Are Lenovo’s New IdeaPad Laptops Good Enough to Stand up to the Powerful MacBooks?

Honestly, Lenovo’s IdeaPad series has always been looked down upon, more so with the likes of Yogas and ThinkPads being the fancier options to go with. Despite the trusted utility on offer, IdeaPad laptops are a fair distance from getting the respect that they deserve. However, Lenovo seems to have taken this reproach to heart and now has plans to revitalize the IdeaPad series with two high-end, portable, and top-end laptops, including the Slim 7 Pro and Carbon.

Mid-Range to High-End: Here are the new IdeaPads

IdeaPad laptops were previously considered mid-range entities, offering decent professional value, acceptable gaming support, and often subpar aesthetics. However, the inclusion of the Slim 7 line-up is soon expected to make things better for the OEM, without pretense. 

To be exact, these IdeaPads are almost as good as or even a tad better than the recently reviewed Yoga notebooks. Hardly seems fair if I do not mention HP Spectre and Dell XPS as some of the other competitors in play, which the new IdeaPad laptops plan on ousting, rather soon.

Coming to the specifics, the Ideapad Slim 7 series does come with exciting choices in terms of screen size, resolutions, gaming prowess, and more. 

How are these laptops different?

Well, the new IdeaPad laptops aren’t just about the specs. What’s promising is the way the OS is being ideated. Lenovo has plans of bringing in Windows 11 directly to these laptops, in a bid to reinvent the tag, in the best possible way. Also, you all must be aware of how inventive a platform Windows 11 is.

IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon: The Cheaper of the Two

The oft-overlooked IdeaPad series seems to have found a new ray of hope in the Slim 7 Carbon. If you would be interested in the specifics, consider the 14-inch screen as a major market mover for now. The avant-garde screen size breaks the monotony of a standard 15.6-inch panel. Plus, the existence of the OLED panel ensures top-notch sunlight visibility.

And I cannot stop imagining how good streaming videos would feel on this laptop, courteous of the 400-nits peak brightness level. However, the display technology exhibited by the Slim 7 Carbon is all about the newest breed of innovation, with OLED taking charge. As users, you can expect the screen to exhibit vivid colors and perfect black levels, something that even the mainstream notebooks cannot fathom at present. 

Adding to the brilliance is the responsive screen with a 90Hz of refresh rate. Even though the Slim 7 Carbon isn’t a standard gaming laptop, the higher refresh rate can come in handy in projecting animations, much better than screens stuck at 60Hz. The display juggernaut keeps rolling with the panel exhibiting QHD+ resolution. 

I will still spare you the more detailed insights when structural solidarity and form factor is concerned. The design to the naked eye feels quite basic with the keyboard and touchpad working rather perfectly and in harmony. What works in the dedicated kill switch for the webcam followed by the availability of the Type-C and DisplayPort support. The Slim 7 is quite slim and brings forth a 2.4-pound chassis, featuring carbon fiber and magnesium as the underlying components. 

Under the hood, there is the AMD Ryzen 5800U processor, which does inspire a lot of processing confidence, with the single-core performances at par with the new M1 chipset, synonymous with newer MacBooks. But then, the absence of Intel does kill off the possibility of a Thunderbolt 3 port. Finally, their GeForce MX450 graphics card is also in play, to help you with graphic designing, video editing, and other creative tasks. 

The battery life leads, with 14.5 hours of steady backup. However, the runtime is still a subjective trait and requires further analysis.

Slim 7 Pro: The Gaming Behemoth

While the Slim 7 Carbon is a force to reckon with, it pales in comparison to the Slim 7 Pro, a top-of-the-line, gaming laptop. Before I delve right into the specifics, here are the features that are currently making all the noise.

Under the hood, there is the Ryzen 7 5800H chipset, working hand-in-hand with 16GB RAM. If that doesn’t suffice, you can always get hands-on some pretty decent storage space, i.e. 1TB to be exact. As compared to the Carbon, the Slim 7 Pro lets you in on a better processing setup, an incrementally powerful GPU i.e. the RTX 3050, and a better selection of ports.

Now let’s jump right into the more descriptive aspects of this laptop, clearly led by the 16-inch IPS screen. Although it misses out on the OLED panel as featured by the Carbon, the IPS screen with 2.5K resolution doesn’t let you down. As a matter of fact, you still get access to DisplayHDR support; a 120Hz gaming-friendly refresh rate, and the exclusive TUV mode for ocular comfort.

As far as aesthetics are concerned, the Slim 7 Pro sports a metallic chassis, large keyboard, and a widened touchpad that is almost 11 percent larger as compared to the older variants. The battery backup on offer tops out at 12.5 hours. 

Wrap-Up

As far as functionality is concerned, the new IdeaPad laptops are quite powerful and can be considered at par with the new M1-powered MacBooks. While it is hard to rival the software-hardware cohesion of new Apple MacBooks, the new IdeaPad laptops, both Slim 7 Carbon and Slim 7 Pro, do make an excellent case when overall productivity and gaming performances are concerned.