Premium Comfort
Farewell to sharp corners and edges, the Yoga 9i is comfortable to use
When the Yoga 9i was unboxed, I was intrigued to see a hefty device devoid of sharp corners and edges. This rounded-edge design makes hands-on computing extremely comfortable, as my palms no longer feel any discomfort when resting on the laptop. The Yoga 9i body is precision-machined using aerospace-grade aluminium with rounded, high-gloss sidewalls expertly crafted through a 10-step CNC, sandblasting, anodisation, and polishing process to produce a stunning mirror finish.
The brilliant 14-inch 10-point multi-touch OLED display produces an ultra-high contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, covering 100% of DCI-P3 colour space and 125% SRGB colour space with 1 billion colours at 10-bit depth. Besides offering a wide viewing angle, 600 nits peak brightness, and 1ms response time, it also houses a Wacom AES 2.0 digital pen digitiser which you can write on with Lenovo Precision Pen 2 that supports 4,096 levels of pressure and tilt detection. With Dolby Vision HDR certified, images are sharp and contrasty, and colours are vibrant and make videos pop.
The speakers, powered by Bowers & Wilkins, do not disappoint. The two tweeter drivers are placed at the 360-degree hinge to deliver unblocked audio in any folding mode. The two woofers resonate below the keyboard to deliver the lower frequency which although lacking the impact, nevertheless contributes to the overall tonality. The Yoga 9i speakers are among the best I have heard on a laptop, but the audio gets slightly distorted at high volumes.
The full-size keyboard is also quiet to type in, the key travel is short and the key action is firm. My fingers like the feel of the keys that allow me to get the key presses fast and accurately without typing too hard or lifting the fingers too much. An additional column of short-cut function keys at the extreme right lets you apply quick setting changes, and the fingerprint reader is cleverly disguised to look like one of the keys to achieve a cohesive design. But Yoga 9i supports facial recognition login and smart presence detection, which means I do not even have to scan my fingerprint. The laptop automatically logs out when I leave the desk and logs in when it detects me approaching the laptop.
Equally impressive is the built-in webcam. Even though it is just 2MP, my face appears well-exposed even under backlight or low-light conditions. Lenovo even added a physical lens cover to ensure privacy when you needed it. Even without the use of telecommuting software like Zoom or Teams, the background can be blurred by activating the feature natively via the shortcut button located in the right column.
The biggest drawback with Yoga 9i is the battery life. Despite a 75W battery, the laptop easily runs out of battery after about 6 hours of multi-window web browsing and productivity tasks. The good thing is that the battery can be charged to 100% in just 2 hours on either USB-C located on both sides of the laptop. I have no complaints about the overall performance of this beautiful beast. The weight of 1.4kg is not exactly light, so despite its ability to fold 360 degrees, it feels cumbersome to use it in various display modes.
Rating: 4.5
We say: A gorgeous laptop to own and to use, the Yoga 9i is well-built, exquisitely designed, and packed with smart features to elevate the experience.
From S$2,449
www.lenovo.com/sg
Technical Specifications
Processor Up to 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1280P on Intel Evo platform
Operating System Windows 11 Home or Pro Graphics Intel Iris Xe
Memory Up to 16GB LPDDR5-5200
Storage PCIe M.2 Gen4 SSD Up to 1TB
Display 14″ QHD+ (2880 x 1800) OLED display with glass, 60Hz refresh rate, capacitive-type 10-point touch, 4,096 pressure sensitivity for pen input
Audio Bowers & Wilkins rotating Sound Bar with quad speakers, enhanced with Dolby Atmos
Battery 75Whr lithium-ion polymer
Input/Output Ports 2x USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4, 1x USB Type-C, 1x USB Type-A, Audio Combo Jack
WLAN Intel 2×2 Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 ax)
Bluetooth Bluetooth 5.2
Dimensions (W x D x H) 319mm x 231mm x 15.25mm – 16.5mm
Weight Starting at 1.4kg
