Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 assessment: Highly effective however inconsistent

Greatest Costs As we speak: Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 is a mid-range, thin-and-light laptop computer constructed round Qualcomm’s newest Snapdragon X2 chips. It’s meant to be a smooth, trendy machine with ample efficiency and effectivity. Beginning at $1,199 and reaching $1,849 in our check configuration, it’s competitively priced, particularly when in comparison with alternate options like Dell’s XPS 14. 

The primary technology of Snapdragon X laptops made a robust impression, providing severe efficiency and effectivity. However they weren’t with out points. This time round, the {hardware} nonetheless has to show itself in opposition to steadily advancing competitors.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11: Specs and options

• CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E-88-100
• Reminiscence: 32GB LPDDR5X-9523
• Graphics/GPU: Qualcomm Adreno X2-90
• Show: 14-inch 1920×1200 OLED touchscreen, 60Hz
• Storage: 1TB PCIe 4.0 – Micron MTFDKCD1T0QHK-1BQ1AABLA
• Webcam: 9.2MP + IR
• Connectivity: 3x USB4 with Energy Supply and DisplayPort 1.4
• Networking: WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
• Biometrics: Home windows Hey facial recognition
• Battery capability: 70 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 12.28 x 8.7 x 0.55 inches
• Weight: 2.78 kilos
• MSRP: $1,849 as-tested ($1,199 base)

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 is available in a handful of configurations starting from $1,199 to start out and as much as $1,899 on the excessive finish. Configurations begin out with a Snapdragon X2 Plus X2P-42-100 with 16GB of reminiscence and 512GB of storage. Our check configuration is obtainable from Greatest Purchase and sits close to the highest of the stack with a Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E-88-100 processor, 32GB of reminiscence, and 1TB of storage.

However its 1920×1200 OLED touchscreen isn’t fairly the height and truly makes it a disappointing worth subsequent to Lenovo’s personal providing, which has the identical configuration however bumps to a 2880×1800 OLED touchscreen with a boosted 120Hz refresh fee whereas solely elevating the worth to $1,899. 

Lenovo additionally gives customized configurations, providing you with the selection of the 2 shows and CPUs talked about above in addition to a variety between 16 or 32GB of reminiscence and 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB of storage. In an uncommon flip, the customized configuration pricing traces up neatly with that of pre-configured choices. And you’ll combine and match as you want, so for those who want efficiency and don’t care a lot about show, you’ll be able to go for a high-end CPU with out the top-tier display screen. Or if you’d like an leisure machine, you’ll be able to go for the high-end show whereas holding the remainder of the specs extra primary. You may as well get our configuration for $10 lower than at Greatest Purchase.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11: Design and construct high quality

Foundry / Mark Knapp

Lenovo has made probably the most of its inside {hardware} to make the exterior {hardware} smooth. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 is impressively skinny at simply 0.55 inches and weighs a decent 2.78 kilos. It’s not probably the most spectacular laptop computer on the market for these attributes, nevertheless it’s not dangerous, particularly for the form of efficiency it goals to supply.

Even with that svelte construct, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 feels strong. Keyboard deck flex is minimal, and the show doesn’t bend all that a lot both. The show hinge is a bit wiggly after making any shift, however holds regular whereas typing. It’s unfastened sufficient to virtually enable for a {smooth}, one-handed open that’s made all the better because of a small lip on the high edge, however the hinge sticks a bit and might carry the bottom up when it will get to about 90 levels, so it’s not fairly an ideal one-hander. 

The look of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 is inconspicuous. It is available in a cool, darkish blue and focuses on {smooth} curves. It options speaker grilles on both aspect of the keyboard, although sound appears to return out pretty evenly between these grilles and slits on the underside. The underside has a big grille for air consumption via the system’s two cooling followers, which exhaust out the again edge. It’s a reasonably tight squeeze for the new air exhausting previous the show hinge, however a protracted rubber foot within the again at the very least avoids letting that heated air re-enter the laptop computer’s followers. 

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 has a premium development with a metallic chassis and glass show. About the one place you’ll really feel plastic is the keyboard, an influence button and digicam kill swap on the suitable fringe of the bottom, and a slim ring that borders the display screen.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11: Keyboard, trackpad

Foundry / Mark Knapp

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11’s interface is strong. The keyboard has a pleasant clicky high quality, with a mild chatter whereas typing. The keycaps are properly stabilized and have a pleasant dish that helps information my fingers to the middle extra constantly. I discover them a bit agency to press which might make for some failed faucets, however usually it’s responsive.

