This is my detailed review of the Lenovo Slim 7i Pro X. It’s the European variant of the laptop, and it is sold here as the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X.
If you’re shopping for a powerful compact laptop , you’re most likely already familiar with this mid-2022 Slim 7 Pro X series, which has been available in stores for a few months now and has already been highly praised by many media outlets. This is also a follow-up of the 2022 Yoga Slim Pro 14, which I’ve reviewed in the past .
I’ve been using this Pro X unit for the last week or so, and it’s a retail model with mature software at this point. This is the Intel variant, the i7-12700H + RTX 3050 configuration, as Lenovo offers an AMD model as well. Most of my findings apply to both variants, but the AMD version differs in performance, efficiency, and a few other small details, so you’ll want to read a dedicated review of that AMD model if that’s what you’re primarily interested in.
Down below we’ll get in-depth on all the important aspects that you should be aware of when shopping for one of these.
For the most part, this lives up to the hype and is a competitive all-purpose 14-inch laptop . It’s not as powerful as a Blade 14 or a Zephyrus G14, but it’s smaller, lighter, and more affordable ultrabook design , while still checking most of the aspects that I’d want in this sort of laptop, except perhaps for all-day battery life when used unplugged and some good speakers.
Specs as reviewed – Lenovo Slim 7i Pro X 14IAH7
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X 14IAH7
Screen 14.5 inch, 16:10 format, 3K 3072 x 1920 px, IPS 120Hz, glossy, non-touch,touch panel option also available
Processor Intel 12th-gen Alder Lake Core i7-12700H, 6C+8c/20T
Video Intel Iris Xe + Nvidia RTX 3050 4GB (35-55W),with MUX and Advanced Optimus
Memory 32 GB LPDDR5-6000 (soldered) – up to 32 GB
Storage 1 TB gen4 SSD (Micron 3400) – single M.2 2280 slot
Connectivity Wireless 6 (Intel AX211), Bluetooth 5.1
Ports left: 1x HDMI 2.0, 2x USB-C 3.2 with Thunderbolt 4 (data, charging, video),
Battery 70 Wh, 100W charger with SUB-C plug
Size 328 mm or 12.92” (w) x 221 mm or 8.72” (d) x 15.9 mm or 0.63” (h)
Weight 3.35 lbs (1.52 kg) + .86 lbs (.39 kg) charger and cables, EU version
Extras white backlit keyboard, FHD 2MPx IR camera, up-firing stereo 2x 2W speakers, Ultimate Grey color
Update: A newer version of this laptop is available in the meantime, and here’s our coverage of the 2023 Lenovo Slim Pro 7 gen8 series . A higher-tier variant is also available, with the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i series .
Design and construction Compared to the previous Yoga Slim Pro generation, Lenovo have updated the overall design and ergonomics on this mid-2022 series, which is now a little larger and heavier, as a result of including a bigger display, a larger battery, and the updated chassis.
In all fairness, though, this is still compact for its size and capabilities, as you can tell from the narrow bezels around the screen and its slim profile. It does weigh around 1.5 kilos, though, so is not as lightweight as other options .
It’s also built really well, with a study main chassis and display, and without any noticeable flex or creaks with everyday use. Overall, this feels much like a premium laptop, which hasn’t been the case with the past generations.
The dark-gray finishing also does a good job hiding smudges and fingerprints, although it’s perhaps not the most beautiful color. As a practical utilitarian design, though, this is hard to fault in any way.
My only complaint is of the front lip that’s a bit sharp on the wrists, despite the fact that the rounded edges on the main chassis might suggest otherwise on a first glance. Even so, with the low profile and spacious armrest, your hands will rarely get in contact with those edges.
This detail aside, there’s nothing to knit about. The rubber feet on the bottom offer good grip on the desk, the screen is held in place by two smooth hinges that allow it to lean back to 180 degrees, and there are no annoying lights in the line of sight. Branding is also kept to a minimum, as long as you peel off the stickers plastered on the armrest and to the right side of the clickpad.
Other aspects worth mentioning here are the updated camera with IR support placed on the top screen bezel, the light-sensor placed at the top of the screen as well, the up-firing speakers that are flanking the keyboard, and the IO on the sides.
There are two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 support on the left side, as well as a full-size HDMI port, while on the right there’s a USB-A port, the audio jack, and an eShutter camera knob. This IO should meet most expectations, even if there’s no card reader and no Lock, and the USB-C ports are both placed on the left edge, which means you’re lacking the convenience of plugging this on both sides.
