Abstract

• The Intel Core Extremely 7 GPU gives highly effective multitasking energy for many duties.
• Regardless of glorious microphones, the laptop computer’s digicam and audio system fall fairly brief.
• The laptop computer gives a unbelievable 4K OLED show, Intel Lunar Lake CPU, environment friendly battery life, and AI integration for multitasking.

The most recent within the Yoga lineup, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (14-inch Intel, Gen 10, brings Microsoft Copilot AI, a 4K OLED show, and a strong Intel processor that delivers strong computing. I wished to like this laptop computer (and I virtually did), however sadly, I used to be left wanting extra.

Value and Availability

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 laptop computer has two configurations with a beginning retail worth of $1,760 at Lenovo when not on sale. The upper configuration prices $1,900, whereas the decrease configuration gives build-your-own upgrades for an additional price.

A (Disputably) Aesthetically Beautiful Design

I need to assume that everybody who sees the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 will fall in love with its design. Specifically, its beautiful seashell-like exterior that Lenovo calls “Tidal Teal.” Make one thing a phenomenal coloration, and I’m already in. However I notice not everybody will discover this look engaging, so it’s up for debate if that is your dream coloration or if distinctive laptop computer colours are even your factor.

As for me, I really like the shimmery teal, and my first impression was, “If it appears to be like this good, how is it going to carry out?!”

The remainder of the design (apart from aesthetics) was fairly normal, however I observed a few surprises. The primary is that though this can be a Yoga laptop computer, its display screen solely bends again to about 120 levels or so. I had no means of utilizing it like a pill or folding it as I’ve skilled with different Yoga fashions, just like the Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 8 or the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i.

The second shock was the digicam was invisible. I quickly realized that this was as a result of the Yoga Slim 9i Gen 10’s digicam is, in keeping with Lenovo, the “world’s first under-display digicam” on a laptop computer (I’ll have rather more to say about this later).

Apart from these oddities, the Yoga Slim 9i 14’s design was predictable. The again cowl has a big Lenovo brand, the highest bezel homes the digicam and the quad microphone system, and the keyboard and touchscreen are of their ordinary spots. The “Yoga” brand is on the bottom of the laptop computer. Along with the usual keyboard keys, the laptop computer has a fingerprint scanner, a Microsoft Copilot AI key, a wise key to carry up Lenovo Vantage, and two extra customizable apps for shortcuts.

Two Ports Are All You Get

For the reason that Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 is a slim, compact, and light-weight system, it is sensible that it doesn’t include many port choices. Nonetheless, it should really feel missing in the event you work with many peripherals or must plug in additional than two gadgets at a time. I exploit greater than two ports usually, so having solely two USB-C ports at my disposal was disappointing.

Since I nonetheless have many units which are nonetheless USB-A, I had to purchase USB-C to USB-A adapters (an inexpensive repair) to make use of these units, corresponding to my Bluetooth mouse or particular charger cables. Contemplating I usually take care of this difficulty when reviewing laptops, I ought to all the time have these available. Nevertheless, the typical laptop computer purchaser may be a bit miffed after they notice they’ll’t plug in USB-A units with out shopping for adapters to make use of on this USB-C-only device. That stated, they’re ThunderPort 4 ports!

Improbable Keyboard, Touchpad, and Touchscreen

The Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 keyboard had a nice really feel and took up about half the laptop computer’s base, measuring about 11.5 by 4.13 inches. Its keys didn’t really feel unfastened like some laptop computer keyboards do, and I may kind with out making too many typos. That stated, I do want there was a barely elevated spring to it (as a private choice), but it surely was sturdy, had adjustable backlighting, and gave me loads of area to kind comfortably.

The precision touchpad, located straight under the keyboard, had no buttons however a {smooth} glass floor that felt nice to the touch. The touchpad was ultra-responsive, and I made only a few errors when scrolling, clicking, or pinching to zoom. Its measurement was a spacious 2.72 x 4.09 inches, giving me loads of room to navigate.

As for the touchscreen, I used to be happy with its responsiveness and seemingly error-free processes once I tapped or scrolled. Even once I felt like I tapped the sting or nook of an app icon, it opened the one I had tapped on. And to my delight, the lag was barely there.

