Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8
Value: $1,699
CPU: Intel Core i7-1360P
GPU: Intel Iris Xe
RAM: 16GB LPDDR5
Storage: 512GB SSD
Show: 14-inch, OLED, 2880 x 1880-pixel touchscreen at 90Hz
Battery: 10:10
Measurement: 12.5 x 9.1 x .6 inches
Weight: 3.09 kilos
In our evaluation of the earlier Lenovo Yoga 9i, we have been disillusioned by its middling efficiency and weak battery life, however the firm has returned with a passionate vengeance to make sure that no side of this 2-in-1 laptop computer may very well be described as “subpar.”
Delivering a beautiful 2880 x 1880 OLED show with mouthwatering vibrancy, phenomenally loud and impactful audio system, excellent SSD speeds, a satisfying keyboard, glorious productiveness scores and respectable battery life, I got here away from the eighth era of the Yoga 9i with newfound love in my coronary heart.
And because the indulgent cherry on prime, the laptop computer’s smooth and durable all-aluminum exterior and agency 360-degree hinge will make anybody really feel premium. Our solely criticism of this glorious 2-in-1 is that its show may very well be a bit brighter, however that flaw rapidly turned to mud every time I used to be knee-deep in my favourite TV exhibits.
For sure, that is simply one of many greatest 2-in-1 laptops on the market, and it would even be one of many greatest laptops normally. Learn on to see what makes the Yoga 9i particularly excellent.
Lenovo Yoga 9i value and configurations
My Yoga 9i evaluation unit is the bottom mannequin and comes with a thirteenth Gen Intel Core i7-1360P CPU, Intel Iris Xe graphics, 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, 512GB of SSD storage and a 14-inch, 2880 x 1880, OLED shiny touchscreen show with a 90Hz refresh fee, and Home windows 11 House.
It’s at the moment obtainable for $1,700 on Lenovo’s web site (opens in new tab), though it’s solely obtainable in Storm Gray whereas ours is Oatmeal. You may bump the SSD to 1TB for an additional $50, whereas upgrading that 2.8K display screen to a 4K show will price an extra $100.
Lenovo Yoga 9i design
I fell in love with the Yoga 9i as quickly as I pulled it out of the field. The shiny all-aluminum chassis, rounded reflective edges on the base, and minimalistic Oatmeal aesthetic on the lid with the YOGA and Lenovo logos on reverse corners offers the entire package deal an exhilarating sleekness. The laptop computer feels light-weight and its surfaces are clean to the contact; I really like working my fingers throughout the lid.
Lifting the lid reveals an equally alluring smoothness with a big trackpad, one other Lenovo emblem with a brushed metal end on the decrease proper nook, and a beautiful reflective 360-degree soundbar. The keyboard stretches throughout the whole deck, with a curved indented platform harboring the keys.
Irrespective of how snug I get testing laptops, I’ll by no means cease feeling the slightest little bit of uneasiness when shifting a 360-degree hinge into sure positions. I fear placing a bit an excessive amount of stress will trigger one thing to inevitably snap, however the Yoga 9i’s sturdiness impressed me, as it is advisable exert an honest little bit of stress for it to begin shifting. And when standing it up with its keyboard, or preserving it in pill mode on my desk, it felt well-supported and agency.
The Yoga 9i is available in at 12.5 x 9.1 x .6 inches and weighs 3.09 kilos. On the heavier and bigger facet are the 16-inch Samsung Galaxy E-book 3 Professional 360 (14 x 9 x .5 inches, 3.1 kilos) and Dell Inspiron 16 (14.1 x 9.9 x 0.6 inches, 4.6 kilos), however the HP Spectre x360 13.5-inch (11.6 x 7.8 x 0.6 inches, 3 kilos) is smaller and lighter.
Lenovo Yoga 9i ports
The Yoga 9i doesn’t have a lot happening within the ports division; we might have appreciated an HDMI port, however at the very least it delivers a strong variety of Thunderbolt 4 ports.
On the left facet, there’s a USB Kind-A 3.2 port and two Thunderbolt 4 ports with Energy Supply 3.0.
On the precise facet, there’s a USB Kind-C 3.2 port and an audio combo jack.
Lenovo Yoga 9i sturdiness and safety
The Yoga 9i handed MIL-STD-810H certification, which suggests it endured harsh environmental situations probably involving moisture, stress, temperature, climate, shock, mud, drop checks and extra. Contemplating how sturdy this laptop computer feels, it’s definitely not stunning.
