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.
Photograph: Best Buy
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.
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