Lenovo Yoga 9i assessment: This top payment 2-in-1 computer keeps going and going

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Many of the updates Lenovo made to its flagship 2-in-1 convertible are on the internal, from 11th-gen Intel Core processors and integrated Iris Xe graphics to Thunderbolt 4 increase. Outdoors of these upgrades and a exiguous rounded corners, the Lenovo Yoga 9i stays associated to the previous Yoga C940. That’s no longer essentially a depraved ingredient. Just like the Yoga C940, the Yoga 9i delivers a skinny and light yet durable all-metal chassis, a excellent typing skills, and all-day battery life.

The splendid downside to the Yoga 9i is the characterize’s ingredient ratio. At 16:9, it’s huge with much less room from high to backside than a 16: 10 characterize affords. More vertical dwelling diagram much less scrolling by diagram of long documents and web sites and offers extra room to work in general. And, while you run from computer to tablet mode, the 16:9 characterize feels awkward for somebody who has historical an iPad with its boxy 4:3 display conceal.

Fortunately, the look forward to a taller display conceal shall be a rapid one. Lenovo announced at CES that the next version of the Yoga 9i will feature a 16: 10 characterize. As currently assembled, the Yoga 9i is a stellar 2-in-1, but it might probably perchance perchance be price watching for the change due out this spring if the postulate of a taller characterize intrigues you.

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Lenovo Yoga 9i Specifications

Lenovo’s 14-recede Yoga 9i line begins at $1,299.99 for a configuration that facets an 11th-gen Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a Full HD (1920×1280) contact characterize. Our test machine facets upgrades to the CPU, RAM, and SSD. The above link will send you to a mannequin that’s associated to our test configuration. The most easy distinction is that it has a 1TB SSD.

• CPU: Quad-core Intel Core i7-1195G7
• Reminiscence: 16GB
• Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
• Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
• Indicate: 14-recede, 1920×1280 IPS contact
• Webcam: 720p with bodily digicam shutter
• Connectivity: 2 x Thunderbolt 4 (USB Form-C) ports, 1 x USB SuperSpeed 10Gbps Form-C port, combo audio jack
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0
• Biometrics: Fingerprint reader
• Battery ability: 60 Watt-hours
• Dimensions: 12.57 x 8.51 x 0.61 inches
• Measured weight: 3.07 kilos (computer), 0.7 kilos (AC adapter)

Lenovo offers both Windows 11 House and Decent, and our test machine facets the pale. There’s also a characterize give a enhance to likelihood that we didn’t obtain, which trades the baseline Full HD panel rated for 400 nits of brightness for a 4K panel rated for 500 nits. The most easy lots of give a enhance to no longer incorporated on our test machine is a 1TB SSD. We received the 512GB heart child of the three stable-squawk storage alternate suggestions.

Immense sound, huge characterize

Lenovo offers two color alternate suggestions for the Yoga 9i, no doubt one of which comes with a leather lid. Within the occasion you take out the Shadow Murky mannequin, you’ll obtain the swanky leather disguise. We received the Mica likelihood, which is Lenovo’s name for silver. It doesn’t feature the leather lid, sadly.

The Mica mannequin is metal from high to backside. With the added layers wished for the contact characterize and a sturdy 360-level hinge, 2-in-1 convertibles weigh extra than a comparably sized computer and the Yoga 9i isn’t any exception to this rule. It weighs a hair over three kilos the attach many 14-recede laptops weigh closer to 2.5 kilos. Silent, the all-metal chassis feels rock-stable with out a flex in the keyboard deck and with out a doubt exiguous flex in the lid.

The lid is positioned true reasonably off centered from the keyboard deck in recount that as soon as the computer is closed, it overhangs off the front edge to plan a lip that makes it easy to flip open the characterize. When the characterize is rotated the total diagram around into tablet mode, on the opposite hand, the misalignment between the lid and deck is much less attention-grabbing when provocative the machine in tablet mode.

