A true AI PC - Lenovo Xiaoxin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition
2024-04-08 / tech
Nowadays, AI is becoming increasingly popular, and industries including the PC sector are rapidly converging towards AI. Driven by giants such as AMD and Intel, the concept of AI PCs has become a super IP that attracts user attention, and ordinary users also look forward to experiencing the new experiences brought by AI through AI PCs more quickly. As the world's largest PC manufacturer, Lenovo was among the first to enter the AI PC category and has launched a variety of new AI PC products. On April 18th, Lenovo announced the launch of AI PC products equipped with the "Lenovo Xiao Tian" personal intelligent entity, which are named the AI Yuanqi Edition. On May 20th, the first batch of AI Yuanqi Edition models - Lenovo Xiaoxin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition, officially hit the market. So, what sets this AI PC, targeted at the mainstream market and equipped with a personal intelligent entity, apart?
Product Specifications:
Operating System: Windows 11 Home (64-bit)
Display: 16-inch IPS screen (2560x1600@120Hz, 100% sRGB)
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 8845H (8-core, 16-thread, max frequency 5.1GHz)
Memory: 32GB LPDDR5x 7500 dual-channel (onboard)
Storage: 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD
GPU: AMD Radeon 780M (RDNA 3 architecture, 2.7GHz)
Battery: 84Wh
Dimensions: 357mm x 249mm x 17.5mmWeight: Approximately 1.91kg (excluding power adapter)
Reference price: 5999 yuan
Built-in AI Personal Intelligent Agent
Capable of text and image generation, voice dialogue, and more
Advertisement
Keener consumers may have noticed that the Lenovo Xiaoxin Pro 16 2024 Ryzen Edition comes in two versions: a regular version and the AI Yuanqi Edition reviewed in this article. The hardware configurations of these two versions are identical, with the difference being that the AI Yuanqi Edition includes the "Lenovo Xiaotian" personal intelligent agent developed by Lenovo, while the standard version does not.
Additionally, the AI Yuanqi Edition currently offers some purchase benefits and discounts. For example, users who purchase the product before June 18th of this year and register as pioneer users before June 30th can upgrade to a 3-year worry-free comprehensive protection service, where Lenovo provides unlimited free repairs and replacement of original parts; even in the case of accidental failures, users can enjoy free warranty services, and during the period, they can also receive an AI PPT annual card by sharing their purchase.
After deducting such purchase benefits, the price difference between the two is 200 yuan. The Lenovo Xiaoxin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition is more expensive, but is it worth it?
To answer this question, we need to understand what the "Lenovo Xiaotian" personal intelligent agent is and what it can do. According to the official introduction, Lenovo Xiaotian is a user-exclusive "personal intelligent agent" driven by an embedded local Tianxi large model. Through natural language interaction, it can bring a new AI experience in many scenarios such as work, study, and life. At the same time, with the help of the user's local documents, Lenovo Xiaotian can continuously deepen its understanding and cognition of the user, thereby providing more accurate and personalized services.
According to Lenovo, the core features of Lenovo Xiaotian include four major aspects: First, it has a local knowledge base; second, it can generate local knowledge summaries, with a "summary/induction" function based on personal specified documents, and can automatically match the output language; third, it provides data security protection, with Lenovo Xiaotian offering a chip-level security solution combined with Lenovo's account management system, ensuring that the user's knowledge base can only be accessed by the local large model; fourth, it has a natural interactive AI ecosystem, which can achieve natural interaction through handwriting recognition and voice recognition, forming images, content, and more with a personal style.
In my view, Lenovo Xiaotian is very similar to an AI assistant, akin to AI assistants in smartphones, tablets, cars, and other devices. With large model technology, they can not only answer questions posed by users and engage in AIGC creation but also predict the next task based on the user's thinking patterns and behavioral frequency, proactively offering suggestions.In the Lenovo Xiaoxin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ruilong Edition, Lenovo Xiaotian is presented in the form of a software, with a main interface that is a common GPT style, where users can input text or ask questions through voice in the chat box below. Lenovo Xiaotian supports many features, including the management and Q&A of local personal knowledge bases, AI artist, AI PPT, Q&A, and more. Behind the scenes, Lenovo Xiaotian not only supports calling local Tianxi large models but also supports calling online cloud-based large models, a design that can meet the needs of different scenarios.
