Apple Reports 4Q 2017 Results: $10.7B Profit on $52.6B Revenue, 46.7M iPhones

Apple today announced financial results for the third calendar quarter and fourth fiscal quarter of 2017.

For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $52.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $10.7 billion, or $2.07 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $46.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $9 billion, or $1.67 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. The revenue and earnings per share numbers were company records for the fourth fiscal quarter, although the total profit fell short of the 2015 figure.

Gross margin for the quarter was 37.9 percent, compared to 38 percent in the year-ago quarter, with international sales accounting for 62 percent of revenue. Apple also declared an upcoming dividend payment of $0.63 per share, payable November 16 to shareholders of record as of November 13.

For the quarter, Apple sold 46.7 million iPhones, up from 45.5 million in the year-ago quarter. iPad sales were up to 10.3 million from 9.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2016, and Mac sales rose to 5.4 million from 4.9 million.

For the full fiscal year, Apple generated $229.2 billion in sales with $48.4 billion in net income, up from $215.6 billion in sales and $45.7 billion in net income for fiscal 2016.

“We’re happy to report a very strong finish to a great fiscal 2017, with record fourth quarter revenue, year-over-year growth for all our product categories, and our best quarter ever for Services,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “With fantastic new products including iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, Apple Watch Series 3, and Apple TV 4K joining our product lineup, we’re looking forward to a great holiday season, and with the launch of iPhone X getting underway right now, we couldn’t be more excited as we begin to deliver our vision for the future with this stunning device.”

Apple’s guidance for the first quarter of fiscal 2018 includes expected revenue of $84-87 billion and gross margin between 38 and 38.5 percent.

Apple will provide live streaming of its fiscal Q4 2017 financial results conference call at 2:00 PM Pacific, and MacRumors will update this story with coverage of the conference call highlights.

Apple’s conference call starts at 2:00 PM Pacific – No need to refresh

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Apple’s Mac Sales Up 25% Year-Over-Year in Q4 2017

Apple today announced financial results for the fourth fiscal quarter (third calendar quarter) of 2017, unveiling impressive Mac sales.

Apple sold 5.39 million Macs during the quarter, up from 4.89 million in the year-ago quarter, marking an 10 percent increase in shipments.

Mac revenue came in at $7.17 billion, up from $5.74 billion in the year-ago quarter, marking 25 percent growth. Overall revenue is likely up thanks to an increased price tag for the MacBook Pro, which saw prices raised in 2016 with the debut of Touch Bar models.

Apple this summer refreshed much of its Mac lineup, introducing new MacBook, MacBook Pro, and iMac models with Kaby Lake processors. At the end of this year, Apple plans to introduce the iMac Pro for its professional user base, and there are future plans to unveil a modular high-end Mac Pro, both of which should further boost Mac sales in the years to come.

Tag: earnings
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Apple’s Services Revenue Up 34% Year-Over-Year in 4Q 2017, Setting New All-Time Quarterly Record

Apple’s services category, which includes the App Store, iTunes Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, AppleCare, iCloud, licensing, and other services, set an all-time quarterly record revenue in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2017.

During the quarter, the services category brought in $8.5 billion, up from $6.3 billion in the year-ago quarter for an impressive 34 percent growth.

Apple’s services category is the size of a Fortune 100 company, a milestone Apple hit earlier this year. Apple often attributes much of the growth of its services category to the App Store, and that continues to be the case this quarter.

iOS 11 brought an entirely new App Store experience that splits Games and Apps into separate tabs and introduces a new “Today” section that allows Apple to better highlight the wide variety of apps that are available in the App Store, offering up a range of editorial picks to improve app discovery. Apple says the new design has increased customer visits, the number of apps downloaded, and the amount of time customers spend in the store.

The iOS 11 update also introduced ARKit, making the iPhone and the iPad the largest augmented reality platform in the world. There are already more than 1,000 ARKit apps available for download from the App Store.

Apple Music revenue also “grew strongly” during the quarter, with 75% growth in subscribers year-over-year, and iCloud also saw “double-digit growth” when it comes to monthly average users and revenue. Apple has 210 million paid subscriptions across all its services category, up 25 million in 4Q 2017 alone.

Apple is aiming to double its 2016 services revenue by 2020, and Apple CEO Tim Cook this afternoon said the company is well on its way to hitting that goal.

