A Lot of Metal Packed in a Surprisingly Light Body
Last month, Lenovo sent us their recently-released Slim 7 Pro X. Marketed as a machine designed for creators, this laptop features (almost) everything that you need to create, edit and render brilliant graphics or videos. It is also, as the name suggests, noticeably slim and prides itself on its ability to be easily stowed away in small bags. Featuring an all-aluminum chassis, the Slim 7 Pro both looks and feels immensely sophisticated. Let us go over its features one by one.
The Slim 7 Pro is nothing less than a wonder considering how much aluminum it packs in such a lightweight body. The laptop’s thickness measures literally less than an inch (0.63’’) and has a total weight of 3.2lbs. Measuring 12.9’’ by 8.7’’, the Slim 7 Pro X is as portable as it can get. The overload of metal in the chassis makes it feel sturdy and look classy.
There is a considerably large vent on the underside of the machine. Considering all that it is packing in terms of processing power, a vent of that size is understandable. What was impressive to me was how Lenovo managed to keep the thickness of the laptop so thin despite an insane processor and the massive cooling system that must have been required to keep a balance of temperature inside the machine.
A Very Vivid (And Glossy) Display
The 14.5’’ display on the Slim 7 Pro is immensely vivid. Maxing out at 400 nits, it is very bright, features crystal clear graphics and covers 100% of the sRGB color gamut. The contrasts are excellent with the blackest of blacks and the whitest whites you have ever seen. There is a unique kind of sharpness to the picture quality, the kind you would expect from a 4K screen, all thanks to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4GB dedicated graphics card installed in the machine. Sporting a resolution of 3072×1920, the Slim 7 Pro features a 3K display with IPS technology.
It gets better. The display on this brilliant machine is touch-enabled. Recently-released laptops have been trying to incorporate touch screen displays but they often fail at producing a machine with a flawless touch panel. The Slim 7 Pro gets a dozen points for hosting a highly sensitive and extremely responsive touch display. And why wouldn’t it be responsive with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate?
There is, however, one small con of this otherwise great display. It is way too glossy. Made out of glass, it tends to reflect light a little too much. So, while you can enjoy working on the Slim 7 Pro right next to your window all thanks to its 400-nit brightness score, the sun glare might be a bit of an issue for you.
Not Enough Ports
I have said this a few times and I’ll say it again. The more ports, the better. I fail to understand why companies are constantly attempting to produce machines with the least number of ports when they have received negative feedback on it time and time again. Convenience matters to consumers way more than aesthetics do. If you can find a nice middle ground between keeping all your ports and managing to make your machine look presentable, that’s excellent. But compromising on convenience only to enhance beauty is absurd, especially when your laptop is marketed as a device for creators.
The Slim 7 Pro sports a total of two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 and one headphone/mic combo port. It’s quite surprising that a laptop that is targeted at creators doesn’t feature an HDMI slot and a memory card slot.
A quite Large Keyboard and Mouse
The keyboard on the Slim 7 Pro is probably one of my favorite parts about it. It is an extremely well-designed keyboard with great travel and keys that are large and sturdy. They don’t feel hollow when they’re pressed and respond pretty fast. The keyboard is perfect for anyone with big hands. It is also backlit and features all the standard hotkeys. The mouse is also designed keeping creativity in mind. It is fairly large and has plenty of space for your hand to move around.
Pretty Impressive Processor and Battery
Packing the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS processor, the Lenovo Slim 7 Pro is an absolute powerhouse of a machine. It hosts eight cores and 16 threads. The cores are responsible for the amount of work the PC can do at a time, while the threads enhance throughput and computational speeds. The laptop is available in various configurations. The one the company was generous enough to send me was the most advanced version available that sports a 32GB LPDDR5 RAM along with a 1TB PCle SSD. I’m aware of how the acronyms are probably leading to a lot of jargon. Simply put, LPDDR5 refers to a low-power memory standard reserved for the storage of data. It continues to be an ideal choice for companies since it consumes less power.
The Slim 7 Pro is excellent for all your multitasking needs and is perfectly capable of handling more intensive Adobe programs. You’d be able to smoothly edit and render your pictures and videos without experiencing stutters or lag. This is a huge relief because it would’ve been very unfortunate if a laptop marketed as being suitable for creators didn’t perform well on Adobe programs. The 7-hour battery on the laptop is not unbelievably long but enough to not be a hassle for you. It will not keep you tethered to wires at all times.
Speakers, Camera, Security
Lenovo’s Vantage app made things very interesting audio-wise. It allows users to choose from various sound profiles. And the best part is that they all sound significantly different. The ‘movie’ profile gave the sound a cinematic feel. It enhanced its soundstage and added more bass to it as well. The ‘dynamic’ profile took things a step further and improved upon the soundstage. The ‘music’ profile enhanced treble, whereas the ‘voice’ profile subdued the music.
The camera on the Slim 7 Pro X is brilliant considering it’s a laptop camera. The results are almost surprisingly precise and accurate with even facial hair being visible. The colors are bright and very sharp.
The Slim 7 Pro prioritized security pretty well. It has a built-in ToF (Time of Flight) sensor and the standard IR sensor. The former measures depth and distance, therefore locking when the user walks away from the screen and automatically unlocking when they are close to the laptop again. The ToF sensor also helps with the camera by either making an object the focus or blurring it.
Is It Hardcore?
No doubt about it.
I wish the Slim 7 Pro was more generous in terms of ports. Apart from that, Lenovo outdid itself with this release. With a brilliant display, powerful processor, excellent audio, and ergonomic keyboard, what more could you possibly ask for in a laptop?
I really like this laptop as well and was considering buying it for my daughter, but I’m reading a lot of comments from people that own it that indicate it seems to have a lot of quality issues. Costco buyers are returning it 2 or 3 times before they get one that works. Have you heard about any of these issues?
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