Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8 Review: A Delightful OLED Laptop

The Lenovo Yoga 9i has been a top choice for a 2-in-1 convertible laptop. The next generation will be released this year and I checked it out before it was released on April 10th.

Now in its eighth generation, the 2-in-1 convertible retains what made the Yoga 9i Gen 7 a great laptop while upgrading to Intel's 13th generation processors.

You'll find rounded edges and a stylish design, an innovative sound bar and a solid build. Battery life and price remain its two biggest weaknesses, but the Yoga 9i remains a solid choice even in its eighth generation.

Specifications and configurations

Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8
Measures:	12.52 x 9.06 x 0.60 inches
ready	3.09 kilos
Processor:	Intel Core i7-136oP
diagram	Intel Iris Xe
RAM:	16 GB LPDDR5
Advertisement	14.0-inch 16:10 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED, 90 Hz 14.0-inch 16:10 4K+ (3840 x 2400) OLED, 60 Hz
storage	512 GB PCIe 4.0 solid state drive 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD
the bladder	yes
the ports	2 USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 1 x 3.5mm audio jack
Wireless	Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1
web camera	1080p infrared camera for Windows 11 Hello!
Operating System	Windows 11:
Battery:	75 watt hours
Price:	$1700+

As of this writing, the Yoga 9i Gen 8 is available in several configurations, all based on an Intel Core i7-1360P processor and 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM. My review unit, which has a 14.0-inch, 2.8K OLED display and a 512GB SSD, costs $1,700. Add $50 to upgrade to a 1TB SSD and $100 for a 4K+ OLED panel.

So the maximum price is $1,850. This puts the Yoga 9i Gen 8 firmly in the premium space, but with new versions at a good price. Expect more configurations when the laptop officially launches in April 2023.

Rolled for comfort and elegance

Lenovo used a new design scheme for the last two generations of the Yoga, notably with rounded chrome edges on the bottom of the chassis and flatter corners across the screen. This adds a nice touch to the aesthetic and creates a laptop that is more comfortable to use in four modes: Shell, Tent, Media and especially Tablet.

The rest of the chassis is either Oatmeal (I thought it was silver) or Storm Grey. My test unit was Oatmeal and a keyboard for a nice laptop. The only 2-in-1 convertible that matches this style is the HP Specter x360 13.5, while Dell's XPS 13 has a simpler, less flashy design. The Yoga 9i Gen 8 has relatively small display bezels on the top and sides, but like all 2-in-1 convertibles, the bottom chin is a bit thick. This takes away from the modern look, but gives the rotating soundbar a high-tech feel. Overall, this is a great notebook.

It's also well-built, with a unibody CNC aluminum chassis and a lid that holds up to every twist, turn, and bend. The HP Specter x360 13.5 is just as tough as the Dell XPS 13 Plus. and the Apple MacBook Air M2. In fact, the latter has some flex in the lid, which means that the Yoga 9i is more solid than the Gen 8 MacBook. This is an achievement. The hinge is a bit stiff and requires two hands to open the lid while keeping the screen steady. This stiffness lends some confidence when using tent mode, which is disappointing in some 2-in-1s.

The keyboard meets the Yoga standard and offers large sculpted keys and plenty of key space. It's almost bezel-less, leaving room on the right side for some dedicated function keys, including the Smart Power charger and fingerprint reader. The switches are very light yet flexible with a comfortable bottom action.

I prefer harder keys, but I took to the keyboard pretty quickly. It's not as precise as the HP Specter or Apple's Magic Keyboard (still the best), but many will like it. The touchpad is large and precise, and it was easy to trust the clicks. I wish it was a little more relaxed.

Connectivity is primarily USB-C with Thunderbolt 4, but there's also a USB-A port for older support. Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1 give the laptop modern connectivity.

Left side view of Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8 with ports.

The camera is 1080p and provides a clear image for video conferencing. It also includes an infrared camera for Windows 11 Hello, which sits atop Lenovo's now-signature reverse-cut bezel. The fingerprint reader provides another way to log in without a password.

Finally, Lenovo introduced its user presence detection technology, which can detect when you're away by putting your laptop to sleep. It then detects when you return, wakes you up, and automatically logs you in. This feature worked very well in my tests and is a real convenience for public settings where you don't want your information visible when you leave your laptop alone.

Slight drop in performance, but no drama

My test unit was equipped with a 13th generation Intel Core i7-1360P with 12 cores (four powerful and eight efficient) and a maximum turbo frequency of 5.0 GHz with 16 threads. We tested two laptops with this chip and their benchmark results were quite similar. This means they are faster than the previous generation Core i7-1260P with the same performance, cores and threads, but with a slower turbo frequency. The Core i7-1360P dominated most of our benchmarks, especially in single-core performance. It fell in performance mode with the Dell XPS 13 Plus with a Core i7-1280P (a faster version of the 1260P) in our Handbrake test, which encodes 420MB of video in H.265, but was otherwise a performance gain. Note that the HP Dragonfly Pro's AMD Ryzen 7 7736U was faster in some benchmark tests.

