Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Yoga G4 Laptop Review: Convertible with long battery life and weak performance

A platform update and a new design: The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Yoga Gen 4 brings many new features. Overall, it is a good rework if this laptop line, but at a critical junction, the deficits of Intel’s current crop of chips are once again laid bare.

First to the positives: The new magnesium chassis appeals to us with its higher stability and haptic quality compared with the previous design. Components like the webcam and speakers may not be great, but their improvement is undeniable. The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Yoga G4 comes with plenty of connectivity options, which includes many ports, prepared WWAN antennas and a integrated digitizer pen. The laptop had ThinkPad-typical input devices, a matte, bright screen and a long battery life, which should suffice for a whole work day – greatly improving on one of the predecessor’s weakpoints.

Soldered RAM may be excusable with the compact design, but upgradable RAM would still be desirable for a business device. One point of criticism is the lack of a truly premium screen option, Lenovo limits the X13 Yoga G4 to the WUXGA resolution and sRGB color gamut. The SSD of our review device is also slow, but this does not necessarily apply to all X13 Yoga variants.

The big problem of this model: CPU performance. If a laptop is slower than its predecessor under sustained load, this is not a good sign. Once again, it is obvious that the Raptor-Lake CPUs are not really suited for a low power limit of just 15 W like with the Lenovo ThinkPad. Too much performance-potential is lost. Luckily, the X13 Yoga G4 is an ultra-mobile convertible, making the lacking performance under load more of a nuisance than a deal-breaker. 

Long battery life, but underachieving performance: The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Yoga G4 demonstrates the weakness of Intel Raptor Lake once again.

An important competitor of the Lenovo ThinkPad is the Dell Latitude 9330, which is more compact and thinner, but weak in terms of the port selection. Another rival could be the HP EliteBook x360 830 G10, but we have not tested that one yet. As far as internal competition goes, there is the ThinkPad L13 Yoga G4, which runs quieter and faster under sustained load thanks to the AMD CPUs, as well as the ThinkPad X1 Yoga G8, which is more of a premium device with better screen options and speakers.