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7.1 / 10 Score Cnet Score CNET provides expert, unbiased reviews of products and services. When we assign a score, we use a scale of 1-10. Each product we score is evaluated by criteria specific to its category with most assessing pricing, quality, features and performance. Read more on: How we test Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x Gen 11 $850 at Lenovo Pros Cons
The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x is a budget-friendly, 15-inch Copilot Plus PC built on the Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 platform. It's a machine aimed squarely at people who want long battery life, whisper-quiet operation and dependable everyday performance in a slender chassis. To hit its sub-$1,000 price, the IdeaPad Slim 5x features Qualcomm's entry-level Snapdragon X2 Plus chip and the minimum 16GB of RAM needed to meet Microsoft's definition of a Copilot Plus PC.
For a budget laptop, the IdeaPad Slim 5x does a lot right. It's a practical offering for a standard day at the office, including browsing, email, streaming and light productivity, and its Arm-based design helps keep it efficient and cool. What keeps it from being an easy recommendation for everyone is the same thing that holds back most Windows-on-Arm laptops: software compatibility remains a real consideration, at least in some specific use cases. And gaming performance is average at best from the integrated Qualcomm Adreno GPU.
The 15.3-inch display makes the IdeaPad Slim 5x a bit of a tweener, sandwiched between more commonplace 14- and 16-inch laptops. The Acer Aspire 16 AI offers a roomier 16-inch panel at a lower price and only a slightly heavier weight, and the HP OmniBook 5 14 is more compact and portable with its 14-inch display but offers even longer battery life. This trio of budget laptops features Snapdragon X series processors, but the IdeaPad Slim 5x has the advantage of being the newest of the three, and its Snapdragon X2 chip outpaces both the two older X1 machines.
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x Gen 11 Price as reviewed $850 Display size/resolution 15.3-inch 1,920x1,200 120Hz touchscreen IPS LCD CPU Snapdragon X2 Plus X2P-42-100 Memory 16GB LPDDR5X-9523 Graphics Qualcomm Adreno X2-45 Storage 512GB SSD Ports 2 x USB-C (10Gbps), 2 x USB-A (10Gbps), HDMI 2.1, microSD card slot, combo audio Networking Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooh 5.4 Operating system Windows 11 Home Arm64 Weight 3.1 pounds (1.4 kg)
The IdeaPad Slim 5x falls roughly in the middle of Lenovo's broader IdeaPad lineup, which includes options with AMD and Intel processors, as well as the 3x and 7x Snapdragon X-based series, sized between 14 and 16 inches. Some of the 7x SKUs include the more advanced Snapdragon X2 Elite rather than the X2 Plus, which this model is built around.
The IdeaPad Slim 5x starts at $850 at Lenovo. We tested this entry-level model, but Lenovo offers a handful of upgrades. You can double the RAM to 32GB for an eye-watering $290 (thanks, RAMageddon) and bump the storage up from 512GB to 1TB for an also hefty $150.
Matt Elliott/CNET
Two other upgrades are much more attainable, and we recommend both. It costs only $30 to swap out the basic 1,920x1,20-pixel, 120Hz IPS display for a 2.5K (2,560x1,600), 165Hz OLED panel. That's a no-brainer for the added pixels alone, to say nothing about the better contrast and faster refresh rate, unless you require a touchscreen. The IPS offers touch support; the OLED doesn't. You can also outfit the laptop with a bigger battery, going from a 54.7-watt-hour unit to 70 watt hours for just $10. The IdeaPad Slim 5x we tested offers great battery life, but more is always better.
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