The Laptop with The LONGEST Battery

An early look at the Lenovo Yoga 7i AURA Edition with new Intel chips. The longest battery life yet in a laptop.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition is a standout device, primarily due to its exceptional battery life. Powered by Intel’s latest Lunar Lake chip, this laptop has surpassed many competitors, including ARM-based laptops and even MacBooks, in terms of energy efficiency. This impressive feat is due to both Intel's innovative chip and Lenovo's fine-tuned engineering. Lenovo has worked closely with Intel to optimize the device, creating a next-level experience for users, especially in terms of power management and performance.

The Aura Edition represents Lenovo’s highest-tier product, offering a little more refinement in its hardware, software, and customer support. At just 15 inches, the device is impressively lightweight, even lighter than the MacBook Air. While it’s not as thin, it does offer more ports, including USB-A, HDMI, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and an audio jack, making it highly functional for various use cases. The 15-inch LCD screen boasts 120Hz refresh rate, excellent color accuracy, and a wide color gamut—perfect for media creation, gaming, or watching content. OLED options are available, though even the standard display looks fantastic.

At the core of this laptop is Intel's new Core Ultra 7 258V processor, which places a strong emphasis on single-core performance. Though not publicly released yet, first-party benchmarks show impressive results, especially in energy efficiency. In fact, the Yoga Slim 7i uses half the energy of an Intel laptop from just two years ago. The Intel Arc 140V GPU also contributes to the laptop's power-efficient performance, running the entire system—CPU, GPU, and RAM—on just 30 watts or less. This results in minimal heat and virtually silent operation, which is rare for an Intel-based Windows laptop.

Internally, Lenovo’s thermal design shines with a single-sided PCB, which places all components on one side for optimized cooling. While this means sacrificing some real estate for a shorter NVMe drive and a non-replaceable Wi-Fi 7 card, the trade-off is well worth it for enhanced cooling and efficiency. The laptop also features a 70Wh battery and four high-quality speakers, demonstrating Lenovo's growth in audio engineering over the years.

The keyboard on this model is another high point, with 1.5mm travel and an ultra-smooth surface texture that enhances the typing experience. While the feel of the keys is excellent out of the box, there's some concern about how the texture will age over time. Lenovo’s attention to detail is evident here, but time will tell how durable these surfaces will be.

Perhaps the most notable feature is the extraordinary battery life, which beats all previous records. The laptop is highly efficient for tasks like Netflix streaming, thanks to Intel's Lunar Lake chip and Lenovo's AI Core, which automatically adjusts power usage based on the activity. Additionally, the Aura Edition comes with unique software features like Smart Modes for power control and Smart Share, which allows seamless file transfer from any phone using Intel Unison.

However, the laptop isn't without its flaws. For a premium product, pre-installed McAfee antivirus software feels outdated and unnecessary. The design, while clean and functional, lacks the visual flair that one might expect from Lenovo's highest-end model. Also, the hinge isn’t designed for one-hand opening, a feature that is available in some of Lenovo’s other products, which detracts slightly from the overall premium feel.

In summary, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition offers impressive performance, especially in terms of energy efficiency and battery life, with a few minor design quirks that could be improved. Nonetheless, it’s a strong contender in the high-end laptop market.