Lenovo Yoga 7i 16 Gen 10

Pros

• Roomy, 16-inch display
• Thin, all-aluminum design
• Spacious keyboard with numpad
• Long battery life
• USB-C ports on both sides of the laptop

Cons

• Basic IPS display isn't the brightest
• Some keyboard backlight bleed

The Yoga 7i 16 Gen 10 is Lenovo's latest midrange, Intel-based, 16-inch two-in-one. I would describe myself as the King of Open Tabs, and I'm not a stranger to data entry, so I tend to gravitate toward larger laptops with roomy keyboards with a number pad. So, I was a relatively easy sell for the Yoga 7i 16 Gen 10 simply for its generous 16-inch, 16:10 display and keyboard. But I also found lots of other things to like about it -- from its thin yet rigid design to its capable performance and long battery life. After testing and using it, I can easily say the Yoga 7i 16 Gen 10 is an excellent, affordable, large-screen laptop for everyday tasks that can also double as a tablet.

Midrange but all-metal design

If you've looked into buying a Lenovo laptop, then you know its lineup can quickly get confusing. Among the various series, you'll find budget-friendly IdeaPad models at the bottom, with the Yoga series going from midrange, the 7 series, to the ultrapremium 9 series, such as the near-perfect, long-running Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition. Most Yogas are two-in-one convertibles, but not all, and you'll find both AMD and Intel options along with 14- and 16-inch sizes. In addition to IdeaPads and Yogas, there are ThinkPad and ThinkBook models for business and Legion and LOQ for gaming. In other words, there is a lot to choose from.

The Yoga 7i 16 Gen 10 is slim and sleek, with nicely rounded edges that make it comfortable to carry around and use in both laptop and tablet modes (though it's a bit too large to use hand-held for long). You get only one color choice -- a dull gray -- and I would have liked to see other color options, especially given how many configurations and specs Lenovo offers. 

Since it's a two-in-one, it has a sturdy, stiff hinge that helps keep the screen firmly in place for any of its modes: laptop, tablet, tent or presentation. I appreciate the lack of screen wobble, but the downside is that the laptop is a bit harder to open than most. It's not a laptop you can pop open one-handed; you'll need two. 

The all-aluminum enclosure gives the Yoga 7i a solid, sturdy feel, and the material does a good job of resisting fingerprints. A lot of laptops at this price still rely on plastic somewhere in the chassis, so it's nice to see Lenovo go with all metal here. Despite its rigid build, it doesn't feel bulky, measuring just 0.6 inches thick and weighing 4.2 pounds. Lenovo even trimmed a bit off last year's Gen 9 model, which weighed 4.4 pounds.

As for the keyboard and trackpad layout, the keys feel soft yet responsive, with a short travel and spacing that's sufficient for those with sausage fingers like mine. The only keys that tripped me up were the half-height arrow-up and arrow-down keys; I wish Lenovo were able to find room to provide four full-size arrow keys. The keyboard backlight has three settings -- off, dim/auto and full brightness -- and you'll see some light bleeding from underneath the keys. It's not too distracting, but it detracts from the overall look of the laptop, giving it a bit more of a budget feel.

The trackpad is nice and wide, and it has a glass surface that provides a clean, satisfying click. If you're like me and can't stand typing your password every time, the Yoga 7i 2-in-1 Gen 10 has you covered with security features like Windows Hello and a built-in fingerprint reader for quick, easy sign-ins.

The Yoga 7i 16 Gen 10 supports stylus input, but a pen isn't included in the box when you purchase it from Best Buy. The customizable model on Lenovo's site, however, includes the Yoga Pen. Sold separately, the Yoga Pen costs $59. Depending on the size of the discounts available at Best Buy and Lenovo at any given time, however, it might be cheaper to buy the Yoga 7i 16 Gen 10 at Best Buy and the pen separately at Lenovo. I've seen the Yoga 7i 16 Gen 10 on sale for as little as $650 at Best Buy a massive $450 discount. Lenovo also offers rotating discounts for the Yoga 7i 16 Gen 10, but it might be worth waiting for a big discount at Best Buy and then adding the pen on your own. 

