Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 (14) review – leaving nothing to the imagination

Okay, guys, we’ve got something special today. Naturally, it is the evolution of the Yoga S740 (14). However, to make it easier (or just for marketing reasons), Lenovo has changed the name to the Yoga Slim 7. Today, we are looking at the 14-inch version, and more particularly – in the AMD iteration of the model. Now, to get it out of the way, this laptop can be purchased with both Intel and AMD processors, as the former is represented by the Ice Lake family, while the latter… well, we’ve got the latest 4000 series Ryzen ULV processors.

This should speak by itself. However, it is not only the specs that look exciting. We’ve got a 1080p IPS display with a supposed 100% sRGB coverage (we’ll see that in a moment), and this particular model comes with a maximum of 16GB of (wait for it) 4266 MHz LPDDR4x RAM. What about that!

So, let’s skip all of the teasings and get straight into it, shall we?

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-yoga-slim-7-14-amd/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 (14", AMD) - Specs

  • Innolux N140HCG-EQ1
  • Color accuracy  2.3  1.1
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 1000GB SSD
  • M.2 Slot
  • 1x 2280 M.2 NVMe slot/1x 2242 M.2 NVMe slot  See photo
  • RAM
  • up to 16GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Home, Windows OS
  • Battery
  • 60.7Wh
  • Body material
  • Aluminum
  • Dimensions
  • 320.6 x 208.2 x 15.1 mm (12.62" x 8.20" x 0.59")
  • Weight
  • 1.33 kg (2.9 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), Power Delivery (PD)
  • 2x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps)
  • HDMI
  • 2.0b
  • Card reader
  • MicroSD
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5 mm combo
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Dual-Array Microphone
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2W, Dolby Audio
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, you’ll find a 65Wh USB Type-C charger and some paper manuals.


Design and construction

Thankfully, the build quality remains on a top-level. This laptop is entirely built out of aluminum, while the display features an optional glass cover. Interestingly, the glass cover reduces the profile of the device to 14.9mm (15.1mm for the standard version), while it increases the weight – 1.40 kg (1.33 kg for the standard). Usually, the thin body has the disadvantage of less structural integrity. Although there is some visible flex to the machine when you force it, there are no squeaky sounds, whatsoever.

Thankfully, its lid can be opened with a single hand, and it has a slight protrusion (or a notch), which makes it easier to lift it. Additionally, our unit was pretty resistant to axial forces. However, it might well be because of the glass cover.

Next, there is the keyboard. Honestly, you shouldn’t expect a mechanical level of comfort. The key travel is a little short, but the feedback is clicky and the overall size of the keycaps is good. Additionally, the Up and Down arrow keys are still halved and they house the Page Up and Down keys, through a combination with the Function button.

Below it, you’ll see a rather small touchpad with a glass surface and great gliding properties. Additionally, it has natural levels of resistance when clicked, thus making it really comfortable and seamless to use. And now – the icing on the cake. Lenovo has retained the front-firing speakers. By the way, the Power On/Off button is located on the right side of the device and it houses an optional fingerprint reader.

This leaves the bottom plate home to only the ventilation grills, while the heat is driven away from two cut-outs located between the lid and the base.

Ports

On the left side of the notebook, you can notice a USB Type-C port used for charging (and data transfer), an HDMI 2.0b connector (supporting 4096x2160p @60Hz), another USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen. 2) port, which can also be used for charging and supports DisplayPort 1.4b output with a maximum resolution of 5120x2880p @60Hz, and lastly – an audio jack. Then, on the right, you’ll see the Power button/fingerprint reader combo, two USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) ports, and a MicroSD reader. Ultimately, you won’t see Thunderbolt connection on the AMD version (despite the label next to the second Type-C port suggests otherwise), as currently this technology is still reserved for mostly Intel devices.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

When it comes to disassembling this notebook, Lenovo couldn’t have made it easier. There are 7 Torx-head screws you need to remove, and then you just have to pry the bottom panel away.

Cooling-wise, we see a single, thick heat pipe, leading to two heat spreaders. Furthermore, there are two relatively small-sized fans which blow the heat away.

As of the upgradability, you won’t be able to change the memory on your device. It comes in two variants, comprising either 8GB or 16GB of LPDDR4x memory modules, working at the blazingly quick 4266 MHz. And although we see two M.2 PCIe x4 slots, we learned from Lenovo’s official specs, that you can only use one at a time. Such a shame.