Tags: App Store, iTunes
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Apple’s Wearables Unit Sees 75% Growth Year-Over-Year in 4Q 2017

Apple’s financial earnings results for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2017 were announced today, and on the subsequent call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said revenue from the company’s wearables unit was up 75% during the quarter compared to Q4 2016.

Apple’s wearables business for all of fiscal 2017 was the size of a Fortune 400 company. “Apple Watch is the best-selling and most loved smart watch in the world,” Cook said during the call.

In 4Q 2017, the Apple Watch saw unit growth of 50 percent for the third consecutive quarter thanks to strong sales of the Apple Watch Series 3. “Customers love the freedom of Apple Watch Series 3 cellular,” said Cook.

Apple does not break out Apple Watch sales, instead lumping the device into its “Other Products” category that includes Apple TV, Beats products, iPod touch, and Apple-branded and third-party accessories.

In 4Q 2017, the “Other Products” category brought in $3.23 billion, up from $2.37 billion in the year-ago quarter, a year-over-year revenue increase in 36%.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 4Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)
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Apple CEO Tim Cook: We’re Getting as Many iPhone X as Possible to Customers ‘as Soon as Possible’

During today’s earnings call for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook commented on iPhone X demand. While he was unable to predict when Apple would reach supply/demand balance for the device, he said that Apple is ramping up output week by week and aiming to get the new smartphone out to customers “as soon as possible.”

The ramp for the iPhone X is going well, especially considering that the iPhone X is the most advanced iPhone we’ve ever created and it has lots of new technology in it. So we’re really happy that we’re able to increase week by week what we’re outputting and we’re going to get as many of them as possible to customers as soon as possible.

Cook went on to say that iPhone X orders are “very strong” for both direct customers and the company’s channel partners throughout the world and Apple is excited for the device to get into the hands of its customers.

“I’m told we had several hundred people waiting in Sydney,” Cook said. “We’re getting similar reports across that region.”

Cook also commented on iPhone 8 and 8 Plus sales. He refused to talk about mix, but he said that when the two devices launched, they instantly became Apple’s top two selling products. When it comes to the iPhone 8 Plus, for the period of time Apple can measure to date, it saw the fastest start of any Plus model. “That for us was a bit of a surprise,” said Cook. “A positive surprise, obviously.”

Cook said that it’s difficult to predict how iPhone 8 and iPhone X sales will ultimately pan out because this is the first time Apple has offered three iPhones at the same time, and with the iPhone X just launching, it’s just today that customers are able to take a look at all three products. “We’ll see what happens there,” said Cook.

On the topic of iPhone X pricing elasticity, Cook pointed out that many people pay for the iPhone month by month. At carrier prices that start somewhere around $33 per month, that’s “less than a coffee a day at one of these nice coffee places.” Customers are also increasingly trading in their devices, which offsets the cost of the device.

“It’s important to put it in that context,” Cook said. “We price for the value we’re providing. We’re not trying to charge the highest price we can get or anything, we’re just trying to price it for what we’re delivering.”

Related Roundup: iPhone XBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
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Hello, cousin? Aliens could look a lot like earthlings, Oxford study suggests

Why it matters to you

Applying evolutionary theory to the stufy of extraterrestrials might help us better understand life well beyond our own atmosphere.

From gaseous clouds to giant cockroaches, aliens have taken countless shapes in science fiction, but now there’s reason to believe that extraterrestrial life-forms may actually look a lot like earthlings. That’s the conclusion of a new study conducted by researchers at Oxford University, who for the first time have provided evidence to show how evolutionary theory — and mechanisms like natural selection — can better help predict the appearance and behavior of potential otherworldly neighbors.

“A fundamental task for astrobiologists (those who study life in the cosmos) is thinking about what extra-terrestrial life might be like,” said Sam Levin, a researcher in the Oxford Department of Zoology, who lead the study. “But making predictions about aliens is hard. We only have one example of life — life on Earth — to extrapolate from. Past approaches in the field of astrobiology have been largely mechanistic, taking what we see on Earth, and what we know about chemistry, geology, and physics to make predictions about aliens.”

Levin and his team instead used evolutionary theory to predict the appearance of aliens, independent from the shape of life-forms on Earth. “This is a useful approach,” he said, “because theoretical predictions will apply to aliens that are silicon based, do not have DNA, and breathe nitrogen, for example.”

