Lenovo Yoga 9i overview: This top rate 2-in-1 computer computer keeps going and going

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Quite loads 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 support. Out of doorways of these upgrades and quite rounded corners, the Lenovo Yoga 9i stays equivalent to the earlier Yoga C940. That’s now no longer necessarily a unsuitable thing. Treasure the Yoga C940, the Yoga 9i delivers a thin and light yet durable all-steel chassis, a heavenly typing ride, and all-day battery existence.

The ideal plot back to the Yoga 9i is the impress’s component ratio. At 16:9, it’s wide with much less room from top to bottom than a 16: 10 impress affords. More vertical characteristic skill much less scrolling by means of prolonged documents and on-line pages and offers extra room to work in traditional. And, if you happen to slither from computer computer to tablet mode, the 16:9 impress feels awkward for anyone who has aged an iPad with its boxy 4:3 conceal conceal.

Fortunately, the await a taller conceal conceal will be a transient one. Lenovo announced at CES that the next model of the Yoga 9i will feature a 16: 10 impress. As presently assembled, the Yoga 9i is a stellar 2-in-1, nonetheless it will be value making an are attempting forward to the replace due out this spring if the premise of a taller impress intrigues you.

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Lenovo Yoga 9i Specifications

Lenovo’s 14-high-tail Yoga 9i line starts at $1,299.99 for a configuration that aspects an 11th-gen Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a Chubby HD (1920×1280) contact impress. Our test diagram aspects upgrades to the CPU, RAM, and SSD. The above hyperlink will send you to a model that’s equivalent to our test configuration. The finest distinction is that it has a 1TB SSD.

• CPU: Quad-core Intel Core i7-1195G7
• Memory: 16GB
• Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
• Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
• Level to: 14-high-tail, 1920×1280 IPS contact
• Webcam: 720p with physical 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 skill: 60 Watt-hours
• Dimensions: 12.57 x 8.51 x 0.61 inches
• Measured weight: 3.07 kilos (computer computer), 0.7 kilos (AC adapter)

Lenovo offers both Home windows 11 Home and Legitimate, and our test diagram aspects the dilapidated. There’s additionally a impress support option that we didn’t salvage, which trades the baseline Chubby HD panel rated for 400 nits of brightness for a 4K panel rated for 500 nits. The finest diverse support now no longer incorporated on our test diagram is a 1TB SSD. We purchased the 512GB center baby of the three solid-yelp storage alternatives.

Vast sound, wide impress

Lenovo offers two color alternatives for the Yoga 9i, judicious one of which comes with a leather-based completely mostly lid. If you happen to recall out the Shadow Unlit model, you’ll salvage the swanky leather-based completely mostly quilt. We purchased the Mica option, which is Lenovo’s establish for silver. It doesn’t feature the leather-based completely mostly lid, sadly.

The Mica model is steel from top to bottom. With the added layers significant for the contact impress and a sturdy 360-diploma hinge, 2-in-1 convertibles weigh bigger than a comparably sized computer computer and the Yoga 9i is rarely any exception to this rule. It weighs a hair over three kilos where many 14-high-tail laptops weigh closer to 2.5 kilos. Mild, the all-steel chassis feels rock-solid with out a flex within the keyboard deck and extremely small flex within the lid.

The lid is positioned merely a small bit off centered from the keyboard deck so as that as soon as the computer computer is closed, it overhangs off the front edge to abolish a lip that makes it easy to flip open the impress. When the impress is turned around your complete skill spherical into tablet mode, on the unreal hand, the misalignment between the lid and deck is much less appealing when entertaining the diagram in tablet mode.

One feature that works equally effectively in computer computer and tablet mode is what Lenovo calls the Rotating Sound Bar — a speaker cleverly constructed into the diagram’s 360-diploma hinge that initiatives sound in direction of you no topic the mode (computer computer and tablet moreover to tent and presentation modes). With speaker grilles on the front and support of the sound bar, the sound is continuously transferring in direction of your ears.

Lenovo manages to squeeze in a pair of tweeters and two subwoofers that outcome in surprisingly dynamic output. Most laptops omit subwoofers and their presence would possibly maybe additionally be felt with a bass response that you just’ll actually feel on your palms as you form whereas paying attention to tune. The Yoga 9i’s audio aspects impressive separation between highs and mids that you just largely don’t hear in a computer computer — a lot so as that I’m hoping Lenovo’s idea of placing the speaker into a computer computer’s hinge catches on with diverse producers.

The FHD impress appears to be like to be engaging across its 14 inches and sufficiently shimmering at its rated 400 nits of brightness. It’s so shimmering that I wouldn’t recommend the UHD 500-nit support. I measured the FHD panel at a most brightness of 410 nits with appropriate uniformity, so it positively lives as a lot as its claims. Colours regarded apt and brilliant, and the contrast became ideal with deep blacks and shimmering whites. If truth be told, my easiest complaint about the impress is its wide 16:9 component ratio.

After using a preference of laptops within the past one year with 16: 10 displays, having a taller conceal conceal is a a lot higher fit for traditional use and productivity. I’d argue that leisure-focused laptops contain the most productive trigger to utilize a 16:9 impress, because it’s a higher fit for watching movies. Also, the Yoga 9i’s colorful conceal conceal coating can originate distracting glare and tense reflections, nonetheless that’s typically the case with 2-in-1s and their contact panels.

The Yoga 9i aspects a mature 720p webcam, nonetheless it produces a remarkably effectively-balanced image. Colours and pores and skin tones regarded apt and the image became largely devoid of the graininess I typically gaze with 720p cams. That is the rare instance where I don’t desire a 1080p support. It lacks IR skill, nonetheless Lenovo involves a fingerprint reader for biometric logins. Lastly, the webcam aspects a physical privacy defend to lend peace of thoughts when the digicam is now no longer in use.

