[Device Reviews and Information] Jupit3r:
Performance

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The YOGA Duet 7 is powered by the latest Intel Core i5-1135G7 Tiger Lake CPU, coupled with 16GB Memory and 512GB NVMe SSD. Without a dedicated graphics card, the YOGA Duet is definitely not a powerhouse, but it should still offer more than enough oomph for normal everyday computing tasks such as office workloads, web surfing and high-res video playback.

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As much as I dislike benchmarks, they are the easiest ways to measure the horsepower of a PC. To help you better understand the results, I’ve also listed the scores of some other 2-in-1s here for comparison.

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First, we ran Maxon's latest CPU-crunching Cinebench R23 test, which is fully threaded to make use of all available processor cores and threads. Cinebench stresses the CPU rather than the GPU to render a complex image. The result is a proprietary score indicating a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. The YOGA Duet scored 1331 in single-core, and 4423 in multi-core. Although these scores wouldn’t match what the Apple M1 powered Macbook Air had achieved in the same test, but they did handily beat the numbers the Microsoft Surface Pro 7 had got.

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In the cross-platform Geekbench 5.4.1 CPU test, the YOGA Duet’s 1411 CPU single-core score and 4742 multi-core score still lagged far behind the snatches of the new Apple Macbook Air, but they did beat the Dell XPS 2-in-1 and the Microsoft Surface Pro 7.

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PCMark simulates different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows. We use it to assess overall system performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and video conferencing. 4262 is the number the Duet 7 notched in the standard PCMark 10 test.

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This machine is equipped with a fast 512GB PCle NVMe SSD, readings in the CrystalDiskMark tells the story. The storage is also expandable with a MicroSD card of up to 1TB, if you are not too concerned with the read and write speeds the TF card could bring.

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One of the biggest complaints about of the YOGA Duet 7’s configurations is its 16GB single-channel memory. Don’t get me wrong, 16GB is quite plentiful for any 2-in-1. The real problem is that the 16GB memory offered here is a single stick, instead of two 8GB memory sticks. This results in lower overall bandwidth and throughput speed. 3D games such as Assassins’ Creed and Fallout 4 may suffer immensely in smoothness when running on a single-channel memory. But in other games and applications, the performance difference between single-channel and dual-channel RAM may vary from subtle to unnoticeable. In the AIDA64 cache & memory benchmark, the read, write and copy speeds of the 16GB memory are not impressive, but still solid. The 85.2ns latency isn’t too bad, either.

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The integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphis may not rival dedicated graphics found in gaming laptops and mainstream PCs, but it is still a huge step up from UHD 6XX GPUs. In the 3DMark Sky Diver, Fire Strike and Time Spy tests, the Duet's graphics scores are 9129, 2515 and 875 respectively.

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In the real world use, the Duet 7 provides ample oomph for normal everyday computing, light media editing, and even some 3D gaming. The system didn’t slow down when I was opening a dozen webpages in Chrome at the same time, and never really left me waiting for it to process a task or command.

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Editing videos in Power Director is generally smooth, filters and animations don’t take long to get applied to all layers of clips. However, I did spend 30% more time converting a 4K video on the Duet 7 than on the Xiaoxin 15 (ideapd S), which is powered by the same processor, but has dual-channel memory and a dedicated MX450 GPU.

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As for multimedia entertainment, the YOGA Duet has no problem streaming 4K YouTube videos in Microsoft Edge, or decoding different formats of 4K local video clips.

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The Intel Iris Xe Graphics is definitely not designed for intense 3D gaming, but it is capable of running most AAA titles in moderate settings. Fortnite was generally smooth under 720P and low visual effects, with average frame rates well above 45 FPS. League of Legends was smooth both in 720P (60 FPS) and 1080P (40-50 FPS), with visual effects set at low to medium.

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Conqueror’s Blade was a different story, though. Even at 720P and low settings, frame skips could happen in intense fighting scenes. Game PP reported an average frame rates of only 23 FPS, which means that the title is playable on the Duet 7, but not all that enjoyable.

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These were all the games I played on the Duet 7.

There’s an active cooling system in Duet 7’s slim body, and it is audible when the computer is under heavy workloads. Fortunately, the noise won’t be a constant distraction from what you are working on as it never gets too loud for comfort.

Battery Life

There’s a 42Whr battery under the shell, which gives the tablet 5-6 hours of screen time in mixed use. Lenovo advertised 13 hours of video playback for this machine, but that number was probably achieved with some extreme settings.

In my very own test, I set the screen brightness to 40%, which is generally ideal for indoor use, and played a 1080P video on loop for 9 hours, the YOGA Duet was left with only 2% of battery, so I believe it would be really difficult to squeeze more than 10 hours of screen time out of the machine.

The included 65W charger fills up the battery rather quickly. A full charge takes only around 2 hours, and you are able to get a healthy amount of refill during a short lunch break.

Connectivity

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The Duet 7 comes with the latest WiFi6 for fast internet access, and Bluetooth 5.0 for connecting with wireless input devices, headphones and speakers.

With 3 USB-C ports on board, you are able to hook the YOGA Duet up to quite a number of external drives. The two Type-C ports on the left both support video output, which means you are able to distribute your computing tasks to two external monitors at the same time.

Verdict

While the YOGA Duet 7 (2021) may be considered to be a Surface Pro 7 alternative, there are many things that it actually does better than its pricier Microsoft counterpart: 1) The new 11th-gen Tiger Lake CPU is a lot faster. Even with the much-criticized single-channel memory, the YOGA Duet still beats the Surface Pro 7 (i5-1035G4) in almost every benchmark. 2) With a rechargeable battery inside, the magnetic keyboard cover also serves as a Bluetooth keyboard when detached. This means the Duet 7 will fit into more computing scenarios than other convertibles. 3) There is a Thunderbolt 4 port on the Duet 7 for high-speed data transfer (up to 40GB per second), 8K@60Hz video output and fast charging. 4) The Duet 7 looks more stylish, although that may come down to personal preference.

However, there are also quite a few things that the Surface Pro 7 could do, but the YOGA Duet 7 falls short: 1) The keyboard cover won’t tilt up for a more comfortable typing angle. 2) There’s no dedicated place on the tablet or the keyboard for carrying the pen.

Still, for anyone looking for a travel-friendly 2-in-1 laptop, the YOGA Duet is the closest offering to a Surface Pro 7, and arguably one of the best choices out there.