The results are some otherworldly creatures that look surprisingly familiar.

‘The Octomite’ is a complex alien make up of a hierarchy of entities that form a mutually dependent symbiotic relationship.

To be sure, the researchers admit they can’t yet predict whether aliens are green, bipedal, big-eyed beings or something else entirely, but they hope their study helps establish evolutionary theory as a lens through which to imagine what aliens might look like.

“By predicting that aliens have undergone major transitions — which is how complexity has arisen in species on Earth — we can say that there is a level of predictability to evolution that would cause them to look like us,” Levin said.

With the aid of evolutionary theory, the researchers’ predict that aliens would be made up of a hierarchy of increasingly complex entities and mechanisms (much like molecules, cells, and organisms) that cooperate in the form of a larger being. “At each level, of the organism there will be mechanisms in place to eliminate conflict, maintain cooperation, and keep the organism functioning,” Levin said. “We can even offer some examples of what these mechanisms will be.”

A paper detailing the research was published this week in the International Journal of Astrobiology.

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Expect more video features as Facebook, Instagram continue multimedia focus

Why it matters to you

Don’t be surprised to see more video features rolling out inside Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp — Facebook says video will be a focus for the next three years.

Video will continue to be a focus for Facebook as the company’s various platforms continue to grow in numbers. According to Facebook’s quarterly earnings call, the video-focused Instagram Stories feature as well as WhatsApp now have 300 million users active on the platform every day, while Facebook has reached 2.1 billion monthly users and 1.4 billion daily users. Facebook video will be a focus for the next three years, while the company also plans on expanding business tools for Messenger and Marketplace options, while also adding new artificial intelligence tools.

Unlike publicly sharing a video on Instagram, Stories is designed to share visual moments from the day with friends and followers. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that video can help foster a bigger sense of community on social media. He added that interaction with friends can be time well spent, compared to just passively watching a video.

“Over the next three years, the biggest trend in our products will be the growth of video,” Zuckerberg said in a statement. “When done well, video brings us closer together. We’ve found that communities formed around video like TV shows or sports create a greater sense of belonging than many other kinds of communities. We’ve found that Live videos generate 10 times the number of interactions and comments as other videos. But too often right now, watching video is just a passive consumption experience. Time spent is not a goal by itself. We want the time people spend on Facebook to encourage meaningful social interactions. So we’re going to focus our products on all the ways to build community around the video that people share and watch. That’s something Facebook can uniquely do.”

Besides just sharing a video, Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp all now have Stories or a similar tool. Snapchat was the first to launch a Stories feature, which strings together short video clips or images and automatically deletes them at the end of the day to start fresh. With the latest numbers, Instagram’s variation is now almost twice the size of Snapchat’s entire daily active user base of 173 million.

Along with Stories, Facebook’s new Watch Tab is designed to encourage the growth of video, along with recent expansions of options for recording live video. Facebook is also testing support for 4K videos.

The quarterly numbers show an increase of 50 million active daily users for both Instagram Stories and WhatsApp from the summer. Instagram has a total user base of more than 500 million that use the platform every day, and the latest numbers mean that more than half of those users are sharing inside Stories. Facebook didn’t share user numbers for the Stories feature on Facebook, but cross-posting Stories from Instagram is now possible.

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Samsung Experience 9.0 beta brings Android 8.0 Oreo to Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus

Why it matters to you

Are you a user of the Samsung Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus? Your phone is finally getting Android 8.0 Oreo, bringing the latest and greatest Android features to the phones.

Samsung is launching an update to its flagship phones. The company has announced the Samsung Experience 9.0 beta, a big part of the Samsung beta program that allows those that are members of it to experience some of the new features in the Samsung Galaxy ecosystem.

Along with Samsung Experience 9.0 comes Android 8.0 Oreo — as Experience 9.0 is built on the Oreo user interface and design. In other words, this marks the beginning of the road to rolling out Android 8.0 Oreo to Samsung’s customers. To start, the Experience 9.0 beta will be available to users of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus in South Korea, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Of course, more users will get the beta as time goes on.

It’s important to note that this is a beta — in other words, you’ll only get it if you’re a part of the beta program, and it may still have some bugs. Still, at the very least this shows that Samsung is well on its way to updating its phones to the newest version of Android.

