The Yoga Book 9i is a fascinating piece of kit that I’ve been interested in exploring for a while. The versatility and convertibility of the device to meet multiple needs is, in my eyes, potentially game-changing and there’s little sacrifice from the user.
Our review unit arrived last week, and after a few days, first impressions before the full review were warranted.
What is it?
It’s a laptop, but it’s so much more because of the hardware design; it feels like one laptop to rule them all. It’s well presented in a retail package that is largely recyclable — well done Lenovo — and the device itself is stunning.
It’s definitely on the heavy side for a laptop, particularly when you compare it to some of the ultra-slim and ultra-portable options on the market. That weight quickly justifies itself, though, because when you open up the machine, it’s a dual-screen laptop, with the bottom half (where your inputs typically reside) being a second screen. Initially, this is cool, but the fact that it can be used in a number of configurations and the flexibility in workflow that the design opens up is huge.
Both screens are 13.3-inch OLED displays that run at 2880 x 1800 resolution and even in the default configuration, a tap of eight fingers on the bottom screen pulls up a touch keyboard at full size. In itself, this is pretty cool, but for a touch typist, it is not hugely practical as a full-time solution as there’s no feedback to your touch. As a full-sized option, though, I have found this usable vs. some of the smaller screens like tablets that you (due to muscle memory) need to tap-type vs. touch type.
Calling the keyboard to your bottom screen shifts all active workspace to the top screen, which is useful. I’d love it if turning the keyboard off returned everything to the previous configuration, but I have discovered that it just doesn’t…
That’s OK, though, because I’ve been more interested in being able to carry around a native dual-screen solution for my work needs.
Quickly looking at the other specs that matter, it’s got an Intel Core i7 (13th Gen) processor, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD but no discrete graphics; this isn’t a gaming laptop but it will handle some games.
Externally, I was a little disappointed not to have more connectivity than the single Thunderbolt 4, USB-C connector. I’d have liked a minimum of two, preferably four for the price of the machine. But I guess the reasoning is this is expected to be on a desktop somewhere for the majority of its life, where docks are available to expand connectivity.
Why am I so excited?
The Lenovo Yoga 9i isn’t a brand new concept by any means; there are other dual, even triple-screen options available through manufacturers and third-party options. But this is all in one machine; it’s all there by default, and it’s really quite lovely hardware.
The layouts you can use include a standard laptop mode, elevated with the keyboard and stand, book mode and tent mode for collaboration with someone opposite you in the workspace or boardroom. My initial impression is that this is a really well thought out and designed bit of hardware with huge versatility and capabilities across a range of environments.
On to the review…
I don’t want to do a full review here but suffice to say: It’s an impressive start. The only disappointments so far, are the — very justifiable, given there are two screens — weight and the battery life. Of course, your mileage may vary but if you’re regularly using the second screen you’re not going to get the 10+ hours of battery life that Lenovo says is possible.
I know I don’t see it as an issue, but a couple of people I’ve spoken to do… You will need a mouse because there isn’t one provided and the Bluetooth keyboard is devoid of a touchpad. So unless you’re really comfortable with using a touchscreen instead of a mouse, that’s the solution.
The full review should land in about two weeks, with a lot more detail about the experience of using the Lenovo Yoga 9i on a daily basis.
Can you open it and turn it sideways to have a ‘single’ wide monitor spanning the two screens? (let me know if I’m not clear here)
I’m working through the physical configs you can use.
Yes, you can turn it sideways to 2 x portrait screens – At this point, I haven’t seen a way to make it behave as a single screen that way round.
Thanks Phil. Obviously a ‘single landscape screen’ mode would have a huge hinge and bezel in the middle, but still! Though, actually, 2x portrait screens is really handy for productivity stuff i.e. work
ps. oh I didn’t see that ‘physical keyboard placed on lower screen’ pic before – that’s also a very handy hack
The vertical screen estate of dual screen with external keyboard, looks absolute killer for content creation! Looking at the photos of it, the only thing I’d like to have seen Lenovo do, is put a second webcam into the hinge bar, so there would be a second webcam at a more normal height, when it’s in dual screen with external keyboard mode. No discrete GPU is what I think would be the biggest weakness for this laptop, as that sounds like it would limit what it can do in the area of video content creation. A single 512Gb SSD, as… Read more »
It really is quite delightful to use.
An for ref: there’s 3 x USB-C
1 on the left, 2 on the right.