First, let's look at the management and Q&A function of the local personal knowledge base. This function only calls the local large model to process files such as PPT, Word documents, and PDFs uploaded by users (image uploads are not currently supported). After uploading the files, users can ask questions about the uploaded files, such as asking Lenovo Xiaotian to translate, read aloud, summarize, or generate PPTs for you.
I uploaded an English press release from AMD and asked it to translate it into Chinese. Lenovo Xiaotian translated it accurately, and since it was an offline large model processing the task, it could complete the translation even without an internet connection. However, in this feature, the PDF I uploaded and the content translated by AI cannot be viewed side by side for comparison, which is not very intuitive, and I hope it can be optimized in the future. Additionally, asking Lenovo Xiaotian to summarize the document content is also possible, and the summary provided is quite accurate.
Next, let's look at the AI PPT function, which is a great helper for office workers. The AI PPT function of Lenovo Xiaotian needs to be run in an online state. It can automatically generate a PPT with one click based on the materials, documents, and themes input by the user.
I asked the AI PPT to create a laptop recommendation PPT and uploaded a Word document. Lenovo Xiaotian was able to automatically summarize the outline of the PPT, and users can also manually adjust it. Then, you enter the PPT template selection interface, where the system provides a variety of templates in different styles such as flat and simple, business technology, literary and fresh, cartoon hand-painted, and Chinese style, which can meet the needs of most office workers. After that, the AI PPT will automatically generate the PPT for users to download, and if not satisfied, they can go back and edit again.
Overall, the AI PPT function generates PPTs with good results, which is definitely a lifesaver for those who do not know how to make PPTs or rarely do so. If you are an experienced PPT user, it can also play a good auxiliary role, and as far as I can see, the AI PPT function is currently free and can be used without recharging. By the way, the PPTs generated by AI PPT can also be downloaded in the form of PPT, images, or PDF files, which is very user-friendly for beginners.
Next, let's look at the AI artist function. Simply put, Lenovo Xiaotian's AI artist function is a text-to-image function based on the cloud-based large model. Users can input text descriptions, and the AI artist will generate corresponding images. This function is helpful for office workers and designers, as it can trigger inspiration at any time.
In Lenovo Xiaotian, the AI artist can generate a cute white dog lying on the sofa as requested.
The AI artist in Lenovo Xiaotian is not the complete version of this function; its complete version is another software—Creator Zone. In this built-in software, users can set the parameters of text-to-image more finely, including image style, ratio, resolution, number of iterations, etc., with richer and more complete functions.Lenovo Xiaotian is powered by a large model, which is why it also supports common features of large model conversational assistants such as knowledge Q&A and text creation. Importantly, Lenovo Xiaotian supports both local and online cloud-based large models, making it usable whether offline or online, which is quite rare on other laptops. Users can switch between local and cloud-based large models through the icon above the dialogue box.
Let's look at the differences between the local and cloud-based large models. When asking the same question, it can be observed that in an offline state, Lenovo Xiaotian, based on the local large model, can accurately answer the meaning of "tender as water, a date like a dream," albeit in a more concise manner. Under the cloud-based large model, leveraging the high computational power of the cloud, Lenovo Xiaotian provides a very accurate response, explaining the origin of the phrase and giving a detailed introduction to its meaning.
It's worth mentioning that Lenovo Xiaotian also has a mini-program store feature. Lenovo plans to integrate other AI applications through mini-programs to create its own AI ecosystem. The mini-program store now includes well-known applications such as Kimi AI Assistant, Meitu Koutu, Evernote's H5 web page generation, Tongyi Wanshang, Flash Resume, NetEase Youdao Translation, and Baidu Dujia, among others. Users can use or activate the corresponding AI services through the one-stop mini-program store according to their actual needs, saving the trouble of downloading separate software or opening web pages.
Lastly, there is an interesting feature worth mentioning—the "Hi Chat" mode. In this mode, users simulate an immersive voice call with Lenovo Xiaotian, engaging in in-depth communication and discussing various topics. This is an interesting feature that can enhance users' affection for Lenovo Xiaotian, and those interested can give it a try.
Returning to the initial question, the Lenovo Xiaoxin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition's new built-in Lenovo Xiaotian personal intelligent entity indeed brings a wealth of features. Text creation, local personal knowledge base management and Q&A, AI artist, AI PPT, Q&A, and other functions not only allow users to experience the charm of an AI PC but also improve their work efficiency. I believe that for users, the Lenovo Xiaotian personal intelligent entity is valuable. It has already integrated and created a basic AI feature interface for you and can help you integrate more other AI large model functions. This is also a reflection of the comprehensive integration capability of the Lenovo brand, which has the highest market share in the PC market.