Fleet keyboard, skinny pen

The Yoga 9i’s keyboard is roomy and cheerful nonetheless lacks the plush feel of a ThinkPad keyboard. The keys are flat with shallow lunge, providing a transient response that’s extra impregnable than that of a ThinkPad. The finest keys which would possibly maybe be shortened are the up and down arrow keys. All the pieces else about the layout feels natural. You additionally salvage two-stage keyboard backlighting, nonetheless you’ll favor to retain it turn out to be off in some unspecified time in the future of daytime hours because you lose the contrast between every silver key and its icon when the backlighting is on and moreover you aren’t typing in a depressing room.

The touchpad felt responsive with a heavenly click on, nonetheless I would’ve loved Lenovo to manufacture it wider to match the component ratio of the impress. Or, higher yet, retain the touchpad as is and change the impress to 16: 10.

The Yoga 9i involves a garaged pen that hides within the upper-pretty nook of the computer computer on its support edge. The pen costs in its port and aspects a rubbery Elastometer tip that creates a small little bit of friction against the touchscreen that approximates writing on paper as an alternate of a glass ground. The pen is simply too skinny and now no longer easy to grip, on the unreal hand, which prevents it from providing a natural writing and drawing ride.

The Yoga 9i aspects four ports and they’re all located in a easy row on the computer 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. Whereas having two Thunderbolt 4 ports is liked, I would’ve loved to contain had them cleave up up with one on either facet of the Yoga 9, so you would possibly maybe maybe presumably also payment the diagram from both the left and pretty facet. A volume rocker to utilize whereas in tablet mode is additionally on my 2-in-1 favor checklist nonetheless goes missing on the Yoga 9i.

Yoga 9i efficiency

Our Yoga 9i aspects the Core i7-1195G7, 16GB of RAM, integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics, and a 512GB SSD. Whereas devices with the Core i7-1195G7 are presently unavailable, you’ll gaze some with the Core i7-1185G7 chip. Each are quad-core CPUs from Intel’s 11th-gen Tiger Lake family of processors which would possibly maybe be virtually the same.

We in contrast the Yoga 9i against diverse top rate 2-in-1s. HP gets two entries within the Intel-based completely mostly HP Spectre x360 14 and AMD-based completely mostly HP Envy x360 15. We additionally incorporated Dell’s top rate XPS 13 2-in-1 and the midrange Dell Inspiron 14 7000 2-in-1. The dilapidated aspects the Core i7-1165G7 and the latter aspects the Ryzen 7 5700U. Rounding out the charts is a business-minded convertible from Lenovo within the manufacture of the ThinkBook 14s Yoga in step with the Core i7-1165G7. Each computer computer aspects integrated graphics.

Our first benchmark is PCMark 10, which measures efficiency on day to day computing work including place of work productivity tasks, web making an are attempting, and video chats. The Yoga 9i gets off to a solid begin with a first-region attain on PCMark 10. The above 5,000 rating indicates that the Yoga 9i is higher than geared as a lot as whisk Place of work and diverse productivity apps and handle a extensive selection of multitasking scenarios.

The Yoga 9i accomplished sooner than the varied Intel machines nonetheless on the support of both AMD programs on our HandBrake test, which involves encoding a extensive 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 attain the test in roughly half the time.

If our HandBrake test is a marathon, then Cinebench is a speed. This test renders a elaborate 2D scene over a transient time frame. More processing core and threads additionally outcome in higher efficiency on Cinebench and the 2 AMD programs are clearly a step or three sooner than the Yoga 9i and the Intel opponents.

The Yoga 9i doesn’t offer the most productive multitasking efficiency, nonetheless it performed admirably on our 3DMark test. A first-region attain among a team of laptops with integrated graphics, on the unreal hand, doesn’t manufacture it a appropriate fit for gamers. Even supposing Intel’s Iris Xe integrated graphics is surprisingly appropriate, as our checks contain confirmed, you’ll need a discrete GPU in case you belief to utilize your computer computer for gaming.

To test a computer computer’s battery existence, we loop a 4K video using Home windows 10’s Movies & TV app with the computer computer plan to Airplane mode and earbuds plugged in. We plan the quilt conceal brightness at a rather shimmering 250 nits to 260 nits, which is a appropriate brightness for watching a film in an place of work with the lights on. The Yoga 9i’s 4-cell, 60 Whr battery lasted virtually 16 hours on our battery-drain test, a hugely impressive outcome and a protracted runtime than diverse 2-in-1s we’ve reviewed.

Conclusion: Anticipate the next replace

The Lenovo Yoga 9i has loads going for it. It if truth be told lives as a lot as its top rate billing with an all-steel enclosure that is both fine and rock-solid. Its impress is shimmering and brilliant. The modern speaker bar pumps out impressive sound. The keyboard is roomy and cheerful. The battery runs all day and into the evening. As a pure computer computer, it’s extensive. But no topic its many charms, I like to recommend ready a few months for the as a lot as this point Yoga 9i to reach that can introduce a taller, 16: 10 conceal conceal in case you belief on using your computer computer in convertible touchscreen manufacture.

This model’s wide 16:9 impress feels minute and awkward in tablet mode. The taller impress will let extra command material on the quilt conceal with much less scrolling and present extra room to juggle open windows when multitasking. It’ll also light additionally feel extra natural if you happen to rotate the quilt conceal your complete skill spherical into tablet mode. The recent model will additionally feature a thicker pen for a extra natural grip for drawing and scribbling. The most up-to-the-minute Yoga 9i is appropriate, nonetheless the next model coming soon appears to be like to be to be even higher.