But one of the positives with the 15.3-inch screen is that Lenovo didn’t try to squeeze in the number pad. No, no. Just a standard keyboard layout with a centered touchpad and enough room for your hands. And yet, this also doesn’t feel like an overly bulky laptop. The width and depth dimensions are almost identical to the 15-inch MacBook Air, and it’s only about 0.16 inches thick. It is definitely a portable and travel-friendly device.
And this is where the remaining compromises are surprisingly few and far between. One of the first things I try with budget laptops is the touchpad. Cheap Windows laptops have terrific touches, and are one of the most important parts of a laptop that cannot be described in specifications. I’m happy to report that the IdeaPad Slim 5x has a better monitor area than most laptops at this price. Performance is much better than on HP OmniBook 3 or OmniBook 5. It’s definitely more responsive than Asus Vivobook 14. I would say it’s more or less in line with Dell 14 Plus from last year, although the laptop has received a price increase in recent months. The click sound is my only real complaint about the IdeaPad Slim 5x’s touch. It sounds great. I’ll take a quiet click any day, but if you work in an office with coworkers, they might get annoyed by it.
Photo: Luke Larsen
I was also surprised by how well the speakers sounded. They didn’t blow me away, but compared to the average set of speakers on a Windows laptop at this price, they’re impressive. Of course, even the 13-inch MacBook Air sounds decidedly fuller and bassier, but these are usable at least. The webcam is also not working. It’s really just enough in good lighting.
It Only Gets Better
Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Plus is not an M5 killer – that’s for sure. Despite the GPU improvements 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’s a big deal in laptops designed with performance in mind, but here, that’s not a big issue. $850 doesn’t buy you a full-time video producer, AI junkie, or esports player. For the things that the IdeaPad Slim 5x is designed for, it has quality.
My typical workflow consists of handling a full load of work applications, several browser tabs, and maybe streaming music and video at the same time. The X2 Plus didn’t skip a beat. I came away convinced that there is more functionality than most people will need. That’s quite surprising since the X2 Plus is a step down from the more powerful X2 Elite (or X2 Elite Enhanced), which is partly how Qualcomm and Lenovo were able to lower the price.
The display is also a part of this laptop that surprised me. It’s brighter and more colorful than most laptops at this price, and adding a touch screen is easy. While I don’t normally like matte screens, the IdeaPad Slim 5x’s anti-glare coating made this display crisp and clear—without heavy reflections.