Samsung Experience is essentially the user interface that Samsung builds over the top of Android. The software was previously known as Samsung TouchWiz, but was rebranded towards the end of 2016. Why? It’s anyone’s guess, but TouchWiz did have some issues with branding considering it was known as having a ton of bloatware and annoying Samsung apps. Experience seems to mark an effort by Samsung to cut down on the bloatware, or at the very least allow customers to hide it. That’s a good thing — the majority of people tend to stick with Google’s stock apps rather than adopt the different apps of different manufacturers, save for key apps like the camera app or email app.

We’ll have to wait and see how long it takes Samsung to tweak the beta and launch Experience 9.0 to all customers beyond  just those who are part of the beta program. Hopefully it won’t be more than a month or so, and hopefully the company will soon launch new software on other phones such as the Galaxy Note 8, which we think probably should have been included in this first rollout. Still, it remains to be seen how many differences there really are between Experience 8.5 and Experience 9.0.

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Meet Artymate, the Photoshop plug-in that animates your still photos

Why it matters to you

While cinemagraphs traditionally require videos, this tool brings it to both still photos and Photoshop.

Photoshop’s built-in tools make it possible to turn short videos into cinemagraphs, or moving pictures but what if you only have a single still photo? Artymate is a new Photoshop plugin that creates animated GIFs from still photos.

The Artymate plug-in adds several tools to animate specific elements of the image, with a different tool for each type of motion. The assortment of animation tools include options for floating, falling, floating, flying and even flapping for a more realistic flight for birds and butterflies.

Along with tools for animating what is already there, the plug-in also includes tools to add animated presets. For example, adding fire, light rays, fire, making bokeh, or even flowing hair. The tools include adjustments to change the color of the animation to match the rest of the image, and the hair tool has both curly and straight options.

The plug-in walks users through the steps, which often includes creating a layer, adding a mask to that specific object, then controlling the animation. The cinemagraphs can then be exported as GIFs for sharing on websites and social media.

Karen Alsop, a photographer from Australia known for creating dream-like edits in Photoshop, created the program for her own work and is now sharing Artymate with the rest of the photo community.

While cinemagraphs are traditionally made from videos, Artymate is not the first program to bring that capability to still photos through animation tools. Plotagraph is a program designed for creating cinemagraphs, available on desktop computers and the iPad. Users can pay a monthly subscription fee, or unlock free features by trying out the platform’s social media app, which is in public beta testing.

Artymate may not be the first to animate still photos, but the Photoshop integration could likely simplify the workflow for photographers that already use Adobe’s photo editor. Along with having all the Photoshop tools still accessible, the plug-in uses Photoshop layers and masks to help create those animations. The one-time price could also be an advantage over Plotagraph subscriptions.

Artymate is compatible with Photoshop CC versions; the plug-in sells for $50.

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Lenovo Yoga 920 review

Research Center:
Lenovo Yoga 920

Lenovo’s Yoga 910 convertible 2-in-1 was one of our favorite notebooks of 2016, offering an excellent combination of design and build quality, performance, and battery life. It wasn’t perfect, though, so Lenovo has released an update to address some flaws and add Intel’s eighth-generation Core processors. In our Lenovo Yoga 920 review, we dig in to see if the company succeeded in making a good 2-in-1 even better.

Our review unit arrived with a 13.9-inch Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) display, a quad-core Core i7-8550U, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB PCIe solid-state disk (SSD). That configuration runs $1,330 at the Lenovo Store, placing it firmly in premium notebook territory compared to slightly smaller 13.3-inch machines like the HP Spectre x360 13 with similar specifications. Upgrade to 16GB memory, a 1TB SSD, and a 4K UHD (3,840 x 2,160) display, and you’ll fork over a cool $2,000.

Lenovo has made some meaningful changes to the Yoga 920, but is that enough to keep up with a Windows notebook market that isn’t slowing down?

