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Laptops · Lenovo ThinkPad

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga

10owners with an opinion
75%of verdicts positive
0/1positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for build quality and reliability; criticized for software and battery.

What people wrote

Neutral
Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Yoga Gen. 6 with Fedora and Windows 10 Pro. However, Thinkpads are not what they used to be and always come with some tiny, but annoying issues. For example fingerprint reader is terrible, there are some minor date/time issues between Linux and Windows (partially fixed with BIOS update), etc. I hope to keep the laptop for a few more years, but if I had to buy now I would consider one of the two: * TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 - Gen7 ( https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/TUXEDO-InfinityBook-Pro-1... ) * Framework laptop
Likes itStill going
I have an X1 Yoga which is capable of all of these things. It is a laptop with a good keyboard setup that can hold up it's own screen w/out a kickstand. When I don't want the keyboard I just fold it up and the keyboard changes to lift and lock so the back of it is solid making it easier to put on a stand (or A frame it and use a couple of books in a pinch. They sell one with linux preinstalled too. I got mine in 2016 and it's been rock solid.
Likes it
Coming from a ThinkPad X1 Yoga. I really love where the Framework Laptop is headed and I really want to get one... But, I have a few blockers right now. The blockers are features that I do use on my Yoga and I will need to make the switch: * Convertible mode. Tent and tablet modes, I do use to watch things or read longer articles in portrait mode and scroll with my thumb, from the side. * Touchscreen, I use this quite a bit actually, if I see a button I can just press it vs, move my hand to the TouchStick and move the mouse to it. I also use the touchscreen for bulk operations where there is none. Sometimes, repetitive tasks like maybe adding a new list item or editing things or copy pasting multiple data entries can be done, sometimes in combination w/keyboard, very fast with this feature. It is not something I want to regress on now that I have moved into flowing with it really nicely. * TouchStick - I don't use the trackpad, I disable it and solely use the TouchStick. It is faster when I need to use a mouse input. I guess I lose out on some gestures, but the TouchStick has been my flow for over 10 years, I'm used to it, I'm efficient with it. I hope to see a keyboard mod in the marketplace with a touchstick. There are a couple threads in the forums with a large amount of activity from others looking for the same.
Likes it
I'm using a Framework with Kubuntu and I have mixed feelings about it. I like the 3:2 screen ratio, repairability & the expansion cards. However, there are many downsides: - The battery life is ATROCIOUS, even after TLP etc. It's about the same as my 4-year-old(!) Thinkpad. Standby battery drain is the worst, easily 20-30% overnight, which I find unacceptable. I can't use this laptop as intended and always have to switch it off completely. Also because of this: - BIOS 3.06 ships with a bug that could result in the Framework not switching on if the battery is drained to 0%. The new beta BIOS might fix that, but errors like this show this is not a mature product. - There are no stable LVFS firmware upgrades for Linux yet and some users also report overwritten bootloaders after upgrading. Linux compatibility is definitely not there yet. - Many small annoyances on Linux: Fingerprint reader is not working out of the box, screen tearing, Bluetooth regressions etc. on certain kernels. - My Framework didn't turn on for almost 2 weeks. I tried different RAM/SSDs to no avail... then, it suddenly worked again with the original components. No problems after that, very strange. - The speakers are worse than the one in my smartphone. On most surfaces it sounds muffled and just not right. - My CPU fan made strange noises. I could fix that thanks to the great repairability though. - The fan can get very loud. Fortunately, it happens very rarely. Most of the time it's silent when browsing the…
Likes it
My beard isn't completely grey yet but I've been to redhat offices in Stockholm and most people there use Lenovo laptops. I've enjoyed them for many years too. My first Lenovo "ultrabook" was X1 Carbon. It was quite obvious that there were very few (perhaps none) CRUs on it. But it has served me for 4 years and still works. The battery discharges faster now of course. So late 2019 I got an X1 Yoga to replace it, 2nd Lenovo Ultrabook. So far so good. I work in Fedora every single day, very extensively. I find these laptops and Fedora to be very dependable. But of course that means little because people who run OpenBSD make the same claims.
Neutral
Thinkpads are amazing. I also currently run a T420 from 2011, and it just works rock solid. Thanks to it's great connectivity, I use it right now with two monitors (under Linux) where my much newer 2019 Thinkpad X1 yoga is powered off somewhere in the shelf. I bought it only to have a more lightweight and mobile notebook.
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
> I really wish thermal throttling was the first major point of discussion for ALL laptop CPU's. Exactly. Intel claims performance leadership based on their P series chips, which are always going to be throttled in a slim and light laptop. For instance, Lenovo's thin and light ThinkPad X1 Yoga has two fans but still throttles: >Unfortunately, the laptop got uncomfortably hot in its Best performance mode during testing, even with light workloads. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/07/review-lenovos-think... Or the Dell XPS 13 Plus: >the XPS 13 Plus’ fan was really struggling here because, boy oh boy, did this thing get hot. After a few hours of regular use (which, in my case, is a dozen or so Chrome tabs with Slack running over top), this laptop was boiling. I was getting uncomfortable keeping my hands on the palm rests and typing on the keyboard. Putting it on my lap was off the table. https://www.theverge.com/23284276/dell-xps-13-plus-intel-202...
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
> Especially when unplugged which will cause Alder Lake to significantly drop in performance. At least in a laptop, it's not just when you unplug the laptop that performance drops. You've also got to have enough volume in the laptop to shoehorn in a major cooling system if you're going to keep the P series processors from throttling. For instance, Lenovo's thin and light ThinkPad X1 Yoga has two fans but still throttles: >Unfortunately, the laptop got uncomfortably hot in its Best performance mode during testing, even with light workloads. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/07/review-lenovos-think... Or the Dell XPS 13 Plus: >the XPS 13 Plus’ fan was really struggling here because, boy oh boy, did this thing get hot. After a few hours of regular use (which, in my case, is a dozen or so Chrome tabs with Slack running over top), this laptop was boiling. I was getting uncomfortable keeping my hands on the palm rests and typing on the keyboard. Putting it on my lap was off the table. https://www.theverge.com/23284276/dell-xps-13-plus-intel-202... Intel's P series chips in a device without a massive heat sink and fans can't hit those high clocks that their performance benchmarks rely on.
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
Here's a review of a Lenovo's new thin and light Thinkpad X1 Yoga with Intel's current gen flagship laptop CPU: >Unfortunately, the laptop got uncomfortably hot in its Best performance mode during testing, even with light workloads. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/07/review-lenovos-think... This is a laptop with two fans that cannot be used comfortably, even for light workloads, without being set to throttle all the time. A fanless laptop that throttles under sustained load is perfectly normal. A laptop with active cooling that is too hot for light use until you configure it to always throttle is not.
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
A fanless laptop that throttles under sustained load doesn't have a heat problem. This review of Lenovo's new Thinkpad X1 Yoga is what a heat problem looks like: >Unfortunately, the laptop got uncomfortably hot in its Best performance mode during testing, even with light workloads. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/07/review-lenovos-think... A laptop with two fans that gets too hot to comfortably touch, even under light workloads, unless you set it to throttle all the time? That's a heat problem.