Windows Latest has obtained exclusive first-look images of Lenovo’s upcoming budget laptop, and it looks like a direct answer to the MacBook Neo. It’s called the IdeaPad Vibe, and where Apple’s colorful budget Mac ships in four colors, Lenovo’s version comes in seven.
Back in March, ASUS CFO Nick Wu told investors that Microsoft, Intel, and AMD were taking the MacBook Neo seriously, saying the whole PC ecosystem was discussing how to compete with it. Apple brought color and build quality to a price range that had mostly been ignored, and the Windows side of the industry is now responding in kind. The IdeaPad Vibe looks like the right kind of response.
The timing is rough, though. What started with the MacBook Neo turned into a full-blown memory shortage, and now Microsoft has made things worse by raising Windows OEM licensing fees. Bringing new colors to a laptop isn’t innovation by itself, but it’s the kind of thing the mass market responds to, and after a year like this, the PC industry needs people responding to something.
Meet the Lenovo IdeaPad Vibe, in seven colors
The images we’ve obtained show the IdeaPad Vibe in seven distinct finishes: a blush pink, a bright yellow, a terracotta orange-brown, a sage green, a navy blue, a silver, and a mint teal. Every color carries the “Lenovo” logo centered on the lid, in a matching tone-on-tone finish.
The design is clean and minimal. Thin bezels surround the display, with a webcam housing centered at the top, including a visible privacy shutter next to the camera. The keyboard deck is dark gray across every color option (unlike the Neo), with white key legends, and visible speaker grilles flanking both sides of the keyboard. The trackpad is large (for an IdeaPad, that is) and centered below the keyboard.
Port selection is where Lenovo beats Apple to the punch. The right side features two USB-A ports and the power button with a status LED. The left houses an HDMI port, two USB-C ports, a headphone jack, and a microSD card slot.
It’s a well-rounded port selection for a laptop clearly built to compete on price, especially next to the MacBook Neo, which ships with just two USB-C ports and a headphone jack.
The IdeaPad Vibe comes in both Snapdragon and AMD variants
Based on the file names we’ve obtained, Lenovo is building the IdeaPad Vibe with at least two different chip options, one with a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and another with an AMD chip inside.
We don’t have exact model numbers or specifications for either configuration, and we’re not going to guess at them here. But Lenovo looks to be covering both ARM and x86 buyers with the same design and the same color lineup, instead of limiting the fun colors to just one chip tier.
More colorful Windows hardware is coming
The IdeaPad Vibe isn’t the only colorful Lenovo hardware we’ve gotten an early look at recently. Windows Latest also obtained exclusive images of Lenovo’s redesigned IdeaCentre All-in-One, built as Lenovo’s answer to the iMac, and it finally brings a proper color lineup to Lenovo’s all-in-one desktops.
We’ve covered a handful of other unreleased Lenovo devices too, including the rollable Project Swan ThinkBook, the first NVIDIA RTX Spark-powered Yoga convertible, and what may be Lenovo’s thinnest ThinkBook yet. Lenovo clearly has a packed lineup coming, and we’ll keep digging for more details on the IdeaPad Vibe as we get them.
