Lenovo Slim 7 Professional X assessment: Prosumer energy at an affordable worth

Worth When Reviewed

$1,399 (baseline) | $1,765 (as reviewed)

Finest Costs Right now: Lenovo Slim 7 Professional X

Prosumers and professionals searching for a laptop computer with a strong processor and discrete graphics have many selections, however excessive pricing may be a difficulty. Lenovo’s Slim 7 Professional X makes an attempt to ship nice efficiency in a mid-sized kind issue whereas holding the value in examine. The machine itself is light-weight and moveable and the design is each sturdy and complicated. Whereas we appreciated the sturdy efficiency, battery life is less-than-stellar and connectivity choices are missing. That mentioned, we really feel the professionals far outweigh the cons. Learn on to study extra.

Lenovo Slim 7 Professional X specs and options

The Lenovo Slim 7 Professional X is a powerful machine on paper. It has an AMD Ryzen 6900HS processor with eight cores and 16 threads in addition to a Nvidia RTX 3050 graphics resolution with a most thermal design energy of 55 watts. It’s no slouch in RAM or storage, both, providing 32GB and 1TB, respectively. 

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 6900HS
• Reminiscence: 32GB
• Graphics/GPU: RTX 3050 with 55 watt TDP
• Show: 3072 x 1920 IPS touchscreen
• Storage: 1TB PCie NVM SSD
• Webcam: 1080p with IR
• Connectivity: 2x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 with DisplayPort and Energy Supply, 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 with battery charging, 3.5mm audio combo jack
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1
• Biometrics: IR digital camera
• Battery capability: 70 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 12.92 x 8.72 x 0.63 inches
• Weight: 3.2 kilos
• MSRP: $1,399 to start out, $1,765 as examined

Pricing begins at $1,399 for entry-level fashions with an AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB stable state drive. The upgrades in my take a look at laptop computer got here with a modest enhance in worth to $1,765. That’s not cheap, but it surely’s a very good deal given the laptop computer’s gobs of RAM and storage. 

Design and construct high quality

IDG / Matthew Smith

Lenovo’s new Slim 7 Professional X, just like the Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 that we reviewed earlier this yr, has a design language that mixes curved edges with flat expanses of gray-silver metallic. It’s not a glance that instantly jumps out as distinctive, however this particular shade of grey, together with the rounded sides, supplies a premium appear and feel.

I’m additionally a fan of Lenovo’s chrome badge which sits alongside the sting of the show lid and can also be discovered on the inside. It’s eye-catching however stays sufficiently small that it doesn’t develop into a distraction.

Seems apart, the Slim 7 Professional X is a inflexible and strong laptop computer. The Slim 7 Professional X doesn’t really feel as premium as an Apple MacBook Professional or Dell XPS laptop computer, because the chassis does permit minor flex when the show is opened or closed. Nonetheless, it’s a minimize above an Acer Swift, Asus Zenbook, or LG Gram.

The Slim 7 Professional X lives as much as its identify, as effectively, with a thickness of simply .63 inches and a weight of three.2 kilos. This isn’t as gentle as featherweights just like the LG Gram 14 or Samsung Galaxy Book2 Professional 360, however the Slim 7 Professional X packs in discrete graphics whereas these opponents make due with built-in graphics. The Lenovo’s general measurement and weight will not be far off a MacBook Air – spectacular for a machine with a 8-core processor and Nvidia RTX 3050 GPU.

Keyboard and trackpad

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Lenovo Slim 7 Professional X has a spacious, enticing keyboard. Most keys are full-sized, or near it, with the operate row (as traditional) being the exception. Lenovo avoids throwing in extra leisure or operate keys alongside the perimeters, which retains the keyboard centered above the contact. Key really feel is great regardless of modest key journey, with a brief however exact throw that bottoms out in a springy, tactile motion. 

Keyboard backlighting is customary and presents two brightness settings together with an computerized mode, which is the default. The automated mode detects a dim surroundings and activates the backlight as wanted. 

The touchpad is about 5.25 inches huge and three inches deep, which is massive for a 14-inch laptop computer, although smaller than a MacBook Air or MacBook Professional. It presents lots of room for multi-touch gestures and proves nice to make use of. 

The touchpad additionally does a very good job of rejecting unintended inputs, so I hardly ever observed an undesirable click on even whereas my palms grazed the sting of the touchpad.