I used to be in a position to attain a passable 120 words-per-minute at 98 % accuracy in Monkeytype with some concerted effort, however usually fell nearer to 110-115 WPM whereas typing extra casually. The keyboard options cramped little arrow keys, as is widespread on this format, sadly. And although it tries to group its perform keys into teams of 4 to assist with feeling them out, the distinction in gaps isn’t important sufficient to simply really feel.

The trackpad is nice. It’s splendidly vast for a laptop computer this dimension and has a pleasantly {smooth} floor that my fingers glide throughout with ease. Urgent it comes with a pointy bodily click on that feels nice, too. There’s nothing significantly particular about it past that, nevertheless it nails the basics. 

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11: Show, audio

Foundry / Mark Knapp

Whereas some configurations of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 include a higher-end show, our check configuration is at the very least respectable. It packs a poignant and colourful OLED panel that fortunately hit 405 nits, 100% protection of the DCI-P3 coloration area, and an infinite distinction ratio with good black ranges. It additionally has a powerful coloration accuracy measured at a max dE1976 of 1.56, making this a show you may readily do skilled work on.

The downsides of the display screen are that its 1920×1200 decision isn’t as crisp because the 2880×1800 panels which might be broadly out there on this format. The display screen additionally tops out at 60Hz, so ultra-smooth visuals are a bust. The touchscreen could be very responsive.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 options 4 audio system organized into tweeter and woofer pairs. These mix pretty properly for a fuller sound. Critical bass depth is absent, however there’s at the very least sufficient depth to present some fullness to music and movies. The higher finish has a strong ring to it and isn’t too harsh whereas cranking at full quantity. The entire system outputs loads of quantity. 

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

The webcam on the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 is strong. It gives facial recognition for fast and handy log-ins. It’s additionally high-resolution, and it reveals. In a check recording, the image was clear and detailed. It might battle with some softness and noise with out ample lighting, however as quickly as I hit my face with a bit of additional mild, the image high quality was about pretty much as good as I’ve seen from a laptop computer’s built-in webcam. 

The microphone isn’t fairly as spectacular. It captures my voice properly sufficient, however with some room echo making my sound a bit distant. It at the very least manages to cancel out primary background noises, like a loud fan working close by and my fingers snapping along side the laptop computer. 

The webcam killswitch on the aspect of the pc works instantaneously, chopping the feed from the digicam. However, it doesn’t flip off the microphone. You’ll discover a separate swap for that baked in as a secondary perform on the F4 key.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11: Connectivity

Foundry / Mark Knapp

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 gives blended connectivity. On the one hand, it has some high-bandwidth wired choices with three USB4 ports providing energy enter and show output. These ports are break up up with two on the left aspect and one on the suitable, offering some flexibility on the way you join the laptop computer to exterior units. However that’s all of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 gives. There’s not even a headphone jack. That’s a little bit of a disappointing trade-off, as inclusion of additional ports certainly wouldn’t have added practically as a lot weight or bulk to the laptop computer in a backpack as a dongle will.

Wi-fi connectivity is powerful at the very least with Wi-Fi 7 for top speeds and stability. Bluetooth 5.4 has the system lagging behind the most recent trade normal, however the system has been at the very least dependable in its Bluetooth connections. 

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11: Efficiency

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 tells an fascinating story in the case of efficiency. It has some nice facets, however others that go away a bitter style. For one factor, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 merely gained’t run all the pieces below the solar due to its ARM structure. There’s rather a lot it will possibly nonetheless handle with emulation, however certainly one of our main efficiency benchmarks, PCMark 10, isn’t certainly one of them. Usually workplace efficiency has been superb in follow, and the system runs on quick storage that makes good use of the PCIe 4.0×4 bandwidth.

However there are events the place the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 additionally falls confusingly quick. I discovered it constantly struggles with fullscreen playback on YouTube. It wasn’t simply demanding streams both, like a 1080p60 video set to run at 2x playback pace. Even working a video at 480p bumped into points. There was a number of hitching throughout playback.

It additionally locked up oddly a number of instances, refusing to permit the keyboard to work and seeming to freeze Home windows in such a means that I couldn’t right-click on the taskbar to open up job supervisor and see if it was a reminiscence challenge (one thing that appears unlikely given the comparatively few tabs I had open for a 32GB system). This occurred a number of instances, so it wasn’t a easy one-off. I needed to put the pc to sleep and wake it again as much as resolve the problem every time — why that labored, I have no idea. 

