GoKawiilEven before I opened the Yoga Slim 7i, its light weight was noticeable. At first, I thought Lenovo sent me an empty box or a small tablet, not a premium 14-inch laptop. When I lifted the Yoga Slim out of its package, it still felt more like an iPad Pro than a notebook.
While Lenovo isn't the first company to deliver a premium laptop at that weight — I was also stunned the first time I held the ASUS ZenBook A14 — it's the first one I've encountered with an Intel chip. The Yoga Slim 7i is powered by Intel's Core Ultra 7 355, an eight-core chip meant for efficient-yet-powerful systems. That gives it a leg up over the A14, which uses a Snapdragon ARM chip that requires emulating older Windows apps and is also incapable of running some PC games.
The Yoga Slim 7i's magnesium alloy case also feels better than any Lenovo system I've tested before. It's smooth and warm to the touch, almost velvety, compared to cold aluminum cases on Apple's laptops. But despite feeling a bit soft, the case itself also feels very strong, with very little flex. The only hitch in the Yoga Slim 7i's design is a slight notch at the top of the screen, which houses its 5-megapixel camera and hardware for Windows Hello facial recognition. Personally, I think the notch gives the system a bit of character, and it also serves as a nice fingerhold when opening the case. But I also know plenty of consumers find any sort of notch to be an eyesore.
I don't think anyone will argue about the greatness of the Yoga Slim 7i Ultra's screen, though. It's a 14-inch POLED display — basically a version of OLED for lightweight devices — with a 2.8K resolution and up to 500 nits of SDR brightness and 1,100 nits of HDR. It also covers 100 percent of the SRGB and P3 color gamuts, making it accurate for photography and video production.
Devindra Hardawar for Engadget
The more I used the Yoga Slim 7i Ultra, the more impressed I was by Lenovo's thoughtful design. Its keyboard is wide and spaciously laid out, with a healthy amount of key travel. I'm used to ultra-thin computers feeling a bit weak and flimsy with my heavy typing fingers, but the Yoga Slim 7i held up like a champ. It's the sort of keyboard that feels like it's inviting you to write thousands of words every time you sit down. Its large haptic touchpad feels similarly inviting, with none of the frustrating input hiccups I've noticed on some premium Windows laptops.
I wish Lenovo tried a bit harder to include some functional ports, though. The Yoga Slim 7i Ultra has three Thunderbolt 4 USB-C connections — two on the left, one on the right — but that's it. There's no USB Type A or HDMI like ASUS often manages to squeeze in. Hell, there isn't even a headphone jack! I realize there are certain design demands on super-slim laptops, but at the very least, give us a headphone jack.
I get it. Lenovo wants a nice and clean Apple-esque aesthetic. But even Apple learned that its MacBook Pros needed more useful ports. And even the cheaper Air models have headphone jacks. That's more helpful than the Yoga's hardware switch for disabling the camera, which takes up useful space near the ports.