This article has gathered our top five picks to help you choose your next ideal Lenovo laptop. These laptops offer great performance and have long battery life. Some even top the 10 hours mark. What’s more, they have also been tested against multiple military-grade specifications for high-end durability and resilience.
Let’s take a look at the buyer’s guide first before going through our top picks.
Buyer’s Guide for the Best Lenovo Laptops
Lenovo produces laptops for a wide audience. Because of this wide range, deciding on a particular Lenovo model becomes quite a daunting task. However, this buyer’s guide aims to make this choice easier for you. Apart from the obvious CPU, RAM, Memory, and ports availability factors, we discuss some other important factors for Lenovo laptops. Read on!
Screen Size
Choose whether you want a wider display or a more portable solution. The 13 inches Chromebooks are some of the smallest Lenovo laptops today and undoubtedly the most portable. 14-inch displays give you more screen real estate while still being portable. But their downside is the lack of a dedicated num pad. 15 inches and higher displays are appropriate for productivity work. However, they are the least portable.
Touchscreen Capability
If your work becomes easier with a touch screen, then go for a touchscreen model. But keep in mind, laptops with touchscreen capability are much more expensive. On the plus side, some of the touchscreen models like the ThinkPad X1 Yoga are 2-in-1, giving you the best of both the laptop and the tablet experience.
Keypad and Touchpad
Even fantastic specs don’t mean diddly if your laptop has bad ergonomics. Ensure the keypad has solid tactile feedback, plenty of key travel, and enough spacing between the two keys. Similarly, look for an accurate touchpad with a quick response. Be careful of the jumpy cursor.
1. Lenovo Yoga 9i
Specifications:
- CPU: Intel Core i7-1185G7
- RAM: 16GB
- GPU: Iris Xe
- Storage: 512 GB
- Display: 14-inches, 1080p
- Battery life: 11:15
- Weight: 3 pounds
- Size: 12.6 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
Lenovo Yoga 9i is undoubtedly the king of the ring right now. It takes the already proven formula of Yoga C940 and further improves it. With subtle design improvements, better performance, longer battery life (approx. 11 hours), and an 11th Gen Intel CPU, the Yoga 9i proves to be quite a worthy successor to the last year’s top laptop.
As you have come to expect from the Yoga series, 9i has a premium and portable build. Its unique hinge rotates 360 degrees to convert the laptop into a tablet if you want. The hinge also doubles as a rotating soundbar with Dolby Atmos. The display is also crisp, vibrant, and plenty sharp. We had no trouble watching content in broad daylight.
Our favorites about this model are the bells and whistles. You get a webcam cover (yeah! No need for a tape anymore), an Active Pen slot (keeps it safe), two Thunderbolt 3 ports, and a fingerprint sensor for extra security. Unfortunately, there’s no IR camera on the laptop.
Overall, Lenovo Yoga 9i is a surprisingly powerful two-in-one laptop. It has premium specs and offers premium performance when challenged to its max. Phenomenal battery life is just the icing on the cake.
Buy Here: Amazon
2. Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Extreme (2nd Gen)
Specifications:
- CPU: Intel Core i7-9850H
- RAM: 32 GB
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q
- Storage: 1TB SSD
- Display: 15.6-inches, 4K HDR
- Weight: 3.8 pounds
- Size: 14.2 x 9.7 x 0.7 inches
The X1 Extreme is a powerful business laptop. It has a jaw-dropping 15.6 inches 4K HDR display (beat that, HP!) and a lightning-fast speed thanks to its 9th gen Core i7 chip, 32 GB RAM, and a quick 1 TB SSD. Plus, it has the signature Thinkpad goodness – durable design, excellent keypad, and matte black finishing on a carbon fiber build.
Compared with contemporary models such as X1 Yoga or even the X1 Carbon, the X1 Extreme packs more punch. That is because it has six core H-series processing chips. It also has a bigger display and more ports, making it a much better option for productivity.
The X1 Extreme has passed all the MIL-STD durability tests like all the best Lenovo laptops. Expect no flex when grasping the corners of the screen or smashing the keypad on your Mondays. The laptop is still incredibly compact at 0.72 by 14.2 by 9.7 inches and weighs just 3.75 pounds in mass. So, it’s still pretty portable.
That said, beware of the limited battery life, though. Yup! Something had to crash the party. During our test looping the latest movie trailer, it lasted for just 6 hours. That’s somewhat disappointing but not unexpected considering the graphical demands of the 4K display.
