Lenovo Slim 7 Professional X evaluate: skinny and actually quick
MSRP $1,600.00
“The Lenovo Slim 7 Professional X leverages a quick AMD CPU and a discrete GPU to offer shocking efficiency in a skinny and light-weight machine.”
Execs
- Wonderful productiveness efficiency
- Nice artistic efficiency for a skinny and light-weight laptop computer
- Engaging, strong construct
- Superior IPS show
- In depth privateness options
Cons
- Barely costly
- Followers might be loud
A brand new breed of 14-inch laptops mates skinny and light-weight chassis with potent parts. We’re speaking laptops which might be 0.7 inches or slimmer and operating 35-watt and 45-watt CPUs and discrete GPUs. Such components had been as soon as reserved for 15-inch and bigger machines which might be larger and thicker, offering higher airflow to maintain issues cool.
The efficiency outcomes with these 14-inch laptops have been decidedly combined. However that doesn’t cease new machines from being launched, together with Lenovo’s Slim 7 Professional X that packs in a 35-watt AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS processor and an Nvidia RTX 3050 discrete GPU. That efficiency mixed with the enticing design makes the Slim 7 Professional X one other winner in Lenovo’s lineup.
Specs
| Lenovo Slim 7 Professional X | |
| Dimensions | 12.40 inches x 8.44 inches x 0.59 inches |
| Weight | 3.02 kilos |
| Processor | Core i7-1280P |
| Graphics | Intel Iris Xe |
| RAM | 32GB LPDDR5 RAM |
| Show | 14-inch 16:10 WQUXGA (3,840 x 2,400) OLED |
| Storage | 512GB PCIe Gen4 SSD 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD |
| Contact | Sure |
| Ports | 3 x USB-C with Thunderbolt 4 1 x 3.5mm audio jack |
| Wi-fi | Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 |
| Webcam | 1080p with infrared digicam for facial recognition |
| Working system | Home windows 11 |
| Battery | 75 watt-hours |
| Value | $2,070+ |
Skinny can nonetheless be quick and long-lasting
The Slim 7 Professional X is simply 0.63 inches thick. That doesn’t depart lots of room for thermals, though the laptop computer advantages a bit from its bigger 14.5-inch 16:10 show and, subsequently, a barely bigger chassis. Another laptops within the comparability group beneath additionally characteristic quick, full-power CPUs and are a bit thicker. The Acer Swift 3 OLED is one instance, with its 45-watt Core i7-12700H and 0.70-inch thickness — not an unlimited distinction however sufficient to afford higher airflow. The Dell Inspiron 14 Plus is a mannequin with the identical Intel CPU that’s as thick as 0.75 inches.
Packed contained in the Slim 7 Professional X is an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS, a 35-watt 8-core/16-thread CPU that’s a quick multi-threaded performer, together with a discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU. My $1,600 Costco evaluate configuration was well-stocked with 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM and a 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD. You’ll avoid wasting money by selecting a Ryzen 7 6800HS CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD, a configuration that prices $1,430 on Lenovo’s web site.
The Slim 7 Professional X is a really robust performer for a laptop computer of its measurement.
Whereas the chip didn’t do nicely in Geekbench 5 within the Slim 7 Professional X, it was quicker in our Handbrake take a look at that encodes a 420MB video as H.265 and in Cinebench R23 multi-core. It additionally did extraordinarily nicely within the PCMark 10 Full benchmark that measures a mixture of productiveness, multimedia, and creativity duties.
Maybe most significantly, the Slim 7 Professional X did nicely within the PugetBench Premiere Professional benchmark that runs in a reside model of Adobe Premiere Professional and makes use of each the CPU and GPU, scoring 548 in balanced mode. The benchmark wouldn’t run once I used Lenovo’s utility to modify to efficiency mode (I’ve reported each leads to the opposite benchmarks), which is a bummer. However its rating was barely behind the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus that hit 569 in balanced mode. Each laptops featured the RTX 3050 GPU, so the distinction probably comes right down to Intel optimizations that pace up Adobe’s playback efficiency.
