Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) Review

Nearly everyone has heard about Windows 10 2-in-1s that can quickly switch from a notebook to a tablet. If you look now at Lenovo Yoga 720-15 inch, you might believe it is the same as all the other convertibles. But don’t be tricked! It can currently replace something that most other 2-in-1s cannot: an entry-level gaming Laptop.

The Lenovo Yoga 720 15-inch Laptop has the potential to become the go-to PC for almost everything. The reversible hinges and touchscreen make it easy for you to convert the notebook into a 15-inch tablet quickly. Its conventional style, strong processor, and high-quality keyboard make it an excellent laptop for productivity. Lenovo has also included an NVIDIA GTX 1050 graphics card, plus a standard voltage Intel processor, in this workstation.

If you’re looking for a complete PC that can accommodate some basic gaming and is available for around $1000 online, the vo Yoga 720-15 inch is the ideal laptop.

The Windows 10 2-in-1 market is brimming with fantastic options, ranging from ultra-thin and light detachable tablets to 360-degree convertibles that operate as regular clamshell notebooks and pen-enabled tablets. In this novo Yoga 720-15 inch review, we ask if its features and versatility give it an advantage over its competitors.

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – Specs

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – Pros and Cons

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – Internals

Almost all Windows 2-in-1s are equipped with low voltage processors that have the same brand as full-size CPUs. Despite possessing the same name, full-size processors outperform smaller ones. That isn’t the case with the ovo Yoga 720-15 inch. It utilizes Intel’s 7th Generation standard voltage CPUs, which should result in improved performance.

Lenovo complements the processor with up to 16GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card capable of handling big games at low and mid-range settings.

Lenovo also has some good upgrades available online. The enovo Yoga 720-15 may be upgraded with 1TB of solid-state storage. To watch better-looking movies and TV shows, you can replace the default 1080p 15.6-inch FHD display with a 15.6-inch 4K display that provides a four times sharper display than an HD.

The review model we worked with featured an Intel Core i7-770HQ processor, 256GB of storage, 8GB RAM, the standard FHD display, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card with 2GB of RAM, and Intel HD 630 graphics. It also contained a fingerprint scanner and even a 720p web camera, although only the fingerprint scanner was compatible with Windows 10’s Windows Hello sign-in function. Lenovo charges around $1,199.99 for this configuration.

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – Audio

The Yoga 720’s speakers produce a clear, balanced sound. The violin, voice, and percussion from Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect” engulfed our modest work room in which we tested the system. The Yoga comes with Dolby Atmos software that allows you to choose between different sound configurations for music, movies, and gaming. We discovered a minor difference between them and that leaving them in the default music mode was sufficient.

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – Webcam

The Yoga 720’s 720p webcam captures clear images you can utilize whether you’re taking a video business call or just Zooming with friends and family. I could clearly see individual hair strands on my head in a snapshot I took at my desk, which was bright enough. The colors weren’t exactly accurate (my red shirt looked orange, and my colleague’s green shirt appeared closer to a shade of lime), but they weren’t distracting.

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – Heat

The Yoga 720 will stay nice and cool whether you use it as a laptop or switch over to using it as a tablet. After 15 mins of streaming HD video from YouTube, the bottom reached 90 degrees Fahrenheit, the middle of the keyboard was 82.5 degrees, and the touchpad gave a reading of only 77.5 degrees.

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – Keyboard and Touchpad

If we consider slim and light notebooks, the Thinkpad X1 Carbon’s keyboard is the best currently available. It has existed for a long time. It holds that position because it provides excellent feedback, both vocally and physically. The pitch is great, and the needed actuation force on each key is exact and reassuring.

However, HP’s Elitebook 1030G2 was very close, and the o Yoga 720-15 keyboard was not far behind. There are little changes throughout the machines’ keyboards discussed, but those minor differences add to more significant and critical disparities. However, when it comes to the laptop in question, the most significant advantage of the keyboard is that it is tactile and pleasant to use.

The keyboard will not tire your fingertips whether you are surfing the web or writing for long periods. Every key has a consistent and reasonable amount of travel. The keys are bulkier to press than the Ideapad 720 and push with the correct amount of power. It doesn’t take a long time to get used to, and if you type a lot, the keys make a pleasing and audible click.

The touchpad is as nice as the keyboard and works well with Windows-based motions. It isn’t as smooth as the one found in the Yoga 920, but that is expected, given the 920’s glass surface. Dragging and dropping is relatively smooth, along with the left and right clicks, which have short but distinct clicks. However, we believe that at the cost of over $1000, the Lenovo Yoga 720 could have come with a glass touchpad.

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – Connectivity

One of the issues with the Yoga 710 range has been the lack of ports. Unfortunately, the Yoga 720 made one stride forward and two steps back. Connectivity is abysmal, with several core ports completely missing.

The iconic SD Card reader has vanished, and a separate display is much missed. Fortunately, customers aren’t completely out of options; the existence of a Thunderbolt 3-enabled USB Type-C connector adds a lot of variety.

