Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5-15 laptop review - Great value for money with an AMD SoC and an aluminum case

The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5 15 is an affordable everyday laptop that offers users a good total package. Its high-quality case and long battery life were particularly impressive during our test. Boasting a runtime of more than 14 hours in our WLAN test, the IdeaPad clearly set itself apart from its competitors and its matte IPS display features accurate colors as well as full sRGB coverage, making editing images no problem at all. Its brightness of 300 nits is sufficient for indoor use, but there will be some limitations outside.

The performance of the Ryzen 7 processor and the Radeon 680M GPU is perfectly fine and 16 GB of RAM should be enough for most everyday tasks. Unfortunately, the device's RAM can't be expanded, but you can install two M.2 2280 SSDs.

In addition to the soldered-on RAM, the somewhat high-frequency fan is one of the IdeaPad's weak points. It should also be noted that no operating system is pre-installed, which will in many cases result in additional costs. Even so, the IdeaPad Slim 5 15 is a great choice for just over $600, especially for students who have access to Windows via their university.

Lenovo's IdeaPad Slim 5 15 is a 15-inch everyday laptop costing just over $600. For this price, you get an aluminum case, an AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS, 16 GB RAM, a 512 GB SSD and a matte IPS display with full sRGB coverage. However, it should be noted that the laptop comes delivered without an operating system.

Our first contact with the IdeaPad Slim 5 15 left us pleasantly surprised, as the design of the flat device reminds us somewhat of the Apple MacBook Air 15. Despite its low price, it uses aluminum (lid & base plate), but the palm rest is made of plastic. Its silver-colored surfaces are not particularly susceptible to fingerprints and its overall design looks super high-quality. We noted no problems with its stability or build quality—except the hinges can't entirely prevent the display from rocking ever so slightly. On the other hand, the lid can be opened easily with one hand and its maximum opening angle is around 170 degrees.

With a weight of just over 1.5 kg and a thickness of 15.6 mm, the IdeaPad is easy to transport. The bottom cover can be easily removed and there are two slots for M.2 2280 SSDs next to the WLAN module, so you can easily upgrade its storage capacity. The RAM (LPDDR5x-6400) is soldered on and cannot be expanded.

Its connectivity options include all the most important ports for everyday use, but you'll have to do without USB 4.0. The laptop's microSD card reader (no spring mechanism, cards stick out by 0.5 cm) achieves decent transfer rates, but its WLAN module (Wi-Fi 6 at 80 MHz) is limited to around 1 Gbit/s. The 1080p webcam fulfills its purpose and also features a cover and an IR module for facial recognition; Microsoft's Studio Effects are not supported. 

Lenovo hasn't provided any information on the CO₂ footprint produced during the laptop's production, but 0.5 tons of CO₂ is offset. The device also fulfills various environmental certifications (Energy Star 8.0, EPEAT Gold). The packaging is made entirely from recyclable materials and 50% recycled aluminum is used for the laptop itself. Lenovo has provided a maintenance/repair manual.

The IdeaPad offers various energy profiles that can be switched between via the Vantage app or the key combination Fn+Q. We conducted the following benchmarks and measurements using the adaptive energy mode (Auto).

The AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS features 8 cores (Zen3+) with 16 threads and a maximum clock speed of 4.75 GHz. The processor is of course no longer brand new, but its multi-core performance in particular is still good, coming ahead of the comparison devices. To provide a better comparison, we have also included the Dell XPS 13 with its current Lunar Lake processor Core Ultra 7 256V, which was slower in multi-core tests, but had a head start in the single-core tests. All in all, however, the performance of the 7735HS is perfectly adequate for everyday tasks. Its performance also stays stable both under prolonged load and in battery mode. Further CPU benchmarks are available in our tech section.

Despite its low price, the IdeaPad is a responsive device during everyday use, which is of course in part due to the installed SSD. Its benchmark results were decent and there were no problems with system stability during the test.