Collaboration of CPU, GPU, and NPU
AI Experience Upgrade Again
In addition to the personal intelligent entity of Lenovo Xiaotian, the Lenovo Xiaoxin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition can also deliver good performance in other AI applications. The foundation behind this is naturally the powerful AI computing power provided by the Ryzen AI technology, which is the result of the collaboration of the AMD Ryzen processor CPU, GPU, and NPU.
In terms of the CPU, this machine is equipped with the AMD Ryzen 7 8845H processor, which uses the leading 4nm process and is based on the innovative Zen 4 architecture, offering excellent performance and energy efficiency.
Regarding the GPU, the Lenovo Xiaoxin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition uses the AMD Radeon 780M integrated graphics. This integrated graphics is based on the RDNA 3 architecture, which is the same as the Radeon desktop graphics cards, equipped with 12 CU units and 768 stream processors, offering strong AI computing power.In terms of NPU capabilities, this machine is equipped with a Ryzen 7 8845H processor that features an NPU supported by AMD Ryzen AI technology. Based on the AMD XDNA architecture, it supports various AI neural networks such as CNN (Convolutional Neural Networks), RNN (Recurrent Neural Networks), and LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory Time Recursive). It also supports various data types including Int8/16/32 and BFloat16. The XDNA AI architecture is capable of real-time multitasking, able to handle up to four concurrent spatial streams, which means it can support the simultaneous operation of four different AI computations, such as AI image optimization during online video conferencing, which involves multiple AI model computations like facial recognition, depth recognition, and object recognition.
In terms of performance, this NPU's computing power reaches 16 TOPS, which is a 60% increase compared to the Ryzen 7040 series mobile processors. This means it is more efficient in handling AI tasks, such as significantly faster speeds when running local large language model applications. Additionally, combining the computing power of the CPU, GPU, and NPU, the overall hybrid AI computing power of the AMD Ryzen 7 8845H platform reaches 38 TOPS, laying a solid foundation for the machine's excellent AI experience.
As AMD continues to develop its AI application ecosystem, an increasing number of software applications now support the Ryzen AI solution, such as Photoshop, Premiere, and Lightroom in the Adobe suite, as well as BlackMagic DaVinci Resolve. Furthermore, software like "Game Acceleration" and HWinfo, as well as the Windows operating system, have also added support for the Ryzen AI solution. Among the many ecosystem software, more than 100 AI features are now supported to run on the Ryzen AI solution.
For example, on the Lenovo Xiaoxin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition, we can enable the Windows Studio Effects for the camera. The settings here are rich and detailed. Under the drive of the Ryzen AI engine, native system applications like "Camera" support background blurring, eye contact, and automatic framing features. Without Ryzen AI support, these features would require additional third-party video conferencing software, which would also require extra processor resource consumption. This effect is now also supported in commonly used office software like DingTalk.
In addition to Windows Studio Effects, the Lenovo Xiaoxin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition, with the combined AI computing power of the CPU, GPU, and NPU, reaches 38 TOPS. This means it can easily handle AI applications like Stable Diffusion and the large model-based "Ryzen AI Assistant," allowing users to experience the new experiences brought by AI applications. We can briefly experience the charm of the local large model of the AI PC through the "Ryzen AI Assistant." The "Ryzen AI Assistant" is a software that comes with local large models such as Qianwen 14B-Chat, BaiChuan 2-13B-Chat, ChatGLM3-6B, and Bianque 2.
The Qianwen 14B-Chat model has the largest model parameters and also has higher accuracy in its responses. When the Lenovo Xiaoxin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition runs the Qianwen 14B-Chat model, the processor power consumption can soar to around 51W-60W, and the processor occupancy rate can reach about 65%. After all, this large model has a large number of parameters and requires more powerful performance.
ChatGLM3-6B is very fast in response, but it seems to have limited knowledge of Chinese literature.
Compared to Qianwen 14B-Chat and ChatGLM3-6B, BaiChuan 2-13B-Chat provides overly concise answers, but fortunately, the accuracy of the answers is very high.
CodeGeeX2-6B is a lightweight open-source code generation model that can automatically generate multiple programming languages, with strong capabilities in code generation and completion, adding comments, code translation, and technical Q&A. After being deployed locally on a laptop, it can accurately answer questions like "implement a simple greedy algorithm in Java" even in an offline, unplugged environment.