While Thunderbolt 3 can be utilized for display, high-speed storage, as well as a variety of other connections, adapters are required for all of them (they have not been included with the laptop). There are a couple of USB 3.0 Type-A ports for other peripherals, one on each side. The layout of ports is fantastic; sadly, the limited connectivity options may be the biggest turnoff for some buyers.

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – Software and Warranty

The software that Lenovo supplies with the Yoga 720-15 is primarily useful. The Companion app allows you to maintain your system updated and monitor its health easily. The Settings app enables you to explore camera adjustments and network choices, among other things. Keeper’s password manager left much to be desired (we recommend top-tier software such as LastPass instead); customers may have other options they prefer.

As is customary, Windows 10 includes some bloatware, such as Facebook, Sling, Candy Crush: Soda Saga, Netflix, and March of Empires.

Lenovo offers a one-year warranty for the Yoga 720.

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – Storage

Our review device came with a 256GB Samsung PM961 PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD (solid-state drive), a highly speedy model that ranks near the top of modern systems. We usually expect outstanding storage performance when we encounter a Samsung SSD displayed in Device Manager.

We were not disappointed, as was expected. The Lenovo Yoga 720 15ikb scored admirably during the CrystalDiskMark benchmark test, getting 1,826 Mb/s in the read test and 1,206 Mb/s in the write test. Each of the Samsung-based SSDs performed similarly, with the HP Spectre x360 15 finishing dead last.

In practice, the Yoga 720 15 performed exactly as predicted by its synthetic benchmarks. Everything requiring data reading and writing was lightning quick, and the computer never bogged down during our exhaustive testing.

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – Battery Life

Another significant concession Yoga 720 15-inch consumers must make is the limited battery life. The stunning, spacious 15.6-inch display significantly impacts how far the device may go without being plugged in.

According to Lenovo, it may survive for 9 hours without charges. We got roughly 4 hours with the display brightness set high enough to view it in a dimly lit room. We only got about 6 hours of battery life while doing a lot of stuff with the brightness turned low. Whatever I tried, the consequences were the same. With this laptop, we couldn’t get through a complete workday using a single charge.

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – Communication

The WiFi connection is superb. Most users will have little trouble uploading data across wireless networks, transmitting and receiving speeds of 512 and 662 MBit/s, respectively. The tri-band Intel 8265 ac WiFi card allows websites to load rapidly, and internet connections are solid  with no drops. Wireless communication speeds are at the upper end of what current notebooks offer, easily beating several competitors while remaining competitive.

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – Performance

The Yoga 720 is prepared for work and play, thanks to its 2.8-GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU, 2GB of video memory, 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD. I had 30 Google Chrome tabs open, one of which was playing Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy in full HD on Twitch, and there was no lag.

On the Geekbench 4 total performance benchmark, the Yoga 720 scored 11,951, beating the standard average of 10,597. The Notebook 9 Pro (8,274, Core i7-7500U) and Spectre (8,017, Core i7-7500U) scored lower, while the XPS 15 (13,911, Core i7-7700HQ) easily outperformed the competition.

The Yoga 720 copied 4.97GB of mixed-media files in 19 seconds, at a pace of 267.9 MB per second. That’s faster than the category average (208 MBps) and the Notebook 9, but the Spectre (282.1 MBps) and XPS 15 (339.3 MBps) were even faster.

The Yoga 720 finished our OpenOffice Spreadsheet Macro in 3 minutes and 52 seconds, exceeding the average (4:13) but coming up below the Spectre (3:34), XPS 15 (3:23), and Notebook 9 Pro (2:37).

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – Gaming

The Lenovo Yoga 720 15-inch is an excellent gaming machine. You need to adjust your expectations. The games will look and sound fantastic. The JBL speakers are fairly powerful, and the 1080p standard display on the notebook is crisp and clear.

However, you will never be able to play a current game at its highest settings without the system struggling. The standard voltage Intel Core i7 processor plus 8GB of RAM are ideal for playing resource-intensive games; however, the GeForce 1050 graphics card inside the laptop is problematic. There is only 2GB of devoted RAM on this device. It worked great on medium and low settings but did not work well with Planet Coaster, Gears of War 4, and the Halo Wars 2 on high.

For this, you’ll need Lenovo’s Legion Y520 or another specialized gaming laptop from the brand. As a casual gamer, not being able to play at maximum settings didn’t upset me too much. Because I prefer not to manage more than one device, We valued the device’s various modes far beyond maxing out the visuals.

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – Security

The Lenovo Yoga 720 has several excellent security features. A fingerprint reader is included on all configurations, in addition to software-based TPM in the system BIOS. The scanner is quick and accurate, recognizing our fingerprints instantly at every touch. This allows for easy and rapid logins with Windows Hello, which is quite convenient.

The Yoga 720 lacks a Kensington lock or other physical means of anchoring the tablet to a desk. To prevent theft, users should use caution and never leave the gadget unattended.

