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CNET
14-05-2025
- CNET
Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 Review: Classy, Glassy Copilot Plus PC With Wonky Webcam
8.1 / 10 SCORE Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 $1,782 at Lenovo Pros Incredibly compact and light Stunning looks and strong build quality Gorgeous OLED display Quad speakers offer big sound for a small laptop Excellent keyboard Cons Terrible webcam performance Glass top cover is an extreme fingerprint magnet 4K resolution is overkill for 14-inch screen Undersized mechanical touchpad is disappointing for the price Just two ports Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 8.1/10 CNET Score $1,782 at Lenovo In a sea of silver and gray laptops, Lenovo's Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 stands out. Instead of a basic brushed aluminum or dull shade of gray, this premium Copilot Plus PC comes decked out in a muted aqua color, and its glass top cover shimmers. On the flip side of the luxuriously glossy lid is a beautiful OLED display that's incredibly crisp, vivid and color accurate. And hiding behind the display is its most unusual feature: a webcam. Instead of in a notch or a thicker display bezel at its top, putting the camera behind the display makes this Yoga one of the most compact 14-inch laptops available -- but the webcam performance takes a hit in order to get it. Other misses on the otherwise thoughtfully designed, well-built Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 are a distinct lack of ports and touchpad haptics. The laptop has only a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports, one of which you'll need to use for charging. There isn't even a headphone jack. And the touchpad is undersized with a mechanical click response; many premium laptops feature more spacious dimensions with haptic feedback. Even with these demerits, though, there's lots to like about this Copilot Plus PC. Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 Price as reviewed $1,782 Display size/resolution 14-inch 3840x2400 120Hz OLED display CPU Intel Core Ultra 7 258V Memory 32GB LPDDR5-8533 Graphics Intel Arc 140V Storage 1TB SSD Ports USB-C Thunderbolt 4 (x2) Networking Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 Operating system Windows 11 Home 24H2 Weight 2.7 lbs (1.2 kg) Lenovo sells one version of the Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 for $1,980, but it was continually discounted to $1,782 when I was working on this review. It's also available at Best Buy for $2,000, and I found it on sale for $1,700. It's based on an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, which is an eight-core processor from Intel's second generation (codenamed Lunar Lake) of Core Ultra AI chips. It also features 32GB of RAM, integrated Intel Arc 140V graphics and a 1TB solid-state drive. The 14-inch OLED display is a 4K (3,840x2,400 pixels, 120Hz panel rated for 400 nits and HDR 600. Lenovo appears to offer customization options on its site for the Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10, but the only items you can customize are the OS (Windows 11 Home or Pro) and choosing a flavor of Microsoft Office to preinstall. International buyers have a second option in addition to the configuration I tested. A lower-tier model of Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 with a Core Ultra 7 256V CPU and 16GB of RAM is available in the UK and Australia. Pricing starts at £1,800 in the UK and AU$2,739 in Australia. One last note on the Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10: It's a standard clamshell laptop and not a two-in-one convertible as its "Yoga" name and touch display might suggest. Lenovo's Yoga Slim models are ultrathin laptops and not two-in-ones. Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 performance The Core Ultra 7 258V from Intel's Core Ultra Series 2 family is designed for a balance of performance and efficiency. It has eight physical cores (four performance and four low-power efficient cores) and doesn't feature Intel's Hyper-Threading technology that allows a physical core to act as two virtual cores. Without that, the Core Ultra 7 258V's total number of processing threads is the same as its number of physical cores: eight. By comparison, the previous-gen Core Ultra 7 155H has 16 cores (four performance, eight efficient and two low-power efficient cores) and, with Hyper-Threading, a total of 22 threads. In addition to eliminating Hyper-Threading for greater power efficiency, the Core Ultra 7 258V is also a lower-power chip than the previous Core Ultra series. The most popular chip from the first Core Ultra series is the Core Ultra 7 155H chip, which runs between 20 and 155 watts. In contrast, the Core Ultra 7 258V stays between 8 and 37 watts. Like similar Lunar Lake-powered laptops, the Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 is better on single-core tests and actually takes a step back in multicore performance compared with laptops such as