Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 Review: Slim Body, Superb Display, Stunning Sound

Now in its ninth generation, Lenovo’s premium two-in-one convertible features a familiar design that’s soft and rounded (and perhaps a bit dated) but also extremely thin, light and compact. It looks and feels like a premium product, but then again, it doesn’t look drastically different from Lenovo’s midrange Yoga 7 convertible. What elevates the Yoga 9i is its high-res 2.8K OLED display and the impressive sound you get from its unique, rotating soundbar hinge. Its audio/video output is outstanding and gives this versatile machine a boost as an entertainment device.

At less than 3 pounds, the Yoga 9i is significantly lighter than the midrange Yoga 7. The lighter weight has the obvious advantage of easing your burden when traveling with the machine, but it also makes the two-in-one more manageable in tablet mode. The Yoga 9i also includes extras — a Slim Pen and laptop sleeve — that you don’t get with the Yoga 7. I’d trade both of those items, however, for a haptic touchpad in place of the Yoga 9i’s basic, mechanical one. There’s a lot to like about the Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9, but the mainstream Yoga 7 14 Gen 9 is probably the better buy for most two-in-one shoppers, and the HP Spectre x360 14 remains my favorite premium two-in-one convertible.

The Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 series is based on Intel Core Ultra processors. They’ve yet to be updated with Intel’s Core Ultra Series 2 chips that just began appearing in laptops last week. Our test system is available for $1,450 at Best Buy. It features an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, 16GB of RAM, Intel Arc graphics and a 1TB SSD. The 14-inch touch display features a 2.8K (2,880×1,800-pixel) resolution. Depending on Lenovo’s constantly shifting discounts, you might find the same or similar Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 configuration for less direct from Lenovo. 

Lenovo also offers two customizable models, one in each color offered for the Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9: Cosmic Blue or Luna Grey. Your hardware configuration options are limited to choosing 16GB or 32GB of RAM, a 512GB or 1TB SSD and a 2.8K or 4K OLED display. 

The Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 starts at £1,515 in the UK and AU$2,199 in Australia.

Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 performance

As we’ve seen with previous Core Ultra systems, the Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 offers steady application performance. Its scores fell in line with those of the HP Spectre x360 14, which was one of the first Core Ultra systems we reviewed at the beginning of the year. Since then, however, laptops and convertibles have arrived with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X processors, AMD’s Ryzen 8000 series chips and, most recently, Intel’s Core Ultra Series 2 CPUs. The Snapdragon X-based Microsoft Surface Pro 11 detachable two-in-one edged the Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 on Geekbench 6 and crushed it in terms of battery life. (The ARM-based Snapdragon X isn’t compatible with PCMark 10, which is why we don’t have a score for the Surface Pro 11 on that test.)

On Geekbench 6 and PCMark 10, the Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 and its first-gen Core Ultra chip outpaced the Asus Zenbook S 14, which isn’t a two-in-one but is included in the conversation because it’s the first computer we’ve tested with a Core Ultra Series 2 chip. These second-gen Core Ultra processors place a premium on efficiency, which helps explain why the Zenbook S 14 with its newer Core Ultra had slightly lower scores on these two application benchmarks but a much better result on our battery test.

The Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 lasted less than 9 hours on our YouTube streaming battery drain test, which was hours upon hours shorter than the runtimes of the Asus Zenbook S 14 and the Microsoft Surface Pro 11. The AMD-based Yoga 7 14 Gen 9 also ran for about 4 hours longer, but that midrange model has a lower-resolution LCD display, which doesn’t consume as many battery resources as the Yoga 9 14 Gen 9’s higher-res OLED panel. Still, if long battery life is important to you, then you’re better off with a two-in-one with a Snapdragon X or Core Ultra Series 2 chip.

A Snapdragon X or Core Ultra Series 2 chip also has a superior neural processing unit for handling AI tasks. On Procyon’s AI Computer Vision benchmark that measures integer math proficiency for AI workloads, the Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 was well off the pace set by models with newer processors that feature NPUs with higher TOPS counts.

The lack of any GPU upgrades limits the Yoga 9i’s appeal as a content creation machine, but the integrated Intel Arc GPU offers competitive graphics performance to the level you can expect from the second-gen Intel Arc graphics as well as AMD’s integrated GPU in its Ryzen 8000 series chips. You can discount the poor result of the Surface Pro 11 on 3DMark Time Spy; a version of this test has yet to be released for ARM-based systems so they must use emulation to run it, which hurts performance.

A vision in blue

The Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 is incredibly compact and lightweight, which is doubly important for a two-in-one that must pull double duty as a laptop and tablet. It weighs less than three pounds and is light enough to wield with one hand in tablet mode while the other is tapping on the touch screen or sketching on it with the included Slim Pen. The midrange Yoga 7 14 Gen 9 is significantly heavier at 3.6 pounds. In between sits the 3.2-pound HP Spectre x360 14.

