Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro (14) review – enviable computational performance

Lenovo and their Yoga series are giving a lot of choices to the user. Nowadays, you can find super compact and small Yoga devices that are suitable for people that are constantly on the go while for power users, Lenovo is offering big 17-inchers that have some “Yoga” abilities.

In our case, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro (14) is a mix of the abovementioned variants – it has a 14″ 16:10 screen, the most powerful CPU option is the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX (such a powerful chip fitted in a compact device like this one sounds nuts but it’s true), and if you need more graphics power, the GeForce MX450 will definitely help.

Actually, the display is the main event here – it looks gorgeous with its slim bezels and high resolution. Speaking of which, you have two IPS panel options – the first one is a 60Hz 2240×1400 (2.2K) anti-glare unit and the second one is a 90Hz 2880×1800 (2.8K) glossy sibling. For our review, we got the 2.8K variant which sounds a bit more gamer-ish with its 90Hz refresh rate and higher resolution.

The progress is definitely a good thing – Lenovo can fit a 45W AMD Ryzen 5 5600H in our test system that has just a 16.9 mm profile. Not so long ago that was mission impossible but thanks to the fast and efficient AMD Zen 3 mobile CPUs now you can have all that power in a light and thin machine (perhaps) without sacrificing the overall performance.

So, in short, we have a light and compact portable device that is equipped with a 45W 12-threaded AMD Zen 3 CPU, it has a 2.8K screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, and the iGPU is one of the most powerful mobile integrated products – the AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 (R4000,5000 35/45W) Sounds interesting, let’s see what this one has to offer.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-yoga-slim-7-pro/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro (14") - Specs

  • LEN140WQ+ (LEN8A90)
  • Color accuracy  3.2  1.6
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 1000GB SSD
  • M.2 Slot
  • 1x 2280 PCIe 3.0 
  • RAM
  • up to 16GB
  • OS
  • Windows 11 Home, Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro
  • Battery
  • 61Wh
  • Body material
  • Aluminum
  • Dimensions
  • 312.4 x 221.4 x 14.6-16.9 mm (12.30" x 8.72" x 0.57")
  • Weight
  • 1.32 kg (2.9 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 2x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • Card reader
  • Ethernet LAN
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.1
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5 mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Dual Microphone
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2W, Dolby Atmos, HARMAN
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot

All Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro (14″) configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

The power supply is fairly compact and it’s a 95W unit while the least powerful machines come with a 65W (small) charger.


Design and construction

Lenovo is trying to amaze the users with the build quality of this machine and it looks like they are doing it the right way. That’s a beautiful-looking all-aluminum device with an anodized shell. This, combined with the slim profile and a weight of just 1.35 kg leads to an attractive device that looks more like a tablet when the lid is closed. In addition, the device feels solid and rigid when handled.

You can easily open the lid with a single hand and the front bezel bump makes this operation even easier because it provides additional grip. When the lid is open, you’ll spot that the display with its glossy finish is a looker. The glass itself provides additional solidness to the lid structure but still, there are a few slight bends here and there, when you twist it.

The backlit keyboard is characterized by big-sized keycaps that provide clicky feedback while the key travel isn’t long enough to call it “good”. Overall, the keyboard offers a comfortable typing experience and the only downside is the small “Up” and “Down” Arrow keys that are positioned too close next to each other.

A small laptop with a huge touchpad? Why not? In this configuration, the large touchpad provides a lot of space for gliding and it is very comfortable for daily usage because its top layer is made of glass which leads to a smooth gliding experience. The responsiveness of this unit is a great compliment to the high-res 90Hz display and we were really happy with this pair.

On the bottom plate, we can spot the 2W Dolby Atmos speakers and a big ventilation grill (ok, for that size of a laptop). The hot air has been pushed through a pair of vents positioned on the notebook’s backside.

Ports

Now, let’s check the ports and we’ll start from the left side. This section looks neat with the two USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) ports that are multifunctional – they can be used for transferring data, charging the laptop, and they have DisplayPort capabilities as well.  The right side is being populated by a power button, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, and an audio jack.