Overall, this Lenovo Yoga Pro X feels like a beefed-up Yoga, much as I’d expect from a Pro model. On the outside, it looks and feels like a grownup premium-tier laptop, without signaling the potential hidden inside. We’ll discuss it further down.
Keyboard and trackpad This Lenovo Slim Pro X gets a standard Yoga/IdeaPad keyboard, as well as a large clickpad that we weren’t offered in the past.
The keyboard’s layout is standard for this sort of portable Lenovo laptop, with full-sized and spaced keys. The half-sized Up and Down keys are a bit weird, but everything else is where it should be. There’s no extra column of function keys on the right side, as on other 14-inch designs, and that’s why Home/End/PgUp/PgDn are only available as secondaries bound to the arrow keys.
The keycaps are made out of plastic, with a slightly rounded bottom shape, and a little softer to the touch than I recall from the previous Yoga models. Lenovo also went with a dark-grey color for the keycaps, as opposed to the black keycaps used in the past, and they’re better at hiding finger oil over time.
The typing experience is alright. The feedback isn’t as mushy as on past Yoga/IdeaPad keyboards, but still needs time to get used to, as the keys require a very firm press to actuate, so the typing experience is a little odd and fatiguing. Even after typing in several thousands of words on this keyboard, I still struggled to meet my standard speed and accuracy with this one.
The keys are also backlit, with two brightness levels to choose from. The LEDs are bright and fairly uniform. Lenovo also throws in companion LED indicators for Caps Lock and FnLock. The illumination never times out, though, so you need to manually switch the keys off when needed, with Fn + Space.
The clickpad is spacious for a Yoga laptop and felt responsive and accurate with daily use. It still feels like plastic to me (not entirely sure about it?), and it’s still rather flimsy, as it rattles with firmer taps and sounds clunky when clicking the corners.
As for biometrics, there is no finger sensor on this unit, but I do have the IR camera on this unit (it’s optional in some regions) that works well with Windows Hello.
Screen Even more than with the past models, the screen is one of the major selling points of this Lenovo Slim Pro X generation. It’s a 16:10 format with a 14.5-inch high-resolution IPS panel.
However, our variant is the lower-tier panel option, with standard-gamut color coverage, a glossy finish, and without a touch layer – a touch variant is also available in some regions, though. At this point, I’m not sure how the touch/digitizer layer impacts the perceived sharpness, but from what I’m seeing in other reviews, this screen has received high praise in the touch implementations.
Back to our unit, this is a 3K 3072 x 1920 px resolution IPS panel with 120Hz refresh, 400 nits of max brightness, alright blacks and contrast, and only 100% sRGB color coverage.
This is well-balanced for everyday use and workloads, but not ideal for color-accurate work and will struggle in bright office environments or outdoors, due to the limited maximum brightness and the glare of the glossy finishing. I’m not a fan of this kind of glossy non-touch screens. On the other hand, this is very sharp and the format and resolution allow for a multitude of usable scaling options, as well as you’re using modern apps that properly scale with Windows.
Here’s what we got in our tests, with a X-Rite i1 Display Pro sensor :
Panel HardwareID: Lenovo CSO T3 (MNE507ZA1-1);
Coverage: 97.2% sRGB, 67.2% AdobeRGB, 69.3% DCI P3;
Measured gamma: 2.25;
Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 410.53 cd/m2 on power;
Min brightness in the middle of the screen: 1.44 cd/m2 on power;
Contrast at max brightness: 1272:1;
White point: 6700 K;
Black on max brightness: 0.32 cd/m2;
PWM: No;
Response: 35 ms GtG (Source).
The panel came well-calibrated out of the box and proved uniform once further calibrated. I also noticed very little light bleeding around the edges.
Furthermore, PWM modulation is not used at any brightness levels, so flickering is not a concern, and Lenovo allows for some very low brightness levels, making this excellent for those interested in using it in a pitch-black room.
On the other hand, this panel is not ideal for gaming. Sure, it’s 120 Hz refresh, so better than a standard 60Hz panel, but the middling response times translate into ghosting and lag in competitive fast-paced games. Up to you if that aspect is important, or not.
On top of that, this is still only a standard-gamut panel, so not ideal for any color-accurate creative work. This can also be a deal-breaker, given the multitude of high-gamut displays available out there in similar products – most of them are OLEDs, though, which come with their own share of particularities and potential deal-breakers.
Hardware and performance Our test model is a higher-specced configuration of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X, with an Intel Core i7-12700H processor, 32 GB of LPDDR5-6000 RAM, 1 TB of fast SSD storage, and dual graphics with Iris Xe iGPU and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 dedicated chip.