Standard performance testing...In addition to its impressive performance in AI applications, how does the Lenovo Xiaoxin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition fare in terms of regular performance? To assess its performance, we must start with its hardware specifications.
The machine we tested is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 8845H processor, which utilizes a 4nm advanced manufacturing process, Zen 4 architecture, and features 8 cores with 16 threads. Its base frequency is 3.8GHz, with a maximum boost frequency reaching 5.1GHz and a TDP of 45W. In terms of memory, this machine comes with 32GB of on-board LPDDR5x 7500MHz dual-channel memory. The high-frequency 7500MHz memory lays a solid foundation for the overall system performance—tested memory read speeds reached 58797MB/s, write speeds were as high as 103.87GB/s, and latency was at 108.9ns.
The Lenovo Xiaoxin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition also includes a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, which achieved sequential read speeds of 5197.14MB/s and sequential write speeds of 4851.28MB/s in the CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4 test. For users, whether it's copying files or loading creative materials, this machine offers a sense of high efficiency, and the 1TB capacity provides ample storage space.
In terms of overall performance delivery, this machine is no slouch. Lenovo has designed an all-new "Extreme Wind God Cooling System" for it, featuring dual fans, keyboard cooling design, and a horn-shaped layout of composite 3D heat pipes, which greatly enhance the machine's cooling capabilities. Along with the "Extreme Wind God Cooling System," this machine's performance mode not only includes the renowned "Beast Mode" but also offers an even more powerful "Geek Mode." Lenovo claims that in the highest performance mode, the machine's overall performance delivery can reach up to 65W.
In "Geek Mode," the machine achieved a single-thread score of 103pts and a multi-thread score of 933pts in CINEBENCH 2024. When compared to gaming laptops with the Ryzen 7 8845H processor, this machine's single-thread score is only 3 points lower, indicating an equivalent level of performance; in terms of multi-threading, while this machine is not as powerful as gaming laptops, the gap is minimal, at about 6%. For an ultra-thin laptop, achieving such performance is considered excellent.
In CINEBENCH R23, the Lenovo Xiaoxin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition scored 1762pts in single-thread and 16606pts in multi-thread. Such performance is a complete leap ahead of the previous generation of Xiaoxin Pro 16 and is at the top level among similar new ultra-thin laptops.
In the PCMark 10 benchmark test, which assesses overall system performance, the Lenovo Xiaoxin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition achieved a total score of 7233, indicating that this machine has strong comprehensive performance and can handle office work, light to moderate creative tasks, and gaming entertainment very well.
Graphically, the Lenovo Xiaoxin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition uses the AMD Radeon 780M integrated graphics within the processor, which is based on the RDNA 3 architecture, equipped with 12 CU units, 768 stream processors, and a frequency of 2700MHz. It supports hardware ray tracing technology and AV1 hardware decoding.
In "Geek Mode," this machine achieved a graphics score of 3047 in the DX 12-based 3DMark Time Spy, surpassing the GTX 1650 Max-Q dedicated graphics (with a graphics score of around 2900 points), with a lead of about 5%.In the 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark scenario based on DX 11, this machine achieved a graphics card score of 9,054, which is also leading the GTX 1650 Max-Q discrete graphics (7,800 points) by approximately 16%.
With the addition of the AMD Radeon 780M integrated graphics, the Lenovo XiaoXin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition can easily play most games smoothly. For instance, it achieved an average frame rate of 45 fps at 1080p resolution and high-quality settings (ray tracing off) in "Shadow of the Tomb Raider"; and an average frame rate of 57.16 fps at 1080p resolution and low-quality settings (FSR auto) in "Cyberpunk 2077". For sports and competitive games, this machine can easily "handle" them, achieving an average frame rate of 111 fps at 1080p resolution and low-quality settings in "F1 2022", and an average frame rate of 99.51 fps at 1080p resolution and high-quality settings in "Overwatch: Return", with very smooth gameplay, allowing players to enjoy the games to the fullest.
Thermal and Battery Life Test
The Lenovo XiaoXin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition features the "Extreme Wind God Cooling System" with turbocharged dual fans, keyboard cooling design, and horn-shaped layout of composite 3D heat pipes, which greatly enhance the machine's thermal performance. So, how does this machine perform in actual thermal tests?
