Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9 review: an affordable OLED laptop

I reviewed the Slim 7i Gen 9 with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H chipset, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 14.0-inch Full HD+ (1920 x 1200) OLED display. That configuration will be available at Costco for $1,000 in late March or early April, and it currently costs $1,116 in the Lenovo store. The base configuration costs $900 with a Core Ultra 5 125H and 16GB of RAM.

Lenovo’s design sensibilities have changed in the last several years, with its iconic ThinkPad black-on-black aesthetic making way for more modern approaches. The company has always offered alternative designs in its mainstream laptops, namely the Yoga and Slim lineups, and now it’s also bringing some continuity.

The Slim 7i Gen 9 is built around the 28-watt Core Ultra 7 155H, the most ubiquitous Meteor Lake chipset to hit laptops in 2024. It’s a 16-core (six Performance, eight Efficient, and two Low Power Efficient), 22-thread chipset running at up to 4.8 GHz. It uses Intel’s latest integrated graphics, Intel Arc, that fall somewhere between the older Intel Iris Xe graphics and entry-level discrete GPUs.

In our suite of benchmarks, the Slim 7i Gen 9 is one of the fastest machines we’ve tested with the Core Ultra 7, at least among similar thin-and-light laptops. It’s significantly faster than the previous-gen 28-watt Intel Core i7-1360P and even the 45-watt Core i7-13700H.

The Slim 7i Gen 9 was particularly impressive in the PCMark 10 Complete benchmark, which runs CPU- and GPU-intensive tests. Its score in the Creation portion of the benchmark that uses the GPU was competitive with laptops running discrete GPUs.

The Slim 7i Gen 9 did all this while remaining relatively cool and quiet. The fans spun up in performance mode, but were reasonably muted, and the chassis never got more than warm to the touch. It’s a laptop that can tackle demanding productivity tasks without working up a sweat. Its Intel Arc performance might be very good for the class, but it’s still not a gaming laptop or one that’s going to please creators who rely on fast GPUs to get their work done.

While the Slim 7i Gen 9 impressed in its performance, it was disappointing in its battery life. OLED displays are generally power-hungry, although Lenovo included a lower-resolution Full HD+ panel that should save somewhat on juice. But the 65 watt-hour battery just wasn’t enough.

In our web-browsing test, the Slim 7i Gen 9 managed just six hours, a disappointing score compared to most modern laptops, which hover around eight hours. The Asus Zenbook 14 Q425 hit 12.5 hours, or twice as long, and the M3 MacBook Air 13 managed a whopping 19.5 hours. The Slim 7i Gen 9 was even more disappointing when looping our test video, hitting just 6.5 hours. That’s about half the average and well behind the Zenbook’s 18 hours.

You’ll be pulling out your charger soon after lunch.

The Slim 7i Gen 9 is the second 14-inch laptop I’ve reviewed with an FHD+ (1920 x 1200) OLED display. The Zenbook 14 Q425 is the other, and that’s quite a bit lower resolution than most others I’ve reviewed with 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED panels. I like sharp text, and so this wasn’t my favorite display, but some people won’t notice the difference. Unfortunately, while the low-res display helped the Zenbook hit excellent battery life, that wasn’t the case here.

Even so, according to my colorimeter, this is a quality display. Brightness was very good at 420 nits, and colors were wide at 100% of sRGB, 95% of AdobeRGB, and 100% of DCI-P3, with excellent accuracy at a DeltaE of 0.9 (less than 1.0 is indistinguishable to the human eye). The contrast was extremely high, as usual for the technology, with inky blacks. The refresh rate was lower at 60Hz — many similar laptop displays are running at 120Hz.

Audio duties are performed by four speakers, two upward-firing and two downward-firing, which I found to be surprisingly quiet at full volume. Mids and highs were fine, and there was even a touch of bass. But the speakers weren’t the best I’ve heard in 14-inch laptops. That distinction likely applies to the MacBook Air.

The Slim 7i Gen 9 would have been a standout laptop a few years ago, offering class-leading performance and an OLED display at midrange and near-budget pricing. Today, it faces a lot more competition, and it’s held back by lesser battery life.

Even so, there’s a lot to like. The keyboard and touchpad are very good, the chassis is solidly built, and it looks good. At its price of $1,050, it offers a great configuration. I can give it a recommendation, and if Lenovo pushes a configuration to around $800, it will rate even higher.

Editors’ Recommendations