Lenovo Yoga 730 (13-Inch) - Review 2022

A series of minor just welcome changes to Lenovo'due south consumer 13-inch 2-in-1 convertible laptop mean that the latest model, the Lenovo Yoga 730 (starts at $799.99, $849.99 equally tested), is thinner, lighter, and more powerful than its Yoga 720 predecessor. The improvements are probably not enough to prompt an upgrade if y'all already accept the previous model, but they make this laptop an even meliorate choice if y'all want a single device to utilise more often than not equally a laptop and occasionally every bit a tablet or movie player. It's our new Editors' Pick for midrange convertible laptops.

Replace Your Laptop and Tablet

The ii-in-1 laptop is a flawed just potentially very efficient slice of tech. On the one manus, it's typically a bit heavier and thicker than an equivalent conventional laptop, since it needs to fit a sturdier and more than complicated hinge that enables the screen to rotate through 360 degrees. Ironically, that added weight and girth are at their almost cumbersome when you're using the device in Tablet fashion (with the keyboard folded back behind the brandish), which is the entire signal of the more complicated hinge in the first place.

On the other hand, the ability to utilize information technology as both a laptop and a tablet ways that yous just have to bring along a single device on your next business trip, commute, or vacation instead of two. Couple that with innovations such equally Lenovo'south unique watchband-mode hinge that'due south both strong and light, and it's an enticing solution, with manufacturers shifting their efforts to convertible laptops equally sales of slate tablets struggle, according to IDC.

The watchband hinge is reserved for more than premium models like the Lenovo Yoga 920, still. The Yoga 700-serial has to make practice with two conventional, slightly bulkier hinges. But that doesn't mean it's heavy. Our Yoga 730 review unit weighs just 2.73 pounds and measures 0.55 by 12.1 by eight.5 inches (HWD), dimensions that are on the thin and light side even for conventional 13-inch laptops. They're likewise a tiny bit amend than the Yoga 720's weight (2.83 pounds) and size (0.half dozen by 12.2 by 8.4 inches). Did Lenovo set a goal of footling weight and bulk reductions but to entice people to upgrade? Maybe, just the fact remains that whatever weight and size improvement volition make the Yoga 730 more enjoyable than its predecessor to employ equally a tablet.

There are a few visual changes that help yous tell the two convertible laptops apart. The ports take been centered in the middle of the left and right edges, instead of hugging the bottom of each edge as they did on the Yoga 720. Otherwise, the port selection is identical. At that place are two USB-C ports on the left edge, each with Thunderbolt support, also as a headphone jack. One of the USB-C ports is used to accuse the laptop, a process that took a petty longer than an hour from a 5 percent accuse to a 100 per centum charge in my testing.

Including two Thunderbolt 3 ports on a laptop that costs less than $1,000 is generous, and it shows that adoption of this new 40GBps interface is marching forward. But near keyboards, mice, and other peripherals still use USB Blazon A ports, so information technology's overnice that Lenovo includes i of these on the right edge, which supports USB three.0 speeds. The left edge also includes the power button, which has a futuristic backlight that glows amber when the battery is charging and white when information technology'south not. Alas, Lenovo apparently ran out of room to include an SD bill of fare slot.

Also absent on the Yoga 730 (and many other ultra-thin laptops) is whatever defended video output, such as HDMI. You'll need to buy a USB-C-to-DisplayPort adapter if you want to connect an external monitor. Y'all won't find an Ethernet jack, either, but you do have 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1 at your disposal for wireless connections to peripherals and the net.

Active Pen Support

The Yoga 730 sports a 13.3-inch total HD (1,920-by-one,080) touch-enabled display. You lot can use your fingers to tap information technology, or utilise the $39.99 Lenovo Agile Pen, an optional accessory that affords more precise control when you're sketching on the screen or taking notes. The display is sleeky and uses In-Plane Switching (IPS) applied science, which ways an excellent contrast and wide viewing angles. Unfortunately, it likewise means lots of glare from ambient lights, though y'all can mitigate that somewhat by setting the brightness level to maximum.

Thanks to a 720p webcam centered above the display, video conferencing quality is excellent, fifty-fifty in a room with lots of shadows. The video feed is noticeably less grainy than what you tin can expect from VGA webcams, although nonetheless images are of unsurprisingly poor quality.

Screen bounce is noticeable when you're borer the screen while in Laptop mode, but that problem goes away once y'all flip the screen over to utilise the Yoga 730 as a tablet. In this configuration, the keyboard is deactivated, but the keys are nonetheless exposed to potential scratches and other damage. Lenovo'south more than expensive X1 Yoga convertible is less susceptible to this damage since its keys automatically retract in Tablet fashion.

