Verdict
The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i looks superb , it ’s got plenty of power , and it partner a stunning OLED screen with seemly battery animation and biotechnology - but it ’s not always the crummy choice , and it miss connectivity
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i is one of the well - looking ultraportable laptops on the market , which will storm anyone who link this manufacturer with subtle office notebook rather than eye - catching designs .
Beneath the curl edges and shabu you ’ll chance Intel internals and mellow - end concealment specifications . It ’s a sound start , and on newspaper the Lenovo depend like a keen challenger for theApple MacBook Air M2andDell XPS 13 Plusand a potential fledgling into ourbest laptop computer 2023 countdown .
If you ’d like to get your men on this motorcar , you ’ll have to pay off £ 1499 in the UK and € 1699 , but bear in psyche that the US price is a bit eminent at $ 2070 .
Nevertheless , those prices do still equate well to some competitor . But is this laptop worth the outlay – or does it miss means beneath the dash ?
Design and Keyboard
Get hand - on with the Yoga and you ’ll get flock of pleasing expression regarding the invention . There are no piercing edges – instead , the aluminium base and lid are ringed with softly curved , chrome - effect edges . The palpebra glow with glass , and on either side of the gently drop keyboard there are pin - acute speaker grilles .
The bezel are tiny , and this version of the rig use an off - white wraith called Oatmeal rather than Lenovo ’s alternative Storm Grey gloss .
The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i impresses in practical areas , too . This is an impressively racy notebook computer , with hardly any significant panel movement – it ’s the form of laptop computer you’re able to well take on your commute . The flexible joint ’s movement is smooth , and a tiny back talk on the screen spread the lid easily . And while its weight of 1.38 kilogram is a little high than challenger , it ’s not a big enough parachuting to make a substantial dispute .
comfort the show open and you ’ll find a high - calibre keyboard . That ’s distinctive of Lenovo , and this unit is comfortable , quiet and reliable ; it strikes a great balance between light , responsive movement and solid feedback . gratefully , the power button is not installed on the keyboard , and you get a forked - height Return key .
As this is an ultraportable , there ’s only 1 mm of key traveling and no numberpad . That ’s normal for this class of car , and there ’s little difference between this social unit and the MacBook Air .
The keyboard is n’t consummate – the backlight should be hard – but it ’s very adept . It ’s also more schematic than the experimental building block on the XPS 13 Plus .
The trackpad is first-class , too . It ’s vast , with a dead smooth glass coating , and its push are very satisfying .
Lenovo ’s laptop deploys threeThunderbolt 4ports – one more than either challenger – alongside a earpiece jack and a webcam privacy switch . The television camera pair sharp 1080p timbre with Windows Hello facial recognition . Internally , connectivity comes from dual - bandWi - Fi 6Eand Bluetooth 5.2 .
As ever , though , the Lenovo ’s size means some missing feature of speech . You do n’t get a menu reader or a fingerprint digital scanner – both rivals include the latter . The Yoga does n’t have anHDMIoutput or any full - sizing USB ports , and no adapters come in the box .
Screen
There ’s lots to care about the Yoga ’s display . This 14 - inch touch screen uses OLED technology and deploy a 2800 x 1800 resolution , so you get unbelievable colours and pin - sharp contingent across its 16:10 aspect proportion .
The Yoga ’s panel bolster that specification with some majuscule bench mark . This control panel get 100 % , 99.2 % and 96.8 % of the sRGB , DCI - P3 and Adobe RGB gamuts with huge bulk , so this screen can handle creative workload and spiritualist playback in every space . Combine those figures with the OLED screen ’s consummate black-market stage and direct contrast and you ’ve receive unbelievable vibrancy , puncher and depth .
The Delta E of 3.21 is sane rather than brilliant and means that this screen does n’t quite have the truth for the most demanding design job , but that ’s a minor issue . Elsewhere , the SDR brightness level of 396 nits is high enough for indoor and outdoor use and the venire ’s HDR peak of 600 nit return a small boost to HDR picture . The display even comes with a style .
This is one of the good screens you ’ll find on any laptop . It exceeds theMacBook Airpanel in resolution and color handling and matches theXPS 13 Plus’sOLED option .
The sensational silver screen is partner by fantastic speakers that boil out loads of mass and perforate alongside great detail and crisp gamy - goal notes .
Performance
The Intel Core i7 - 1280P is a mid - powerAlder Lakeprocessor with impressive certificate . It ’s got six Hyper - thread P - sum that peak at 4.8GHz and eight low - power atomic number 99 - pith . It ’s also a step onward of the i7 - 1260P that you ’ll find elsewhere – that central processing unit might come from the same reach , but it has two few phosphorus - cores and is n’t in the same league as the i7 - 1280P.
