I’m a long-time desktop user & was given the Lenovo Yoga Duet 7i to WFH with, here’s how it went

I’ve been working from home for more than a year, since February 2020.

The Covid-19 pandemic has drastically changed how my colleagues and I work.

For the past year, work from home (WFH) arrangements have mostly dominated how we work, as it has been the preferred working arrangement for most organisations based on the current guidelines.

It is likely that we will continue to work from home one way or another, thanks to how the pandemic has transformed our working habits.

While it may be a tad late, the return to a completely WFH arrangement during Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) has got me thinking about refurbishing my work set-up at home. I could start off with making small tweaks such as getting a proper wrist pad and a better mouse, to buying a new laptop to cater to my new working style.

When my coworker told me about an opportunity to try out the Lenovo Yoga Duet 7i, one of Lenovo’s latest laptop models, I decided to give it a try to see if it was suitable for me.

First thoughts

When I searched up the Lenovo Yoga Duet 7i online, I was rather excited as it looked very versatile, being a 2-in-1 laptop/tablet with a detachable Bluetooth® keyboard.

It also came with a Lenovo E-Color Pen, which meant that I could play around with its tablet functions a little more.

Setting up the laptop, I realised that the laptop was surprisingly light. The tablet alone is only 800g, and just 1.17kg* when combined with the Bluetooth® keyboard.

The keyboard was easily detachable with a magnetic snap as well.

A day at work with the Lenovo Yoga Duet 7i

To test out the laptop, I decided to work on the laptop for a day to see how versatile it really is.

I charged the laptop overnight with the USB-C port that enables faster charging so it’s ready for use in the morning.

Checking my emails and working on drafts in the morning

First thing I did as I started my day was to check my emails and work chats.

As I normally work on a desktop PC, I usually had to get out of bed to start working.

But today was special.

I managed to steal an extra hour in bed thanks to the new laptop, with the luxury of lying in bed to do some work. (I am definitely working, boss. Please don’t fire me.)

I decided to get out of bed around 10:30am for my morning meeting, setting up my laptop on my desk.

Thanks to optional 4G LTE and Modern Standby, you’ll receive notifications even when your Yoga Duet 7i is in sleep mode, helping me note down whatever that’s going on while I’m away getting some breakfast and coffee.

With an adjustable kickstand at the back of the tablet, there was no problem working on either the bed or in front of a desk.

Preparing lunch

As it was raining in the morning, I didn’t really want to get out of the house to get some takeaway food, nor did I feel like splurging on a delivery meal that day.

I decided to prepare some lunch at home, but as I needed to handle some work matters as well, I brought my laptop with me.

Before this, I was never able to work and prepare lunch at the same time as I used a desktop. As my kitchen is awfully tiny, it was difficult to fit a laptop safely in a corner of the kitchen as well, without toppling something over.

However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could comfortably fit the Lenovo Yoga Duet 7i laptop on my countertop in the kitchen -- by converting it to a tablet.

As you can see, I really don’t have much space on my countertop, unless I went through the trouble of removing my rice cooker and blender.

By detaching the keyboard, I had ample space to check on work matters and still had a little bit of space left to cut my ingredients and cook as well.

I could also check out the latest news at work and watch some videos thanks to the 13-inch 2K touchscreen display featuring 100% sRGB color accuracy, 400 nits brightness and wide-angle viewing, while watching the water boil. Great times.

The Lenovo Yoga Duet 7i is also packed with smart features — you can log in with just a smile and log out automatically when you walk away. Not to mention, your work stays private as you can receive notifications if someone is reading over your shoulder.

Works great as a tablet

After lunch, I decided to test out more of the tablet functions.

Firing up Photoshop, I found that I was able to edit a lot more easily on images and photos that required further touch-ups. It was a refreshing change for me, as I usually use a mouse rather than a stylus.

The Lenovo E-Color Pen was slightly weighted, which I liked. I felt like I was holding a very solid pen that didn’t feel flimsy at all.

I decided to experiment a little more with the drawing functions, using the Lenovo E-Color pen:

A masterpiece, I know.

At the end of the day, the battery still had around 25 per cent left, after a full day of work — it has a battery life of up to 10.8 hours on a single charge. I was quite satisfied with the usage, especially when I had also used some high-performance applications, including Photoshop.

Overall, I was quite impressed with the qualities of the Lenovo Yoga Duet 7i. With its versatility, I would seriously consider using it for WFH purposes, and recommend it to those exploring their interest in digital illustrations as well (I really, really like the stylus.)

After using the laptop for another week for work (and some leisure), the experience has been generally pleasant. I could fire up my applications quickly, and even with several tabs open on my Internet browsers, everything ran smoothly, and I experienced little to no disruption to my work.

To top it off, I was rather familiar with the system, being a huge Windows person.

It has definitely made me consider getting one for myself as well, mostly because of the tablet functionality, which my current desktop setup lacks.

With prices starting from SG$1,619.10 (inclusive of GST), it’s rather reasonable as well, considering that it is a 2-in-1 device, powered by the Intel® Core™ i7 processor.

Mothership readers may use the code ‘MOTHERSHIP5’ to get an additional 5% discount off all Lenovo PCs, monitors and accessories from now until Dec. 31, 2021.

The Lenovo Yoga Duet 7i is available in Singapore now. Find out more on Lenovo’s website here, or contact the customer careline at 800-601-1481.

*Weight may vary depending on product configuration, vendor components, manufacturing variability and options selected.

Top image by Julia Yeo

This sponsored article by Lenovo has made this writer tempted to buy a nice 2-in-1 laptop so she can doodle while working at home anytime.