The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i range has always been the “budget” companion to the laptop maker’s more expensive ThinkPad slim and light machines and the 10th generation of this value-packed range doesn’t disappoint this time.
If you’re looking for an ultraportable machine to carry through everyday commute and don’t want to break the bank or compromise on performance, it has to be high on your list.
The Yoga Slim 7i with a 14-inch screen weighs just under 1.2kg and is compact enough to carry around without any feeling of unnecessary bulk.
The somewhat ho-hum but minimalist design doesn’t excite like Asus’ Zenbooks of late, but it does its job. Fingerprints, for example, aren’t a big problem.
The bezels of the screen aren’t the slimmest around, either, to be honest, but then they are not so fat as to call attention. You’d be nitpicking, actually, for the price that Lenovo asks for.
The review unit from Lenovo is a top-end model rocking an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V chip, 32GB of DDR5 memory and a 1TB solid state drive (SSD) storage.
It also has with a 2.8K OLED touchscreen, which is great for navigating, say, Google Maps or for use in a tight economy class seat.
For these top-notch specs, especially with Intel’s flagship “Lunar Lake” CPU included with 32GB of memory, you’d expect the laptop to cost easily more than S$2,500. Think Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 or X9 models, or Asus’ Zenbook S14.
However, the Yoga Slim 7i is going for S$1,706.06 (at the time of writing), which makes it an excellent deal that is definitely worth checking out.
Okay, it lacks fingerprint reader, which some corporate users might use, but that is a small feature to miss out on if you’re on a budget and want top performance in a slim machine.
Speaking of that, how does the Lenovo laptop perform? It powers through, as you’d expect, in many of the tests we regularly put laptops through at Techgoondu.
In Geekbench CPU tests, which measure how well the laptop handles everyday tasks, the Yoga Slim 7i scored 2,393 for single-core and 8,644 for multi-core performance.
Interestingly, this is lower than what I got on a similarly-spec’d ThinkPad X1 Carbon (which may have had a slightly faster SSD) or the Asus Zenbook S14.
In the PCMark benchmark, which runs common jobs such as video conferencing and spreadsheets, the Lenovo laptop came back with a score of 7,214. Here, the Yoga Slim 7i bested its costlier Lenovo sibling and Asus’ similarly powered laptop, proving it’s no slouch.
What about AI workloads? The laptop’s Core Ultra 7 chip is capable of running Microsoft’s Copilot+ apps, though how often you run them is another thing, of course.
In the Geekbench AI benchmark, which measures performance in more general AI tasks like image recognition, the Lenovo laptop does well, as I would expect.
Using the ONNX AI framework in the test, it came back with 2,152 for single precision, 1,191 for half precision and 4,478 for quantised scores for the CPU. That comes in slightly slower than the ThinkPad X1 Carbon again, though still proving it is capable of serious AI work.
Using the OpenVino AI framework that is more favourable to Intel chips, the laptop’s CPU did slightly better. It scored 2,971, 1,993 and 7,442 in the same Geekbench AI tests, close to what I got from the Asus laptop.
Lenovo’s new slim and light machine is not meant for games but we tested out the onboard Intel Arc graphics anyway. In 3DMark tests that simulate real games, the laptop scored 4,472 in the Time Spy subtest.
Surprisingly, this places it ahead of both the Asus Zenbook and Lenovo ThinkPad, possibly due to newer drivers for the graphics chip. Good news, if you want to fire up a game on modest graphics settings while on the go.
When it comes to battery life, the Yoga Slim 7i’s four-cell lithium ion battery packing in 70Wh is a competent workhorse lasting easily more than a workday. With Intel’s efficient CPU, the laptop is a dependable machine on the go.
What makes it also pleasant to use are thoughtful features you’d expect from a pricier laptop. For instance, the fans are quiet even when spinning up and there isn’t a whole lot of heat from the machine.
For its price, I’m also surprised Lenovo can squeeze in an OLED touchscreen with excellent contrast and blacks that are great for watching videos with. The sharp 2,880 1,800 resolution is complemented by a zippy 120Hz refresh rate for all-round sharpness.
This is not to mention that the display in my review unit supports 100 per cent of the sRGB colour range and has 100 per cent P3 coverage, so you get accurate colours for work and play.
As part of its Aura range of laptops, Lenovo has also included a handy electronic camera shutter slider control at the side of the Yoga Slim 7i. It’s a quick way to ensure privacy, though I’d prefer the power button next to this slider to be up front.
Perhaps more importantly, the new laptop features an upgraded Yoga keyboard, which has large, curved keys that instantly feel better than previous Yoga Slim models. The improved key travel makes typing more predictable and less taxing.
I also like it that portability hasn’t come at the cost of usability. The Yoga Slim 7i has both USB-A and USB-C ports plus a large HDMI port on the side.
For folks who fly their drones or snap photos on their cameras, there’s even a microSD card slot, which is especially handy. Amazingly, Lenovo has squeezed all that in the slim chassis.
I’d like to say the same about the speakers, which are placed on each side and fire up to promise a more stereo image.
However, I’m picky here and I’d say they are merely decent in projecting sound, which still feels a little closed-up and lacking in scale. To be fair, this isn’t a deal breaker, since you’d probably use headphones on a plane or at the office.
On the whole, I’d say the Yoga Slim 7i does well as a personal laptop for folks who want the latest design, performance and battery life without bursting their bank account.
As a comparison, S$1,700 probably gets you an entry-level Qualcomm-powered laptop, which may look more attractive but lacks the performance and full software compatibility of this Lenovo “budget” model that brings the game.
And if you don’t need the premium feel of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon or ThinkPad X9, then the much-cheaper Yoga Slim 7i can also do the same heavy lifting in a svelte laptop chassis.
So, if you’re looking for an ultraportable PC that is priced right, place the Yoga Slim 7i high on your list. It offers great value, whether you’re a student, a freelancer or a rich towkay who wants the best bang for buck.
