This Lenovo OLED laptop lasted 23 hours in my tests–no, seriously

The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition is a 14-inch 2-in-1 convertible laptop computer with an Intel Lunar Lake processor. It combines a touchscreen and 360-degree hinge together with 32GB of RAM, a phenomenal OLED display screen, and the lengthy battery life Intel’s Lunar Lake {hardware} is thought for.

Unlike some other Yoga-branded laptops I’ve reviewed within the final 12 months, this mannequin is a 2-in-1 convertible PC with the 360-degree hinge the Yoga identify was as soon as recognized for. This machine has the identical CPU because the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10, and I reviewed them each on the similar time.

The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 is the buyer different to the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 with the identical CPU on the within however a unique design and a extra entertainment-focused show selection. The battery life is lengthy, the display screen appears stunning, and the machine appears and feels modern.

Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1: Specs

The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition is an improve to the previous-generation Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9). This time round, the machine has a Lunar Lake CPU — particularly, the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V. That means it will get for much longer battery life and might run Copilot+ PC AI features that Intel’s older NPU simply wasn’t highly effective sufficient to run. It additionally has a extra highly effective built-in GPU that’s surprisingly good for built-in graphics—plus a beneficiant allotment of 32 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD.

• Model: Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition
• CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 258V
• Memory: 32 GB LPDDR5x RAM
• Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc 140V
• NPU: Intel AI Boost (as much as 47 TOPS)
• Display: 14-inch 2880×1800 OLED show with variable refresh fee as much as 120Hz and HDR
• Storage: 1 TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD
• Webcam: 5MP 1440p webcam
• Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C), 1x USB Type-C (USB 20Gbps), 1x USB Type-A (USB 10Gbps), 1x combo audio jack
• Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
• Biometrics: Fingerprint reader, IR digicam for facial recognition
• Battery capability: 75 Watt-hours
• Dimensions: 12.44 x 8.66 x 0.63 inches
• Weight: 2.91 kilos
• MSRP: $1,749 as examined

Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1: Design and construct high quality

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1’s design feels much like different Lenovo Yoga machines I’ve used prior to now 12 months or so. This Yoga laptop computer makes use of “Cosmic Blue,” in distinction to Lenovo’s ThinkPad line, which opts for a enterprise look with extra shades of grey. Combined with the rounded edges and shiny high-resolution OLED screen, it’s a modern expertise. The blue is quite darkish, although. In actual life, it appears rather a lot nearer to black than you may count on whereas catching gentle in an intriguing method.

The prime and backside are made from aluminum, and the construct high quality is strong — this can be a confirmed Yoga design, and it’s not Lenovo’s first time placing out a machine in a chassis like this one. It appears similar to the Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9), for instance. The hinge works nicely. The hinge additionally has what Lenovo calls a “rotating soundbar” constructed into it.

There’s no flex that shouldn’t be there, no undesired motion of the show as you sort, or anything you wouldn’t need to see on a machine like this. The design simply works prefer it ought to. At 2.91 kilos, it’s a regular weight for a laptop computer like this one — not too heavy and never unusually gentle.

The built-in software program is a bit more cluttered than I’d like: it’s obtained McAfee antivirus popping up and asking you to subscribe out of the field, for instance. Consumer laptops are likely to have extra bundled presents than business laptops, however it feels slightly a lot for a $1,749 laptop computer. Still, that doesn’t matter in any respect when you possibly can shortly uninstall it.

Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1: Keyboard, trackpad, pen

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The keyboard feels effective to sort on. Lenovo says it has “soft-landing” switches, which the corporate describes as having a “snappy” really feel, together with 1.5mm of key journey. It’s not mushy, and the switches really feel good to sort on for a light-weight transportable laptop computer.

Once once more, I’ve a criticism to make a couple of Yoga keyboard’s structure. Lenovo has put the fingerprint reader on the backside proper nook of the laptop computer. Personally, my fingers naturally gravitate in direction of the bottom-right nook of the keyboard, anticipating the presence of the suitable arrow key there, which disrupts my muscle reminiscence! And, on the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1, Lenovo put the fingerprint reader to the left of the arrow keys. So that seems to be a contact reserved for Yoga laptops alone.

Sure, you’ll get used to it — and when you like this machine and plan on spending a whole lot of time with it, maybe that received’t be a difficulty for you.