the HP Spectre x360 14 and Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 with the Core Ultra 7 155H CPU. Check out the performance charts below to see the numbers for our single- and multicore benchmarks of Geekbench 6 and Cinebench 2024. Matt Elliott/CNET Where Lunar Lake does take a leap forward is with its integrated GPU. The Intel Arc 140V graphics are superior to the first-gen Intel Arc graphics as well as Qualcomm's integrated Adreno GPU on its Snapdragon X series chips. On the 3DMark Steel Nomad test, the Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 and three other models (the Asus Zenbook S 14, Acer Swift 14 AI and HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14) with the same Core Ultra 258V processor topped the chart. On Procyon's AI Computer Vision benchmark that measures integer math proficiency for AI workloads, Intel has made a big leap in AI performance from the first-gen Core Ultra series to the second. The Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10's score on the test was in line with other second-gen Core Ultra-based Copilot Plus PCs as well as those with Qualcomm Snapdragon X series chips and nearly three times the score of the HP Pavilion Plus 14, which is a recent budget laptop with a Core Ultra 5 125H from Intel's first-gen series. On our YouTube streaming battery drain test, the Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 lasted 13.5 hours, which is hours and hours less than what you get with other Copilot Plus PCs such as the HP OmniBook X 14, Acer Swift 14 AI and Microsoft Surface Laptop 7. But each of those models has a lower-resolution IPS display that doesn't consume battery resources at the clip that a 4K OLED panel does. The Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 provides enough battery time to get you through a workday, but other Copilot Plus PCs will let you leave your charger at home for days at a time if you're willing to trade some display fidelity for battery life that approaches or even exceeds 20 hours. Matt Elliott/CNET Unique but not flawless design Tucking the webcam behind the display is the Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10's most unusual design element, and I'll go into detail about it shortly, but the most striking aspect of this Copilot Plus PC is on its surface. Namely, its top cover. Instead of aluminum, it's made from glass and has a smooth, glossy finish. It's a shade lighter than the rest of the vaguely aqua-colored body that Lenovo calls Tidal Teal. And like the tide, the top cover's look is always changing depending on how the light catches, shifting from bright teal to a deep aquamarine and often a mix of both. The glass cover is not just for show. The reinforced glass is impact-resistant to help protect the OLED display on the other side of it. I love the look and feel of the glass cover, but it does have one downside -- it's an extreme fingerprint magnet. You'll probably want to keep a cleaning cloth in your laptop bag if you decide to go with the Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10. Smudges are easily wiped away; I found them much easier to remove from the glass surface than the battles I sometimes find myself waging against fingerprints on a MacBook or other aluminum-topped laptops. It is BYOC; I was surprised that Lenovo didn't include a cloth in the box, given how quickly smudges accumulate. Matt Elliott/CNET The glass top cover adds a luxurious feel to the Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10, but also adds a bit of weight. This is basically the opposite approach that Asus took with the lightweight Ceraluminum material for the Zenbook A14, which weighs a scant 2.2 pounds. The Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 is more compact than the Zenbook A14, but is about half a pound heavier at 2.7 pounds. With ultrathin bezels, the Yoga Slim 9i 14 is essentially a 14-inch laptop in a 13-inch form factor. And wouldn't you know it, but the 13-inch MacBook Air weighs roughly the same as the Yoga Slim 9i 14. Among 14-inch Copilot Plus PCs, the Yoga Slim 9i 14's compact design allows it to be lighter than average. The Acer Swift 14 AI, HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 and Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 are each a little heavier at just under 3 pounds. The Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10's 4K HDR OLED display is spectacular, but the 4K resolution is overkill for most people, given the size of the panel. As it is, Lenovo sets the default scaling to 300%, so you aren't close to using all of the display's pixels. (With display scaling set to 100%, text and icons are impossibly small.) A 3K resolution would more than suffice and help extend battery life and perhaps lower the price somewhat. As constituted, however, the 4K panel at its default scaling is stunning. The picture is incredibly sharp with vivid colors and effectively zero-nit black levels. Matt Elliott/CNET Color accuracy was excellent. On my tests with a Spyder X