Lenovo Slim 7i Carbon Review

When it comes to thin and lightweight notebooks, Lenovo's ThinkPad Carbon line is iconic, but those carbon-fiber ultraportable laptops have been restricted to business users. The Lenovo Slim 7i Carbon ($1,119 as tested) brings that slim, ultralight construction to a compact consumer system. A 13.3-inch cousin to the 14-inch, AMD-based Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon, the Slim 7i offers Intel Core i7-powered performance, luxury features like a factory-calibrated display (though not the deluxe OLED screen of the Slim 7 Carbon), and even a USB-C hub to give you the additional ports you might be missing on other systems. It could use some more polish in areas such as a better webcam or longer battery life, but overall, it's a solid-effort ultraportable, if not in the upper tier.

Consumer Carbon: Ultralight Design

The Slim 7i Carbon tested here features a 12th Generation Core i7-1260P processor (four Performance cores, eight Efficient cores, 16 threads), 16GB of LPDDR5 memory, a 512GB solid-state drive, and Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics. Our $1,119 test model is available from Walmart (as well as other retailers, at possibly varying prices); Lenovo doesn't offer a lot of configuration choices for the Slim 7i Carbon if you buy it directly from Lenovo.com. There, though, you le get it with a 1TB SSD for $100 more.

(Kirẹditi: Kyle Cobian)

The Slim 7i Carbon gets its name from the material that makes up its lid, accompanied by aerospace-grade magnesium-aluminum alloy for the chassis. It's one of the lightest ultraportables you'll find at just 2.17 pounds, despite its dimensions of 0.58 by 11.9 by 8.1 inches (HWD). A leading competitor, the Apple MacBook Air M2, is similarly sized but nearly half a pound heavier.

The 13.3-inch Lenovo PureSight touch screen combines 2,560-by-1,600-pixel resolution with a few extras you won't find in most consumer compacts. It comes factory-calibrated for high color accuracy right out of the box and boasts a 90Hz rather than the usual 60Hz refresh rate. Other features are more common, like the increasingly popular 16:10 aspect ratio and the certified low-blue-light emissions.

(Kirẹditi: Kyle Cobian)

As mentioned, the Slim 7i uses an IPS panel instead of the ultra-high-contrast OLED technology of Lenovo's 14-inch IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon. While that's hardly a deal-breaker, it's an interesting choice given the rise of OLED displays in high-end ultraportables like the Dell XPS 13 Plus and the HP Spectre x360 13.5.

The Slim 7i Carbon has a decent keyboard, which is no less than you'd expect from Lenovo, though when compared side-by-side with, say, the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13, the consumer system feels fairly average. The touchpad and 720p webcam hit the same notes—perfectly adequate, but not as impressive as you might expect given the laptop's lineage and price tag.

Slimmed-Down Port Selection

When it comes to the Lenovo's onboard ports, there's not much to tell. On the system's right side is a single USB 3.2 Type-C port, along with the power button and a webcam privacy shutter switch.

(Kirẹditi: Kyle Cobian)

On the left, there's a single USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 port. If you need additional connections, such as for an HDMI monitor or a USB Type-A storage device, you'll need a hub or docking station.

(Kirẹditi: Kyle Cobian)

Thankfully, Lenovo provides a four-port USB-C hub that gives you a few additional connections including HDMI, USB 3.0 Type-A, an audio jack, and (surprise, surprise) VGA. I'd have preferred something like an Ethernet port, but I guess that's a win for the antique-monitor collectors in the audience, or denizens of conference rooms that may need a tech update.

As for wireless connections, the Slim 7i Carbon is outfitted with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1.

Testing the Lenovo Slim 7i Carbon: Highly Portable Power

For our benchmark comparisons, we pitted the Lenovo Slim 7i Carbon against other ultraportables mentioned above, including top performers like the Apple MacBook Air M2, the Dell XPS 13 Plus, and the HP Spectre x360 13.5 convertible.

(Kirẹditi: Kyle Cobian)

The last spot went to the AMD-based Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon we tested early this year. Though the IdeaPad has a slightly larger screen, the Lenovo duo's overall designs and specifications are similar, making this a good test to determine which processor family performs better.

Awọn Idanwo Iṣelọpọ

Aṣepari akọkọ ti UL's PCMark 10 ṣe afọwọṣe ọpọlọpọ awọn iṣelọpọ agbaye gidi ati ṣiṣan ṣiṣiṣẹda akoonu lati wiwọn iṣẹ ṣiṣe gbogbogbo fun awọn iṣẹ ṣiṣe aarin-ọfiisi gẹgẹbi sisẹ ọrọ, iwe kaakiri, lilọ kiri wẹẹbu, ati apejọ fidio. A tun ṣe idanwo PCMark 10's Full System Drive lati ṣe ayẹwo akoko fifuye ati iṣẹjade ti ibi ipamọ kọǹpútà alágbèéká kan.