Disclaimer: Our review unit is a retail model provided by Lenovo for this review, running on the software available as of early December 2022 (BIOS HMCN31WW, Lenovo Vantage 3.13.24.0, Nvidia Game Ready Driver 527.56). This is a mature product with mature software, so little can change with future software updates.
Spec-wise, this is based on the 2022 Intel 12th-gen Alder Lake Core H hardware platform. The Core i7-12700H is a hybrid design with 6 Performance and 8 Efficiency Cores, as well as 20 combined threads. Despite its size, this implementation supplies the CPU with ~55W of sustained power in demanding loads, which is higher than most other portable designs on their top-performance profiles. We’ll get in-depth further down.
Graphics in sustained loads are handled by a dedicated Nvidia RTX 3050 dGPU running at up to 55W on the Extreme Performance profile. Once more, this is higher than most other portable 3050-class implementations . Lenovo also implements a MUX here, with an option for either Regular or Advanced Optimus. I’ve kept the laptop on Advanced Optimus during my time with it.
Our configuration also comes with 32 GB of LPDDR5-6000 memory. The RAM is soldered on the motherboard and non-upgradeable, and 16/32 GB configurations are offered, so make sure to choose the one that best fits your needs.
For storage, Lenovo opted for a mid-tier PCIe gen4 Micron 3400 drive here. There’s a single M.2 2280 slot inside.
It is possible to open up this device to get to the internals, and it’s a fairly simple task, as the back panel is held in place by a few Torx screws, all easily accessible.
Inside you’ll find the SSD slot and the WiFi module, with everything else being soldered. You’ll also notice the large battery, the speakers, and the thermal module.
As far as the software goes, everything can be controlled through the Lenovo Vantage app, which offers access to the power profiles, keyboard customization options, system updates, battery settings, etc. I find this unified implementation one of the better system control apps in this segment – too bad Lenovo aren’t offering this on all their laptops.
There are three performance/thermal profiles to choose from, and you can switch between them by pressing Fn+Q:
Battery Saving – limits the CPU at 15W sustained and keeps the fans mostly idle;
Intelligent Cooling – limits the CPU at 40W sustained, the GPU at 35W sustained, and ramps that fans to ~38 dB at head-level in sustained loads;
Extreme Performance – further bumps the CPU to 55W sustained, the GPU t0 55W sustained, and ramps that fans to ~42 dB at head-level in sustained loads.
I’ve kept my unit on Intelligent Cooling most of the time, and only switched to Extreme Performance for benchmarks and gaming. This latter profile provides a noticeable boost in performance, but with very high associated internal temperatures and louder fans. At the same time, the fans keep idle with daily use on Intelligent Cooling, and very rarely kick-in with heavier multitasking, so this qualifies as a completely silent computer with everyday activities.
Performance and benchmarks On to more demanding loads, we start by testing the CPU’s performance in the Cinebench R15 loop test.
On Extreme Performance, the system applies peak PL2 power of ~75W for a brief moment, but then the i7-12700H stabilizes at around 55W of sustained power. Lenovo implements a thermal limit on this power profile, allowing the processor to run at 95C and adjusting the power/frequency based on this limit. That means the laptop will run at higher power in a cooler environment, and at lower power in a hot place. For reference, we test at around 24 degrees Celsius ambient temperature.
The fans spin at around 42 dBA at head level in this mode, which is not a very loud level.
The Intelligent Cooling profile cuts the fans to around 38 dBA and sets a 40W power limit on the CPU. As a result, the CPU now runs cooler at around 83-85 degrees Celsius. The performance takes a dip, though, of around 15% lower than on Extreme Performance.
The laptop is an excellent performer on battery power as well, stabilizing at 40W of power on both the Intelligent Cooling and the Extreme Performance modes. All these are detailed in the following graph and logs.
To put these in perspective, here’s how this i7-12700H implementation fares against a few other Intel/AMD platforms available in other mid-sized laptops. This is one of the better 14-inch CPU implementations available on the market, quieter and more powerful than most other options, and nearly a match for the Ryzen 9 in the Zephyrus G14 , which runs at higher power and at higher noise.
Thus, if you’re looking for powerful multi-core CPU performance in a compact chassis, this Slim 7i Pro X is one of the better options out there.
We then went ahead and further verified our findings with the more taxing Cinebench R23 loop test and in Blender, confirming our above findings.