All in all, the Yoga 9i Gen 8 is a fast device for demanding productivity users. Built-in Intel Iris Xe means it doesn't perform well in creative applications that might use a discrete GPU, but it's fast enough for all CPU tasks. However, considering the integrated graphics, this is not a portable game.

Geek Bank 5:

(single/multiple)

handbrake

(seconds)

Cinebench R23

(single/multiple)

PC Point 10:

finish

Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8

(Core i7-1360P)

Balance: 1,843 / 8,814

Power: 1.835 / 10.008

Ball: 122

Strength: 101

Balance: 1,846 / 8,779

Power: 1,906 / 9,849

HP Dragonfly Pro

(Coin Ryzen7 7736U)

Balance: 1,473 / 9,061

Achievement: N/A

balls: 84

Achievement: N/A

Balance: 1530 / 11158

Achievement: N/A

6509:

Dell XPS 13 Plus

(Core i7-1280P)

Balance: 1,316 / 8,207

Achievement: N/A

Ball: 170

Strength: 94

Balance: 1,311 / 6,308

Power: 1650 / 7530

4309:

Asus ZenBook S13 Flip

(Core i7-1260P)

Balance: 1602 / 8559

Power: 1,639 / 8,923

balls: 132

Power: 117

Balance: 1,583 / 7,595

Power: 1614 / 9220

5548

Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 360

(Core i7-1360P)

Balance: 1800 / 8960

Power: 1.781 / 9.071

Ball: 109

Strength: 99

Balance: 1711 / 8389

Power: 1750 / 9182

5857

Apple MacBook Air M2

(M2)

Balance: 1,925 / 8,973

Achievement: N/A

Ball: 151

Achievement: N/A

Balance: 1600 / 7938

Achievement: N/A

AFTER:

My review The Yoga 9i Gen 8 had a large 75 watt-hour battery and a powerful 2.8K OLED display. The 28W CPU didn't help, which led me to believe I'd see decent, but not exceptional, battery life.

After running the laptop on our battery tests, I found it to be slightly below average. It managed 7.75 hours in our web browsing test, which isn't great, and it managed 10 hours in the PCMark 10 application test, which is close to average. After all, it lasted more than 13.5 hours in our video loop test.

It is unlikely that you will be working from your laptop all day. Not surprising given the display and processor, but still a little disappointing.

A notable contender is the HP Dragonfly Pro, which thanks to its low-resolution IPS screen and powerful AMD processor achieved almost double the lifespan in various tests. And of course the Apple MacBook Air M2 was the main leader.

Browse the Internet	the video	PCMark 10 applications
Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8 (Core i7-1360P)	7 hours, 41 minutes	13 hours, 25 minutes	9 hours, 40 minutes
HP Dragonfly Pro (Coin Ryzen7 7736U)	2 hours, 40 minutes	15 hours, 57 minutes	4:31 p.m
Dell XPS 13 Plus (Core i7-1280P)	8 hours, 0 minutes	9 hours, 20 minutes	6 hours, 52 minutes
Asus ZenBook S13 Flip (Core i7-1260P)	8 hours, 38 minutes	13 hours, 16 minutes	11 hours, 18 minutes
Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 (Core i7-1360P)	12 hours, 57 minutes	AFTER:	12 hours, 21 minutes
Apple MacBook Air M2 (Apple M2)	17 hours, 59 minutes	21 hours, 9 minutes	AFTER:

As always, the OLED is spectacular

That statement is becoming a broken record, but OLED screens are still the best. Yes, Apple's mini-LED screens on the latest MacBook Pro get what they pay for, especially when it comes to HDR brightness and quality with the same type of black ink, but when it comes to wide color and accuracy, OLED wins.

That's true with the Yoga 9i Gen 8's 2.8K OLED display. It's quite bright at 395 cd/m² and offers a very wide color space of 100% sRGB and 96% AdobeRGB. Accuracy is excellent with a DeltaE of 0.73 (anything below 1.0 is professional grade). Contrast is a whopping 27,510:1 and Dolby Vision is enabled for great HDR performance.

Again, it won't be as bright as Apple's mini-LED, but if you're a maker, creator, or media consumer, you'll love the display. It also runs at 90Hz, so Windows animations are a little smoother. You can refresh the 4K+ OLED panel at 60Hz, but you don't need it on the 14-inch.

The unique sound bar features dual tweeters that rotate to deliver the best sound in any environment. The two side woofers are meant to amplify the bass. Lenovo managed to create a complete sound system with plenty of volume, no distortion, clear mids and highs and a touch of bass. It is enough to watch videos and listen to music without headphones or external speakers.

Another great 2-in-1 convertible

Lenovo continues to make great 2-in-1s and the Yoga 9i Gen 8 is no exception. It's fast, has a solid and beautiful design, and its display is impressive. It lacks the speed of GPU-intensive creative applications, but for everyone else, it will handle your workload without a problem.

However, it is expensive and currently starts at $1,700. Perhaps a future setup will be cheaper. But if you're on a budget and want a truly premium 2-in-1 experience, the Yoga 9i Gen 8 is highly recommended.