The Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga Gen 3 adds 13th Gen Intel Core processors but otherwise carries forward with the same design and most of the components used by its predecessor.

Design

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga is a premium convertible laptop with tent, stand, and laptop usage modes. Aimed at the small business market, it looks modern and professional, with an anodized aluminum body that can be purchased in a choice of two colors, Abyss blue and Mineral gray, both of which offer a nice two-tone look.

The review unit came in the former, and it was a nice break from the dull grays of most corporate laptops, though the exterior of the display lid and the wrist rest area attracted fingerprints and smudge far too easily. The Lenovo branding is tastefully done.

Though most people will use the Yoga as a normal laptop most of the time, the versatility of the convertible design is obvious and will be useful even if used occasionally.

Display

From what I can tell, Lenovo only offers a single display option on this ThinkBook, a glossy Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS panel with an old-school 16:9 aspect ratio, multitouch and smartpen compatibility, and antiglare and anti-fingerprint coatings that outputs a relatively dim 300 nits of brightness.

The display’s side bezels are nice and small and the display does at least handle 100 percent of the sRGB color gamut, and I found it perfectly serviceable for day-to-day productivity work indoors. But I’d much rather see a 16:10 display panel and find it odd that Lenovo hasn’t made this change across its entire ThinkBook line. That’s especially true given this PC’s convertible functionality: a 16:10 or 3:2 display would make the Yoga’s tablet mode more usable.

Internal components

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga can be configured with a 13th Gen Intel Core i5-1335U or Core i7-1355U processor, both of which provide 10 total cores—2 performance, 8 efficient—and integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics, 8 or 16 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM (with 8 GB soldiered on the motherboard and the other 8 added via a SO-DIMM card), and up to two M.2 (PCIe NVMe PCIe 4.0 x4) SSD drives, either or both of which can be 256 GB, 512 GB, or 1 TB in capacity.

This is middle-of-the-road stuff, except for the storage, but perfectly adequate for the productivity applications used by its target audience. I ran Microsoft Word, Brave, Notion, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020, Microsoft Teams, Skype, WhatsApp, and Visual Studio Code continuously throughout the review period and never experienced any issues, with performance, heat, or fan noise. This was true even when it was used on a soft surface like a bed or couch.

Connectivity

Connectivity is modern-ish, with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 but no cellular data option.

Ports and expansion

The ThinkBook offers a mix of modern and legacy ports, as one would expect of a business-class portable. But there are some odd compromises. For example, on the left, you will find two USB-C ports, a full-sized HDMI port, a full-sized USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) port with always-on capabilities, a combo headphone/microphone jack, and, if you look closely, a pin-sized NOVO hole that’s used to recover the system if the PC can’t boot.

But the rear-most USB-C port provides USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps data transfer, Power Delivery 3.0, and DisplayPort 1.4) capabilities, while the USB-C port next to it has Thunderbolt 4/USB4 (40 Gbps data transfer, Power Delivery 3.0, and DisplayPort 1.4) capabilities. They should be identical.

On the right, you see a Kensington nano lock slot, a second full-sized USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) port (but without always-on capabilities), a micro-SD card reader, a power button with its integrated fingerprint reader, and a pen slot.

Audio and video

Sound is delivered via a pair of 2-watt stereo speakers that fire through the top and bottom of the device and are enhanced with Dolby Atmos capabilities. I appreciate the dynamic setting in the Dolby app that optimizes the sound for whatever content type you’re enjoying. But the overall volume isn’t particularly loud, and I found myself raising it higher than normal to try and compensate.

Of course, this laptop is aimed at business users, not consumers, and the hybrid meeting capabilities are at least decent, with a choice of 720p (boo) and 1080p webcams, both with a fixed focus and a manual privacy shutter, and a dual microphone array with noise canceling capabilities. Buyers should spend some time exploring the Lenovo Vantage app, where you can configure such things as optimizing audio for VoIP, a few very basic camera settings, microphone noise canceling with a mode specific to meetings, and speaker noise canceling.

Keyboard, touchpad, and pen

The ThinkBook’s backlit keyboard is superior, with short, clicky key throws, and I like how its gray color contrasts with the dark blue/black of the aluminum case around it. As good, Lenovo didn’t muck up the keyboard with any silly extras, the Ctrl key is in the right place, and you can toggle the function row between special functions (volume, brightness, communications, and so on) and traditional functions.