The 16-inch display is a basic IPS panel with a standard 1,920x1,200-pixel resolution and 60Hz refresh rate. You'll find higher-resolution displays with crisper pictures and speedier refresh rates for smoother motion if you spend more, but the resolution here is enough for basic Windows use and productivity tasks. Text looked clear, and I really liked being able to work and multitask on the ample 16-inch, 16:10 panel. 

Brightness, too, is merely average. It's rated for 300 nits of brightness, and contrast and colors didn't look as punchy as other laptops I've used. What's interesting is that the 14-inch version of the Yoga 7i comes with an OLED panel that's rated for 400 nits of brightness, but the 16-inch model offers only an IPS display. When I'm testing, I'm often bouncing between multiple laptops, and it was hard not to notice that the Yoga 7i 2-in-1 Gen 10 just wasn't as bright as the Lenovo Legion 9 or my work MacBook Pro.

When it comes to ports, the Yoga 7i 16 Gen 10 has you covered. You get both USB Type-A and Type-C, so you won't need to keep a dongle in your bag. The Type-C ports are located on both sides of the laptop, making it easy and convenient to plug in power or accessories from either side. Both USB-C ports support Thunderbolt 4 for fast 40Gbps transfers. There's also a microSD card slot -- something you rarely see on laptops under $1,000. The only real downside is the HDMI 1.4 port, which is outdated and supports only 1080p. The USB-C ports support DisplayPort 1.4, letting you run up to two 4K displays at 60Hz, a single 8K display at 60Hz or a 4K display at 120Hz.

The Yoga 7i 16 Gen 10 comes with four speakers -- a pair of woofers and a pair of tweeters. The overall sound is noticeably fuller than that of a standard two-speaker setup, and it's directed toward your ears in most modes because the speakers sit up above the keyboard and fire upward. This means you don't lose audio the way you do on laptops with bottom-firing speakers.

Above the display is a 1080p webcam, and while the picture looked a bit grainy in both low and bright light, the audio came through crisp and clear. It works well for Zoom or Google Meet calls, and the physical privacy shutter is a nice addition, providing peace of mind when the camera is not in use. 

Lenovo Yoga 7i 16 Gen 10 performance

In our lab testing, the Yoga 7i 16 Gen 10 performed as expected, delivering solid middle-of-the-road performance. It's also worth noting that the Best Buy model includes a nice upgrade, supplying an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V chip instead of the Core Ultra 5 226V that you get with the baseline configuration of the customizable configuration from Lenovo. 

There's no bump in memory. however. You get 16GB of RAM from either Best Buy or Lenovo, which is the bare minimum we generally recommend and standard at this price. But its 1TB SSD is a step above the typical 512GB drive you usually find in this range, providing a little more breathing room right out of the box.

The Yoga 7i 16 Gen 10 produced benchmark scores similar to those of competing Windows systems, but fell short of the pace set by the 15-inch M4 MacBook Air. Battery life is really where the Yoga 7i shines. It ran for 14 hours and 53 minutes in our streaming test, which was a minute longer than the 15-inch M4 MacBook Air lasted. For a two-in-one that must power a large 16-inch display, that's seriously impressive endurance and one of its biggest selling points. Still, you'll get hours more battery life from the Acer Aspire 16 AI, which uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon X series processor.

Is the Lenovo Yoga 7i 16 Gen 10 worth buying?

The Yoga 7i 16 Gen 10 offers a spacious display in a fairly thin-and-light design, making it worthy of consideration. Add in its solid performance for the price, long battery life and two-in-one versatility, it's an easy recommendation, especially when you can find it on sale for less than $700. It can handle a wide range of home office and entertainment tasks, allowing you to seamlessly switch between laptop and tablet modes for note-taking, web browsing and video watching. Graphics pros require a brighter, more color-accurate display and dedicated graphics, but this 16-inch two-in-one offers sufficient performance for casual creative work and browser-based games that can be played on the touchscreen.