Laptop, Review

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon Quick Review: Lightweight, Sleek Productivity Laptop

For those who are always on the go, a thin and light productivity laptop would help greatly, and the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon is just that. With a 15mm chassis, this laptop tips the scales at only 966g. That’s right, it weighs less than 1kg, making it one of the lightest and most portable laptops in the market now.

Of course, that also means the Yoga Slim 7i Carbon demands a premium price tag. Retailing from RM4,399, it’s not exactly the most budget-friendly option. But for those who are willing to fork out that kind of money, you will get a very competent productivity laptop.

What It Is

Display13.3-inch QHD IPS (2560 x 1600)
ProcessorIntel Core i7-1165G7 (4C/8T, 2.8GHz with boost up to 4.7GHz)
GPUIntel Iris Xe Graphics
RAM16GB LPDDR4X 4266MHz
Storage1TB M.2 PCIe SSD
Camera720p (Windows Hello support)
Battery50Wh
Dimensions295.9 x 208.85 x 14.25-15 mm
Weight966g
AudioBottom-firing stereo speakers
Ports1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (DisplayPort, Power Delivery)
2x USB-C Thunderbolt 4 (DisplayPort, Power Delivery)
PriceRM5,399

For this review, we received the RM5,399 Core i7 variant of the Yoga Slim 7i Carbon. If you want the more affordable Core i5 model – this is the one that costs RM4,399 – it still has similar hardware, with the exception of the RAM and SSD capacities, which are reduced to 8GB and 512GB respectively.

The Good Stuff

Naturally, the lightweight nature of the Yoga Slim 7i Carbon is one of its best selling points. Lenovo managed to reduce the weight of this laptop to merely 966g thanks to the use of carbon fibre and magnesium alloy. Really, it’s surreal how light this laptop is. I can just slip it into my backpack and forget it’s even there.

Aside from that, the 13.3-inch QHD display of the Yoga Slim 7i Carbon is quite good as well; it can get quite bright with vibrant colours and wide viewing angles. The fact that it also has a 16:10 aspect ratio – along with slim bezels surrounding the screen – makes it ideal for any sort of productivity tasks. Compared to more conventional 16:9 panels, this aspect ratio offers more vertical screen real estate.

Throughout my time with the Yoga Slim 7i Carbon, never did I come across any performance issue either. The Core i7-1165G7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and fast 1TB SSD ensures that everything runs smoothly. Applications open in an instant, light photo editing is no issue at all, and I can even play Genshin Impact with the integrated Iris Xe graphics. The game does stutter occasionally, but it’s definitely playable at Full HD resolution.

And then we have one of the most important features of any productivity laptop: battery life. In this regard, the Yoga Slim 7i Carbon fares quite well. On average, I can get between six to seven hours of use before it runs out of juice. Reasonably good battery life for a laptop with a QHD screen and 50Wh battery.

As for the keyboard of the Yoga Slim 7i Carbon, it is…alright, though I imagine it won’t be to everyone’s liking. The thing is, the keyboard doesn’t offer much key travel, so you get a shallow typing experience. That being said, I absolutely love the very pronounced tactile feedback of the keys. The keyboard may feel shallow, but I can still type rather comfortably on it.

The trackpad, on the other hand, works as intended. It can track my fingers accurately, it can recognise gestures well, and I like the matte, almost rough-like surface of the trackpad. It’s not overly rough by any means, of course – my fingers can still glide effortlessly on the trackpad.

Another aspect of the Yoga Slim 7i Carbon that’s worth highlighting is its noise level. When I’m using it as my work laptop, the fans are rarely audible; they only ramp up when I start gaming on the laptop. Basically, it is whisper quiet outside of gaming.

The Bad Stuff

While the Yoga Slim 7i Carbon has quite a number of positives, there are some aspects of the laptop that could be better, like its selection of ports. Given the slim chassis, the Yoga only has three USB-C ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack. There are no full-size USB-A ports at all, so you have to rely on dongles if you need to connect any USB-A device.

Build quality of the Yoga Slim 7i Carbon is not its strong suit either. Although its lightweight nature is very impressive, the chassis also creaks with applied pressure. This gives the impression that this is not a particularly solid laptop, even though Lenovo says that it has been “rigorously tested for durability.”

Last but definitely not least is the asking price of the Yoga Slim 7i Carbon, especially for this range-topping RM5,399 model. Sure, the RM4,399 starting price is a little easier to swallow, but that’s still quite a lot of money. Granted, slim, lightweight productivity laptops like this don’t usually come cheap – you have to pay a premium for an equally premium product.

Is It Worth It?

Despite its rather steep asking price and limited connectivity options, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon is a very easy productivity laptop to recommend. Even more so if you want an absurdly lightweight laptop in a slim form factor with a sleek, minimalist design.

Beyond its lightweight nature, the Yoga Slim 7i Carbon also offers good performance, battery life, as well as a bright and vibrant QHD screen with a 16:10 aspect ratio. If all of these tick your boxes, this lightweight laptop will serve you very well.

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