Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (Gen 10) review: A sleek design puts style over substance

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (Gen 10) features a stunning design, but are good looks worth compromising on performance?

That’s a critical question if you’re considering the Yoga Slim 9i, and one I kept coming back to while testing it. This laptop features one of the most unique and stylish designs I’ve laid eyes on, but it comes at a steep price, steep enough to criticize how well the Yoga Slim 9i actually performs. The results left me wondering: Is it really what’s on the inside that matters most (to your wallet)?

Does the Yoga Slim 9i perform as well as it looks (let alone costs), maybe enough to land a highly-coveted spot on our best laptops or best Lenovo laptops rankings? After using it for a week, I think I know the answer.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (Gen 10): Specs and benchmarks

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (Gen 10): Price and configurations

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i is available in two configurations starting at $1,749. The base model includes an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V processor, Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage.

Our review configuration, priced at $1,899, includes an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor, Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. Either model can be configured with Windows 11 Home or Windows 11 Pro.

Even the starting price for the Yoga Slim 9i is higher than I expected, but there’s an obvious possible reason for that: its flashy design. Outside of the design, the raw specs do not warrant the price, but I’ll get more into the price-to-performance ratio later.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (Gen 10): Design

The first thing I noticed about the Yoga Slim 9i was the sleek glass back on the lid. It reminded me more of an iPhone than a laptop. Lenovo went all-out on the Yoga Slim 9i, producing a design that’s incredibly polished with a luxury feel. Aside from the glass lid, it features glossy, rounded edges on the keyboard deck and a display with bezels so thin you can hardly tell they’re there.

The glossy design is nice to look at, but it’s not without a couple of practical downsides. First, the lid is a fingerprint magnet and isn’t particularly good at hiding those fingerprints, which makes that luxurious glass back look decidedly less polished (literally).

On top of that, the glass poses durability concerns. Lenovo claims the “reinforced, impact-resistant” glass back is “tough and built to handle anything,” but I can’t help being a little skeptical.

I’ve never broken a laptop, but I still proceeded with extra caution carrying around the Yoga Slim 9i. I felt like I could accidentally scratch, ding, or even crack the glass with little effort. I’m not half as worried about accidents with laptops featuring a plastic or metal lid. It doesn’t help that the rounded edges and smooth glass make the Yoga Slim 9i unusually slippery.

One positive aspect of the Yoga Slim 9i’s design is how compact and portable it is. It measures 12.32 x 8.01 x 0.57 inches and weighs 2.76 pounds. To put that into context, here’s how a few rival laptops compare:

• Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X: 12.8 x 8.8 x 0.51 inches, 2.8 pounds
• Acer Aspire 14 AI: 12.56 x 8.86 x 0.67 inches, 3.2 pounds
• MacBook Air M3 (13-inch): 11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches, 2.7 pounds

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (Gen 10): Ports

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The Yoga Slim 9i is pretty spare on ports, which may be another unfortunate side-effect of its ultra-slim design. The only ports included are:

• 2x USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4

Yes, that’s it. Keep in mind, one of those USB Type-C ports is also for charging. So, you have only one port when the Yoga Slim 9i is plugged in. You’ll almost certainly need one of the best USB Type-C hubs or laptop docking stations to expand your port selection, especially if you have USB Type-A accessories.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (Gen 10): Battery life

Battery life is crucial for an ultra-portable laptop like the Yoga Slim 9i, so I was hoping it would impress me. Unfortunately, our battery life test result for the Yoga Slim 9i was a bit underwhelming at 11 hours and 3 minutes.

That’s not a bad result, but it looks lackluster in comparison to rival laptops. In this case, the Yoga Slim 7X, Acer Aspire 14 AI, and MacBook Air M3 all lasted over 14 hours on our battery life test, leaving the Yoga Slim 9i in the dust.

In the case of the Aspire 14 AI, that gap could be partly due to the more powerful, power-hungry processor in the Yoga Slim 9i. However, the MacBook Air M3 and Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X outperformed the Yoga Slim 9i on our performance tests, as you’ll see below, and those laptops still have better battery life.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (Gen 10): Display

If there’s one area where the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i really shines, it’s the display. The Yoga Slim 9i features a 14-inch 4K OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. Its bezels are so thin it’s easy to forget they’re there.

I noticed the display quality right away when I opened up the Yoga Slim 9i. It’s vibrant and responsive, with colors that really pop off the screen. Even Gmail looked more colorful than usual with more saturated icons and clearer text.

I watched a few episodes of Survivor on the Yoga Slim 9i and I’ll admit, Fiji never looked more vibrant and alive. The challenge sets were sharp and vivid, comparable to, if not better than, my typical viewing experience on my 1440p ViewSonic Omni gaming monitor.

Considering how phenomenal the display looked in my hands-on testing, I wasn’t surprised to see the Yoga Slim 9i score unusually high on our display benchmark tests. In fact, the only laptop that outscored it was the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X, and only by a small margin.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (Gen 10): Keyboard and touchpad

I’m a big fan of Lenovo’s laptop keyboards and the Yoga Slim 9i is no exception. It’s the perfect combination of smooth and snappy to make for a speedy, satisfying typing experience. The 14-inch form factor means the keyboard is a bit cramped, so if you have large hands it could be slightly uncomfortable, but I wasn’t too bothered by it.

On the Monkeytype typing test, I scored 100 words per minute with 97% accuracy on the Yoga Slim 9i. That’s a great score for me, but not quite as fast as my personal record of 105 wpm with 100% accuracy, which I scored on the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X. That’s also a 14-inch laptop, but it’s slightly larger than the Yoga Slim 9i, which may be why I typed a bit faster.

