Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7
Lenovo’s got something else inside... and we like it.
AMD’s CPUs have spent the last few years shaking up the desktop space by giving Intel a run for its money, but we’re now into the second generation of Ryzen CPUs for laptops and these chips are unequivocally thrashing anything Intel can put forward.
We recently crowned Asus’s ROG Zephyrus G14 as the best ultrabook on account of its reasonable price and surprisingly high CPU performance. Lenovo’s Ideapad Slim 7 isn’t running the same chip as the G14, but it does have an AMD Ryzen 7 4800U CPU and 16GB of RAM on board, which wipes the floor with any 10th Generation Intel Core i7 CPUs we’ve benchmarked.
Most high performance i7 CPUs are hexa-core arrangements, so we’re not too surprised the octa-core 1.8-4.2GHz Ryzen 7 4800U outpaces them, but even the Intel Core i7-10875H that we tested on the Razer Blade 15 (2020) was beaten by between 20 and 45 percent in raw multi-threaded CPU benchmarks. This won’t translate perfectly into general PC computing performance, but it does mean that the Ideapad Slim 7 will outpace any ultrabook with a Core i7 that you can get your hands on.
Other than featuring a super processor the Ideapad Slim 7 looks like a pretty normal flagship Ultrabook. Up front is a vibrant 300nit 14-inch IPS display that runs at a 1080 pixel resolution and will hit 100 percent of the sRGB colour gamut. It even gets a Dolby Vision certification for HDR content and is paired with Dolby Audio virtual surround sound to make media playback as good as it can be on a laptop. The bezels are slim and while the laptop isn’t a convertible or touchscreen the hinge does allow it to fold back to 180-degrees, which is an appreciated flexibility when in a tight spot on-the-go.
The Ideapad Slim 7 also has more connection offerings than you get on Lenovo’s Yoga range (or most contemporary Ultrabooks for that matter) including a HDMI output, microSD card reader, two USB Type-A slots, two USB Type-C ports and a 3.5mm audio jack. The keyboard has a nice feel to it, even though it’s about as shallow as keyboards get and the trackpad is smooth to touch and easy to use.
Under load you’ll get around four hours out of the Ideapad Slim 7’s battery and a decent eight hours and 50 minutes in 1080p movie playback.
Unfortunately the AMD Radeon Graphics aren’t as impressive as the CPU, performing better in some benchmarks and worse in others against Intel Iris Plus Graphics (the most common integrated 10th Gen Intel i7 GPU). So you won’t want to pick up any GPU heavy tasks, but, that said, there’s still enough oomph here for light indie games or general photo editing.
Lenovo hasn’t confirmed its plans to release this model in A&NZ at the time of writing, but its components are very similar to the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 that is available from Harvey Norman for $2,699 – so if you really want to get your hands on an AMD powered ultrabook then we’d recommend you divert your energies here.
JOEL BURGESS
One of the most powerful ultrabooks around with solid battery life and a nice screen make this unit a compelling offer.