Elsewhere , Lenovo ’s laptop computer has 16 GB of treble - channelDDR5 memoryand a 1 TB Samsung PM9B1SSDwith restrained read and compose speeds of 3558MB / sec and 2764MB / sec . On the graphics side , you ’ll have to rely on Intel ’s integrated center .
By default the Lenovo runs in its Adaptive Performance mode , and with this choice selected the i7 - 1280P returned Geekbench single- and multi - core results of 1,694 and 7,175 . Those modest figures barely differ from the i7 - 1260P inside theDell XPS 13 Plusand fall behindApple ’s M2 chip . The same radiation pattern recur in PCMark 10 , where the Lenovo and Dell both scored around 5,200 point .
Switch over to the Extreme Performance modality and the i7 - 1280P stretches its legs . In that benchmark its PCMark 10 result better to 5852 and in the Geekbench tests it mark 1738 and 10,806 , with the latter outcome trouncing Apple ’s late potato chip and stretch far ahead of the i7 - 1260P.
When it comes to performance , then , you ’ve take choice . That Adaptive Performance mode is idealistic for everyday office staff tasks and entanglement browsing , while the Extreme Performance option is well suited to picture - redaction , pocket-sized content - creation workloads and tough oeuvre tools . In those everyday workloads the Lenovo , Dell and Apple are standardized , but in creative tasks and multi - threaded situations the i7 - 1280P is better than the Dell ’s i7 - 1260P and the Air ’s M2 silicon .
Lenovo ’s laptop does a decent task in thermic tests , too . It ’s near - silent in adaptative mode and only made a small more lover noise in the Extreme runs – it ’ll be intemperate to hear unless you ’re in an extremely quiet surround . The exterior control board never get too hot , either .
In some markets you’re able to purchase the Yoga with different processors . ward off the i7 - 1260P , which is dumb than the i7 - 1280P but often sell at the same price . Sometimes you ’ll distinguish the i5 - 1240P , which is a capable everyday potato chip for web range and function tasks . That ’s a impudent money - saving permutation .
Stick with the i7 - 1280P and you ’ll find that the Yoga is n’t always the trashy selection . In the US , the $ 2070 Lenovo is corresponding to the XPS 13 Plus with an OLED , but Dell ’s fishing rig is cheaper if you ’re uncoerced to throw off that screen – and the MacBook costs less , even with 16 GB storage and 1 TB SSD upgrade .
The Dell and Apple notebook do extend more spec versatility . In many market there are no choice to tailor-make the Yoga , while the XPS and MacBook machines have loads of tweaks . This is n’t always the case with Lenovo , though , and I desire this is just a temporary halt to customisation .
Also take over in mind that the Yoga will get Intel 13thGen processors from April 2023 forrader . The i7 - 1280P is no slouch , but it ’s deserving wait if you desire even more speed .
Battery
You ’ll get a full Clarence Day of use from this laptop in some situations . With Adaptive Performance mode engaged , the screen brightness halve and an mundane work benchmark operate the Yoga lasted for 10hrs 25mins , and in the Battery Saver way that outcome poke out by an hr .
rage the smartness up to view OLED contentedness or incline tougher content creation creature and you ’ll get about seven hours from this laptop , but if you ’re careful then the Yoga will handle a work Clarence Day .
That ’s sensible for an OLED laptop and longer than the Dell , but non - OLED rivals are notably near here . Apple ’s MacBook Air M2 lasted for a mighty fourteen hour .
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Should you buy it?
The OLED screen and Core i7 processor extradite incredible visuals and vast power considering the size of this notebook – and it looks swell , too . It ’s a gamy - quality all - rounder .
The OLED display means battery life suffer in comparison to rivals , and you could get Dell and Apple laptops for less in tidy sum of situations .
Final Thoughts
The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i is an excellent ultraportable . Its OLED display stuns , its Core i7 processor flies , and it ’s ergonomically telling . You ’ll even make it through a working day in many situations . But it ’s not the cheapest laptop computer , it could have estimable connectivity , and rivals also have better shelling life .
Trusted Score
How we test
Every laptop computer we review go through a serial publication of uniform check designed to gauge key things let in build quality , performance , screen tone and battery life .
These include formal semisynthetic benchmarks and written tests , plus a serial publication of real earthly concern checks .
FAQs
As its name suggests , the Slim role model has a thin design . You ’ll also find that they volunteer dissimilar configuration option depending on your land .
