This is the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i – the “Productivity Monster”
because if you ever felt that one laptop screen is not enough for you, well, how about TWO?
Build
So the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i is like slapping two huge tablets together but with the power of an actual computer inside.
And with any laptop, build quality is important. The Yoga Book 9i is slightly different here as not only you get a laptop, but a whole package that takes the overall experience to a whole new level.
These are the Lenovo Digital Pen 3, the Bluetooth Keyboard, and the Keyboard Folio Cover that doubles up as a multi-functional kickstand.
Also, you might consider adding the extra RM1 for the Silent Bluetooth Mouse option in the Lenovo configurator if you decide to buy it from Lenovo’s website directly.
I have to say that all of this is made with quality in mind, and the snazzy Tidal Teal color is beautiful yet different at the same time. It’s thin at 15.95mm, and the starting weight is at 1.34kg.
The laptop is made out of CNC Aerospace-grade Aluminum with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protecting the panels, so it goes without saying that this guy or girl is tough enough.
Speaking of the panels, these stunningly beautiful panels are both 13.3” OLED panels. They have quite a high QHD+ resolution screens with a 16:10 aspect ratio. So, for you productivity nerds out there, you can jump for joy!
At 400 nits of brightness, it’s more than bright enough for indoor use, and it’s also 100% DCI-P3 color accurate to get some serious color work done, especially for photo editing or just watching some crisp high-quality content on these amazing screens.
This middle hinge seen here is not just robust but is also a 360° Rotating Soundbar with Dolby Atmos support.
There are actually two Bowers and Wilkins speakers that are sneakily housed in here, which I really like. It overall produces some great sound, vocals are projected directly to you, which makes it nice and clear, and there’s still some substance to the overall sound with the two woofers underneath the second screen. Very smart indeed.
Over at the sides, there is a Thunderbolt 4 port on the left, two more Thunderbolt 4 ports on the right, the webcam kill switch, and the on/off button.
Then at the top screen with the “reverse notch” sits the 5MP FHD webcam that has infrared and a ToF sensor, which means that it is also Windows Hello compatible. You just have to appear in front of the laptop, and it unlocks automatically for you.
Specifications
So a new laptop means new hardware, and this comes with the latest 13th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-1355U processor.
A “U” processor? That might be slow, right? Well, not really because it’s plenty fast since there are two P cores that can turbo up to 5GHz, and the eight Efficiency cores inside really help with the battery life. But more on the battery life a little later.
If you’re wondering, yes, it is also Intel® Evo™ certified. This means that it was tested and validated by Intel themselves that the laptop meets the top requirements for a smooth and seamless experience for you. This also includes things like performance, reliability, build quality, and of course, the battery life.
It is also pre-installed with Windows 11 Pro, which is a major plus in my opinion. It really shows that it is made for a serious powerhouse user, like software developers too.
Other than that, it also has 16GB of blazing-fast LPDDR5X RAM running at 6,400MHz, 1TB of PCIe4 SSD, and Wi-Fi 6E. You can also get it with a 512GB SSD option with Windows Home, but in my opinion, just stick to these top specs since the difference is so small, money-wise.
Experience
It’s not often that I get to experience something which feels so new, and this does that for me. I think it is extremely underrated on so many levels when you have two screens to work with.
Now, yes, there are laptops with foldable screens now, but if you have used a foldable before, you know how fragile it is, right? And it can be not so nice to actually touch and interact with.
With this, it’s proper glass all the way, so for one, I’m less worried about scratches and nail tapping it, and for two, it is super smooth to work on and it’s just so flexible.
When I’m somewhere tight, like in a car, when I need to just send in a quick email, I would stop at the side of the road (of course, I’m not going to be driving and using the laptop) then I turn on the laptop like any other laptop.
The top half of the screen is the Windows screen as usual, and the bottom half turns into the on-screen keyboard and trackpad as well. Then the whole width at the bottom becomes a trackpad, which feels so freeing to use.
For a longer typing session, say on a plane, I just take out the Bluetooth Keyboard, and it magnetically attaches to the screen. Put it in the top half, and I still have the bottom half as my trackpad. Or if I put it in the bottom half, I still have the extra screen real estate where I can have extra widgets or some extra information handy when needed.
Then for more intense sessions where I need more screen real estate, like sitting in a cafe, I would just take out the folio case, fold it up and place the laptop, attach the keyboard at the bottom, and that’s it. So, yeah, it’s an overall slim package turned into a full-fledged workstation or scroll mode.
But wait, isn’t that too tall then? Well, no, because it’s actually pretty much eye level, just like how you should be placing your desktop monitor screen anyway. So when I’m taking a call, I can still have the screen down to refer to my notes, take notes, or even maybe put in a Netflix series while that happens without anyone knowing.
If you’re a graphic designer, the pen is a useful tool. It is tucked away nicely, behind the stand when it’s not in use, and if you want to use it, just pull it out and draw away.
So imagine this, you can actually refer to a drawing video tutorial on the top screen and draw away on the bottom. In my case, I would just use a video editing software like DaVinci Resolve to use the bottom as my timeline and the top for video playback, which overall is super damn useful.
I know that’s a lot to take in, but I’m going to give you more because there are 3 more modes that you can use.
The first is the Folding Tent mode. So if you are an insurance agent who just wants to present and show the screen to your potential client or just wants to show a presentation to your boss or your teammate, no need to bang heads together to show the screen.
Then the last two modes are if you just fold it in half, you can use it like a Tablet. Now that’s a bit normal, but yeah, you can do that.
Or you can open it up and use it like a Digital Book. Now, I haven’t been reading much as of late since I’m all over the place, so this actually encourages me to read more.
This is just the tip of the Titanic-sized iceberg on all of the features. So, I’m planning to do another dedicated tips and tricks video to use this laptop to its fullest, so stay tuned!
Battery
Finally, it’s time to address the elephant in the room, or two elephants for this case, which is the battery life. Now, the battery itself is an 80Wh unit, and you get a tiny 65W charging brick along with it. Remember, it is still a laptop because what’s the point of having a laptop that you can only charge for a couple of hours, right?
As for this laptop, I’m happy to report that the battery life on this is superb. Remember that we are looking at not one but two OLED screens. Lenovo rates for you to get up to 14 hours on a single screen or 10 hours on a dual screen. There’s also rapid charge that gets 2 hours of usage with just 15 minutes of charge.
For my workload that requires a lot of web browsing, scripting, research, emailing, video calling, consuming content, and video editing, I can get away with a full workday’s worth without plugging in for a charge.
Here’s where I think that Lenovo really picked the right processor in this to really stretch the battery life as much as possible without really sacrificing the general performance.
This is of course very subjective to every individual workload, but I have to say that it is still very impressive. Also, the charger is very small, as mentioned earlier, so it’s not a hassle to bring along.
Conclusion
So, that’s the overall rundown on this awesome piece of hardware, the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i. I feel that it is about time that other companies also jump into this dual-screen bandwagon, especially when they see how useful it is even with normal consumers nowadays.
It starts at RM8,849, and if you want to learn more or grab yourself one, just head to the link below.
https://www.lenovo.com/my/en/c/laptops/yoga/yoga-2-in-1-series/