Lenovo's Yoga 9i (2025) is a perfect example of impressive power in a sleek package

1 month ago 3

When Lenovo released last generation's Yoga 9i, XDA's own Rich Woods had very few qualms with it. It checks all the boxes for a Yoga: gorgeous convertible display, good speakers, and a sleek design. That's all present on this generation's Yoga 9i, but under the hood, Intel's Lunar Lake took this laptop to the next level. If you passed on last year's model to wait for a Lunar Lake sequel, it sure has paid off in spades.

lenovo yoga 7i 2-in-1 16-inch folded open with the xda website in a browser window

This laptop is literally bending over backwards trying to make me like it

You might not flip for this convertible but it's a decent enough midranger.

Lenovo sent us the Yoga 9i (2025) for review. It did not have any input on the contents of this article.

CPU Intel Core Ultra 258V

GPU Intel Arc 140V

Display type OLED, 30-120Hz Adaptive RR,

Display (Size, Resolution) 14" 2.8K (2880x1800)

Lenovo's Yoga flagship sports the beautiful display and great audio it's known for. Combined with the strengths of Lunar Lake, the weaknesses of the Yoga 9i are few and far between.

Pros & Cons

Stunning OLED display
Much improved battery life
Slick design

Webcam quality isn't great
Little on the expensive side
Presence of bloatware

Lenovo Yoga 9i (2025) pricing and availability

The Lenovo Yogi 9i starts at $1,440 on Lenovo's website at the time of writing, with the higher-priced Intel Core Ultra 258V version with 32 GB of RAM starting at $1,680. Both versions can be kitted with up to a 4K display and 1TB of NVMe storage. I received the Ultra 258V version from Lenovo for testing.

CPU Intel Core Ultra 258V

GPU Intel Arc 140V

Display type OLED, 30-120Hz Adaptive RR,

Display (Size, Resolution) 14" 2.8K (2880x1800)

RAM 32GB LPDDR5X

Storage 1TB PCIe SSD Gen 4 M.2

Battery 75Whr

Ports 3 x USB-C® Thunderbolt 4 (40Gbps, DP, PD), 1x USB-A (10Gbps), Audio combo jack

Operating System Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro

Webcam 5MP + IR RGB camera, w/ privacy shutter

Wi-Fi connectivity WiFi 7 802.11BE

Bluetooth Bluetooth® 5.4

Dimensions 15.9mm x 316mm x 220mm / 0.63″ x 12.4″ x 8.66″

Weight 1.32kg / 2.91 lbs

Speakers 4 stereo speakers, 2 woofers, 2 tweeters

Colors Cosmic blue, Luna grey

Pen compatibility Yes (Yoga Pen included)

NPU Integrated Intel® AI Boost

HP Omen 17 (2024) Microsoft Copilot button

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The revamped design from last year returns

If it ain't broke

Lenovo has changed nothing about the way the Yoga 9i presents itself compared to last year's Meteor Lake version. The fit and finish is nearly identical, save for a few miniscule changes, and I'm glad. This thing looks good. The dark blue metallic finish that Lenovo calls "cosmic blue" looks great, and it's a color I'm quite familiar with.

A MacBook Air and Lenovo Yoga 9i side by side

Right after unboxing this thing, I immediately saw it bore close resemblance to my daily driver, the M2 MacBook Air draped in Apple's "Midnight" colorway. Both look almost black in certain lower light conditions, but when the light hits them, they turn to this deep blue that's absolutely gorgeous. A side effect of this color and finish is that it's a horrible fingerprint magnet—something I'm all too familiar with. I don't hold it against my Mac, so I'm not going to hold it against the Yoga 9i either.

In terms of I/O, the Yoga 9i keeps it simple: 3 USB-C Thunderbolt ports, 1 USB-A port, and an audio combo jack. I appreciate the simplicity, and while I thought I wouldn't need a USB-A, it did come in handy in a couple of specific scenarios I found myself in.

I absolutely love the feel of the keyboard. A decent travel distance and zero of that mushy feeling when you bottom out a key. The trackpad is large, which I like, but has a physical click, which I do not like. Haptic would've been really nice to see, especially on a laptop at this price point.