Total, the Slim 7 Professional X is a robust performer and may deal with essentially the most demanding productiveness workflows and fairly heavy artistic duties. That’s spectacular for a skinny laptop computer. There was some throttling, as anticipated, with the CPU heating as much as round 95 levels C and lowering frequencies, however that didn’t considerably influence the Slim 7 Professional X’s general efficiency.
| Geekbench (single / multi) |
Handbrake (seconds) |
Cinebench R23 (single / multi) |
PCMark 10 Full |
|
| Lenovo Slim 7 Professional X (Ryzen 9 6900HS) |
Bal: 1,493 / 8,914 Perf: 1,493 / 9,288 |
Bal: 99 Perf: 86 |
Bal: 1,552 / 12,139 Perf: 1,548 / 13,164 |
6,493 |
| Lenovo Slim 9i (Core i7-1280P) |
Bal: 1,720 / 10,115 Perf: 1,726 / 11,074 |
Bal: 114 Perf: 95 |
Bal: 1,795 / 9,467 Perf: 1,824 / 11,301 |
5,442 |
| Acer Swift 3 OLED (Core i7-12700H) |
Bal: 1,698 / 10,972 Perf: 1,708 / 11,287 |
Bal: 90 Perf: 85 |
Bal: 1,676 / 10,764 Perf: 1,715 / 11,069 |
4,983 |
| Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (Core i7-12700H) |
Bal: 1,671 / 10,898 Perf: 1,644 / 10,196 |
Bal: 117 Perf: 89 |
Bal: 1,718 / 8,997 Perf: 1,774 / 11,035 |
5,854 |
| Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED (Ryzen 7 6800U) |
Bal: 1,417 / 6,854 Perf: 1,404 / 7,223 |
Bal: 112 Perf: 111 |
Bal: 1,402 / 8,682 Perf: 1,409 / 8,860 |
5,647 |
Lenovo ships the Slim 7 Professional X with Nvidia’s Studio drivers, that are optimized for quick and dependable efficiency in purposes like Adobe’s Artistic Suite and AutoCAD quite than gaming. Even so, the laptop computer carried out nicely for an RTX 3050. It scored 4,057 within the 3DMark Time Spy take a look at, which jumped to 4,910 in efficiency mode, and it managed 46 frames per second (fps) in Fortnite at 1200p and epic graphics (58 fps in efficiency mode). These are strong showings for the GPU and promise competent 1080p gaming at cheap graphics settings in fashionable titles.
The skinny chassis additionally tends to restrict battery capability, though Lenovo managed to suit a good 70 watt-hours into the Slim 7 Professional X. Due to the superior effectivity of the Ryzen 9 CPU in comparison with Intel 45-watt chips, the Slim 7 Professional X was a pacesetter in battery life amongst our comparability group in all however our video take a look at. Even then, it was the 28-watt Core i7-1280P that beat it.
It’s not assured that you just’ll get a full day’s work out of the Slim 7 Professional X, however you’ll come nearer than with many different high-powered 14-inch laptops.
| Internet searching | Video | PCMark 10 Purposes |
|
| Lenovo Slim 7 Professional X (Ryzen 9 6900HS) |
7 hours, 49 minutes | 11 hours, half-hour | 9 hours, 11 minutes |
| Lenovo Slim 9i (Core i7-1280P) |
6 hours, 28 minutes | 12 hours, 36 minutes | 8 hours, 10 minutes |
| Acer Swift 3 OLED (Core i7-12700H) |
6 hours, 9 minutes | 7 hours, 23 minutes | 7 hours, 48 minutes |
| Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (Core i7-12700H) |
7 hours, 3 minutes | 9 hours, 29 minutes | 8 hours, 34 minutes |
| Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED (Ryzen 7 6800U) |
8 hours, 4 minutes | 13 hours, 13 minutes | N/A |
Efficiency isn’t every little thing
The Slim 7 Professional X isn’t only a skinny chassis wrapped round quick parts. In actual fact, even when it weren’t such a quick performer, it will nonetheless be a compelling machine (albeit a bit costly). I’ve talked about how skinny it’s, however it’s additionally gentle at 3.02 kilos. The Storm Grey aluminum chassis is inflexible with no bending, flexing, or twisting, making it almost equal to the exquisitely designed Lenovo Slim 9i. Its chassis edges are rounded, though not as comprehensively because the Slim 9i’s, whereas the sides alongside the show are additionally rounded. The Slim 7i Professional X is a beautiful laptop computer that’s additionally unusually comfy in hand.
Not every little thing is ideal with the Slim 7 Professional X design. For instance, the hinge wasn’t as clean as some, binding up because the lid was opened to about three-quarters and requiring a second hand to complete the motion. And the followers spun up and had been louder than you’ll discover on many comparable laptops. These are minor nitpicks, although.