A Lovely 4K OLED Show

With a 14-inch 4K (3,840 x 2,400) OLED show, the Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 makes streaming, gaming, and modifying photographs a nice expertise. The laptop computer options X-Ceremony coloration calibration, PureSight Professional, and Show HDR True Black 600, which gave me a whole breadth of colours (together with sRGB and Adobe RGB). Moreover, the Yoga Slim 9i had a minimal body surrounding the show (Lenovo claims the show is 98%, the body a mere 2%), making media really feel much less boxed in.

The colour distinction and saturation on the Yoga Slim 9i have been extremely immersive, providing me a realistic-looking stream when watching 4K movies. In an unique fowl video, I noticed particular person feathers on parrots pop with wealthy greens. Crisp, clear particulars on the laptop computer’s max decision made it simple to see the blue iris round a parrot’s pupil and scratches on its purple beak.

Watching Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes showcased how effectively the show dealt with blacks and shadows. The fur on the apes was simply seen in darker scenes, and I by no means felt as if any shadowy CGI regarded muddy or indistinguishable.

Equally, whereas gaming, good colours in video games like Avowed popped off the display screen, making me really feel like I used to be in one other world.

The one draw back to this marvelous show was the standard grievance with OLED screens. As a result of it’s an OLED with out an anti-glare coating, the glare was extremely distracting in well-lit rooms or direct daylight. Fortunately, the brightness ranges (max 750 nits in HDR, 600 in SDR) made viewing the display screen in any mild simple, particularly if I combated the glare by shutting curtains or angling the display screen.

The Intel Lunar Lake CPU and AI Integration

Just like the lately reviewed ThinkPad X1 Carbon Aura Edition, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 makes use of the Intel Core Extremely 7 258V (eight cores, eight threads, and a 12MB cache). It’s in Intel’s Lunar Lake lineup for slender laptops.

Regardless of the Extremely 7 258V’s equal cores-to-threads ratio, I discovered it a top-tier performer for many pc duties, together with mild photograph modifying in Photoshop, streaming music and movies, phrase processing, utilizing an obscene variety of browser tabs, downloading and taking part in PC video games, and utilizing Microsoft Copilot and different AI instruments like ChatGPT and Grammarly.

As for the AI options, the Yoga Slim 9i has included Microsoft Copilot as an AI assistant, and several other AI-driven options are buried within the Lenovo Vantage app (obtainable on PC solely). These embrace an Adaptive Energy Mode that intelligently switches between completely different energy modes based mostly in your exercise, an Eye Care Mode that routinely adjusts the screen’s color temperature to prevent eye strain, Presence Detection (for securely locking your display screen once you’re away from the laptop computer), and Computerized mode choice that optimizes your system settings based mostly on what you’re doing.

It additionally integrates Cocreator in Paint, computerized reside captions on movies, and Home windows Studio Results within the digicam.

A Smooth Multitasking Powerhouse

Between the Yoga Slim 9i’s Intel Core Extremely 7 258V Processor and its 32GB of RAM, there was treasured little I couldn’t obtain concerning every day computing and multitasking. I recurrently had, at minimal, 15 browser tabs working whereas working Photoshop, Xbox recreation downloads, Spotify, and YouTube. I usually additionally had ChatGPT and Copilot working within the background for any ideating or analysis I undertook.

Switching between apps and browser tabs was speedy (with nearly no lag), and I didn’t expertise a single hiccup throughout my work shifts. Though I’ve used CPUs with double the threads, the Yoga Slim 9i stored me completely completely satisfied, productive, and capable of full duties promptly. Most professionals will discover little qualm with this laptop computer’s efficiency, even when they’re used to barely extra highly effective CPUs.

Gentle Informal Gaming Enjoyable

Whereas the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 isn’t a gaming laptop computer, it carried out reasonably effectively for informal gaming. I wouldn’t recommend it for aggressive gaming, as I did expertise some important latency points taking part in a number of titles. Nevertheless, the latency I skilled wasn’t so dangerous that I couldn’t benefit from the gameplay for older titles at 1080P with medium to low settings.

Don’t count on smooth-as-glass gameplay with the Intel Arc GPU. Nevertheless, Intel’s AI enhance for gaming and different media did appear to make this mix extra gamer-friendly than I’ve skilled on completely different PCs with Intel Arc.

