Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i Ultra Gen 11 (14-inch Intel) Review: A 14-inch laptop so light (2.3 lbs) you'll forget it's in your bag

Design

Let's start with the look. It comes in Luna Gray, a muted tone you'll recognize from Lenovo's IdeaPad lineup. The shade leans closer to MacBook Pro territory — understated enough to pull out at a coffee shop or in the office without looking out of place. At just 12.9mm thick, it earns the "Slim" in its name.

Luna Gray design, front view

The lid carries the same gray finish, so it should blend right into any business setting.

Matching Luna Gray lid for a cohesive look

At 12.9mm thick, it should slide into a bag without a fight.

Side profile showing off that 12.9mm thinness

Portability

Next up, portability. At about 1.06 kg (2.3 lbs), this thing is genuinely light for a 14-inch laptop. Compared to Lenovo's own IdeaPad 5 line (around 1.4 kg), that's a roughly 340g lighter build made for life on the go. A 14-inch laptop that barely breaks 1 kg is honestly rare, and if you're tossing it in a bag for your daily commute or carrying it to class, that weight difference adds up fast.

The featherlight 1.06 kg (2.3 lb) build

Display Quality

Now the display. The standard panel is an IPS LCD at 2560×1600 with an anti-glare finish, so you're getting a screen that's easy on the eyes without a lot of glare. The 16:10 aspect ratio also means more vertical space, which makes scrolling through documents or web pages a lot more comfortable.

2560×1600 anti-glare IPS display

It also runs at 120Hz, so scrolling should feel smooth. There's an OLED display option available too, if vivid color is more your thing.

Typing Feel

The keyboard looks like it follows the same layout Lenovo's used across the IdeaPad line, so I'd expect a comfortable typing experience here.

Keyboard layout carried over from the IdeaPad series

Trackpad

The trackpad looks generously sized, so getting around without a mouse — on your lap, on a plane, wherever — should feel smooth. Everyday gestures should feel effortless too.

Performance

Let's talk performance. The CPU here is an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V, putting up a PassMark multi-core score of 18095 and a single-core score of 3822.

PassMark score of 18095

At that score, you're looking at solid multitasking headroom — juggling a bunch of apps at once shouldn't bog things down, so writing papers or chewing through business documents should feel snappy. Graphics come from the integrated Intel Arc Graphics, with a PassMark G3D score of 5486 — enough for light gaming or basic photo editing.

Battery Life

Battery rating: Average
A 65Wh cell would normally land in "long-lasting" territory on its own, but running that 120Hz refresh rate all the time tends to eat into it, so "average" is the more honest call here overall. That said, Lenovo's official rating of 23.3 hours is a generous number, and it adds up to enough battery to get through a full day out without hunting for an outlet.

Battery report showing the 65Wh cell

It also supports rapid charging — 15 minutes on the charger gets you up to 2 hours of use. Handy if you're out and about and start watching that battery percentage drop.

Ports & Expansion

Let's talk ports. You get three USB-C ports total, and two of them support USB Power Delivery and DisplayPort Alt Mode, so you can charge and drive an external monitor at the same time, which is handy.

Three USB-C ports split across both sides

The trade-off for that slim body is that it's USB-C only, with no headphone jack. That said, cheap, lightweight USB-C hubs are everywhere these days, so picking one up should cover most of your expansion worries.

A USB-C hub can fill in the expansion gap

Webcam

The webcam clocks in at about 2.07 megapixels, and based on how past IdeaPad models have performed, image quality should be solid. There's also a physical privacy shutter, so you get the peace of mind of physically covering the lens when you're not using it.

Physical privacy shutter for the webcam

Speakers

The speakers sit on either side of the keyboard, which should make audio easy to pick up whenever you're facing the screen and working. The IdeaPad 5 series used this same layout, and audio clarity was solid there too.

Speakers flanking the keyboard

Security

On the security side, it supports facial recognition — just glance at the screen and Windows Hello logs you in. Pretty convenient.

Facial recognition via Windows Hello

Price

Finally, the price. Given how thin, light, and capable this machine is, $899.00 feels like a genuinely attractive price point. There's also a decent range of configuration options — you can step up to an OLED display or bump storage to 512GB — so it's easy to tune the spec to fit your budget.

Final Verdict

The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i Ultra Gen 11 (14-inch Intel) packs solid performance and plenty of battery life into a genuinely light body — 12.9mm thin and about 1.06 kg (2.3 lbs). With only three USB-C ports, expansion is a bit limited, but that's a small price to pay for how easy this thing is to carry around. If you want to lighten your bag as a business professional, or you're a student hauling a laptop to class every day, this one's a great fit.

At about 1.06 kg (2.3 lbs), it's easy to carry around and works great as an everyday laptop.