Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x review: A fantastic showcase of Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite hardware

Introduction

The concept of Arm-based Windows PCs is not new (remember Microsoft’s Surface RT?) but they have never quite taken off due to compatibility and performance limitations. Windows on Arm lacked support for many x86 applications, which limited their usefulness. Arm chips also could not compete with Intel and AMD processors in raw power.

But technology always advance at a quick pace, so when Qualcomm and Microsoft announced a partnership to power a new range of Copilot+ AI PCs, laptop manufacturers such as Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, ASUS – just to name a few – quickly jumped onto the bandwagon. Today, we take a look at one such laptop from Lenovo, the Yoga 7x.

The TL;DR version:



The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x's excellent build quality, strong day-to-day performance, and outstanding battery life makes this sub-$2,000 laptop all too easy to recommend.



Note: The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x is available at Lenovo's e-store, starting from S$1,830.

The Yoga Slim 7x is essentially Lenovo’s Snapdragon X series debut and comes paired with Qualcomm’s new Arm SoCs and a beautiful 14.5-inch OLED display housed in an incredibly svelte and premium-looking chassis. There’s certainly been a lot of hype about performance and battery life around the new generation of Windows on Arm laptops, and this fully spec-ed Yoga Slim 7x retailing for just shy of S$2,000 (our review unit has an SRP of S$1,955) certainly delivered in my opinion. Read on to find out my full thoughts. For those who are keen to know what the new Qualcomm processor is all about, here's our video primer to walk you through:-

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Jaw-dropping value

Despite its Yoga moniker, the Slim 7x comes in a standard laptop form factor and isn’t a 2-in-1 with a 360-degree hinge. The Yoga name has traditionally been Lenovo’s category of 2-in-1 convertibles, but in recent years the name has also included its standard models, like the Slim 7x. It can be confusing, so don’t be misled by the Yoga name now if you’re expecting a 2-in-1 laptop.

The base model of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x starts from $1,830, which comes with 16GB of DDR5 memory and 512GB SSD storage and quite frankly is good enough for the majority of people who use their laptops for office work and streaming shows off Netflix. For comparison, the same price will get you a 13-inch Apple Macbook Air with 512GB of SSD but with just 8GB of memory. It’s also worth mentioning that for those who need twice the storage and memory can do so for an additional $125 top-up, which will get you the same Yoga Slim 7x model used in my review.

Build-wise, the Yoga Slim 7x is easily one of the slimmest Yoga laptops that Lenovo has ever made at just 12.9mm thick and weighing 1.28kg. It also comes only in what Lenovo called Cosmic Blue, a dark metallic bluish hue that’s reminiscent of the MacBook Air’s own Midnight colour, and although I wish laptop makers would be bolder with their colour choices, the Slim 7x really looks classy and luxurious. Thanks to its professional-looking aluminium chassis with rounded edges, the Lenovo laptop could even be mistaken for a MacBook Air at a glance if not for what Lenovo calls a “communication bar” at the top of the laptop’s display. This little chunky notch essentially houses both the webcam and IR camera, allowing Lenovo to shrink the bezel around the screen.

Overall, the Yoga Slim 7x is an impressively built laptop. It’s nice, light and I like that it feels solid and does not flex at all. The cherry on top is that the Slim 7x is also tested to MIL-STD 810H military-grade standards, giving the added assurance that the laptop is sturdy and durable too.

But the true star of the show here is the Slim 7x’s OLED display. It’s 14.5-inches large with a resolution of 2944 x 1840 pixels with a 16:10 aspect ratio, comes with a respectable 90Hz refresh rate and it’s even a touch screen. OLED is truly the way to go now from 2024 and beyond for laptops as you get deep dark blacks and vivid colours. But Lenovo didn’t stop there. The Slim 7x’s display also supports 100% of the sRGB/P3 colour gamut, a Delta E < 1 colour accuracy and even Dolby Vision. It's a fantastic and high-end display at any price point, let alone in a sub-$2k laptop, which is incredible value, really.

The keyboard and touchpad are also excellent. The Lenovo keyboard layout is sensible and the 1.5mm deep keypads are a delight to type on. I can’t fault the touchpad either, as it’s smooth to touch thanks to its glass surface, is accurate and responsive to even the slightest moves. There’s also a dedicated Copilot key now, a requirement for all Windows Copilot+ PCs, and while it wasn’t that helpful for me in my limited time with the Slim 7x, some users might find the quick access to personalised AI assistance a useful convenience.

