Lenovopositions its laptops in the market as carefully as pieces on a chess board.The ThinkPad L13 Yoga ($899.99) slots in above the company's consumer Yoga2-in-1 convertibles but below the ThinkPad X1 Yogait replaces the ThinkPad L390 Yoga as a choice for business execs who want the superlative keyboard and sturdyMIL-STD 810G certifications of a ThinkPad but are also watching their budgets. TheL13 is a solid performer with sterling build quality; with its standard (andhandily stashed) stylus pen, it could be the best under-$1,000 convertible youcan buy. It succeeds another older Yoga, the 2018 Yoga 730, as our Editors' Choice among midrange 2-in-1 hybrids.EverythingBut ThunderboltComparedto the ThinkPad X1 Yoga, the L13 offers a 13.3- rather than 14-inch display,limited to full HD rather than 4K resolution. Its two USB 3.1 Type-C portsdon't support Thunderbolt 3, which we don't consider a negative in anunder-$1,000 laptop. Your $899.99 at Best Buy gets you a 10th Generation,quad-core Intel Core i5-10210U processor with Intel UHD integrated graphics,8GB of memory, a 256GB NVMe solid-state drive, and Windows 10 Home.TheLenovo site offers other configurations, ranging from a $677 Core i3 stripped-down model to a $1,403 Core i7-10510U Windows 10 Pro model with twice the memory and storageof my test unit. All except the starter offer a backlit keyboard withfingerprint reader and Lenovo's TrackPoint cursor controller, which has its ownset of three mouse buttons above the touchpad.At3.17 pounds, the ThinkPad is on the wrong side of the three-pound line foranyone planning to hold it one-handed in tablet mode, though it's fine on a lapor desk or in a briefcase. Measuring 0.69 by 12.3 by 8.6 inches, it's a tadheftier than the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (0.51 by 11.7 by 8.2 inches) or HP Spectre x360 13 (0.67 by 12.1 by 7.7 inches), which weigh 2.9 pounds each.Thetwo abovementioned USB Type-C portsone for the AC adapterare on the laptop's leftside, along with a USB 3.1 Type-A port, a connector for a proprietary Ethernetdongle (not included), and an audio jack. On the right, you'll find anotherUSB-A port, a microSD card slot, an HDMI port, and the power button, plus asecurity lock slot. There is no volume rocker for use in tablet mode. ASmartCard slot adorns the front edge.Builtfor the Long RunCladin classic ThinkPad matte black (silver is an option), the L13 combines amagnesium/aluminum alloy lid with a glass fiber reinforced plastic bottom. The displaywobbles slightly when tapped in laptop mode but there's almost no flex when yougrasp the screen corners or press the keyboard deck; the system has passed adozen MIL-STD 810G torture tests against shock, vibration, and environmentalextremes such as high temperature and humid or dusty conditions.Asliding shutter disables the 720p webcam, which captures slightly dim andsoft-focus but agreeably clear and colorful shots. Bottom-mounted speakers pumpout fairly loud, somewhat hollow sound; there's not much bass but highs andmidtones are solid and it's easy to distinguish overlapping tracks. Dolby AudioPremium software lets you switch among dynamic, music, movie, game, and voice presetsor tinker with an equalizer.Iwas mildly disappointed that, unlike previous ThinkPads I've tested, the LenovoVantage utility didn't let me swap the Fn and Ctrl keys, which are in eachother's place at lower left. Otherwise, the keyboard is faultlesssilent andsnappy, with dedicated Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys and convenientsystem controls along the top row. If you don't like buttonless touchpads, youcan use the TrackPoint buttons above the pad, but I found it glided and tappedsmoothly.The1,920-by-1,080-pixel IPS touch screen is acceptably bright (300 nits), withgood contrast and sharp details; fine screen elements don't look pixelated.Colors are rich and well saturated. The 5-inch, two-button ThinkPad Pen Prostylus recharges while parked in its niche in the convertible's front rightcorner; it offers 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity (but no tilt) and keptup with my fastest swoops and scribbles while providing good palm rejection.PerkyPerformanceForour performance comparisons, I matched the ThinkPad L13 Yoga against four otherconvertibles. The Dell Latitude 5300 2-in-1 is probably the closest match, occupying the affordable side of Dell's businessline. The HP Spectre x360 13 and Editors' Choice Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, with their10th Generation Core i7 CPUs, hold the high ground, priced $400 and $700 abovethe Lenovo respectively. The LG Gram 14 2-in-1 flaunts a larger 14-inch screen and an 8th Generation Core i7 chip.The1.6GHz (4.2GHz turbo) Core i5-10210U is no record-setter, but the Yoga feltreasonably peppy in everyday multitasking and when switching among browser tabs.Like its peers, its integrated graphics silicon means that hardcore gamers need notapply, but it's a capable productivity partner. (Check out how we test laptops.)Productivityand Media TestsPCMark10 and 8 are holistic performance suites developed by the PC benchmarkspecialists at UL (formerly Futuremark). The PCMark 10 test we run simulatesdifferent real-world productivity and content-creation workflows. We use it toassess overall