In an environment of 22.5°C, we conducted a single burn-in test on this machine. After 30 minutes of stress testing, we observed the highest temperature on the front surface of the machine to be 46.1°C at the right hinge exhaust, using a FLIR infrared thermal imager. Most areas of the middle of the keyboard were around 38.5°C, feeling slightly warm to the touch, while the wrist rest area maintained a temperature of around 28°C.
It is worth mentioning that this year, all new products in the Lenovo XiaoXin series have upgraded their power adapters from the traditional two-prong design to a three-prong design, which improves grounding safety, and the three-prong plug is also more stable when charging in places like hotels and airport VIP lounges. Additionally, this machine comes standard with a compact 100W gallium nitride adapter, providing more convenience for users.
The Lenovo XiaoXin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition is equipped with an 84Wh large-capacity battery. How does its battery life perform? We tested it using PCMark 10 in "Power Saver" and "Best Battery Life" modes, with 50% screen brightness and in flight mode. This 16-inch large-screen machine achieved a score of 10 hours and 18 minutes in the "Modern Office" scenario of PCMark 10, indicating that its battery life can support a full day of office work.
Design Overview
The body of the Lenovo XiaoXin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition is made of silk aluminum material developed by Lenovo itself, with a sandblasting process added, giving it a matte texture and a clean, elegant appearance. This machine also features a lightweight and thin design, weighing only about 1.91kg and measuring approximately 17.5mm in thickness, making it easy to carry around daily.This machine is equipped with a 16-inch IPS screen, which boasts a high refresh rate of 120Hz and a resolution of 2560×1600. The screen supports a color depth of 1.07 billion colors, with a peak brightness of 350 nits, and is certified by TÜV Rheinland for hardware-level low blue light and eye protection. In terms of color performance, the screen of this machine covers 92.2% of the sRGB color gamut, indicating that the screen quality can meet users' daily needs for watching movies, office work, and more.
The Lenovo XiaoXin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition does not support fingerprint recognition, but it features a full HD infrared smart camera at the top of the screen, supporting IR+ToF facial recognition unlock, which can automatically turn on the screen when a person approaches and lock the screen when they leave. Additionally, this camera, paired with Windows Studio Effects, can achieve intelligent background blurring, automatic facial correction, and smart beautification features. The machine also has a physical privacy shutter to physically block the camera and protect user privacy.
This machine features a full-size keyboard with single-color backlighting, offering a very comfortable typing experience. Coupled with an extra-large touchpad, Lenovo has also designed many shortcut keys to enhance usability, such as the classic Fn+Q to switch performance modes and Fn+R to switch screen refresh rates.
In terms of connectivity, the Lenovo XiaoXin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition is equipped with one USB4 port (supporting PD charging, video output, and 40Gbps data transfer), one full-featured USB-C port (supporting PD charging, video output, and 10Gbps data transfer), both of which support private protocols for 140W super fast charging. It also has two USB-A 3.2 Gen1 ports, one HDMI 2.0 port, one SDXC UHS-I card reader slot, and a 3.5mm audio interface. Such interface design can meet the needs of most users of thin and light laptops.
In summary, the biggest highlight of the Lenovo XiaoXin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition is the built-in personal intelligent entity for users - Lenovo XiaoTian. Driven by the embedded Tianxi large model and combined with the powerful AI hybrid computing power brought by the AMD Ryzen processor's CPU, GPU, and NPU, Lenovo XiaoTian can provide a unique AI experience through natural language interaction in various scenarios such as work, study, and life. From our actual experience, the practical value of Lenovo XiaoTian's AI functions is quite good, whether it's generating PPTs, document summaries, translations, or AI drawing, it can provide substantial help to users of thin and light laptops. In addition to Lenovo XiaoTian, this machine can also run other popular AI applications. Therefore, from the perspective of AI experience, the Lenovo XiaoXin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition is indeed a true AI PC.
Beyond AI, from the perspective of a traditional thin and light laptop, the Lenovo XiaoXin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition is also strong. Its total system power output reaches 65W, offering strong performance; at the same time, the Ryzen 7 8845H processor also brings higher energy efficiency, allowing this machine's battery life to easily reach 10 hours, not to mention its excellent 3D graphics performance, comfortable keyboard feel, and comprehensive interfaces. For college students and office workers, the Lenovo XiaoXin Pro 16 AI Yuanqi Ryzen Edition is indeed worth recommending.
Comment