Review: Lenovo Slim Pro 7 AMD Laptop

That's not to say it's perfect, but the compromises it makes are the right compromises to meet the needs of those who, for lack of a better term, get called “content creators” at work. In other words, this is a great light option for video editors, photo editors, musicians, and perhaps even programmers who appreciate a great screen.

The Slim Pro 7 is a 14-inch AMD-powered laptop that sits somewhere in the middle of the Lenovo Slim/Yoga lineup. (Lenovo uses the Yoga branding in some markets, but not the US.) The Slim Pro 7 X is the more powerful version with a slightly better screen, while the Slim 7i is less powerful. The Slim Pro 7 then is something of a Goldilocks, or at least it wants to be.

I tested the Slim Pro 7 with a new 7000 series AMD Ryzen 7 chip (7735HS) and both an integrated Radeon graphics card and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050. It comes with 16 gigabytes of RAM (soldered, not upgradeable) and a 512-gigabyte SSD (upgradeable by anyone with a Torx screwdriver and a modicum of courage).

Those components are wrapped in a very solid, all-aluminum chassis that didn't flex even when I picked it up from the front with one hand. It's a well-built machine, though it is on the heavy side at 3.5 pounds. I didn't mind toting it around, but it's not an ultralight by any means.

One of the major highlights of this machine is its screen. This 14.5-inch display crams in 2,560 x 1,600 pixels, making it 2.5K resolution. It's touch capable, though I still haven't found much use for touch on a laptop. More interesting is the 90-Hz refresh rate, which isn't quite enough to make hardcore gamers happy (if that's you, the Slim Pro 7 X is the machine you want, with its 144-Hz refresh rate), but it makes everything else quite smooth. The screen has a 16:10 ratio, giving you a little more height than the more common 16:9. It doesn't sound like much, but I find it helpful when browsing the web. It also makes the preview panel in video editors a bit larger.

Speaking of editing video, I did, and the Slim Pro 7 handled it quite well. I used both Blender on Windows and Kdenlive on Linux. I had to enable GPU support in Kdenlive before I saw much performance boost, but in the end I was able to render out 5 minutes of 5.2K footage in just over 12 minutes. For reference, my Lenovo X14 with an 6000 series AMD Ryzen 7 takes over 30 minutes to render the same footage. The main difference? The dedicated graphics card.

You don't need to edit video to appreciate the performance here, but if you aren't editing video or doing other GPU-intensive tasks this might be a bit of overkill for your needs. At the same time, the slower screen refresh rate means this isn't the best option for mobile gaming, though it would no doubt serve the casual gamer playing Stardew Valley.

Good video performance like this often means poor battery life, but that's not the case here. Lenovo has packed in a 73-watt-hour battery that manages to get about seven hours of battery life in real-world use. That number will come down the more time you spend editing video, but it's still very impressive for a laptop with these specs. Suffice it to say that for casual use you can just about eke out a day's work, but if you're headed to the coffee shop to edit video, bring the charger. I should also note that the charger, while rather large for a laptop charger these days, does indeed juice up the battery very quickly. Lenovo says you can get three hours of battery life off a 15-minute charge, a claim that held up in my testing.

Unlike its port-cutting competitors, Lenovo always makes sure you have what you need in its laptops. The Slim Pro 7 has two USB-C ports, both of which can change, one of which is USB-C 4.0. There's also a USB-A port for older peripherals like mice and keyboards, and an HDMI port for plugging in a monitor. A headphone jack and webcam kill switch round out the sides of the Slim Pro 7.

While there is much to love about the Lenovo Slim Pro 7, there are things I dislike. My number one gripe is the location of the power button on the right side of the body, just about where I instinctively grab it to carry it around. I can't tell you how many times I accidentally shut down the machine doing this. I'd much prefer a power button up where it belongs, on the top of the laptop.

The webcam was also not that great. It's 1080p, but I found it looked rather dark much of the time. It's fine for casual videoconferencing, but if you spend a lot of time in online meetings and otherwise love this laptop, check out our guide to the best webcams for a better camera for meetings.

The other thing that bothers me isn't Lenovo's fault: Windows 11 remains a dumpster fire of personal frustration for me, and it is what ships with this laptop. It's hard to believe it's the successor to Windows 10. It feels much more like a buggy beta. I wanted to test Windows 10 on the Slim Pro 7, but I don't have a copy anymore. Instead I installed Linux, which worked beautifully. I tested both System76's Pop! OS (which I'd suggest for Linux beginners) and Arch Linux (which is what I use), and both worked great.

In any case, Lenovo didn't invent Windows 11, and this remains a solid machine for creatives on the go. If you need a mobile workstation for video, photo, or music editing, and you don't mind sacrificing a bit of power for great battery life, the Slim Pro 7 is an excellent choice.