It’s been quite some time since Intel announced its 11th-gen laptop processors, complete with the new logo design and Intel Iris Xe graphics. And yet, so far I’ve not gotten my hands on a laptop packing the new processor and iGPU. That all changed when Lenovo sent over the IdeaPad Slim 5i (Rs. 61,990) with all the new goodies that Intel made, and a bunch of typically Lenovo stuff. So, if you’re in the market for a new work laptop that doesn’t break the bank or your back, and you’re considering the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i, here’s our review of the laptop.

Specifications

As is usual with our reviews, let’s take a quick look at the specifications of this laptop before diving into the review.

  • Specifications
  • Design and Build
  • Display
  • Performance
  • Keyboard and Trackpad
  • Ports and Connectivity
  • Battery
  • Pros and Cons

Design and Build

The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i doesn’t seem to be cutting any corners on the design and build aspect. The laptop comes with a typically Lenovo design language, which I like. That means it has a lid with no obnoxiously large branding, just a small Lenovo tag on the left edge. The laptop itself is slim, and feels well built to the touch.

Once you open up the lid as well, the IdeaPad Slim 5i continues to impress. There’s a large 15.6-inch display here (more on that later) surrounded by thin bezels which make the laptop look good. There’s a webcam up top, and I really love Lenovo’s built-in privacy shutter that you can slide over the webcam to cover it up. It’s these little things that make a device feel well thought out.

Moving on to the display, the IdeaPad Slim 5i comes with a 15.6-inch IPS display with a Full HD resolution. You also get a 14-inch option if you want a slightly smaller laptop, but Lenovo sent the bigger one over to us.

It’s a big display, which is great, and it does get bright enough. Although the matte anti-glare finish makes it look slightly less bright; but that’s true for every laptop with a matte screen, and I appreciate anti-glare displays even more now that I’m sitting at home with lighting that wasn’t set up according to actual work setups.

Most of the time I find myself reviewing gaming laptops, which makes benchmarking and testing easier than usual. You can simply play games and note the performance. However, work laptops are slightly more complicated because of the sheer types of work loads you can put them under.

Even here at Beebom, we have people editing videos on Final Cut Pro, making motion graphics with After Effects, writing articles, designing graphics for social media, and a lot more. Clearly, I can’t put this laptop through 4K video editing tasks. What I did do, was use it as my daily driver for a while, which means the usual tasks that I do.

Lenovo has had great keyboards for a while now. I remember reviewing the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i and I really loved that keyboard. This one is just as good. The keys are well spaced out which means you don’t feel cramped while typing, and the key travel and response is pretty great.

I also appreciate Lenovo giving us a full-size keyboard on this laptop as well, similar to the IdeaPad Gaming 3i and laptops like the Legion Y540. Both laptops that I really loved the keyboards on.

Then there’s the trackpad. While I don’t understand why the trackpad is so much to the left on most Lenovo laptops, it’s just a personal issue that I have. Other than that though, this is a good trackpad.

In terms of ports and I/O, this laptop is somewhere between not enough ports and so many ports you don’t know what to do with them. Whether that makes it a perfect selection of ports is something we can discuss in depth another time (it’s not).

However, you do get the basic ports you’d need with this laptop. There are two USB Type-A ports, a USB Type-C port, HDMI, SD card reader and a headphone/mic combo.

Battery

Lastly, the battery. This is where most laptops tend to falter, don’t they? Especially work laptops because they do need to offer good battery life unlike gaming laptops that are usually connected to power anyway for better performance in games.

Pros:

  • Great design
  • Excellent performance
  • Good battery life

Cons:

Should You Buy the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i?

At the end of the day, the question is whether you should buy the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i? Well, if your workflow is all about documents, writing, browsing the web and light Photoshop usage, this laptop is perfect for all of that. It’s not too heavy, which makes it easy to carry to work and back, and it looks and feels quite premium which is great for its price tag of Rs. 61,990.