Lenovo yesterday launched the IdeaPad Vibe lineup of laptops in Berlin. These are a series of 14-inch and 15-inch laptops in seven different colors, and with a choice between AMD or Qualcomm processors. The starting price in the US is $699.99. In Europe, starting price is €799. The AMD versions will go on sale in October with the Qualcomm versions coming in November. There will also be Intel versions later on, but no date has been given.
That $699.99 is the current US price of the MacBook Neo, to the dollar. Apple launched the Neo on 4 March 2026 at $599, then raised it to $699 on 25 June. Apple’s statement that day blamed memory and storage prices, which it said had risen more than it had ever seen. We argued in March that the Neo would force Windows laptop makers to rethink pricing, well the new Vibe lineup is Lenovo’s reply.
What the IdeaPad Vibe is
The Vibe is 14.9mm thick. The 14-inch model starts at 1.3kg and the 15-inch at 1.5kg. Lenovo sells it in a full metal body or with a metal lid and a ribbed plastic underside. The seven colours were chosen with the Pantone Color Institute: Chill Blue, Zen Green, Spicy Gold, Radiant Coral, Dreamy Violet, Lowkey Grey and Moody Blue. You will also be able later on to buy replacement keycaps in other colours.
There are two kinds of screen:
- OLED: The top option is OLED, a panel where each pixel makes its own light, so black areas are fully off and contrast is very high. The 14-inch OLED is 1920 x 1200 and the 15-inch is what Lenovo calls 2.1K. Both cover 100% of DCI-P3, the wide colour range used for cinema.
- IPS LCD: The other option is an IPS panel, the backlit type in most laptops, at up to 120Hz and 100% sRGB, the narrower range the web is built for.
Touch is also optional.
The processor is AMD Ryzen AI 400 Series or Qualcomm Snapdragon X. Lenovo has not named specific chips. AMD chips are x86, the design Windows has run on for decades, so every Windows program runs on them. Snapdragon X is an Arm chip, the same family as phone processors and Apple’s own M-series.
Windows on Arm runs older software through a translation layer that costs some speed.
RAM starts at 8GB. Snapdragon models go to 24GB, soldered and not upgradeable. AMD models go to 32GB in two slots you can open and change.
Both have two SSD slots and up to 1TB. Only configurations with 16GB or more get the Copilot+ PC label, Microsoft’s badge for laptops with a 40 TOPS neural processor, 16GB of memory and 256GB of storage. We explained the same rule on Wednesday when Samsung’s cheaper Galaxy Book launched.
In terms of ports, you get:
- two USB-A at 5Gbps,
- two USB-C at 5Gbps with DisplayPort video and power delivery,
- full-size HDMI 1.4,
- a microSD reader and
- a headphone jack.
HDMI 1.4 limits an external screen to 4K at 30Hz, so a 4K monitor at 60Hz has to go through USB-C. The camera is 5MP with a physical privacy shutter, with an infrared option for Windows Hello face login.
Speakers are two 2W units. Wireless is Wi-Fi 6 with Bluetooth 5.3 or Wi-Fi 7 with Bluetooth 5.4; Lenovo says it varies by configuration. The battery is 50Wh, with a 65Wh option on AMD models. Lenovo’s footnote says the USB-C charger is sold separately.
How it compares with the MacBook Neo
| IdeaPad Vibe | MacBook Neo | |
|---|---|---|
| Screen | 14-inch or 15-inch, IPS up to 120Hz or OLED, touch optional | 13-inch IPS, 2408 x 1506, 500 nits, no touch |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen AI 400 or Snapdragon X | Apple A18 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU |
| Memory | 8GB to 32GB, upgradeable on AMD | 8GB, fixed |
| Storage | Up to 1TB, two slots | 256GB or 512GB, fixed |
| Ports | 2 USB-A, 2 USB-C, HDMI, microSD, audio jack | 2 USB-C (one 10Gbps, one 480Mbps), audio jack |
| Battery | 50Wh or 65Wh, no hour claim | 36.5Wh, up to 16 hours video |
| Weight | From 1.3kg | 1.23kg |
| Thickness | 14.9mm | 12.7mm |
| Camera | 5MP with shutter | 1080p |
| Colours | 7 | 4 |
| US price | From $699.99 | $699 (256GB), $799 (512GB with Touch ID) |
The Neo runs the A18 Pro, the chip from the 2024 iPhone 16 Pro, with five graphics cores against the phone’s six. Apple’s specifications rate the battery at 16 hours of video and 11 hours of web browsing, and only the faster of the two USB-C ports drives an external display. It is fanless and silent. Touch ID is only on the $799 model.
On the sheet the Vibe wins on everything that can be counted: memory, storage, ports, screen size, an OLED option, webcam resolution and two sizes. The Neo is lighter and thinner. Both start at 8GB which on Windows is definitely not ideal.
But there’s also the fact that we still don’t know what you get from the base $699.99 price tag. Lenovo has not published prices per configuration, so nobody knows whether $699.99 buys IPS or OLED, 50Wh or 65Wh, AMD or Snapdragon. Apple’s $699 buys one fixed machine.
What this means in Kenya
Lenovo laptops sell here through distributors and retailers, but there is no confirmation the Vibe is coming, or when.
The Neo’s Kenyan run shows what a $699 laptop costs here once it lands. It arrived at KES 130,000 in March against a $599 US price. By 11 June, Kype Computers had the 256GB model at KES 90,000 and the 512GB at KES 105,000. That was two weeks before Apple’s US increase, and we have not rechecked local prices since.
If the Vibe follows the same path, the first Kenyan listings will sit above the US price for months.
If you need a laptop at this level now, the Neo is on Nairobi shelves and the Vibe is not. If you can wait, watch Lenovo’s configuration prices when US sales open in October 2026, the Snapdragon models in November, and whether any Kenyan retailer lists the Vibe at all.
Join the discussion