Lenovo Thinkpad 13 Yoga Gen 2 AMD 5850U Review
TLDR:
Great:
- Great CPU performance (especially on a dock with proper airflow)
- Reasonable iGPU performance
- Stylus input option can be useful
- Good value for a Yoga form-factor with Ryzen
- Better keypad than some competition (e.g. MacBook)
- Good weight class: neither too light - nor excessively heavy
- Screen could be less reflective
- Reasonable battery life
- A robust chassis design
Could be improved:
- Thermal & cooling performance could be better
- Cooling exhaust position could can be improved (tablet)
- Slower than some bigger 14” ThinkPad models with the same CPU.
- Trackpad & click button click action could be better
- Webcam & speakers could be better
- No 32GB RAM option yet (8GB soldered option is distinctly dated in 2021)
- No 4G option, No Thunderbolt 4 support
- Intel Wifi upgrade option would useful
- The casing could be less slippery & the lid could be made easier to open
Thermals
The Yoga has 2 main points of ventilation; exhaust on the rear of the base unit; and intake on the bottom of the base unit; they’re close to each other. While under stress, the heat doesn’t accumulate near the trackpad, palm rest or bottom half of the keyboard, it can get uncomfortably hot near the function and number keys. Fortunately these aren’t common areas to press while typing so it’s not a deal breaker, but with how hot it gets even touching the keys is discomforting, making using the laptop while it’s under load less than ideal.
Software/BIOS notes:
Some odd shutdowns (early BIOS), especially in the tablet mode under load. This did not occur in laptop mode or when tablet was on a stand, so avoid using tablet mode when using stressful programs.
Keyboard
I wouldn’t avoid buying the Yoga for it’s keyboard, it’s reasonably comfortable to type on and isn’t overly loud, but there’s nothing special about it. It’s on the stiffer side for key presses, though it’s hardly hard to type on, but the stiff nature of the key combined with a slightly mushy feeling at the bottom isn’t a great feeling.
For a keyboard on a convertible laptop however, it’s pretty good, and at least matches the quality of other recent Lenovo laptops. It doesn’t feel like there was a compromise made to make the system convertible.
The function key is still in the traditional place of the control key like other Lenovo laptops.
Ports
While the L13 lacks the Thunderbolt of it’s Intel counterpart, it still provides an adequate range of connectivity: On the left side featuring 2 USB-C 3.2, which you’ll use for charging, a MicroSD card reader, a combination audio jack and 1 USB-A 3.2. On the right, another USB-A 3.2, a HDMI 2.0 port, Kensington lock slot and an optional standard SD card reader.
Certainly an acceptable amount of ports for everyday use, and heavy users would likely be able to get away with adapters for anything they needed, although the lack of Thunderbolt certainly hurts external GPU compatibility.
Webcam
Webcam works - however, like the other ThinkPad webcams in this 2021 generation - we’d suggest an external webcam if you plan to do more work. Comparable to the T series' image quality.
Battery
We test the battery by letting it drain from full while refreshing 5 websites in the background with a video playing in fullscreen. This is tested with the better battery setting in Windows with brightness at 50%. The Yoga managed to last 338 minutes (6 hours and 38 minutes) before the system stopped polling, ending on a supposed 2% battery life.
Upgradability
The ThinkPad based tablet has typically had limited upgradability, the L13 is no different. The RAM is dual-channel, but soldered onboard with no option of upgrades (so it’s important to buy correctly upfront).
There is 1x single sided M.2 slot which is taken up by the pre-installed SSD. A compromise to maintain it’s form factor perhaps, it would be useful to see the option for a second slot - however, being a portable focused machine, this might not be the direction of travel. This unit does not support the 4G internal card.
The Wifi card on the AMD version of the L13 Yoga is user upgradable, whereas on the Intel model, they’re soldered on.
Notes on the internals:
- No WWAN slot; RAM is soldered on
- Single heatpipe cooling (left-hand side of the keypad gets noticeably hot under load; fine for everyday though, feels as if the heatpipe could be more impressive)
- Accepts single sided SSD (thankfully not the M.2 2242).
- Realtek Wireless chip is swappable (AMD only; Intel model is soldered)
- Bottom speaker placement