We then ran the 3DMark CPU profile test.
Finally, we ran our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook, on the Extreme Performance profile. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time, and this unit was able to pass it with flying colors, which means the performance does not decrease with longer demanding loads, even once the heat builds up.
Next, we ran the entire suite of tests and benchmarks, on the Extreme Performance profile in Vantage the dGPU set on the default Automatic Select mode (Advanced Optimus mode). I also set the scree at FHD+ 1920 x 1200 px resolution for consistency with our other tests, and kept the laptop flat on the desk.
3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 10505 (Graphics – 11594, Physics – 24901, Combined – 4086);3DMark 13 – Night Raid: 26559 (Graphics – 34116, CPU – 11778);3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 4817 (Graphics – 4366, CPU – 11620);Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 2555;Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 7731;Handbrake 1.3.3 (4K to 1080p encode): 55.84 average fps;PassMark 10: Rating: 5788 (CPU mark: 28165, 3D Graphics Mark: 8651, Memory Mark: 2963, Disk Mark: 31895);PCMark 10: 6871 (Essentials – 10120, Productivity – 9672, Digital Content Creation – 8994);GeekBench 5.4.3 64-bit: Single-Core: 1711, Multi-core: 12852;CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 2388 cb, CPU Single Core 245 cb;CineBench R20 (best run): CPU 5710 cb, CPU Single Core 676 cb;CineBench R23: CPU 14954 cb (best run), CPU 14069 (10 min loop test), CPU Single Core 1758 CB (best run);x265 HD Benchmark 64-bit: 31.57 s.
And here are some workstation benchmarks, on the same Extreme Peformance profile:
Blender 3.01 – BMW Car scene- CPU Compute: 2m 54s ;Blender 3.01 – BMW Car scene- GPU Compute: 55.71s (CUDA), 26.78s (Optix);Blender 3.01 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 6m 52s;Blender 3.01 – Classroom scene – GPU Compute: 1m 58s (CUDA), 1m 05s (Optix);
PugetBench – DaVinci Resolve: 930 points;PugetBench – Adobe After Effects: 853;PugetBench – Adobe Photoshop: 1059;PugetBench – Adobe Premiere: 789;
SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 52.16;SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 27.63;SPECviewperf 2020 – Creo: 54.56;SPECviewperf 2020 – Energy: 9.15;SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 176.36;SPECviewperf 2020 – Medical: 16.47;SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 11.87;SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 93.59.V-Ray Benchmark: -CPU – 9963 vsamples, GPU CUDA – 451 vpaths, GPU RTX – 564 vpaths;;
These are some excellent results for a computer of this size.
For comparison, Intel i9 + RTX 3050Ti version of the ROG Flow Z13 is a similar performer in benchmarks, and that’s the most powerful compact design we’ve tested so far. Furthermore, this Yoga Pro X scores higher than the i7 + RTX 3050Ti configuration of the popular Dell XPS 15 , or other powerful 14-inches such as the Asus ZenBook 14X Space Edition or the Asus VivoBook Pro 14X .
Unfortunately, I haven’t reviewed the latest Acer Swift X 14 for a proper comparison, as that’s perhaps the closest rival to this Pro X model. I do expect the Lenovo to have an edge, based on its power settings and my experience with the past Acer Swift X models .
At the same time, there are a handful of more powerful 14-inch laptops out there, such as the Acer Predator Triton 300, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, the Alienware X14, or the Razer Blade 14, but those are also thicker, heavier, and much more expensive products.
With that out of the way, I must also add that while this Yoga 7i Pro X doesn’t run very noisy on the Extreme Performance mode, the internal components do heat up, with the CPU often running at the 95 C thermal limit, and the GPU running at around 85 degrees Celsius or even higher in sustained loads.
Thus, if you preffer cooler internals and a quieter experience, the Intelligent Cooling mode on this laptop is worth a try. The components run at 70-85 degrees Celsius in sustained loads on this mode, and the fans don’t go over 38 dAb, compared to temperatures in the 80s and 90s and fan noise of 42 dBA on the Extreme Performance mode.
Here are some benchmark results on this mode.
3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 8901 (Graphics – 9521, Physics – 25255, Combined – 3619);3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 3908 (Graphics – 3491, CPU – 12152);Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 2071;GeekBench 5.4.3 64-bit: Single-Core: 1738, Multi-core: 12933;CineBench R20 (best run): CPU 5460 cb, CPU Single Core 684 cb;x265 HD Benchmark 64-bit: 35.13 s.Blender 3.01 – BMW scene – CPU Compute: 8m 02s ;
The CPU performance takes a 10-15% dip in longer sustained loads, and the GPU runs at about 80% of its capabilities on Extreme. These are still competitive results for this sort of laptop, and it’s up to you whether they’re worth it for what you’re gaining in noise fan and especially in internal temperatures. With daily use, the differences between the two profiles are minimal.
