Lenovo Slim 7 Pro X review: Prosumer power at a reasonable price

Prosumers and professionals looking for a laptop with a powerful processor and discrete graphics have many choices, but high pricing can be an issue. Lenovo’s Slim 7 Pro X attempts to deliver great performance in a mid-sized form factor while keeping the price in check. The machine itself is lightweight and portable and the design is both durable and sophisticated. While we liked the strong performance, battery life is less-than-stellar and connectivity options are lacking. That said, we feel the pros far outweigh the cons. Read on to learn more.

Lenovo Slim 7 Pro X specs and features

The Lenovo Slim 7 Pro X is an impressive machine on paper. It has an AMD Ryzen 6900HS processor with eight cores and 16 threads as well as a Nvidia RTX 3050 graphics solution with a maximum thermal design power of 55 watts. It’s no slouch in RAM or storage, either, offering 32GB and 1TB, respectively. 

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 6900HS
• Memory: 32GB
• Graphics/GPU: RTX 3050 with 55 watt TDP
• Display: 3072 x 1920 IPS touchscreen
• Storage: 1TB PCie NVM SSD
• Webcam: 1080p with IR
• Connectivity: 2x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 with DisplayPort and Power Delivery, 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 with battery charging, 3.5mm audio combo jack
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1
• Biometrics: IR camera
• Battery capacity: 70 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 12.92 x 8.72 x 0.63 inches
• Weight: 3.2 pounds
• MSRP: $1,399 to start, $1,765 as tested

Pricing starts at $1,399 for entry-level models with an AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB solid state drive. The upgrades in my test laptop came with a modest increase in price to $1,765. That’s not inexpensive, but it’s a good deal given the laptop’s gobs of RAM and storage. 

Design and build quality

IDG / Matthew Smith

Lenovo’s new Slim 7 Pro X, like the Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 that we reviewed earlier this year, has a design language that combines curved edges with flat expanses of gray-silver metal. It’s not a look that immediately jumps out as distinctive, but this specific shade of gray, along with the rounded sides, provides a premium look and feel.

I’m also a fan of Lenovo’s chrome badge which sits along the edge of the display lid and is also found on the interior. It’s eye-catching but remains small enough that it doesn’t become a distraction.

Looks aside, the Slim 7 Pro X is a rigid and robust laptop. The Slim 7 Pro X doesn’t feel as premium as an Apple MacBook Pro or Dell XPS laptop, as the chassis does allow minor flex when the display is opened or closed. Still, it’s a cut above an Acer Swift, Asus Zenbook, or LG Gram.

The Slim 7 Pro X lives up to its name, as well, with a thickness of just .63 inches and a weight of 3.2 pounds. This isn’t as light as featherweights like the LG Gram 14 or Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro 360, but the Slim 7 Pro X packs in discrete graphics while those competitors make due with integrated graphics. The Lenovo’s overall size and weight is not far off a MacBook Air – impressive for a machine with a 8-core processor and Nvidia RTX 3050 GPU.

Keyboard and trackpad

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Lenovo Slim 7 Pro X has a spacious, attractive keyboard. Most keys are full-sized, or close to it, with the function row (as usual) being the exception. Lenovo avoids throwing in additional entertainment or function keys along the sides, which keeps the keyboard centered above the touch. Key feel is excellent despite modest key travel, with a short but precise throw that bottoms out in a springy, tactile action. 

Keyboard backlighting is standard and offers two brightness settings along with an automatic mode, which is the default. The automatic mode detects a dim environment and turns on the backlight as needed. 

The touchpad is about 5.25 inches wide and 3 inches deep, which is large for a 14-inch laptop, though smaller than a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. It offers a lot of room for multi-touch gestures and proves pleasant to use. 

The touchpad also does a good job of rejecting unintended inputs, so I rarely noticed an unwanted click even while my palms grazed the edge of the touchpad.

Display, audio

IDG / Matthew Smith

Lenovo gets a bit weird with the display in the Slim 7 Pro X. It’s a 14.5-inch screen with a 16:10 aspect ratio and a resolution of 3,072 and 1,920. Lenovo calls this a 3K display, and it leads to a pixel density of about 250 pixels per inch. While a true 4K display would be sharper, 3K is a nice compromise for a display of this size. Images, fonts, web pages, documents, and games all look sharp. 

