Lenovo Yoga C740 15 review: A budget-friendly convertible that’s a little clunky

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Lenovo Yoga C740 15 review: A budget-friendly convertible that’s a little clunky

The Yoga C740 15 is the kind of laptop Lenovo should have knocked out of the park. Its higher-end cousin, the Yoga C940 15, already stands out as a fine MacBook Pro alternative, so the C740 15 could have been a step-down variant. Lenovo did just that with its 14-inch Yoga C740, the cheaper counterpart to the C940 14 convertible. (Both of those laptops are excellent.)

Sadly, the Lenovo Yoga C740 15 missteps. It has no discrete graphics card like the C940 15, and it uses a much weaker processor, yet it’s not much lighter (0.22 pounds). Its body also seems flimsier, which detracts from the typing experience, and it lacks some of the clever design flourishes from Lenovo’s fanciest convertibles, such as a built-in stylus.

The Yoga C740 15 does have a few saving graces: Its battery life and screen brightness are excellent for a 15-inch laptop, and it’s less expensive than a lot of similar rivals. But for a laptop that still costs over a grand, the Yoga C740 15’s trade-offs detract from its appeal.

This review is part of our ongoing roundup of the best laptops. Go there for information on competing products and how we tested them.

Yoga C740 15 specs and features

As reviewed, the Lenovo Yoga C740 15 currently costs $1,100 at Best Buy (we’ve seen the price drop occasionally) and includes the following specs:

  • CPU: 10th-generation Intel Core i7-10510U processor
  • Memory: 12 GB of DDR4-2666 RAM
  • Display: 15.6-inch display with 1920×1080 resolution and 500 nits’ brightness
  • Graphics: Intel UHD
  • Storage: 512GB M.2 SSD storage with 32GB Intel Optane memory
  • Left side ports: Two USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 ports, headphone jack
  • Right side ports: Two USB-A 3.1 ports
  • Networking: Wi-Fi 5 
  • Biometrics: Fingerprint reader
  • Webcam: 720p 
  • Operating system: Windows 10 Home
  • Dimensions: 14.1 x 9.27 x 0.72 inches
  • Weight: 4.19 pounds (4.94 pounds with power brick)
yogac74015left Jared Newman / IDG

The Yoga C740 15’s USB-C ports are on the left, and two USB-A ports are on the right.

Best Buy and Lenovo’s website both offer other configurations, including one with a much dimmer 250-nit display, Intel Core i5-10210U processor, 256GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM for $860. A fully decked-out laptop with a 1TB hard drive and 16GB of RAM carries a list price of $1,185.

Unlike the Yoga C940 15, which comes standard with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q graphics card, the Yoga C740 doesn’t offer discrete graphics even as an option, and its U-series Intel processor is a big step down for multi-threaded and graphics-intensive workloads. (More on that later.) The C740 15 is also missing Wi-Fi 6 and Thunderbolt 3 support, and it doesn’t have a stylus built in.

yogac74015tablet Jared Newman / IDG

Like other Lenovo Yoga models, the C740 15 folds into a tablet, but this one has no stylus built in.

On the upside, the weaker CPU allows the C740 to use a USB-C charger, rather than the proprietary cable Lenovo uses in more powerful laptops.

Design and display

At 4.19 pounds, the Lenovo Yoga C740 15 falls within the expected weight range for a 15-inch convertible laptop, especially when you consider the hefty 60Wh battery and the aluminum chassis (in lighter-gray “Mica” or darker “Iron Gray”).

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