Lenovo Yoga 720 review: Discrete GTX 1050 graphics is worth the weight - reddanstivoung
adam_patrick_murray@idg.com Put Nvidia's GTX 1050 into the Lenovo Yoga 720, and suddenly you have a laptop that can play games arsenic well as it can scraunch numbers pool and well out movies.
At a Glance
Skillful's Rating
Pros
- Discrete Nvidia GTX 1050 GPU gives a mainstream laptop any gaming chops
- Crisp 1920×1080 display on review unit, plus 4K option
Cons
- Heavy: The laptop is 4.5-plus pounds, the AC adapter is 1.25 pounds
- The fan disturbance can personify distracting
- The smooth surfaces on the keys and trackpad nates be slick
Our Verdict
A flexible design, separate graphics, and an attractive display make the Yoga 720 a versatile and affordable take-away.
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The Lenovo Yoga 720 may look like a mainstream laptop, but underneath its mild outside is a secret ability: separate Nvidia GTX 1050 graphics. It's not a tiptop-mogul—you tush find gaming laptops with more sinewy GPUs. Stuffing a discrete GPU into a laptop creates some compromises, too, especially in weight and thermals. Still, the Yoga 720 gives you some gambling chops for a reasonable price. Considering it's as wel a 360-degree convertible, you're getting a lot of versatility for the money.
Price, specs, and features
The model we tested (80X7001WUS) is actually on the lower end of the Yoga 720 business line at $1,260 as of this penning. Lenovo skimps here and at that place to keep costs down, Eastern Samoa you'll regard when we go through the specs, but don't estimate it until you see how it performs in our tests.
CPU: Intel Core i7-7700HQ. This is a fast mobile C.P.U. that you'll as wel see in the premium Dell XPS 15. It's a 7th-generation Kaby Lake part with four cores and eight threads, and you'll see what they can neutralize our CPU-intensifier public presentation tests to a lower place.
Chock up: 8GB of DDR4 2,400MHz. You'd have to cuticle out at any rate $90 more to come a 16GB model in this line, and the single-channel memory May also be a slight detriment to the Yoga 720's public presentation.
Melissa Riofrio/IDG The Yoga's signature 360-degree hinge means you can employment models like this Yoga 720 in whatsoever position from clamshell to tablet.
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 with 2GB of memory. Every bit far-famed to a higher place, you can find laptops with higher-end GPUs, only this one strikes a good monetary value-performance balance. There's also integrated Intel HD 630 graphics
Display: 15.6-inch FHD (1920×1080) LED IPS touch screen with a 720p camera along the top bezel. This display looks crisp, merely we measured the maximum brightness of our test unit's screen at just 296 nits. This is enough for most situations (250 nits is a beatific degree for indoor use), and it credible helped Lenovo shave bump off a little cost compared to laptops whose displays radiancy as bright As 350 operating theater even 400 nits. If it's any consolation, brighter display settings use more battery life.
The Yoga 720 also comes in versions with a 4K screen out. While that lofty resolution is ever tempting, it's important to note that such displays tax a laptop's GPU and battery animation. You can see the dispute in our Execution section, where we compare the Yoga 720 to the 4K-equipped Dingle XPS 15.
The display can accept pen stimulant, simply a Lenovo Active Pen is not included with our model.
Genus Melissa Riofrio The Lenovo Yoga 720 offers USB-C with Bombshell equally well as the older USB-A.
Storage: 256GB Samsung PM961 NVMe SSD. This is a satisfactory amount of storage on the nice, fast NVMe interface.
Ports: Two USB-A Type 3.0 (5Gbps), and unmatched USB-C Typecast 3.1 (10Gbps) with Bolt of lightning support for display connection and fast information transportation. In that location's also a fingermark reader for hallmark via Windows Howdy.
Weight: We measured the laptop at 4.55 pounds on our postal graduated table, a bit on the heavy root. But we're non done yet: Supply in the 6-electric cell, 72Wh, 135-W AC adapter that goes with the discrete GPU, and weighs another 1.25 pounds, and you have nearly 6 pounds of hardware to haulage around. Or honorable give up and keep it on your coffee tree table.
Melissa Riofrio/IDG The AC arranger the Lenovo Yoga 720 needs to support its discrete GPU is bigger and heavier than you might await compared to mainstream laptops with integrated graphics.
Dimensions: 14.3 x 9.5 x 0.75 inches
Soma material: The top off and bottom are aluminum, in a matte finish of Iron Grey in our revue unit. It also comes in Platinum Silver. The creamy, 360-degree hinges felt infallible, and there was nary any flex between the two halves of the laptop.