And last but not least, there is a 60.7Wh battery inside.


Display quality

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 (14) sports a Full HD IPS display, model number Innolux N140HCG-EQ1 (LEN889C). Its diagonal is 14″ (35.56 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 157 ppi, their pitch – 0.161 x 0.161 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 56 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

Its viewing angles are excellent. We have provided images at 45 degrees to evaluate quality.

The maximum measured brightness is 270 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 268 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of only 5%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6880K (average) – slightly colder 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 81% Brightness (White level = 142 cd/m2, Black level = 0.07 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 exceptional – 2000:1 (1970:1 after profiling).

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 in 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 (14)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers just 98% 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.

According to our tests, the gamma curve is flat across all grey levels, with an average value of 2.23.

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 (14) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display can reproduce 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 = 30 ms – the panel is on the slow side.


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 (14)’s display doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment. This makes it comfortable for long working periods.

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.

Conclusions

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 (14) is equipped with a good quality display. It has a Full HD resolution, excellent contrast ratio, comfortable viewing angles, adequate default settings and it doesn’t flicker. Additionally, it almost fully (98%) covers the sRGB color gamut, and more importantly, with the help of our Gaming and Web design profile, it is able to deliver a standard-matching color accuracy. This, respectively, makes the laptop extremely appetizing for designers, photographers, and practically everyone that values the accurate color representation.

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 7 (14) configurations with 14.0″ Innolux N140HCG-EQ1 (LEN889C) (FHD, 1920 × 1080) 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.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 (14)’s speakers produce a sound with very good quality, but it has some deviations from clarity.


Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities can be downloaded from here: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/yoga-series/yoga-slim-7-14are05/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. We got 15 hours of Web browsing and 14 hours and 45 minutes of video playback from this unit.


CPU options

Usually, you could find the laptop in two iterations – with AMD and Intel processors. Those dressed in Blue feature three CPUs from the Ice Lake family – the Core i5-1035G1, the Core i5-1035G4, and the Core i7-1065G7. Respectively the AMD version (the one we got), can be purchased with the latest Ryzen ULV processors. This includes the Ryzen 5 4500U (6c/6t), Ryzen 5 4600U (6c/12t), Ryzen 7 4700U (8c/8t), Ryzen 7 4800U (8c/16t).


GPU options

So, the AMD models come with integrated Radeon Graphics. It features 6 “GPU cores” on the two Ryzen 5 CPUs, 7 “GPU cores” on the Ryzen 7 4700U and 8 “GPU cores” on the flagship for the model – Ryzen 7 4800U.

As of the Intel side, there you have a little bit more options. They consist of the two integrated options the Intel UHD Graphics and the Iris Plus Graphics (G4 and G7), as well as the GeForce MX330 and MX350, both equipped with 2GB of GDDR5 memory.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS109 fps76 fps53 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS111 fps73 fps42 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 4500U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 (14)3.29 GHz (B+43%) @ 74°C3.32 GHz (B+44%) @ 88°C2.53 GHz (B+10%) @ 63°C

To be honest, we weren’t expecting to see such a high clock speed maintained for 15 minutes of Prime95. What is even more impressive is, that the notebook was able to sustain 3.30 GHz for more than 30 seconds. Additionally, the temperatures were managed, as you can see from the next section.

Comfort during full load

Indeed, the maximum temperature on the outside of the device was merely 33C. Initially, the notebook seems loud under heavy loads, but when it settles down to 2.53 GHz, the noise falls as well. This is mainly due to the power throttling, where the CPU goes down to 11W from 31W in the first two checkpoints.


Verdict

Okay, we kind of knew what to expect, but to say that we were impressed by this notebook would be an understatement. Yes, there are some downsides, like the lack of memory upgrades for example, but at the end of the day, this laptop houses the best ultrabook processors you can find out in the wild.

Even though we got the medium-tier processor like the Ryzen 5 4500U, which has six cores but doesn’t even use hyperthreading, we got a better CPU performance than a gaming laptop (like the Predator Triton 300 (PT315-52)) with a brand new Core i5-10300H. And we are talking about a considerably big difference.

