The Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 is a continuation of a marriage that NBR really loves. It blends the flexibility of the Yoga line with the performance and reliability of the ThinkPad line. This isn’t the thinnest or flashiest laptop on the market, but it’s a great productivity device that checks almost every single mark on the list. If you’re looking for a well-rounded device then the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 be for you, just be ready to pay for this premium product.
Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 Build and Design
Looking at the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 it’s hard not to get hit by a case of déjà vu. The notebook looks an awful lot like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga. However, that’s not a bad thing. We loved the simple sleek design of the X1 and the same holds true for the 370.
The black carbon fiber chassis (also available in silver) offers a great cushy padded feel, that makes the laptop easy to hold and provides a comfortable wrist rest. The display lid is curved at its edges and angles down in towards the deck, providing a sleek aesthetic. Black on black Lenovo lettering sits along the lower right-hand side of the lid, while the classic ThinkPad logo sits at the top left corner.
In typical ThinkPad fashion, that same ThinkPad logo sits along the lower right-hand side of the deck, next to the fingerprint scanner. The keyboard dominates most of the deck’s surface area. The power button has been relocated to the right side of the device, providing easy access when in tablet mode. Speaking of which, the laptop’s 360-degree hinge design makes it easy to rotate the screen back and forth to easily switch between laptop and clamshell modes.
The 13-inch convertible is a bit beefier than competing laptops. Measuring 12.3 x 8.8 x 0.7-inches and weighing 3.1 pounds the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 is only slightly lighter than the ThinkPad X1 Yoga, which features a larger 14-inch display. Luckily there are a few upsides to the ThinkPad Yoga 370’s larger frame. The laptop is incredibly well built passing 12 MIL-SPEC durability tests including shocks and vibrations.
Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 Ports
The Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 boasts impressive connectivity. The left side features a power connector, a Thunderbolt 3.0 port, a Mini-Ethernet connector, and a USB 3.0 port. The right side houses a Kensington lock slot, an HDMI connector, a USB 3.0 port, a MicroSD-card reader, a SIM slot, a headphone jack, the stylus pen, and a power button
Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 Stylus
The notebook also features the Lenovo ThinkPad Pen Pro stylus, which supports 2,048 levels of pressure. The pen has a dedicated compartment along the lower right side of the chassis, which also serves a charger for the pen. The pen is a bit a small side, feeling more like the pencils you’d find on a golf course than your traditional writing utensil.
Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 Screen and Speakers
Thankfully Lenovo has ditched the matte displays found in other ThinkPad Yoga laptops in favor of an attractive glossy screen. The Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 features a 13.3-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) resolution IPS touch display. The panel is exceptionally bright at 352 nits, which is far brighter than most of its competitors. Images are crisp and clear and colors appear vibrant. Not only do colors pop, but they’re fairly accurate as well making this a suitable choice for image and video editing.
The only downside to the glossy panel is that it’s a bit more reflective. Bright lights will cause background images to appear on the screen. Viewing angles are also limited with images begin to lose color and fade at around 60 degrees. The shallow viewing angles are a bit of a disappointment, but NBR would happily make this trade for the overall better viewing experience.
The Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 houses a pair speakers between the deck and display hinge. The speakers are boisterous enough to provide audio for a conference meeting or a modestly sized room. Quality is a little less impressive. They’re sufficient enough for meetings or basic use, but audiophiles will find the quality slightly lacking. At max volume, the speakers will distort, especially when trying to listen to highs and lows. Mids perform a bit better, but everything still feels like it’s going through a filter. It’s serviceable, but you’ll want to use headphones or external speakers for an optimal audio experience
Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 Keyboard and Touchpad
The Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 features ThinkPad iconic Chiclet Island style keyboard. The squared glossy black keys are rounded at the edges and curve inwards to provide a nice grip for your fingertips. Key travel is solid for a notebook of this size and the consistent steady feedback makes it easy to get into a comfortable typing rhythm. Of course, it just wouldn’t be a ThinkPad keyboard without the Lenovo TrackPoint nub. The red nub is located just above the B key, offering excellent control. Lenovo has three mouse buttons just above the touchpad to use in conjunction with the TrackPoint nub.
Sitting below the spacebar is a modestly sized touchpad. The smooth rubber pad offers frictionless travel, affording excellent control and sensitivity. Equipped with ELAN drivers the touchpad performs admirably recording swipes, clicks, and multi-finger gestures without fail.
Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 Performance
Equipped with a 2.5GHz seventh-generation Intel Core i5-7200U CPU, with Intel HD Graphics 620, 8GB of DDR4, and a 256GB PCIe SSD the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 offers solid performance. The unit that NBR tested isn’t exactly cheap at $1,327. However, that’s a price point you’d expect for a convertible with competitive specs.
Consumers looking to cut back costs can opt for a smaller SSD and less RAM with the base model offering 4GB of DDR4 and a 128 SSD SATA 3. NBR wouldn’t recommend this though as you will take a significant hit in performance.
As the benchmarks suggest, the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 offers middle-of-the-road performance that is still capable of handling most computing and productivity tasks with ease. The laptop is more than capable of multitasking as well. While testing the device NBR was able to run 10 active Google Chrome tabs while streaming HD video and listening to Spotify in the background. The SSD, while it’s not the fastest PCIe disk drive on the market, still offers snappy read and write speeds that allow programs and files to load quickly without delay.
As with most productivity-oriented devices, the Achilles heel of the laptop is its graphical performance. The integrated graphics are suitable for basic HD video editing and running less graphically demanding games like Hearthstone, but the notebook will struggle to handle more demanding graphical tasks.
The Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 review unit that we tested had the following specifications:
Windows 10 - 13.3-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS touch display
- Intel Core i5-7200U 2.5GHz
- Intel HD Graphics 620
- 8GB of DDR4
- 256GB PCIe SSD
- 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
- Bluetooth 4.1
- Dimensions: 12.3 x 8.75 x 0.7-inches
- Weight: 3.1 pounds
Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 Benchmarks
PCMark8 Home (Accelerated) measures overall system performance in Windows 8 for general activities from web browsing and video streaming to typing documents and playing games (higher scores mean better performance):
PCMark8 Work (Accelerated) measures overall system performance in Windows 8 for work-related productivity tasks (higher scores mean better performance):
3DMark Fire Strike measures the overall gaming performance of the GPU (higher scores mean better performance):
CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test:
Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 Battery Life
Lenovo has opted for a slightly larger 51Wh lithium-polymer battery as compared to the 44Wh battery sitting in its predecessor the Yoga 260. The larger battery have made this laptop a bit bigger and heavier than some of the other Ultrabooks on the market, but it certainly pays dividends. In our PCMark 8 Home battery test the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 ran for 9 hours and 23 minutes before shutting down. Breaking 9 hours is incredibly impressive for a convertible, putting the device on par with the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon. Considering that the PCMark 8 battery test is a bit more demanding than real life use, you can expect to get upwards of 12 hours of battery life on continuous use.
Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 Conclusion
The Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 is a well rounded convertible. It’s not the thinnest or the most powerful laptop on the market, but the Intel Core i5-7200U still offers solid performance that will likely meet most user’s needs. The glossy panel is more reflective than the matte screen often seen in most ThinkPads, but it’s also far more enjoyable to look at. The laptop feels great to use with a best in class keyboard and an excellent stylus. Finally, the larger battery offers a much-needed boost to battery life.
If you want flexibility and productivity in a small form factor then the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370 is an excellent choice.
Pros:
- Bright Vibrant Display
- Excellent Keyboard
- Solid battery life
Cons:
- Glossy display
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