Lenovo Slim Pro 9i Review: Portable Power With A Hefty Compromise

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Following Aug 28, 2023, 04:47pm EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The search for a truly powerful and portable workstation can lead you down many paths. Often you have to find yourself compromising in one or more areas in order to fit what you’re looking for. The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i feels like an exception to that rule—but indeed it still carries with it a compromise.

It might be a compromise that’s understandable, however, considering everything else this laptop provides. Power? Check. Amazing, spacious screen? Check.

Discrete GPU? Check. There’s so much here that lends itself to a portable powerhouse, that battery life almost becomes an afterthought—almost. The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i packs a ton of power into a portable chassis.

Illustration: Forbes / Photo: Retailers I’ve been using the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i as my workstation while away from my desk for two weeks, and I can confirm that this is easily a workable solution for me. The screen is large enough for multiple apps running side-by-side, and the keyboard and trackpad are simply delightful. But will this be the workstation for you? Read on for my thoughts on design, performance and more.

Amazon Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16-Inch Buy From Amazon CPU: Intel Core i9-13905H | RAM: 32GB DDR5X | Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 | Storage: 1TB SSD | Display: 16-inches | Resolution: 3,200 x 2,000 | Refresh rate: 165Hz | Battery: Up to 4 hours | Weight: 4. 92 pounds Best For: Creators who want the flexibility of taking their work on the go Laptop lovers who need a lot of I/O Those that want hassle-free extra security features Skip if: You value battery life You want to be super portable MORE FROM FORBES VETTED The Best Labor Day Furniture Sales That Are Already Live By Jordan Thomas Forbes Staff 14 Of The Best Wallets For Men, According To Experts And Our Editors By Kari Molvar Forbes Staff Lenovo Slim Pro 9i Design Slim Hardware, Pro Power The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i earns its name in the slim department and the pro department being packed full of power, including a discreet GPU while remaining slim at less than an inch thick. Make no mistake—this is no MacBook Air due to its weight, but it packs a lot of power in a profile that can easily slip into a backpack.

Of course, that backpack will be almost five pounds heavier once it’s tucked in. In addition to the spacious 16-inch mini LED display, you also get a full-sized keyboard with number pad and a palatial trackpad. The pitch of the keys is really awesome as is the travel distance, which is lovely 1.

5 mm. If you’re a fan of the chiclet-style keyboard, you’ll feel right at home here. The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i features a chassis that’s less than an inch thick, making it great to slip .

. . [+] into a backpack.

ADAM DOUD FOR FORBES The only part of the keyboard that I don’t like is the arrow keys, with the up and down arrow compressed into one key space. However, given the amount of space this keyboard takes up, I can’t fault that. Also, I’m generally not a fan of laptops that include a number pad, but this one doesn’t bother me as much.

I still occasionally find myself tapping on the number lock button instead of backspace, but that is easily something you can get used to long-term. The trackpad is huge and stands out as simultaneously a great and bad choice. It’s good because a single swipe top to bottom or left to right will allow you to cover the entire screen.

However, it’s also a bit of a double-edged sword, because so much of the trackpad is designed for a right click, that it can be hard to train your brain to move your hand far enough over to use it for left clicking. All told these are two minor details. It’s likely that consumers will celebrate the large trackpad, so while I don’t personally like it, I still think Lenovo made the right decision here.

The laptop also passes the one-handed opening test, which is always a plus. Around the sides of the laptop, you get a lot of I/O including: Lenovo’s proprietary power connector, two USB-A ports (3. 2 Gen 1), an HDMI port, USB-C Thunderbolt port, a headphone jack, a full-size MicroSD card reader and a physical switch that disables the camera.

The USB-C port can also accept a charge, if you’d rather not carry around the brick-on-a-string charger that comes with the laptop (and no one will blame you) but that obviously eliminates your one and only USB-C port, so it’s less than ideal. The laptop comes with 1 TB SSD storage along with 32 GB of RAM. You won’t be able to upgrade much, if any, of the features built into this portable powerhouse, as precision screws are required for disassembly.

While not a deal breaker for most, you’ll want to take note if you enjoy tinkering underneath your laptop’s hood. Lenovo Slim Pro 9i Display, Performance and Speakers Everything A Creator Will Love The Slim Pro 9i’s display is certainly the star of the show. The 16-inch 3.

2K mini LED display with a 16:10 aspect ratio is enormous for multitasking and has a refresh rate of up to 165 Hz which felt great for heavy gaming. I played some Microsoft Flight Simulator on the computer and saw very few stutters or lag. Most of the time, I cranked the refresh rate down to 60 Hz in an effort to save battery life.

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i’s display doubles as a touchscreen, making it ideal for students and . . .

[+] creators. ADAM DOUD FOR FORBES The screen doubles as a touchscreen, too. While not strictly necessary on a laptop that doesn’t have a detachable screen nor a tent mode, it still grew to be a useful feature for my work.