Buy Here: Amazon
3. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga (5th Gen)
Specifications:
- CPU: Intel Core i7
- RAM: 16 GB
- GPU: Intel Core i5-10310U; Core i7-10610U
- Storage: 256 GB; 512GB SSD
- Display: 14-inches, 1080p and 4K
- Weight: 3 pounds
- Size: 12 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
Last year, Lenovo took a gamble with the ThinkPad X1 Yoga by introducing its first metal Thinkpad. It surprisingly paid off. Sure, Thinkpad’s original carbon fiber construction and a matte black finish have become a sort of trademark, X1 Yoga’s unibody aluminum-magnesium construction is a breath of fresh air.
As for the design, there’s nothing new to see here. Sure, it feels sturdy, premium, nicely built, attractive, and compact enough, but it just feels ordinary. It keeps all the other elements of the Thinkpad, such as the touchpad’s red trim, fingerprint sensor, the illuminated I, and the central red rubber stick.
This convertible two in one laptop flaunts a bright display. Both 1080p and 4K are available. Besides, it offers top of a line keypad and a long-lasting battery life, same as Lenovo Yoga 9i’ at approximately 11 hours. It also has a pre-built stylus pouch and a webcam lid.
All in all, Thinkpad X1 Yoga is an excellent option for business users. In particular, users who gravitate towards having a small yet brilliant keyboard and a cool pointing stick would get the most back out of their bucks with this model. It’s one of the best Lenovo laptops in the market right now.
Buy Here: Amazon
4. Lenovo Legion Y545 Gaming Laptop
Specifications:
- CPU: Intel Core i7-9750H
- RAM: 16 GB
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
- Storage: 128GB
- Display: 15.6-inches, 1080p
- Weight: 5.3 pounds
- Size: 14.2 x 10.5 x 1.1 inches
The Lenovo Legion Y545 is a budget-friendly entry-level laptop for gaming enthusiasts. It under promises due to its budget price and over-delivers thanks to Nvidia’s discrete graphics chip.
It has an industrial and a more toned-down design than most of its counterparts. The chassis is trim for a 15.6 inches gamer. While the side screen bezels aren’t as slim as some of the pricier models, they are skinny enough to give this model a modern look.
When tested for gaming performance, the Lenovo Legion Y545 pushes well past the targeted 60 frames per second mark in the real-world gaming benchmarks. That means games like Fortnite, Minecraft and PUBG run as smoothly as you would expect. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about graphics-extensive games like GTA V or Apex Legends.
Our only disappointment is the low battery life. On a full charge, the laptop lasts a measly 5 hours. That said, Legion Y545 is still an excellent entry-level gaming laptop due to its affordable cost and great performance. And when you are not gaming, you can use it for some light productivity work and watch your favorite content on that gorgeous 1080 screen.
Buy Here: Amazon
5. Lenovo IdeaPad 3
Specifications:
- CPU: 10th Gen Intel Core i3-1005G1 1.20GHz Dual-Core Processor
- RAM: 12 GB DDR4
- GPU: Intel UHD Graphics
- Storage: 256 GB SSD
- Display: 15.6-inches, 1080p
- Weight: 4.1 pounds
- Size: 14.25 x 9.98 x 0.79 inches
While the $500 range is home to some awful lappies sporting 768p resolutions and Atom or Celeron processors, Ideapad 3 is one of the better options. The reason being its more than decent specs such as a 10th gen Intel’s Ice Lake processor, 12 GB memory, and a 1080p resolution.
Design-wise it doesn’t have unique features except the less common Abyss blue color. It’s rectangular with round corners. A Lenovo logo sticks in one corner. The chassis is neither thick nor thin. The laptop’s undercarriage and cover are made of hard plastic.
The panel is 1080p, which provides a much sharper image than some of its contemporaries, notably Lenovo 330. The peak brightness of the panel is 250 nits, which isn’t much. As long as you are using it indoors, brightness won’t be a problem. Its battery life is also decent, coming in at 7 and a half hours on a full charge.
Lenovo’s Ideapad 3 packs enough power to keep you hammer through the day on basic tasks without showing any signs of a slow down. It is highly recommended for day-to-day indoor use.
Buy Here: Amazon
Final Thoughts
This is in no way the end of the best Lenovo laptops. The choices are endless. That’s why you need to have a clear perspective on your needs versus interests – features you must have and ones that would be great to have. Going out with a clear set of goals can help you acquire the Lenovo laptop of your dreams.
