Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8 review: A delightful OLED laptop

The Lenovo Yoga 9i has long been one of the favorite options for convertible 2-in-1 laptops. The next generation is coming this year, and I checked it out ahead of its release on April 10th.

Now in its eighth generation, the convertible 2-in-1 has made the Yoga 9i Gen 7 a great laptop while updating to Intel’s 13th-gen CPU.

You’ll find the same rounded edges and overall sleek design, innovative soundbar, and solid build. Battery life and price are still its two biggest weaknesses, but the Yoga 9i remains a solid option in its eighth generation.

specs and configuration

At the time of this writing, the Yoga 9i Gen 8 comes in a few configurations, all based on the Intel Core i7-1360P CPU and 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM. My review unit with a 14.0-inch 2.8K OLED display and 512GB SSD cost $1,700. Add another $50 to upgrade to a 1TB SSD and another $100 for a 4K+ OLED panel.

Therefore, the maximum price is $1,850. This puts the Yoga 9i Gen 8 firmly in premium territory, but with a reasonably priced upgrade. Expect more configurations when the laptop is officially released in April 2023.

Rounded for both comfort and elegance

Lenovo has used a new design scheme for the last few Yoga generations, notably incorporating chrome rounded edges on the bottom of the chassis and smooth angles along the display. This provides a touch of elegance to the aesthetic and makes for a more comfortable laptop to handle in all four modes: clamshell, tent, media, and especially tablet.

The rest of the chassis is either Oatmeal (which looked silver to me) or Storm Grey. My review unit was porridge, and the matching keyboard made for a beautiful laptop. The only convertible 2-in-1 that matches it in style is the HP Specter x360 13.5, while Dell’s XPS 13 machines are simpler in design and don’t stick out much. The Yoga 9i Gen 8 has fairly small display bezels on the top and sides, but as is the case with all convertible 2-in-1s, the bottom chin is a bit chunky. It detracts from a modern look, but the rotating soundbar adds a splash of high-tech panache. Overall this is a great laptop.

It is well built with an aluminum unibody CNC chassis and lid that resists all bending, flexing and twisting. It’s as rugged as the HP Specter x360 13.5, Dell XPS 13 Plus. and Apple MacBook Air M2. In fact, there’s some tilt to the latter lid, which means the Yoga 9i Gen 8 arguably feels more solid than the MacBook. This is an achievement. The hinge is a bit stiff, requiring two hands to open the lid while still holding the display firmly. That stiffness instills some confidence in its use in tent mode, which feels a bit loose with some 2-in-1s.

The keyboard Yoga is standard, offering large, sculpted keycaps and plenty of key spacing. It’s almost edge-to-edge, leaving room on the right side for some special function keys including the smart power charger and fingerprint reader. The switches are very light, yet snappy, with a comfortable bottom action.

I prefer the hard keys, but I became familiar with the keyboard quickly. It’s not as precise as the keyboard on the HP Specter or Apple’s Magic Keyboard (which remains the best), but it will please most people. The touchpad is large and accurate, and it was easy to feel confident in clicks – I just wish they were a bit quieter.

Connectivity is mostly USB-C with Thunderbolt 4, but there’s also a USB-A port for some legacy support. Wi-Fi 6e and Bluetooth 5.1 give the laptop modern connectivity.

The webcam is 1080p and provides a clear image for videoconferencing. It also includes an infrared camera for Windows 11 Hello, which fits into the now-iconic Lenovo inverted notch at the top of the lid. The fingerprint reader provides another way to log in without a password.

Finally, Lenovo included its user presence-detection technology that can tell when you’ve walked away, putting the laptop to sleep. It will detect when you return, wake up, and automatically log you in. The feature worked great during my testing and is a real convenience for public settings where you don’t want your information to be visible when you leave your laptop sitting alone.

Slight boost in performance, but no match for AMD

My review unit came equipped with the 13th-gen Intel Core i7-1360P, a 28-watt CPU with 12 cores (four performance and eight efficient) and 16 threads, with a maximum turbo frequency of 5.0GHz. We’ve reviewed two laptops with that chip, and their benchmark results were pretty similar. That is, they’re faster than the previous-generation Core i7-1260P with the same wattage, cores, and threads, but a slower turbo frequency. In most of our benchmarks, the Core i7-1360P was ahead, especially in single-core performance. It lost to the Dell XPS 13 Plus with a Core i7-1280P (a faster version of 1260P) in our Handbrake test in Performance mode, which encodes 420MB of video as H.265, but otherwise, it’s a winner in performance. There was significant growth. , Note that the AMD Ryzen 7 7736U in the HP Dragonfly Pro was faster across the board in the multi-core tests.

Overall, the Yoga 9i Gen 8 is a speedy machine for demanding productivity users. Its integrated Intel Iris Xe means it won’t do well in creative applications that might use a discrete GPU, but for any CPU-intensive tasks, it’s plenty fast. Given the integrated graphics, though, this isn’t a gaming laptop.

My review Yoga 9i Gen 8 had a massive 75 watt-hour battery and a power-hungry 2.8K OLED display. The 28-watt CPU didn’t help, leaving me to assume I’d see good, but not excellent battery life.

After running the laptop through our suite of battery tests, I found it to be a slightly below average performer. It clocked in at 7.75 hours in our Web-browsing test, which isn’t great, and it couldn’t hit 10 hours in the PCMark 10 Applications test which is closer to average. Finally, it lasted 13.5 hours in our video-looping test.

You’re not likely to get a full day’s work out of a laptop. This isn’t surprising considering the display and CPU, but it’s a bit disappointing nonetheless.

A notable competitor is the HP Dragonfly Pro, which achieved nearly twice as long longevity in some tests thanks to its lower-resolution IPS display and very efficient AMD processor. And, of course, the overall leader was the Apple MacBook Air M2.

OLED is as great as ever

This statement is becoming a broken record, but OLED displays remain the best. Yes, Apple’s Mini-LED display on the latest MacBook Pro gives it a run for its money, especially in terms of being brighter and better for HDR, but when it comes to wide and accurate colors, OLED wins. goes out.

That stays true with the 2.8K OLED display on the Yoga 9i Gen 8. It’s reasonably bright at 395 nits, and it delivers highly detailed colors at 100% sRGB and 96% AdobeRGB. Accuracy is excellent at a deltaE of 0.73 (anything less than 1.0 is professional-grade). Contrast is 27,510:1 and Dolby Vision is supported for excellent HDR performance.

Again, it won’t get as bright as Apple’s Mini-LED, but if you’re a creator, producer, or media consumer, you’ll love the display. It also runs at 90Hz, and so Windows animations are a bit smoother. You can upgrade to a 4K+ OLED panel at 60Hz, but at 14 inches, it’s not really necessary.

The unique soundbar features dual tweeters that rotate to deliver the best sound in any configuration. There are two woofers on the side to enhance the bass. Lenovo managed to build a well-rounded audio system, with plenty of distortion-free volume, clear mids and highs, and a touch of bass. That’s more than enough for watching videos and listening to music without resorting to headphones or external speakers.

Another great convertible 2-in-1 option

Lenovo keeps making great 2-in-1s, and the Yoga 9i Gen 8 is no exception. It’s fast, its design is solid and cute, and its performance is great. It doesn’t have the speed for demanding GPU-intensive creative apps, but for everyone else, it’ll churn through your workload without a problem.

However, it is expensive, currently starting at $1,700. Perhaps future configurations will be less expensive. But if you have the budget and want a truly premium 2-in-1 experience, the Yoga 9i Gen 8 comes highly recommended.

Editors’ Recommendations