Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 review

Lenovo has a long history of creating the best business laptops in the industry, and the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i stands as a testament. Combining gaming, work and creativity into a slick ‘n slim 16-inch laptop, this is a powerhouse to be reckoned with.

Boasting up to a 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13905H CPU, up to a Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU (in select regions), 16GB of DDR5X RAM and a 1TB M.2 PCIe Gen4 SSD, the Yoga Pro 9i packs heat under the hood. Oh, and you can see it all in action thanks to its 16-inch 3.2K (3200 x 2000) IPS touch display.

Yes, it has the MacBook Pro 16 to contend with, but it’s more than capable to butt heads with Apple’s popular notebook. It won’t beat its battery life, but the Yoga Pro 9i makes up for this by excelling in virtually every other aspect.

The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i is easily one of the best laptops around, even if it’s light on battery life and ports.

Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Price

For a machine of this calibre, it goes without saying the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i will set you back a pretty penny or two. However, thanks to its configurations, it can be cheaper than the MacBook Pro 16.

Note that the Yoga Pro 9i 16 isn’t currently available in New Zealand, but Lenovo’s website states it is coming soon.

The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i is available from £1,769 / around NZ$3,256. This gets you a 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13705H processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU, 16GB of DDR5X RAM, a 1TB M.2 PCIe Gen4 SSD and a 16-inch 3.2K (3200 x 2000) IPS non-touch display.

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i, the US equivalent, comes in at $2,199 but is currently discounted to $1,899 (Lenovo loves a discount, so expect this price to stick). This comes with a 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13905H CPU, RTX 4060 GPU, 32GB of DDR5X RAM, a 1TB M.2 PCIe Gen4 SSD and a 16-inch 3.2K Mini LED touch display with a 165Hz refresh rate. Now that packs a punch.

Our unit comes kitted out with an Intel Core i9-13905H CPU, RTX 4070 GPU, 64GB of DDR5X RAM, a 1TB SSD and a 16-inch 3.2K Mini LED touch display with a 165Hz refresh rate. These are some mighty specs, but I couldn’t find this configuration available in the US or UK. However, a model with an RTX 4060 GPU is available for £2,849 / around NZ$5,929.

That really bumps up the price, putting it on par with gaming-specific laptops like the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 (2023), which comes with an RTX 4080 but with 32GB of RAM. Of course, if you’re not looking for that much power, you can mix and match to get a Yoga Pro 9i that suits your needs.

The MacBook Pro 16 is priced from $2,499 / £2,699 / NZ$4,599, which gets you a M2 Pro chip with a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB of unified memory and 512GB of SSD storage. Even at its top specs, the Yoga Pro 9i isn’t that much more expensive than the MacBook Pro’s entry-level model.

Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Design

If you’re a fan of discreet laptop builds with unassuming power in a slim yet robust chassis, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i will do you proud. It does the most with its 16-inch form factor without looking like a behemoth: a near bezel-less display, a full-sized keyboard with a number pad and a thin, compact design.

The 16-inch laptop’s all-aluminium frame comes with MIL-STD-810H certification and a sleek matte finish, which means it’s tough against hard knocks, extreme temperatures, dust and moisture, and is resistant to icky fingerprint smudges. It feels sturdy, too; its one-piece hinge makes it easy to open the lid without the rest of the laptop lifting with it (which can go back to 180 degrees), and its rubberised feet plant it firmly on a surface.

The Yoga Pro 9i comes in two colours: Storm Grey and Tidal Teal. We received the latter and, joined by its smooth rounded edges and subtle etches of “Yoga” and “Lenovo” on the lid, it has a charming, clean appeal. It’s what professionals look for in a business laptop, but it secretly doubles as a gaming laptop without the obnoxious LEDs beaming from every nook and cranny – something I’m a fan of.

Up top, there’s a slight cut-out to make room for its impressive 5MP webcam, which also acts as an easy way to lift the lid. It comes with a handy webcam kill switch, too, which is placed on the right side of the body. This is also where you’ll find the power button. Some may find this strange, but I barely used it, seeing how the Yoga Pro 9i turns on by simply opening the lid.