colorimeter, it covered 100% of the sRGB and P3 spaces and 94% of AdobeRGB. It also hit 394 nits of brightness, which is enough for an OLED -- its superior contrast means it doesn't need to be as bright as an LCD panel to create a good image. Really, the only drawback I found with the display is its glossy finish. The edge-to-edge glass combined with the incredibly thin bezels creates an impressive visage, but glare and reflections can be a problem in bright rooms and especially outdoors -- even when seated in the shade. Where's the webcam? With the Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10, Lenovo introduces a new webcam placement it calls a camera-under-display (CUD) design. We've seen webcams hidden behind the display on some phones and tablets before, but this is the first laptop with such a webcam. To find room for the camera, Lenovo slapped a metal piece behind it on the laptop's lid. This bump-out overhangs the top edge ever so slightly to create a convenient lip to swing open the display. But back to the camera itself: it's shockingly terrible. It feels very first-gen of the so-called CUD technology. The camera has a sky-high pixel count of 32 megapixels. It can snap 7,520x4,232-pixel photos but only 1080p video. And both at their maximum quality settings look hazy and fuzzy. It looks like they are shot through a gauze. Which I suppose they are, since the camera sits behind display layers. There's no notch or any other indicator that there's a camera hidden beneath the display. Only when the camera is active does a small black circle appear for the camera to view through the display. The design is clever and space-saving, but the execution leaves something to be desired. A webcam with a massive 32-megapixel sensor should be able to capture crisper, cleaner images and video, especially at the laptop's premium price. Matt Elliott/CNET The webcam can't do facial recognition for secure, biometric logins, but there is a fingerprint reader in the lower-right corner of the keyboard for such a thing. While the webcam lacks a physical shutter since it's hidden away, there is a kill switch on the right edge of the laptop that cuts power to it, so you can protect your privacy when you aren't using the camera. Under the keyboard are four speakers in the form of two 2-watt tweeters and two 2-watt woofers. They all fire downward from two speaker grilles near the front edge of the laptop. The audio output would have offered greater separation between the highs and mid-tones and bass tones if the tweeters fired upward and only the woofers fired from the bottom panel, but the overall sound isn't bad for such a small laptop. Music playback is only so enjoyable with such muddied sound, but movies and shows sound lively with the quad speakers. And the speakers can definitely fill a small room -- you'll get out of range of seeing details on the 14-inch display before you have trouble hearing the laptop's audio. Matt Elliott/CNET The keyboard is exceptionally comfortable and has that lush-but-firm-and-responsive feel of a ThinkPad keyboard. The touchpad, however, is a mild disappointment. I don't mind its diminutive size -- that's a trade-off for the laptop's ultra-compact design -- but I wish Lenovo found a way to add a haptic touchpad. The mechanical click response is consistent from left to right, but the diving-board effect can be felt where clicks feel firmer and firmer the higher up on the touchpad you go. A haptic touchpad offers the same click response everywhere on its surface, and you can also customize the click feedback to your liking. A haptic touchpad would be quieter when clicked, too; the Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10's touchpad isn't loud, but you can definitely hear its clicks. Lenovo went ultraminimal with the ports for the Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10. It has just a pair of USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports -- one on each side of the laptop. I like being able to charge the battery from either side, but when you're charging, there's just a single Thunderbolt 4 free. And you'll need to provide your own adapters -- Lenovo doesn't include any in the box. Matt Elliott/CNET Is the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 worth buying? If you spend much of your day on Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams meetings and the like and rely on the built-in webcam, then no. The under-display webcam isn't up to the task of professional video calls, but it's fine for casual chats. I mean, who doesn't look better under a bit of soft focus, right? Even with its faults, I would still recommend the Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 to anyone with an eye for style who wants a high-end Windows ultraportable. Its bold design, solid build quality and beautiful OLED display make it worthy of its elevated price. Still, the cheaper, lighter and longer-running Asus Zenbook A14 remains my favorite Copilot Plus PC, with the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 making another great choice for its elegant design and awesome haptic touchpad. Hide our expert take Photo Gallery 1/1 How we test computers Photo Gallery 1/1 The review process for laptops, desktops, tablets and other computerlike devices consists of two parts: performance testing under controlled conditions in the CNET Labs and extensive hands-on use by our expert reviewers. This includes evaluating a device's aesthetics, ergonomics and features. A final review verdict is a combination of both objective and subjective judgments. The list of benchmarking software we use changes over time as the devices we test evolve. The most important core tests we're currently running on every compatible computer include Primate Labs Geekbench 6, Cinebench R23, PCMark 10 and 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra. A more detailed description of each benchmark and how we use it can be found on our How We Test Computers page. Hide our expert take Geekbench 6 CPU (multi-core) HP OmniBook X 14 13428 Microsoft Surface Pro 11 13253 Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 13159 HP Spectre x360 14 12897 Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 12574 Lenovo Yoga 7 14 Gen 9 11212 Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 11029 Asus Zenbook S 14 10948 Acer Swift 14 AI 10918 HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 10543 Note: Longer bars indicate better performance Geekbench 6 CPU (single-core) Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 2728 Acer Swift 14 AI 2701 Asus Zenbook S 14 2681 HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 2643 Lenovo Yoga 7 14 Gen 9 2444 HP OmniBook X 14 2370 Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 2369 Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 2363 Microsoft Surface Pro 11 2329 HP Spectre x360 14 2301 Note: Longer bars indicate better performance Cinebench 2024 CPU (multi-core) HP OmniBook X 14 809 Lenovo Yoga 7 14 Gen 9 751 Microsoft Surface Pro 11 743 Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 673 Acer Swift 14 AI 610 Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 583 HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 520 Asus Zenbook S 14 484 Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 107 Note: Longer bars indicate better performance Cinebench 2024 CPU (single-core) Asus Zenbook S 14 122 Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 121 HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 121 Acer Swift 14 AI 121 Microsoft Surface Pro 11 105 HP OmniBook X 14 100 Lenovo Yoga 7 14 Gen 9 99 Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 99 Note: Longer bars indicate better performance 3DMark Steel Nomad Asus Zenbook S 14 882 Acer Swift 14 AI 871 HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 803 Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 728 Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 694 Microsoft Surface Pro 11 493 HP OmniBook X 14 488 Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 483 Lenovo Yoga 7 14 Gen 9 435 Note: Longer bars indicate better performance PCMark 10 Pro Edition HP Spectre x360 14 6893 Lenovo Yoga 7 14 Gen 9 6867 Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 6812 Acer Swift 14 AI 6811 Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 6772 HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 6684 Asus Zenbook S 14 6684 Note: Longer bars indicate better performance Procyon AI Computer Vision (integer) Asus Zenbook S 14 (Intel AI Boost NPU, OpenVINO) 1790 HP OmniBook X 14 (Hexagon NPU, SNPE) 1749 Acer Swift 14 AI (Intel AI Boost NPU, OpenVINO) 1736 HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 (Intel AI Boost NPU, OpenVINO) 1670 Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 (Intel AI Boost NPU, OpenVINO) 1585 Microsoft Surface Pro 11 (Hexagon NPU, SNPE) 1559 Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (Hexagon NPU, SNPE) 1559 HP Pavilion Plus 14 (Intel AI Boost NPU, OpenVINO) 577 Note: Longer bars indicate better performance Online streaming battery drain test HP OmniBook X 14 25, hr 12 min Acer Swift 14 AI 22 hr, 13 min Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 19 hr, 50 min Asus Zenbook S 14 15 hr, 20 min Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 13 hr, 27 min Microsoft Surface Pro 11 12 hr, 51 min HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 12 hr, 38 min Lenovo Yoga 7 14 Gen 9 12 hr, 19 min HP Spectre x360 14 9 hr, 55 min Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 8 hr, 46 min Note: Longer bars indicate better performance
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Yahoo
Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (Gen 10) review: A sleek design puts style over substance