Security measures embody a safety chip with TPM 2.0, a fingerprint reader, and tons of BIOS Security measures together with passwords for grasp laborious disk and person laborious disk. There’s additionally a self-healing BIOS function, whereas a digicam privateness shutter and IR digicam for Home windows Hi there ought to enable you really feel a bit safer.
Lenovo Yoga 9i show
Candy superb vibrancy, the Yoga 9i boasts an electrifying 14-inch, 2880×1880-pixel OLED multi-touch shiny show with a 90Hz refresh fee. It possesses shade depth that can soften your eyes and inject life in even the coldest, most bitter hearts. I couldn’t imagine what I used to be seeing whereas testing this show, and though it may very well be brighter, that grievance doesn’t detract from its magnificence. Should you haven’t been satisfied by OLED earlier than, this display screen can show to anybody why the know-how is magic.
I knew that the Yoga 9i’s OLED wanted a correct problem, so I went onto Amazon Prime Video and began the primary episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Energy. I’m an enormous fan of this present (come at me haters), so I puzzled how its visually hanging world would look on this beast.
My preliminary response was alongside the traces of “holy crap,” which snowballed into an existential disaster about how underwhelming my MSI monitor appears to be like as compared (I performed Elden Ring on that factor!). That then became me googling OLED ultrawide gaming displays and questioning if I ought to truly spend $1,000 on a brand new piece of {hardware}. Merely put, if a show can inflict this a lot dread upon me, making me understand I’ve missed out on the great things for thus a few years, it should be phenomenal.
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Throughout the opening warfare sequence the place tons of of ships sail in the direction of an orange lumscience parting by way of gloomy clouds, I used to be surprised by the variance in hue between the glowing gentle within the distance and the hypnotizing darkness inside the sea. Once I checked out this identical scene on my monitor, it not solely lacked that alluring depth, however it was robbed of its satisfying black hue altogether.
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In one other scene the place the blindingly shiny Timber of Valinor dangle over the land of the Valar, the Yoga 9i fantastically represented Laurelin, an particularly good tree that’s akin to the Solar, with an unmatched golden radiance. I additionally observed simply how deep its heat glow seeped into the encompassing forests and kingdoms. However after I switched to my monitor, that comforting glow had disappeared completely.
| Row 0 – Cell 0 | DCI-P3 shade gamut share |
| Lenovo Yoga 9i | 142.1% |
| Samsung Galaxy E-book 3 Professional 360 | 85.2% |
| Dell Inspiron 16 | 69.5% |
| HP Spectre x360 13.5–inch | 87.7% |
To the shock of nobody, the Yoga 9i carried out exceptionally in our shade checks, reproducing 142.1% of the DCI-P3 shade gamut, which is much deeper than the class common (91%). This rating is sufficient to even inflict existential dread into its non-sentient rivals, because the Galaxy E-book 3 Professional 360 (85.2%), Inspiron 16 (69.5%), and Spectre x360 (87.7%) are most likely shaking of their boots proper about now.
| Row 0 – Cell 0 | Brightness |
| Lenovo Yoga 9i | 353 nits |
| Samsung Galaxy E-book 3 Professional 360 | 381 nits |
| Dell Inspiron 16 | 307 nits |
| HP Spectre x360 13.5–inch | 355 nits |
The Yoga 9i didn’t do fairly as nicely in our brightness checks, because it managed a mean of 353 nits. Whereas that is in no way a poor rating, it’s worse than the class common (392 nits), Spectre x360 (355 nits) and Galaxy E-book 3 Professional 360 (381 nits). Nevertheless, Lenovo took residence a win over the Inspiron 16 (307).
Lenovo Yoga 9i audio
Holy bass! As I opened Spotify on the Yoga 9i to check the standard of its audio system, the quantity of the music echoing all through my room that may so effortlessly signify chaotic ensembles brought on my jaw to drop in shock. This sound system is punchy, loud and clear, providing a degree of immersion that may put most different laptop computer audio system to disgrace.
Whereas watching The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Energy, I used to be completely surprised as Galadriel neglected the pile of skulls amidst the forlorn narration and orchestral violins making my coronary heart swell with unhappiness. One other scene has Galadriel climbing up an icy mountain to chase a lead, however because the drums kick up, I used to be a bit disillusioned by the way it sounded in distinction to the orchestra and narration.
I began listening to “Dogsbody” by Mannequin/Actriz, and was surprised by the prodigious quantity of the opening synths and harpsichord. That is the quieter a part of the monitor, so I anticipated when the percussive drop occurred, it could be overwhelmingly loud. When it began to get explosive at full quantity, no particulars have been misplaced regardless of the room-filling sound. I lowered it to 60 for my very own satisfaction, however it’s nice to see how loud this laptop computer can get if I would like it to be.
