Slim 7x Review: I Ditched My MacBook for This

[00:02] huge splash with the launch of their Snapdragon chips for laptops. They promised to do for Windows laptops what Apple's M series did for theirs, giving you long battery life while eliminating annoyances like heat and fan noise. Of

[00:15] that first batch of laptops, the Yoga Slim 7X was the best. It had a stunning 14.5-in OLED display. It performed really well, in fact the best of any of them that we tested, and it lasted the longest when unplugged. So, when this

[00:29] new one came out with Qualcomm's awesome new X to Elite chip, I just immediately bought it. In fact, I switched to this as my daily driver for the last month or so, and I have to say I've really enjoyed using it. It's definitely better

[00:42] for my use case than the MacBook Air, but it is not for everyone. So, let's through the pros and the cons of this new laptop, and of course who should buy it. This year, the Slim 7X is a little smaller than the original model. That's

[00:55] because it now has a 14-in display where it used to have a 14.5. I'm actually a little disappointed by this. I thought that 14.5-in panel really made the Slim 7X quite unique and special. Having that much screen real

[01:08] estate in a thin and portable laptop made it really stand out. Now, on the measurements, which is a good thing. It's a vibrant OLED screen that gets very bright at over 500 nits. It has excellent color accuracy, a fast refresh

[01:22] rate, it supports touch, and it has a high resolution. So, small text it's detect a slight screen door effect, which is common on OLED touch screens, you're looking closely at white colored content, and you can see some colored

[01:36] pixels peeping through. As I said, I didn't find it an issue when I was using this laptop. On other things that I didn't find an issue, I did detect PWM brightness, which again, it's common on OLED panels, but it didn't bother me at

[01:49] The one thing I did notice though is that the screen is very glossy. Given compensate for the screen's reflections in most environments, but I really think that Lenovo need to switch to a better anti-reflective coating. Now, before I

[02:04] configurations of this laptop come with the same screen as ours. There is a the cheaper models. Small text, of course, is not going to look as crisp on that display. The keyboard, it is noticeably a standout. It is so much

[02:19] more satisfying to use than most laptops that we test. There is ample key travel layout is also standard, so I didn't mispress keys. Guys, Lenovo is really keyboard comfort, and it really shows here. Where they don't do well, though,

[02:35] is the keyboard's backlight. More light escapes around the keys than what comes when you look at the keyboard from a diagonal position, which is what you do when you're using a laptop. What adds to this is the auto brightness setting that

[02:49] it isn't needed. It doesn't work at all. It just left the backlight on. Over to the trackpad. It is much improved this year. Yay! The original Slim 7 X, guys, it was really held back by its cheap-feeling trackpad. It would have

[03:03] been the outright king of Qualcomm laptops if it had a better trackpad. Well, this year's is much improved. It is still mechanical, but it is close to as good as a MacBook's haptic trackpad. Not quite there, but it is close.

[03:16] think it looks nice enough in its dark blue color, but not amazing, and it does well-built with minimal keyboard deck doesn't feel quite as well-built as a MacBook. Let me give you an example.

[03:31] bottom of the laptop, you can clearly feel that the back panel it just isn't flush against the rest of the machine. That doesn't happen on a MacBook. Also, this new 7 X, it isn't as light as I would have hoped, especially given it

[03:44] weighs around the same as the older model. Lenovo's own Yoga Slim 7i i which is their more premium version that has an Intel chip. It is much lighter with the same size screen. Also, if anyone cares, you can't open this laptop with

[03:58] one hand, the hinge is too stiff. On this note, it is a touchscreen laptop. I thing. Now, one area of the laptop that you may be concerned about is the ports. There are just three USB 4 ports, no USB

[04:11] There are just three USB 4 ports, no USB A, no headphone mic combo jack, no HDMI. I had no problems with this at all. I use Bluetooth earphones and I'll link the ones that I use down below. I also don't need USB A for my mouse. This

[04:23] laptop's trackpad is good enough. In fact, I really like that one port is on either side, which I find very convenient. So, few laptops allow me to do this and I really like it. Plus, all these ports are super fast. By the way,

[04:37] side, so you may accidentally mispress it when you're gripping the laptop. You do have to hold it down for a while for it to register and I never had a problem with it, but Seth said he did. Lenovo, just put the power button above the

[04:51] keyboard. Seriously. All right, sound from the speakers, definitely not the muddy and it definitely lacks bass. Take a listen. a listen. >> [music]

[05:21] 7 X's 1440 webcam. I am in excellent studio lighting conditions here, so this now, here's what I look like in dimmer room lights, very grainy, not great. All right, so I said this laptop's CPU was awesome and it's time I showed you why.

