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Lenovo has a well-deserved reputation for building great laptops at reasonable prices. This year, the company leaped into our top spot by not only making excellent and innovative products, but also backing them with quick and helpful support. Thanks to these machines' excellent keyboards, long battery life or eye-catching designs, 19 out of the 33 Lenovo laptops we reviewed got ratings of 4 stars or higher.
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Lenovo's Key Strengths
ThinkPads: They are the undisputed champions of productivity, thanks to their best-in-class keyboards, accurate pointing sticks and long battery life.
Yogas: Best series of bendback 2-in-1s
Pushing the envelope: From totally flat keyboards that double as writing pads to OLED screens, Lenovo takes risks.
Lenovo's Main Weaknesses
No high-end gaming: Lenovo's gaming laptops are nice, but don't get anything more powerful than a midrange, GTX 1060 card.
Mixed feelings on detachables: The company's Miix series of detachable 2-in-1s fails to impress.
Top-Rated Lenovo Laptops
ThinkPad T460: 17+ hours of battery life
ThinkPad X1 Carbon: 2.7 pounds, 12 hours of battery life
Yoga 910: Tiny bezel, low weight and attractive chassis
MORE: The Best Lenovo Laptops
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Reviews (31/35)
Lenovo received our top overall review score this year, because the company made so many top-rated laptops. We reviewed 33 models, 17 of which earned a score of 4, while another two earned a 4.5.
Nine of Lenovo's laptops earned our coveted Editors’ Choice, including the high-end ThinkPad X1 Carbon and the affordable Yoga 710 (both 14-inch and 15-inch models). There was only one Lenovo laptop that we didn’t recommend at all last year (the Lenovo Miix 700). The company was bolstered by its ThinkPad and Yoga lines, which we praised for solid performance, long battery life and comfortable keyboards.
Design (14/15)
Lenovo maintains its reign as the king of flexible productivity. The company's 360-degree hinges have become ubiquitous, showing up on any self-respecting 2-in-1. Lenovo has remained at the forefront of the trend, serving up soft-touch, coated beauties like the Yoga 900S, Yoga 710 15 inch and the innovative Yoga Book. But the creme de la creme is the Yoga 910, with its nearly bezelless 13.9-inch display paired with a watchband-style hinge.
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The stunning hinge also makes a welcome showing in the detachable Miix 700, while sturdier dual hinges are seamlessly incorporated into Lenovo's iconic business notebooks, such as the ThinkPad P40 Yoga and ThinkPad Yoga 460.
That's not to say the company doesn't have its fair share of austere laptops — primarily from the ThinkPad line — including the T460s, L560 and E560. Although each offers varying levels of durability, they all feature the same staid black chassis with minimal accents, which signals its reliable, but boring, status. There is a ray of hope, however: The company recently started shipping silver business laptops like the ThinkPad 13, X1 Carbon and X1 Yoga.
Gaming laptops like the IdeaPad Y700 14-inch, IdeaPad Y900 and upcoming Legion series have an elegant, but understated red-and-black design language.
Support (17/20)
Lenovo's convenient callback service lets you sign up for a phone session online and either receive an immediate call or schedule one; we never had to wait on hold for more than a minute. The company's phone reps were friendly, helpful and willing to answer questions about Windows settings, something they wouldn't always do in prior years. However, like most support agents, they occasionally gave inaccurate answers.
On the bright side, upgrading your Lenovo laptop's RAM and storage does not void your warranty.
Innovation (10/10)
Easily the most innovative 2-in-1 we’ve seen, the Lenovo Yoga Book is an incredibly unique piece of hardware. With the push of a button, the bottom half of this convertible transforms from a pen tablet into a backlit keyboard. The Yoga Book digitizes your notes and sketches, and gives you 2,048 levels of pressure. Although the keyboard has a learning curve, this 2-in-1 feels like the future. Speaking of being ahead of the curve, the ThinkPad X1 Yoga is the first business 2-in-1 to boast a gloriously colorful OLED screen.
Value and Selection (14/15)
As one of the biggest PC makers on the planet, Lenovo features an extensive lineup of award-winning systems. The company offers premium 2-in-1s in its Yoga line, top-notch business machines in its ThinkPad family, and even budget-friendly consumer notebooks, like the Ideapad 110S.
Lenovo covers every major niche of the laptop market, but its gaming laptops come with budget or midrange specs only and can't compete with the high-end flagships from companies like Dell, Asus, MSI and Razer.
Warranty (4/5)
Most Lenovo laptops come standard with one-year limited warranties, but some ready-made ThinkPad configs (not configure to order) do better and come with three-year warranties. All ThinkPads and premium consumer laptops ship with "depot" warranties, in which Lenovo pays all of your shipping costs. Unfortunately, some lower-end Lenovo laptops have base warranties in which you have to pay freight to send them in for service.
On the bright side, upgrading your Lenovo laptop's RAM and storage does not void your warranty.
Lenovo gets credit for offering the most-granular options for upgrading your warranty service. You can choose specifically to go from base to depot to on-site service. If you decide to extend your term past one year, you can choose whether you want depot or on-site service for up to three or five years, with the maximum term depending on which laptop you buy. Finally, you can add accidental-damage protection as separate item.
