1. The list in brief
2. Best overall
3. Best budget
4. Best gaming
5. Best for students
6. Best dual-screen
7. Best business
8. How to pick a Lenovo laptop
9. How we test
10. Why Trust Laptop Mag
The best Lenovo laptops consistently rank near the top of our overall best laptops rankings, and that is unchanged as we start 2024. Whether you are considering a ThinkPad business laptop, a sleek Yoga notebook, or an affordable IdeaPad laptop, Lenovo offers something for every user.
Lenovo is a consistent presence, from the best business laptops to the best 2-in-1 laptops. It is no surprise that Lenovo makes some of our favorite laptops, from the business-focused ThinkPads to the gaming-centric Legion laptops. For the full spectrum of Lenovo laptops for consumers and beyond, scroll down for a closer look at our favorites across every category.
Momo Tabari graduated with a bachelor's degree in Journalism & Media Studies at Brooklyn College and has been covering tech for four years. She has written over fifty reviews and has plenty of experience testing and critiquing laptops.
Quick List
Best overall
The Yoga 9i is once again our favorite Lenovo laptop thanks to its strong performance, stellar display, and a design that's hard not to love, whether you're a student, professional, or casual user.
Best budget
For well under $1000, the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 delivers impressive performance, plenty of storage, and a surprisingly solid gaming experience, making it a great budget pick.
Best gaming laptop
The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 is tough to beat when it comes to gaming thanks to its top-tier specs, incredible display, and full-size keyboard. With an RTX 4080, it can handle even the most demanding games.
Best for students
The Yoga Slim 7x is one of the best Lenovo laptops all around, and it's especially well-suited for students thanks to its slim-and-light design, stellar performance, and approachable price.
Best dual-screen laptop
The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i may be the perfect productivity laptop, giving users many options to remain productive, push documents, and create content. This dual-screen laptop is easy to love, from impressive specs to its sleek, elegant form factor.
Best Lenovo business laptop
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 11) is the best business laptop overall, so naturally, it is the best Lenovo business laptop. Add 14 hours of battery life to a thin, light, and durable chassis and a bright 14-inch display.
The best Lenovo laptops in 2024
Why you can trust Laptop Mag Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
Best overall Lenovo laptop
The Yoga 9i is a superb 2-in-1 laptop that quickly became one of Laptop Mag's most beloved of 2024. Last year's model topped our rankings, too, and the updated 2024 version takes things a step further with a more powerful processor and an even better display.
Whether you're looking for a versatile 2-in-1 for graphic design, a sleek laptop for school, or a stylish powerhouse for work, the Yoga 9i is up to the task. The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor is powerful enough to keep up with demanding tasks like video editing, on-device AI, or even casual gaming.
The Yoga 9i's 14-inch 4K OLED display reproduced an impressive 136% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, so everything from games to presentations looks sharp and vibrant. It's an especially good pick for students and artists since the 2-in-1 design allows you to use the Yoga 9i in tablet mode (which is also great for watching movies).
The only drawback to the Yoga 9i Gen 9 is its battery life. It lasted 7 hours and 24 minutes in our battery test, which is a few hours less than the Gen 8 model. That's especially disappointing since the Gen 9 model won't last most people through a full workday, so you will need to bring a charger with you. If that's a deal breaker for you, don't worry. Our top Lenovo business laptop is a great alternative.
See our Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9) review
Best budget Lenovo laptop
The Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 combines strong performance with a versatile design and a sub-$1000 price, making it great value for your money. If you're on a tight budget or just looking to save on your next laptop, this one is definitely worth considering.
The IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 starts at just $752 for an AMD Ryzen 5 8645HS processor, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and an AMD Radeon 760M integrated graphics. You can often find it on sale for even less. Upgrades are reasonably priced, as well. Our review configuration, priced at $861, includes an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor, AMD Radeon 780M integrated graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage.
Those are some strong specs for a laptop under $1000. They also performed well in our benchmark tests. The IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 scored 11,209 on the Geekbench 6 test and 7,851 on the 3DMark Fire Strike graphics test. While it's not a gaming laptop, the IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 kept up surprisingly well in our hands-on gaming tests. It can handle casual, indie, and cloud gaming fairly well considering it relies on integrated graphics.
The only significant downside to the IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 is its battery life. It lasted just 6 hours and 26 minutes, which is disappointing to say the least. Of course, if saving money is your top priority, bringing a charger along to work or school might be a worthy compromise.
See our full Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 review
Best Lenovo gaming laptop
The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 is one of Laptop Mag's best gaming laptops of 2024 and it's no contest. This gaming powerhouse boasts top-tier specs that can take on even the most demanding titles with ease. The full-size keyboard and stellar display make for a superb all-around gaming experience.
The Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 blew through our gaming benchmarks with flying colors. It scored an incredible 29,875 on the 3DMark Fire Strike graphics test and ran every game we threw at it smoothly. For example, the Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 averaged 123 FPS in Assassin's Creed Mirage, 105 FPS in Far Cry 6, and 96 FPS in Red Dead Redemption 2.
That's more than enough power for today's top AAA titles. The Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 can also be great for getting work done when you're not gaming on it, especially for resource-intensive tasks like video editing. It scored 17,329 on Geekbench 6 and blew threw the HandBrake video transcoding test in just 3 minutes and 11 seconds.
Unfortunately, the Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 isn't without its weaknesses. The main drawback to be aware of is its battery life. It lasted just 4 hours and 29 minutes, which is low even for a gaming laptop. Of course, it's also quite bulky so you may not be taking it on the go with you much anyway, but if you do, make sure you bring a charger.
