Lenovo is announcing the IdeaPad Vibe, a productivity laptop aimed at taking on the MacBook Neo with a similar starting price and a wider range of colors. The Vibe comes in 14- and 15-inch sizes, with AMD and Qualcomm chip options due out in October and November, respectively. Intel versions (likely Wildcat Lake) are set to be “available at a later date.”
While the MacBook Neo comes in four different colors, the IdeaPad Vibe ups the hue selection to seven. Lenovo gave them all over-the-top names: dreamy violet, spicy gold, zen green, chill blue, radiant coral, moody blue, and lowkey gray. You’ll even be able to custom order one from Lenovo with keycaps in any of the seven colors, as well as buy separate keycap sets to mix-and-match your own unique look. And unlike the Neo, the keyboard is backlit.
The IdeaPad Vibe is an evolution of the IdeaPad Slim, and some of its upgrades include an all-metal chassis (though some colors will be part plastic) and a switch from a barrel plug charger to USB-C. The Vibe has many more ports than the MacBook Neo, but none of them particularly fast. There’s two USB-C and two USB-A (all 5Gbps), HDMI 1.4, 3.5mm audio jack, and a microSD card reader. IPS LCD panels will come standard on both the 14- and 15-inch Vibes, but some colors (sadly, only the boring gray and blue) can be upgraded to a touchscreen OLED
While Lenovo isn’t yet disclosing how much RAM the Vibe’s base model will have, the fact that it isn’t disclosing seems like a clue that it’ll start with 8GB. The Qualcomm Snapdragon X model will come with up to 24GB of RAM, and the AMD Ryzen AI 400-series model will go up to 32GB of user-upgradeable dual-channel RAM. Nice. But regardless of chips, the Vibe will have up to 1TB of storage and comes with user-accessible dual-slot SSDs.
Even if it does start with 8GB of RAM, all the colors, ports, and chip and size options sure sound fun and unique. I can’t wait to see how this thing stacks up against the Neo, including in the color and the keycap customization departments.
Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge