Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7i Pro review: high screen, high performance

You must have been there. You’re buying a new computer, perhaps for the first time in years, and you’re bogged down by the specs. Even if you narrow down the list to include things like a certain amount of memory or screen size, you’ll be asking yourself the ever-present question: What’s the difference?

Often the difference becomes more apparent as the gap between prices widens. But what if you’re looking for a little extra fun without pushing the price point into luxury territory?

Of course, you get what you pay for, but the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7i Pro offers what you can get for its MSRP (currently ranging from $1,420 to $1,140 selling price), but you’ll be hard pressed to find one for less. than $1,300). It’s not overpriced compared to similarly sized competitors such as the Acer Swift 5 ($1,100 MSRP for the configuration we reviewed) or the 13-inch Dell XPS 13 ($1,250 with the closest specs to the IdeaPad we reviewed).).

Display: sharper, taller, faster

One of the main differentiators of the Slim 7i Pro is its screen. 14-inch (note there is a 15-inch version of this laptop) IPS panel has a sharper resolution, higher aspect ratio and higher refresh rate than the average thin and light laptop, making it a unique offering for one of the most popular laptops. basic ways of interacting with a computer.

The screen uses a 16:10 aspect ratio rather than the 16:9 aspect ratio more common (currently) among laptops. When used, the taller screen allowed me to fit more rows of tables and more paragraphs of the last submitted Ars article on the screen at the same time. It also contributes to a wackier resolution. The screen has a resolution of 2800 × 1800, which equates to a pixel density of 237.8 pixels per inch (ppi). A 14-inch 16:9 screen with a resolution of 1920 × 1080 will be 157.4 ppi.

To write this review, I side-by-side compared the IdeaPad to the Acer Swift 5, which has a 14-inch display with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. I was able to learn more about my progress on the Lenovo machine. Text was tiny but crisp, and there was still room in the Windows 11 settings to scale (up to about 150 percent), with more images on screen than I could see on Swift 5. Text on Lenovo seemed a little darker, and noticeably. sharper edges compared to Swift 5 at equal magnification.

Lenovo claims that the Slim 7i Pro’s touchscreen covers 100 percent of the sRGB color space and can reach a maximum brightness of 400 nits. By comparison, Swift 5 claims 100 percent sRGB and 340 nits. Despite a slight advantage, what really stood out during my side-by-side comparison was how reflective the Swift 5’s screen was. Meanwhile, the IdeaPad’s screen handled reflections better. The screen still looked bright when used outdoors. Both displays claim the same coverage, but everything looked brighter on the Lenovo. When watching movies, scenes looked more vibrant, with deeper orange hues, more rosy skin tones, and slightly more vibrant pinks, though both provided about the same amount of shadow detail.

It will be difficult for you to notice the difference between 60 and 90 Hz with your own eyes (for this I would recommend switching to at least 120 Hz). Again, what really made the IdeaPad’s screen head and shoulders above the standard were the vibrant colors, brightness, and quality that made movies and graphics in general look more alive. Of course, with all 16:9 content I’ve had to deal with large black bars, but I can get used to it.

The laptop supports Dolby Vision for HDR movies. Its pre-installed application has three modes: Dolby Vision Bright, which is installed by default, Dolby Vision Dark, and Dolby Vision Vivid. However, when I switched them while watching HDR movies, I didn’t notice any obvious difference.

Design

Lenovo calls the IdeaPad Slim 7i Pro in Slate Gray and says the body is made of aluminum. This machine has a more premium build that feels less plastic and more dense – at least to the hands – compared to other machines like the Swift 5. The lid is also slightly thicker than this laptop’s despite showing about the same amount of bending under forced action.

There’s a small notch for the camera, which Lenovo says should make it easier to open the computer with one hand. This rarely worked, even if the computer was on a flat surface like a table. Otherwise, the deck was still rattling until I shook off the lid.

Lenovo has graciously left out USB-A and a headphone/mic jack, but HDMI isn’t here. Instead, you get two Thunderbolt 4 ports that can charge a laptop, charge other devices, or connect to a display on the left side of the deck. It features a headphone jack and an always-on USB-A port on the right. There’s also a power button on the right side, which I don’t often see these days.

creepy webcam

Lenovo’s product page on the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7i Pro product says the machine uses “attention sensors”to send you alerts “when someone is surfing.”This feature is provided by Mirametrix’s pre-installed AI-powered Glance software. You cannot download the app from anywhere, such as the Microsoft Store. According to the Mirametrix website, its software is currently only licensed to Lenovo, LG, and NEC.

The app uses the laptop’s IR camera to track your eyes and head and shows you where it thinks you are in real time with a small pop-up window you can open (your head is a dot in a crosshair). If you’re using multiple monitors, Smart Pointer Glance detects which monitor your head is looking at and moves the mouse pointer to that screen, blurring the other monitor. This feature was also pretty accurate as long as I kept my head at my preferred distance from the webcam. Glance can also move a window from one monitor to another. If you hold a window with the mouse and then turn to look at another monitor, the window will immediately appear there.

Finally, Privacy Alert detects when someone is looking at your screen behind you and blurs the image in response. Sometimes, however, this happened when there was no one behind me, even if I was in Glance’s line of sight and motionless. The good news was that this only happened when a second monitor was connected to the laptop.

However, the Glance itself will give you a sense of privacy. It requires the webcam to be always on, as well as a red light on the left and a white light, which unfortunately doesn’t quite match the others. For many, this will be too much of a risk and distraction to keep the app running.

For those just looking for something for the occasional web call, the IdeaPad Slim 7i Pro has a 720p shooter. It’s not the sharpest, but it has accurate colors and only a slightly blurry, watercolor-like effect.