Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Pro

[1BadManVan]

Just put in an order for this as some of my software I need for tax and book keeping doesn’t seem to play well with my MacBook. I figured I would treat myself just a little bit and get something a bit more then what I needed. They had a decent sale on it and I stacked a few coupon codes.

I5-12500h
16gb ddr5
1tb ssd
Intel Arc a370m 4gb
16” Qhd 120hz panel and all aluminum build.

Still love my m2 air for my personal use and how it works with my apple stuff, but still wanted a half decent work laptop lol

 

[1BadManVan]

Alright, so the new laptop just arrived today, so far its not too bad. Fans kick on here and there but are fairly quiet, keyboard so far is quite nice to type on. The trackpad i hate, its not even glass, some kind of plastic and your fingers drag along it. Display is decent, not nearly as bright as my m2 air but fine for work.

I end up ordering another laptop while i was waiting on this one to show up, it should be here next week and will figure out which one i"ll keep. The next one is a lenovo slim 7 16" with the AMD Ryzen 7 6800hs. It has a brighter 500 nit screen plus a glass trackpad. Only has 512gb storage but thats more then enough for me, plus its pci-e gen 4 vs gen 3 on the current one i have.

Doing my best not to be too picky about it as its a work laptop but been spoiled by my mac lol.

 

[1BadManVan]

Any thoughts on the 6800hs vs the I5-12500h? Im currently on the i5 machine while i still wait for the AMD one to arrive next week. So far it seems the I5 offers better single core performance and they are quite even on the multicore. The big selling point for me on the AMD machine is the better screen and trackpad. Am i giving up much performance wise in real world use going over to the Ryzen 7? This will be mainly used for office work and hooked up to my external monitor.

 

[maflynn]

Any thoughts on the 6800hs vs the I5-12500h? Im currently on the i5 machine

From what little I know the 12500H offers a higher TDP (45w), more cache and so its going to be a bit faster. Given the lower wattage, the AMD may offer slightly better battery life.

The big selling point for me on the AMD machine is the better screen and trackpad

That's hard to discount, even if the laptop is going to be hooked up to an external display. Personally I hate trackpads, so I use a mouse 99% of the time. What about the GPU? I found that my work laptop's GPU is anemic, and when using it with an external monitor its noticeably and painfully slow.

 

[1BadManVan]

From what little I know the 12500H offers a higher TDP (45w), more cache and so its going to be a bit faster. Given the lower wattage, the AMD may offer slightly better battery life.


That's hard to discount, even if the laptop is going to be hooked up to an external display. Personally I hate trackpads, so I use a mouse 99% of the time. What about the GPU? I found that my work laptop's GPU is anemic, and when using it with an external monitor its noticeably and painfully slow.

Gpu for the Amd machine is an rtx 3050. Pretty equal to the Arc a370m from what I could find

 

[maflynn]

Gpu for the Amd machine is an rtx 3050. Pretty equal to the Arc a370m from what I could find

Personally, I'd probably opt for the RTX 3050 over the Arc. The performance difference in CPUs probably won't be that much and you get a nicer screen.

For me, the Arc GPUs have too many version 1 type headaches and the RTX is a known quantity.

Just my $.02

 

[1BadManVan]

Personally, I'd probably opt for the RTX 3050 over the Arc. The performance difference in CPUs probably won't be that much and you get a nicer screen.

For me, the Arc GPUs have too many version 1 type headaches and the RTX is a known quantity.

Just my $.02

Appreciate it, im leaning the same way as well personally. And not like a Ryzen 7 6000 series is any slouch either for a work computer. Plus being in a larger 16" chassis with dual fan and having a lower TDP vs the intel, thermal throttling should never be an issue. My hopes atleast lol. This intel machine is very snappy so far though

I think the big one will be the build quality, ive had some hit and misses with Lenovo. Fingers crossed the next one is as nice as the one I got now.

 

[1BadManVan]

New Slim 7 showed up today, so far first impressions are quite good. The screen is a major step up from the brightness and colour alone! Performance seems snappy so far. Track pad feel is much nicer with the glass. Going to keep using them both for the week just to be sure but so far im quite happy with this machine

 

[1BadManVan]

Slim 7 is definitely a keeper, especially after 24 hours of using it, it feels snappier then day 1. The screen is a big win for me, great colours and very bright! Keyboard is quite nice as well, still like the macbooks a bit better but they are tactile and have decent travel still.