Lenovo Yoga 9i (2022) Review - A premium 2-in-1 laptop for creatives and professionals alike!

Lenovo recently released the upgraded version of the Yoga 9i in the Philippines. This 2-in-1 laptop now comes with the Intel Core i7 1195G7 CPU.

Lenovo Yoga 9i review

In case you missed our news, the Lenovo Yoga 9i is a 2-in-1 premium laptop with a 14-inch FHD IPS touch screen, 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, Intel Iris Xe graphics, 16GB LPDDR4X RAM, 1TB SSD, and a 60WHr battery with Rapid Charge Express technology.

Unboxing/Accessories

Here's the pretty box from Lenovo

If you remember, we did review another Lenovo Yoga 9i back in 2021. This version comes in the same cardboard outer box with a more premium black box inside containing the laptop itself. Once, you open that box, you get the Yoga 9i wrapped in a soft cloth sleeve.

Here are the accessories included!

The 65W USB-C power brick and the power cord are housed in a compartment on the cardboard box. Lenovo also included a three-in-one USB-C hub.

Build Quality/Design

European leather material for the cover

The Yoga branding is engraved in the leather itself

The Lenovo Yoga 9i retained the European leather material for its cover to keep it as premium as before. The body itself is still made out of precision-machined, aerospace-grade aluminum.

Aluminum chassis

As per the information shared last time, Lenovo stated that each Yoga 9i model goes under a 20-step inspection process before being approved for distribution. It is evident in this iteration that the company does not skimp on quality assessment steps.

Beautiful aesthetics!

For a more streamlined appearance, the screen features small bezels all around. In addition to the 2-in-1 capabilities, it has a rotating soundbar along its hinge. It also comes with a low-profile keyboard that is easy to type on. The big touchpad is also accurate and responsive. 

A dedicated ultrasonic fingerprint sensor and a 720p HD camera for Windows Hello are also included. The ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is responsive and snappy as well. I prefer using it rather than the Windows Hello facial recognition feature.

I/O ports

Every single port is still on the left-hand side. It includes a single USB-A port, 2x Thunderbolt 4 USB-C, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Just like before, there is no Ethernet port or SD card. 

With the aforementioned USB-C 3-in-1 hub, you only get another USB-A port, an HDMI port, and a VGA port. By the way, on the right side, you will see the power button.

Naturally, as with any 2-in-1 laptop, you can use it in a variety of configurations for collaboration and multimedia, including the classic clamshell laptop mode, flat mode, tablet mode, and tent mode.

The keyboard and trackpad

Just like last time, the low-profile chiclet keys give a superb typing experience. It provides tactile input while being relatively quiet. If you need to work in low-light settings, it is also backlit.

For a premium laptop, the build quality and design are excellent. However, just like before, the lack of an Ethernet port and an SD card slot may be a bit problematic especially since this is geared toward professionals.

Third-party dongles may solve the problem, but it would be great if it was incorporated.

Multimedia Experience

Here's the screen with its slim bezels

The Lenovo Yoga 9i has a 14-inch IPS screen with a resolution of up to 3840 x 2160 UHD. This time around we were able to use the 4K UHD variant. 

It has a 60Hz refresh rate

It supports Dolby Vision and has VESA DisplayHDR 400, 500 nits, 90 percent DCI-P3 color gamut, and VESA DisplayHDR 400. It also boasts Super Resolution 2.0, which employs machine learning to upscale material from 1080p to 4K automatically. However, it only goes up to 60Hz.

Crisp display!

The viewing angles are excellent thanks to the IPS panel. The 500 nits brightness is enough for indoor use, although it struggles a little in direct sunlight or outdoors. With VESA DisplayHDR, HDR content is a visual feast, and some content creation is possible because of the high color accuracy.

It has an included Lenovo Stylus Pen

It also has touch capability with support for the Lenovo Integrated Pen. With this, you can do some creative graphic work as well as do fast notetaking if you don't have a chance to use the keyboard. 

Just like before, we tested our creative stylus work with the free sketch app Medibang Pro, and we were able to do some art. The responsiveness is there and the stylus is light and is a joy to use. The problem is our talent for drawing, since our last try, it did not improve.

Rotating soundbar with Dolby Atmos support

It sports a rotating soundbar with Dolby Atmos compatibility for audio. In both tablet and laptop modes, the soundbar provides excellent audio. It produces crisp, powerful bass tones. 

With its replicated surround sound, Dolby Atmos was able to increase our immersion in movies. There are four speakers in all, two Woofers and two Tweeters.

The built-in microphone, as well as the 0.9MP HD webcam, are both good enough. In our tests, it functioned admirably in Zoom, Messenger, and Discord calls. The webcam's photographs are blurry and have dull colors, as expected. This is a very typical problem with laptop cameras.

Here is the 1MP HD webcam!

For additional privacy protection, there is also a privacy shutter. It is a physical one that you manually slide open. Pretty secure! 

Performance

Geekbench 5 Single-Core and Multi-Core scores

The Lenovo Yoga 9i features the 10nm 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1195G7 quad-core processor with a base frequency of 2.9GHz and a max turbo frequency of 5.0GHz. It also has Intel Iris Xe graphics, 16GB LPDDR4X RAM, 1TB of m.2 SSD storage, and a 60WHr battery with 65W Rapid Charge Express.

