Lenovo’s Yoga Slim 7x Dishes Out Good Performance for a Reasonable Price
Performance is strictly middle-of-the-road, and the Yoga Slim 7x turned in average scores among the five Copilot+ PCs I’ve tested to date, on both general CPU-intensive applications and graphics-heavy tests, though I did achieve an oddly outlying high score on the Cinebench 2024 image-rendering benchmark I couldn’t readily explain. A curious result, but I won’t shrug at unexpectedly great performance, however fleeting it is.
At the risk of repeating myself yet again, remember that Snapdragon-based computers still have compatibility issues and won’t run every app; if you need the basics—web browser, Microsoft Office, Minesweeper—this won’t be a big deal, but power users are already running into roadblocks with some of their most essential pieces of software.
The laptop’s battery life, in keeping with other Copilot+ PC units, is exemplary. Its score of 15 hours and 36 minutes on a full-screen YouTube test was second only to the Surface Pro’s 17 hours and 20 minutes, and just ahead of the 15 hours I achieved on the HP EliteBook Ultra G1q. Audio quality is fine but short of stellar; in a larger room, it won’t be sufficient for movie night.
The hands-on experience with the laptop is solid. The 14.5-inch screen is an oddball size, but it gives the laptop a bit more roominess without feeling overly large. The keyboard has that classic Lenovo snap, with well-spaced keys and a light powder coating on the keycaps that gives them a pleasant feel on the fingertips. The touchpad is spacious without being garishly large, and I rarely hit it with a palm while typing.
Photograph: Christopher Null
There is one downside to the Slim 7x, and it’s kind of a big one: The fan runs even under moderate loads, and it’s loud—by far the loudest Copilot+ PC I’ve tested to date. The new Snapdragon chipset is supposed to veritably sip power, which is why it enables such impressive battery life, so a bruisingly loud fan is a surprise here. It’s an unfortunate eyesore (earsore?) in what is otherwise an impressive package.
Making up for that and any other defects is the price. At $1,200, the Yoga Slim 7x is the cheapest of the Copilot+ PCs I’ve tested to date, and dollar for dollar it’s got the best price-to-performance ratio of any of the lot, regardless of what metric you’re looking at (raw performance or battery life). If you’re seeking a flashy, head-turning experience, best-in-class power, or room-filling multimedia system, this probably isn’t your best choice. But if you want an all-around solid utility player at a reasonable price (and you’re sold on Snapdragon), you can’t go wrong.