[05:35] This laptop can come with a couple of different Qualcomm CPUs. We have the highest in skew with the 18-core X 2 Elite 88100 chip. Yay for terrible product naming. But do keep in mind, the other processors, they aren't going to

[05:47] perform as good as ours. We are going to get some of those cheaper models in with for our reviews on them. Anyway, my unit performs phenomenally well in CPU tasks. In Geekbench, this little laptop beats out the MacBook Pro

[06:01] 14 with a base M5 chip. That's in multi-core, it falls a little bit behind in single-core. Compared to Windows alternatives with Intel and AMD processors, this Qualcomm chip it beats them. In Cinebench, which tests the

[06:13] laptop when pushed to its limits, this Slim X it smashes the MacBook Pro 14 with a 10-core M5 chip, as well as what Intel and AMD have in their comparable laptops. When we look at power efficiency though, it's an even bigger

[06:26] win for this laptop. The Slim 7X drew less power than the MacBook Pro 14, substantially less than Intel and AMD's chips, yet as I showed you it beats Take a look at our power efficiency scatter plot. The three orange dots

[06:40] joined by a line, they represent this laptop running on each of its three want to see here is much performance as possible for as little power as This laptop is really in a league of its own in terms of performance and power

[06:54] efficiency, at least for its weight and price. So, bravo Qualcomm and Lenovo. Now, a more power efficient processor it tends to mean less heat you feel, less fan noise, and better battery life. For my day-to-day use, just office apps, web

[07:07] browsing, that sort of thing, this laptop was dead silent at all times and it never felt warm to the touch. Under a 10-minute CPU torture test, you can see that this laptop it does get a bit warm, but it's really not that bad. It's way

[07:20] couple of degrees cooler than the original Slim 7X. This new one it did have some fan noise during that torture test, but guys, anything under 50 decibels it's pretty good. Battery life is also fantastic on this laptop.

[07:34] Seriously, I took it on a 4 and 1/2 hour flight. Now, after using it the entire flight. Now, after using it the entire time, I had 60% remaining. This lines up with a whopping 10 and 1/2 hours it scored in our battery drain test. And by

[07:47] others that I've seen out there. We don't just play videos on loops with the screen very dim. Instead, we have the laptop perform office tasks, and we keep of brightness. Folks, just as some context here, this

[08:01] laptop lasts longer than the MacBook Pro 14 with a base M5 chip. And by the way, that is the best configuration of the MacBook Pro 14 for battery life. The only laptop that beats this one substantially is Dell's XPS 14, but that

[08:14] laptop, it just doesn't perform nearly as well. Now, talking of performance, unplug this laptop. It can still perform at its max. One thing I do want to tell this laptop, it does change its screen brightness based on the content you're

[08:29] looking at, and it is really annoying. Just go into Windows brightness settings and turn this off. So, for the most part, everything looks fantastic with this laptop, but it's time to talk about the not-so-good things. Let's start with

[08:41] the integrated GPU. The X290 in this laptop is just not the strongest performer. It's a little behind Apple's M5 Pro 10-core. It is well behind Intel's P390, and it is way behind laptops with an Nvidia GPU, which you

[08:54] can absolutely find at this price point. Look, something like photo editing, it's totally fine on this laptop, but at this price point, if gaming or say doing that's a priority for you, just buy something else. The next issue is

[09:08] application compatibility. We tested tons of specialist applications on these Qualcomm laptops. I'm going to link that video down below, but to sum up, Qualcomm processors, they use the ARM architecture. They require a different

[09:21] version of Windows. So, even if an app, it looks like it runs on Windows, it may not run on this version of Windows or may not run well. Premiere Pro, it runs natively, but our benchmark software, it wouldn't run.

[09:33] When doing a render in Blender, it used the CPU instead of the GPU, making it very slow. LM Studio had a similar problem. The GPU wasn't available to it. emulation like Counter-Strike, but others didn't. My personal favorite

[09:48] game, and the one I spend way too much time on, League of Legends, it wouldn't run at all. My DJ software, it ran, but it couldn't detect my DJ controller, making it completely useless. Our 2.5 gig ethernet adapter, it wouldn't work,

[10:01] even though our 1 gig adapter worked. Android Studio, it did run through itself, it didn't work. followed all the instructions out there. And big thanks, by the way, to our Linux

[10:14] backers on Patreon and YouTube. It's your generous support that has enabled us to do extensive Linux testing. Link down below if you want to help out, too. Look, overall, if you're sticking to basic office tasks, web browsing,

[10:26] communication software, that sort of thing, this laptop is fantastic. I really enjoyed using it. However, if you plan to do more on your laptop, you need to do your research to see if what you want to run will work.

[10:38] time I filmed this video, this laptop, it ranged from a bit over a thousand that lower resolution 60 hertz display, to around a thousand six hundred dollars Comparing the base Slim 7X to the MacBook Air, which costs around nine

[10:53] similar user, the Slim 7X has a more vibrant OLED display. It has a better keyboard and longer battery life. The Mac screen, though, it is brighter, and it has a higher resolution, even though it's not an OLED. The Mac also feels

[11:06] think these are kind of similar in the value they bring. I'd say the Slim 7X, therefore, is competitively priced. When it comes to my model, it is definitely comparison would be the MacBook Pro 14.

[11:20] That's the one with a 10 core M5 chip. Compared to that laptop, my Slim 7X is more powerful. It has a more comfortable keyboard. It is lighter, and it has 32 gig of memory. The MacBook Pro, it has a larger display, more ports, and better

[11:32] app compatibility, which is weird I'm saying that, but it's true. Given my Slim 7x is $1,600, like I said, I think it's a fair buy. But before you buy any laptop, make sure to check out our website bestlaptop.deals.

[11:47] Over there, we track prices right across retailers, so you'll be able to tell where to go to get the best deal. And is now a good time to buy? Because sales change, they come and go. If you are planning to use specialized applications

[11:59] or do gaming, over there you'll find the laptops we recommend for you. I'm creators, for gamers, and of course programmers. Let me know with a comment with that said, go have a wonderful rest of your day, and I will catch you later.