The Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i is a sleek blend of design and functionality, aimed at those looking for a laptop with more than just basic features. Priced starting at Rs 150,000, it comes with a durable aluminum chassis, a high-resolution OLED display, and a powerful NVIDIA RTX 4050 GPU. The Yoga Pro 7i claims to handle it all, from multitasking to gaming, but in real-world testing, does it balance these aspects effectively? Let’s find out the answer.
design
The Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i is similar to the Yoga 7i 2-in-1, but with a slightly larger 14.5″ display and a robust, nearly full-width hinge that allows for up to 180-degree rotation. Like its convertible counterpart, the Pro model in the Yoga 7i series features a sleek, all-aluminum design that exudes a premium feel. The matte finish on the exterior combines style with practicality. Though the Yoga Pro 7i is slightly larger and heavier than the 2-in-1 model, it still remains competitive in terms of portability, weighing in at 1.59 kg.
Opening the lid (which requires minimal force, thanks to sturdy hinges) reveals a 14.5-inch OLED panel that stretches from edge to edge of the laptop. Lenovo has slightly tweaked the lid design by extending the housing at the top center to include the front-facing camera and infrared sensor. Notably, the front-facing camera no longer has a physical shutter, instead being fitted with a slider switch on the edge of the lower half that controls the camera’s operation. Below the display, a full-size keyboard tucked between the speakers on either side, with a large trackpad that maintains the laptop’s matte finish.
Though the Yoga Pro 7i doesn’t swivel 360 degrees, it retains the rounded edges of the Yoga 7i 2-in-1, making it just as comfortable to hold in your hand, although the power button is placed on the side, which can be a bit inconvenient when you’re in a hurry, and there’s no proper grip on the bottom, making it a bit slippery when used on smooth surfaces.
 "Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i: Ports and Buttons")
Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i: Ports and Buttons
Display and Audio
The Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i laptop features a 14.5-inch OLED display with 2.8K resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. With a 16:10 aspect ratio, the screen offers vertically extended content, enhancing the display-to-body ratio of the device.
OLED technology is known for its rich colors and excellent contrast, and the Yoga Pro 7i’s display is no exception. It covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color space, providing a wide range of more vibrant and saturated colors. Lenovo augments this with Dolby Vision HDR support to enhance the content viewing experience on the Yoga Pro 7i. The Lenovo Vantage app further improves video quality, offering a Super Resolution feature that boosts video resolution for non-HDR content in browsers like Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Opera.
The 120Hz refresh rate makes for a much smoother viewing experience, especially noticeable when scrolling. The display is glossy, but it effectively manages reflections in bright environments. Peak brightness is 400 nits, which isn’t groundbreaking, but it keeps the screen bright enough indoors. However, while the glossy finish gives off a premium feel, it is also more prone to fingerprints and smudges.
In terms of audio, the laptop features a stereo speaker system that supports Dolby Atmos. It includes two 2W tweeters for clear vocals and two 2W woofers to add depth to the sound. The audio output is clear, loud enough, and well-balanced, with the woofers providing a slight bass boost to enhance the audio track. The speakers are good for playing movies and videos, but music lovers might be better off connecting to external speakers for the best audio experience.
Camera and microphone
The Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i laptop comes with a 1080p resolution camera with an electronic shutter for added privacy. The camera offers decent video quality during calls in well-lit environments, but performance drops in low light, resulting in a somewhat blurred image. This may be fine for occasional use, but if you plan on making frequent video calls or live streaming, consider using an external webcam for improved clarity.
The laptop’s facial recognition technology is generally accurate, but detection speed can be slow at times.
As for audio, the built-in microphone offers decent clarity during calls, though recordings can sound a bit muffled at times. Still, it’s great at detecting voices and effectively filters out background noise to ensure crystal clear communication.
As for the software, Lenovo has provided an option within the camera settings to try out new features, but enabling this option doesn’t do much for now. It’s possible that future updates from Lenovo will expand on these features.
Keyboard and trackpad
The Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i features a full-sized backlit keyboard, but without a dedicated number pad, which is often omitted on smaller laptops. The typing experience on this keyboard is outstanding and users usually get used to it with minimal time. Despite the slim profile, the keys have ample downward travel and provide tactile feedback with every keystroke. In terms of functionality, aside from the new Copilot button next to the left arrow key, the keyboard has dedicated buttons that double as function keys. This includes buttons to launch the settings menu, snipping tool, calculator, clipboard, etc.