Listening to how superb this speaker system is, I knew I needed to check it towards a track I particularly love. I pulled up “The Final Misplaced Continent” by La Dispute and blasted it at 100 quantity. The opening two minutes of rising heaviness and bassiness have been nearly completely represented with an depth that made me shiver. As the ultimate three-minute sprawl of intense noise rock towards good lyrical poetry graced my ears, I aggressively bopped my head alongside each hit and beat from how phenomenal all of it sounded. My solely criticism is that a few of the hi-hats obtained misplaced amidst the noise, however past that, the Yoga 9i boasts sound high quality only a notch beneath a devoted speaker system.
Lenovo Yoga 9i keyboard and touchpad
The Yoga 9i’s LED backlit keyboard doesn’t function a quantity pad, however it does have a singular choice of performance keys on the precise facet that rapidly change settings for audio, efficiency, blur the webcam’s background, and swap between gentle mode or darkish mode. The fingerprint scanner is nestled in beneath these keys.
Curiously, the F12 key rapidly pulls up a calculator. Whereas this could be helpful for some people, it’s admittedly a bit weird; maybe that is Lenovo’s manner of creating up for the dearth of a quantity pad. Different operate keys instantly take the person to the lock display screen, go into the settings, open the assist menu, toggle airplane mode, and undertaking the display screen. In fact there’s additionally brightness and quantity buttons, alongside a mute and microphone on or off toggle.
I took the 10fastfingers.com typing check and managed a mean of 110 phrases per minute with an accuracy of 99%. On my mechanical keyboard, I hit 119 phrases per minute at an accuracy of 98%, which is fairly shut. I felt snug typing on the Yoga 9i’s keyboard; every secret’s a enough measurement and it feels clicky and satisfying whereas I carry out each day work duties.
I initially didn’t like that urgent the caps lock key pulls up a notification that is still on display screen for a number of seconds, however as I saved urgent the important thing time and again, one other notification popped up informing me that I might alter the settings in Lenovo Benefit. When clicked, it took the smallest little bit of scrolling earlier than I noticed the OSD toggle possibility and turned it off. Good job on Lenovo for anticipating my nitpick.
The Yoga 9i’s touchpad feels fast and responsive when shifting it round, making it clean to make use of all through a workday. The precise click on on the touchpad might really feel higher, because it’s a bit vacant and hole, however it works nice all the identical as I had no hassle opening home windows and choosing paperwork.
Lenovo Yoga 9i efficiency
The Yoga 9i is constructed with an Intel Core i7-1360P processor, 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, 512GB of SSD storage from SK Hynix. These specs are greater than sufficient to deal with no matter duties you may throw at it inside a workday, permitting me to simply open up dozens of YouTube, Twitch, Google Docs, and Sheets pages whereas working and zipping between tabs with out it ever stuttering.
| Row 0 – Cell 0 | Mutli-core rating |
| Lenovo Yoga 9i | 9,954 |
| Samsung Galaxy E-book 3 Professional 360 | 8,250 |
| Dell Inspiron 16 | 6,757 |
| HP Spectre x360 13.5–inch | 7,243 |
The Yoga 9i completely crushed the Geekbench 5.5 total efficiency check, attaining a multi-core rating of 9,954. That is superior to the premium laptop computer common (8,800), whereas the Spectre x360 (Intel Core i7-1255U, 7,243), Inspiron 16 (Intel Core i7-1260P, 6,757) and Galaxy E-book 3 Professional 360 (Intel Core i7-1360p, 8,250) have been all left within the mud.
| Row 0 – Cell 0 | Time (min:sec) |
| Lenovo Yoga 9i | 9:45 |
| Samsung Galaxy E-book 3 Professional 360 | 8:07 |
| Dell Inspiron 16 | 11:27 |
| HP Spectre x360 13.5–inch | 10:33 |
The Yoga 9i wasn’t fairly as unbelievable on the Handbrake video transcoding check, changing a 4K video to 1080p decision in 9 minutes and 45 seconds. That is barely quicker than the Spectre x360 (10:33) and Inspiron 16 (11:27), however the Galaxy E-book 3 Professional 360 (8:07) soars forward alongside the class common (8:30).
| Row 0 – Cell 0 | Rating |
| Lenovo Yoga 9i | 1,669 |
| Dell Inspiron 16 | 802 |
| HP Spectre x360 13.5–inch | 1,364 |
The Yoga 9i carried out nice in our file switch check, duplicating 25GB of multimedia information in 16 seconds for a 1,669 megabytes per second switch fee. This is a wonderful velocity and much surpassed the class common (1,311MBps), Spectre x360 (1TB SSD, 1,364MBps) and Inspiron 16 (512GB SSD, 802MBps).