The premium 9 is appreciably lighter than the midrange 7, but these two Yogas are otherwise fairly similar in appearance. The Yoga 9i is a hair thinner with rounded edges and is available in what Lenovo dubs Cosmic Blue — a gorgeous, deep blue that’s far better looking and more interesting than basic gray. Both models feature rigid, all-metal enclosures. 

The rounded edges make the Yoga 9i look even thinner than it is, and they make tablet mode more comfortable because you don’t have a sharp edge digging into you. What I don’t like about these rounded edges is their glossy finish. The rest of the system’s surfaces have a matte finish, so I suppose this glossy treatment is an effort to add a bit of an accent. To me, it looks like the Yoga 9i has a narrow strip of clear plastic that vendors add to protect against scratches during packaging and shipping. I actually tried to remove it when I unboxed the system, only to discover that it wasn’t something I could peel off but instead a misguided accent.

Because the Yoga 9i houses its speakers in the rotating soundbar hinge (more on that shortly) and on the bottom panel instead of either side of the keyboard, it has room for an extra row of keys along the right side of the keyboard. This quartet of keys provides shortcuts for controlling the cooling fans for increased performance or efficiency/silence; changing audio profiles for music, gaming or movies; and reducing the display’s blue light. The fourth is a customizable key, and below it is a fingerprint scanner. I’m not sure how much I’d use these keys, but the most helpful is probably the one for flipping between audio profiles since the speakers are so good on this two-in-one that you’ll likely use it for listening to music, playing casual games and watching shows and movies.

About that rotating speaker soundbar — it’s awesome. For starters, it’s a smart design because the audio sounds great in almost every mode — laptop, tent and display mode. Basically, each mode except tablet. And that’s no fault of the soundbar itself, but the other two speakers on the bottom panel sound off when firing against the back of the display in tablet mode. I found the Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 sounded best in tent mode, with the two speakers in the soundbar firing up and the two other speakers firing toward me from inside the tent. It’s one of the best-sounding laptops I’ve ever tested and one of the few that I would use to listen to music. The sound is big and warm and so much better than the typical tinny audio you get with most laptops.

Outstanding OLED

The 2.8K OLED display also impresses with its sharpness, vibrant colors and stellar contrast. I tested its color coverage with a Spyder X Elite colorimeter and the results were spectacular. It covered 100% of the sRGB and P3 spaces and 97% of AdobeRGB. It also hit a peak brightness of 390 nits, which is slightly below its 400-nit rating but not by much. The display looked fantastic in a variety of indoor lighting conditions, from a sunny breakfast nook to my home office under artificial light. I struggled to see content clearly on the display under direct sunlight, but that had more to do with the screen’s glossy coating causing glare and reflections than any lack of brightness.

Lenovo offers a 4K OLED option, but I think the 2.8K option is the best choice for a 14-inch display. The picture is sharp enough that I don’t feel the need to bump the resolution up higher. Plus, the higher-resolution OLED panel would have an even greater adverse effect on battery life. Further, the 2.8K display has a 120Hz refresh rate for smoother movement than the 4K option that runs at a pedestrian 60Hz.

The 2.8K OLED display is one of the biggest differentiators between the Yoga 9 and Yoga 7 series. The Yoga 7 does offer an OLED upgrade but with a lower 1,920×1,2000-pixel resolution. When I viewed them side by side, text looked much sharper on the 2.8K display than it did on the Yoga 7 14 Gen 9’s 1,920×1,200 IPS panel. 

The Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 also has a better webcam. Its 3.7-megapixel camera can capture 1440p video, while the Yoga 7 14 Gen 9 has a 2.1-megapixel camera that does 1080p video. The difference is slight, but the Yoga 9i camera provides a cleaner image with less noise. 

I wish the touchpad was a bigger differentiator between the two lines. The Yoga 9i’s touchpad is slightly larger, but both are mechanical touchpads and basically the same. At its price, the premium Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 should have a haptic touchpad. With its lively response that’s consistent across its entire surface and also customizable, the giant haptic touchpad was one of my favorite parts of the HP Spectre x360 14.

With a fantastic OLED display and some of the best-sounding laptop speakers I’ve ever experienced packaged inside a trim, all-metal chassis, the Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 delivers premium goods to account for its sky-high price. The lack of a haptic touchpad is a miss, however, and I’d ask Lenovo to reconsider the glossy edges when designing the Yoga 9i 14 Gen 10 line. And hopefully at that point, the Yoga 9i 14 will offer Core Ultra Series 2 chips for better battery life and AI performance.