Lenovo goes MacBook Neo: Hands-on review with Lenovo's best-looking $699 laptop

[Redaktion]

Consumer laptops do not have to look boring - with the Lenovo IdeaPad vibe, Lenovo goes for a design with a few colorful twists, at an attractive price-point with many useful features. We had a chance to check it out at IFA 2026.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-goes-MacBook-Neo-Hands-on-review-with-Lenovo-s-best-looking-699-laptop.1389576.0.html

[rhtzu]

Lenovo would probably reduce the IdeaPads to a single SO-DIMM slot.

Token generation (output) solely depends on memory bandwidth (and prompt processing (input) solely depends on GPU's FPS performance / compute), so halving the SO-DIMM RAM channels will halve the token generation. Not only in an self-hosting-AI-models age is this the wrong decision.

[MrPotatoHead]

Lenovo would probably reduce the IdeaPads to a single SO-DIMM slot.

Token generation (output) solely depends on memory bandwidth (and prompt processing (input) solely depends on GPU's FPS performance / compute), so halving the SO-DIMM RAM channels will halve the token generation. Not only in an self-hosting-AI-models age is this the wrong decision.

No one looking for a cheap laptop is aiming to dabble in offline AI. Period.

[Sergey]

No one looking for a cheap laptop is aiming to dabble in offline AI.

To add to this, Wildcat Lake SoCs have just one memory channel, albeit a reasonably wide one, so with these chips it makes no sense to put 2 SO-DIMM slots on the motherboard.

[nammoi]

The Lenovo IdeaPad Vibe looks like an interesting option for people who want an affordable laptop without settling for a boring design. The discussion about memory configuration is also worth considering, especially for users who care about performance and future upgrade options. It's interesting to see how hardware choices can affect different types of users depending on what they plan to do with the laptop slope.