Hands on: Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Gen 9 review
This review first appeared in issue 360 PC Professional Edition.
although HPElite x360 2-in-1 laptop I would wear a bowler hat if I could, Yoga 9i is a free spirit. It wants you to make art instead of presentationwatching movies is not spreadsheetsitting in a coffee shop instead of an end-of-quarter sales meeting. That’s not to say it doesn’t look serious – if anything, the slender dark blue metallic chassis could be a funkier color – but it’s entertaining at heart.
Let’s start with 14 inches organic light emitting diode control panel. Although the peak value is 402cd/m22 In our SDR testing, its VESA TrueBlack 500 certification showed vivid colors when watching movies or playing games. It covers 119% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, and you can trust its colors, too, with an average Delta E of 0.45. The native color temperature is slightly warmer, so whites aren’t as bright as I’d like when typing in Word, but the 242ppi density makes text edges look very sharp thanks to the 2,880 x 1,800 resolution.
Lenovo including its slender pen styluswhich magnetically attaches to the top of the lid. I like the strong connection, but it doesn’t charge at the same time; there’s a USB-C slot on the top of the pen. As always, you don’t get a paper-like experience when using the plastic nib on a glass surface, but digital artists will appreciate the minimal 18ms latency, and the Smart Notes app is great for doodling and sketching. At 1.3kg, it’s no rival for the iPad, but I’m happy to have it in my arms while doodling.
this keyboard It’s not like a ThinkPad in terms of “feel”, but it has 1.5mm of travel and the keys are large and easy to hit. Lenovo has added a series of shortcut keys on the right side: Eye Comfort Mode, Mute, shortcuts to useful Vantage apps for controlling settings, and a Performance Mode switcher.
During benchmark testing, I selected Lenovo’s High Performance mode, but don’t get too excited.
IntelThe Core Ultra 7 155H is an excellent processor, but the Geekbench 6 score printed below doesn’t matter AMD Or Qualcomm, whose PCMark 10 score of 6,392 is high but not incredible. Likewise, the multi-core result in Cinebench 2024 is 816.
Where Intel chips continue to beat Qualcomm is gaming, and there’s potential here: 41fps Dirt 5 1200p is a solid return, as is 30fps at the screen’s native resolution, but you’ll need to find less demanding games to benefit from the panel’s 120Hz refresh rate. i enjoy it very much Dirt 5Yoga soundtrack speakerThe bass is much stronger than I’m used to from laptops, though. This is thanks to a pair of 2W woofers in the base.
Unlike ThinkPad T14s (See page 56), the design of Yoga 9i is not easy to maintain. The difficulty isn’t getting inside the case (the four Torx T5 screws offer little resistance), but what you can do once inside. It would be nice to see a QR code to help identify components, but I would only feel confident replacing the M.2 SSD (a scorching 1TB unit that returns 6,197MB/sec sequential reads) and the 75Wh battery.
Two months ago I would have raved about this Laptop Battery life: 12 hours and 40 minutes with light use is a good result. Or so it was, until a Snapdragon-based chip nearly doubled my expectations. Still, it’s enough to mean you don’t have to tuck the 65W charger into your bag on your daily commute, and charging is fast: 41% in half an hour and 75% in an hour.
Lenovo is adding some sweetener. With part code 83AC000FUK, you’ll receive a stylish case (complete with stylus loop) and a 3-in-1 USB-C hub that adds USB-A, VGA, and HDMI. These ports complement the three USB-C ports and one USB-A port in the laptop’s narrow base (there’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack). It’s a shame that the hub doesn’t include an RJ45 port, although I would have been happy to see Wi-Fi 7 instead of Wi-Fi 6E. You can configure the Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Gen 9 on Lenovo’s website, with options like 32GB Memorya higher-resolution screen and a gray instead of blue surface. But this pre-configured system is better value, especially since at the time of writing it’s on sale for £1,500 with a £200 discount. Still, I’m not convinced this is cheap enough. Despite the quality, the price feels like it should be closer to £1,300 to compete with the plethora of laptops currently on the shelves.