The 14.5-inch screen, because of its aspect ratio, is almost as tall as a 15.4-inch widescreen laptop. It often feels like a 15-inch laptop in day-to-day use. When closed and stored for travel, however, it suddenly seems to transform into a 13.3-inch machine. This is thanks to the laptop’s slim display bezels.

Image quality is solid, though not exceptional. The glossy display looks attractive in typical use thanks to its high maximum brightness and vivid, accurate color, but the LCD IPS display can’t match the contrast of OLED, which is now available in many competitors including the Asus Vivobook Pro OLED, Dell XPS, and Samsung Galaxy Book series. Apple’s MacBook Pro 14 and 16, which have a Mini-LED display, will also beat the Slim 7 Pro X in image quality. 

A pair of two-watt speakers lining each side of the keyboard provide audio. Their user-facing orientation means sound never seems muffled or obscured, but maximum volume is modest. Music sounds crisp and provides a hint of bass kick but never impresses due to the lack of oomph and limited sound stage. It’s fine, but nowhere near as top-tier options like the Lenovo Yoga 9i, Apple MacBook Pro, or Microsoft Surface Book Studio. 

Webcam, microphone, biometrics

A 1080p webcam is tucked inside the Lenovo Slim 7 Pro X’s thin top bezel. It offers a sharper image than a 720p webcam but suffers a few issues. Video can look grainy in a dark room and changes in lighting can confuse the camera’s automatic exposure, causing an oddly dark or bright image. Still, it’s more than enough for most video conferences and looks better than competitors saddled with a 720p camera. 

Microphone volume was high and the microphone was able to pick up my voice when I wasn’t directly facing the laptop. However, I felt my voice came across as rather tinny and distant, which could make my voice hard to understand. 

The camera includes an IR sensor that supports Windows Hello facial recognition login. It quickly recognized my face and never failed in my time using the device. The IR sensor isn’t reliant on ambient light, either, so it works well in a dark room. A fingerprint reader is unavailable, but I don’t find that a problem. Windows Hello facial recognition is quicker and more reliable.

Connectivity

IDG / Matthew Smith

A pair of USB-C 3.2 ports are found on Slim 7 Pro X’s left flank. They offer DisplayPort Alternate Mode for connecting an external monitor. Power Delivery is included on both ports, as well, so they can be used to charge the laptop. The Slim 7 Pro X’s ships with a 100 watt power brick, however, so a beefy USB-C power source is required to power the laptop under load. USB-A comes from a pair of USB-A 3.2 ports, one on each side of the laptop. 

That leaves the Slim 7 Pro X without Ethernet or a dedicated video output. You’ll need an adapter to access wired Ethernet and to connect any monitor without USB-C (which is most of them). There’s a 3.5mm audio jack, at least.

The Slim 7 Pro X also lacks Thunderbolt 4. This is a problem with AMD’s most recent mobile platform which, unlike Intel’s, doesn’t include Thunderbolt by default. The USB-C ports promise a maximum data transfer rate of 10Gbps which, though respectable, is far short of the 40Gbps provided by Thunderbolt. This will be an issue if you need to transfer large amounts of data.

Wireless is also a bit lackluster, as the Slim 7 Pro X only supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1. Most competitors with Intel 12th-Gen processors support the newer Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 standards. 

Performance

Lenovo’s Slim 7 Pro X doesn’t mess around. It packs an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS processor and Nvidia RTX 3050 graphics into a slim form factor. My review sample also had 32GB of RAM and a 1TB solid state drive. That’s impressive hardware for a slim laptop, but it does have its limits.

IDG / Matthew Smith

We start in PCMark which, as it turns out, is among the laptop’s less impressive results. The Slim 7 Pro X achieves a decent score of 5,794 but ends up behind other slim laptops that pair a fast processor with discrete graphics. The main reason appears to be its graphics performance which, as I’ll explain soon, is good but not exceptional. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

Cinebench R15’s multi-threaded benchmark comes in with a score of 2,014. This is better than past Ryzen 7 5000-series processors but a step behind Intel’s latest Core i9-12900H processor in the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE. This isn’t a shock, as Intel’s 12th-gen Core processors have proven strong in this benchmark.