One feature that works equally neatly in computer and tablet mode is what Lenovo calls the Rotating Sound Bar — a speaker cleverly built into the machine’s 360-level hinge that initiatives sound toward you no topic the mode (computer and tablet as neatly as tent and presentation modes). With speaker grilles on the front and aid of the sound bar, the sound is repeatedly attractive toward your ears.

Lenovo manages to squeeze in a pair of tweeters and two subwoofers that consequence in surprisingly dynamic output. Most laptops run away out subwoofers and their presence might furthermore be felt with a bass response that you just’ll actually feel for your fingers as you form while paying attention to music. The Yoga 9i’s audio facets impressive separation between highs and mids that you just on the total don’t hear in a computer — so worthy in recount that I am hoping Lenovo’s conception of inserting the speaker into a computer’s hinge catches on with lots of manufacturers.

The FHD characterize looks animated across its 14 inches and sufficiently exciting at its rated 400 nits of brightness. It’s so exciting that I wouldn’t suggest the UHD 500-nit give a enhance to. I measured the FHD panel at a maximum brightness of 410 nits with true uniformity, so it positively lives up to its claims. Colors looked true and vivid, and the contrast became as soon as out of the ordinary with deep blacks and exciting whites. In reality, my easiest criticism referring to the characterize is its huge 16:9 ingredient ratio.

After utilizing lots of laptops in the past year with 16: 10 displays, having a taller display conceal is a severely better fit for general employ and productivity. I’d argue that leisure-centered laptops cling the most effective trigger to make employ of a 16:9 characterize, as it’s a better fit for searching at movies. Additionally, the Yoga 9i’s sleek display conceal coating can plan distracting glare and disturbing reflections, but that’s on the total the case with 2-in-1s and their contact panels.

The Yoga 9i facets an usual 720p webcam, but it produces a remarkably neatly-balanced image. Colors and pores and skin tones looked true and the image became as soon as largely devoid of the graininess I on the total sight with 720p cams. Right here is the uncommon instance the attach I don’t want a 1080p give a enhance to. It lacks IR functionality, but Lenovo involves a fingerprint reader for biometric logins. Lastly, the webcam facets a bodily privacy defend to lend peace of suggestions when the digicam is no longer in employ.

Quick keyboard, skinny pen

The Yoga 9i’s keyboard is roomy and happy but lacks the plush feel of a ThinkPad keyboard. The keys are flat with shallow walk, providing a rapid response that’s extra impregnable than that of a ThinkPad. The most easy keys which might perchance perchance be shortened are the up and down arrow keys. All the pieces else referring to the layout feels natural. You furthermore might perchance obtain two-level keyboard backlighting, but you’ll decide to grab it turned off all the diagram by diagram of daylight hours since you lose the contrast between every silver key and its icon when the backlighting is on and you aren’t typing in a glum room.

The touchpad felt responsive with a excellent click on, but I’d’ve loved Lenovo to make it wider to compare the ingredient ratio of the characterize. Or, better yet, withhold the touchpad as is and alternate the characterize to 16: 10.

The Yoga 9i involves a garaged pen that hides in the upper-true nook of the computer on its aid edge. The pen charges in its port and facets a rubbery Elastometer tip that creates reasonably of friction in opposition to the touchscreen that approximates writing on paper as a replacement of a pitcher floor. The pen is too skinny and never easy to grip, on the opposite hand, which prevents it from providing a natural writing and drawing skills.

The Yoga 9i facets four ports and to boot they’re all located in a trim row on the computer’s left edge. There’s a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports flanked by a USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port and a combo audio jack. While having two Thunderbolt 4 ports is appreciated, I’d’ve loved to cling had them carve up up with one on all facets of the Yoga 9, so you might perchance perchance also payment the machine from both the left and true aspect. A quantity rocker to make employ of while in tablet mode is also on my 2-in-1 wish checklist but goes missing on the Yoga 9i.