As for ports, expect Thunderbolt 4, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, HDMI 2.0, an SD card reader and a 3.2mm headphone/mic jack. It’s not a bad selection, but seeing how the laptop is made for work, creativity and gaming, it could use an extra Thunderbolt 4 slot and HDMI 2.1 – 4K at 30fps isn’t ideal if you’re connecting to a capable second monitor.

Coming in at 36.2 x 24.4 x 1.8 cm (14.2 x 8.8 x 0.7 inches) and weighing 2.23kg (4.9 pounds), it’s one of the thinnest 16-inch laptops I’ve seen. To compare, the MacBook Pro 16 measures 31.2 x 22.1 x 1.5 cm (12.3 x 8.7 x 0.61 inches) and weighs 1.63kg (3.6 pounds). It’s not as thin or light, but the Yoga Pro 9i 16 is still quite the portable machine to travel around with for its size.

Lenovo offers the gold standard of laptop design, with the Yoga Pro 9i packing considerable power in a slim, 16-inch frame that’s both subtle and stylish.

Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Display and Audio

Boasting a 16-inch 3.2K (3200 x 2000) Mini LED touch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, a 165Hz refresh rate, HDR 1000 support, 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage and 1,200 nits of brightness, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 delivers a dazzling, sharp display filled with vibrant colours and clarity.

With HDR mode on, navigating through websites and working away in documents is bright, smooth and easy on the eyes. Of course, it pulls out a few more high-quality tricks than that. With its gaming potential, I could experience fluid, ghost-free action in Cyberpunk 2077. While RTX wasn’t cranked up to max, Night City in all its neon glory was a treat to explore, with koi fish holograms beaming from the screen. It’s also capable of fast response rates in competitive games such as Valorant, which is always a bonus.

While the screen is excellent for creative work in Photoshop or Premier Pro, it’s also incredible for entertainment. Watching the second season of Loki on Disney+, the display presented the beige lighting and clean-cut setting of the TVA wonderfully, while streams of time merging into the scared timeline in space was bursting with bright colours.

The Yoga Pro 9i 16 also offers fantastic audio quality to compliment what’s on screen. It features a six-speaker setup with Dolby Atmos, with four 2W woofers and two 1W tweeters. The bass is punchy without overwhelming higher tones or dialogue, with good balance and clarity in what is playing. I’d still turn to headphones for a better audio experience, but these speakers are top quality.

Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Keyboard

The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i’s keyboard is made for typing with speed and accuracy. I may not be attuned to its tactile keys, but I can recognise its responsive clicks and seamless, comfortable feel.

The 16-inch laptop features a 1.5mm key travel for smooth typing and concave-shaped keycaps that mesh well for anyone typing with a purpose. Each key is quiet and has a noticeable stop to recognise input. The 0.3mm dish keys are also grease-resistant to stop grubby fingers from ruining the clean aesthetic. It offers a comfortable typing experience for most, and the additional numeric keypad (although not large) is a big bonus for professionals handling numbers.

If you like a large trackpad, the Yoga Pro 9i 16 has you covered. Its 150 x 95mm glass touchpad covers a large base area but is placed just off to the left, leaving space for your right hand to rest. It has a simple mechanical click that’s responsive and doesn’t feel flimsy. In terms of spatial awareness, this laptop does a far better job than the likes of the MacBook Pro 16.

Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gaming

Pulling the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 out of the box, I did not expect this laptop to have any gaming chops. Even if I did, I wouldn’t think it could have an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 onboard. Call me delightfully surprised. As mentioned, while there doesn’t appear to be an RTX 4070 configuration currently available, the gap between an RTX 4060 and 4070 isn’t too distant, so still expect a quality gaming experience.

With the reliable RTX 4070 and a whopping 64GB of DDR5X RAM, this machine can reach high-quality settings with stable frame rates above 60fps in some of the most demanding games.

Jumping back into Cyberpunk 2077, optimal settings were set to high on a majority of advanced textures (such as shadow quality, crowd density, colour precision, etc.) while ray tracing remained turned off. I hit an average of 82fps, with some short dips to 65fps in overwhelming combat. For a laptop not primarily made for gaming, this is very impressive.

In Forza Horizon 5, the spectacle of blazing past swish cars basking in the sunlight can be seen even in high settings. Here, I got an average of 62fps.

