If you are back-to-school laptop shopping on a budget, we found an excellent affordable pick for those in need of a 2-in-1 laptop with marathon battery life.
The journey to find your next laptop is a difficult one. These devices will be a part of your life for the next four years or more, and you’ll be putting your future in its hands, relying on it regardless of whether you’re working or studying. Thus, making a final decision is terrifying.
It’s important to strike the perfect balance between something that fulfills your needs without draining an absurd amount of cash from your wallet. Finding a great budget laptop is all about the right trade-offs.
I recently reviewed the 14-inch Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 and was impressed by what it offers without sacrificing major features that would turn it into an unworthy mess.
It’s not perfect by any means, but the things it fails to do well might not be a dealbreaker for you. Let us see if it’s worth your money!
Is the Lenovo Yoga 7i your next budget laptop?
The Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 normally starts at $899, which is already a solid price for a 2-in-1 laptop of this quality, but at the time of writing, it’s only $699 at Lenovo. This model comes with an Intel Core Ultra 5 125U processor, 16GB of LPDDR5X-7467 RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, and a 14-inch 1,920 x 1,200-pixel IPS glossy panel.
On paper, these specs are fantastic for a laptop that’s only $699. But it goes beyond just being impressive on paper, as one of the Yoga 7i’s biggest selling points is its battery life.
On the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous web surfing at 150 nits, the Yoga 7i lasted 12 hours and 57 minutes before running out of juice. For context, anything that lasts longer than 10 hours on this test is considered excellent for a productivity laptop, and our category average for mainstream laptops is 9 hours and 58 minutes.
Its Intel Core Ultra 5 125U processor isn’t going above and beyond, especially compared to Ultra 7 and Ultra 9 Meteor Lake CPUs, but it’s still great for a laptop at this price. It achieved a multi-core score of 9,214 on the Geekbench 6 benchmark. This is a little behind the category average of 10,111, which isn’t shocking, considering this is in the same pool as far stronger processors.
The Yoga 7i also benefits from something you wouldn’t notice without it being in your hands: its aluminum exterior yields an incredibly sturdy chassis. Its hinges are also firm and don't wobble when lifting or lowering the display.
As for what it doesn’t do well, there are three areas where the Yoga 7i disappoints, and any could be a valid reason you might not want to invest:
Its 14-inch 1,920 x 1,200-pixel IPS panel is painfully dull, covering only 46 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. That’s nearly half of the 85 percent category average; we weren’t impressed by how this panel represents its hues. It does benefit from a glossy panel, which allows colors to come through the glass more vividly, but it’s not enough to offset how lackluster it is.
It’s also not particularly bright, which could be a deal breaker if you need to use the laptop on the go in illuminated spaces. With its 314 nits peak brightness, you should be fine in well-lit offices, but it won’t do well in direct sunlight. This is well below the 391-nit category average.
And finally, the laptop’s speakers are quiet and flat. Most people turn to headphones or portable speakers anyway, but if you prefer to avoid those extras, the Yoga 7i isn't an ideal choice.
If a dim, lackluster panel and poor speakers aren’t deal breakers, we highly recommend the Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 for its solid performance, excellent longevity, affordable price point, and sturdy chassis.
More from Laptop Mag
- Are laptop webcams better with the Snapdragon X Elite? It’s complicated.
- Meta Quest 3 vs. Pimax Crystal: For VR, is it better to buy bigger?
- The ROG Ally X: A new era for laptop-free gaming is here