Gaming performance This Slim 7i Pro X is not necessarily a gaming laptop, but I do expect many of you to game on it at least occasionally, so we’re going to take a deeper dive into its gaming abilities in this section.
For starters, here’s what we got on Ultra settings, with the screen at FHD+ 1920 x 1200 px resolution (as gaming at higher res would prove challenging for an RTX 3050 dGPU).
Intel Core i7-12700H + RTX 3050Ti Laptop 35-55W FHD+ Extreme Performance, FHD+ Intelligent Cooling,
Dota 2 95 fps (52 fps – 1% low)
78 fps (47 fps – 1% low)
Far Cry 5 61 fps (34 fps – 1% low)
48 fps (22 fps – 1% low)
Far Cry 6 62 fps (31 fps – 1% low)
36 fps (17 fps – 1% low)
Red Dead Redemption 2 39 fps (27 fps – 1% low)
31 fps (22 fps – 1% low)
Shadow of Tomb Raider 55 fps (38 fps – 1% low)
44 fps (26 fps – 1% low)
Shadow of Tomb Raider 28 fps (16 fps – 1% low)
–
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 58 fps (40 fps – 1% low)
48 fps (35 fps – 1% low)
Battlefield V, The Witcher 3 – recorded with Fraps/in-game FPS counter in campaign mode;
Far Cry 5, Middle Earth, Strange Brigade, Red Dead Redemption 2, Tomb Raider games – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities;
Red Dead Redemption 2 Optimized profile based on these settings .
Older titles are able to run just fine, but modern AAA titles dip under the 60 fps limit and will require you to trim down the graphics settings.
Furthermore, the fps differences between the Extreme and Performance profiles are quite significant, due to the difference in GPU power between the two modes. We’ll get in-depth further down, as there are reasons to consider the Intelligent Cooling profile for longer gaming sessions, despite the lower framerates.
Nonetheless, if you’re going to game on this mini-computer, I’d recommend trimming down the details and keeping the resolution at FHD+ to properly benefit from the screen’s 16:10 aspect ratio.
Here’s what we got on Medium settings at FHD+ resolution, in comparison to a few other portable 13-15 inch devices.
Medium settings Slim 7i Pro X – ROG Flow X13 – ROG Flow Z13 – XPS 15 9520 – VivoBook Pro 14X –
Doom Eternal 89 fps (68 fps – 1% low)
107 fps (82 fps – 1% low)
126 fps (89 fps – 1% low)
108 fps (78 fps – 1% low)
–
Far Cry 5 71 fps (37 fps – 1% low)
72 fps (48 fps – 1% low)
72 fps (54 fps – 1% low)
76 fps (56 fps – 1% low)
76 fps (44 fps – 1% low)
Red Dead Redemption 2 57 fps (38 fps – 1% low)
48 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
46 fps (30 fps – 1% low)
52 fps (37 fps – 1% low)
51 fps (39 fps – 1% low)
Shadow of Tomb Raider 66 fps (42 fps – 1% low)
69 fps (48 fps – 1% low)
68 fps (45 fps – 1% low)
59 fps (36 fps – 1% low)
66 fps (52 fps – 1% low)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 99 fps (77 fps – 1% low)
102 fps (78 fps – 1% low)
98 fps (59 fps – 1% low)
108 fps (39 fps – 1% low)
98 fps (73 fps – 1% low)
All the tested games run well in this case, and the Slim 7i Pro X platform is competitive against other options with similar specs. In fact, it even outmatches most other options due to its higher-power dGPU on the Extreme Performance mode, which runs at 50-55W, while most other 3050/3050Ti portable implementations run in the 40-50W range.
With these out of the way, let’s go through some of the performance logs on each profile.
First off, the Extreme Performance profile, allows the GPU to run at 50-55W sustained power between the tested titles. The fans ramp up to 42 dBA, which is fairly quiet for a top-performance profile; corroborated with the cooling design and high GPU power, all these lead up to high internal GPU temperatures of 82-85 degrees Celsius.
Bumping up the back of the laptop in order to improve the airflow of fresh air into the fans allows for a noticeable drop in internal temperatures, of around 3-7 degrees. Hence, I do recommend placing this laptop at least on a raiser stand if you plan to run demanding loads on the Extreme Performance profile.
