Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

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

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition front angled view showing display and keyboard.
Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

There aren’t many options in the 15-inch laptop category, which has given way to slightly smaller 14-inch laptops and larger 16-inch machines. But the MacBook Air 15 stands out as one of the best options you can buy today, as long as you don’t need Windows.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition is a new alternative that runs Intel’s latest Lunar Lake chipsets that are aimed primarily at efficiency — aimed most directly at Apple’s efficient M3 chipset. Can the Yoga Slim 7i compete? Perhaps before this week. But now that the MacBook Air 15-inch starts with 16GB of RAM, the Yoga Slim 7i’s advantages are lessened.

Recommended Videos

Specs and configurations

  Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition Apple MacBook Air 15
Dimensions 13.54 x 9.27 x 0.55 inches 13.40 inches x 9.35 inches x 0.45 inches
Weight 3.37 pounds 3.3 pounds
Processor Intel Core Ultra 7 256V
Intel Core Ultra 7 258V
Apple M3 (8 cores)
Graphics Intel Arc 130V
Intel Arc 140V
10-core GPU
RAM 16GB
32GB
16GB
24GB
Display 15.3-inch 16:10 2.8K (2880 x 1800) IPS, 120Hz 15.3-inch 16:10 Liquid Retina IPS (2880 x 1864), 60Hz
Storage 512TB SSD
1TB SSD
256GB SSD
512GB SSD
1TB SSD
2TB SSD
Touch Yes No
Ports 2 x USB-C with Thunderbolt 4
1 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
1 x HDMI 2.1
1 x 3.5mm headphone jack
2 x USB-C with Thunderbolt 4
1 x 3.5mm audio jack
Wireless Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3
Webcam 1080p with infrared camera for Windows 11 Hello 1080p
Operating system 70 watt-hour MacOS Monterey
Battery Windows 11 66.5 watt-hour
Price $1,280+ $1,299+

The Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition starts at $1,280 for an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 15.3-inch 2.8K IPS display (the only option). You can upgrade the SSD to 1TB for $42, and at the high end with a Core Ultra 7 258V and 32GB of RAM, the laptop costs $1,422.

The MacBook Air 15 starts out at a similar price, $1,299, for an 8-core CPU/10-core GPU M3 chipset and 256GB SSD. And thanks to the recent change, it now starts with 16GB of RAM for the same $1,299 price. All models come with the same 15.3-inch 2880 x 1864 IPS display. Upgrading to 512GB SSD boosts the price to $1,499, and the maximum configuration with 24GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD is $2,299.

The two laptops are priced closely on the low end; Apple’s exorbitant prices for extra storage makes the Yoga Slim 7i much more affordable.

Design

Apple's 15-inch MacBook Air placed on a desk.
Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

The MacBook Air 15 uses Apple’s latest design concepts, and in fact other than sheer size it’s hard to tell various MacBooks apart. There’s the same simple, blocky design with curved edges and, in the case of the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air, extreme thinness. There are four colors available, including Midnight, Starlight, Space Gray, and Silver, and it’s an elegant machine. The Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition is no slouch itself. It comes in just one dark gray color way and maintains Lenovo’s latest design with a modern and minimalist aesthetic. The most noticeable feature is the reverse notch at the top that houses the webcam, which is an opposite approach to Apple’s more controversial display notch.

Both laptops are built extremely well, with all-aluminum manufacture that gives them a robust feel. Both have bottom chassis and keyboard decks that resist bending, but the MacBook Air 15 actually has more flex in its display than the Yoga Slim 7i. Both have hinges that allow the lid to be opened with one hand.

The MacBook Air 15’s Magic Keyboard is arguably more comfortable than the Yoga Slim 7i’s keyboard for long writing sessions. Apple’s switches are fantastic, easily the lightest and snappiest around, and keycap size and key spacing are perfect. The Lenovo keyboard has sculpted keycaps and plenty of key spacing, but the switches provide a little less feedback. A bigger difference is found in the touchpads, where the MacBook Air 15 has the nearly perfect Force Touch haptic touchpad with Force Click functionality, compared to the just-OK mechanical touchpad on the Yoga Slim 7i. The Lenovo laptop does have a touch-enabled display, however, if that matters to you.

Connectivity strongly favors the Yoga Slim 7i, which has a selection of both modern Thunderbolt 4 ports and legacy ports. The MacBook Air 15 has just two Thunderbolt 4 ports, although it leaves both free with Apple’s MagSafe 3 connector. The Lenovo also has the most up-to-date wireless connectivity.

Finally, both laptops have 1080p webcams, while the Yoga Slim 7i supports Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC AI initiative with a fast neural processing unit (NPU) for on-device AI processing. The MacBook Air 15 will support Apple Intelligence as it rolls out.

Performance

The keyboard and trackpad on Apple's 15-inch MacBook Air.
Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

The Yoga Slim 7i is built around an Intel Lunar Lake chipset, otherwise known as Core Ultra 2. We reviewed the laptop with the Core Ultra 7 258V, the second-fastest version, a 17-watt 8-core/8-thread chipset that’s the most direct replacement for the 15-watt U-series Meteor Lake chipset. It’s aimed at efficiency over performance, and we can see that when compared to the MacBook Air 15’s M3 chipset. I’m using the 13-inch model as a proxy, because we haven’t reviewed the larger machine with the M3, but if anything its results would be faster. In this case, it’s the 8-core CPU/10-core GPU version of M3.

