Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon review: slim, sturdy and stylish

If you’re looking for one of the best lightweight laptops, this Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon review is the right place to be. 

Lenovo is a trusted name in computing and their Yoga laptops are some of their very best, offering style, premium build quality and plenty of power. Competing against high-end computers like the Dell XPS 13 and the HP Elite Dragonfly G2, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon is a Windows 10 laptop that offers everything you could need at a much more affordable price. Granted, it is a stripped-back option without a touchscreen or fingerprint sensor but nevertheless, it looks and feels the part in most other areas. 

Not only is it ultraportable but it’s also one of the best student laptops because despite looking like a premium PC, it’s actually not going to cost you that much and it'll be well-suited to productivity tasks.

In this Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon review, I’ll get you clued up about this portable PC. I’ll go through the price, design and screen quality as well as covering everything you need to know about its performance and battery life. By the end, you should have a clear idea of whether this laptop will be a good choice for you. 

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon review: price and features

Launched back in March 2021, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon is available to buy now from Lenovo starting from £720 in the UK for the base version with an 11th Generation Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It's worth checking our Lenovo discount codes to bag a saving on your order. In Australia, prices start from AU$1,799. This laptop isn't available at the moment in the US. 

Although not packed full of sophisticated features, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon has plenty going for it. It weighs less than 1kg and has been rigorously tested for durability. Powered by the 11th generation of Intel Core processors, you can expect decent performance, and the webcam features facial recognition for extra security. 

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon review: design and screen 

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon is super lightweight which makes it the perfect laptop to take out with you, whether that’s back and forth from university or to get work done on your commute - it weighs less than 1kg and it measures about 14.9 x 296.9 x 208.55mm. You’ll be able to fit it into even a small backpack because it’s roughly the size of an A4 notepad. 

Available in a matte Moon White colour, this laptop looks very smart. Because it is white, I would be worried about it picking up grime and dirt after owning it for a while, but having said that, the smooth coating didn't seem to pick up any fingerprint marks during testing at all. That's quite a rarity.  

As the name suggests, the chassis itself is made from high-strength carbon fibre, so considering this is a lightweight laptop, it doesn’t feel at all flimsy. It actually feels very strong and durable, I wouldn’t be worried about it getting knocked and bumped while I'm out and about.

Boasting a screen-to-body ratio of 91%, the bezels are slim which makes this look like a much more expensive PC than it actually is. Classy and stylish are the words I'd use to describe the overall aesthetic of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon.

The keyboard feels solid and smooth to type on, it has 1.0mm-travel keys which are quiet and respond well to every tap. I never really found myself mistyping on it. Similarly, the touchpad is big and accurate with firm left and right clicks.

On the frame, there’s a USB-C port with power delivery and two USB-4 ports as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack. To save on space, there isn't USB-3 connectivity, that's worth bearing in mind if you still use older tech although you could always consider buying an adaptor. There’s also no MicroSD card slot which is a shame. 

To unlock the display, the HD webcam supports IR facial recognition. In my experience, you needed to come up quite close to the laptop for it to work but when you do it works quickly each time. Anyone who prefers to use a fingerprint sensor will be disappointed, Lenovo hasn't included one here.  

The 13.3inch screen has a matte finish which makes it much easier to see in bright light, despite only having 300 nits peak brightness. I wouldn’t necessarily use this for much detailed creative work as it doesn’t reach particularly high brightness levels, and there's no touchscreen. Despite that, having a QHD resolution at 2560 x 1600p makes for a very crisp, accurate display. Paired with the 16:10 aspect ratio, it’ll be fine to use for everything else from streaming Netflix to writing up documents. 

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon review: performance and battery  

Under the hood, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon laptop packs the 11th Generation Intel Core processors. The model I tried out has the i7 processor but you can opt for the i5 if you want to bring the cost down. That’s alongside either 8GB or 16GB of RAM and 256GB or 512GB of storage. As well as an up-to-date CPU, it has Intel Iris Xe graphics.

To benchmark its performance against other portable PCs, I ran the Geekbench 5 CPU test. It scored 1,261 in single-core and 3,803 in multi-core, which is similar to laptops like the Asus Zenbook Flip S but lower than a lot of other laptops with the 11th Gen Intel Core processors. 

In use, it handled most tasks I threw at it. Admittedly it did heat up a little when I had loads of different windows and tabs open at once but it didn't get noisy at all. Day to day, the laptop didn't show any signs of lag or excessive loading times so although not the most powerful piece of kit there is, it’ll certainly be good enough for most. Another plus point is that this laptop has Wi-Fi 6 support so you'll get the fastest internet speeds possible if your broadband router supports it. 

On 3D Mark’s TimeSpy graphics test, it achieved a score of 1,643  which is better than some laptops that cost twice the price, like the Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 which is a top-of-the-line 2-in-1 PC. What that tells us is that you’ll be able to use this laptop for some gaming, but this is by no means one of the best gaming laptops, it's still likely to struggle with the most demanding games. 

During testing, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon lasted most of the workday, although admittedly it was in desperate need of a charge by the end of it. Lenovo claims the 50Wh battery can last up to 15 hours of video playback - I ran a local video over two hours on full brightness to find out how true that is. In that time the battery dropped by 34% so actually, it would have lasted just under 6 hours in total. It doesn't quite match up to what Lenovo say, and in comparison to other laptops, it is quite average. 

What’s great though is that the charger looks more like a smartphone charger than one made for a laptop, it’s so small that it won’t be a hassle to fit it into your bag when you go out. Plus, it'll charge the laptop back up from empty to 100% in just under 2 hours, that is pretty good going. 

Because it runs on Windows 10, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon is very easy to use. As well as getting everything you'd expect from Microsoft's operating system, there are a few clever features packed in too, like the fact that it automatically powers on when you open the lid. You can use this laptop alongside the Amazon Alexa-connected devices around your home as well. It even lets you switch it to Alexa’s Show Mode, which converts the laptop into a smart display so anything you ask the smart assistant can be answered visually as well as audibly, like the weather forecast for instance.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon review: verdict 

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon’s performance, build and screen aren't far off what you get from much more expensive computers. Being so well rounded, this will be a good choice for everyone from business users on a budget to those who need a laptop for more casual everyday tasks.

Students in particular though will love the fact that it’s so light. It means you can keep it in your bag to go between home, the library and lectures without feeling weighed down, while its durable design will give you peace of mind that it won't get damaged. 

You do have to make some sacrifices to keep the price this low, like the average battery life and the fact that you won’t get much choice in connectivity. It also lacks a fingerprint sensor and it's not got a touchscreen, both of which are features you could get if you spent a lot more money. 

Despite there being a few downsides, overall this ultraportable laptop has a well-thought-out design and decent performance across the board. It may not quite match up to the premium top-dogs, yet it offers everything you really need at a much lower price.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon review: also consider  

The HP Pavilion 14 is a fantastic mid-range laptop for everyday use. You won’t want to use it for more demanding creative tasks like photo or video editing but it’ll cope with everything else including web browsing, streaming, word processing and spreadsheet management. It runs Windows 10 and has an impressive 14inch Full HD touchscreen.

If you’re on a tight budget then you should consider the Acer Chromebook 315. It runs on Chrome OS so files and apps are mostly stored in a secure area online. Ultimately that means you don’t need as much in-built storage which helps to bring the cost down a lot. This particular Chromebook boasts a large HD screen and impressive battery life, both of which make it a great value for money.

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