Connectivity-wise is where the Yoga Slim 7x could be divisive. If you’re all-in on USB-C, then you’ll be pleased to know that the laptop comes with three such ports. All three are full-function ports too, supporting USB 4, power delivery 3.1 and DisplayPort 1.4. But that’s it: There’s no USB-A port, no audio jack, and not even a microSD card reader. Remember I mentioned earlier how it was so easy to mistake the Slim 7x for a MacBook Air?

In any case, if those missing I/O ports matter to you then there are certainly other Snapdragon X Elite-powered options to consider – such as the larger ASUS Vivobook S 15 (our review coming up shortly) which comes with USB-A, HDMI out and even a microSD card reader.

Oh, the Yoga Slim 7x comes with the latest Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 hardware too, although I don’t have a Wi-Fi 7 network to test with yet.

Performance review

At the heart of it all is Qualcomm’s flagship Arm-based Snapdragon X Elite platform. Powering the Yoga Slim 7x is a 12-core X1E78100 processor that runs up to 3.4GHz, with an integrated Adreno X1-85 GPU to handle graphics workloads and light gaming. But power is only one part of what Qualcomm promises with the new generation of Windows Copilot+ laptops. What makes these new laptops standout, the company says, is the “incredible” all-day battery life without sacrificing power. Let’s find out.

Office productivity and battery life

There aren’t many tools that we can use to benchmark the Slim 7x with, as most of our regular benchmarks are not natively compatible with the Arm architecture. But I was able to test out the Yoga Slim 7x’s performance in real-world office workloads and battery life using UL’s Procyon Office Productivity, which is the only benchmark that can be used across all Snapdragon, AMD and Intel-based PCs and compare their performances.

There’s just one caveat to take note of: This is the first time we are using Procyon Office Productivity to test a laptop, so apart from the ASUS Vivobook S 16 OLED (thank you for the loan, ASUS) there isn’t any other laptops that we can compare the Slim 7x with here because all laptops are returned to their respective brands after we finished reviewing them. As we review more Snapdragon X Elite, AMD Ryzen AI 300 series and Intel Lunar Lake laptops in the coming weeks and months, expect our results database to expand.

Nonetheless, even with not much in the way of comparisons we can clearly see that the Yoga Slim 7x, and by extension the Snapdragon X Elite platform, does indeed live up to its promises of performance and battery life when compared to a mainstream workhorse like the Vivobook S 16 OLED.

To put the eye-popping battery life results into real-life contexts, you could literally work non-stop on your decks or articles on the Slim 7x on a Singapore Airlines 15-hour direct flight to Los Angeles non-stop. Or watch videos on a 12-hour flight to Paris, non-stop. Not even my Apple Macbook Air (M2) could sustain that kind of battery usage.

Content Creation

Content creation tasks such as transcoding a 4.7GB video file may be better done on PCs with a discreet GPU, but the Slim 7x does a decent job – 14 minutes is not too bad, really. It’s not as fast as the Vivobook S 16 OLED with an AMD Ryzen 8945HS processor, but hey it’s faster than the Macbook Air (M3).

It’s also worth noting that during all these tests, the Yoga Slim 7x barely squeaks – it’s almost silent.

Making the case for a Snapdragon X Elite laptop

There are two key points to consider here. First, from a purely technical perspective, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x is a remarkable laptop. It excels in day-to-day tasks such as office work, web browsing, and light content creation like photo editing in Lightroom. It delivers impressive battery life without compromising performance, thanks to the energy efficiency of the Snapdragon X Elite platform, even with its high-resolution OLED display.

However, it’s not without flaws. The absence of a USB-A port, audio jack, and microSD card reader might be a drawback for some. Additionally, gaming isn’t its strong suit, with Shadow of the Tomb Raider running at just 25fps at Medium settings, though it’s unlikely that users of this laptop would be seeking a serious gaming machine.

The second point is that if you’re interested in Snapdragon X series Copilot+ PCs like this Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x, you should be aware that some of your favourite apps might not be compatible. For instance, at the time of writing, the Google Drive app doesn’t work, meaning you can’t sync or back up your content from the Slim 7x or any other Snapdragon X series laptop. Game compatibility also isn’t perfect.

You can check Qualcomm’s website for a list of apps – whether natively supported or via Prism – that run on these laptops. That said, the same list shows that many popular productivity and creative apps, such as Office 365, Adobe Photoshop, and even Premiere Pro, do work. It’s a balance you’ll need to evaluate for yourself. Still, I’m impressed by the Yoga Slim 7x’s excellent build quality (which exceeds expectations for its price), strong day-to-day performance, and outstanding battery life. The fact that it’s a sub-$2,000 laptop makes it all the more impressive.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x is available from S$1,830 and can be purchased at Lenovo's e-store here.

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