Audio, keyboard, and trackpad
It's hard to complain about a laptop with a big, crisp display. Everyday applications face great and have lots of room to spread knocked out. Streamed movies evidenc details you'd miss on ordinary screens.
I flatbottomed liked the audio quality, which I normally expect to be disappointing along laptops. In this case, the dual JBL speakers with Dolby Audio frequency Premium seemed fitter than usual to my ears in clamshell mode, with the substantial reflecting off my work surface. When I turned the Yoga 720 into camp out or tablet mode, the speakers were firing accurate at me, and seemed nicely loud and vivid—not tinny and weak.
It's skillful to have that 360-degree versatility, just realistically the Yoga 720 is heavy for a tablet—I wouldn't want to balance it for tenacious in my lap, let alone hold it in the air. This is a machine you'll most likely keep on a ferment rise in whatever configuration.
Melissa Riofrio/IDG The keyboard and trackpad happening the Lenovo Yoga 720 were soh smooth, my fingers kept sliding hit.
The keyboard and trackpad wired me far more than I'd like, unfortunately. With surfaces As smooth-textured and matte as the rest of the chassis, both components were improbably lubricious. I ready-made all kinds of FALSE swipes and taps on the trackpad, and my fingers kept flying away the keys accidentally. The keys put on't have any concavity, which would have helped my fingers stay put. These components are the most personal aspects of a laptop computer so I didn't let these experiences scuttle the entire review, but if I were to buy this laptop it would be disdain these cardinal parts.
IT also must be said: When you pay off discrete GPU power, you also get fan randomness and big vents. The Yoga 720 has a high air-intake grille on the bottom instrument panel, and rhetoric exhausts from an equally blanket dance band of vents along the flexible joint. The fans kicked in frequently during testing and use. The volume was noticeable, and the sexy exhaust could possibly flavour uncomfortable if you were holding IT as a tablet on the flexible joint side, or if you were balancing IT on your circuit.
Melissa Riofrio/IDG The Lenovo Yoga 720's distinct GPU means it inevitably a wide zephyr intake under the chassis, and an equally blanket heat-exhaust array between the hinges.
Yoga 720 performance: Nipping at the XPS 15
The Yoga 720's thermal profile figured into its performance in our tests. We'rhenium comparing the Lenovo Yoga 720's performance mainly to that of the Dell XPS 15. They have the cookie-cutter quad-effect Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU and Nvidia GTX 1050 distinct GPU, but the Dell XPS 15 we reviewed has 16GB of RAM compared to the Yoga 720's 8GB, and a 4K display compared to the Yoga 720's 1080p.
The XPS 15 is also a grapple laptop designing, sort o than the Yoga 720's exchangeable. This fundamental difference means the XPS 15 doesn't have to worry as much about rut—no one's going to hold it in their hands, as they might if they flip the Yoga 720 into tablet mode. We ran the relentless Furmark test on the Yoga 720 and filmed a top temperature after continuous activity of about 178 degrees Fahrenheit, which is tolerable. In our habitual run of Central processor-centrical tests, the Yoga 720 did seem to be keeping punt to hold on its cool.
We also compared the Yoga 720 to the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro and HP Spectre x360. They resemble the Yoga 720 in their convertible designs and intended audiences, merely they use of goods and services the dual-nub Core i7-7500U, and their GPUs, while discrete, are not quite as powerful.
PCMark 8 Act upon Conventional
First up is PCMark 8 Work Conventional benchmark, which simulates everyday activities like web browse, telecasting confabulate, and document editing. IT's a good test for uninflected the CPU's character in everyday economic consumption. For context, any motorcar scoring 2,000 or higher up will sail along smoothly during these low-pitched-intensity tasks.
Melissa Riofrio/IDG The Lenovo Yoga 720's PCMark 8 Work Straight score of 3,135 is in reality very good, but it falls behind the Dell XPS 15 and Samsung Notebook computer 9 Pro, likely because of thermal throttling.
Given the Yoga 720's quadriceps femoris-core group CPU, this benchmark should be a take the air in the parking lot, and it posted a very good score of 3,135. Note, notwithstandin, its lag behind both the Dell XPS 15 and the supposedly lower-battery-powered, double-core Samsung Notebook 9 Affirmative. This is likely due to the caloric profile we mentioned to a higher place. The single-canalise RAM configuration, offering less gettable memory bandwidth for organisation tasks, may besides play a role. Either way, it's a within reason minor shortfall.
