Yoga Pro 9i 14 in Review: Lenovo’s best Multimedia Laptop with AdobeRGB Mini-LED Panel

After the excellent subnotebook Yoga Pro 7i 14 , Lenovo now ships its flagship multimedia device, the Yoga Pro 9i 14. It offers almost every feature you can think of. In addition to a modern Raptor Lake processor as well as the new GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop, you also get a 14.

5-inch Mini-LED display with 3200 x 1920 pixels and 165 Hz. It is supposed to reach brightness levels up to 1200 nits and could be a serious contender for Apple’s Mini-LED panel in the MacBook Pro 14 . Our review unit has the designation Yoga Pro 9 14-IRP G8 (83BU000RGE) and retails for 2300 Euros.

In addition to the previously mentioned components, it also offers 32 GB LPDDR5X-6400 RAM and a 1 TB PCIe-4. 0 SSD. Customers with access to Lenovo’s Campus program can get this model for around 2070 Euros.

The case of the Yoga Pro 9i 14 is almost exclusively made of aluminum and there are hardly any visual differences compared to the previously reviewed Yoga Pro 7i 14 , only the bottom panel and the screws differ slightly. The camera bump is also highlighted with a reflective surface on the lid, but this area also protrudes slightly, which was not the case on the Yoga Pro 7. The device is very restrained in the color Strom Grey and it feels right at home in professional environments.

Fingerprints are not a big issue, either. The stability of the base unit is excellent and the lid is even sturdier compared to the Yoga Pro 7 since it is slightly thicker. We cannot bend the device and there are no creaking noises.

You can just lift the lid with one hand since the hinges are very firm, which means they can prevent bouncing very effectively. There are no problems with the build quality, only the bottom panel is pretty thin (which is only noticeable when you remove it). At almost 1.

7 kg, the Yoga Pro 9i is a bit heavier and also 2 mm thicker than the Yoga Pro 7i 14. You notice the weight when you carry the device around, but at the same time it creates a dense and high-quality feeling. The footprint of the comparison devices is very similar overall, only the MSI Stealth 14 Studio requires a bit more space on the desk.

The 140W power adapter tips the scale at around 450 grams. The port selection is very good and Lenovo also equips its premium laptop with a full-size card reader. Compared to the Yoga Pro 7i 14 you also get an additional USB-A port, but only one Thunderbolt 4 port.

All ports are located at the rear of the sides and are easy to access. You usually do not need any adapters, either. The card reader on the left side accommodates full-size SD-cards, but the stick out of the case by around 2 cm.

We determine transfer rates of around 80 MB/s with our reference card (Angelbird AV Pro V60), which means the Yoga Pro 9i 14 is only at the bottom of our comparison charts. Wireless network connections are handled by Intel’s AX211 module, which also supports the latest Wi-Fi 6E standard with 6 GHz networks. The transfer rates in combination with our reference router from Asus were good, but they could be even better.

However, there are no limitations in practice and large data transfers worked well. The slightly thicker camera bump accommodates a 5 MP webcam, which offers decent image quality both for pictures as well as videos and you do not need an external webcam for conferences or the like. There is also an additional IR sensor for facial recognition via Windows Hello.

Lenovo included an electronic shutter, which can be activated with a little slider on the ride side of the chassis. The bottom panel is secured by five Torx screws (T5) and can easily be removed. Once inside you get access to the two fans, the battery, the Wi-Fi module, as well as the M.

2-2280 SSD. The memory on the other hand is soldered (32 GB LPDDR5X-6400 in case of our review unit), so you cannot upgrade it. Lenovo once again uses the very comfortable keyboard with 1.

5 mm travel for the Yoga Pro 9i. It is a very keyboard with quiet as well as precise key strokes, which does not have to hide behind high-quality business laptops. There is two-stage white illumination, which can be activated via brightness sensor.

The large clickpad (13. 5 x 8 cm) offers ample space for cursor movements and gestures with up to four fingers, which works well and reliably thanks to good gliding capabilities. You can physically push down the lower half of the pad, but this results in a very loud clicking sound, which leaves a cheap impression.

We recommend you use tap-to-click instead. One of the biggest highlights of the Yoga Pro 9i 14 is definitely the 16:10 Mini-LED panel with a high resolution of 3072 x 1920 pixels. This results in extremely sharp images, but we are not sure this resolution is really necessary for a 14.

5-inch screen or whether a slightly lower resolution would have been sufficient as well. The subjective picture impression of the glossy touch panel is excellent and the higher frequency of 165 Hz results in very smooth movements. You can also get the Yoga Pro 9i with the 3K IPS screen (120 Hz) we have already reviewed on the Yoga Pro 7i 14 .