The trackpad feels good and clean, and it’s loads massive. When you click on down, there’s a effective click on that isn’t mushy. I wish to see laptops like this one embrace haptic trackpads — that’s simply my desire — however this can be a good mechanical trackpad.

Lenovo additionally features a Yoga Pen, which magnetically attaches to the highest of the laptop computer, on the lid proper under the digicam bump. It’s an lively pen that costs through USB-C. You can use it to attract on the laptop computer’s show, and it really works nicely when you’re in search of that type of pen expertise on a client laptop computer with a 360-degree hinge.

Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1: Display and audio system

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 has a superb 14-inch OLED show with a touchscreen. It’s designed to wow — with a 2880×1800 decision, HDR help, and the vivid colours OLED shows are recognized for. The display screen is shiny, not like the matte one on the business-focused ThinkPad X1 2-in-1. This machine is extra serious about offering essentially the most stunning display screen doable for media consumption, whereas the ThinkPad’s anti-glare show is extra optimized for readability in numerous lighting circumstances. It’s all the time a trade-off when choosing a laptop computer.

To be clear, the display screen glare is just not uncommon — that is simply what occurs in harsh lighting circumstances when a laptop computer has a shiny OLED show.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Lenovo Yoga 2-in-1’s show tops out at a refresh fee of 120Hz, however it has a variable refresh fee, which in all probability helps Lenovo squeeze extra battery life from this method. In reality, essentially the most spectacular factor concerning the show might be that Lenovo has managed to squeeze lengthy battery life out of this method, regardless of a show that feels prefer it ought to be power-hungry. Intel Lunar Lake is critical, however the variable refresh fee on the show and the bigger battery constructed into the laptop computer are in all probability the issues that full the puzzle.

Lenovo makes an enormous deal of the rotating soundbar, saying it “allows the device to project audio independent of the device’s orientation.” The soundbar has two tweeters that rotate with the display screen, and the laptop computer has two woofers on the underside. The speaker setup sounds fairly good. Listening to Steely Dan’s Aja on Spotify—a basic audiophile take a look at monitor for audio system—the sound was clear and detailed. Swapping over to Daft Punk’s Get Lucky for a extra digital sound with extra bass, the audio sounded punchy and enjoyable — however clearly with out the type of bass you’d get from a great pair of headphones or exterior audio system.

Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 has a 5 MP webcam with a 1440p decision. That sounds nice on paper. It appears high-quality, too, with a transparent image. In reality, it’s one of many higher webcams I’ve seen on a laptop computer — even in comparison with the webcams on some enterprise laptops I’ve reviewed. The high quality is greater than ok for video conferences and calls.

Lenovo has additionally included a bodily privateness shutter, so you possibly can block the laptop computer by sliding a change proper above the webcam. These are all the time good to see.

The microphone picks up clear, clear audio and has good noise cancellation in a room with desktop PC followers whirring. To my ears, it might be one of many higher microphone setups I’ve tried in a laptop computer not too long ago. Given that the Yoga line primarily caters to shoppers, the webcam and microphone efficiency is spectacular.

The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 has a fingerprint reader on the bottom-right nook of the keyboard and an IR digicam constructed into the digicam bar above the show. You can register with Windows Hello utilizing both your fingerprint or face. Both work nicely.

Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1: Connectivity

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 doesn’t have the most important collection of ports, however I’ve seen worse. On the left facet, you’ll discover a USB Type-C port (USB 20Gbps) and a USB Type-A port (USB 10Gbps.)

On the suitable facet, you’ll discover two Thunderbolt 4 ports (USB 40Gbps) and a combo audio jack.

This laptop computer costs through USB-C, so that you’ll plug the charger into a type of USB Type-C ports.

Anyone in search of an HDMI out port, a microSD card reader, or a second USB Type-A port might want to look elsewhere. (For instance, the business-focused ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 has a built-in HDMI out port.) But this isn’t too dangerous for this kind of transportable laptop computer, particularly when you’re ready to make use of a dongle when you ever want extra ports.

I’m simply blissful to see Lenovo included a headphone jack on this machine! I’ve reviewed a equally named Lunar Lake-powered Yoga laptop computer and not using a headphone jack, the Yoga Slim 9i.

Thanks to Intel’s Lunar Lake, this machine additionally comes with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 as normal. It’s crucial that these options grow to be normal for brand spanking new laptops.

Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1: Performance

The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 delivers snappy desktop efficiency because of its Intel Core Ultra 7 258V CPU. Lunar Lake works nicely for day-to-day productiveness purposes and delivers extraordinarily lengthy battery life — plus surprisingly good graphics efficiency for built-in graphics {hardware}.

As all the time, although, we ran the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 by way of our standard benchmarks to see the way it performs.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

First, we run PCMark 10 to get an thought of general system efficiency. With an general PCMark 10 rating of 7,719, the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 appears to squeeze each little bit of efficiency it could possibly out of Lunar Lake’s {hardware}. We like to check laptops of their default state with out tweaking them a lot — like a traditional PC person would expertise them — and I think about current modifications to Windows 11 that put laptops right into a higher-performance state robotically after they’re plugged in helped this machine within the benchmarks.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Next, we run Cinebench R20. This take a look at is a closely multithreaded benchmark that focuses on general CPU efficiency. It’s a fast benchmark, so cooling beneath prolonged workloads isn’t an element. But, because it’s closely multithreaded, CPUs with extra cores have an enormous benefit.

With a multithreaded Cinebench R20 rating of 4,306, Intel’s Lunar Lake {hardware} reveals its greatest weak point right here. With fewer CPU cores, it’s not simply considerably slower at multithreaded CPU workloads than AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 sequence {hardware}, which additionally has an NPU and might run Copilot+ PC AI options. It’s additionally considerably slower than Intel’s personal previous-generation Meteor Lake chips. Lunar Lake does present longer battery life than its rivals, however it comes at a value.

This isn’t consultant of real-world productiveness software utilization, which is sweet — however it will likely be a difficulty for multithreaded CPU-heavy workloads.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

We additionally run an encode with Handbrake. This take a look at is one other closely multithreaded benchmark, however it runs over an prolonged interval. It calls for the laptop computer’s cooling kick in, and plenty of laptops will throttle and decelerate beneath load.

The Lenovo Yoga 9i accomplished the encode course of in a mean of 1,414 minutes, which is about 23 and a half minutes. Again, multithreaded CPU efficiency is a weak point right here.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Next, we run a graphical benchmark. This isn’t a gaming laptop, however it’s nonetheless good to test how the GPU performs. We run 3DMark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU efficiency.

With a 3DMark Time Spy rating of 4,716, Lunar Lake delivers nice graphics efficiency for built-in graphics — second solely to laptops with discrete Nvidia or AMD graphics {hardware}.

Overall, this machine delivers strong efficiency. This laptop computer showcases Lunar Lake at its peak efficiency. It additionally struggles with Lunar Lake’s lower-than-ideal multithreaded efficiency, as Intel included fewer cores on Lunar Lake than on the last-generation Meteor Lake {hardware}. That’s solely a priority in case you have workloads that want sustained multithreaded efficiency, however it’s an essential factor to think about on a $1,749 laptop computer.

Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1: Battery life

The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 mixed a considerable 75 watt-hour battery with long-lasting Lunar Lake {hardware}, so we’d hope it might have lengthy battery life. And it does — it’s very spectacular.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled till the laptop computer suspends itself. We set the display screen to 250 nits of brightness for our battery benchmarks, and it’s value noting that the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1’s OLED show has a little bit of a bonus, as OLED screens use much less energy to show the black bars across the video. This is a best-case situation for any laptop computer since native video playback is so environment friendly, and actual battery life in day-to-day use is all the time going to be lower than this.

The Lenovo Yoga 9i lasted for 1414 minutes earlier than suspending itself — that’s 23 and a half hours. The OLED show nearly definitely makes use of extra energy, however the selection of a variable refresh fee for the show and the bigger battery assist this machine obtain extraordinarily lengthy battery life.

Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1: Conclusion

The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition is a modern machine with a phenomenal show and lengthy battery life. The 2-in-1 expertise is nice. It’s as good because it appears within the images.

The downsides are evident: the shiny display screen is probably not excellent in sure conditions, the low multithreaded CPU efficiency might disrupt some individuals’s workflows, and the fingerprint reader positioned to the suitable of the arrow keys is probably not to everybody’s liking. But the principle concern is the value — at $1,749, this can be a little on the premium-priced facet for a client laptop computer. Still, it’s a 2-in-1, and a high-quality one at that.

This is a superb laptop computer for individuals in search of a modern, transportable 2-in-1 with a vivid show and lengthy battery life. If these are your priorities — and the value appears cheap to you — this machine is nice.