This Ultraportable Lenovo Laptop Is A Worthy Macbook Air Alternative (and Has A Useful Iphone Feature)

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition is disposable now for $999 for nan 32GB of RAM configuration.
• It pairs a myriad of customizable features pinch a bully display, amazingly beefy speakers, and a marathon battery.
• A fewer beingness creation choices mightiness beryllium of interest for some, and I wish it had an OLED.

At Best Buy, nan Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition is connected waste for $999, a $300 discount. 

When Lenovo announced its Intel-powered Aura Edition laptops astatine IFA successful Berlin past year, it led pinch nan Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition, wowing attendees pinch demos of its tap-to-share feature. You activate nan characteristic by physically tapping (gently, Lenovo pleads) nan broadside of nan laptop's show pinch your phone, allowing you to drag-and-drop photos straight to nan laptop, 1 of nan astir attention-grabbing features we saw.  

Also: This Lenovo Chromebook easy replaced my Windows laptop for activity - and I can't spell back

I was location successful person, and you amended judge I was among nan first successful statement to trial it out, but fast-forward a month, and I was conscionable arsenic excited to spell hands-on pinch nan different unsocial features successful Lenovo's Aura Edition Yoga 7i.

The Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition is simply a Copilot+ PC powered by Intel's "Lunar Lake" Series 2 statement of processors. These chips return purpose astatine nan different AI-powered PCs that exploded onto nan user marketplace past twelvemonth (powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chip) pinch unsocial features that effort to group nan instrumentality isolated successful an progressively crowded marketplace of AI PCs.

I went hands-on pinch different laptop pinch Intel's Series 2 chip, nan Asus Zenbook S 14, and was impressed pinch its performance, ultra-thin build, and marathon artillery life, truthful I was funny to spot really Lenovo's Yoga Slim 7i would compare.

Also: My favourite PC accessory keeps maine productive connected nan spell - and it's 50% off

Right disconnected nan bat, I tin opportunity nan beingness shape facet of nan Yoga Slim 7i is astir connected par pinch different laptops successful its class. At 3.3 pounds, it's not rather arsenic bladed and ray arsenic nan Zenbook S 14, but it's besides a 15-inch device. It looks for illustration a quintessential Lenovo, pinch a slate grey colour and signature notched lid wherever nan webcam is housed.

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

The keyboard is freely and roomy, pinch smooth, plastic-coated keycaps that are responsive and satisfying to type on. Lenovo opted to forego a afloat keyboard truthful that it could fresh nan upward-facing speakers connected either extremity of nan keyboard, which was nan correct call, arsenic nan Dolby Atmos-powered speakers sound amended than average. In fact, they're immoderate of nan amended laptop speakers I've heard each year.

The glossy 15-inch show supports a 120GHz refresh complaint and multitouch capabilities, and it folds flat, but not each nan measurement backmost into tablet mode. Overall, it looks fine, but an OLED would person really group it isolated arsenic a noteworthy flagship device, peculiarly for nan price.

Despite nan seemingly coagulated beingness build, my reappraisal portion had a somewhat loose backplate. I contacted Lenovo and was assured this was an rumor pinch my individual portion and not thing recovered connected others, but other well-known laptop reviewers reported akin quirks pinch nan laptop's beingness chassis.

Also: I've tested dozens of ThinkPads: Here's nan Lenovo exemplary I support coming backmost to

Under nan hood, nan Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i comes pinch nan antecedently mentioned Intel Core Ultra 7 (Series 2) chip, up to 32GB of RAM, an Intel Arc GPU, and a 15-inch 2.8K (2880 x 1800) LCD touch display. This is simply a beautiful modular mid-range hardware configuration, but it's nan Intel Series 2 spot that is noteworthy here. It intends to supercharge nan instrumentality pinch precocious performance, a bladed and ray shape factor, and a awesome artillery life.

The Intel spot powers a suite of features that make this laptop an Aura Edition. The antecedently mentioned Smart Share characteristic is 1 of nan astir handy. It useful by pairing nan laptop pinch your telephone (via nan Intel Unison app connected iOS aliases Android), allowing you to drag-and-drop photos and files from your telephone to nan laptop (and vice versa). Tapping nan broadside of nan instrumentality brings up nan menu, though conscionable bringing nan telephone successful proximity to it useful arsenic well. 

Aura Edition laptops besides see a bevy of caller Smart Modes of varying usefulness, which, erstwhile activated, delegate a bid of presets. The Shield Mode is 1 of nan much absorbing ones, arsenic it uses nan laptop's camera to alert you if it detects personification looking astatine your surface complete your shoulder, blurring your display, aliases shutting it disconnected altogether successful response.

The artillery connected this device, conscionable for illustration nan different Lunar Lake instrumentality I reviewed, nan Asus Zenbook S 14, is very good. I sewage complete 17 hours successful my artillery test, though during much sustained workloads, I don't consciousness for illustration nan artillery was arsenic robust arsenic nan Zenbook S 14, lasting astir arsenic agelong arsenic nan workday but not overmuch more.

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I person to mention 2 pet peeves regarding this device, moreover though they're not dealbreakers. First up is nan absolute onslaught of ads and notifications.

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

Between notifications from Lenovo Vantage, a persistent pop-up from McAfee, Windows ads for Microsoft Edge (even while actively utilizing it), and persistent "tips" and "reminders", much clip is spent dealing pinch each nan things Windows and Lenovo wants to talk to you astir than what you tin really do. Yes, this is thing caller pinch devices successful 2024, but it seems peculiarly potent pinch this laptop.

Second, I'm not a instrumentality of nan powerfulness fastener being connected nan broadside of nan device, correct successful proximity to wherever you drawback it. Its placement resulted successful maine shutting disconnected nan laptop connected much than 1 occasion.

ZDNET's buying advice

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition is simply a coagulated 15-inch instrumentality pinch a fistful of unsocial features. The Intel Core Ultra 7 (Series 2) spot provides fast, cool, battery-efficient performance, and mundane users will admit nan bully display, comfortable keyboard, and marathon artillery life.

I urge opting for nan 32GB configuration, since nan RAM is not upgradable. This raises nan price, but it's perfectly worthy it for future-proofing.

Also: I replaced my ThinkPad pinch a Lenovo Legion laptop for work, and didn't regret it

Lastly, features for illustration Smart Share are useful, but I would be aware Intel and Lenovo alike from spending excessively overmuch clip connected flashy tricks and alternatively focusing connected enduring, well-designed devices. The hardware present is impressive, and Intel's Series 2 "Lunar Lake" chips are perfectly worthy contenders to Qualcomm's ARM-compatible Snapdragon X Elite and Apple's M4 chips. Performance (and thoughtful, well-designed beingness shape factors) speak for themselves much than buzzy features ever will.