Now it gets interesting, because this Mini-LED panel behaves differently compared to any other Mini-LED screen we have tested so far. In simple terms, you can say that the Mini-LED control is deactivated in SDR mode and you have a regular LED panel in front of you (similar to an IPS screen, for example), which means there is no blooming. This has a big advantage for us since we can easily determine the response times (which are good), which is usually an issue due to the Mini-LED backlight and we had no issues with the calibration, either.

However, this also means that there are no true blacks in SDR mode, but rather a very dark grey with some minor backlight bleeding. The picture is pitch-black when you activate the HDR mode, but then you can notice some blooming. We took the two following images with a completely black image (we only left the cursor visible and the keyboard lighting activated on the HDR image for reference) and you can see the difference very easily.

The brightness is excellent at up to 720 nits (680 nits on average) in SDR mode. The black value is higher due to the previously mentioned behavior, but it is still very low at 0. 19 considering the high brightness and still results in an excellent contrast ratio of more than 3500:1.

The black value drops to almost 0 in HDR mode, so the contrast ratio is also much higher. The brightness in HDR mode is once again surprising. While the MacBook Pro 14 only reaches its maximum brightness of 1600 nits with small APLs and drops to around 1100 nits when almost the whole picture is white, the Yoga Pro 9i reaches its maximum brightness of almost 1400 nits on a completely white image.

Current OLED screens like on the Acer Swift X 14 or Gigabyte Aero 14 only manage ~550 nits peak brightness and do not stand a chance against the Yoga’s Mini-LED screen. We analyzed the panel with the professional CalMAN software (X-Rite i1 Pro2) and Lenovo offers different color profiles for sRGB, P3 and AdobeRGB in the Vantage App (Device – Enhanced Settings). According to Lenovo, the panel is supposed to cover the full AdobeRGB color space, which is quite rare nowadays.

We also selected the target color space AdobeRGB for our measurements but the out of the box performance is a bit disappointing. In addition to a visible color cast towards orange, we also notice that the color temperature is too warm and some colors miss the target DeltaE-2000 deviation of 3. Our own calibration (profile can be downloaded for free in the display box above) improves the performance noticeably and both the color cast as well as the color deviations are gone.

There are no outliers anymore, which means you can edit pictures and videos in the AdobeRGB space. However, our measurements show that the P3 reference is only covered by 92 %. PWM flickering is a big topic on Mini-LED panels, but the behavior here is once again interesting.

Mini-LED backlights usually flicker at high frequencies, which is usually no problem. In the case of the Yoga Pro 9i 14, however, the flickering only starts when the brightness drops to 70 % or lower (even in HDR mode), which is equivalent to a brightness of 330 nits. There is no flickering above this level and the flickering also varies between 3.

8 kHz and 17 kHz. We measured around 6 kHz for most brightness levels, which should ne result in problems for the majority of users. The touchscreen is very reflective, which is already noticeable indoors.

You should definitely try to avoid reflections from Windows or light sources. However, the high brightness certainly helps to see the contents most of the time, even in bright conditions. The viewing angle stability is very good.

Our review unit is an average SKU in terms of performance. Lenovo offers an upgrade to the Core i9-13905H as well as the tow dGPUs GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop or even GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop (also with 80W TGP). Customers can choose between 16, 32, or 64 GB LPDDR5X-6400 memory.

Lenovo offers the usual energy modes, which can either be changed in the preloaded Vantage App or very comfortable via key combination Fn+Q. The modes have big impacts on the performance and we listed all the TDP/TGP values in the table below: We used the High Performance mode for our benchmarks and measurements to get the highest performance. We will also check the other profiles in the sections gaming performance and fan noise.

We can already say that the Power Saver mode is not suitable for gaming, but the performance is sufficient for light everyday workloads and you will benefit from a silent device in most scenarios. Lenovo does not use the popular Core i7-13700H, but the Core i7-13705H instead. The specs of the two Raptor Lake chips are almost identical with 6 performance and 8 efficiency cores as well as a maximum core clock of 5.

0 GHz, but the i7-13705H does not support vPro (which is negligible for a multimedia laptop). The CPU can consume up to 104 Watts and then levels off at 75 Watts under sustained workloads, which means the Pro 9i has more headroom compared to the Yoga Pro 7i 14 with the Core i7-13700H (80/53W). The CPU performance is very good in general and only the Asus ZenBook Pro 14 with the Core i9-13900H has a slight advantage in the first few minutes thanks to a higher power limit of 120 Watts.