The bottom of the chassis is well ventilated, which is something I appreciated. The porosity that's present for the fans isn't extreme, but it's enough to make a meaningful difference in cooling performance. During my testing, the Intel Core Ultra 258V, even while plugged in and charging, didn't hit above 85 degrees Celsius, all while the fans remained at a tolerable tone and volume.

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The Yoga 9i looks the part

Best display I've seen on a laptop

Just like last year's iteration, the display on this thing is absolutely stunning. The adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz makes work feel great without sacrificing too much on battery life, and the OLED construction means all the media I consumed on it could've only been bested in contrast and fidelity by my TV at home. The display is probably what I'm going to miss the most when I switch back to my daily driver.

The Yoga 9i has great audio chops as well, with the integrated hinge-soundbar combo. When configured in tent mode, the speakers do blast straight up, which isn't a huge issue, but it's something I noticed. Both spoken word and music sound great through it, but there's still a pronounced lack of bass as you'd expect on a set of laptop speakers. Still, though, the Yoga 9i is punching well above its weight here.

Angled front view of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i

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A great leap in performance

Lunar Lake lifting heavy

Having been spoiled by Apple Silicon for quite some time, I always go into Windows laptop reviews with no expectations; I set them up how I would my personal machine, and use them as such. The suite of benchmarks also gives me a decent picture of performance, but the proof really is in the pudding when it comes to judging performance.

	Lenovo Yoga 9i (2025) Core Ultra 7 258V	HP EliteBook Ultra G1i Core Ultra 7 268V	Yoga 7i 2-in-1 Core Ultra 7 256V	HP EliteBook X G1a Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375
Geekbench 6 (single / multi)	2,701 / 10,739	2,709 / 10,742	2,641 / 10,685	2,750 / 14,075
Cinebench 2024 (single / multi)	117 / 490	119 / 479	116 / 577	109 / 1,033
3DMark (Time Spy / Wild Life Extreme / Night Raid)	4,551 / 5,270 / 34,066	4,196 / 7,371 / 30,687	3,320 / 4,513 / 27,613	3,916 / 7,043 / 32,294
CrossMark (Overall)	1761	1,815	1,804	1,735
PCMark 10 (AC best perf / battery / battery balanced)	N/A	6,730 / 6,287 / 5,457	6,764 / 6,637 / 6,527	7,542 / 6,828 / 5,473

These benchmarks were done on Lenovo's higher performance setting, which can be toggled with a key on the keyboard. I really dislike that Lenovo has taken power and performance settings out of the normal Windows settings menus and put them into their "Lenovo Vantage" app. The 3 modes that you can swap between aren't explained anywhere within the app, and when I went to select the "High Performance" power plan within Windows, it was totally gone, and only "Balanced" was present.

That, along with the presence of apps like "Lenovo Subscription Marketplace", just left a bad taste in my mouth. Let me change the settings I want to, Lenovo!

In terms of how it felt in daily workflow, I couldn't find anything that the Core Ultra 7 285V couldn't handle well. My normal suite of Photoshop, Lightroom, and some light Premiere Pro ran just as I'd expected, and even when running some light games, the Yoga 9i takes it in complete stride. Rocket League ran at well in excess of 120 FPS with high settings, which is a win for the Arc 140V in my book. The graphics processing is pretty impressive compared to that of the Apple Silicon M4.

Battery life was nothing short of solid, lasting well beyond my normal workday, even at full brightness. It still doesn't hold a candle to what my MacBook Air is capable of, but that's a bit of an unfair comparison. Even with that high bar, the Yoga 9i was able to be more than serviceable for 2 workdays without a charger.

Should you buy the Lenovo Yoga 9i (2025)?

You should buy the Lenovo Yoga 9i (2025) if:

You need an ultrabook
A nice display is important to you
You want to play casual games

You should NOT buy the Lenovo Yoga 9i (2025) if:

A haptic touchpad is a must
You're hunting for the best value
You really hate fingerprints

All in all, the 2025 iteration of the Yoga 9i is a well-executed one. It's the same, sleek design with even better performance than before. While the price is a bit high for what's under the hood, Lunar Lake gave this thing the refresh it deserved, and the result is one of the best laptops on the market.