The typing experience is wonderful, with sturdy key switches and 2 levels of backlighting. The touchpad is besides excellent for a Windows laptop, with a large, sturdy surface. Even the fingerprint reader is a joy to employ; it never struggled to recognize my print over several days of testing.

Thank you to the Yoga 730's far-field microphone, you can summon Microsoft's virtual assistant past saying "Hey, Cortana" even when you're as far every bit 13 feet away from it. I tested information technology from a altitude of about 10 anxiety, and Cortana did in fact respond each fourth dimension. I don't recommend using this feature, though, because to become the almost out of it you'll want to set the PC to never slumber so Cortana is always ready, which will drain the battery. Even worse, Cortana is a distant third place to Apple tree's Siri and the Google Assistant when information technology comes to usefulness, and the Yoga 730'due south speakers aren't loud plenty for Cortana to be heard if more ii people are talking in the room at the same time.

Performance Boost

Lenovo offers the Yoga 730 with a one-yr warranty and several different retention, storage, and processor configurations. Our model comes with specs that arguably represent a sweetness spot between toll and potential operation: an Intel Cadre i5-8250U running at a base clock speed of 1.6GHz, a 256GB SSD, and 8GB of memory. The SSD is a Samsung model that uses the cutting-edge M.2 NVMe interface. That ways theoretically better data throughput that you lot don't often meet in laptops in this price range, most of which use the older SATA interface. We don't exam drive performance on fix-built laptops or desktops, but you lot can read all most the performance benefits of NVMe in our roundup of the best Grand.2 SSDs.

The motility to Intel's 8th-generation "Kaby Lake R" CPU architecture ways the Yoga 730 gets a noticeable functioning bump beyond the board compared with the 7th-gen CPU in the Yoga 720. On our PCMark 8 criterion, which measures common computing tasks similar web browsing, video conferencing, and editing spreadsheets, the Yoga 730 scored 3,345 compared with the Yoga 720'south result of 3,092. Anything greater than iii,000 on this test is very good, however. What'southward more than, I didn't notice whatever sluggishness in everyday apply, including restarting the PC, installing apps, and watching web videos.

Lenovo Yoga 730 (13-Inch) Performance Chart

The 8th-generation CPU advantage is far more noticeable on our specialized multimedia tests. The Yoga 730 took merely i infinitesimal and 9 seconds to transcode a short Hd video file into an iPhone-friendly format using the Handbrake app, compared with 2:44 for the Yoga 720. Scores on the Cinebench 3D-rendering and Photoshop image-editing tasks showed equally dramatic improvement.

Lenovo Yoga 730 (13-Inch) Graphics Performance Chart

Graphics performance also demonstrated gains beyond all of our tests, but the Yoga 730 is no better at rendering video games than any other laptop with an integrated graphics processor. Information technology barely breached the 30 frames per second (fps) threshold needed for smooth gaming at medium quality settings on our Valley simulation, and the rest of its scores were far lower. Yous tin expect to play casual games similar Solitaire or Minecraft just fine, but any game or app designed to harness GPU power will perform poorly. This is to be expected. If you want a hybrid laptop with a powerful GPU, like the Microsoft Surface Book, plan to spend a lot more than coin and deal with more weight.

Related Story See How We Test Laptops

The only Yoga 730 operation test that is slightly disappointing is the battery-rundown score. It lasted merely less than 10 hours on this test, which involves playing back a local video file at 50 percent screen brightness with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned off, until the battery is dead. By itself, x hours is very good, and it will almost certainly become you through more than than an unabridged day of intermittent use without visiting a power outlet. Simply it's a large decrease compared with the Yoga 720'due south time of 12 hours on this test. The add-on of fast charging could be partially responsible for this subtract, since battery capacity remains the same and the eighth-generation processor is more free energy efficient than its predecessor.

An Ideal Solution

The Lenovo Yoga 730 manages to be more powerful than its Yoga 720 predecessor on every metric except for battery life, and accomplishes that in a slightly slimmer and lighter chassis. There's very little not to like here, including the very palatable $849 price (the aforementioned equally the Yoga 720). If you oft utilise both a tablet and a laptop and are looking to reduce the weight of your purse or backpack, the Yoga 730 is an ideal solution. If you spend more fourth dimension on your tablet, though, you'll want to consider a detachable tablet like the Microsoft Surface Pro, which has a keyboard that tin can exist removed completely instead of folding it back.