Lenovo Slim 7 Pro X laptop review: The Asus VivoBook 14 alternative

[Ashley]

The Intel version is the best variant for working with Photoshop.

Intel is always superior in the whole Adobe CC than AMD - in graphics (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom,...) because of better single core speed and because of Adobe's own optimizations as they target Intel primarily and in rendering (both 3D and video) because of Intel's Quick Sync where Intel, again, stomps over anything that AMD can offer (+ Adobe's optimizations again).

i5 12500H + 3060 can literally destroy the strongest available Ryzen + 3070 Ti in Premiere Pro, as example with about 20% faster render times on average and when you put it against something like R7 6800HS + 3060 it's not even funny how that Ryzen gets wiped. I work as a graphic designer and video editor and I would never get an AMD solely because of how superior Intel is in Adobe's lineup.

That said, this laptop in the review is a joke; you have to avoid using it to its full potential because if you do your battery will be dead pretty quickly due to its discharging while being plugged (100W max charging while 105.6W being used by the whole system). Easy pass.

I came across your comment while researching laptops for photo editing in Lightroom and Photoshop and using some of their AI features... ie AI presets, brushes and overlays and looking into the Slim 7 proX. I hope it's ok to ask a question or ask for your input.I'll start off by saying I'm not super tech savvy or knowledgeable when it comes to laptops and specs. I spent months researching to try figure out which laptop to buy for prof. photo editing.Basically just uploading pictures from my Canon to the laptop and then editing in Adobe LR and PS.Then also to make basic promo graphics for a friends buisness, so a touchscreen was a feature I really wanted also.So anyways, basic drawing and the photo editing are all I plan to use it for.This was a big purchase for me, so I agonized for months over what to buy.I learned the basics, as far as specs go, while researching.I finally bought a Yoga 9i Gen 7 1260p with a 14" 4k OLED screen ,16GB ram and 1TB SSD. Apparently I made a bad decision because it does HORRIBLE with even just Lightroom and constantly stops responding within seconds of opening the app and applying even simple AI presets.I haven't even attempted to try to use Photoshop yet.I'm guessing Yoga 9i's specs aren't powerful enough? I'm guessing it's because it doesn't have a discrete graphics card or not enough RAM or possibly both reasons? Either way it was a mistake I couldn't afford to make and I'm literally sick over it. I'm hoping to sell it or trade it in at Best Buy towards something better as I can't afford to keep it and buy another. So with all that said, I was wondering if you had any recommendations for what I should buy? I was seriously considering the Slim 7 proX but after reading this thread I'm assuming that's a bad idea and now don't trust most of the articles I read giving it rave reviews or trust myself to make the right decision as I was very close to buying this one before coming across this thread.My budget isn't great and as mentioned I'm going to have to sell or trade in the Yoga to buy another. With all that said I'm hoping to find something around $1000 USD. I'd be so grateful and appreciative for any recommendations or advice. I feel so awkward asking here on a thread but I don't know anyone knowledgeable about this stuff and at this point I'm desperate.

[RobertJasiek]

The reasons might be CPU (single or multiple threads), RAM, SSD, (missing) dGPU or crapware. I do not know Lightroom and Photoshop in practice so cannot give you the answer. You might check Youtube videos of Tech Notice, who tests such things but usually for much faster hardware. For crapware, use Sysinternals Autoruns and ProcessExplorer and abandon all processes you do not need also in Windows Services.

[Neenyah]

I feel so awkward asking here on a thread but I don't know anyone knowledgeable about this stuff and at this point I'm desperate.

Hi Ashley! Congrats on getting a pretty damn fine little beast! First of all let me tell you that your Yoga IS NOT a problem! With Photoshop you almost certainly won't have any issues but Lightroom is quite often something like a drunk tired snail, unfortunately.

What is fortunate is that it equally often it all depends about its version so when you get a bit of free time try to experiment with some older versions if you are on the latest one and that one is troubling you. If you are not on the latest definitely update to it before anything else.

Check these recent Reddit threads and you will know what I mean, same issues as you because, sadly, Lightroom is horrible optimization-wise but that's what we get when one name is basically having a whole monopoly over photography, design and print business:

• "So slow it is almost unusable.... What am I doing wrong?" ( https://www.reddit.com/r/Lightroom/comments/11klxgj/so_slow_it_is_almost_unusable_what_am_i_doing/ )
• "Lightroom on my high-end gaming PC feels significantly slower than LR on my Macbook M1 Pro. Do you all have the same experience? How can I evaluate this?" ( https://www.reddit.com/r/Lightroom/comments/13na2xy/lightroom_on_my_highend_gaming_pc_feels/ )
• "MacBook Air - LR Classic insanely slow" ( https://www.reddit.com/r/Lightroom/comments/y2jbt9/macbook_air_lr_classic_insanely_slow/ )
• "Lightroom is slow as hell on fast as hell PC?!?" ( https://www.reddit.com/r/Lightroom/comments/13chdm7/lightroom_is_slow_as_hell_on_fast_as_hell_pc/ )
• 3yr old thread to show that nothing was different back then: "Lightroom Classic unusable slow on high end PC" ( https://www.reddit.com/r/Lightroom/comments/lzbj77/lightroom_classic_unusable_slow_on_high_end_pc/?rdt=53607 )

This is just a couple of identical threads I took out to link here and give an example. There is many more of them 😐 Even people with M2 Pro Macs are experiencing the same annoying behaviour:

• "How is Lightroom still SO slow?!?" ( https://www.reddit.com/r/Lightroom/comments/13hidw1/how_is_lightroom_still_so_slow/ )

So, as you can see, you are not isolated case here. Your Yoga is definitely packing some powerful specs, specs more than good enough for serious professional work, and unless you are thermal throttling to extremes, which I'm assuming you are not, then the issue is on Adobe's end. My suggestion is, again, to update to the latest version (if you aren't on it) and if you are then try to downgrade to any older version which will work decently enough, then just stick to it as long as you can unless you really need a reason to upgrade and gamble with another potential snail-like performance. Good luck! And don't get rid of your beautiful new puppy, it's a great machine and it will serve you amazingly well through pretty much everything; just accept the fact that Lightroom is a 🐶💩 app, heh.

One link that can potentially help is from Adobe themselves, with some useful tweaks and tips how to optimize performance because they are apparently too lazy, errr, I mean busy to do it so they let users do their job: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/optimize-performance-lightroom.html
 
@Robert, kudos for recognizing and recommending Tech Notice 🍻 Awesome guy, awesome channel.

[boblee]

Is this particular config also drawing more electricy in performance mode than it's allowed to charge (100W)? So then battery is slowly discharged which is not really good for its health, obviously.

Source: youtube.com/watch?v=nlugPr2YjzM

It's no big deal, according to the author of the video. View the conclusion of the video to see recommendations.