The Lenovo ThinkPad L380 Yoga is of interest to us as it is this year’s only completely new ThinkPad. Is it a meaningful expansion of Lenovo’s portfolio?

An important feature of the ThinkPad L380 Yoga is its expandable RAM, with the two SO-DIMM slots allowing up to 32 GB of RAM. This degree of expandability is not a given for 13.3-inch convertibles, as many are equipped with non-expandable RAM that is soldered to the motherboard. Even the more expensive ThinkPads cannot compete with the ThinkPad L380 Yoga in this respect. The choice and quality of input devices are ThinkPad level good, making the ThinkPad L380 Yoga competitive among laptops at the highest level. There should be enough input options to suit every user whether that be a pen, touchscreen, keyboard, touchpad, or TrackPoint. The ThinkPad L380 Yoga has a quality display, one that it borrows from the more expensive ThinkPad X380 Yoga. Over 300 cd/m² brightness and 95% sRGB color space coverage are values that are not achieved by just any display. The port selection is solid, while the case feels premium. The fan is largely silent, and surface temperatures remain relatively low.

We have concerns about durability though, which is not a criticism typically brought against ThinkPads. The base unit can be noticeably flexed, which could potentially be problematic for a device that folds and so must withstand higher loads than a typical laptop. Secondly, the lack of the Lift & Lock keyboard mechanism, which protects the keyboard in tablet mode, will be missed. We could not conclude whether these concerns will affect long-term durability without spending more time with the device. Regardless, it is a shame that Lenovo economised in these two areas. Additionally, we would expect a longer warranty than twelve months for a device in this price range. What is more, we encountered an unexpected problem with slow transfer speeds when receiving files during our Wi-Fi tests. While the display is good, it a shame that there is PWM at such a low frequency. It would have been good had Lenovo included more security features and a WWAN option, especially as the ThinkPad L380 Yoga is a business device.

The price to performance ratio is right. Overall, the Lenovo ThinkPad L380 Yoga is a convincing package with a few downsides that should be considered when choosing whether to buy the device.

Many of the ThinkPad L380 Yoga’s weaknesses are attempts to reduce its price. As a result, the ThinkPad L380 Yoga is much cheaper than other ThinkPad Yoga convertibles. The more affordable price and expandable RAM make the ThinkPad L380 Yoga a worthy expansion of the ThinkPad line-up. Therefore, we highly recommend the ThinkPad L380 Yoga, which has an attractive price to performance ratio despite the questions around long-term durability which we could only address with a long-term review.