Show, audio

IDG / Matthew Smith

Lenovo will get a bit bizarre with the show within the Slim 7 Professional X. It’s a 14.5-inch display with a 16:10 facet ratio and a decision of three,072 and 1,920. Lenovo calls this a 3K show, and it results in a pixel density of about 250 pixels per inch. Whereas a real 4K show can be sharper, 3K is a pleasant compromise for a show of this measurement. Photos, fonts, internet pages, paperwork, and video games all look sharp. 

The 14.5-inch display, due to its facet ratio, is sort of as tall as a 15.4-inch widescreen laptop computer. It usually seems like a 15-inch laptop computer in day-to-day use. When closed and saved for journey, nevertheless, it all of a sudden appears to rework right into a 13.3-inch machine. That is because of the laptop computer’s slim show bezels.

Picture high quality is stable, although not distinctive. The shiny show seems enticing in typical use because of its excessive most brightness and vivid, correct colour, however the LCD IPS show can’t match the distinction of OLED, which is now obtainable in lots of opponents together with the Asus Vivobook Professional OLED, Dell XPS, and Samsung Galaxy E-book sequence. Apple’s MacBook Professional 14 and 16, which have a Mini-LED show, can even beat the Slim 7 Professional X in picture high quality. 

A pair of two-watt audio system lining both sides of the keyboard present audio. Their user-facing orientation means sound by no means appears muffled or obscured, however most quantity is modest. Music sounds crisp and supplies a touch of bass kick however by no means impresses as a result of lack of oomph and restricted sound stage. It’s advantageous, however nowhere close to as top-tier choices just like the Lenovo Yoga 9i, Apple MacBook Professional, or Microsoft Floor E-book Studio. 

Webcam, microphone, biometrics

A 1080p webcam is tucked contained in the Lenovo Slim 7 Professional X’s skinny high bezel. It presents a sharper picture than a 720p webcam however suffers a couple of points. Video can look grainy in a darkish room and modifications in lighting can confuse the digital camera’s computerized publicity, inflicting an oddly darkish or vivid picture. Nonetheless, it’s greater than sufficient for many video conferences and appears higher than opponents saddled with a 720p digital camera. 

Microphone quantity was excessive and the microphone was capable of choose up my voice after I wasn’t immediately going through the laptop computer. Nevertheless, I felt my voice got here throughout as relatively tinny and distant, which might make my voice onerous to know. 

The digital camera contains an IR sensor that helps Home windows Good day facial recognition login. It rapidly acknowledged my face and by no means failed in my time utilizing the gadget. The IR sensor isn’t reliant on ambient gentle, both, so it really works effectively in a darkish room. A fingerprint reader is unavailable, however I don’t discover that an issue. Home windows Good day facial recognition is faster and extra dependable.

Connectivity

IDG / Matthew Smith

A pair of USB-C 3.2 ports are discovered on Slim 7 Professional X’s left flank. They provide DisplayPort Alternate Mode for connecting an exterior monitor. Energy Supply is included on each ports, as effectively, to allow them to be used to cost the laptop computer. The Slim 7 Professional X’s ships with a 100 watt energy brick, nevertheless, so a beefy USB-C energy supply is required to energy the laptop computer beneath load. USB-A comes from a pair of USB-A 3.2 ports, one on both sides of the laptop computer. 

That leaves the Slim 7 Professional X with out Ethernet or a devoted video output. You’ll want an adapter to entry wired Ethernet and to attach any monitor with out USB-C (which is most of them). There’s a 3.5mm audio jack, at the least.

The Slim 7 Professional X additionally lacks Thunderbolt 4. It is a drawback with AMD’s most up-to-date cell platform which, not like Intel’s, doesn’t embrace Thunderbolt by default. The USB-C ports promise a most information switch price of 10Gbps which, although respectable, is way in need of the 40Gbps offered by Thunderbolt. This might be a difficulty if it’s worthwhile to switch massive quantities of information.

Wi-fi can also be a bit lackluster, because the Slim 7 Professional X solely helps Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1. Most opponents with Intel Twelfth-Gen processors assist the newer Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 requirements. 

Efficiency

Lenovo’s Slim 7 Professional X doesn’t fiddle. It packs an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS processor and Nvidia RTX 3050 graphics right into a slim kind issue. My assessment pattern additionally had 32GB of RAM and a 1TB stable state drive. That’s spectacular {hardware} for a slim laptop computer, but it surely does have its limits.

IDG / Matthew Smith

We begin in PCMark which, because it seems, is among the many laptop computer’s much less spectacular outcomes. The Slim 7 Professional X achieves an honest rating of 5,794 however finally ends up behind different slim laptops that pair a quick processor with discrete graphics. The principle cause seems to be its graphics efficiency which, as I’ll clarify quickly, is nice however not distinctive. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

Cinebench R15’s multi-threaded benchmark is available in with a rating of two,014. That is higher than previous Ryzen 7 5000-series processors however a step behind Intel’s newest Core i9-12900H processor within the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE. This isn’t a shock, as Intel’s Twelfth-gen Core processors have confirmed sturdy on this benchmark.