A solidly built machine with a design that’s sharp in more than one way

From a distance, you’d have a hard time telling the new and old machines apart. They’re similar in overall design, down to the iconic watchband hinge, though there are some subtle differences. Lenovo simplified the Yoga 920’s design by straightening out some angles,creating a cleaner look that’s slightly thinner at 0.5 inches (versus the Yoga 910’s 0.56 inches), and smaller in width and depth.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

The all-aluminum build remains in place, and it’s just as solid as its predecessor. Close the lid and you’ll think the machine is forged from a single hunk of metal. Open the lid and you’ll find zero give, with the keyboard deck also providing a comforting solidity. As before, the watchband hinge is beautiful, and it feels great to use, offering just the right amount of resistance.

Lenovo’s Yoga 920 does look bland, particularly compared to the HP Spectre x360 13, which offers more design flare. Our review unit featured a bronze color scheme and doesn’t stand out in this very crowded market. Lenovo is going for a classy, businesslike look.

The all-aluminum build is just as rock-solid as its predecessor.

Lenovo has slightly increased the size of the top bezel, just enough to move the webcam above the display, where it belongs. That means that you can now hold a videoconference without trimming your nose hairs first — we’re looking at you here, Dell XPS 13. This removes one of the Yoga 910’s most annoying flaws.

We must note the edges around the keyboard deck are a bit sharp. You’ll want to avoid scraping your palms against the front corners when placing your fingers on home row.

Much-improved connectivity

While the Yoga 910 suffered from a weird configuration of underpowered USB-C ports that offered limited USB 3.0 and 2.0 support, the Yoga 920 makes much better use of the new standard. This time around, both UBS-C ports support Thunderbolt 3, making them faster and more useful. There’s also a USB-A 3.0 port for legacy support, and a 3.5mm combo headset jack. You’ll need a dongle to plug in an SD card reader.

Lenovo Yoga 920 Compared To

LG Gram 15Z970-A.AAS7U1 Laptop

Lenovo Yoga 720 15-inch

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1

Acer Spin 7

Origin EON17-SLX

Asus Transformer Book Trio TX201LA

Asus VivoBook V551LB-DB71T

Acer Aspire V7

Sony Vaio Pro 13

HP Spectre XT TouchSmart

Acer Aspire S3

Asus U36Jc

Apple MacBook Air (11.6-inch)

Gateway C-120X

Gateway 200XL

Wireless connectivity is the usual 2×2 MU-MIMO 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1. Overall, connectivity is solid for the form factor, but not exactly outstanding.

New pen support means fully competitive input options

The Yoga 920 is stocked with the usual input options. First up is the keyboard, which offers a consistent action with distinct tactile feedback, sufficient travel, and a slightly abrupt bottoming action. The keys are a bit stiff, requiring a little more force than we found comfortable. Spacing is excellent, and the Enter key has been enlarged from the Yoga 910, in response to user feedback.

Next, we usually expect a Microsoft Precision touchpad — like the one on the Yoga 920 — to provide nearly perfect gesture support. However, this touchpad is less responsive than it should be and some gestures arehard to use, such as the three-finger swipe to switch apps.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

The touchscreen has no such problems, responding consistently to user input and providing a comfortable swiping surface. Lenovo has added active pen support, alleviating another weakness of the Yoga 910. The Active Pen 2 offers up to 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity, to match the , two buttons, and an eraser. To keep the pen handy, Lenovo includes a pen holder that plugs into the USB-A port.

Finally, the Yoga 920 retains the fingerprint scanner to the right of the touchpad, with full support for Windows 10 Hello password-less login. It’s fast and accurate.

An average — and therefore very good but not great — display

Our review Yoga 920 came equipped with a Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 or 158 PPI) display, which at 13.9 inches is just sharp enough that pixels aren’t plain. Lenovo also offers a 4K UHD (3,840 x 2,160 or 317 PPI) display that adds around $670 to the price but increases RAM to 16GB and SSD storage to 1TB, if you like the absolute sharpest possible text.

According to our colorimeter, Lenovo’s choice of panel is just good enough to qualify as average for today’s premium notebooks — a positive, given how good displays have become.

The Yoga 920’s display covers 72 percent of the AdobeRGB color gamut. That’s competitive with machines like the ZenBook Flip S, which also provides a Full HD display, and it falls slightly behind the higher resolution of the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, and the 4K UHD display on the Yoga 910. Color accuracy came in at 2.01 (where 1.0 or less is indistinguishable to the human eye), which is also average for our comparison group.

