GoKawiilLenovo's IdeaPad family often gets overlooked in favor of its Yoga, ThinkBook and ThinkPad lines. That might change this fall with the IdeaPad Vibe, which is the company's take on an affordable productivity laptop to rival systems like the MacBook Neo and Dell XPS 13.
Starting at just $700, the IdeaPad Vibe is very budget-friendly and will come in an assortment of brightly colored metal chassis with seemingly Gen Z-inspired names, such as dreamy violet, spicy gold, zen green, chill blue, radiant coral, moody blue and lowkey gray. However, unlike the MacBook Neo, the Vibe offers much more customization, including the option to select either a Qualcomm Snapdragon X processor or one of AMD's Ryzen AI 400 series chips. You can also select up to 24GB or 32GB of RAM (depending on the exact config) and 1TB of storage.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Another departure from the Neo is that the Vibe also comes in two sizes (14 or 15 inches) with two battery options for AMD models (50WHr or 65WHr). There's also support for up to 120Hz OLED displays, dual two-watt speakers and a 5-megapixel webcam with Windows Hello and a physical shutter. The Vibe also offers surprisingly good connectivity thanks to four USB ports (two Type-A and two Type-C), a 3.5mm audio jack, a microSD card reader and even a full-size HDMI connector.
After getting a chance to mess around with some pre-production samples, I think the Vibe is exactly the kind of system Lenovo should be making, especially with the rising cost of so many electronics due to the global RAM shortage. It's fun, but it also feels solidly built with a sleek chassis that measures 0.59 inches thick and weighs 2.8 pounds for the 14-inch model or 3.3 pounds for the 15-inch. I really appreciate the Vibe's wealth of connectivity, as that makes it easy to transfer photos or videos from a camera via microSD while also removing the need to carry around extra dongles or adapters.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
That said, while the line does start at just $700, unless you are really strapped for cash, I would probably try to leave some room in your budget for a RAM upgrade. The base model only comes with 8GB, which definitely isn't ideal for Windows laptops. If you can afford a system with 16GB or more, that should help your notebook run better in the coming years. Alternatively, people looking for peak power efficiency will probably lean towards the Snapdragon-powered version, though if it was my money, I'd opt for the AMD variant. I expect that those units will offer a more balanced performance profile with wider software compatibility.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Between its name and its inspired color choices, it feels like Lenovo is really going after younger users who are suffering more from the increased price of electronics. But regardless of how old you are, it's hard not hard to like an affordable system with a nice screen, solid components, lots of ports and plenty of room to customize. And following the release of the revamped Dell XPS 13 earlier this year, it's nice to see PC makers putting a bigger emphasis on making well-built laptops that are big on value.
The IdeaPad Vibe will be available with AMD processors starting in October, followed by Snapdragon models in November and finally Intel versions "at a later date."