The keyboard is spacious with massive, sculpted keycaps. I discovered the mechanism barely higher than the Slim 9i’s, with what felt like deeper journey and a crisper bottoming motion. Usually, I discovered it extra comfy than the Slim 9i’s, though nonetheless not in the identical class as HP’s Spectre or Dell’s XPS keyboards. The touchpad was massive, took up many of the palm relaxation house, and was exact with assured, quiet button clicks. The contact show on my evaluate unit was good to see.
For such a skinny laptop computer, the Slim 7 Professional X manages to supply strong connectivity. There are two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports (with out Thunderbolt 4 assist becauseto the AMD chipset), two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a full-size HDMI 2.0 port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Creators will miss an SD card reader, which is a big omission. Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 are a step behind, once more resulting from AMD.
I’ve observed a powerful uptick in display quality throughout many of the laptops I’ve reviewed over the past yr, a development that I famous on the finish of 2021 and that’s solely accelerated since then. Whereas applied sciences like OLED have made an incredible influence, the standard IPS show has additionally seen an across-the-board enchancment that’s been spectacular to observe unfold. The Slim 7 Professional X provides only one show choice in the mean time, a 14.5-inch 16:10 3K (3,072 x 1,920) IPS panel operating at a brisk 120Hz that makes the Home windows 11 person interface much more fluid.
The panel’s general high quality was spectacular, with loads of brightness, unimaginable distinction for an IPS show, and barely higher than common colour width. Shade accuracy was slightly off, however it was nonetheless adequate for all however skilled artistic work.
| Brightness (nits) |
Distinction | sRGB gamut | AdobeRGB gamut | Accuracy DeltaE (decrease is healthier) |
|
| Lenovo Slim 7 Professional X (IPS) |
446 | 1,800:1 | 100% | 78% | 1.96 |
| Lenovo Slim 9i (OLED) |
389 | 27,050:1 | 100% | 95% | 0.89 |
| Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (IPS) |
392 | 1,800:1 | 99% | 77% | 1.02 |
| HP Pavilion Plus 14 (OLED) |
398 | 27,830:1 | 100% | 95% | 0.78 |
| Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7i Professional (IPS) |
369 | 1,340:1 | 100% | 80% | 1.65 |
| Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon (OLED) |
397 | 27,590:1 | 100% | 96% | 0.88 |
Privateness and videoconferencing are strengths
Suppose you’re a heavy person of videoconferencing instruments like Zoom and Skype. In that case, you’ll respect the Slim 7 Professional X’s 1080p webcam with an digital privateness shutter activated by a change on the precise facet. The webcam provides a high-resolution picture with glorious lowlight assist and loads of element. The Lenovo lacks a few of the extra superior videoconferencing options like automated centering and such which might be supplied on another machines, however the high quality is nearly as good as you’ll discover.
There’s additionally an infrared digicam that permits Home windows 11 Hiya passwordless login assist, which was quick and dependable in my testing. Lenovo additionally included its clever sensing performance, together with Zero Contact Lock that turns off the show when the person leaves the realm and places the laptop computer to sleep, and Zero Contact Login that wakes it up and robotically logs in when the person returns. This sort of performance is turning into extra frequent on premium laptops, and it not solely affords higher privateness, however it additionally helps save battery life. As standard, the options labored so nicely that I needed to flip them off to conduct our suite of battery checks.
I’ll additionally point out some extra comfort options that fall underneath the “clever” label. Particular gestures are constructed into the touchpad, together with the flexibility to regulate show brightness and system quantity whereas scrolling up and down on both facet of the touchpad. A set of touchscreen gestures carry out comparable capabilities. These are small touches, however they assist make the Slim 7 Professional X extra usable.
One more strong 14-inch various
The Lenovo Slim 7 Professional X is an admirable performer with surprisingly good battery life and a strong construct. Whereas it’s not fairly as refined because the dearer Lenovo Slim 9i, it’s a thinner high-performance choice than laptops just like the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus and the Acer Swift 3 OLED. And it has a extra impressed design than each of these machines supply.
On the similar time, you’re definitely paying a premium worth for the Slim 7 Professional X. In case you don’t want the additional efficiency the GPU supplies although, you possibly can spend a whole lot much less and get equally compelling however slower laptops. However as at all times, it’s nice to have so many decisions on the planet of Home windows laptops, and the Slim 7 Professional X fills is a strong addition.
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