Lenovo Yoga 9i graphics
The Yoga 9i just isn’t a gaming laptop computer, so if you wish to do something greater than solitaire on it you’ll want to take a look at GeForce Now or one other cloud gaming service.. It comes with Intel Iris Xe graphics and we examined it on the Sid Meier’s Civilization VI benchmark at 1080p decision, managing 25 frames per second. That is decrease than the Spectre x360 (Intel Iris Xe, 29 fps) and class common (49 fps), however it did higher than the Inspiron 16 (Intel Iris Xe, 19 fps).
On the 3D Mark Hearth Strike artificial benchmark check, we noticed the Yoga 9i hit a rating of 4,927, which is inferior to the typical (8,266), however simply overtakes the Inspiron 16 (3,869).
Lenovo Yoga 9i battery life
The Yoga 9i has respectable battery life that ought to get you thru most of a workday, though it might final a bit longer. On the Laptop computer Magazine battery check, which includes steady net browsing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness, the Yoga 9i lasted 10 hours and 10 minutes, which is simply barely higher than the class common (9:51).
| Row 0 – Cell 0 | Time (hours:minutes) |
| Lenovo Yoga 9i | 10:10 |
| Samsung Galaxy E-book 3 Professional 360 | 7:46 |
| Dell Inspiron 16 | 13:38 |
| HP Spectre x360 13.5–inch | 10:12 |
That is superior to the Galaxy E-book 3 Professional 360 (7:46), however the Inspiron 16 (13:38) outlasted it by fairly a bit. It was almost on par with the Spectre x360 (10:12), although. Factoring in its measurement, weight, and a couple of.8K OLED show Lenovo is doing nicely to push it previous the 10-hour mark.
Lenovo Yoga 9i webcam
The Yoga 9i comes with a 1080p webcam that includes IR capabilities, a privateness shutter, a ToF sensor and stuck focus. Certain, you’ll be able to blur your background with the clicking of a key, however it doesn’t save the picture from trying like a jumbled, grainy mess of indiscernible noise. Each picture and video I took with this digicam made me look exceedingly synthetic.
If I might praise this webcam on one factor, it represented the colours of my room nicely sufficient; positive the pink hues appeared a bit deeper than they need to, however it wasn’t all that unhealthy. Should you don’t wish to take care of this poor digicam, we suggest testing our greatest webcams.
Lenovo Yoga 9i warmth
The Yoga 9i remained good and funky all through our testing, with its highest temperatures greatest described as “heat.” Whereas streaming a 1080p video for quarter-hour, its hottest level reached 94 levels Fahrenheit on the rear underside, which is simply barely beneath our 95-degree consolation threshold. The touchpad stayed cool at 77 levels, whereas the G/H keys have been at 88 levels.
Lenovo Yoga 9i software program and guarantee
The Yoga 9i comes with Home windows 11 alongside the standard Microsoft software program, however Lenovo affords loads of further performance by way of its devoted functions. There’s even a key to those apps known as “Sensible Key,” which is sitting to the precise of F12.
This pulls up a display screen to pick from Lenovo Vantage, Lenovo Voice, Lenovo Sensible Look, Vantage Toolbar and Preferences. You may even swap which apps seem on the toolbar, though Vantage can’t be eliminated.
Lenovo Vantage affords entry to system updates and knowledge, guarantee standing, Sensible Lock, equipment, a fast scan, and system standing or replace. Different choices embody settings for energy, audio, show, cameras, enter, efficiency increase and different superior choices that allow you to use clever sensing, tremendous decision (for low high quality media), and clever gestures. There’s additionally a piece known as Assembly Supervisor, which may provide real-time subtitles whereas in an internet assembly and transcribes what you say.
The Yoga 9i comes with a restricted one yr guarantee. See how Lenovo did in our Tech Assist Showdown.
Backside line
Each second since I lifted the Yoga 9i out of its field, all all through my testing, and whilst I’m writing these remaining phrases, I’ve been deeply in love with what Lenovo has crafted right here. Sure, the brightness is a bit beneath common, however it is a minor nitpick within the face of what the laptop computer accomplishes.
The Yoga 9i’s hypnotizing OLED show possesses shade depth that makes it unattainable to look away, whereas its phenomenal sound system might simply fill a room with its clear and impactful audio. Past that, the satisfying keyboard, smooth design, sturdy 360-degree hinge, excellent productiveness efficiency, and blisteringly quick SSD all packed into a light-weight but agency all-aluminum exterior makes this laptop computer simply in need of masterpiece.
