There is a weird middle point in the laptop market occupied by the Lenovo Yoga 9i that’s difficult to label. It’s like the upper-middle class of laptops. They’re a bit more expensive than mid-tier, but they’re also not top-tier. They’re the laptops for the people who don’t need the whole kitchen sink, but would like to be able to wash the occasional dish (if I can stretch a metaphor to breaking point).
That’s why it’s great to see an upper-mid-level laptop from Lenovo look this pretty, while packing this much of a decent punch. It’s clearly drawn some design inspiration from its biggest rival, the MacBook Air, while still having its own distinctive design language. It’s portable, pretty, and the user experience is largely good.
However, I find its claims to support creativity to be disingenuous, given Lenovo is also going all in on AI (built on the stolen labour of artists). Plus, the focus on Microsoft’s lacklustre Copilot will leave the AI-curious disappointed.
Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 (Gen 9) review
First impressions
My first impression of the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Gen 9 is that it’s light, surprisingly light. It’s a bit thicker than the MacBook Air and some other laptops that go all in on being small and light, but I actually don’t mind that, because it feels good in the hand. Laptops that are too thin just feel pointy, whereas I don’t feel terrified that I’ll accidentally scrunch up this laptop if I twitch.
The second thing that I noticed is how plastic it feels. The plasticky feel made it feel a bit cheap and tacky, like a laptop you’d buy a child you didn’t particularly trust. However, despite the way it feels, it is actually made out of aluminium, so it’s durable and light. I think it might just be the finish of the blue that makes it feel less metallic.
Aside from that, the setup process was easy, and the hinge that allows the screen to go all the way around is still neat.
Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9) specifications
| Processor | 14th Gen Intel® Core Ultra 7 155H, 16C (6P + 8E + 2LPE) / 22T, Max Turbo up to 4.8GHz, 24MB |
| Graphics | Integrated Intel Arc graphics |
| Display | 14-inch 2.8K (2880×1800) OLED 400 nits (600 peak) touchscreen |
| Memory | Up to 32GB Soldered LPDDR5x-7467 |
| Storage | Up to 1TB SSD M.2 2242 PCIe 4.0×4 NVMe |
| Camera | 5.0MP + IR, with privacy shutter, fixed focus, with ToF sensor |
| Audio | 4 stereo speakers, 2 x 2W (woofers on the side), 2 x 2W (front-facing tweeters on hinge bar), optimised with Dolby Atmos, Smart Amplifier (AMP), audio by Bowers & Wilkins |
| Dimensions (WxDxH) | 316 x 220 x 15.9 mm |
| Weight | Starting at 1.32 kg |
| Battery Life | MobileMark 25: up to 12.5 hours Local video (1080p) playback@150nits: up to 19.5 hours |
| Ports | 1 x Headphone / mic combo jack (3.5mm) 1 x USB-A (USB 10Gbps / USB 3.2 Gen 2) 2 x USB-C (Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 40Gbps)with USB PD 3.0 and DisplayPort 1.4 1 x USB-C (USB 10Gbps / USB 3.2 Gen 2) with USB PD 3.0 and DisplayPort 1.4 |
| Price (RRP) | From $2,199 |
| Warranty | One year |
| Official website | Lenovo Australia |
The standout here is the inclusion of an OLED touchscreen. It looks absolutely gorgeous in person. 600 peak nits is a bit lower than some of the other laptop screens on the market, so it might not be good on super bright days, but it means the screen won’t eat all your battery life in one sitting, and that’s important.
Aside from that, everything is exactly what you’d expect in a laptop at this price point. I don’t love that the RAM is soldered, so it can’t be upgraded, but I do love that the Intel models of this laptop still have the 3.5mm jack. Not all Lenovo Yoga laptops have 3.5mm jacks, so they should be celebrated wherever they’re found.
It’s also good to see a USB-A port, because not all the laptops in this category have them, and that’s bad. No HDMI port is a bummer, though.
For around $2,350, you get a pretty beefy laptop that can handle almost anything you’d reasonably throw at it.