Display quality

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro (14) in the configuration we tested has an IPS display, model number LEN140WQ+ (LEN8A90). Its diagonal is 14″ (35.56 cm), and the resolution – 2880 x 1800. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:10, the pixel density – 243 ppi, their pitch – 0.1 x 0.1 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 36 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

The viewing angles are comfortable. We have provided images at 45 degrees to evaluate quality.

The maximum measured brightness is 394 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 390 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 11%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6530K (average) – slightly warmer than the 6500K optimum for sRGB.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 77% Brightness (White level = 142 cd/m2, Black level = 0.09 cd/m2).
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is very good – 1530:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is an essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro (14)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 100% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro (14) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 17 ms

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.


Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro (14)’s display doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment at any level. This makes it safe for your eyes even after long exposure.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro (14) configurations with 14.0″ LEN140WQ+ (LEN8A90) (2.8K, 2880 x 1800) IPS panel.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro (14) speakers produce a sound of good quality. We didn’t detect any deviations in the low, mid, and high tones.


Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be downloaded from here: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/yoga-series/yoga-slim-7-pro-14ach5/downloads/driver-list

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. The 61Wh battery unit is enough for 7 hours and 8 minutes of Web browsing, and 10 hours of video playback.


CPU options

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro (14) can be configured with AMD Zen 2 and Zen 3 CPUs and there are a plethora of options. The default CPU variant is the AMD Ryzen 5 4600H and we can go as high as AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX. This means that you can have it with decently fast 6-core CPUs or if you need more power (and faster iGPU), the powerful 8-core CPUs are a good option.


GPU options

In terms of graphics, the integrated models like AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 (R4000,5000 35/45W) or AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (R4000/5000, 35/45W) look more than enough for daily usage and light gaming but for those who want more power – the GeForce MX450 is the top dGPU variant.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS145 fps90 fps62 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS151 fps89 fps46 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

 

AMD Ryzen 5 5600H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro (14)3.43 GHz (B+4%) @ 78°C3.35 GHz (B+2%) @ 88°C3.06 GHz (B- 7%) @ 93°C
Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (16″)3.77 GHz (B+14%) @ 84°C3.79 GHz (B+15%) @ 89°C3.76 GHz (B+14%) @ 97°C

Lenovo is taking the conservative way in short loads, in this case, the CPU clock is just 4% above the baseline and the temperature is in check. While in medium-long stress, the processor frequency is just 3.35 GHz and the CPU temperature hits 88°C. Considering the results of the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (16″), the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro (14) doesn’t perform badly in these two scenarios. It falls short when it comes to prolonged periods of CPU actress – the 93°C are not a surprise for a slim device like this one, but the disappointment comes from the fact, that the Ryzen 5 5600H throttles to 3.06 GHz which is 7% lower compared to the official base clock of the CPU.

Real-life gaming

AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 (R4000,5000 35/45W)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro (14)1800 MHz @ 64°C1800 MHz @ 63°C

Compared to the CPU, the iGPU lives in a dimension of its own with 63°C temperature and a stable 1800 MHz clock.

Comfort during combined load

The good news is that the laptop isn’t loud at all. Sure, you can hear the fans but they aren’t noisy at all and the shell of the laptop doesn’t get uncomfortably hot. Keep in mind that for the sake of this review we have used the Extreme Performance mode (this can be tuned directly through the BIOS menu or can be set using the Lenovo Vantage app), if you switch to Intelligent Cooling or Battery Saving mode, the machine becomes even quieter.

 

Verdict

This little fella really surprises us in a good way. Specs-wise it sounds impressive for a compact device – an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H is paired with 16GB of dual-channel RAM while the graphical side relies on the iGPU which is the AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 (R4000,5000 35/45W). This is a potent combination of hardware that could be a good daily driver, maybe some CPU-bound productivity, or you can use it for light-to-medium-intensity gaming.

That’s right, in terms of gaming, the iGPU is powerful enough to run a lot of new games at least on Low settings but sometimes Medium or even High details aren’t a problem. Titles like FIFA 21, CS:GO, League of Legends, Team Fortress 2, Gears 5, Dota 2, Warframe, and many more run quite well with the aid of this powerful iGPU. The good screen contributes to the whole experience with its 90Hz refresh rate and fast response time that adds additional smoothness while gaming on something.