IDG / Matthew Smith

Handbrake provides strong results for the Slim 7 Pro X. It remains behind the Core i9-12900H in the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE but jumps ahead of the Core i7-12700H in the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro. It even beats the Ryzen 9 6900HS in the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14.

It’s clear the Lenovo Slim 7 Pro X is no slouch in tasks that lean heavily on processor compute performance. The Ryzen 9 6900HS doesn’t seem as capable as the Core i9-12900H overall, but it’s close, and its overall performance is great for a laptop of its size. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

3DMark Time Spy, our first of three graphics tests, delivers expected results. The Slim 7 Pro X is able to trade blows with the Acer Swift X and Asus Vivobook 15 OLED, a pair of competitors that also mesh thin-and-light design with discrete graphics. 

However, the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE springs ahead with its RTX 3060 graphics. This shows there’s still a significant gap between entry-level Nvidia RTX graphics and mid-range gaming solutions like the RTX 3060.

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Lenovo Slim 7 Pro X and Acer Swift X also fall significantly behind the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. However, both slim laptops manage to achieve over 60 FPS, with the Lenovo Slim 7 Pro X hitting an average of 63 FPS. That’s high enough to offer an enjoyable experience.

IDG / Matthew Smith

Metro Exodus, which is more demanding, pushes the Slim 7 Pro X beyond its limits. The problem here appears to be video memory: the Slim 7 Pro X does not appear to have enough to handle the game at these settings and, as a result, performance jumps off a cliff. The benchmark was unstable, as well, which again hints at a video memory limitation. 

I tried a few other games out of curiosity and saw results in line with these benchmarks. The most interesting was Cyberpunk 2077, which averaged an almost-playable 27 FPS at 1080p and Ultra detail. Bumping detail down to High makes the game playable above 30 FPS. If RTX ray-tracing is turned on, however, the average plummets to just 10 FPS at 1080p and Ultra detail (with DLSS off). 

The Lenovo Slim 7 X Pro X’s graphics performance may disappoint gamers, but it’s important to take the laptop’s size and design into account. The RTX 3050 in this laptop isn’t great for the most demanding modern games, but it’s fine for older titles, and offers a boost in productivity applications that support GPU compute. It’s right on par with other slim performance laptops including the Acer Swift X and Asus Vivobook 15 OLED. 

Battery life

Lenovo equips the Slim 7 Pro X with a respectable 70 watt-hour battery. That’s a reasonable, though not massive, battery for a 14-inch laptop that could be overwhelmed by the combination of a Ryzen 9 6900HS processor and Nvidia RTX 3050 graphics solution.

IDG / Matthew Smith

Fortunately, the laptop offsets power consumption with Nvidia Optimus switchable graphics, which switches to the integrated AMD Radeon graphics when additional graphics power isn’t required. 

This provides nine hours and 37 minutes of battery life. It’s a healthy result and adequate for travel though, as noted in the graph, a couple hours off the best results found in similar competitors. 

Conclusion

Lenovo’s Slim 7 Pro X has broad appeal. It’s an excellent laptop for prosumers who want one do-it-all laptop for productivity, portability, and light gaming. Yet it should also hold the attention of professionals who want a functional, portable laptop that can handle heavy tasks like video editing or render workloads. 

The Slim 7 Pro X does have a few flaws. Connectivity is weak due to the lack of Thunderbolt 4, Ethernet, or a dedicated video-out port. Display quality is good but can’t match OLED alternatives. And the laptop’s battery life, while passable, falls slightly behind the pack.

These issues are minor, though, and not hard to forgive given the Slim 7 Pro X’s strong overall performance, attractive design, and competitive pricing. It’s an excellent option for prosumers and professionals who want most of the benefits of a premium laptop, like the MacBook Pro 14 or Dell XPS 15, below $2,000.