Lenovo goes MacBook Neo: Hands-on review with Lenovo's best-looking $699 laptop
Benjamin Herzig Published
Laptop Launch Zen 5 Wildcat Lake Windows Snapdragon X Series ARM AMD
IFAThere have been many claimants for the title of MacBook Neo competitor. The great success of Apple's most affordable MacBook laptop has certainly rocked the market in 2026, with the PC manufacturers not really being able to immediately respond.
A few months later, it seems like the big fish of the laptop world have found their footing again. Although it is maybe unfair to attribute everything to the Neo, as product development cycles are typically measured in years, not months, the emergence of more budget friendly systems with attractive is likely less than a coincidence.
Case in point: The new Lenovo IdeaPad Vibe that Lenovo has unveiled at IFA 2026 in Berlin. This new laptop series will be available in 14- and 15-inch, and it sports one of the most interesting designs of the IFA laptop crop. We were able to have some hands-on time with the 14-inch version.
Colors, keys and aluminum: Expressive Lenovo laptop design
One problem many affordable Windows laptops have: they feel cheap. This is something that the Lenovo IdeaPad Vibe mostly avoids, by utilizing aluminum for the screen and bottom cover. The laptop feels solid, and even the plastic palmrest does not feel cheap. Plus, the hinges allow single-handed opening.
Of course, Lenovo also had to make compromises to reach the attractive $700 price point. There is a version with a plastic bottom cover instead, and while there is a backlit keyboard, a feature that the MacBook Neo does not offer, it is only optional.
The 1.35 mm travel keyboard is also the focus in another way, as Lenovo takes the colorful design to the next level here. The IdeaPad Vibe will be available in seven colors, but Lenovo will also offer color-matching keyboard keys. This will enable users to customize the look of their laptop, as the keys are made to be removable.
At the product demo, Lenovo demonstrated how to remove the keys with a special tool, which is included if you buy a set of colorful keyboard keys. We tried to remove the keys without it, but it is not possible, as least not without long fingernails. According to Lenovo, it will also be possible to customize the keyboard colors when buying the IdeaPad Vibe. Sadly though, Lenovo is not going to sell single keycaps, so if you want a certain color, you have to buy the whole set.
AMD and Qualcomm now, Intel Wildcat Lake in the future
Lenovo will launch the IdeaPad Vibe with AMD Ryzen AI CPUs, as well as Qualcomm Snapdragon X chips, but this will not be the whole lineup. The product managers at the IFA event confirmed that a version with Intel's budget-oriented Wildcat Lake CPUs is also planned.
When this version launches, it seems like a natural fit for this affordable laptop series. It will bring a notable limitation, though: Lenovo touts the IdeaPad laptop for its upgradeability. Indeed, it has two SO-DIMM and two M.2 2242 SSD slots. That, however, is only true for the AMD model, as the Qualcomm IdeaPad will ship with soldered RAM. And since Intel Wildcat Lake only supports single-channel RAM, Lenovo would probably reduce the IdeaPads to a single SO-DIMM slot.
In any case, versatility is certainly the big advantage of the IdeaPad Vibe over the Apple MacBook Neo. With multiple USB ports and HDMI, as well as its upgradeability, the IdeaPad Vibe is by far more usable than the limited MacBook, even going as far as including a microSD card reader.
To us, that seems to be the right mix against the Apple device: Keep the advantages of the PC world - versatility and upgradeability, giving the user choice - while also going for a fresh, more premium design language in the lower price tier.
Source(s)
Own
Add as a preferred source on Google