The Yoga 920 scored a strong 880:1 contrast ratio at 100 percent brightness, which competes well against all but the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, with its excellent 1,120:1 score. Brightness came in at 308 nits, which crosses our 300-nit threshold for displays that are likely to be visible in bright environments. Gamma was perfect at 2.2, meaning that, for example, videos will be neither too bright nor too dark.

The Yoga 920’s display was enjoyable in normal day-to-day use. Colors were good enough for all but the most exacting creative work, and videos were bright, yet provided detail in darker scenes. Black text on white backgrounds also stuck out, meaning it’s great for anyone who works with words or numbers.

Good enough sound for the occasional Netflix session

The Yoga 920 sports two downward-firing speakers on the bottom-front of the chassis, and we found them loud enough for watching movies by yourself, or with a small group. Music was lacking bass, but the midrange and highs were sufficiently clear that you won’t immediately plug in a set of headphones. Lenovo touts the “360-degree audio” provided by Dolby Atmos, but we didn’t notice anything different in our tests.

Another improvement is four far-field microphones that enhance Cortana’s responsiveness when you talk to her across the room. In our brief testing, we found that Cortana did indeed respond reliably, even when we were quite a few feet away.

Intel’s eighth generation provides a real performance punch

The Core i7-8550U that Lenovo packed into the Yoga 920 ups the ante from two cores to four, promising better multitasking. However, Intel lowered the base clock speed to a power-sipping 1.8GHz –compared to 2.7GHz with the Core i7-7500U — while increasing the turbo frequency to 4.0GHz from 3.5GHz.

We found the new Intel processor offers a meaningful improvement. And, just as important, Lenovo leveraged that improvement to make the Yoga 720 a seriously fast machine.

For example, in the Geekbench 4 benchmark, the Yoga 920 scored 4,683 in the single-core test, which is faster than any Core i7-7500U in our comparison group, including the Yoga 910. The multi-core score of 14,566 was even more impressive, blowing away dual-core machines, and beating the faster yet less efficient quad-core Core i7-7700HQ.

In our Handbrake test that converts a 420MB video to H.265, the Yoga 920 scored a speedy 613 seconds, almost twice as fast as the Yoga 910 and the other dual-core machines. Only the Core i7-7660U-equipped Microsoft Surface Pro came close. While the Core i7-8550U couldn’t keep up with the Core i7-7700HQ, it still managed an impressive showing.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Overall, the Yoga 920 makes great use of the new CPU’s potential. It’s quick as a general productivity machine, and can do real work as well. Add to that excellent thermal management that keeps heat down with minimal fan noise, and it’s a win-win situation.

Fast enough storage thanks to Samsung’s SSD

The Yoga 920 is equipped with the speedy Samsung PM961 PCIe SSD, which typically provides excellent storage performance.

As it turns out, the Yoga 920 underperforms. It scored 1,147 megabytes per second (MB/s) in the CrystalDiskMark read test, and 1,172 MB/s in the write test. That’s fast, but not as fast as some other machines in our comparison group that were equipped with the same SSD.

There’s no accounting for the difference here, but it hardly matters. These may not be the fastest scores, but you’re unlikely to notice during actual use. Throughout our testing, the Yoga 920 felt quick, and it’s likely to provide all the performance that the typical high-end productivity user requires.

No better for gaming than any other notebook with integrated graphics

We always expect the same basic experience from machines equipped with Intel’s integrated graphics. The Yoga 920 utilizes the Intel UHD 620, and don’t let the name fool you – it’s the same low-powered GPU as the Intel HD 620.

Our expectations were justified. The Yoga 920 scored 1005 in the 3DMark Fire Strike test, which is in line with our comparison group utilizing the same GPU. The Yoga 920 can run older titles at lower resolutions, but will fall short in modern titles, even at Full HD resolution and lower settings.

Nevertheless, we went ahead and ran Civilization VI at Full HD, and recorded 12 frames per second (FPS) at medium detail, and 6 FPS at ultra detail. That’s just not good enough, so you’ll want to pick a different machine if you’re looking to game.

Battery life is mixed, but don’t let that worry you

The Yoga 910 enjoyed a large 79 watt-hour battery. Surprisingly, Lenovo chopped it down to 70 watt-hours in the Yoga 920. Seeing a decrease in battery life is never a welcome sight, so we had to hope that the Full HD display, combined with a theoretically more efficient CPU, would make up it.

