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It must be a cold day down there, because I bought an AMD laptop...Again...And it's a Lenovo!

Remember when I posted about the AMD powered Lenovo Ideapad Slim 7 in the thread Re: Chinese company Xiaomi launches AMD Renoir powered laptop range UNDER $700, but will anyone outs...‌ and how I posted in another thread I wouldn't buy an AMD laptop because of how us X370 users were being treated with Zen 3? Well...I bought one. Intel laptops under $1000 have too many compromises, chief among them is the lack of any kind of graphics. AMD laptops are rare under this price point with anything other than slow processors, and those which do have faster models either have garbage screens or garbage batteries.

Enter stage left, the IdeaPad Slim 7.

  • The only preinstalled software it has is the Lenovo Advantage Windows Store app, so there is no bloatware, even so I did a clean install with a Windows 10 1909 ISO and upgraded to Pro for $10, love the Covid-19 induced cheap key sales, grabbed Windows 10 Pro and Office Pro 2019 for $36 which people who read WCCFTech's stuff every day will have seen those deals too.
  • Lacks dedicated graphics, but the 4700U isn't exactly a slouch as far as integrated graphics go. It's not a 1080p60 max details laptop, but it is primarily an entertainment and productivity laptop. It's also locked to 512MB dedicated RAM and 3.7gb of shared RAM, which will hamper performance.
  • Has a 100% sRGB screen, and is definitely as good, if not better, than my former Surface Pro 3.
  • Has a giant battery, which, combined with the power sipping 4700U means that it has great battery life, especially in darker rooms with brightness at 10%. It also has a feature which caps the battery at 55-60% to extend battery lifetime if you use it primarily plugged in, since a LiON battery at 50-60% is under much less stress than at 100%.
  • Only has 8GB of RAM. It's fast RAM, LPDDR4X 4266, though.
  • 512GB SSD, and it is NVMe. There's also a MicroSD slot, though cards stick out slightly. AS SSD identifies it as a WDC PC SN730, and gets 1430/661 MB read/write sequential while on battery. Slower than WD rates it for, but then again it's rare that any drive in the real world matches its rating.

All in all it's a great laptop. It's currently sold out, but it's a rare combination of a fast AMD processor, great screen, great battery, and great storage for under $1000, actually under $900.

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-700-series/IdeaPad-Slim-7-14ARE05/p/88IPS701400

12 Replies

Awesome! Hope you enjoy your new laptop!

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Already like it more than my Surface Pro 3, though it has its little annoyances like everything. The backlight on the keyboard can't dim down very low, and there is a bit of backlight bleed.

I have read rumors that the incoming Renoir desktop chips are simply repackaged Ryzen 4000 series mobile parts with higher clocks and TDPs, and if that's true it's going to make APUs a much more viable option than before, though it's still going to be limited to certain motherboards unless AMD mandates a DisplayPort and HDMI output option on all motherboards going forward. I could see this being accomplished via a header and PCI slot item since most boards already have fully packed rear connectors.

Can you add ram or an additional NVME drive?

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Can't add more RAM as it's LPDDR4X, a mobile soldered form factor.

I don't believe there's a second NVMe slot, but I haven't opened it up since that'd require removing of the rubber feet.

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I have seen some laptops that have soldered on ram and then an additional empty slot for another dimm.

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pokester wrote:

I have seen some laptops that have soldered on ram and then an additional empty slot for another dimm.

I have seen lots of that sort of stuff. 

An old Toshiba had one memory stick soldered and limied the capacity of the second one.

Now were are they? HP gives full specs on their machines, so repairability is excellent. HP is popular because it can be fixed.

Dell is still behind the curve compared to HP but they are better than they used to be.

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As have I, but not any which feature LPDDR4X as the soldered in RAM. The Acer Swift 3, which has essentially the same configuration except with a smaller battery and garbage screen, likely shares the same layout without any SODIMM slots, which would make sense since the LPDDR4X runs at a higher frequency and lower voltage than currently available SODIMMs.

Also, something interesting, Lenovo has discontinued this laptop already. The Yoga Slim 7 is still on their UK site, which is the same laptop with Windows 10 Pro instead of Home and will have additional configurations.

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I do like the Lenovo laptops. My wife has 13 inch Yoga that is about 5 years old. Back then it was one of a few that had a 1080p touch screen. It is an i7 version and is still pretty quick for a laptop. Only has the intel graphics though. Even their cheaper stuff is pretty decent quality for what you pay IMHO. 

I am sure you will enjoy your new toy. 

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pokester wrote:

I do like the Lenovo laptops. My wife has 13 inch Yoga that is about 5 years old. Back then it was one of a few that had a 1080p touch screen. It is an i7 version and is still pretty quick for a laptop. Only has the intel graphics though. Even their cheaper stuff is pretty decent quality for what you pay IMHO. 

I am sure you will enjoy your new toy. 

My MacBook Retina has even more than 1080p screen resolution. It has Intel HD 5500 graphics which is enough to handle OS X or Windows as desired.

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Just hope we get a second stimulus check so I can pay for it

There are shops in China I am aware of who will ship phones, laptops and anything else they have for sale anywhere on the planet.

I have lots of Lenovo machines and they are durable with some maintenance. Upgraded to 8GB makes Windows 10 run on even 10 year old machines fine.

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Just wanted to add that it was lacking an advertised feature, the privacy shutter for the webcam. They refunded me $55.

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