The Lenovo Yoga 920 is a solid performer. While it doesn't have the same style and beauty of other thin and light laptops, it manages to pack in all the features you'd expect and have enough power inside the unit itself to perform the majority of tasks you'd expect. While it isn't one of the best laptops right now, it's certainly a cheaper option than many, although this is more due to the spec rather than any kind of value offered by Lenovo itself. The Yoga 920 we reviewed is one of the older models, and often pops up in discount events, so you could potentially get one quite cheap if you don't need the most powerful model - the Lenovo Yoga C940.
The model we tested has an Intel 8th Gen Core i7-8550U processor with 8GB of RAM. This i7 processor has double the cores of the 7th Gen version, so this laptop has muscle. It has a 256GB NVMe-PCIe solid-state drive as well, all of which translated to impressive performances in our tests. This 2-in-1 scored more than double the category average on the Geekbench test, which is a short test which measures how well a computer performs. It also matched 20,000 names with their corresponding addresses in a spreadsheet test in a mere 3 minutes and 17 minutes, which is much better than the category average of 5 minutes and 51 seconds.
The Intel UHD 620 Graphics 620 graphics card is just fine, but this laptop isn’t really built with video or gaming in mind. It did better than the category average on the synthetic graphics test, though. This is nice, but because of the build you’ll most likely use the Yoga 920 for tasks like checking your email or organizing and editing your family photos and video. If you're looking for power, we'd recommend the Dell XPS 13 or something like the HP Elite Dragonfly.
Like all the computers we tested, this Lenovo is available in more than one configuration. We reviewed the base model, but you can get a better 4K resolution display with twice the RAM and storage capacity if you’re willing to spend more money. Either way you still get a stylus, which is nice. Speaking of the stylus, the Yoga 920 has a touchscreen for hands-on gameplay, content creation, editing and illustrating. The Active Pen 2 stylus is the size of a typical pen and feels good in your hand but left us wanting more while using it. If you use it in Autodesk SketchBook, the lines get thicker and thinner depending on how much you press on the screen, but when it comes to usability it feels nothing like writing on real paper because there is very little friction. The feel of plastic against glass isn't ideal and takes some getting used to.
The 13.9-inch 1080p display is one of the smallest ones we tested. It put out 284 nits in our brightness tests, which is in line with the category average but less luminous than the HP Spectre x360. It sits atop a keyboard we didn't love because there wasn't enough resistance coming from the keys to keep from hitting them so hard you bottom out. The coolest thing about this 2-in-1 is that you can convert it to a tablet with its dainty yet beautiful hinges. Even though it's a lightweight convertible, it still comes with Thunderbolt 3 ports, a USB port, headphone jack and fingerprint reader on the deck.
You can expect an awe-inspiring 12 hours and 22 minutes of battery life out of this machine, which is great for travel or taking this computer to work. We got this data while continuously using the internet, so we know you can actually use the Yoga 920 and still get a ton of usage. If you upgrade to the 4K screen, you can't reasonably expect that kind of battery life.
Should you buy the Lenovo Yoga 920?
Anyone looking for an all-powerful laptop that will last for years should avoid buying the Yoga 920, and opt for something like the Yoga C940 instead, which has superior specs. However, if you're looking for a laptop with great battery life, and enough power to comfortably run Windows and a bunch of less intensive apps for things like word processing, spreadsheets, and emails... this is a good option, and you'll get one very cheap as it's an older spec.
