Lenovo Yoga series boasts of thin, lightweight and premium build laptops that also have flexible postures. The Lenovo Yoga Slim promises all that and I got here the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i powered by Intel Core i5 10th gen, you also get i7 core in the market. If you are looking at a good build and easy to carry around a laptop under 80K, you should dive into my Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 review. As on this date, the variant I got here is listed at ₹78,990 and if you want more firepower you can get the i7 model at ₹92,999. Do note the intel variant of the series is denoted by 7i and AMD models (which are market specific) simply as Slim 7.
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Specifications:
- Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-1035G1 @ 1.00GHz, Ice Lake-U 1190 Mhz 4 cores
- Motherboard slots: 4xPCI Express x1, 2xPCI Express x4
- Graphics adapter: NVIDIA® GeForce® MX350 2GB graphics
- Memory: 8 GB DDR4 SDRAM dual-channel
- Display: 35.56cms (14 inches) FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, 300 nits, 8 bits primary color
- Storage: 512GB NVMe Samsung SSD
- Networking: Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 Bluetooth 5.0
- Battery: 60.7 WHr Li-ion Battery, 4 cell
- Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home
- Camera: IR and HD 720P Webcam (with Fixed Focus)
- Audio: 2 x 2W front-facing Dolby Atmos® Speaker System
- Size: 208.18 x 320.6 x 15.1 mm
- Weight: 1.436kg
- Ports: 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2, USB-C (Thunderbolt + DP + Power Delivery), SD card reader, HDMI, Headphone / mic combo
What’s in the box?
The laptop and a 65Wh USB Type-C charger and some paper manuals.
Design and Build Quality of Yoga Slim 7i
True to its name, the Yoga slim 7 is a light weight and ultra portable device. It is targeted at people who would constantly carry their laptops around, easy to fit into a bag and easy to pull out for a meeting in style. The Yoga Slim I got here is Slate Grey color – you also get couple of other color options but think few are market specific.
The body is made of Aluminium except for the bottom plate which is plastic. when I weighed it the scale tipped it at 1.436 kg. The screen lid is stiff, there is no noticeable flex. Even the keyboard area does not cave in and is quite rigid.
The top lid has a subtle Yoga and Lenovo branding placement. There is a slight protrusion on the middle of the front edge, to help you lift the lid. I found it bit of a struggle to open it with a single hand. That protrusion area also subtly mentions “Yoga series”
The bezels are thin (3mm on the sides, 7mm on the top), the top bezels houses a 720P webcam and also the IR camera is effective at face unlock which I will talk about in a while.
At the underside there is rubberized feet to give a very slight lift to the rear, allowing for a bit of air circulation to the vent below. Though the Slim 7 belongs to the Yoga family, do note that it does not have a 360-degree hinge to rotate the screen fully around, so the modes are limited. You lay the machine flat at the desk, 180 degrees.
Ports
The right side houses two Type-A USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports and a microSD card reader and the power button.
The left side assortments include an HDMI 2.0, and a Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 with Thunderbolt 3, plus the usual charging port (also Type-C USB) and a 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack. There is no ethernet port, so if you need it, you can deal with an adapter.
Display of Yoga Slim 7
- 14-inch IPS panel, 300 nits brightness
- 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution
- No touchscreen control
The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 has a 14-inch IPS LCD screen. This is not a 4K screen but a very respectable 1080p panel. The display is glossy and a bit reflective. Lenovo says the panel has a brightness of 300 nits. In my actual tests, the display behaved very well. The viewing angles were good enough. At indoor lighting conditions, the colours were vibrant and I had nothing to complain about. Under direct sunlight, it was still manageable to work with.
Speakers
The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 comes with dual speakers which are on either side of the keyboard. It’s a 2W Dolby Atmos-tuned speakers nicely placed under micro-drilled grilles. It has stereo support. For a built-in speaker for a laptop, the sound quality was adequate. It cranked up 84 decibels maximum at full volume.
