Lenovo’s latest laptop had an edge on the MacBook Air until this week

Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

There aren’t galore options successful nan 15-inch laptop category, which has fixed measurement to somewhat smaller 14-inch laptops and larger 16-inch machines. But nan MacBook Air 15 stands retired arsenic 1 of nan champion options you tin bargain today, arsenic agelong arsenic you don’t request Windows.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition is simply a caller replacement that runs Intel’s latest Lunar Lake chipsets that are aimed chiefly astatine ratio — aimed astir straight astatine Apple’s businesslike M3 chipset. Can nan Yoga Slim 7i compete? Perhaps earlier this week. But now that nan MacBook Air 15-inch starts pinch 16GB of RAM, nan Yoga Slim 7i’s advantages are lessened.

Specs and configurations

The Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition starts astatine $1,280 for an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 15.3-inch 2.8K IPS show (the only option). You tin upgrade nan SSD to 1TB for $42, and astatine nan precocious extremity pinch a Core Ultra 7 258V and 32GB of RAM, nan laptop costs $1,422.

The MacBook Air 15 starts retired astatine a akin price, $1,299, for an 8-core CPU/10-core GPU M3 chipset and 256GB SSD. And acknowledgment to nan caller change, it now starts pinch 16GB of RAM for nan aforesaid $1,299 price. All models travel pinch nan aforesaid 15.3-inch 2880 x 1864 IPS display. Upgrading to 512GB SSD boosts nan value to $1,499, and nan maximum configuration pinch 24GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD is $2,299.

The 2 laptops are priced intimately connected nan debased end; Apple’s exorbitant prices for other retention makes nan Yoga Slim 7i overmuch much affordable.

Design

Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

The MacBook Air 15 uses Apple’s latest creation concepts, and successful truth different than sheer size it’s difficult to show various MacBooks apart. There’s nan aforesaid simple, blocky creation pinch curved edges and, successful nan lawsuit of nan 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air, utmost thinness. There are 4 colors available, including Midnight, Starlight, Space Gray, and Silver, and it’s an elegant machine. The Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition is nary slouch itself. It comes successful conscionable 1 acheronian grey colour measurement and maintains Lenovo’s latest creation pinch a modern and minimalist aesthetic. The astir noticeable characteristic is nan reverse notch astatine nan apical that houses nan webcam, which is an other attack to Apple’s much arguable show notch.

Both laptops are built highly well, pinch all-aluminum manufacture that gives them a robust feel. Both person bottommost chassis and keyboard decks that defy bending, but nan MacBook Air 15 really has much flex successful its show than nan Yoga Slim 7i. Both person hinges that let nan lid to beryllium opened pinch 1 hand.

The MacBook Air 15’s Magic Keyboard is arguably much comfortable than nan Yoga Slim 7i’s keyboard for agelong penning sessions. Apple’s switches are fantastic, easy nan lightest and snappiest around, and keycap size and cardinal spacing are perfect. The Lenovo keyboard has sculpted keycaps and plentifulness of cardinal spacing, but nan switches supply a small little feedback. A bigger quality is recovered successful nan touchpads, wherever nan MacBook Air 15 has nan astir cleanable Force Touch haptic touchpad pinch Force Click functionality, compared to nan just-OK mechanical touchpad connected nan Yoga Slim 7i. The Lenovo laptop does person a touch-enabled display, however, if that matters to you.

Connectivity powerfully favors nan Yoga Slim 7i, which has a action of some modern Thunderbolt 4 ports and bequest ports. The MacBook Air 15 has conscionable 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports, though it leaves some free pinch Apple’s MagSafe 3 connector. The Lenovo besides has nan astir up-to-date wireless connectivity.

Finally, some laptops person 1080p webcams, while nan Yoga Slim 7i supports Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC AI inaugural pinch a accelerated neural processing portion (NPU) for on-device AI processing. The MacBook Air 15 will support Apple Intelligence arsenic it rolls out.

Performance

Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

The Yoga Slim 7i is built astir an Intel Lunar Lake chipset, different known arsenic Core Ultra 2. We reviewed nan laptop pinch nan Core Ultra 7 258V, nan second-fastest version, a 17-watt 8-core/8-thread chipset that’s nan astir nonstop replacement for nan 15-watt U-series Meteor Lake chipset. It’s aimed astatine ratio complete performance, and we tin spot that erstwhile compared to nan MacBook Air 15’s M3 chipset. I’m utilizing nan 13-inch exemplary arsenic a proxy, because we haven’t reviewed nan larger instrumentality pinch nan M3, but if thing its results would beryllium faster. In this case, it’s nan 8-core CPU/10-core GPU type of M3.

As we tin see, nan MacBook Air 15 is faster than nan Yoga Slim 7i, particularly successful multi-task processes. And its GPU is faster than nan Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics. They’re some accelerated capable for demanding productivity users, but nan MacBook Air 15 will beryllium faster for creators.

Display

Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

Both laptops usage IPS displays, and they’re remarkably adjacent successful quality. They some person tons of brightness, some person meticulous colors and very bully contrast, and nan MacBook Air 15’s sheet has wider colors. It will please creators.

And, some show are 15.3 inches pinch astir adjacent sharpness. The Lenovo show runs astatine 120Hz, which will supply for a smoother UI than Apple’s 60Hz refresh rate.

Portability

Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

Both laptops are very portable laptops pinch large, 15-inch displays. The MacBook Air 15 is insanely bladed astatine 0.45 inches, but nan Yoga Slim 7i is besides beautiful bladed astatine conscionable 0.55 inches. They measurement astir nan same, truthful that gives nan MacBook Air 15 a denser feel.

In position of artillery life, I again utilized nan 13-inch arsenic a proxy but nan 15-inch MacBook Air M3 will apt get somewhat amended artillery life. And it maintains its spot astatine nan apical successful position of efficiency. The Intel Lunar Lake chipset is nan astir businesslike yet successful a Windows laptop, and nan Yoga Slim 7i does very well. But nan MacBook Air 15 is stronger successful spite of besides being faster.

The Yoga Slim 7i gives it a go, but nan MacBook Air comes retired connected top

There’s a batch to for illustration astir nan Yoga Slim 7i. It’s built well, looks great, is accelerated enough, and it gets amended artillery life than astir Windows laptops to date. And it’s a reasonably affordable option.

But, nan MacBook Air 15 is still faster, and it gets moreover amended artillery life. Its keyboard and touchpad are better, and it, too, is coagulated and attractive. It’s a difficult laptop to hit out, particularly now that it starts pinch 16GB of RAM.