Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9) review: Is it still my favorite laptop?

The successor to my favorite laptop ever takes one step forward and two steps back.

When I reviewed last year’s model of the Lenovo Yoga 9i, I couldn’t believe how close the company got to reaching perfection. It’s still the best laptop I’ve reviewed since, and upon receiving the latest generation, I couldn’t wait to see what Lenovo had done with it.

Lenovo has made improvements in its design by shrinking the laptop’s size and weight and introducing the latest Meteor Lake processor. Beyond these enhancements, it mostly maintains its best qualities, but one major flaw robs Lenovo’s claim to another near-perfect machine. Keep reading to see whether or not the latest Lenovo Yoga 9i is right for you.

Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9): Specs

Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9): Price and configuration

The Yoga 9i starts at $1,449 at Lenovo and is built with an Intel Ultra 7 155H processor, 16GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, and a 14-inch 2.8K OLED panel at 120Hz refresh rate. The Yoga 9i we reviewed brings the price up to $1,649 but instead has a 3,840 x 2,400-pixel OLED panel and 32GB of RAM. 

Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9): Design

I adore the design of Yoga laptops, but the Lenovo Yoga 9i, in particular, is the cream of the crop. Its thin and light chassis yields an ultraportable that is simultaneously gorgeous, capable, and convenient for traveling. Its wide hinge has speakers built into it, which results in the benefits of a top-firing audio experience without wasting space elsewhere. This allows for a keyboard that stretches across the entire deck.

Its shiny aluminum finish is beautiful. While last year’s model was a reflective silver, the latest model features a dark blue in the vein of cobalt; it looks sleek. The Yoga 9i is among the few Windows laptops with a design more appealing than a MacBook, and this comes from someone who adores the sleekness of Apple’s laptops.

The Yoga 9i weighs 2.9 pounds and measures 12.4 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches, and it’s impressive that the company managed to get the machine under three pounds. Compared to the previous generation of the Lenovo Yoga 9i (3.1 pounds, 12.5 x 9.1 x 0.6 inches), the latest model cuts a bit of weight and bulk.

Competitors like the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (3 pounds, 12.3 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches) and Lenovo Yoga 7i (3.6 pounds, 12.5 x 8.8 x 0.7 inches) are also 14-inch laptops, yet the Yoga 9i is the lightest of the bunch. The HP Envy x360 2-in-1 (4 pounds, 14.1 x 9 x 0.7 inches) is a 16-inch laptop, so it’s no shock that it’s heavier and larger. 

Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9): Ports

Considering the Yoga 9i’s thin size and low weight, it offers the ports you’ll need under most circumstances. It has an always-on USB Type-A and two Thunderbolt 4 ports on its left side. On its right side, it has an audio jack and an additional USB Type-C with Power Delivery 3.0 and DisplayPort 1.4 on its right side.

While it doesn’t feature an HDMI or microSD, its two Thunderbolt 4 ports, which can be used even while it’s charging through the other USB Type-C port, give it tons of versatility.

Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9): Display

The Yoga 9i has a practically perfect display. It is built with a 14-inch, 3,840 x 2,400-pixel resolution OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and excellent color depth.

I watched the trailer for Ridley Scott’s highly anticipated sequel, Gladiator II, and was left speechless at how stunning it looked on the OLED panel. Everything from its gorgeous wide shots of Roman architecture to its intense action sequences was crisp and vivid.

From the very first moment when a flickering torch paints Paul Mescal’s face in a warm glow, the panel is stunning to behold. The contrast from the darkest corners of this dim dungeon to how vibrant the fire itself is reveals its color depth and range.

One moment when a coliseum was filled with bright blue water was so beautiful and colorful that my heart skipped a beat. When I compared this scene to my gaming monitor, it felt like I was watching a whole different trailer, considering how lackluster it was.

The Yoga 9i did phenomenally on our color tests, reproducing 136 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. Not only does this crush the mainstream laptop average of 84 percent, but it also goes above and beyond the Yoga 7i (46 percent), Zenbook 14 (80 percent), and Envy x360 (128 percent).

The only drawback of its display is that it didn’t go above and beyond in our brightness tests. Its peak is 357 nits on average, a little below the 385-nit average. While brighter than the Yoga 7i (314 nits) and Zenbook 14 (339 nits), the Envy x360 (378 nits) is the best choice for outdoor work.

Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9): Audio

Similar to last year’s model, the Yoga 9i’s speakers are loud, clear, and impactful. They easily handled the movies and music I threw at them without issue. While they don’t feature the crispness of an external speaker, they’re great for a laptop. The Yoga 9i even features a dedicated key for swapping audio modes, featuring presets for music, film, and gaming presets.

I listened to the Italian alternative rock song “Certamente” by Madreblu and was impressed by the punchiness of the percussion. It was loud and clear without drowning out the other instruments. The vocals were also balanced and weren’t overly prioritized, while the speakers are more than loud enough without sacrificing clarity and quality.

When watching the trailer for Gladiator II, I swapped its audio preset to film, and I continued to be amazed by how impactful the speaker system is. Voices were loud and resounding, while sound effects from screams to arrows being fired boasted a tangible bass that did about as good a job as a laptop can at emulating a movie theater.

Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9): Keyboard and trackpad

Lenovo’s Yoga keyboards practically never disappoint, and the latest 9i is no exception. It offers a clicky, satisfying type feel with additional useful keys, including a fingerprint scanner, an audio preset key, and another that changes performance modes.