Hitches are unusual, because the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 is definitely surprisingly high-performing.

In Cinebench R24, we are able to see simply the form of heights the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 is able to with its Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E-88-100. In multi-core efficiency, it blows even the Intel Core Extremely X7 358H and AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 out of the water. Its single-core efficiency is analogous spectacular with 150 factors, placing it forward of the opposite programs by margin. In actual fact, virtually nothing we’ve examined can scratch its single-core efficiency.

However Cinebench R24 additionally lets us see one thing essential: the influence of emulation. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11’s excessive scores include the ARM model of Cinebench R24, however the system is able to working the x86 model via emulation and in that means its efficiency drops precipitously. It solely narrowly beats the MSI Status Flip 14 AI+ (and solely does so as a result of MSI’s default energy plan hampers efficiency significantly), whereas falling behind the Dell XPS 14 and Acer Swift X 14 AI on current Intel and AMD chips, respectively. 

That shift in efficiency can harm the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 when it comes time to deal with loads of duties that don’t have native ARM help. Our Handbrake encoding benchmark, for example, sees the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 once more fall properly behind Dell’s and Acer’s programs, and the MSI Status Flip 14 AI+ seemingly would additionally lead it with a higher-performance energy plan.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 additionally has some additional pace in reserve if it’s converted to a Efficiency energy plan, nevertheless it’s not very dramatic. It’s a disgrace too, as a result of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 in any other case has confirmed fairly able to sturdy maintain in heavy workloads, however its encoding time in Handbrake merely stretches on as a result of its emulation efficiency isn’t so spectacular.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 could have graphics that provide a major uplift over the prior technology, nevertheless it’s not sufficient to catch Intel’s important strides nor come near discrete graphics. In 3DMark’s Evening Raid check, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 practically retains up on the again of its CPU efficiency however nonetheless doesn’t get out forward by a lot. 3DMark’s Time Spy check is extra graphically demanding and sees the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 fall properly behind even with sturdy CPU efficiency. It lags behind even the earlier Intel Arc technology, which leapt dramatically with the brand new Intel Arc B390. 

All this places the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 in a tricky spot the place efficiency is anxious. It’s a superb workplace machine usually, however it might not all the time be distinctive relying in your software program, and it has proven some bizarre hitches. And even with the few efficiency leads it will possibly snag, its rivals are nonetheless sturdy sufficient to be truthful alternate options that additionally don’t have emulation struggles.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11: Battery life

When Qualcomm first launched its Snapdragon X chips for PC, effectivity was one of many massive guarantees with the PCs meant to catch as much as Apple’s laptops. Whereas I’ve seen that work out earlier than — in a Lenovo system, no much less — it doesn’t pan out right here. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 has a decently massive 70Wh battery, nevertheless it doesn’t ship beautiful battery life. Our offline video playback check noticed the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 run for a bit over 21 hours. That’s good, however loads of programs are hitting round that stage. 

This stage of efficiency doesn’t even meet the excessive mark set by the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 at 23.5 hours, which seemingly edged it out with a battery-saving show. However what’s worse is that the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11’s clearly not getting an edge from choosing Snapdragon {hardware}. The MSI Status Flip 14 AI+ blew the lid off battery life efficiency with a virtually 34.5-hour runtime, and it has an OLED touchscreen very similar to the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11’s whereas being no slouch performance-wise both. 

And this offline video playback isn’t the top of the story. In follow, I discovered the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11’s battery drains at a extra typical tempo. For my regular workplace workloads, it was on observe for 8-10 hours of runtime. Battery Saver kicking in slowed the decline to assist it stretch out, nevertheless it wasn’t trying like it could do anyplace shut to twenty+ hours.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11: Conclusion

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 is an effective pc, nevertheless it’s in a troubling place. It’s pretty costly, and that value appears to be constructed on the premise the Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E-88-100 chip inside units it above the pack. Whereas there are occasional glimmers of nice efficiency from the chip, there are as many instances the place it merely doesn’t sustain, and there can be instances the place it gained’t work in any respect. High that every one off with battery life that’s simply on par with the competitors usually, and the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 merely doesn’t stand out too properly.

It’s properly constructed, has a top quality show, and superb audio system, however so do lots of its rivals. And with the most recent batch of Intel chips providing some beautiful graphics efficiency and effectivity, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 isn’t fairly a winner. That’s true of our configuration, anyway. Of us after a slick machine with a fantastic show can get truthful worth by choosing the lower-tier chip and upper-tier show in Lenovo’s configurator.