The single-core performance is also very good. The multi-core performance is reduced in the other two power modes; ~55 % in Power Saver and ~15 % in the Intelligent Cooling mode. The processor can consume up to 65 Watts on battery power and eventually drops to 40 Watts, which results in a performance deficit of ~30 % in multi-core scenarios.

Please see our tech section for additional CPU benchmarks. The system performance is excellent and the Yoga Pro 9 can secure a place at the front of the comparison charts in the synthetic benchmarks. The subjective performance impression is also very good and inputs are executed without delays.

Due to the Advanced Optimus graphics switching there will be stutters of 1-2 seconds when you launch a game, for example. If you do not like this behavior, you can also use the traditional Optimus switching, even though this will slightly impact the performance. Our standardized latency test (web browsing, 4K YouTube playback, CPU load) only shows minor issues for the review unit with the current BIOS version.

One driver creates some issues, but the important interrupt to process value is the lowest among the comparison devices. The Yoga Pro 9i 14 offers one fast PCIe-4. 0 slot for M.

2-2280 SSDs, which is filled with the Samsung PM9A1 (OEM version of the 980 Pro) in the case of our unit. It is the 1 TB version and you can use 870 GB for your own files and apps after the initial set-up. The PM9A1 is one of the fastest drives on the market with transfer rates of up to 7 GB/s.

The drive almost passed our stress test, but has to drop the performance right before the test is completed. Overall, still a good performance without any limitation in practice. More SSD benchmarks are listed here .

Simple tasks are handled by the integrated Iris Xe Graphics G7 from the processor and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop automatically kicks in when you need more power (like gaming). Lenovo even implements the Advanced Optimus technology, which means the integrated GPU can be disabled without restarting the whole system, which has a positive effect on the gaming performance and latency. This means the Yoga Pro 9i has an advantage over rivals like the MSI Stealth 14 Studio , where we missed this feature.

It is also a fast version of the RTX 4050 laptop with a TGP of 80 Watts and the Yoga Pro 9i is even ahead of the MSI (90W RTX 4050 Laptop) in some benchmarks. The advantage over the Yoga Pro 7i 14 with the 55W version of the 4050 is 25-30 %. It is even possible to overclock the GPU via Lenovo’s Vantage App.

We managed to increase the core clock by 160 MHz and the memory clock by 300 MHz, which increased the Time Spy Graphics score by 4 %. If you use the other two energy modes, the GPU performance will drop by 14 % (Intelligent Cooling) and 75 % (Power Saver), respectively. The GPU performance is stable under sustained workloads and the Time Spy stress test was easily passed by the Yoga Pro 9i with 99 %.

Once you detach the power adapter, the GPU consumption only drops slightly to 70 Watts, so the performance only drops slightly (~10 %). More GPU benchmarks are available here . The gaming performance of the Yoga Pro 9i 14 is also very good and it is only beaten by the ZenBook Pro 14 with the faster RTX 4070 Laptop in our default gaming benchmarks.

The native panel resolution is usually too demanding and even the QHD resolution can be challenging when you play modern titles like Cyberpunk 2077 or Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. You can improve the situation with upsampling technologies, which can also enable Ray Tracing. We managed a smooth frame rate of 50 in Cyberpunk 2077 with the RayTracing Ultra preset in 1080p thanks to DLSS and Frame Generation.

The gaming performance does not drop even during longer sessions. We also took a look at the effects of the other two energy modes while gaming. You can ignore the Power Saver mode since the GPU power is so low and you do not get playable results.

The comparison between the other two modes High Performance and Intelligent Cooling is more interesting since both of them are usable for modern games. You do have more headroom with the High Performance mode and the fans are still clearly audible in both modes, so many users will switch to a headset anyway, so you can just the High Performance mode. Both fans are usually turned off during everyday tasks and we also recommend the Power Saver mode when you do not need the full performance, so even peak load situations can be handled without fan activity.

When you use the other two modes, it gets loud rather quickly when you stress the CPU and/or GPU. The fan noise is clearly audible during gaming and the Yoga Pro 9i is one of the loudest devices in our comparison group when you use the High Performance mode, so we recommend headphones. However, there are at least no annoying frequencies and the fan speed is steady.

Our review unit did not have problems with any unwanted electronic noises. There are no temperature issues during daily tasks, but the Yoga Pro 9i 14 is one of the warmer devices in general and some spots are already close to 30 °C while idling. We can even measure up to 55 °C at the bottom during gaming and high workloads, so you should avoid skin contact.