Geekbench 5 OpenCL score

We mostly used it for writing, web surfing, YouTube, Spotify, and some light Photoshop on a regular basis.

Strong performance for work!

Even with many apps open, it was able to give a smooth and responsive experience. Because of its huge 16GB of RAM, you may open many Chrome tabs at once without worrying about running out of memory.

Blender benchmark

Just like before, some gaming can also be done if you need to. Most Esports titles such as League of Legends, CS:GO, and Valorant can provide a 60fps+ experience with a mix of Low and Medium settings. More competitive esports players even play in the lowest settings for more fps.

We expect that AAA games that need more graphical performance will struggle just like when we tested GTA V back in 2021. The Intel Iris Xe has a shared memory of up to 7.8GB but it does not have the same performance as a dedicated GPU has.

For heat management, Lenovo claims it has a dual-fan and pipe architecture. It can become a little hot while running at full speed, especially when gaming. Enough to make sitting on your lap unpleasant. If you're going to be playing games or doing a lot of work, we recommend using a tabletop. You may also increase fan revolutions by pressing Fn + Q for optimum cooling.

3DMark Time Spy score

With maximum brightness and 75 percent loudness on the speakers, we were able to obtain roughly 8 hours of real-world battery life. We used it to listen to music while writing our work here. Photoshop is also constantly running in the background. We also did some YouTube and Netflix after work as well.

So, altogether, the battery life is outstanding. Also, we always switch the power profile to High Performance for our reviews. You may obtain improved battery life at the expense of performance if you choose the Balanced power plan.

It will take around 45 to 50 minutes for the 65W Rapid Charge Express to charge it from 10 percent to 100 percent.

Other efficiency features include Modern standby mode, which allows crucial Windows updates to be synced even while the computer is in sleep mode.

Cinebench R23 score

This also enables immediate wake-up when the laptop is opened. It does not deplete the battery because it just requires a little amount of power to sustain the standby mode. There's the Glance by Mirametrix AI-powered attention-sensing software that blurs on-screen content when users are not looking at the screen.

Lenovo Yoga 9i (2022) benchmark scores:

1. GeekBench 5 - 1,510 (Single-core), 5,201 (Multi-core), 19,624 (OpenCL)

2. Blender 3.1.0 - 55.45

3. 3DMark Time Spy - 1,820 (Overall), 1,665 (Graphics), 3,863 (CPU)

4. Cinebench R23 - 1,367 (Single-core), 4,987 (Multi-core)

Overall, just like before we enjoyed our experience with the Lenovo Yoga 9i. With every task we threw at it, it delivered a solid and responsive performance. We still believe there is potential for improvement in thermal management.

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It already has good thermal management but again, the 65W Rapid Charge Express is mostly to blame for the uncomfy heat it emits. When you use it while it's charging, the heat is transferred to the keyboard. Even with this significant heat increase though, no significant throttling was felt during our usage.

VALORANT playable settings

Another upgrade from last time is that the Lenovo Yoga 9i now ships with Windows 11 Home out of the box.

Pros - Amazing premium build and design, great screen with touch/stylus support, rotating soundbar speakers, fast performance with no thermal throttling, 65W Rapid Charge Express via USB-C, stylus included, versatile modes, Windows 11 out of the box

Cons - Too high temp when charging, I/O ports are lacking, no dedicated GPU

Lenovo Yoga 9i Specs

Display: 14-inch IPS touch screen w/ UHD 3840 2160 resolution at 315 ppi

CPU: 5.0GHz 10nm 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1195G7 quad-core processor

GPU: Intel Iris Xe graphics

RAM: 16GB LPDDR4X

ROM: 1TB M.2 SSD

Selfie Camera: 1MP w/ TrueBlock privacy shutter

Battery: 60WHr w/ 65W Rapid Charge Express technology

OS: Windows 11 Home

Connectivity: WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, 1x USB-A 3.1 Gen2, 2x USB-C Thunderbolt 4.0 port w/ DisplayPort and Power Delivery, 3.5mm headphone jack

Others: Side-mounted power button, 360-degree Hinge, backlit keyboard, built-in microphone, quad-speaker Rotating Soundbar w/ Dolby Audio, USB-C, Colors: Shadow Black with Leather Cover

Dimensions: 319.5 x 216.7 x 15.3 mm

Weight: 1.44 kg

Price: PHP 114,995

Verdict

The Lenovo Yoga 9i is a luxurious 2-in-1 work laptop. Priced at PHP 114,999, it does not cut corners on most things.

It features a luxury yet streamlined appearance thanks to the European Leather, all-aluminum chassis, and a 4K UHD screen with narrow bezels. It also comes with a strong processor, 16GB LPDDR4X RAM, 1TB M.2 storage, a long battery life, and quick charging.

Only the heat management, I/O ports, and maybe a discrete GPU need to be improved.

Overall, the Lenovo Yoga 9i is an excellent choice for a business laptop with enough power for modest gaming on the side. It's a cutting-edge laptop with capabilities like WiFi 6 and Thunderbolt 4.0.

Build/Design - 4.75

Multimedia Experience - 4.5

Performance - 4.25

Average - 4.5/5