Posted on July 19, 2022
There’s not too much to say about the rest of this chassis. The backlit keyboard is acceptable and roomy, but a bit flatter than my favorites on the market. The device is fine-looking and sturdy enough, but it doesn’t have the same sleek professionalism as the Spectre x360 14 or the Surface Pro 7 Plus (and the prominent Lenovo logo on the hinge looks a bit corny to me). It’s not the lightest laptop around, but it’s still portable at 3.02 pounds. And the port selection is about as good as you might expect for a laptop this thin, including a USB 3.2 Type-A Gen 2, two Thunderbolt 4, and an audio combo jack.
There are some optional fancy features – an ultrasonic fingerprint reader, an edge-to-edge glass palm rest, a haptic touchpad, and a leather cover – that weren’t included on the model I was sent. Configurations with those extra features start around $1,, currently discounted to $1, on Lenovo’s website.
The Yoga 9i starts at $1, ($1, as tested). The base model includes a Core i5-1135G7, 8GB of RAM (soldered), and 256GB of storage (PCIe SSD). This specific configuration comes with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage as well as a Core i7-1185G7 (Intel’s top chip for thin and light devices).
The Yoga 9i is verified through Intel’s Evo platform, as are many of its competitors in the premium 2-in-1 space. To qualify, laptops are supposed to offer a number of Intel-selected benefits, including Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 6, all-day battery life, quick boot time, fast charging, and responsive performance on battery. (more…)