As we can see, the MacBook Air 15 is faster than the Yoga Slim 7i, especially in multi-task processes. And its GPU is faster than the Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics. They’re both fast enough for demanding productivity users, but the MacBook Air 15 will be faster for creators.

Geekbench 6
(single/multi)
Cinebench 2024
(single/multi)
3DMark
Wild Life Extreme
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i
(Core Ultra 7 258V)
2,485 / 10569 118 / 576 5,527
Apple MacBook Air M3
(M3 8/10)
3,102 / 12,078 141 / 601 8,098

Display

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition front view showing display and keyboard.
Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

Both laptops use IPS displays, and they’re remarkably close in quality. They both have tons of brightness, both have accurate colors and very good contrast, and the MacBook Air 15’s panel has wider colors. It will please creators.

And, both display are 15.3 inches with roughly equal sharpness. The Lenovo display runs at 120Hz, which will provide for a smoother UI than Apple’s 60Hz refresh rate.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i
(IPS)
Apple MacBook Air M3
(IPS)
Brightness
(nits)
532 495
AdobeRGB gamut 74% 87%
 sRGB gamut 99% 100%
DCI-P3 gamut 74% 99%
Accuracy
(DeltaE, lower is better)
0.93 1.24
Contrast ratio 1,470:1 1,480:1

Portability

Apple's 15-inch MacBook Air placed on a desk with its lid closed.
Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

Both laptops are very portable laptops with large, 15-inch displays. The MacBook Air 15 is insanely thin at 0.45 inches, but the Yoga Slim 7i is also pretty thin at just 0.55 inches. They weigh about the same, so that gives the MacBook Air 15 a denser feel.

In terms of battery life, I again used the 13-inch as a proxy but the 15-inch MacBook Air M3 will likely get slightly better battery life. And it maintains its place at the top in terms of efficiency. The Intel Lunar Lake chipset is the most efficient yet in a Windows laptop, and the Yoga Slim 7i does very well. But the MacBook Air 15 is stronger in spite of also being faster.

Web Video Cinebench R24
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i
(Core Ultra 7 258V)
14 hours, 16 minutes 17 hours, 31 minutes 2 hour, 15 minutes
Apple MacBook Air M3
(M3 8/10)
19 hours, 38 minutes 19 hours, 39 minutes 3 hour, 27 minutes

The Yoga Slim 7i gives it a go, but the MacBook Air comes out on top

There’s a lot to like about the Yoga Slim 7i. It’s built well, looks great, is fast enough, and it gets better battery life than most Windows laptops to date. And it’s a reasonably affordable option.

But, the MacBook Air 15 is still faster, and it gets even better battery life. Its keyboard and touchpad are better, and it, too, is solid and attractive. It’s a hard laptop to beat out, especially now that it starts with 16GB of RAM.

Mark Coppock
Mark Coppock is a Freelance Writer at Digital Trends covering primarily laptop and other computing technologies. He has…
Apple faces challenges with bringing OLED to the MacBook Air
The MacBook Air on a white table.

A report from Korean outlet The Elec suggests the OLED MacBook Air that Apple was allegedly planning to release in 2027 could face significant delays. While progress for the OLED MacBook Pro seems to be going smoothly, the price increase caused by the new display technology is a much bigger problem for the budget MacBook Air models.

One of the biggest selling points of the MacBook Air is its lower price, making it great for first-time Mac buyers, students, and anyone else who doesn't expressly need the power of a Pro. While price increases are a natural part of the tech industry, the slightly disappointing sales of the 2024 OLED iPad Pro suggest that a new display simply isn't enough of an incentive for consumers to justify a higher price tag.

Read more
The MacBook Air may have officially met its match
HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 front view showing display and keyboard.

The MacBook Air has dominated the $1,000 price point for the past few years, and the most recent M3 upgrade (and subsequent bump to 16GB of RAM in the base model), has made it even better.

But there's an unexpected challenger for the crown of best laptops. The HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14. Don't get turned off by the name. It's powered by Intel's new Core Ultra Series 2 chips, which brings a surprising amount of battery life into play. The OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 may not outright defeat the MacBook Air, but it gets incredibly close.
Specs and configurations

Read more
Get a $200 discount on the 13-inch Apple MacBook Air M3
The M3 MacBook Air in front of a window.

There's always a lot of interest in MacBook deals because of the expensive prices attached to Apple's laptops. Here's an offer from B&H Photo Video that you wouldn't want to miss -- the 13-inch Apple MacBook Air M3 with a 256GB SSD at $200 off, which brings its price down to $899 from $1,099. This bargain is only available for a limited time, ending on November 30, but we highly recommend completing your purchase as soon as possible because there's a possibility that the stocks up for sale won't last that long.

Why you should buy the 13-inch Apple MacBook Air M3
The 13-inch model of the Apple MacBook Air M3 is our top choice among the best MacBooks, with a rating of four out of five stars in our review. The first thing that you'd notice about the laptop is its "compact and beautiful design." It's extremely thin, at just 0.44 inches, and wonderfully light, which is why its name works so well. The 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display with a resolution of 2560 x 1664 and pixel density of 224 pixels per inch is bright and colorful, so you'll enjoy working on your projects, browsing the internet, and watching streaming shows on this screen.

Read more