As for other titles, such as Overwatch 2 or Valorant, I consistently surpassed the 120fps benchmark. Of course, this is relatively easy to do with the right specs, but the Yoga Pro 9i pulls it off in its stride. Besides, chances are the majority of those picking this up aren’t getting it for purely gaming purposes, and these types of titles match that attitude.

Yes, fan speeds are turned up when putting the Yoga Pro 9i under pressure, but it still stays relatively quiet.

Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Performance

Hear that? It’s the sound the proficient Lenovo Yoga 9i Pro makes when put to work: silence. Packing a powerful 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13905H CPU, 64GB of DDR5X RAM and a 1TB SSD, you can be sure this laptop can blast through most tasks simultaneously without breaking a sweat.

It blazes through everyday work tasks and juggles multitasking various apps, including high-demanding ones, with ease. I could easily switch between playing Cyberpunk 2077 and the 50 Google Chrome tabs I had open, which included five YouTube videos playing at once. From photo and video editing to playing triple-A titles, this laptop easily fits the bill as a content creator machine and a high-performance laptop that can be used for gaming.

To put the Yoga Pro 9i to the test, I started with the Geekbench 6 benchmark. It scored a multi-core score of 11,932, thanks to the Intel Core i9 processor it has on board. It leaves the 12th Gen Intel Core CPU in its tail lights, such as the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 (2022) equipped with an Intel Core i9-12900H getting a (11,231). As for the MacBook Pro 16’s M2 Max chip (15,173), it couldn’t quite keep up. However, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 (16,465) looks down at all its competition.

In the PCMark 10 benchmark, it scored an outstanding 7,166. It’s an impressive feat, even if it falls behind the ROG Strix Scar 16 (8,299).

As for the handbrake test, which transcodes a 4K video file to 1080p, the Yoga Pro 9i took 4 minutes and 10 seconds. That’s fast.

With its 2TB SSD, the Yoga Pro 9i clocked a speedy transfer rate of 2,938 megabytes per second.

It may not pack the most power, but for its price and its capabilities, the Yoga Pro 9i 16 can get the job done efficiently.

Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Battery

Battery isn’t the Yoga Pro 9i 16’s shining grace, which is hardly a surprise judging from its 75Wh battery to keep up with a 100W GPU and a 3.2K display with HDR and up to 1,200 nits of peak brightness. It’s a shame, but at least you’ll get some time without needing a power adapter when travelling or working at a café.

With HDR mode on and battery set to balanced, I could squeeze out just over 5 hours when doing my daily tasks, which include scrolling through web pages, writing in documents and watching a few shows or YouTube videos. Not great, especially considering a MacBook Pro 16 can last around 15 hours.

Charging is fast, though. With its 170W power bank, it will bring the laptop back up to 100% in just under an hour.

Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Software

The Yoga Pro 9i 16 comes with the company’s own Lenovo Vantage, an app with a suite of features such as automatic PC updates, Smart Performance to tune up your laptop, the cloud-based Smart Lock to keep your device protected, Lenovo Wi-Fi security and more. It’s handy to have, even if you only open it a couple of times.

The laptop’s webcam also supports Windows Hello for face recognition. It can help you quickly log in, but it also stops activity and locks the laptop if it notices you’re not around. That’s great in public settings.

There’s hardly any bloatware apart from the usual McAfee antivirus software. Annoyingly, this will keep popping up nearly everywhere, including in web browsers. We recommend checking out the best antivirus software instead, as they come with a heap of features that can be put to good use.

Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Verdict 

From its exceptional 16-inch display and sleek, compact design to its reliable CPU power and surprisingly good gaming chops, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 excels in nearly all areas: work, creativity, gaming and entertainment. Sure, it comes at a cost, but not almost as much as some of its rivals – especially Apple’s MacBook Pro 16.

Its unassuming design makes it perfect for both professional and at-home settings, making it a machine for work and play. Think of it as a jack of all trades that pushes the standard. Its Intel Core i9 processor may not knock your socks off, but it’s more than capable of dealing with demanding software. The RTX 4070 onboard won’t crank up settings to max, but it can pull off smooth gameplay with high graphics quality.

For those who need a reliable work machine with plenty of screen real estate while travelling or working from a desk, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 is one of the best laptops you can grab (when it becomes available in NZ).