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (Gen 10) features a stunning design, but are good looks worth compromising on performance? That's a critical question if you're considering the Yoga Slim 9i, and one I kept coming back to while testing it. This laptop features one of the most unique and stylish designs I've laid eyes on, but it comes at a steep price, steep enough to criticize how well the Yoga Slim 9i actually performs. The results left me wondering: Is it really what's on the inside that matters most (to your wallet)? Does the Yoga Slim 9i perform as well as it looks (let alone costs), maybe enough to land a highly-coveted spot on our best laptops or best Lenovo laptops rankings? After using it for a week, I think I know the answer. Click to view full benchmark test results The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i is available in two configurations starting at $1,749. The base model includes an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V processor, Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage. Our review configuration, priced at $1,899, includes an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor, Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. Either model can be configured with Windows 11 Home or Windows 11 Pro. Even the starting price for the Yoga Slim 9i is higher than I expected, but there's an obvious possible reason for that: its flashy design. Outside of the design, the raw specs do not warrant the price, but I'll get more into the price-to-performance ratio later. The first thing I noticed about the Yoga Slim 9i was the sleek glass back on the lid. It reminded me more of an iPhone than a laptop. Lenovo went all-out on the Yoga Slim 9i, producing a design that's incredibly polished with a luxury feel. Aside from the glass lid, it features glossy, rounded edges on the keyboard deck and a display with bezels so thin you can hardly tell they're there. The glossy design is nice to look at, but it's not without a couple of practical downsides. First, the lid is a fingerprint magnet and isn't particularly good at hiding those fingerprints, which makes that luxurious glass back look decidedly less polished (literally). On top of that, the glass poses durability concerns. Lenovo claims the 'reinforced, impact-resistant' glass back is 'tough and built to handle anything,' but I can't help being a little skeptical. I've never broken a laptop, but I still proceeded with extra caution carrying around the Yoga Slim 9i. I felt like I could accidentally scratch, ding, or even crack the glass with little effort. I'm not half as worried about accidents with laptops featuring a plastic or metal lid. It doesn't help that the rounded edges and smooth glass make the Yoga Slim 9i unusually slippery. One positive aspect of the Yoga Slim 9i's design is how compact and portable it is. It measures 12.32 x 8.01 x 0.57 inches and weighs 2.76 pounds. To put that into context, here's how a few rival laptops compare: Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X: 12.8 x 8.8 x 0.51 inches, 2.8 pounds Acer Aspire 14 AI: 12.56 x 8.86 x 0.67 inches, 3.2 pounds MacBook Air M3 (13-inch): 11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches, 2.7 pounds Image 1 of 2 Image 2 of 2 The Yoga Slim 9i is pretty spare on ports, which may be another unfortunate side-effect of its ultra-slim design. The only ports included are: 2x USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4 Yes, that's it. Keep in mind, one of those USB Type-C ports is also for charging. So, you have only one port when the Yoga Slim 9i is plugged in. You'll almost certainly need one of the best USB Type-C hubs or laptop docking stations to expand your port selection, especially if you have USB Type-A accessories. Battery life is crucial for an ultra-portable laptop like the Yoga Slim 9i, so I was hoping it would impress me. Unfortunately, our battery life test result for the Yoga Slim 9i was a bit underwhelming at 11 hours and 3 minutes. That's not a bad result, but it looks lackluster in comparison to rival laptops. In this case, the Yoga Slim 7X, Acer Aspire 14 AI, and MacBook Air M3 all lasted over 14 hours on our battery life test, leaving the Yoga Slim 9i in the dust. In the case of the Aspire 14 AI, that gap could be partly due to the more powerful, power-hungry processor in the Yoga Slim 9i. However, the MacBook Air M3 and Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X outperformed the Yoga Slim 9i on our performance tests, as you'll see below, and those laptops still have better battery life. Click to view chart data in table format If there's one area where the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i really shines, it's the display. The Yoga Slim 9i features a 14-inch 4K OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. Its bezels are so thin it's easy to forget they're there. I noticed the display quality right away when I opened up the Yoga Slim 9i. It's vibrant and responsive, with colors that really pop off the screen. Even Gmail looked more colorful than usual with more saturated icons and clearer text. I watched a few episodes of Survivor on the Yoga Slim 9i and I'll admit, Fiji never looked more vibrant and alive. The challenge sets were sharp and vivid, comparable to, if