Although, key size and scale aside, the keyboard on the Yoga Slim 9i looks and feels almost identical to that of the Yoga Slim 7X, which remains my favorite laptop keyboard, so you’ll still get a great typing experience on the Yoga Slim 9i.

One drawback to having such a compact chassis is a small touchpad, which is the case here. The touchpad on the Yoga Slim 9i feels and performs just fine, with a smooth satin finish and no drag, but it is pretty cramped. So, you may want to pair it with one of the best wireless mice for a more ergonomic experience.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (Gen 10): Audio

I was surprised how much I liked the audio on the Yoga Slim 9i. It features bottom-firing speakers, which I generally find subpar compared to top-firing. Yet, they exceeded my expectations.

The music and sound effects in Death’s Door were rendered phenomenally well, with more depth and texture than on most laptops I’ve tested. The speakers get surprisingly loud, too – I didn’t need to turn them up past 30 for an immersive experience. Action sound effects like sword slashing and background ambiance from waterfalls and monsters running around were sharper and more realistic on the Yoga Slim 9i. Even button sound effects seemed more immersive.

The same applies to music and video content. The audio on the Yoga Slim 9i had me feeling like I was really on Fiji while watching episodes of Survivor, with lifelike depth and clarity. Music also seemed well-balanced overall. I listened to some lofi while working on the Yoga Slim 9i and it captured a mix of deep bass notes and detailed highs, with clean mids, all from a mix of piano, vocals, and percussion, with good clarity across the board.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (Gen 10): Performance and heat

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i is available with either the Intel Core Ultra 7 256V or the Core Ultra 7 258V. Our review configuration features the latter, but both processors include the same Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics.

The Yoga Slim 9i performed well in my hands-on testing with basic everyday tasks like replying to emails, word processing, web browsing, and streaming videos and music. If you mainly use your laptop for basic tasks like those, you’ll be more than happy with the performance you get on the Yoga Slim 9i. It keeps up well with numerous tabs open, loads pages and videos fast, and the stellar display makes reading and writing on it a breeze.

However, if you want to perform more resource-intensive tasks or run numerous apps at once, the Yoga Slim 9i may fall behind a bit. It scored 11,038 on the Geekbench multi-core benchmark, which is a couple thousand points lower than the similar, yet less expensive Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X. The Yoga Slim 9i also fell behind on our file transfer speed test, which reflects tasks like downloading and processing content. So, if you want top performance, the Yoga Slim 7X may be a better fit.

On the upside, the Yoga Slim 9i stayed nice and cool in our tests, peaking at 83.5 degrees, which is well below our 95-degree comfort threshold. It never felt uncomfortably warm during my hands-on testing, either.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (Gen 10): Gaming and graphics

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i is no gaming laptop, but its Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics can handle casual gaming between your work or school tasks.

I played some Death’s Door on the Yoga Slim 9i and had a smooth experience overall. I averaged 30 frames per second at its native resolution (3840 x 2160). The game was still playable with little lag at full resolution, but I averaged 60 fps when I dropped to 1600p.

Death’s Door is a fairly lightweight indie title, so similar games should run fine on the Yoga Slim 9i, but it may struggle with more graphics-intensive titles. In our lab tests, it averaged 66.5 fps in Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm at Medium, 1080p, but only managed 26.9 fps in Borderlands 3 at 1080p. So, performance is a bit hit-or-miss. If gaming is a top priority for you, you’d be better served with one of the best gaming laptops.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (Gen 10): AI features

The Yoga Slim 9i is a Copilot+ PC, which means it includes a suite of AI tools and features powered by Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant. There’s a dedicated Copilot button on the keyboard, which acts as a shortcut for launching the Copilot app where you can ask questions or generate text and images.

Copilot also powers some basic AI features in other apps. For instance, the webcam supports Windows Studio Effects, which uses AI to blur or change your background and improve your lighting in video calls. If you’re a fan of AI image generators, you can access one directly from your Copilot+ PC with the Cocreator tool in the Paint app.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (Gen 10): Webcam

Laptop webcams are rarely all-stars when it comes to image quality, but the Yoga Slim 9i is especially lackluster in this department. That’s probably because Lenovo cleverly hid the 7520x4232 webcam under the display. That allowed Lenovo to give the Yoga Slim 9i incredibly thin bezels, but it also may be the reason the webcam quality is unusually poor.

Unfortunately for the Yoga Slim 9i, this is legitimately the worst webcam I have ever tested. The video quality resembles found footage, with an incredibly grainy image that’s dull and pixelated.

On the bright side, the mic produces a clear sound, so people in your Zoom calls will be able to hear you well even if they can’t see you. Of course, you can always plug in one of the best external webcams, but that's not ideal if you're on the go a lot.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (Gen 10): Software and warranty

You can configure the Yoga Slim 9i with either Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro. Both versions include the standard suite of Microsoft apps, such as Microsoft Edge, Copilot, the Xbox app, and the Windows Store. It also comes with the Lenovo Vantage app, where you can view your device specs, settings, and warranty info.

The Yoga Slim 9i includes Lenovo’s standard one-year warranty, which can be extended for an additional fee.

Bottom line

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i shines from the outside but struggles on the inside. It boasts a stunningly stylish design, but the cost of admission is a bit high for the performance you get, with the Yoga Slim 9i falling behind less expensive competitors. However, it does boast a fantastic display and stellar audio, so it could be a good fit for some (if you can find it on sale).

If you’re considering the Yoga Slim 9i, you may also want to take a look at the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X, which also looks and feels fantastic, but costs hundreds of dollars less and performs noticeably better. You can also visit our guide to the best laptops for even more alternatives.