Computers
Lenovo

Lenovo Yoga AIO 7 review

For the home office

₹ 1,71,990

It’s very rare that we get to test an AIO because the market for it is small. The 24in Apple iMac with an M1 processor is in the same price range as the Lenovo Yoga AIO 7 and we’ve been living with both for quite some time. Needless to say, both are capable home computers but the Lenovo packs an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H mobile processor which has a wee-bit more power for multicore performance. Think anything that goes from editing videos to filling pages inside of a tech magazine, and you’ll find the Lenovo to be an extremely capable contender to the iMac.

Performance

First things first, there’s an all-AMD system in here which means the Yoga AIO 7 is team red. The eight-core AMD Ryzen 7 5800H mobile processor along with the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (8GB) is quite the contender for editing FullHD and 4K videos and also running InDesign and Photoshop for our monthly magazine work. We threw 100MB InDesign book function files of our cover stories over the months, and the 16GB DDR4 RAM handled the workload with ease and the processor didn’t even break a sweat.

For single-core performance, there’s a bit of a delay to get the AMD Ryzen 7 5800H churning out its due diligence but when it comes to multi-core performance the processor shifts into high gear and handles editing with ease. You can’t scrub through multiple 4K videos simultaneously, but for what it’s worth, some basic 4K and even FullHD editing is handled best on this machine. Dare I say, better than the M1. 

It’s also very capable for gaming. The AMD Radeon RX 6600M can handle Age of Empires IV on 4K resolution with a good and playable frame rate. We tried some Apex Legends and got around 20 to 30FPS on 4K resolution at high settings. Turning down to 2K resolution brings the frame rate to 60FPS and turning down the graphics settings to low will reap you around 144FPS on 2K resolution. It’s not a gaming monitor, and you’ll find that out the hard way. That said, pretty looking games like The Ascent run at 50FPS at 2K resolution with Ray Tracing turned off. The monitor plastered onto the rotating hinge is only capable of 60Hz so you best play games that don’t require extra fast frame rates.

Games like God of War (2018) that support AMD FSR see a significant boost to performance. We played it at Ultra graphics settings on 4K and got around 30FPS but it quickly heats up and thermal throttles. The best way is to push the resolution down to 2K and set the game to high graphics settings with FSR set to Quality, the game was running at a stable 60 frames per second which is very impressive for an AIO desktop.

Display

So the display may not be the best for high FPS games but it’s still the best feature of this AIO. It’s the quality of this display that makes the Lenovo Yoga AIO 7 feel like a premium desktop computer. Firstly there’s no anti-glare coating which means the colours look bright and natural. The drawback is that you’ll have to keep the display facing away from direct sunlight. All things considered, it’s manageable to do so for a home computer. We packed and shipped our July magazine after working on this display and the colour accuracy of the RGB IPS display is quite commendable. You may want to attach a professionally calibrated display through the single HDMI port for nuanced colour grading work. Our in-house photographers were impressed with its sharp resolution and impressive saturation.

It’s also a touch display so you can caress it with your fingers to function faster than the mouse pointer. Although in our use, this 27in slab of glass was barely touched. It’s too big to consider using touch but if you find some use for this rotating display then tell us too. Oh yes, it rotates to a portrait mode but we don’t know why exactly. Maybe you can consider sidelining a ₹1,71,990 PC on your desk for a more colour-accurate display?

Features

It’s made like a tank. An elegant tank to be precise. It’s got premium metal construction all around and the rotating hinge is particularly smooth and refined. The display stand in which all the innards are packed has a flat back with fans on the side which makes heat dissipation quicker.

The lower portion of the arm has a 5W stereo JBL Harman-certified speaker with a nice cloth over the speaker grill. It’s a nice addition but it lacks refinement. There’s noticeable distortion at higher volumes and the lower end lacks energy and power. 

You also get a wireless keyboard and mouse in the box. We’ve been using it for the duration of the review and both are not very impressive. Kudos to Lenovo for including it, but we really missed our expensive mechanical keyboard and ultra-light gaming mouse. The keyboard looks pretty and all but there’s a delay when there are multiple inputs. If you’re professional or spend too much time typing, replacing the keyboard and mouse should be your first priority. The mouse feels like a dollar store product.

There’s also a very nice 5MP camera in the box to attach on top of the Yoga AIO 7 and it comes with a physical privacy shutter to block prying eyes.

Verdict

The Lenovo Yoga AIO 7 is a premium AIO which offers just enough processing power and graphical grunt to get away with editing work and casual gaming. It still has a mobile CPU and GPU so that’s a bit of a letdown but if you’re looking for a good replacement for Apple iMac (M1), the Yoga has all the bells and whistles of a competent AIO. The screen is a joy to look at and the performance from the AMD innards is plenty fast to keep up with your demands.

It doesn’t pack the latest innards like Gen 4 NVMe SSD and DDR5 RAM but that would take the price higher. The rotating display and the touch screen were not necessary in our opinion. Unless the Yoga could fold flat down for sketch work, the touch screen barely adds any meaningful value.

Stuff Says

A capable Windows AIO that is powerful, fast and truly fights the iMac
Good stuff
Bad stuff
  1. Sharp 4K display

  1. Good display colour reproduction

  1. AMD innards are plenty fast for editing/gaming

  1. Premium build quality

  1. Camera and keyboard in the box

  1. Average speakers

  1. DDR5 RAM and Gen 4 SSD are omitted

  1. The bundled keyboard is meh

Specifications
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 5800H
Display: 27in UHD (3840x2160) IPS 360nits, 100% sRGB, 3-side Borderless, Touch
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6600M 8GB GDDR6
Memory: 2x 8GB SO-DIMM DDR4-3200
Storage: 1TB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0x4 NVMe
Speakers: 5Wx2, JBL by Harman
Camera: Removable 5.0MP + IR
Microphone: Dual
Power Supply: 300W Adapter
I/O Ports: Left: 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 | 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (for LINK MODE) | 1x headphone / microphone combo jack (3.5mm), Rear: 2x USB 2.0 | 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 | 1x HDMI-out 2.0 | 1x Ethernet (RJ-45) | 1x power conne