Keyboard and Touchpad
I liked the click registration feedback of the keys. The keys bounce back quickly. Like in the IdeaPad Gaming 3i I reviewed earlier, the keycaps are curved at the botom side. Once you get familiar with the kyboard size, you should not have much issues while typing. The key travel length is bit less though.
The keyboard offers backlight. The backlight of the Lenovo Slim 7 can be toggled by holding ‘Function’ and tapping the space bar. The arrow key sets also doubles up as ‘Home’, ‘Page Up/Down’, and ‘End’ keys and can be accessed by holding down the ‘Fn’ key.
The trackpad was a smooth operator. It does its job without any hiccups. It supports Windows 10 gestures for trackpad like zoom in or out, scroll, switching between open windows etc.
Biometrics
The Yoga Slim 7 comes with an IR camera, so it works well even on low light conditions. It supports Windows Hello face login. There is no physical privacy shutter for the camera, though if you dig into the Lenovo Vantage app, you will find a camera privacy mode, that would disable the camera. But each time if you are on a video call, you need to enable it here. There is no fingerprint scanner.
Performance of Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i
The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 range features 10th gen Intel laptop processors from the Ice Lake family. The unit I got here for review is powered by Core i5-1035G1 but there is also a Core i7 option available to buy. For GPU you get multiple options with Integrated Intel Iris Plus and also with dedicated Nvidia GE force MX 350. My unit comes with MX350. So I could do a bit of photo editing on the go. I got an 8GB RAM variant but it can be upgraded to 12GB or 16GB. There is also a customization option to throw in an additional 1TB SSD instead of the 512GB I have in my unit.
For those who like synthetic benchmark tests. On my PC Mark 10 test, the machine scored 3835. In the 3D Mark, Time Spy Test it arrived at 3683 CPU score, 1126 GPU score and overall Time Spy score of 1256.
The machine is ideal for normal use. Keeping in mind, this is not a gaming laptop plus it is a low power variant of the Core i5. I would not intend to use it that way but this is an ideal machine otherwise for regular office works and on the move meetings and in-flight entertainment. I could also manage a bit of photo editing when needed. With the dedicated MX 330 onboard, I don’t see any reason why video editing should also be not possible for content creators this should manage it if thrown at but this is not meant for such tasks. It does warm up a bit on continuous use near the air vents area, so I would not be keeping it on my lap for longer use. I was working with 8-9 tabs opened on chrome and was comfortable shifting around. If you intent do play gaming, it should handle Fortnite and Pubg Gaming but not at ease like gaming laptops which comes with better thermals to control throttling.
So if you are someone who spends a lot on typing documents, going through spreadsheets, use the laptop for presentations and constantly on the move, this is an ideal machine considering its design and aesthetics.
Battery life of Yoga Slim 7i
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 uses a 60.7Wh battery. It supports USB-C Power Delivery protocol. What is stated by any vendor and what the real-life use case differs especially when it comes to laptop battery. It took 2 hours 15 minutes to fully charge the laptop from 0% to 100%. I ran a video test with Wifi and Youtube video at 1080p and a 2 hours 38 mins video consumed 38% of battery. On a mixed-use, I got around 5.30 – 6 hours of battery life in actuals.
Verdict
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 is meant for people who like a compact machine that is ultra-portable – lightweight, sleek but still have a premium build quality. For those who are constantly on the go, dabble between spreadsheets and documents, binge on entertainment. Plus, a machine that can also be put to occasional tasks like light multimedia editing if needed.
Pros of Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i
- Sleek and good aluminium build quality
- Comfortable display with no flicker and good contrast
- Reliable performance
- Dolby Atmos-tuned speakers
- Dependable face login
- Decent battery life
Cons of Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i
- No fingerprint scanner
- No Ethernet port (which is a hard find in any case with new ultra portables)