You could also consider running loads on the Intelligent Cooling mode, which caps the GPU at around 35W of power; this translates into lower temperatures in the 70s Celsius, despite the fact that the fans are spinning quieter, at 38 dBA. You will have to accept a 15-25% drop in framerates on this profile, though.
Finally, this laptop performs well when unplugged, averaging 25W of sustained GPU power in Witcher 3. It doesn’t match the performance possible with the laptop plugged in, but still offers a usable gaming experience, for an hour and a half until the battery runs out.
Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others Lenovo went with a fairly advanced thermal module here. This implements two mid-capacity fans and two long heatpipes that go over both components and connect to the two radiators.
This is fairly similar to the cooling module on the past Slim 7 Pro models, but Lenovo have bumped the power settings for this generation, and that’s translating into the higher CPU/GPU temperatures on the Extreme Performance profile. Regardless, even this mode is manageable if you prop up the laptop on some sort of stand, to mitigate the fact that the fans are slightly choked with the laptop sitting on a flat surface.
I must also mention that the radiators are placed just under the screen with this design, but most of the hot air goes to the back of the laptop and out of the way, so the panel only gets up to mid-30s Celsius, which is perfectly fine and won’t cause any long term issues. For comparison, most other designs with exhausts placed so close to the screen lead to the panel heating up significantly more.
As far as the noise goes, the fans spin at up to 42 dB at head-level on the Extreme Performance and up to 38 dB on Intelligent Cooling, based on load.
On the other hand, with daily use, this Yoga runs completely silent on both the Battery Saver and the Intelligent Cooling modes, with the fans keeping idle most of the time. I haven’t noticed any coil whine or electronic noises on this unit, but that’s no guarantee you won’t experience any on your unit.
As far as external temperatures go, there’s nothing out of ordinary here. The middle of the chassis heats-up with sustained loads on the Extreme Performance profile, but the laptop doesn’t run hotter than I’d expect from this sort of design, and the arrows and WASD regions keep cool at only around 30 degrees Celsius.
*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Intelligent Cooling Mode, fans at 0-33 dB
For connectivity, there’s latest gen WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1 with a Intel AX211 module on this unit. It performed well with our setup and the signal and performance remained strong at 30 feet, with obstacles in between. As far as I can tell, the AMD variants of this laptop ship with Realtek modules, which can sometimes have issues when reconnecting to the Internet after resuming the laptop from sleep.
Audio is handled by a set of stereo speakers that fire through the grills on the left and right sides of the keyboard. They’re not loud (up to 72-73 dBA in our tests) and not much in quality either, but they’re a slight upgrade from the bottom speakers on the previous Yoga Slim Pro generation.
Finally, Lenovo have updated the camera on this series, implementing a 2MPx FHD shooter at the top of the screen, with a wider angle and IR functionality. This camera is alright for occasional calls, especially in a well-lit environment. Microphones are also placed at the top of the screen, and they’re OK for calls as well.
Battery life There’s a 70 Wh battery inside this Yoga Slim 7i Pro X series, larger than on the previous model and on par with what the competition offers in their performance 14-inch notebooks.
Here’s what we got on this unit, with the screen set at around 120-nits (60% brightness) and running at 120 Hz.
11 W (~6+ h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Best Battery Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;12.5 W (5+ h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Best Battery Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;11 W (6+ h of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Best Battery Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;15 W (~4-5 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Intelligent Cooling Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;40 W (~1.5 h of use) – gaming – Witcher 3, Extreme Performance Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON.
There’s a Dynamic refresh mode available in the Display Settings, which should automatically switch between 60/120 Hz refresh. However, I ran some tests with the screen manually set to 120 and 60 Hz, to properly document the differences in efficiency between the two refresh modes. BTW, Fn+R doesn’t work for switching between modes, so I had to change things manually in the settings.
8.5 W (8+ h of use) – screen at 60 Hz, 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Best Battery Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;7.5 W (9+ h of use) – screen at 60 Hz, Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Best Battery Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON.
Switching to 60 Hz makes a noticeable difference with basic activities. For daily use, the Dynamic refresh mode should handle things without requiring any fiddling with the settings.
The laptop ships with a 100W charger that plugs in via USB-C. It’s a dual-piece design with an averagely-sized brick and long and thick cables that add up to about .4 kilos in weight. A full charge takes about 2 hours, with quick charging at the beginning.
