Review: Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x

Laptops are supposed to be getting more expensive this year. Supply chain shortages and general inflation, which affects nearly everything we buy, have caused prices to rise.

Then comes along the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x, an unsuspecting laptop that masterfully balances its features, price, and quality. If this laptop were $400 more, I'd still say it's a decent deal. At $850, it's a straight-up MacBook Air killer and one of the best laptops you can buy.

Everything You Need

The look of this laptop isn't necessarily unique. A basic silver chassis with some of the Lenovo-isms we've come to expect, including the reverse notch on the lid that houses the webcam. But the screen size is really interesting. It's a 15.3-inch screen, which slots in between the typical 14- and 16-inch display options on Windows laptops. But it's the perfect antidote to the 15-inch MacBook Air, a laptop that's $400 more expensive. That's despite coming with the same 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage.

Photograph: Luke Larsen

But one of the positive things with the 15.3-inch screen is that Lenovo didn't try to squeeze in a number pad. No, no. Just a standard keyboard layout with a centered touchpad and an adequate amount of room for your wrists. And yet, this also doesn't feel like an overly large laptop. The width and depth dimensions are nearly identical to the 15-inch MacBook Air, and it's only about 0.16 inches thicker. It's definitely a backpackable and travel-worthy device.

And here's where the remaining compromises are surprisingly few and far in-between. One of the first things I test with budget laptops is the touchpad. Cheap Windows laptops have notoriously awful touchpads, and it's one of the important parts of a laptop that can't be spelled out in the specs. I'm happy to report that the IdeaPad Slim 5x has a better tracking surface than most other laptops at this price. Performance is far better than on the HP OmniBook 3 or OmniBook 5. It's certainly more responsive than the Asus Vivobook 14. I'd say it's more or less on par with the Dell 14 Plus from last year, though that laptop has received a price increase in recent months. The sound of the click is my only real complaint about the IdeaPad Slim 5x's touchpad. It's too loud. I'll take a responsive surface over a quiet click any day, but if you work in an office with coworkers, they might get annoyed by it.

Photograph: Luke Larsen

I was also surprised by how the speakers sounded. They didn't blow me away, but compared to the average set of speakers on an average Windows laptop at this price, they're impressive. Of course, even a 13-inch MacBook Air sounds undoubtedly fuller and bassier, but these are at least serviceable. The webcam doesn't fare as well. It's really only adequate in good lighting.

It Only Gets Better

The Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Plus is no M5 killer—that's for sure. Despite improvements to the GPU this time around, the Apple M5 is still in another league. But Qualcomm is closing the gap with CPU performance, even if the M5 remains the undisputed champion. I'd say that is a bigger deal in laptops designed with performance in mind, but here, that's not as much an issue. You aren't buying an $850 to be a full-time video producer, AI junkie, or esports gamer. For the things the IdeaPad Slim 5x is designed for, it excels.

My normal workflow consists of juggling a full load of work apps, dozens of browser tabs, and probably some music and video streaming simultaneously. The X2 Plus didn't skip a beat. I came away convinced that there's more performance than what most people will even need. That's especially impressive since the X2 Plus is a step down from the more powerful X2 Elite (or X2 Elite Enhanced), which is partially how Qualcomm and Lenovo were able to get the price down.

The display is also an aspect of this laptop that surprised me. It's brighter and more colorful than most laptops at this price, and the addition of a touchscreen is handy. While I don't typically like matte screens, the IdeaPad Slim 5x's more subtle anti-glare coating made this display feel premium and clear–just without the heavy reflections.

While I was happy with the base display I was given to review, the upgrade on offer is actually really affordable, too. Currently, it's only a $30 jump to get an even brighter OLED 2560 x 1600 screen that's HDR-ready. That'll get you better color accuracy, too, as it wasn't a strong suit for the model I tested. Because it was just 1920 x 1200, it's also not as sharp as the MacBook Neo, for example. The OLED model takes care of all that, though, and for the price of the upgrade, it's a no-brainer. Regardless of which display you get, it comes with a fast 120-Hz refresh rate. Again, that's a rare feature at this price.

And finally, there's battery life. The previous generation Snapdragon X devices already came with excellent battery life, and the current Snapdragon X2 laptops continue that trend. In a local video playback test, the system lasted over 22 hours in a single charge. That's a very light workload, but it shows the upper range of battery life. My standard workflow cut that in half, but I still found myself able to easily make it through more than a full workday, with plenty of battery left to spare.

Photograph: Luke Larsen

I have a few small gripes with the IdeaPad Slim 5x, though. I already mentioned the overly loud touchpad click. And for some reason, Lenovo also put the power button on the side of the device instead of on the keyboard. That always leads to accidental presses, which is frustrating. And as always, I have to bring up the lack of a charging port on the right side. It has a nice array of ports, including HDMI, two USB-A, two USB-C, a headphone jack, and a micro-SD card slot. All those USB ports can all do 10 Gbps too. The only shame is that both USB-C ports are on the left side.

The fact that I'm complaining about port placement and other minor details on an $850 laptop shows just well Lenovo nailed this one. As a brand new device, we may even see that price drop in the future, which will sweeten the deal on this already-great laptop.