IDG / Matthew Smith

Handbrake supplies sturdy outcomes for the Slim 7 Professional X. It stays behind the Core i9-12900H within the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE however jumps forward of the Core i7-12700H within the Lenovo Legion 5 Professional. It even beats the Ryzen 9 6900HS within the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14.

It’s clear the Lenovo Slim 7 Professional X isn’t any slouch in duties that lean closely on processor compute efficiency. The Ryzen 9 6900HS doesn’t appear as succesful because the Core i9-12900H general, but it surely’s shut, and its general efficiency is nice for a laptop computer of its measurement. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

3DMark Time Spy, our first of three graphics exams, delivers anticipated outcomes. The Slim 7 Professional X is ready to commerce blows with the Acer Swift X and Asus Vivobook 15 OLED, a pair of opponents that additionally mesh thin-and-light design with discrete graphics. 

Nevertheless, the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE springs forward with its RTX 3060 graphics. This reveals there’s nonetheless a major hole between entry-level Nvidia RTX graphics and mid-range gaming options just like the RTX 3060.

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Lenovo Slim 7 Professional X and Acer Swift X additionally fall considerably behind the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Nevertheless, each slim laptops handle to attain over 60 FPS, with the Lenovo Slim 7 Professional X hitting a median of 63 FPS. That’s excessive sufficient to supply an pleasurable expertise.

IDG / Matthew Smith

Metro Exodus, which is extra demanding, pushes the Slim 7 Professional X past its limits. The issue right here seems to be video reminiscence: the Slim 7 Professional X doesn’t seem to have sufficient to deal with the sport at these settings and, because of this, efficiency jumps off a cliff. The benchmark was unstable, as effectively, which once more hints at a video reminiscence limitation. 

I attempted a couple of different video games out of curiosity and noticed outcomes in keeping with these benchmarks. Essentially the most fascinating was Cyberpunk 2077, which averaged an almost-playable 27 FPS at 1080p and Extremely element. Bumping element right down to Excessive makes the sport playable above 30 FPS. If RTX ray-tracing is turned on, nevertheless, the typical plummets to only 10 FPS at 1080p and Extremely element (with DLSS off). 

The Lenovo Slim 7 X Professional X’s graphics efficiency might disappoint avid gamers, but it surely’s essential to take the laptop computer’s measurement and design under consideration. The RTX 3050 on this laptop computer isn’t nice for probably the most demanding fashionable video games, but it surely’s advantageous for older titles, and presents a lift in productiveness functions that assist GPU compute. It’s proper on par with different slim efficiency laptops together with the Acer Swift X and Asus Vivobook 15 OLED. 

Battery life

Lenovo equips the Slim 7 Professional X with a good 70 watt-hour battery. That’s an affordable, although not large, battery for a 14-inch laptop computer that may very well be overwhelmed by the mixture of a Ryzen 9 6900HS processor and Nvidia RTX 3050 graphics resolution.

IDG / Matthew Smith

Luckily, the laptop computer offsets energy consumption with Nvidia Optimus switchable graphics, which switches to the built-in AMD Radeon graphics when extra graphics energy isn’t required. 

This supplies 9 hours and 37 minutes of battery life. It’s a wholesome consequence and sufficient for journey although, as famous within the graph, a pair hours off the most effective outcomes present in comparable opponents. 

Conclusion

Lenovo’s Slim 7 Professional X has broad attraction. It’s a wonderful laptop computer for prosumers who need one do-it-all laptop computer for productiveness, portability, and lightweight gaming. But it must also maintain the eye of execs who need a useful, moveable laptop computer that may deal with heavy duties like video enhancing or render workloads. 

The Slim 7 Professional X does have a couple of flaws. Connectivity is weak as a result of lack of Thunderbolt 4, Ethernet, or a devoted video-out port. Show high quality is nice however can’t match OLED options. And the laptop computer’s battery life, whereas satisfactory, falls barely behind the pack.

These points are minor, although, and never onerous to forgive given the Slim 7 Professional X’s sturdy general efficiency, enticing design, and aggressive pricing. It’s a wonderful choice for prosumers and professionals who need many of the advantages of a premium laptop computer, just like the MacBook Professional 14 or Dell XPS 15, beneath $2,000.