The smallish touchpad is likewise excellent, and while I did disable 3- and 4-finger gestures over time, I didn’t experience any accuracy or misclick issues. I wish all touchpads were this small.

Unfortunately, the bundled stylus, which is stored and charged in a slot on the right side of the PC, is too small to be useful for much, especially if you have adult-sized hands. I understand the attraction of this setup, and it’s nice to have a pen you can’t lose easily, but it undercuts the device’s handwriting and drawing capabilities.

Security

Lenovo has you covered with the basics from a security perspective: the ThinkBook 14s Yoga offers a self-healing BIOS, an offline recovery capability via its NOVO hole, and a Windows Hello-compatible match-on-host fingerprint reader on the power button. But the review unit didn’t offer Windows Hello facial recognition capabilities, and the webcam privacy shutter is manual and hard to see and use.

Sustainability

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga is pretty serviceable for a laptop, with a replaceable/upgradable SIMM card, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth M.2 card, and two M.2 storage slots. It is made with 25 percent post-consumer content (PCC) recycled plastic in the battery, 90 percent PCC recycled plastic used in its power adaptor, and 30 percent recycled ocean-bound plastic in packaging. The body is 100 percent aluminum.

Portability

Battery life was disappointing: I experienced an average of just under 5 hours of uptime over the review period, less than I had expected given Lenovo’s 11.7-hour estimate. Power to the 60-watt-hour battery comes via USB-C, of course, but you can choose between a standard Lenovo power adapter or the 2-pin wall-mount adapter that came with the review unit. Both are 65-watt units and can fast charge the ThinkBook to 80 percent in 60 minutes.

From a portability perspective, the ThinkBook is a joy to travel with. It weighs 3.3 pounds, which is about average for a 14-inch convertible, and its 12.6 x 8.62 x 0.67-inch body is thin and disappeared easily into my backpack during a road trip to the Finger Lakes region of New York. I wasn’t able to fly with it, but between its versatile form factor, short display, and small size, the ThinkBook would be an ideal travel companion.

Software

It’s reasonable to expect a business-class laptop to ship without any crapware and the ThinkBook 14s Yoga mostly came through, with just McAfee LiveSafe mucking up the works. The Lenovo software preload is also reasonable, with just five Lenovo-branded apps, plus AI Meeting Manager, Dolby, Intel Graphics Command Center, Journal, and SmartNote taking up space.

I don’t like seeing extra-cost offers in business-class laptops, and so the unasked-for appearance of the Lenovo Now app, which offered me premium care plus support at $11 per month for a one-year commitment, 3 months of Amazon Music for free, and an “exclusive” Dropbox offer of 100 GB of space for 6 months for free, was unwelcome.

As was the in-box advertising in Lenovo Vantage, though it wasn’t as in my face as was the case with the Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 8 that I reviewed back in March. The only interruption I can recall from that app was an offer for Lenovo Smart Lock, which costs $49.99 per year.

Pricing and configurations

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga Gen 3 is still listed as “coming soon” on the Lenovo website, but if its predecessor’s pricing is any guide, and I think it is, then you can expect a list price of about $1699 with real-world pricing in the $1000 to $1300 range. This laptop is a reasonable purchase at the lower end of that range and let’s face it, no one should ever pay the list price for a Lenovo laptop given its never-ending sales.

Recommendations and conclusions

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga is a middle-of-the-road business convertible with a curious mix of modern and down-level components that make it a bit obvious to see where Lenovo cut costs to hit a price point. It’s a good-looking PC with a versatile design but it gets smudged too easily. The display is 16:9, which isn’t ideal in general, but is even less so in a convertible. The keyboard and touchpad are both terrific, and the software preload is mostly crapware-free. But the disappointing battery life, single Thunderbolt 4/USB4 port, quiet speakers, and tiny stylus are all minuses. All-in-all, this PC is best used as a traditional laptop by those who don’t travel much and will always be near power. In that capacity, it will prove an able work companion.

At-a-glance

Pros

• Modern design
• Versatile form factor
• Excellent keyboard and touchpad
• Mostly crapware-free

Cons

• Unimpressive 16:9 display
• Disappointing battery life
• Only one Thunderbolt 4/USB4 port
• Tiny stylus
• Speakers aren’t very loud
• Smudgetastic exterior