Awọn aṣepari mẹta dojukọ Sipiyu, ni lilo gbogbo awọn ohun kohun ati awọn okun ti o wa, lati ṣe oṣuwọn ìbójúmu PC kan fun awọn ẹru iṣẹ aladanla. Maxon's Cinebench R23 nlo ẹrọ Cinema 4D ti ile-iṣẹ yẹn lati ṣe iṣẹlẹ eka kan, lakoko ti Primate Labs 'Geekbench 5.4 Pro ṣe afarawe olokiki apps orisirisi lati PDF Rendering ati ọrọ ti idanimọ si ẹrọ eko. Ni ipari, a lo transcoder fidio orisun-ìmọ HandBrake 1.4 lati ṣe iyipada agekuru fidio iṣẹju 12 lati 4K si ipinnu 1080p (awọn akoko kekere dara julọ).

Idanwo iṣelọpọ ikẹhin wa ni Puget Systems'PugetBench fun Photoshop, eyiti o nlo ẹda Creative Cloud 22 ti olootu aworan olokiki ti Adobe lati ṣe oṣuwọn iṣẹ ṣiṣe PC kan fun ṣiṣẹda akoonu ati awọn ohun elo multimedia. O jẹ ifaagun adaṣe adaṣe ti o ṣiṣẹ ọpọlọpọ gbogbogbo ati awọn iṣẹ-ṣiṣe Photoshop ti o yara ti GPU ti o wa lati ṣiṣi, yiyi, iwọn, ati fifipamọ aworan kan si fifi awọn iboju iparada, awọn kikun gradient, ati awọn asẹ.

The Slim 7i Carbon kept pace with the best ultraportables we've seen, putting up comparable scores in PCMark 10 and Cinebench and just seconds off the pace in HandBrake. It even claimed the silver medal in Geekbench. The result is a machine that's more than capable enough for office productivity and general home use and even light media-creation and -editing workloads.

Awọn Idanwo Eya

We test Windows PCs' graphics with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark test suite: Night Raid (more modest, suitable for laptops with integrated graphics), and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs).

A tun ṣe awọn idanwo meji lati ipilẹ-Syeed GPU ala-ilẹ GFXBench 5, eyiti o tẹnumọ mejeeji awọn ipa ọna kekere-kekere bi ifọrọranṣẹ ati ipele-giga, fifi aworan bi ere. Awọn ahoro 1440p Aztec ati awọn idanwo ọkọ ayọkẹlẹ 1080p, ti a ṣe ni ita ita gbangba lati gba awọn ipinnu ifihan oriṣiriṣi, awọn aworan adaṣe ati awọn ojiji iṣiro nipa lilo wiwo siseto OpenGL ati tessellation ohun elo ni atele. Awọn fireemu diẹ sii fun iṣẹju keji (fps), dara julọ.

The Slim 7i Carbon more or less matched the other laptops with Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics, but there were some notable differences when compared to the Apple M2 and AMD Radeon graphics of the MacBook Air and IdeaPad Slim 7 respectively. The biggest difference was in GFXBench, where the Apple led the pack by a sizable margin, though none of these productivity-focused portables will satisfy hardcore gamers.

Batiri ati Ifihan Idanwo

A ṣe idanwo igbesi aye batiri awọn kọǹpútà alágbèéká nipa ti ndun faili fidio 720p ti o fipamọ ni agbegbe (fiimu Blender orisun-ìmọ Omije Irin) pẹlu imọlẹ ifihan ni 50% ati iwọn didun ohun ni 100%. A rii daju pe batiri naa ti gba agbara ni kikun ṣaaju idanwo naa, pẹlu Wi-Fi ati ina ẹhin keyboard ni pipa.

A tun lo sensọ isọdiwọn Atẹle Datacolor SpyderX Elite kan ati sọfitiwia lati wiwọn itẹlọrun awọ iboju kọǹpútà alágbèéká kan — ipin wo ni sRGB, Adobe RGB, ati DCI-P3 gamuts awọ tabi awọn paleti ifihan le ṣafihan — ati 50% ati imọlẹ to ga julọ ninu nits (candelas fun square mita).

The Slim 7i Carbon may excel in some areas, but battery life isn't one. The ultraportable cleared the eight-hour mark and narrowly outlasted the XPS 13 Plus but fell hours behind most comparable machines. If you're planning to use the slim laptop for work or school, you'll likely want to bring along the power adapter. Its display is also fairly pedestrian in color coverage and brightness; we didn't expect it to outperform the dazzling OLED panels of the Dell, HP, and Slim 7 Carbon, but it also fell short of the IPS-based MacBook Air.

That said, the screen does boast hardware-calibrated color accuracy and a higher-than-average 90Hz refresh rate for smooth playback. If those specifics appeal to you for use in digital content creation or video viewing, it's worth considering.

(Kirẹditi: Kyle Cobian)

The Verdict: Powerful and Premium

Lenovo's Slim 7i Carbon combines the best of business-class design with solid performance and appealing features like a factory-calibrated 90Hz display. It keeps up with the best ultraportables on the market and does it with understated style. We're a bit jealous that it lacks an OLED screen and we wish it had longer battery life, but the compact Carbon's light weight and solid capability make it a welcome addition to the ultraportable arena.