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – Experience

The Yoga 720 15-Inch notebook experience isn’t jeopardized by its dual status as a notebook and tablet.

It has an excellent keyboard and trackpad. Because of the Yoga 720 laptop’s size, there’s plenty of room for your finger to roam as you scroll up and down online pages and operate Windows 10. Its illuminated keys are visible in the dark, and keyboard shortcuts allow you to dim the screen, adjust volume, and switch off the trackpad without navigating Windows 10 settings menus.

Furthermore, the performance is outstanding. Every productivity application worked flawlessly, from video editor Adobe Premiere to Outlook Mail. This laptop can manage several Chrome and Microsoft Edge tabs without slowing down. The fan becomes noisy, indicating that you are putting excessive stress on the machine.

You’ll have to make big sacrifices to use this gadget as a tablet. The first of these sacrifices is in terms of money. Only the $1,599.99 variant with a 4K display allows writing with Lenovo’s Active Pen digital stylus. To use the screen’s 4,096 degrees of pressure while scribbling notes and sketching, you must purchase a stylus separately.

Some physical characteristics can detract from the tablet experience. You won’t be able to read it with one hand because it weighs 4.41 pounds. You don’t have to, thanks to Stand Mode. Simply flip the screen around and place the keyboard flat on your bed, lap, or other surfaces. Just keep in mind that even this mode has some limitations. The keyboard does not retract into the notebook’s body as it does on the ThinkPad X1 Yoga.

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – Price and Availability

The 15-inch Lenovo Yoga 720 configuration costs around $1,000 in the United States. Surprisingly, this model, or any model of this convertible for that matter, isn’t readily available in the United Kingdom. The best price is around AU$2,699 in Australia.

A Lenovo Yoga 720 with a 15.6-inch full HD (1,920 x 1,080) multitouch display, a quad-core Intel Core i7 CPU, a 2GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD costs around $1,199.

However, you can purchase the same features without the distinct portraits for a couple of hundred dollars less at $999. The highest you can anticipate paying for this Lenovo Yoga 720, at the very least in the United States, is around $1,699 for the identical processor and GTX 1050 GPU paired with a 4K (three,840 x 2,160), 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD.

Finally, the $2,699 Australian version includes an Intel Core i7 processor, 256GB of SSD storage, 16GB of RAM, a 1080p display screen, and a GTX 1050 portrait card with double the video memory.

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – Maintenance

Unlike most convertibles with minimal maintenance options, the internals of the Lenovo Yoga 720 is simple to access. RAM, SSD, and battery are also easily replaceable or upgradeable. You can access the M.2 SSD and one RAM slot after removing the 10 Torx T4 screws and removing the bottom panel (which is reasonably straightforward to remove); the remaining 8 GB of RAM is either on the opposite side of the motherboard or (more likely) soldered on.

However, the available RAM slot (placed beneath a metal shield) can accept another DIMM of DDR4 RAM for a quick update. The fans are also easily accessible for cleaning. If you want to apply thermal compound, the cooling system for both the CPU and GPU can be removed simply by unscrewing some Phillips Head screws. Maintenance is rather extensive, given the small size and convertible form factor.

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – How long will it last?

With its USB Type-C port, the Lenovo Yoga 720 15 provides adequate future-proof connectivity. Its quad-core processor and GTX 1050 GPU are cutting-edge now and should give enough performance — except for gaming, which is difficult for notebooks to keep up with for many years to come. If you choose the 4K UHD display when it becomes available, you’ll have a system that will last for years.

The only hurdle is that the Lenovo Yoga 720-15 inch has been discontinued, so you will not find it on the official websites. The safest way to purchase the Yoga 720 is to find a reliable seller offering the laptop with at least three months of official warranty.

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) – Should You Buy?

The Yoga 720 works well as a laptop and performs excellently as a tablet. Certain features, such as the display, may have been improved, but these are minor concerns that should not influence your purchasing decision.

Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) is a high-end gadget with an eye-catching design and reliable performance. If the hybrid is your preferred device, you will not be disappointed. There are better options if you’re only searching for a laptop. And if all you want is a tablet, there’s always the iPad.

If you need a new notebook that works well, has touch, and offers an enjoyable gaming experience on the side, the Lenovo Yoga 720 15-inch is an excellent choice. Since it has an average battery timing for gaming, be prepared to charge it between game sessions.

What are your thoughts about Lenovo Yoga 720 15-inch? Will you purchase or recommend it? Please share your views in the comments below.

Read also:

• Tablet vs Laptop
• How to Update BIOS on an HP Desktop/Laptop
• Apple May Have More New Devices Up its Sleeves
• Apple Announced a Redesigned MacBook Air With more Colors And an M2 Chip
• How to Turn Your Computer’s Vertical Screen to Horizontal
• HP Pavilion x360 14 Arrives This Summer at an Affordable Price
• Dell XPS 15 review