Performance
The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H Processor is supposed to be one of Intel’s answers to the Apple M-series chips, and it’s close, but it still can’t quite measure up on single-core performance. It does marginally better on the multi-core and graphics scores, but it can’t hold a candle to the Mac in terms of power efficiency, which is a major factor on a small and light laptop like this.
| Device | CPU (Single-core) | CPU (Multi-core) |
| MacBook Pro M2 Max | 2,701 | 14,916 |
| Dell XPS 14 | 2,349 | 12,941 |
| Acer Swift Go 14 | 2,421 | 12,639 |
| Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9) | 2,408 | 12,512 |
| Macbook Air M3 | 3,075 | 12,015 |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 | 2,581 | 12,160 |
| Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 | 1,567 | 8,761 |
| Device | CPU (Single-core) | CPU (Multi-core) |
| Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 | 123 | 1,395 |
| MacBook Pro M2 Max | 122 | 1,031 |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 | 86 | 927 |
| Acer Swift Go 14 | 104 | 903 |
| Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8406) | 105 | 763 |
| Dell XPS 14 | 102 | 660 |
| Macbook Air M3 | 141 | 550 |
| Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9) | 84 | 311 |
| Device | GPU (OpenCL) |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (RTX 4060) | 96,452 |
| MacBook Pro M2 Max | 72,833 |
| Dell XPS 14 (RTX 4050) | 65,396 |
| Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9) | 36,775 |
| Acer Swift Go 14 | 34,388 |
| Macbook Air M3 | 30,479 |
This is a problem for Lenovo and Intel, as the MacBook Air with the equivalent chip starts at $550 cheaper, though it has less of a focus on AI. It all comes down to what you value most.
All up, this isn’t a high-end laptop that is going to set the world on fire and set new records. This is a solid reasonably-priced workhorse with more than enough power to suit the needs of people who want to be able to do their emails, get their work done, use some creative apps and play some games casually.
AI technology
Whether you love the potential of generative AI, or have serious ethical concerns about how it’s almost entirely built on the stolen labour of artists and journalists, there’s no denying that generative AI isn’t fulfilling its promises yet.
Responses to prompts can yield very confident sentences that are completely wrong (9.9 is less than 9.11, for example, or that there aren’t any countries in Africa that start with a K). Or it can spit out an image that looks okay at first glance, but becomes more unsettling the longer you look at the distorted hands, and faces that look fresh from nightmares.
ChatGPT use has been flatlining and declining since earlier this year as more people discover AI’s current limitations. It also doesn’t help knowing that everything you’ve ever written or posted on the internet has been harvested without your permission to feed the technology.
Microsoft’s Copilot is built using OpenAI data and thus has a lot in common with ChatGPT. The conversations around ethics, potential pitfalls, guardrails, and solid gains of AI are being discussed in the middle of the process, rather than at the start. Plus, every tech company is terrified of being left behind in case this current tech industry fad really is as good as the boosters say it could be.
If you want a very recent example of how the current AI phase is going, Microsoft changed its legal copy to warn against taking its technology at face value in a professional context.
The ethics are only blurry if you refuse to look at them directly. Despite this, every new device is trying to compete to give you the most powerful AI experience available. It’s up to you whether or not you want that.
Battery life
I got roughly 17 hours out of the Lenovo Yoga 9i, with a mix of videos, Fortnite and word processing, and I am happy with that. That’s enough for a couple of days of heavy use between charges.
The ability to fast charge for 15 minutes to get roughly three hours of use also can come in clutch if you forget to charge until just before a meeting or a flight. It’s a bit less than comparable chipsets on the market, but it’s still enough for most users. This is going to be the most important factor for many users.
Design
As mentioned in my first impressions, I really like the design of the Gen 9 Lenovo Yoga 9i. The Cosmic Blue colour that I tested is deep and delightful, standing out just enough to look interesting, but not so much that it’ll be a distraction.
Because it’s a 2-in-1, it’s versatile enough to be used as both a laptop workhorse, a drawing tablet, and in a tented position for giving presentations or just comfortably watching TV. Lenovo made this form factor a thing, and the company is still absolutely nailing it.
The speakers, tuned by Bowers and Wilkins sound far, far better than a speaker that small has any right to. Normally I wouldn’t suggest bothering to use built-in laptop speakers because they’re so tinny, but these are speakers worth listening to.
Finally, the thing I love most about this laptop is the absolutely gorgeous screen. That 4K OLED touchscreen is just absolutely gorgeous. There’s nothing you can put on it that doesn’t look fantastic. The colour of the chassis and the vibrant colours of the screen were the two things I missed most when I sent my review unit back.
Who is the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Gen 9 for?
This is a great laptop for people who want a portable Windows PC, with a familiar processor, enough power to do their day-to-day tasks (and then some), a good battery life, and a beautiful screen. While it’s not classed as ultra-portable, I still think it is incredibly portable with how light and slim it is. 1.32kg is ridiculously light, making it perfect for carrying to and from work or school.
This is a reasonably priced, upper-mid-range, portable laptop that will be able to do what you need it to do and more, without costing much more than a decent used car. This is the next level of laptop most people need. Whether you care that this is a “Copilot+ PC” or not, this is a laptop with enough grunt to be used for a long time to come
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