Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i: New premium prosumer laptops with miniLED screens and GeForce RTX 4070
In the Lenovo laptop lineup, there is an imbalance: Real premium models are mostly just available in the business segment under the ThinkPad umbrella. Consumer brands available from Lenovo are mostly focused on the mid range, apart from some exceptions like the Convertible Lenovo Yoga 9i (available from Amazon for $2,800).
With the 2023 Yoga laptops, Lenovo is expanding its lineup with a new model line named "Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i". Like previous Yoga Pro models, these are not convertibles, but rather regular clamshell laptops, just in a pricier form.
Lenovo targets a group which might buy Apple MacBook Pros or a Dell XPS 15 otherwise: Prosumers, who have high requirements in terms of performance and quality - like content creators. That is probably why Lenovo chose powerful components for its new Yoga Pro 9 series. As the top configuration, buyers can get the Intel Core i7-13905H, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 as well as up to 64 GB LPDDR5X memory. The GPU has a TGP of 100 W - far from the maximum for this chip, but not a bad value for a 17 to 18 mm thick chassis.
Pure horse-power is of course not enough to conquer this competitive market. Another key is screen quality. Lenovo is using miniLED screens, the same technology as in recent MacBook Pro laptops. The 14.5 inch and 16 inch screens have a 3K (14.5 inch) and 3.2K (16 inch) resolution, a 165 Hz refresh rate, up to 1200 cd/m² brightness and 100 % coverage of the usual color gamuts - as well as an optional touch function. Alternatively, normal IPS screens with up to 400 cd/m² are available, which retain most other features of the miniLED screens.
As "Pro" laptops, the new Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i offer a relatively wide array of ports. This includes Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, USB A and a SD card reader, even in the small model. The 16 inch variant also has a dedicated, proprietary charging port. Apart from the ports, such Pro laptops also have to provide good quality multimedia components: The Yoga Pro 9i has up to six speakers (16 inch) and a 5 Megapixel camera.
A weak point might be the battery life: Especially for the big model, the 75 Wh battery is rather small. It is also sad that Lenovo does not provide an AMD option.
Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i: Pricing and availability
The models of the Yoga Pro 9i series will be available in June, starting at €2.300.
Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i: Hands-on video
We had a chance to look at a pre-production unit of the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i ahead of the launch. Here is our hands-on video:
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