The laptop’s touchpad is large enough and easily accessible with both thumbs while typing. By default, the touchpad sensitivity is set very high, which can lead to accidental clicks. You can adjust the settings to make it less sensitive, but this may slow down your scrolling speed.
 "Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i: Keyboard and Trackpad")
Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i: Keyboard and Trackpad
software
Through its Vantage software, Lenovo has equipped the Yoga Pro 7i with a variety of customization options and settings, including features like the aforementioned “Super Resolution,” as well as preset Dolby Atmos sound profiles tuned for different activities like movies and gaming.
The Lenovo Vantage app also introduces different modes tailored to specific tasks, including media, meetings, learning, and gaming. Powered by Lenovo’s AI engine, the “Auto” mode adjusts settings based on the user’s current activity and behavior. Additionally, users can choose from three power modes – Performance, Battery Saver, and Adaptive, with the latter dynamically adjusting depending on usage patterns. The software also includes an X-Power setting that improves performance by overclocking the GPU while performing demanding tasks, such as running graphics-intensive games.
Besides the Lenovo Vantage features, the Yoga Pro 7i has a “Flip to Boot” feature that powers on as soon as you open the laptop. Windows Studio Effects enhances video calls with background blur for privacy and auto-framing that keeps you in focus regardless of movement. During testing, background blur worked effectively, but auto-framing was less impressive.
The laptop also comes with a facial recognition unlock feature that senses your presence and initiates the unlock. The feature works well and definitely comes in handy when you return from a work break. Apart from the hands-free unlocking experience, the Yoga Pro 7i offers “zero-touch video playback” which uses presence detection to pause and resume video playback. While the feature works well for offline videos, it didn’t work that well for YouTube and other streaming platforms.
performance
The Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i laptop lives up to your portable workstation expectations with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor and 16GB of LPDDR5X soldered-in RAM. The laptop handles multitasking effortlessly while maintaining efficient thermal management. It’s responsive, cool to the touch and quiet when in operation, even with numerous tabs, windows and background apps running.
This model comes with a dedicated 6GB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 GDDR6 GPU that’s suited for graphic-intensive tasks. Although the laptop is labeled as a GeForce RTX Studio laptop, the badge simply states that it meets NVIDIA’s standards for creator-grade devices, ensuring optimal display quality and performance. The laptop comes with pre-installed Creator Ready drivers, and you can optimize the GPU for gaming by installing NVIDIA’s Game Ready drivers.
Although we did not thoroughly test the laptop with creative applications, we did run some demanding video games, such as Need For Speed Payback. At Ultra Graphic settings, the laptop achieved 45-55 frames per second (FPS) in automatic performance mode. When we switched to performance mode, the FPS increased to around 65, without any noticeable lag or glitches. Additionally, we tried out the GPU overclocking feature, which is currently in an experimental stage. By manually adjusting it, we were able to achieve up to 80 FPS at the highest in-game graphics settings. Please note that the thermal management system is not on par with those found in dedicated gaming laptops, so the laptop may get uncomfortably hot during long gaming sessions.
When it comes to battery life, the dedicated GPU does impact it. Unlike the Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1, which can multitask continuously for over 9 hours, the Yoga Pro 7i lasts around 6 hours in auto-power mode, but that may be shorter under heavy loads such as graphics-intensive games. The laptop comes with a 140W charger that uses a USB-C port and can fully charge the battery in around an hour.
verdict
Priced starting at Rs 150,000, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i boasts of a great display and solid performance housed in a premium, durable aluminium chassis.It comes equipped with a powerful dedicated GPU, which can handle casual gaming as well as graphic-intensive video game titles with ease.
Overall, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i is a great choice for those looking for a professional work laptop that can also double as an entertainment device and allow users to pursue their creative pursuits. However, even though it comes equipped with an NVIDIA RTX 4050 GPU, that alone doesn’t position it as a primary gaming device. Other options in the same price range may be better suited, especially for those looking for a high-performance gaming machine.