The keyboard area stays much cooler at up to 40 °C, so it is not problem to type. Gamers will also be happy about the low temperatures of the WASD keys (33-35 °C). The system favors the graphics card during our stress test and it maintains 65 Watts.

The processor on the other hand has to settle at 35 Watts after a couple of minutes. We did not determine any performance deficits immediately after our stress test. The sound system consists of two woofers (2W each) and two tweeters (2W each).

The overall sound quality is very good and very close the best device in this class, the Apple MacBook Pro 14 . We measure very high maximum volume and the sound appears rich and powerful. You cannot enjoy the sound while gaming due to the fan noise, but the Yoga Pro 9i 14 is great for movies/videos and some music.

Our consumption measurements immediately show that the brightness of the Mini-LED panel has a major impact. It is very bright at ~700 nits even in SDR mode, which (combined with the high resolution) results in a maximum consumption of almost 20 Watts, even while idling. With the maximum brightness in HDR mode we even measured up to 40 Watts without any stress for the CPU or GPU.

The 140W power adapter is also close to its limits, but is just sufficient. We measure up to 150 Watts at the beginning of the stress test, which levels off at around 140 Watts. Considering the power consumption we just talked about, it is not surprising that the 75 Wh battery does not provide very long runtimes when you utilize the full panel brightness.

If you also activate the 165 Hz mode, our Wi-Fi test only runs for 3 hours. You should definitely reduce the refresh rate to 60 Hz on battery, so the Wi-Fi test at full brightness will run for almost 5 hours. The results gets more competitive when you reduce the brightness, and the Wi-Fi test runs for 8 hours at 150 nits (47 % of the maximum brightness) or 7.

5 hours at 165 Hz, respectively. Our standard video test at 150 nits runs for almost 9 hours, which are dent results considering the high resolution. A 4K HDR video ran for around 3.

5 hours in our test. The battery is fully recharged after 100 minutes when the device is turned on. The charging curve is flat and 80 % of the capacity is recharged after little more than an hour.

The Yoga Pro 9i 14 is Lenovo’s multimedia flagship device and offers more than the already excellent Yoga Pro 7i 14 in pretty much every regard. The chassis design is very similar, but it is a bit thicker and heavier, which means both the CPU and GPU (which are basically identical) have more headroom. Lenovo also included a card reader as well as a superior 5 MP webcam.

It is not a pure gaming laptop, but you still get Nvidia’s Advanced Optimus technology (which we missed on the MSI Stealth 14 Studio , for example) and you can even overclock the GPU. The Mini-LED panel surprised us because the way it works differs quite a bit from other Mini-LED panels. The Mini-LED backlight control is turned off in SDR mode, so the panel behaves like a regular LED panel, so the whole screen is illuminated.

This means the black value is affected, but there is no blooming. We also benefit from this solution since we can easily determine the response times of the panel. The brightness is already excellent in SDR mode at 700 nits and climbs to almost 1400 nits in full-screen HDR mode – this means the Yoga has an advantage over the Mini-LED panel of the Apple MacBook Pro 14 in both scenarios (SDR: 500 nits, full-screen HDR: ~1100 nits), but the HDR implementation of Apple operating system is superior without the annoying manual switch.

OLED rivals like the Acer Swift X 14 or the Gigabyte Aero 14 cannot keep up with the brightness values. All in all, the image quality is excellent and movements are very smooth thanks to the 165 Hz refresh rate. The panel also covers the AdobeRGB gamut almost completely, which is rare nowadays.

High performance and one of the best displays you can currently get: The Yoga Pro 9i 14 with the Mini-LED screen is Lenovo’s best multimedia notebook and one of the best all-rounders in general. The bright display also has some drawbacks, mainly the effect on the battery runtime. If you combine the high brightness with the 165 Hz refresh rate, you can drain the battery in just three hours in our Wi-Fi test.

We therefore recommend you use 60 Hz and only use higher brightness levels if it is really necessary. The display calibration is also a bit disappointing for a flagship device. The cooling is more powerful compared to the Yoga Pro 7i 14, but the surface temperatures at the bottom are still very high and the fans get noisy under load.

In light workloads you can use the Power Saver mode, so the device is almost always silent in these scenarios. The Yoga Pro 7i 14 G8 is an interesting rival. There are obviously some drawbacks like the lower performance, the missing SD-card reader and the regular IPS display, but the Yoga Pro 7i is also thinner, lighter, and the matte display has no issues with reflections or flickering.

Longer battery runtimes and the lower price are additional benefits. The new Yoga Pro 9i 14 is not yet listed on Lenovo’s U. S.

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