Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5 16" 2025, Ryzen 7 350, 16GB, 512GB SSD, Blue

Great CPU, meh screen, weak GPU. It's a budget workhorse, not a creative powerhouse.

The Ryzen 7 350 is the star here. Eight cores and 16 threads with a 5.0GHz turbo is plenty for coding, spreadsheets, and a ridiculous number of browser tabs. Our database puts the CPU well above average, which tracks. But the Radeon Graphics is a letdown, landing near the bottom of the barrel. Don't expect to edit 4K video or play anything beyond light indie games. The 512GB SSD is also on the smaller side, so you'll be leaning on cloud storage or an external drive sooner than you'd like.

Against the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition, the IdeaPad wins on raw CPU power but loses badly on build quality, weight, and display. The Surface is lighter, sharper, and feels premium. The HP OMEN Transcend 14 is a different beast entirely, aimed at gamers with a far better GPU, but it costs more and has a smaller screen. If you want a big screen for office work and don't care about gaming or color accuracy, the IdeaPad is fine. If you want anything more, look elsewhere.

Pricing is all over the place, from USD 799 to USD 1,189 depending on the listing. At the low end, this is a solid deal for a big-screen workhorse. At the high end, you're getting fleeced. Best Buy has the best price in our data, so if you're buying, start there and don't pay a cent over USD 799 for the 512GB model.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5 16" is a weird mix of genuinely useful and mildly frustrating. You get a strong 8-core Ryzen 7 350, 16GB of DDR5, and a big 16-inch touchscreen for a price that won't make your wallet cry. But the display is stuck at 60Hz with a washed-out 45% NTSC color gamut, and the GPU is basically a placeholder. It's a work laptop that wants to be a creative machine, but only gets halfway there.

If you're looking for a portable laptop, this isn't it. At 2.95kg, it's a desk-bound machine. Go get a Surface Laptop or a MacBook Air instead. And if you want to game or do serious creative work, the weak GPU and dull screen will drive you nuts. Save up for an HP OMEN or a MacBook Pro.

The IdeaPad Slim 5 16" is a capable office and student laptop with a great CPU and a mediocre everything else. Buy it if you need a big touchscreen and lots of multitasking headroom on a budget. Skip it if you care about color accuracy, gaming, or portability.