Price and availability- Slim 7i Pro X The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro X is widely available in stores at the time of this post.
In the US, this Intel i7 + 16 GB RAM + 512 TB SSD + the 3K touch display goes for around $1450 at the time of this update, with further occasional discounts. That’s a fair price, although perhaps a 1 TB SSD would have been welcomed at that level.
At the same time, the AMD version with similar specs, but a Ryzen 7 6800HS processor, goes for under $1300. It’s no match for the CPU capabilities on this Intel model, but it does win in efficiency on battery use, and is a close contender in overall capabilities in daily use and games, so that’s probably the better value choice of the two. There are still reasons why you’d want to opt for the Intel model, though, despite its higher price.
As far as over here in Europe, Lenovo offers the series in a handful of other configurations, including the one we had here, with the non-touch display and 32 GB of RAM. Up to you to choose the one that makes the most sense for your needs, and best fits your budget.
Follow this link for updated prices and configurations in your region .
Final thoughts- Lenovo Slim 7i Pro X This updated Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro X checks a lot of the right boxes in its niche of powerful compact laptops .
Compared to the already excellent Slim 7 Pro model of the past , this updated mid-2022 generation is a more refined design with an updated display and slightly different IO and inputs, as well as a significantly more capable performer and longer-lasting on battery use, with the addition of a larger battery inside.
At the same time, this generation is a fair bit more expensive than in the past, and there’s still room to improve certain aspects. Better audio and a wide-gamut panel option would have been appreciated, for instance, and the typing experience isn’t quite down my alley either.
Overall, though, if you need this sort of multi-purpose laptop in a compact 14-inch chassis, the Lenovo Slim 7i Pro X is one of the better such options available in stores today.
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Review by: Andrei Girbea
Andrei Girbea is a Writer and Editor-in-Chief here at Ultrabookreview.com . I write about mobile technology, laptops and computers in general. I've been doing it for more than 15 years now. I'm a techie with a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering. I mostly write reviews and thorough guides here on the site, with some occasional columns and first-impression articles.
PHVM
December 13, 2022 at 6:39 am
According to the HWINFO64 image the memory is LPDDR5-5200MHZ
Andrei Girbea
December 13, 2022 at 9:53 am
True. I double-checked. For some reason, Windows reports it as LPDDR5-6000, and other tools as 5200.
NikoB
December 18, 2022 at 2:22 pm
LPDDR5 6000 declared in psref by Lenovo…it's fail.
Today, taking such a powerful laptop with 16GB (only 12-13GB is free under W11) is simply ridiculous. The 32GB version is inadequate considering retail prices for added 16Gb ram (32GB DDR5 5200 costs about $150-170). Not to mention that there is simply no version with 64GB from the factory…
In review does not post a screenshot from the AIDA64 Mem & Cache benchmark, but other review do. And there you can see that this model with 12700H (but not with the slow AMD Zen3+ memory controller – always, even in R9) gives out simply phenomenal for 99% of models 2022, the result in reading/copying/writing is more than 80 GB/s, but still falls short to a possible level even lpddr5 5200 with 128 (4×32) bit bus. Thus, this laptop is an almost ideal "system unit" for working in Photoshop when good 30 bit 4k monitors are connected, because Photoshop is maximally dependent on memory speed. Like the built-in igpu when working through Optimus, when system memory is used as a video frame buffer, shared by resource between all devices and OS/software.
Therefore, I do not recommend this model with an AMD processor to those who want to work with it in Photoshop. Loss in memory speed more than 1.5 times by real tests. Basically, I don't recommend AMD versions for Photoshop until they finally fix their on-chip memory controller, reaching the Intel level, which is faster with DDR5 4800 than AMD with lpddr5 6400 with the same 128-bit memory bus..
Well, I don’t like the fashion of non-standard screens in resolution, instead of 4k. This leads to the fact that it cannot be switched in hardware to fhd mode (4 pixels to one), without any turbidity on the screen, since 3072x is not divisible by an integer by standart 1920. Which also leads to some blurring when watching video in both 1080p and 2160p. Neither this nor that. And fhd resolution drastically increases fps in older games and increases battery life when you can sacrifice high ppi in text by switching the screen to 1920×1200 instead of 3840×2400 for example. 120Hz 4k screens have been around for 2 years now on market. For me, today only they are relevant in high level laptop models, since they are universal for both work and games in fhd, when slow (and there are always -35-40% compared to desktop ones) mobile discrete chips do not pull out stable 60fps+ in Ultra quality..
