Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga 3rd Gen Review (2018): Full-Featured Convertible

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga arrived with a fresh copy of Windows 10 Pro installed and very little else. The lack of bloatware is actually very refreshing. There's nothing worse than starting your new system up only to be greeted by unwanted anti-virus software or the like.

What is included is the "Lenovo Vantage" software. Vantage is a simple software suite that allows you to check your systems specs, WiFi security and usage statics.

The software also includes security features to lock down your WiFi. From within this dashboard you can eliminate WiFi networks Lenovo deems to be potentially malicious and you can also see a list of the ways Vantage is helping to secure your network.

The Hardware Settings menu has a lot of customizable options that give the end-user control over the power, audio/visual, smart and input settings. From this dashboard you can set the dynamic brightness control of the display, change the camera to privacy mode when its not being used and adjust the speakers Dolby settings. Each setting can be adjusted manually, but there's also an option to let the software to take over and change all the settings automatically.

The ThinkPad X1 Yoga comes equipped with dual far-field microphones that work alongside Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant as well as Amazon’s Alexa. the microphones can register your voice commands from up to 15 feet away, so you don't even need to be in the same room to use Cortana. With this feature you can give simple voice commands such as setting an alarm or checking the weather. However, if you have connected home devices, you can also adjust the lighting in your home and change temperature, etc. And that's just Cortana. With Amazon Alexa, you can stream movies, order products and even have groceries delivered directly to your door. With the Lenovo X1 Yoga all of this is available to you without lifting a finger.

Now that we have a good idea of what the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga has going on both inside and out, let's see how the Kaby Lake R chip performs on our test bench.