Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition
ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Lenovo’s Yoga Professional 9i Aura Version is on the market now for $1,949.
- It is received a stunning tandem OLED show, with a skinny type and nice efficiency throughout a number of use instances.
- It has middling battery life and noisy followers.
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The Yoga Professional 9i (16-inch) is really a stunning laptop computer, and all of it facilities round its show. It is the very first thing you discover once you take a look at it, and it holds your gaze.
It is received one thing distinctive: it is one of many few new Home windows laptops with a tandem OLED, leading to a crisp, distinctive picture that is clean as silk and exceedingly shiny (as much as 1,000 nits).
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Despite the fact that I’ve had an opportunity to see the three.2K tandem OLED in particular person, the mannequin I took residence with me had the marginally much less spectacular (however nonetheless superb) 2.8K OLED with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050 GPU. Sure, when up in opposition to the tandem OLED working the RTX 5060, it is not fairly as vibrant, however all issues thought-about, it is a implausible show with the identical 120Hz refresh fee, HDR 1000 True Black, 100% DCI-P3, and slick glass display. Particularly when in comparison with different units in the identical worth bracket.
The Lenovo Yoga Professional 9i is a high-performance Home windows laptop computer designed for professionals and creatives who additionally do some gaming. It comes with 32GB of LPDDR5X (soldered) RAM, and a 1TB M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSD. I used it for a number of weeks as my primary driver and love how adaptable it’s.
It is a implausible laptop computer for work, with the big, crisp OLED show, tactile, full-sized keyboard, and beneficiant I/O. It makes a implausible machine for creatives, with one of the vital highly effective CPUs on the marketplace for ultraportables, the Intel Core Extremely 9 285H from the “Arrow Lake” sequence, working 16 cores.
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And it is a succesful gaming machine, if not totally dedicated to the id. The {hardware} carries for many titles, with immerse visuals powered by the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050 or 5060 GPU. For lengthy gaming classes, nonetheless, different laptops within the worth vary are going to be extra optimized for longevity and warmth mitigation.
And it might actually get heat. The fan kicks on regularly for brief bursts, even whereas doing on a regular basis duties. Copying massive recordsdata or multitasking with a number of browser tabs, for instance is sufficient to pop it into gear, and at full pace it is loud sufficient to listen to from the opposite room. That mentioned, the laptop computer itself would not get uncomfortably sizzling to the contact.
Its bodily type may be very impartial, with Lenovo’s grey on grey on grey design that resists fingerprints however appears to be like moderately company. The complete-sized keyboard is spacious and well-positioned, with an ample 1.5mm key journey and satisfying click on. I simply want it had a haptic trackpad, as that will actually seal the deal as a premium creative-first machine, particularly when paired with the show.
There’s nothing unsuitable with the trackpad on the Yoga Professional 9i (though I do want it have been centered), however in 2025, however shoppers need to see these sorts of premium touches spherical out the bundle once they’re paying over $2,000 on a laptop computer. At the least as an non-compulsory upsell.
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In the identical vein, the Yoga Professional 9i 16 would not really feel exceedingly premium for the way impartial it’s. It is skinny, gentle, and well-balanced, however the Yoga lineup is not precisely taking any dangers with its design. That mentioned, there’s little or no display wobble, minimal flex of the bodily body, and at 4.4 kilos and 0.76 inches thick, could not be extra moveable.
It is also fairly stacked with regards to ports. On the left, you’ve gotten the charger port, an HDMI 2.1, two Thunderbolt 4 ports at 40Gbps that each assist charging, and a headphone jack.
On the suitable, you get two USB-A ports at 5Gbps, and an SD card reader. Simply understand that the ability button on the highest proper may be very straightforward to by accident faucet — particularly once you’re plugging within the charger.
So what is the catch? You would possibly know the place that is going. All this {hardware} is thirsty for energy, and the Yoga Professional 9i has some quirks with regards to battery life. First off, I ought to point out that the 170W charging brick it comes with is smaller than the one which got here with final yr’s mannequin.
The laptop computer does cost by way of the USB-C ports, however when you have a low-wattage charger, it is not going to maintain up. In actual fact, even the included 170W charger might not be sufficient in some instances. If the Yoga is below a heavy CPU and GPU load, some users report that the 170W merely is not sufficient, and that it wants a 230W charger (bought individually) to remain at 100%.
Throughout my testing, I did not encounter this with the 170W charger, however I did with the USB-C chargers. Notice that that is solely when the laptop computer is working exhausting, like when gaming or enhancing video. I did not have this difficulty doing on a regular basis duties like doing work or browsing the net.
Battery life is in any other case expectedly restricted. I received a bit of over six hours of regular use within the workplace earlier than needing to plug it in. The mannequin with the tandem OLED show would probably get even much less, particularly should you’re speaking about extra intensive workflows.
Let’s come full circle and talk about efficiency, the place the Yoga Professional 9i would not disappoint. As I discussed earlier than, a part of the draw right here is that this laptop computer’s skill to deal with a bit of little bit of all the things, however its significantly nice efficiency with photograph and video enhancing, graphic design, and animation.
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Inventive duties like enhancing video in DaVinci Resolve and CapCut have been snappy and responsive, if not the same old little bit of lag from massive recordsdata or rapidly scrubbing by means of video.
When evaluating it to competing 16-inch laptops, the Yoga Professional 9i prices considerably lower than its costly gaming cousin, the Legion Pro 7i, exchanging RGB lighting and superior cooling for a thinner, lighter type, higher show, and extra well-rounded capabilities.
ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation
Lenovo’s Yoga Professional 9i Aura Version is a implausible laptop computer for creatives who desire a beautiful show, with bonus factors for being a stable gaming machine, as effectively. Its skinny type makes for a way more moveable system than different laptops with this degree of {hardware}, and all issues thought-about, it is not that costly, hovering across the $2,000 mark, relying on the {hardware}.
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If you wish to go all out, the tandem OLED is price it. Nevertheless it’s energy hungry, particularly for demanding duties. Alternatively, should you go along with the common OLED and simply use the system for productiveness duties, you may discover the battery has extra longevity.
I like to recommend the Yoga Professional 9i Aura Version to creatives who need to do some little bit of all the things with a high-performing, moveable primary driver.
