The Yoga 9i is Lenovo's fastest 14-inch convertible to date all because of Tiger Lake

We recently reviewed the Core i5 14-inch Lenovo Yoga 9i and walked away impressed by its performance especially for a subnotebook convertible. Even our base Core i5-1135G7 configuration is able to pull in higher numbers than the previous generation Core i7-1065G7 that continues to be prevalent on most high-end Ultrabooks including on the older Yoga C940 14.

In terms of raw CPU multi-thread performance, CineBench R20 is almost 30 percent higher for the Core i5 Yoga 9i 14 over the Core i7 Yoga C940 14 while CineBench R15 results have both laptops much closer. This discrepancy can be explained by the superior Turbo Boost sustainability of the Yoga 9i 14; CineBench R20 is a longer and more intensive benchmark when compared to CineBench R15 meaning laptops that can't sustain high clock rates for extended periods are more likely to return lower scores on the newer benchmark. This becomes apparent when running CineBench R15 xT in a loop as shown by the graph below where the Core i7 C940 14 would return lower and lower scores over time.

As for graphics performance, the jump from Ice Lake Iris Plus G7 in the older Yoga C940 14 to Iris Xe is about a 50 to 60 percent gain according to 3DMark. Whereas Ice Lake had a tendency to hover between 30 FPS and 60 FPS in most games with screen tearing galore, the Iris Xe is more capable of maintaining 60 FPS at the native 1080p resolution on popular titles like Rocket League, DOTA 2, or Fortnite. The extra graphics horsepower should also prove useful for graphics-heavy applications like photo or video editing.

Though the internal performance upgrades are nice, the Yoga 9i 14 is only a minor external upgrade over the Yoga C940 14 in almost every aspect. Both models have the same keyboard, clickpad, port options, dimensions, and even LG display with just minor chassis differences between them. Yoga 9i owners do get Thunderbolt 4, but Thunderbolt 3 will be more than enough for most owners.

See our full review on the Yoga 9i 14 to learn more about the laptop and its performance.