I performed quite a lot of video games (titles corresponding to Lies of P, Avowed, and smaller useful resource indies). Most of those performed fairly effectively on the Yoga Slim 9i with settings on low. The worst latency I noticed was throughout character creation in Avowed, the place rotating my character was so laggy it was painful (however this nonetheless didn’t make me rage stop the sport).

In abstract, this setup is not constructed for gaming, however you may get away with taking part in older titles at low to medium settings and nonetheless benefit from the expertise.

So-So Audio system, Bizarre Digital camera, and Wonderful Microphones

The place the Yoga Slim 9i fell essentially the most brief was in its speaker system and digicam. Let me begin by saying the audio system aren’t horrible. They carried out effectively till I attempted to push the quantity. The laptop computer options two two-watt tweeters and two three-watt woofers with Dolby Atmos, however they’re all down-firing.

I’m not usually a fan of laptops that don’t have up-firing audio system as a result of it may well have an effect on the audio high quality by making the sound really feel muted or boxy. To not point out, squash the sound in the event you’re utilizing your laptop computer in your lap.

At 60%, the audio system felt very loud to me, which is uncommon since I’m often craning to listen to movies at that stage. My difficulty was that the audio system sounded boxy and muddy at 65% or greater quantity (which was generally needed for quieter media). All of the steadiness flew out the window, with better sibilance and barely grating excessive tones from vocalists and guitars or spoken phrase.

Round 50 to 60% was the candy spot, the place I observed a pleasant steadiness of lows, mids, and highs (although nonetheless not almost sufficient bass). For example, songs like Anthony Inexperienced’s You’ll Be Advantageous sounded good, with respectable mids and highs, and Sleep Token’s Take Purpose sounded haunting and clear (although the down-firing audio system exaggerated the music’s echoey sound). In the meantime, the bass finish sounded undermined and squashed on the music Neon Brother by the band Nothing However Thieves.

These audio system carry out effectively in the event you’re okay listening at 50 to 60% quantity. However at greater volumes, count on muddy tones and grating highs.

As for the webcam, I wished to like the under-display digicam. It appears to be like glossy, and I like you can’t even see it till turning the digicam on. Nevertheless, that’s the place my reward ends.

Sadly, this was one among my worst webcam experiences, partially as a result of Lenovo hypes it up with its 32MP decision and revolutionary design. What I bought have been crisp-looking particulars obscured by an oddly grainy and pixelated look. The decision regarded good beneath all of the pixelation, and I may inform the digicam was making an attempt. However it failed. It additionally took atrociously pixelated photographs in each good and dangerous lighting situations.

The quad microphone system does effectively with sound, even with noise cancelation/audio enhancements turned off. I may hear my voice clearly in recordings (even with some intense background noise), and there have been no glitches, choppiness, or squashed high quality. I additionally had nice experiences with the noise cancelation and audio enhancements, making these mics a thumbs-up.

Microphone Check On The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 Laptop computer In A Quiet Setting

Microphone Check On The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 Laptop computer In A Noisy Setting

Good Battery Life and Charging Velocity

I used to be pleasantly shocked by the battery life on the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i, particularly as a result of the final Lunar Lake PC I reviewed (the aforementioned ThinkPad X1 Carbon Aura Edition) didn’t ship on the wonderful battery life it was alleged to have). On this case, nevertheless, the Yoga Slim 9i’s environment friendly CPU shone by offering me with a mean battery drain of 0.2% per minute, which resulted in about 8 hours of battery life. Which means Lenovo’s benchmark of a 14.05-hour battery for net searching at 150 nits was correct (although I by no means had the display screen that dim)!

It additionally charged fairly shortly, with a 0.72% per minute acquire (with Fast Cost enabled). That meant it took about two hours and 20 minutes to succeed in a full cost, which I used to be proud of contemplating that cost time gave me an 8-hour stint of no charging.

Ought to You Purchase the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 Laptop computer?

For the worth, you do get a variety of bang to your buck with the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10. It’s a wonderful PC, particularly in the event you’re in search of one thing with an awesome battery life and highly effective processing (with a shiny OLED besides). To not point out, in the event you’re contemplating a Yoga, you in all probability count on extra flexibility, which this lacks. However in order for you your laptop computer to have an honest built-in webcam, higher audio system, and extra ports, it’s possible you’ll need to look elsewhere.

Nonetheless, regardless of harping about its faults, I’d be tempted to purchase it only for the candy coloration and multitasking energy.