Review: Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 (2024)

Lenovo calls the Yoga 9i a “tried and true” laptop, and since its 2020 launch, it has indeed been a dependable go-to for users who want a computer that can fold in half and turn into a tablet on demand. Last year in his review, WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson called the 2023 edition of the machine “everything a flagship laptop should be,” and while it’s got plenty of competition on that front these days, its latest incarnation is still an all-around winner.

Most of this laptop’s specs haven’t changed much, if at all. The 14-inch OLED touchscreen packs a solid 2,880 x 1,800 pixels of resolution, and the device carries 16 GB of RAM and a 1-TB solid state drive. (Upgrades are available to screen resolution and RAM.) Intel’s Arc integrated chipset is your only option for graphics, but the CPU provides the laptop with its most notable enhancement—the AI-infused Intel Core Ultra 7 155H.

Port selection hasn’t changed: Two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, one USB-C 3.2 port, and one USB-A port are all side-mounted. Even the awkward, side-positioned power button has yet to be relocated. I spent more time than I’d care to admit pressing the various custom keys to the right of the keyboard—including controls for eye care mode, power profile, audio profile, and even a customizable “favorite app” button—trying to figure out which one turned the machine on before I located the slim on/off control on the side. (Again, none of these are new, and some remain more useful than others. All of them are easy to hit by accident.)

The audio-visual experience remains the highlight here: The screen is dazzlingly bright and extremely vivid with its color reproduction, and the elongated Bowers & Wilkins rotating soundbar, which doubles as a 360-degree hinge on the rear of the laptop, provided audio loud enough for my wife upstairs to have to tell me to turn it down. Two two-watt woofers on the bottom of the device fill in the bass. The webcam has been upgraded to a 5-MP model, now complete with an IR sensor for presence detection.

The 9i offers excellent usability with gently concave keys that have plenty of travel, a responsive touchpad, and the flexibility to flip the screen around and put the laptop in an inverted-V tent shape or lay it flat for the full tablet experience. A simple stylus is included for those looking to do more detailed work. I found typing to be a breeze, and nothing has changed about the chassis design either, which is all rounded edges and corners, weighing in at a svelte 2.4 pounds and measuring 18 mm thick.

As for performance, Intel’s latest chip is giving all manner of laptops a leg up, but as has been the case with most of the devices I’ve tested of late, power hasn’t exactly shot through the roof. My benchmark scores were mixed across the range of general business and graphics-focused apps, ultimately turning in slightly above-average numbers compared to the field of similarly equipped devices.

Battery life, however, is a significant concern. While Gilbertson achieved double-digit hours of running time in 2023, my YouTube test saw the laptop dying after just under seven hours. This is a real disappointment for a machine of this size, so much so that I ran the test a couple of times to verify I hadn’t messed something up. The score held. Bizarrely, the 9i is also quite slow to boot; I clocked a lengthy 38 seconds to reach a state of usability—more than double the typical booting time for a 2024 laptop—and that doesn’t include the time it takes to figure out where the power button is.

At $1,450, the 2024 Yoga 9i is fairly priced, though I wouldn’t be averse to suggesting you keep your eyes open for a sale or two. Still, even at list price, it remains, just like Lenovo itself said, as tried and true as ever.