system performance for office-centric tasks such as wordprocessing, spreadsheet work, web browsing, and videoconferencing. PCMark 8,meanwhile, has a storage subtest that we use to assess the speed of the system'sboot drive. Both yield a proprietary numeric score; higher numbers are better.TheLenovo tied with the LG, a millimeter shy of the 4,000 points that we consideran excellent score in PCMark 10. All five hybrids' swift SSDs aced the PCMark 8storage subtest.Nextis Maxon's CPU-crunching Cinebench R15 test, which is fully threaded to makeuse of all available processor cores and threads. Cinebench stresses the CPUrather than the GPU to render a complex image. The result is a proprietaryscore indicating a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads.TheLenovo landed in the middle of the pack in this test, showing its suitabilityfor complex spreadsheets and light media-crunching work, if not workstation-style dataset manipulation or 3Drendering.Inour Handbrake video editing benchmark, we put a stopwatch on systems as theytranscode a brief movie from 4K resolution down to 1080p. It, too, is a toughtest for multi-core, multi-threaded CPUs; lower times are better.TheLatitude did pretty well for a Core i5; the Yoga didn't. Video editing is notits forte.Wealso run a custom Adobe Photoshop image-editing benchmark. Using an early 2018release of the Creative Cloud version of Photoshop, we apply a series of 10complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG test image. We time eachoperation and add up the total (lower times are better). The Photoshop teststresses the CPU, storage subsystem, and RAM, but it can also take advantage ofmost GPUs to speed up the process of applying filters.TheL13's time was bearable, but translated to another last-place finish. Its handsomescreen and microSD card slot make it a fair choice for light image touch-ups,but not ambitious visual work.GraphicsTestsUL's 3DMarkmeasures relative graphics muscle by rendering sequences of highly detailed,gaming-style 3D graphics that emphasize particles and lighting. We run twodifferent 3DMark subtests, Sky Diver and Fire Strike. Both are DirectX 11benchmarks, but Sky Diver is more suited to laptops and midrange PCs, whileFire Strike is more demanding and lets high-end PCs and gaming rigs strut theirstuff.The two machines with Iris Plus graphics (Dell XPS, HP Spectre), thanks to 10th Gen "Ice Lake" CPUs, are a clear step above the rest here. Still, noneof the convertibles is a true gamer, nor is meant to be. Casual or browser-based games, not thelatest fast-twitch titles, join streaming video and audio as their most fitting entertainment pursuits.Nextup is another synthetic graphics test, this time from Unigine Corp. Like3DMark, the Superposition test renders and pans through a detailed 3D scene,this one rendered in the eponymous Unigine engine for a second opinion on the machine'sgraphical prowess. We present two Superposition results, run at the 720p Lowand 1080p High presets. For lower-end systems, maintaining at least30fps is the realistic target, while more powerful computers should ideallyattain at least 60fps at the test resolution.You can see the difference here again between run-of-the-mill UHD Graphics and Iris Plus. Fast-pacedgaming becomes a slide show on the Lenovo. As a gamer, it's great for MicrosoftOffice and Google Docs.BatteryRundown TestAfterfully recharging the laptop, we set up the machine in power-save mode (asopposed to balanced or high-performance mode) where available and make a fewother battery-conserving tweaks in preparation for our unplugged video rundowntest. (We also turn Wi-Fi off, putting the laptop into airplane mode.) In thistest, we loop a videoa locally stored 720p file of the Blender Foundationshort film Tears of Steelwith screen brightnessset at 50 percent and volume at 100 percent until the system quits.TheThinkPad was the shortest-lived contestant here, but it still showed enoughstamina to get through a workday plus an evening of Netflixnot an exceptionalperformance, but a perfectly fine one.ANot-Too-Shabby 2-in-1TheThinkPad L13 Yoga didn't set our benchmark charts on fire, but that shouldn'tdetract from its status as a desirable convertible laptop. Its size and weightare eminently portable, and it comes with the stylus that many 2-in-1 models omit or charge extra for.Both its keyboard and screen are above average, and its build quality is sturdy and elegant.Iwouldn't hesitate to pay $1,100 or $1,200 for a system this nice, so getting itfor $900 is icing on the cake. The ThinkPad X1 Yoga and XPS 13 2-in-1 mayoutshine this hybrid, but its first-class value makes it a worthy Editors'Choice.Lenovo ThinkPad L13 Yoga SpecsLaptop ClassConvertible 2-in-1ProcessorIntel Core i5-10210U Processor Speed1.6 GHzRAM (as Tested)8 GBBoot Drive TypeSSD Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested)256 GBScreen Size13.3 inchesNative Display Resolution1,920 by 1,080 Touch ScreenYesPanel TechnologyIPS Variable Refresh SupportNone Screen Refresh Rate60 HzGraphics ProcessorIntel UHD Graphics Wireless Networking802.11acDimensions (HWD)0.69 by 12.3 by 8.6 inches Weight3.17 poundsOperating SystemWindows 10 Home Tested Battery Life (Hours:Minutes)12:26 Best Laptop PicksLaptop Product ComparisonsFurther Reading