVIDIA® GTX1050, 16 GB DDR4, 1 TB PCIe SSD and that stunning 4K UHD IPS Display. I use the 15″ Retina MacBook Pro (2016) for my editing needs and it’s a pain to lug around. Till the time I had the Yoga 720 for review, I didn’t use my rMBP at all as I had a more powerful and portable machine to work on. God, I miss working on it and watching Game of Thrones on that crisp 4K display in Tent Mode.

• The 720p webcam can be replaced with a Full HD 1080p webcam
• Keyboard keys could have had more travel as 1.2mm is a little less
• USB type-c port could be added to future proof the machine

Lastly, at a starting price of ₹88,050, it is the best Windows 2-in-1 notebook you can buy!

Do let us know if you have any other questions about the device or share your feedback about it in the comments section below or tweet to us @theunbiasedblog