not better than, my typical viewing experience on my 1440p ViewSonic Omni gaming monitor. Considering how phenomenal the display looked in my hands-on testing, I wasn't surprised to see the Yoga Slim 9i score unusually high on our display benchmark tests. In fact, the only laptop that outscored it was the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X, and only by a small margin. Click to view chart data in table format. I'm a big fan of Lenovo's laptop keyboards and the Yoga Slim 9i is no exception. It's the perfect combination of smooth and snappy to make for a speedy, satisfying typing experience. The 14-inch form factor means the keyboard is a bit cramped, so if you have large hands it could be slightly uncomfortable, but I wasn't too bothered by it. On the Monkeytype typing test, I scored 100 words per minute with 97% accuracy on the Yoga Slim 9i. That's a great score for me, but not quite as fast as my personal record of 105 wpm with 100% accuracy, which I scored on the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X. That's also a 14-inch laptop, but it's slightly larger than the Yoga Slim 9i, which may be why I typed a bit faster. Although, key size and scale aside, the keyboard on the Yoga Slim 9i looks and feels almost identical to that of the Yoga Slim 7X, which remains my favorite laptop keyboard, so you'll still get a great typing experience on the Yoga Slim 9i. One drawback to having such a compact chassis is a small touchpad, which is the case here. The touchpad on the Yoga Slim 9i feels and performs just fine, with a smooth satin finish and no drag, but it is pretty cramped. So, you may want to pair it with one of the best wireless mice for a more ergonomic experience. I was surprised how much I liked the audio on the Yoga Slim 9i. It features bottom-firing speakers, which I generally find subpar compared to top-firing. Yet, they exceeded my expectations. The music and sound effects in Death's Door were rendered phenomenally well, with more depth and texture than on most laptops I've tested. The speakers get surprisingly loud, too – I didn't need to turn them up past 30 for an immersive experience. Action sound effects like sword slashing and background ambiance from waterfalls and monsters running around were sharper and more realistic on the Yoga Slim 9i. Even button sound effects seemed more immersive. The same applies to music and video content. The audio on the Yoga Slim 9i had me feeling like I was really on Fiji while watching episodes of Survivor, with lifelike depth and clarity. Music also seemed well-balanced overall. I listened to some lofi while working on the Yoga Slim 9i and it captured a mix of deep bass notes and detailed highs, with clean mids, all from a mix of piano, vocals, and percussion, with good clarity across the board. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i is available with either the Intel Core Ultra 7 256V or the Core Ultra 7 258V. Our review configuration features the latter, but both processors include the same Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics. The Yoga Slim 9i performed well in my hands-on testing with basic everyday tasks like replying to emails, word processing, web browsing, and streaming videos and music. If you mainly use your laptop for basic tasks like those, you'll be more than happy with the performance you get on the Yoga Slim 9i. It keeps up well with numerous tabs open, loads pages and videos fast, and the stellar display makes reading and writing on it a breeze. However, if you want to perform more resource-intensive tasks or run numerous apps at once, the Yoga Slim 9i may fall behind a bit. It scored 11,038 on the Geekbench multi-core benchmark, which is a couple thousand points lower than the similar, yet less expensive Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X. The Yoga Slim 9i also fell behind on our file transfer speed test, which reflects tasks like downloading and processing content. So, if you want top performance, the Yoga Slim 7X may be a better fit. On the upside, the Yoga Slim 9i stayed nice and cool in our tests, peaking at 83.5 degrees, which is well below our 95-degree comfort threshold. It never felt uncomfortably warm during my hands-on testing, either. Click to view chart data in table format. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i is no gaming laptop, but its Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics can handle casual gaming between your work or school tasks. I played some Death's Door on the Yoga Slim 9i and had a smooth experience overall. I averaged 30 frames per second at its native resolution (3840 x 2160). The game was still playable with little lag at full resolution, but I averaged 60 fps when I dropped to 1600p. Death's Door is a fairly lightweight indie title, so similar games should run fine on the Yoga Slim 9i, but it may struggle with more graphics-intensive titles. In our lab tests, it averaged 66.5 fps in Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm at Medium, 1080p, but only managed 26.9 fps in Borderlands 3 at 1080p. So, performance is a bit hit-or-miss. If gaming is a top priority for you, you'd be better served with one of the best gaming laptops. Click to view chart data in table format. The Yoga Slim 9i is a Copilot+ PC, which means it includes a suite of AI tools and features powered by Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant. There's a dedicated Copilot button on the keyboard, which acts as a shortcut for launching the Copilot app where you can ask questions or generate text and images. Copilot also powers some basic AI features in other apps. For instance, the webcam supports Windows Studio Effects, which uses AI to blur or change your background and improve your lighting in video calls. If you're a fan of AI image generators, you can access one directly from your Copilot+ PC with the Cocreator tool in the Paint app. Laptop webcams are rarely all-stars when it comes to image quality, but the Yoga Slim 9i is especially lackluster in this department. That's probably because Lenovo cleverly hid the 7520x4232 webcam under the display. That allowed Lenovo to give the Yoga Slim 9i incredibly thin bezels, but it also may be the reason the webcam quality is unusually poor. Unfortunately for the Yoga Slim 9i, this is legitimately the worst webcam I have ever tested. The video quality resembles found footage, with an incredibly grainy image that's dull and pixelated. On the bright side, the mic produces a clear sound, so people in your Zoom calls will be able to hear you well even if they can't see you. Of course, you can always plug in one of the best external webcams, but that's not ideal if you're on the go a lot. You can configure the Yoga Slim 9i with either Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro. Both versions include the standard suite of Microsoft apps, such as Microsoft Edge, Copilot, the Xbox app, and the Windows Store. It also comes with the Lenovo Vantage app, where you can view your device specs, settings, and warranty info. The Yoga Slim 9i includes Lenovo's standard one-year warranty, which can be extended for an additional fee. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i shines from the outside but struggles on the inside. It boasts a stunningly stylish design, but the cost of admission is a bit high for the performance you get, with the Yoga Slim 9i falling behind less expensive competitors. However, it does boast a fantastic display and stellar audio, so it could be a good fit for some (if you can find it on sale). If you're considering the Yoga Slim 9i, you may also want to take a look at the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X, which also looks and feels fantastic, but costs hundreds of dollars less and performs noticeably better. You can also visit our guide to the best laptops for even more alternatives.
WIRED
23-02-2025
- WIRED
Lenovo's Yoga Slim 9i Has an Invisible Webcam and It Sucks
God help us, there are so, so many Lenovo Yoga laptops out there now. There's the Yoga 9i, the Yoga Pro 9i, the Yoga Book 9i, and now this new arrival—the Yoga Slim 9i. So much Yoga. So much 9i. If you can't keep them all straight, take comfort in the fact that I can't either. The need-to-know on the Slim 9i is that it's intended as the premiere offering in this lineup, including a hip design, Copilot+ PC features, and a feature that hides the webcam behind the LCD using what's called camera-under-display (CUD) technology. (This isn't the first time we've seen this—ZTE notably had a phone several years ago with a similarly hidden selfie camera.) Teal Shimmer Before I dig deeper into that camera trick, let's talk about the rest of the package. Though it's crafted mostly from aluminum, the cover of the 14-inch laptop is made from highly reflective shimmering glass in a hue of 'Tidal Teal.' It's eye-catching but may be too flashy for some, which is probably why glass lids went out of fashion a few years back. Photograph: Christopher Null Curvy on every corner, the only sharp edges you'll find on the device are where that glass lid comes to an end. And while this laptop doesn't have a notch for its webcam, there is a bulge on the back of the cover where that webcam resides. As such, it's not so much 'under the display' as it is 'behind the display,' an important distinction that creates a distinctly bulbous design conceit that you will likely either love or hate. (A privacy shutter switch is available on the side of the laptop.) Lenovo has always been known for its input experience, and the Slim 9i 14 offers one of the best I've seen, featuring a spacious edge-to-edge keyboard layout and keys with excellent responsiveness, all atop a surprisingly small trackpad. I greatly prefer this smaller trackpad design, but users more accustomed to enormous ice skating rinks for their fingertips may find it constraining. Five 'Quick Keys' on the right side of the keyboard offer easy access to different power and audio modes, a fingerprint reader, and other extras. Photograph: Christopher Null