See our full Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 review
Best Lenovo laptop for students
Students need a laptop with a lightweight design, long battery life, and enough performance for tasks like creating presentations or editing videos. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x offers all of that and more.
The slim, sleek design looks great and includes one of the best laptop keyboards we've ever tested. Plus, the 3K OLED display is perfect for watching movies or YouTube videos during your study breaks. With over 14 hours of battery life, you can bring the Yoga Slim 7x along to class and leave your charger at home without worrying about the battery dying.
Don't let the thin chassis fool you, either. The Yoga Slim 7x offers an impressive amount of performance, more than enough for everyday schoolwork. It scored 13,750 on Geekbench 6 and 5,800 on the 3DMark Fire Strike graphics test. So, you can even do some casual gaming on it.
It's worth noting, however, that the Yoga Slim 7x is a Snapdragon-powered laptop, so there may be some apps and games that aren't compatible with it. Most of the typical apps you would need for school run natively on the Yoga Slim 7x, though, such as Chrome and the Microsoft Office suite.
You may also want to pick up one of the best docking stations to go with the Yoga Slim 7x since it only has USB Type-C ports.
See our full Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x review
Best dual-screen Lenovo laptop
If you need power, versatility, and aesthetics in a productivity laptop, the Yoga Book 9i can meet those standards. It's a convertible 2-in-1 with dual 13-inch OLED displays that combine to give you a 16-inch WVA 3K OLED that can flex from business to creative needs.
While the Yoga Book 9i is a bit pricier than your average 2-in-1, you get twice the display. While the battery life could be better, the Yoga Book 9i lasted 9 hours and 18 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test. So it can survive an entire workday with both displays on.
For those who need to create content, the Yoga Book 9i's dual OLED displays cover 136 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is well above the premium laptop average of 93.3 percent. While the displays are a little dim, at 335 nits for the top display and 344 nits for the bottom panel, they are within range of the 392 nit premium laptop average, so you'll have all the color accuracy and brightness you need.
In the Geekbench 5.5 overall performance test, the 9i scored 7,765, which is decent enough for its Intel Core i7-1355U processor and pretty close to the 7,767 premium laptop average. Since the laptop's true appeal is its dual-display, you won't be disappointed as you handle separate tasks on two screens.
See our full Lenovo Yoga Book 9i review.
Best Lenovo business laptop
When it's time to get down to business, no one does it better than Lenovo. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 reclaimed the venerable laptop line's top spot on our best business laptops list last year. What had managed to unseat it, you ask? Why another Lenovo ThinkPad, of course.
The X1 Carbon reclaims its spot on the Carbon throne thanks to a combination of features that make it the perfect fit for most business users. That includes nearly 14 hours of battery life and a host of security features, including a fingerprint reader, an optional Windows Hello-compatible IR camera, and a TPM 2.0 chip. It's also MIL-SPEC tested to ensure that an accidental spill of the liquid or drop variety won't immediately have you in the market for a replacement.
At just 2.6 pounds and 0.6 inches thick, commuters and frequent travelers will love that the X1 Carbon Gen 11 doesn't weigh down a laptop bag. Speaking of not cluttering your laptop bag, the pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports, a pair of USB 3.2 Type-A ports, an HDMI port, a Kensington lock slot, and a headset jack mean you shouldn't need to toss a USB-C hub in there either.
I haven't even gotten to the excellent keyboard or bright 14-inch display. Our only knocks against this excellent laptop are the weak webcam (considered one of the best webcams) and the display could be more vivid. On that last point, it's not washed out; it just doesn't hold up to more entertainment-focused premium laptops, but the shading on your spreadsheets will still look great.
Read our full Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 review.
How to pick a Lenovo laptop
Lenovo is often our top-rated laptop brand for good reason. The company offers an extensive product lineup with some of the best notebooks from any manufacturer. Lenovo makes laptops for just about every type of user, from schoolchildren to gamers and business executives.
We've listed our favorite current Lenovo laptops above, but if you're researching, it helps to know the difference between the company's major product lines.
- ThinkPad: Lenovo's business laptops have some of the best keyboards in the world and many have incredibly long battery life. They're a great choice, even if you're not planning to use them for work.
- Yoga: These premium 2-in-1s have great designs, colorful screens, and strong battery life.
- Legion: The gaming line offers solid performance at reasonable prices.
- Flex: A line of 2-in-1s that is less expensive than Yoga but still full-featured.
- IdeaPad: These mainstream consumer laptops range in price from low-end budget systems to more premium Ultrabooks.
How we test Lenovo laptops
We put each Lenovo laptop through extensive benchmark testing — both synthetic and real-world — before they end up in the hands of our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the laptop, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers, and heat management.
In our benchmark testing, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the laptop's display's brightness and sRGB color gamut. For performance testing, we run the laptop through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including Geekbench 5.0 and 3DMark professional graphics tests.
To determine real-world performance, we task the laptop to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and duplicate a 25GB multimedia file. Our real-world graphics test is Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm benchmark with medium settings at 1080p resolution.
We also run heat tests by playing a 15-minute full-screen video and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop. Last but not least, our battery test consists of continuous web surfing over wifi at 150 nits of brightness. For MacBooks and premium Windows 10 laptops, a runtime of over 9 hours is considered a good result, whereas gaming laptops and workstations that can stay powered longer than 5 hours deserve praise.
These tests are complemented by extensive hands-on testing from our reviewers, who critique everything from the laptop's materials to the feel of its touchpad.
Why Trust Laptop Mag
Laptop Mag reviews over a hundred laptops yearly, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.
We are 100 percent independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades and continues to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.
Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.
One of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing, enforces our editorial trustworthiness. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.