Speaking of the screen, this is a great piece of hardware that covers 99% of the sRGB gamut and it becomes more color-accurate with our Gaming and Web design profile. One other good side of it is that the panel is completely PWM-free so your health will not be affected negatively in prolonged periods of usage. Moreover, the 16:10 aspect ratio is a rare spec these days and it offers more vertical visual space which is great for Web browsing of editing office documents.

We’re not done with the positive sides of the screen – its high-resolution make viewing some content on it a pleasant job while the comfortable viewing angles allow watching the screen from an angle without experiencing color-shift or washed-out picture.

A look-down and we can say some good words regarding the keyboard. It has big keycaps with clicky feedback and that makes it a good unit for long hours of typing. The backlight will definitely help if you prefer to use the laptop in a darker environment. We like the large touchpad and its smooth glass surface that makes the whole experience “a piece of cake”.

The I/O is a bit limited in terms of ports but it’s not bad at all mostly because of the two USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) ports. You can use one of these ports as display output but unfortunately, if you want to connect this laptop to a monitor through HDMI or Display Port, you have to use an adapter. There is a single USB Type-A port and if you need to use more than one device that supports this interface you’ll need to buy a USB hub which sounds a bit disappointing.

While we are still talking about the few negative sides of this laptop, the last one is the soldered memory. Sad but true – you cannot upgrade the RAM configuration if you need more after some time. The best possible scenario is to pick the 16GB dual-channel configuration – this will boost the CPU and iGPU performance compared to the 8GB single-channel variant. At least for now, 16GB system memory is enough for regular users. There is a single M.2 slot which means that you can change the default drive with a faster or bigger one (or maybe both) if you aren’t happy with the performance outcome but after two days of testing, we can conclude that the device feels snappy for everyday usage.

So, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro (14) can be a multifunctional device because of its powerful hardware, good display, and nice keyboard/touchpad combo. You can use it at your home as a daily driver – it’s light and compact and carrying it around is an easy job and tasks like Web browsing and watching videos aren’t a trouble for this particular machine thanks to the snappy CPU. Moreover, because it’s a powerful laptop with a high-res display, you can use it for office work. Indeed, gaming is possible on this machine, but its “Pro” moniker is somewhat justified by the powerful processor options.

In terms of comfort, the device is relatively silent during load and the keyboard isn’t too hot for normal usage. This laptop favors comfort and it sacrifices a bit of the CPU clock during load but it’s not affecting visibly the overall performance.

Pros

  • Great performance
  • Doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment
  • Decent battery life
  • Great choice of build materials
  • IR face recognition camera
  • Covers 100% of sRGB colors and offers accurate color representation thanks to our Gaming and Web design profile
  • High-resolution display options with a 16:10 aspect ratio


Cons

  • No SD card slot
  • Memory is soldered to the motherboard
  • CPU frequency dips below the base clock

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-yoga-slim-7-pro/

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Butzke
Butzke
2 years ago

Are you sure about the PWM? Notebookcheck says 300hz under 40% brightness

jonasp
jonasp
2 years ago
Reply to  Butzke

i want to know this aswell since notebookcheck claims pwm under 40% brightness. the issue with laptopmedia review is that they didnt check below 50%

Alex Iliev
2 years ago
Reply to  Butzke

Here the 50% reference point corresponds to 140 nits of brightness. Nevertheless, we’ve tested for flickers at every brightness level, and we didn’t detect any PWM. Keep in mind that the panel in our unit is the LEN140WQ+.

jonasp
jonasp
2 years ago
Reply to  Alex Iliev

Lenovo LEN8A90 is the display id that is under the modelname LEN140WQ+. So notebookcheck had identical monitor type as you did,

So the irregularites between your review and theirs is

  • they reported PWM under 40% brightness
  • they reported absurdly high contrast ratio for an IPS display 6533:1

Hence why this is really weird how so much difference it is between your review and theirs