The display is very responsive and sometimes it’s simply easier than using the trackpad for moving windows around or interacting with UI elements in web apps like Trello. Under the hood, six Dolby Atmos speakers can handle a wide range of frequencies and sound clear. Music like Lindsey Stirling’s “Roundtable Rival” loses out on the super deep dubstep bass, but you still get very comfortable booms from a movie like Top Gun: Maverick .

Overall, from a content consumption standpoint, the Slim Pro 9i will serve movie-watchers quite well. It’s not surprising, considering the laptop supports a GeForce RTX 4050 GPU for gaming, streaming and more. That’s a lot of power and performance in a portable package.

Finding a single screen that I can effectively do my job and enjoy these hefty gaming and streaming lifts on is something of a rarity, and this size and aspect ratio is just about perfect for it. But it comes at a cost of poor battery life. Lenovo Slim Pro 9i Battery There Always Has To Be A “But” The one area where this laptop falls short is in the battery life department—thus that compromise I mentioned earlier.

Simply put, I usually got around four to five hours of battery life on a single charge. That was with the screen running at 50% brightness, connected to Wi-Fi and running usually around a dozen tabs in Edge, along with Slack, Discord and Telegram. I didn’t use the laptop to stream music while I worked, but I watched the occasional YouTube video.

All told, I would get to lunch before seeking a power outlet; after lunch, I could just barely make it to the end of a 10-hour shift before the laptop petered out. A Lenovo Slim Pro 9i sits on a table. ADAM DOUD FOR FORBES Performance settings didn’t make much of an impact on overall battery life, so if you want to live away from an outlet, you’re going to get around five hours max.

Lenovo’s charger supports Rapid Charge Pro, a feature that can power up the battery to about 50% in around 30 minutes. It’s a definite plus when the battery doesn’t last that long. I wish the charger were a little bit slimmer—the brick part of the charger is about the size of a small paperback novel, and the whole charging setup adds yet another pound or so to your backpack.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i Extras Boosted Security And Quick Launch Keys The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i’s 5-megapixel webcam is Windows-hello compatible and Lenovo enhances that with its Zero Touch login. Basically, the laptop locks itself when you walk away. When it senses your return with the webcam, it will detect your face and unlock the computer before you’ve even settled into your chair.

This is great for a number of reasons, not the least of which is battery savings and overall “wow” factor when you sit down to get some work done. I really enjoyed these extra security features if only because it gave me peace of mind that my work would be secure when I walked away—no need to lock the laptop before getting out of my chair. Working on a Lenovo Slim Pro 9i gave me great display real estate.

ADAM DOUD FOR FORBES Another great extra design choice? Lenovo includes a string of icons in the F-keys along the top of the keyboard that are good for adjusting settings or quick-launching apps. My personal favorite was the calculator. You can also lock the PC, access settings, go into airplane mode, adjust volume and have quick media controls right up at the top.

You can also use clipboard history, a useful feature if you copy and paste a lot. Lenovo Slim Pro 9i Verdict Great For Creators The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i great laptop for creators if you’re into portable power. With that great power comes great compromise and it’s apparent in the laptop’s battery life.

You can’t move far from an outlet, so if you’re looking for something that’ll get you through a full day at your favorite coffee shop, you may want to look elsewhere. Mostly, this is going to be for professionals commuting to an office who might want to get some work done on the bus or train while traveling. As long as you have a charger waiting for you at the office and at home, this can be a pretty powerful setup.

A Lenovo Slim Pro 9i sits on a table. ADAM DOUD FOR FORBES The full-size keyboard is a nice addition and a good use of the space afforded by a 16-inch laptop. If you do a lot of data entry, you’ll appreciate the number pad.

Lenovo makes really good keyboards, and this is one of the best I’ve used in a long time. So, if that’s you, this is a good laptop to pick up. Make sure you have a large enough backpack and an extra pocket for the ridiculously sized charger, and you’ll be in good shape.

How I Tested The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i I used the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i as my primary computing device performing my normal job functions of writing and editing over a period of about two weeks. I also used the laptop for content consumption including numerous streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, Hulu and more. Because of the freedom that gave me, I was able to move around while I worked, setting up in different spots around my home and around my hometown.

My Expertise I’m a Chicago-based freelance reviewer and have been writing about consumer electronics for over a decade with a particular focus on mobile phones and cellular technology including the birth of 5G. I’ve also tested most foldables on the market over the last several years. When I’m not testing the latest and greatest flagship phones, I’m hosting the Benefit of the Doud podcast/YouTube channel with my co-host Clifton M.

Thomas and editing technology news articles for SlashGear. In addition to Forbes and SlashGear, I have bylines at Android Central, Reviewed. com, Android Authority, Lifewire and more.

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