Yoga 9i performance

Our Yoga 9i facets the Core i7-1195G7, 16GB of RAM, integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics, and a 512GB SSD. While fashions with the Core i7-1195G7 are currently unavailable, you’ll sight some with the Core i7-1185G7 chip. Both are quad-core CPUs from Intel’s 11th-gen Tiger Lake household of processors which might perchance perchance be almost the same.

We when in contrast the Yoga 9i in opposition to lots of top payment 2-in-1s. HP gets two entries in the Intel-based mostly entirely HP Spectre x360 14 and AMD-based mostly entirely HP Envy x360 15. We also incorporated Dell’s top payment XPS 13 2-in-1 and the midrange Dell Inspiron 14 7000 2-in-1. The pale facets the Core i7-1165G7 and the latter facets the Ryzen 7 5700U. Rounding out the charts is a enterprise-minded convertible from Lenovo in the create of the ThinkBook 14s Yoga in accordance with the Core i7-1165G7. Each computer facets integrated graphics.

Our first benchmark is PCMark 10, which measures performance on day to day computing work including squawk of job productivity initiatives, web having a admire, and video chats. The Yoga 9i gets off to a stable begin with a first-squawk carry out on PCMark 10. The above 5,000 ranking means that the Yoga 9i is extra than equipped to saunter Place of work and lots of productivity apps and take care of a unfold of multitasking scenarios.

The Yoga 9i completed before the lots of Intel machines but in the aid of both AMD systems on our HandBrake test, which involves encoding a huge 30GB video file. The Ryzen 7 5700U has double the processing cores and threads as the Yoga 9i’s Core i7-1195G7 chip and allowed the Dell Inspiron 14 7000 and HP Envy x360 15 to grab out the test in roughly half of the time.

If our HandBrake test is a marathon, then Cinebench is a run. This test renders a advanced 2D scene over a rapid time-frame. More processing core and threads also consequence in better performance on Cinebench and the 2 AMD systems are clearly a step or three before the Yoga 9i and the Intel competition.

The Yoga 9i doesn’t offer the most effective multitasking performance, but it performed admirably on our 3DMark test. A first-squawk carry out amongst a group of laptops with integrated graphics, on the opposite hand, doesn’t make it a true fit for gamers. Even supposing Intel’s Iris Xe integrated graphics is surprisingly true, as our exams cling proven, you’ll want a discrete GPU while you intend to make employ of your computer for gaming.

To test a computer’s battery life, we loop a 4K video utilizing Windows 10’s Motion photography & TV app with the computer home to Airplane mode and earbuds plugged in. We home the display conceal brightness at an attractive exciting 250 nits to 260 nits, which is a true brightness for searching at a movie in an squawk of job with the lights on. The Yoga 9i’s 4-cell, 60 Whr battery lasted almost 16 hours on our battery-drain test, a vastly impressive consequence and an extended runtime than lots of 2-in-1s we’ve reviewed.

Conclusion: Stay up for the next change

The Lenovo Yoga 9i has lots going for it. It with out a doubt lives up to its top payment billing with an all-metal enclosure that’s both moving and rock-stable. Its characterize is exciting and vivid. The innovative speaker bar pumps out impressive sound. The keyboard is roomy and happy. The battery runs all day and into the evening. As a pure computer, it’s gigantic. But no topic its many charms, I suggest ready about a months for the up to this point Yoga 9i to come that might perchance introduce a taller, 16: 10 display conceal while you intend on utilizing your computer in convertible touchscreen create.

This mannequin’s huge 16:9 characterize feels little and awkward in tablet mode. The taller characterize will mean you might perchance perchance leer extra sing material on the display conceal with much less scrolling and provide extra room to juggle open dwelling windows when multitasking. It will probably also composed also feel extra natural while you rotate the display conceal the total diagram around into tablet mode. The novel mannequin might perchance well also feature a thicker pen for a extra natural grip for drawing and scribbling. The recent Yoga 9i is correct, however the next version coming right now looks to be even better.