Thank you Andrei for review. You have significantly completed the overal picture, where there were gaps in other reviews. Through joint brain efforts, we get the most complete picture of what manufacturers are selling us.
Krusty
December 16, 2022 at 2:31 pm
Thanks for this great review as always, looks like a great pro laptop
feedback
December 17, 2022 at 1:09 pm
The performance on battery is pretty bad on this thing (both on battery saver and balanced profile). Like would lag horribly when light gaming, until you plugged it in. Atleast when I tested the Ryzen 6800hs version of this laptop. But I believe same holds true even for this intel version.
Are there any (Ryzen 6000) laptops that can get full performance or close to it, even while on battery?
Andrei Girbea
December 19, 2022 at 9:36 am
The performance on battery wasn't that bad with this unit, but still, around half of what you get plugged in. That's standard for most such laptops. I don't have a top of which options perform well on battery power with demanding loads, you'll have to go through the reviews and checks the gaming performance on battery section at the end of the Hardware and Performance chapter in each review.
feedback
December 19, 2022 at 3:28 pm
I see.
How about thin and light laptops with dGPU that don't have slow response time panels that ghost, are there any?
Afaik, only thick/heavy 165hz gaming laptops and maybe the rare few oled ultrabook (no dGPU here tho).
There's the 2022 models of the g14/razer blade I guess, but they're still kinda pricey.
Hoping when next gen rtx4000/Ryzen 7000 mobile release, it'll push the price down of these last gen products.
Andrei Girbea
December 21, 2022 at 10:50 am
The G14 is the better such option
Steve
December 21, 2022 at 4:35 pm
Unfortunately i cannot recommend this unit. I will return mine after 1 day of fiddling around with it.
It smelled like plastic on the bottom around the fan area and where the air gets sucked in.
I was away during Win11 install, came back and it was hot as an oven – noticed that the fans were not on – there should be something there to protect the unit from doing so. I dont think this is doing any good.
The speakers are "OK" – not bad, but could've been better in a pricetag like this. My unit was overheating ALOT during installing and just basic browsing and youtube. Temps on the cpu went up to 104 degrees.
The feeling of the keybey was ok- but as someone being used to better keyboards it really lacks those that extra travel – so not really the best feedback while typing.
The case is super though, the overall look is ultra premium and the screen is a delight. Installing Win11 on this Notebook was a nightmare – no touchpad working – no wlan working- no bluetooth – was quite the experience – so if you plan on buying this – get yourself prepared for along installation routine (except youre tagging with a windows option).
Fans were not very loud – max 45-46 db during max load and sometimes really barely audible and off at some points. The battery did something really strange and i would call this faulty as well -> Started with 100%, always on ac power, after one day the maximum was down to 96%. What is that?
That is a skip for me.
NikoB
December 21, 2022 at 6:42 pm
//Started with 100%, always on ac power, after one day the maximum was down to 96%. What is that?
Or, under load, there is not enough power and the laptop starts quietly, as in some series it takes the missing power from the battery (thus killing it faster) or the poor quality of the battery cells.
I can say from my own experience that if a laptop hangs on the power supply 100% of the time, usually self-discharge up to 96% from 100% on a calibrated battery of normal quality (especially a new one, only from the factory) appears no earlier than 10-12 days later.
I have a 4.5 year old 9-cell Sanyo (94Wh+) battery in an old Thinkpad, bought in China in early 2018 to replace an old 6-cell battery that lasted almost 7 years. This battery already has a capacity wear of more than 35% by the summer of 2022, but even it self-discharges from 100% to 95% not earlier than in a one week. And new at the beginning of 2018, it self-discharged to 95% from 100% for more than 2 weeks…
Therefore, if this is not a quiet replenishment of the laptop with the missing power from the PSU using a battery, it was definitely defective in your copy. And most likely the laptop itself was defective from the factory.
I wonder how it passed the Lenovo quality control at the factory then? And did a copy of it pass at all?
AlexS
December 25, 2022 at 11:46 pm
What to expect from a badly designed product.
Any performant system needs to have at least 4 proper cooling vents, this has just under screen vent which is clearly not enough for the machine performance.
Andrei Girbea
December 26, 2022 at 11:26 am
this is thin lightweight chassis. That sort of cooling module cannot be fitted in this sort of product, so let's try to be reasonable in our expectations and comments
Bruce Hahn
January 19, 2023 at 7:01 pm
I bought this laptop and I love the size and weight. I bought the option with the i7 and the touch screen.
But I had to return it even though the screen was beautiful, I could not handle the glare of the screen.