Lenovo Yoga 7i 14-inch Tiger Lake Laptop Review: Core i5-1135G7 Debut

[Redaktion]

Lenovo's new mid-range 14-inch convertible comes with the latest 11th gen Intel parts and even Thunderbolt 4 compatibility for a little under $1000 USD. Its specifications are great on paper, but let's see how the machine actually performs.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-Yoga-7i-14-inch-Tiger-Lake-Laptop-Review-Core-i5-1135G7-Debut.504079.0.html

[vertigo]

Interesting review, and THANK YOU for calling out the stupid arrow key layout, which really needs to die already. It's a shame Lenovo continues to hinder their computers with these crappy displays, and the soldered RAM trend really needs to stop, too.

What I find particularly interesting is how good the CPU performance is, yet how poorly the GPU performs. I'm guessing Lenovo still has a lot of work to do on their drivers for this chip.

As for Lenovo Vantage, I was messing with a ThinkPad with the privacy filter in the store yesterday, and was not at all impressed by this software. First, half the time it would switch on/off, and I'm not sure if it was an issue of having to click in exactly the right place on the switch or if Vantage was simply not responding. Which brings me to the second issue I had: after messing with it for just several seconds, the Vantage software froze, requiring me to end the task, after which it started working again. Not exactly a great image for a business computer, having their added software be that unstable.

[Alex Smith]

A small correction: The 1135g7 has 80EUs, not 96 like the 1165g7.
Strange that the gaming performance is so much lower though, hopefully it's just a driver issue.

[vertigo]

A small correction: The 1135g7 has 80EUs, not 96 like the 1165g7.
Strange that the gaming performance is so much lower though, hopefully it's just a driver issue.

That makes more sense, and was my first thought, but then I checked the numbers in the article and it showed 96, and I know Intel has made things even more confusing than usual with Tiger Lake SKUs so I figured it was right. It does seem strange it would make such a big difference, but I suppose it's possible, though I still suspect Lenovo's drivers are playing a role.

[Eric Y]

Cinebench R23 testing?

[Pablo240]

Very disappointing GPU performance... perhaps too disappointing?  It shouldn't be that bad as others have pointed out, especially when the CPU performance is so solid.  I feel like it has to be a driver issue. 

[Bill Huber]

I read somewhere that some manufactures slow down the CPU when the GPU is under load. Maybe that is what going on here with Lenovo not doing that. This laptop has strong CPU scores but weaker GPU scores.
Someone asked about Cinebench R23 benchmark. I got SC 1349 MC 5728 on my laptop. I also got an R20 MC score of 2377 which is very fast.

[SaifulH]

The GPU performance is due to slower ram (DDR4 3200 mhz vs LPDDR4x 4266). That accounts for about a 30% difference for the tiger lake performance. I can't paste the link but you can google: "Tiger Lake iGPU is heavily dependent on LPDDR4x 4266MHz RAM" and it will show various benchmarks for tiger lake I5 and I7 with different Ram speeds.

[Winnersplan]

It seems, the difference in GPU performance is due to RAM speed (it is a pitty, Lenovo just uses DDR-4 3200 instead of DDR-4 4267) and (!) also the reduced number of EU's. Intel lists their i7-1135G7 with 80EU's and Notebookcheck states in ther overview article of the  i7-1135G7 that it is using only 80 out of the 96EUs of the Iris Xe GPU. Still, this means the article needs to be corrected listing the number of active EUs as 80 instead of 96.

[Ines]

So, which one has better performance, Lenovo yoga 7 Intel core i7 or ASUS Zenbook UX425EA Intel core i7? I'm looking for a laptop to essencial tasks (Word, Power point, browse on internet, youtube, etc) and occasional photo editing. Thank you =)

[vertigo]

So, which one has better performance, Lenovo yoga 7 Intel core i7 or ASUS Zenbook UX425EA Intel core i7? I'm looking for a laptop to essencial tasks (Word, Power point, browse on internet, youtube, etc) and occasional photo editing. Thank you =)

If that's all you're planning to use it for, I doubt there's enough difference between the two for you to even be able to tell, and certainly either one would work perfectly well. You're better off choosing based on other factors, like ergonomics (keyboard, tracked, size, weight, convertible, opening angle, etc), build quality, warranty & customer support, bloatware (unless you plan to do a wipe and fresh install, which I always recommend doing), screen quality, battery life, ports, heat, noise, and upgradeability (e.g. with many laptops the memory (RAM) can't be upgraded, in which case you need to make sure it comes with enough, and with some laptops you can't even upgrade the storage, which is an automatic and absolute no-go IMO, no matter the size), and, of course, price.

Computers have become powerful enough that most people, especially those that have to ask (generally, people that have more demanding needs know what they need), will be fine no matter what, as long as they stick with the i-series or Ryzen (not Celeron or Pentium), and even often if they don't. That said, Ryzen (AMD) is a better performer AND often cheaper, so it's generally going to be the better option, but unfortunately options are pretty limited with laptops that use them, though that will likely change next year.

Also, for your intended use case, you don't need an i7. It's overkill and will just cost more and potentially run hotter and have less battery life. An i5 is more than sufficient for most people (even an i3 would likely be plenty for you).

[Insider]

the reason for slower GPU performance is cos of its asymmetrical memory setup. Get a 8G or 16G setup and the performance will be on par or better than Zenbook. By the way, the laptop has a TDP of 25W so horsepower is guaranteed.

[grns]

Can i conncet an exterrnal monitor? If yes what port should i use ?

[winnersplan]

Me again,
I got myself the 15" version (Lenovo Yoga 7i 15 - 82BJ) with Core-i7 1165G7 processor and 16GB of 3200MHz DDR 4 memory. I have to say, I cannot complain about lacking GPU performance. I am able to run Far Cry 5 in High Settings (FHD - so far I only ran a short trial) and also the 3D Mark11 score is much better than mentioned in the test here. I am very happy with the performance. I guess, the lacking GPU speed in the test is indeed caused by asymmetric memory configuration with 12GB as well as less EUs of the Core-i7 1135G7.

[PrimoViking]

The GPU performance test is very misleading. The 1135G7 variant might only feature LPDDR4 low 2333MHz clock speeds but the 1165G7 comes with up to 16GB LPDDR4x RAM at 3200MHZ (Up to 4267MHz) and blows the AMD variants of this laptop out of the water when it comes to GPU performance. The "only" thing the AMD variant does better is multicore benchmarks. PLEASE REVIEW THE i7-1165G7 VARIANT!!!