Lenovo Yoga 920 review

During our time using the Yoga 920 – primarily as a laptop, but also occasionally as a tablet – we were very impressed with its performance. The unit we used was the version with a Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM and a UHD display.

Windows 10 ran smoothly with no issues, and thankfully Lenovo has kept bloatware (as in unwanted pre-installed applications) to a minimum. Day-to-day tasks were usually processed quickly, although we did notice that it took our configuration of the Yoga 920 quite a long time to extract a large compressed .zip file, which also caused its fans to kick in. 

Most of the time these fans stayed silent, but for more demanding tasks they did kick in, making the 920 louder than the fanless design of the Surface Book 2 13.5-inch.

We used the Yoga 920 for a lot of web browsing, with multiple tabs open, and it performed well. The keyboard was large enough to type comfortably on, and despite the keys being fairly shallow they had satisfying travel.

The touchscreen was fast and responsive, when using either fingers or the stylus. The UHD version that we're reviewing looks fantastic, with crisp text and bright visuals.

Image quality was also fantastic on the screen, with bright and vivid pictures and deep blacks offering an enjoyable viewing experience when watching movies. The sound quality, powered by Dolby Audio Premium, is also very impressive. Despite its small size, the Yoga 920 does a great job of pumping out sounds at a decent volume – and the audio quality doesn’t suffer from sounding weak or tinny. 

That can be an annoyance on smaller devices, but the Yoga 920 really did impress us. Combined with such a lovely screen, the sound quality makes the Yoga 920 an excellent device for watching media on.

As you can see from our benchmark scores, the integrated graphics of the Lenovo Yoga 920 don’t have enough power to drive modern graphically-demanding games, but it can still handle older games – and pretty much any title on our list of the best games for laptops. For any graphically-strenuous tasks, however, you may not want to settle for the Yoga 920.

Battery life

Lenovo claims a battery life of 12 hours for the Yoga 920, and while it didn't quite reach that target in our testing it didn’t fall far short. In our movie test (where we played a looped 1080p movie with the screen at maximum brightness) the Yoga 920 hit 9 hours and 23 minutes before it needed a charge. That’s very impressive, and it means you could easily use the Yoga 920 to watch movies on a long journey; and with a tweak to the brightness settings, of course, the device could last a bit longer.

Of course, playing movies (and from a hard drive, not streamed) isn’t an especially demanding task, so there’s not as much impact on battery life. However, we also ran the PCMark 8 Battery Life benchmark, which simulates medium to high usage, such as browsing the internet, creating word documents and making video calls.

Here, battery life dropped to just over four hours. That’s almost two hours less than the Surface Book 2 13.5-inch – though the Surface Book 2 is both more expensive, and actually contains two batteries (one in the body, the other in the detachable screen).

While heavy-duty work may drain the battery pretty fast, the good news is that charging the Yoga 920 via USB-C is also very fast – we reached 92% in around an hour and a half. Another nice touch is that the other USB ports are always on, so with the Yoga 920 plugged in you can shut down the laptop but still use its spare USB ports to charge your other devices.

We liked

The Lenovo Yoga 920 is a beautifully-designed 2-in-1 laptop that’s thin, light and feels wonderful to hold. The 360-degree hinges feel solid, and in tablet mode the Yoga 920 feels a lot slimmer and lighter than many of its competitors. We’re also glad to see the webcam return to the more traditional spot at the top of the screen, while movies look and sound great on this device.

We didn’t like

We’re still not entirely sold on the keyboard on the back when the screen is flipped into tablet mode – 2-in-1 machines with detachable keyboards still feel a lot better, though they come with their own compromises. 

The plastic holder for the stylus also feels a bit cheap, and the device gets a little loud when under pressure.

Final verdict

The Lenovo Yoga 920 is another triumphant 2-in-1 design in a year that’s seen the form factor go from strength to strength. It features a lovely premium design, it’s thin and light, and it performs day-to-day tasks well. 

The integrated graphics do mean it’s a little weak when it comes to graphically-intensive tasks like video-editing and gaming, but it’s a price you’ll have to pay for a device this thin.

This isn’t a budget laptop in any way, but it offers good value for the price, and it comes in cheaper than some of its high-end competitors.

Overall, we enjoyed our time with the Yoga 920. If you’re looking for a thin, light and capable laptop that can occasionally transform into a tablet, it's definitely worth considering.