The Yoga 920 provided some mixed results in our suite of battery tests. Don’t despair, however, because that mix ranged from merely good to downright excellent.

We saw three hours and 23 minutes in our most demanding Basemark test, whichruns through a series of CPU- and GPU-intensive web processes. Basemark is a performance test at heart, so it’s a great measure of how long a machine can last when it’s at full load. Compared to our comparison group, the Yoga 920 was competitive but not class-leading, likely because the Core i7-8550U provides real power when it’s running at top speed.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Next, we ran our now-retired Peacekeeper battery test to make for a more direct comparison to the Yoga 910. While the older machine was equipped with a 4K UHD resolution display, it also benefitted from a larger battery. As it turns out, the contest wasn’t even close. The Yoga 920 lasted for six hours and 39 minutes, while the Yoga 910 lasted for four hours and six minutes.

In our macro test, which loops through a series of popular web pages, the Yoga 920 really started to show its stuff. It lasted for eight hours and 11 minutes, a strong score bested only by the eerily efficient Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon.

The Core i7-8550U sips power when it’s not being taxed.

Finally, in our test that loops an Avengers trailer until the battery gives out, the Yoga 920 excelled. It lasted almost 14 hours, among the longest durations we’ve measured. The Yoga 910 lasted just under 10 and a half hours, again held back by its 4K display, but aided by its larger battery. We must conclude the Yoga 920’s Core i7-8550U sips power when it’s not being taxed.

Overall, the Yoga 920 provided good battery life when running hard, and excellent battery life when lightly used. In fact, battery life is so promising that choosing a 4K UHD display becomes feasible — you’ll give up longevity by upping the resolution, but the Yoga 920 has headroom to spare.

In addition, the machine is thin and light for a nearly 14-inch device, at 0.5 inches and 3.02 pounds. It feels great in the hand and is easy to carry around, which makes it a truly portable 2-in-1 indeed.

Warranty information

Lenovo offers a standard one-year parts and service warranty for the Yoga 920, which is just average for notebooks and, as usual, a bit disappointing at these prices.

Our Take

The introduction of Intel’s eighth-generation Core processors was an opportune time to refresh the Yoga 900 series, but Lenovo didn’t stop with just the CPU. It also touched up the design, putting the webcam up top where it belongs, fixing a key customer gripe by enlarging the Enter key, adding Thunderbolt 3 support, and simplifying the look. The result is a much-improved 2-in-1 in the Yoga 920 that not only performs better, but also removes the key complaints.

Is there a better alternative?

There are many strong competitors in the 2-in-1 and notebook market. The following are some options to consider, but until we’ve reviewed all the newest models, we can’t say that any of them are superior to the Yoga 920.

First on the list of viable alternatives is the HP Spectre x360 13. It’s recently received its own redesign, including an upgrade to eighth-generation Intel processors.. The previous version was our favorite convertible 2-in-1, however, offering its own excellent combination of performance and design. It’s a bit less expensive, at $1,200 for the same Core i7, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD compared to the Yoga 920’s $1,330. However, the Spectre x360 has a smaller battery.

The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 is a well-made machine that we like quite a bit, with decent productivity performance from it’s low-power Intel CPUs, along with great battery life. The XPS 13 2-in-1 is priced roughly the same as the Yoga 920, at $1,350 for a Core i7-7Y75, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD. The XPS 13 2-in-1 is much smaller than the Yoga 920 overall, and sacrifices performance to make that possible.

Finally, if you want to choose a traditional clamshell notebook instead, then you can consider the Dell XPS 13. It’s our favorite 13-inch notebook, offering an excellent design, solid build quality, great performance, and outstanding battery life. The XPS 13 also recently received an eighth-generation Intel CPU refresh, which should provide much of the same improvements as we see in the Yoga 920, and it’s a bit less expensive at $1,250 for the same configuration.

How long will it last?

The Yoga 920 is well-built, and it should last for years of typical mobile use. It’s also equipped with the latest and greatest Intel CPU, along with enough memory and storage to ensure that you’re still productive years down the road.

Should you buy it?

Yes. The Yoga 920 fixes everything that was wrong with the previous version — which wasn’t much — and increases performance. What’s not to like?

Editor’s Recommendations

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