Lenovo Yoga 9i Review (2023): A stylish and powerful 2-in-1 laptop

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Lenovo claims 100% DCI-P3 color accuracy, and in my tests I found that my display supported 100% of the sRGB color space and 98% of the Adobe RGB color space. I mention my display because Lenovo displays sometimes vary within the same product line, but these results are generally in line with what I’d expect from an OLED display.

Unlike other premium laptops these days, coughing, Dell XPS 13, cough, there are a lot of ports on the Yoga 9i. On the left side are two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, along with a USB-A port. On the right, you get another USB-C port (oddly, not Thunderbolt 4, though you can charge with it) and a headphone jack. Unfortunately, you’ll also find a power button on the side. I hate this. I always seem to grab it when I carry it, inadvertently turning the laptop off. It’s not a deal breaker, but something to keep in mind if you’re equally clumsy.

Some great keys, awkward power button

The keyboard is one of the most interesting features of the Yoga 9i. It has flat chiclet-style keys which are fine. They’re not high-end and they’re not as nice to type on, but they work. What’s interesting is that the far right of the keyboard has a series of one-touch function keys to control performance settings, audio settings, and color settings, and even add background blur to the webcam. with a single button. There is also a fingerprint reader. In fact, I found these keys very useful, particularly the power profile button. By dialing back the power when I was just browsing the web, I was able to get more out of the battery.

The touchpad is huge for a 14-inch laptop, on a par with Apple MacBook Pro 14-inchand it worked fine with the multi-touch gestures built into Windows. The Yoga 9i also comes with an active stylus. It works great for note taking, and it looks like it might be fine for a little sketching, too.

Good for working movie nerds

I’m happy to report that the Yoga 9i’s webcam is pretty good too. It’s 2.1 MP, with a 16:9 view, giving you 1080p video capture. It’s not the 5 MP quality you’ll find on some recent machines, but it’s the best webcam I’ve tested on a laptop this year.

The Yoga 9i has a 75-watt-hour battery, which features the same Rapid Charge Boost feature found in other recent Lenovos, like the Slim Pro 7 (8/10, WIRED recommends). I managed 11 hours and 17 minutes on our standard battery test, which plays a 1080p (local) movie at 75 percent brightness. In more realistic tests, such as using it for work for a few weeks, I was able to regularly get 12 hours, sometimes longer, as long as I kept the brightness a bit low. That’s pretty good for an OLED laptop.

While the Yoga 9i has a lot to love, it’s clearly not aimed at gamers. Even casual gamers will probably be disappointed by the performance of the integrated graphics. However, if you’re looking for a stylish and reasonably powerful laptop with incredible sound and a great OLED screen for movies, the Yoga 9i is a great choice.