I took the 10fastfingers typing test and managed 113 words per minute with 97 percent accuracy, which is around what I can normally manage on my mechanical keyboard. I had no issue typing through this review and felt as comfortable as ever jumping between keystrokes.

The 5.3 by 3.1-inch trackpad takes up nearly all of the vertical space between the keyboard and the bottom of the deck, and it’s pretty wide. It felt nice and smooth while browsing the internet and dragging files, but I wish its uppermost section was clickable.

Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9): Performance

The Yoga 9i is built with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, 1TB of SSD storage, and 32GB of RAM, making it a powerhouse of productivity. This lightweight yet capable machine will allow you to handle your workflow easily.

On the Geekbench 6 overall performance test, the Yoga 9i’s multi-core score of 12,455 is fantastic, pulling ahead of the category average of 10,297 by a couple of thousand. The Yoga 7i (Intel Core Ultra 5 125U; 9,214) and Envy x360 (AMD Ryzen 7 7730U; 8,196) are quite a bit behind, but the Zenbook 14 (Intel Core Ultra 7 155H; 12,707) is in the same lane.

While converting a 4K video into 1080p using the HandBrake app, the Yoga 9i accomplished the task in 5 minutes and 10 seconds, which is better than the 8-minute and 13-second category average. The Yoga 7i (10:14), Zenbook 14 (6:36), and Envy x360 (7:30) all failed to keep up with the Yoga 9i.

The Yoga 9i duplicated 25GB of multimedia files in 26 seconds at a transfer rate of 1,016 megabytes per second, which is a bit slower than the 1,184MBps category average. The Yoga 7i (512GB SSD; 1,002MBps) was only slightly slower, while the Zenbook 14 (1TB SSD; 1,236MBps) and Envy x360 (1TB SSD; 1,245 MBps) were a decent bit ahead.

Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9): Graphics

We absolutely do not recommend the Yoga 9i if you’re in need of a gaming laptop, but that should be self-explanatory. However, its integrated Intel Arc graphics did well enough in our gaming tests.

We played Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm at 1080p and achieved an average of 35 frames per second. While this is a bit below the category average of 42 fps, it surpasses the Yoga 7i (26 fps) and Zenbook 14 (31 fps). However, the Envy x360 (42 fps) did far better with its AMD chip.

On the 3DMark FireStrike synthetic graphics benchmark, the Yoga 9i scored 8,468. This is better than the 7,013 category average and far surpasses the Yoga 7i (5,010) and Envy x360 (3,872). The Zenbook 14 (8,064) wasn’t too far behind, though.

Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9): Battery life

The Yoga 9i could’ve been on par with the last-generation model if it had knocked the battery tests out of the park, but unfortunately, that isn’t the case. On the Laptop Mag battery life test, which involves continuous web browsing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits, the Yoga 9i lasted 7 hours and 24 minutes.

We typically recommend 10 hours of battery life in a laptop, but 8 hours is a bare minimum before we dock massive points. Not only is 7 hours and 24 minutes insufficient for a full workday away from an outlet, but it’s far shorter than the 9-hour and 31-minute category average. The Yoga 7i (12:57) absolutely demolishes it, while the Zenbook 14 (15:52) more than doubles its battery life. The Envy x360 (9:17) isn’t fantastic, yet it’s nearly two hours ahead.

Since the previous generation of the Yoga 9i launched, we’ve seen battery life hit new highs while exceeding performance expectations. However, Lenovo has seemingly gone backward here, as last year’s model lasted 10 hours and 10 minutes before running out of juice. That’s a nearly three-hour difference, and it’s the sole reason why the Yoga 9i (Gen 9) is worse than last year's model.

Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9): Webcam

The Yoga 9i’s 2,560 x 1,440-pixel webcam is crisp on paper, but it doesn’t look great. I snapped a photo of myself, and the light from my lamp came across as overexposed, while the details on my face were a bit fuzzy. The pink hue of my walls maintained its vibrancy at the very least, so you should be okay using this for basic conferencing, but if you need anything more, we’d recommend one of the best webcams.

Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9): Heat

The Yoga 9i remained nice and cool throughout our tests and didn’t exceed our 95-degree comfort threshold. The 79-degree Fahrenheit touchpad, 94-degree G/H keys, and 82-degree underside were all more than comfortable enough for long reading and writing sessions. Its hottest point hit 95 degrees at the upper part of the underside, near the hinge, but even that isn’t too bad.

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

Installed with Windows 11 and Lenovo’s own collection of built-in software, you should have no trouble finding the available software. This includes Lenovo Vantage, which offers device settings, system updates, hardware scans, security assistance, software, and key information like the serial number and more.

The Yoga 9i comes with a one-year limited warranty. You can see how Lenovo did in our Tech Support Showdown special report.

Bottom line

I wouldn’t go as far as to say the latest Lenovo Yoga 9i is a disappointment, but in a world where every other laptop is taking huge leaps forward in battery life, it’s a shame that the successor to my most beloved laptop took several steps backward in this category.

It features the same incredible OLED panel, a sturdy and lightweight aluminum chassis that’s even more lithe, fantastic Intel performance from the latest Meteor Lake processors, and powerful speakers alongside a satisfying keyboard. But seven hours of battery life is rough. For more than double the battery life at an even lower price, the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED is a great alternative. Otherwise, the Lenovo Yoga 9i is still fantastic, and there are plenty of reasons to invest.