Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon laptop review: For life on the go

After years of stagnation, the laptop industry is showing a rapid rising trend. Although credit for the concept of the world’s first portable computer was given to Alan Kay in 1968, the Epson HX-20 was the world’s first laptop when it was launched in 1981. Well, Epson owes my (and the world's) eternal gratitude. But the laptop industry isn’t what it used to be. Nowadays, the whole world is investing in a gaming laptop and that makes sense if it's what you do daily. But do you really want to carry a bulky machine on your daily commute to the office when there’s a lighter, more compact option available?

This is where the modern ultra-light laptops come in. In this segment, the MacBook Air is a well-known staple, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Brands like Lenovo, Dell and others offer similar, if not better options too.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon is one such machine which combines power and portability in one small, sleek package. But at the hefty price tag of Rs. 131990, does it offer enough substance to convince users to go and grab one? I spent two weeks with the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon and here’s how it fared.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon: Design

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon gets its name from its build material – carbon fiber. The laptop is built using Carbon Fiber Webcore 2.0 and utilizes aerospace-grade magnesium-aluminum alloy for its chassis. Lenovo has excellently combined both the materials to produce an ultralight and portable laptop. It gets a backlit keyboard with a good amount of travel. Weighing just 0.97 Kgs, the Lenovo Slim 7i is more than 200 gm lighter than the world’s most popular portable laptop, the MacBook Air. The laptop feels light as a feather even after long sessions of using it on your lap.

However, this ultra-light nature of the laptop has some downsides too as the majority of the ports have vanished. You only get a Thunderbolt 4 port on one side and a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port on the other. Although Lenovo has provided a USB Hub which has all the necessary ports like USB 3.0, HDMI, headphone jack and more, it becomes a hassle to carry it around and could become a headache if you lose it.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon: Display

This is one area where the Achilles heel of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon is noticeable. Lenovo has ditched the gorgeous OLED display for a 13-inch Anti-glare IPS PureSight display. Although Lenovo has backed up this change by providing support for up to 2.5K resolution, 400 nits brightness and a 90Hz refresh rate, you do miss the punchy colours that are standard of OLED displays. This does not mean the colour accuracy is bad. In fact, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon features 100% sRGB colour space coverage and even comes with TUV Rheinland Hardware Low Blue Light certification. The display gets bright enough and is great for not only day-to-day use, but long binge-watching sessions too.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon: Performance

Despite being an ultra-thin and portable laptop, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon is a mighty powerful machine. It is powered by the 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1260P processor paired with 16 GB Soldered LPDDR5 RAM, and it performs like one. Never once did I feel a performance lag in my two weeks of usage which included long sessions of MS Office use, web browsing and binge-watching Netflix. Although it is not a gaming machine, light games can be handled by the laptop without much hassle.

With support for Dolby Atmos, the speakers on the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon get loud enough, although you might still require separate headphones while in public areas. For storage, you get a 1 TB PCIe Gen4/4 M.2 SSD which ensures swift access to your data. The Lenovo Vantage app assimilates all the relevant information about the laptop in one package and you can use it to change various system settings and install updates.

Although the lack of a fingerprint reader is disappointing, you do get facial recognition via Windows Hello.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon: Battery life

Laptops never tend to have a good battery life and although it isn’t necessarily the case with the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon, it is nowhere near the monstrous battery life on Apple’s MacBook Air. You get a 4-cell, 50Wh battery which Lenovo claims lasts up to 10 hours. However, in my day-to-day usage, it barely made it past the 7-hour mark without begging me to plug it in. Although this is more than enough for general office work, long flights without access to an outlet could spell trouble.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon: Verdict

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon is an ultralight laptop made from Carbon Fiber Webcore 2.0 and aerospace-grade magnesium-aluminum alloy, weighing just 0.97 Kgs. It comes with a backlit keyboard and a high-performance 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1260P processor paired with 16 GB Soldered LPDDR5 RAM. However, the slim design has downsides, such as limited ports and the absence of a fingerprint reader. The laptop features an anti-glare IPS PureSight display with 2.5K resolution, 400 nits brightness, and 90Hz refresh rate, but no OLED display. The battery life lasts up to 10 hours on paper but falls short in everyday use, lasting just over 7 hours. So, if you’re searching for a perfect laptop for your day-to-day usage, then the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon, at its price tag of Rs. 131990, is one of the best options you can consider.