Cinebench R15 carrying out
Another good CPU test is Cinebench R15, a free benchmark that measures a laptop computer's ability to render 3D modeling. Most laptops finish the job in righteous a couple of minutes, so it's a good approximation of how a system volition manage brief moments of high CPU usage. Also, information technology loves threads, and you can see how that kit and boodle KO'd in the results.
Melissa Riofrio/IDG The Hyper-Threading in the Lenovo Yoga 720 (and the Dell XPS 15) shows its worth in the CPU-intensive Cinebench R15 benchmark. Lacking Hyper-Threading, the Core i5 laptops just tail't dungeon up.
Fountain throttling once over again held binding the Yoga 720 a little compared to the more traditional laptop computer design of the XPS 15. Still, both machines' quadriceps-burden, Hyper-Threaded CPUs leave the dual-core Core i5s in the Notebook computer 9 In favour of and Spectre x360 eating junk.
Handbrake encoding performance
Our last CPU-intensive essa is the Handbrake encoding bench mark, which involves converting a 30GB MKV file to a smaller MP4 using the Android Tablet preset. It's a CPU-concentrated test, and because of how long information technology runs, the results tin besides reveal how a system handles itself under heavy thermal onus.
Melissa Riofrio/IDG The Lenovo Yoga 720 stayed within range of the Dell XPS 15, but thermal throttling likely unbroken it from a closer run.
Information technology's no surprise to see the Lenovo Yoga 720 and Dell XPS 15 outstrip the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro and HP Spectre x360. Their quadriceps-core CPUs are hard to beat. But the time-honoured laptop design of the XPS 15 maintains its edge over the convertible Yoga 720 and its constrained thermal profile.
3DMark Skydiver bench mark
Futuremark's 3DMark Flip Diver is a synthetic test that measures the graphics performance of a Personal computer. Although it doesn't utilization an actual computer game engine, it's still well respected and clearly shows what you get if you opt for a discrete GPU.
Melissa Riofrio/IDG The GTX 1050 in the Lenovo Yoga 720 shows its might in 3DMark Skydiver, even with thermal throttling.
The Lenovo Yoga 720 holds back a bit up to now again, just it stays within plenty of the likewise equipped Dell XPS 15, and they far outpace the Radeon 540 in the Samsung Notebook 9 In favou and the and GeForce 940MX in the HP Wraith x360.
Battery life: The Yoga 720's 1080p screen helps
Earlier we dive into the battery life, recollect that your mileage will vary. The way you use your laptop will affect its endurance, and some components derriere facilitate—or hinder. For our test, we set the display luminance at an authority-emblematic 250 nits and run low-spirited the barrage by looping a 4K video, with a pair of earbuds plugged in and the laptop computer put together to airplane mode.
In the grammatical case of the Lenovo Yoga 720, its 72Wh stamp battery is jolly big, but so is the appetite of its discrete GPU and quad-substance CPU. It posted a good 7 hours-plus (426 minutes) of battery life—not nearly as long as the 9 hours, 50 minutes from the dual-Congress of Racial Equality Samsung Notebook computer 9 Pro, but a lot better than the 5 hours, 31 minutes eked out by the Dell XPS 15.
Melissa Riofrio/IDG The Lenovo Yoga 720's 72Wh battery managed a good 7 hours, 6 minutes in our battery test. The Dell XPS 15's shorter prison term is likely due to its 4K panel, a usable caveat to prevent in take care if you're eyeing the 4K option on the Yoga 720.
Blame the XPS 15's shorter prison term on its 4K display, compared to the 1080p display on the Yoga 720. More pixels means more of a power crunch. Keep that in psyche if you decide to apply the 4K selection on the Lenovo Yoga 720—your battery life leave suffer.
Decision
If there's anything threatening mainstream-plus laptops equivalent Lenovo's Yoga 720, it's the new generation of ultrabooks with Nvidia's distinct GPUs and Georgia home boy-Q technology. Max-Q laptops are putative to give you the sweetest spot: gaming-fix art in cut, light PCs. However, Max-Q laptops are still a little rare and expensive. The Yoga 720 offers a decent helping of gaming magnate in a handsome package that doesn't weigh or cost too much. If I tin hate the keyboard and trackpad and still articulate it's a complete deal, that's saying something.
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Melissa Riofrio spent her formative journalistic geezerhood reviewing some of the biggest robust at PCWorld--desktops, laptops, reposition, printers--and she continued to focus on computer hardware examination during stints at Figurer Currents and CNET. Presently, in addition to superior PCWorld's content direction, she covers productiveness laptops and Chromebooks.
Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/407295/lenovo-yoga-720-review.html
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