Apparently, even the 15W Ryzen 4000 CPUs are now the go-to CPUs out there, and AMD is clearly ruling the laptop world right now. In addition to the fast processors, you get an extremely fast memory (although soldered), which goes up to 4266 MHz. Another thing about this notebook is that it delivers a great battery life. We are talking about 15 hours of Web browsing and 14 hours and 45 minutes of video playback. And if you happen to play games on the battery, you’re going to drain it in 2 hours and a half, so keep that in mind.

By the way, speaking of playing games, the integrated GPU of this processor was able to provide similar performance to the GeForce MX230, which is also, something worth considering.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 (14) is equipped with a good quality display (Innolux N140HCG-EQ1). It has a Full HD resolution, excellent contrast ratio, comfortable viewing angles, adequate default settings and it doesn’t flicker. Additionally, it almost fully (98%) covers the sRGB color gamut, and more importantly, with the help of our Gaming and Web design profile, it is able to deliver a standard-matching color accuracy. This, respectively, makes the laptop extremely appetizing for designers, photographers, and practically everyone that values the accurate color representation.

Also, it has a duo of front-firing speakers, with Dobly Atmos certification, great volume, and decent quality. Additionally, you can configure the notebook with a fingerprint reader (embedded into the Power On/Off button), as well as an IR face recognition system.

Ultimately, if you go for this notebook, you can’t go wrong. And the only reason for you to abstain would be if you really need more than 16GB of memory.

Pros

  • Sleek and premium all-aluminum design with a good build quality
  • PCIe x4 support and a MicroSD card reader
  • Superfast LPDDR4x 4266 MHz memory onboard
  • The display doesn’t flicker at any brightness level (Innolux N140HCG-EQ1)
  • Has a good contrast ratio and comfortable viewing angles (Innolux N140HCG-EQ1)
  • Great for designers with 98% of sRGB coverage and accurate color representation (thanks to our Gaming and Web design profile) (Innolux N140HCG-EQ1)
  • Incredible performance for an ultrabook
  • Optional fingerprint reader and IR face recognition system


Cons

  • RAM is soldered to the motherboard

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-yoga-slim-7-14-amd/

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Peter
Peter
3 years ago

Regarding lack of Thunderbolt 3:
1) I have an HP Thunderbolt 3 station with 2xDP, VGA, Ethernet. Will the Ethernet port work?
2) Will using both DP ports simultaneously on the station work, for using two monitors? If so, what is max resolution? (I*ve got two 1440 monitors)

Sam
Sam
3 years ago

I do wonder why this laptop is called the “Yoga slim 7” if it’s not really a yoga ( it doesn’t convert into a tablet which yogas usually do.

Dan
Dan
3 years ago
Reply to  Sam

Back when Yoga brand has been introduced only 2 in 1 laptops were part of it. Several years ago Lenovo started to use the Yoga brand for all their high class laptops, i.e. series 7 and 9. Examples of Yoga laptops that are clam shell type: s730, s740 and s940.

Dan
Dan
3 years ago

Are you sure the USB C charging port is 3.1 gen 2? I got my Yoga Slim 7 today and the charging port supports data transfer at USB 2.0 speeds. My external SSD got ~42MB/s compared to ~880MB/s when connected to the real USB C 3.1 gen 2 port.

Also, I got a smaller and rounder power supply. It still has 65W like the one you have in your review.

It seems that you can use both M.2 slots simultaneously and both are 4x PCIe. There is a video on youtube about that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewsqux6Td6E

kasai
3 years ago
Reply to  Dan

just use another usb c port

Jonathan
Jonathan
3 years ago

Hi
What is the exact size of the trackpad? The only thing i would miss on this laptop is a numpad and i’m wondering if a Xiaomi Nums would be compatible.
Thanks!

V_L
V_L
3 years ago

Does the reviewed model have the glossy or matte display? I’ve noticed that this laptop has both options.

Aron Olsen
Aron Olsen
3 years ago

I have just purchased a Lenovo Yoga Slim 82A20057MX laptop. The specs I have read so far says it has 1 ram slot equipped with 16 Gb. Does this mean hat I can upgrade this to 32 Gb?

Lakshya Agarwal
Lakshya Agarwal
3 years ago

Can I add fingerprint? And my face recognition is deleted, so plz tell me where I can find it

Julie
5 months ago

If you will purchase the replacement battery for Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 (14),Without carefully checking the old battery model and shape, you will definitely buy the wrong battery.