Not Too Different: Living With the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 (2023)

Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 is effectively the two-in-one version of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11, with a hinge that lets you rotate the screen completely and a built-in small stylus. Just as with previous Gen 7 version of the X1 Yoga, the hinge lets you flip over the screen so that it works like a tablet (with the keyboard hidden underneath) or use it in “tent” mode for presentations. I think such convertible or two-in-one machines can be useful for people who do a lot of presentations, and maybe for those who watch videos on their laptops on planes.

This year’s version, like that of the X1 Carbon, hasn’t changed much from last year’s except for an upgrade to the 13th Generation Intel Core processors. The machine I tested had an Intel Core i7-1355U (Raptor Lake) processor with 2 performance cores (each offering two threads each) and eight efficient cores, thus a total of 10 cores and 12 threads. This has a base power of 15 watts, with a maximum frequency of 5GHz on the performance cores. Compared to the machine I tested last year, which had an Intel Core i7-1260P (Alder Lake) processor, it has two fewer performance core and thus four fewer threads, along with less cache (12MB vs 18 MB), lower base power, but a faster turbo for the CPU–up to 5GHz. The processor is manufactured on the same Intel 7 process and has the same Iris Xe graphics with 96 execution cores and vPro support for enterprise manageability. In other words, the basic processor isn’t much different, but it has fewer cores running at higher speeds. My model had 16GB of memory along with a 512GB SSD, the same as last year.

The X1 Yoga Gen 8 looks virtually identical to last year’s model, with a 14-inch display in a “Storm Gray” casing of brushed aluminium. The model I tested had a responsive touch screen 1920-by-1200 display; other options include a privacy screen and a 3840-by-2400 OLED display. Physically, the unit measures 0.59 by 12.3 by 8.8 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.14 pounds by itself and 3.83 pounds with the charger, each just slightly lighter than last year’s version. It has two USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports (usable for charging) plus a USB-A port and an HDMI connection on the left-hand side, while the right side adds another USB-A port, a Kensington lock, and a headset jack.

It continues to come with a small stylus that slides into the bottom right-hand side of the unit. The stylus is good for basic drawing and for signing and annotating documents, and the screen certainly seemed responsive, though if I was doing a lot of drawing, I’d probably want a larger pen. The keyboard has both a decent size trackpad and the traditional ThinkPad TrackPoint pointing stick. Other options include LTE and 5G WWAN modems, but I didn’t test these.

Again, the biggest change this year is the processor, and as with the X1 Carbon, I saw improvements of about 10% in tests such as PCMark 10; in Cinebench, the single-core speed showed a nice improvement, while the multi-core version was nearly identical. Again, in graphics, the latest machines I’ve tested with AMD’s Ryzen chips such as the HP Dragonfly Pro or the ThinkPad 13 Z1, continue to do much better, but general performance is quite good for basic applications.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

On my tougher tests, a big portfolio simulation in MatLab took a bit more than 37 minutes, a bit faster than this year’s X1 Carbon, but about two minutes worse than on last year’s X1 Yoga. Converting a large file in Handbrake video conversion took an hour and 46 minutes, again a bit better than I got on the X1 Carbon but note that the Dragonfly Pro did this in 1 hour and 9 minutes, much faster.

On the other hand, a big Excel spreadsheet ran in 35 minutes, better than the 39 minutes on the Alder-Lake-based Yoga and far better than the 47 minutes it took on a Dragonfly Pro. I believe this is because Excel doesn’t take advantage of the extra cores but does take advantage of the higher clock speeds.

Battery life seemed a bit better than last year’s model. On PCMark’s Modern Office test, it lasted more than 17 hours for me, a nice improvement. So overall, the move to Raptor Lake does seem to have helped, and most users will be quite satisfied with the performance.

As with the X1 Carbon, it has a 1080p webcam, and the model I had worked well with Windows Hello. It comes with Lenovo Commercial Vantage software that lets you adjust things like brightness and contrast; and has a physical privacy switch. Still, I found the camera to be not nearly as sharp as the best webcams in machines in this class. It’s the area where I’d most like Lenovo to improve.

On Lenovo’s website, the ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 starts at $1,457 for a version with an Intel i5-1335U processor, and 256GB of storage. A model similar to what I tested with an i71365U and 512GB of storage configured for $1,840, about $200 more than a similar X1 Carbon.

As for two-in-ones as a category, I do like touch screens a lot, although you can now get one on a more standard notebook. And most convertible machines – at least those with built-in keyboards – are too heavy to use as a replacement for a typical tablet. On the other hand, the two-in-one-concept makes sense if you use the machine a lot for presentations, or if you plan to do a significant amount of drawing. With the step-up to Raptor Lake, the ThinkPad X1 Yoga remains one of the top choices in the category.

Read PCMag's full review.