When it comes to choosing a new laptop that’s thin, light, and powerful enough for creative professionals, the MacBook Air with Apple’s M2 or M4 chips often tops the list. But if your friends James and his partner are open to Windows and want a bit more value alongside power and portability, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 with AMD Ryzen AI processors emerges as a compelling alternative worth a closer look.
Stunning Display Designed for Creators
The Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 features a 14.5-inch OLED PureSight Pro display delivering a high-resolution 3K panel with an impressive 90Hz refresh rate. While this is slightly behind some rival laptops offering 120Hz, Lenovo has compensated with exceptional color accuracy and brightness. This screen covers 100% of AdobeRGB, sRGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts, boasts peak HDR brightness up to 1,000 nits, and achieves a Delta E of less than one—meaning colors are finely calibrated for color-sensitive workflows in Lightroom, Photoshop, and Premiere.
Notably, the MacBook Air’s 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, while excellent, supports only 60Hz refresh at max 500 nits brightness and with a smaller gamut. The Lenovo’s larger, vivid OLED panel thus offers a richer and more detailed visual canvas, especially beneficial for creatives demanding high fidelity color representation.
Performance That Packs a Punch
Under the hood, the Yoga Pro 7 harnesses the AMD Ryzen AI7 350 or the more powerful AI9 365 processors, providing significantly enhanced multi-core CPU performance—up to 25% faster than the previous generation and with AI-powered acceleration. It comes standard with 32GB LPDDR5X memory and 1TB SSD storage, substantially exceeding the base MacBook Air’s 8–24GB RAM and 256GB SSD options in many cases.
While the Yoga Pro 7 relies on integrated Radeon 860M graphics, it still manages light to moderate video editing, photo workflows, and AI task handling smoothly. The notable absence of a discrete GPU, unlike its predecessor’s RTX 3050, might limit heavy-duty 3D rendering or gaming but contributes to a thinner and lighter build along with better battery life.
Portability and Connectivity
Despite packing a bigger 84Wh battery compared to the MacBook Air’s 52.6Wh, the Yoga Pro 7 remains relatively lightweight at 1.54kg (about 3.4 lbs), though not quite as ultra-portable as the MacBook Air’s 1.24kg frame. It also boasts robust connectivity options including two USB4 ports, HDMI 2.1 capable of 8K 60Hz output, two USB-A ports, and a hardware webcam switch for privacy.
The MacBook Air, renowned for its slimness and seamless macOS ecosystem integration, only offers two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports and MagSafe charging but delivers excellent battery endurance, often outlasting similarly specced Windows laptops. Both laptops have excellent keyboard and touchpad experiences, but the Lenovo stands out with larger key travel and an expansive touchpad.
Value and Environmental Considerations
Priced competitively, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 can be found for under $1,000 during sales, making it a great value proposition for a 14.5-inch laptop with premium specs. Its higher base memory, larger storage, and superior port selection enhance that value relative to the MacBook Air models typically priced similarly or higher.
Additionally, Lenovo emphasizes sustainability with parts of the chassis recycled aluminum and carbon-neutral certifications, reflecting growing environmental responsibility in tech choices.
Conclusion: Which Laptop Fits Your Creative Life?
For creatives wanting a Windows laptop that balances performance, an extraordinary OLED display, generous memory and storage, plus rich connectivity, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 is an outstanding contender — especially when found on sale. It shines for multitasking, content creation, and light AI workloads while remaining portable.
Alternatively, the MacBook Air excels in unmatched portability, excellent battery life, and seamless integration within the Apple ecosystem, making it the best pick for users deeply invested in macOS applications and workflow.
Ultimately, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 is better than a MacBook Air for creative users who prioritize screen quality, value, and Windows flexibility, whereas the MacBook Air remains a top choice for those who seek ultra-light design and macOS environment benefits.
