FEBRUARY 2021 PCWorld 67The IdeaPad Slim 7’s battery life fell a little
short of our expectations, and the laptop’s
staid design, while pleasingly slim, won’t
wow anybody (which shouldn’t surprise
anyone familiar with Lenovo’s IdeaPad line).
Still, it offers a good feature set for this price
range (or even cheaper, if you can grab
Lenovo’s “instant” discount).
CONFIGURATION
Lenovo offers five versions of the IdeaPad Slim
7, ranging from our unit (82A4000MUS) to a
$1,130 (or $1,017 post-discount) version with
a Core i7-1065G7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, a
512GB SSD, and an integrated Intel Iris Plus
GPU. There are also IdeaPad Slim 7 models
powered by AMD Ryzen 4000-series chips
(here’s our performance preview [go.
pcworld.com/ls7p]), but Lenovo is currently
out of stock. More units are in the pipeline,
we’re told.
Here are the detailed specifications on the
system we reviewed:
CPU: Quad-core Intel Core i5-1035G1
(Ice Lake)
Memory: 8GB LPDDR3 3200MHz
Graphics: Discrete Nvidia GeForce
MX350
Storage: 512GB SSD
Display: 14-inch FHD (1920x1080) IPS,
300 nits, non-touch
Webcam: 720p
Connectivity: One Thunderbolt 3 port,
one USB SuperSpeed 5Gbps Type-C, two
USB SuperSpeed 5Gbps Type-A, HDMI,
combo audio jack, microSD slot
Networking: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0
Biometrics: IR facial recognition,
fingerprint sensor
Battery capacity: 60.7 Watt-hour
Dimensions: 12.62 x 8.19 x 0.58 inches
Weight: 3.2 pounds (measured), 0.68-
pound AC adapter
Just looking at the specs, this is a rock-
solid configuration for the price, starting with
the peppy Core i5 Ice Lake CPU, the roomy
512GB SSD, and the 8GB of low-power RAM
(though 16GB would have been better). The
discrete MX350 graphics card won’t deliver
silky gaming visuals, but it should do the trick
for content creators.
You also get a reasonably bright 14-inch
full-HD display. It’s non-touch, unfortunately,
although pricier SKUs do offer touchscreens.
The Thunderbolt 3 port is great for connecting
dual 4K displays and speedy external storage,
and a pair of SuperSpeed USB-A ports handle
legacy peripherals. More goodies include
facial and fingerprint biometrics, plus Wi-Fi 6
(time to pull the trigger on that Wi-Fi 6 router
[go.pcworld.com/wf6r] you’ve been pining
for), while the beefy 60.7-Watt-hour battery
promises plenty of battery life (as we’ll see in
our performance section).DESIGN
True to its name, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7’s
0.58-inch profile is svelte, but the laptop’s