2024 Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i: Best Premium Laptop for the Price

In 2024, the Yoga Pro 9i 16-inch has been updated where it counts. It now features Intel's more power efficient Core Ultra 9 Meteor Lake processor, up to an Nvidia RTX 4070, a larger battery, and a second USB-C port. Unfortunately, the 14-inch model didn't receive the same love, at least according to our Lenovo representative. It's a pity, as it would have benefited from the switch to Intel's more efficient components.

This article dives into all the major changes for the 16-inch Yoga Pro 9i, and how it stacks up against its top competitors: the 2024 Asus Zephyrus G16, 2024 HP Spectre 16, and the MacBook Pro 16 with the M3 chip.

New Name: Yoga Pro 9i

With the upgrades came a simpler name. The previous generation was called the Slim Pro 9i in the United States and the Yoga Pro 9i everywhere else. In the United States, Yoga was Lenovo's brand for its 2-in-1 convertible laptops. In the rest of the world, it referred to their entire consumer range. Thankfully, Lenovo decided to simplify by removing the "Slim" moniker. It's now universally called the Yoga worldwide.

CPU Peformance

The most noteworthy upgrade this year is Intel's new Core Ultra 9 processor. It replaces the Intel 13th-gen i9 H series processor from last year. The performance is, for the most part, similar, which means it's still a speedy machine. Although it's a tad slower in Geekbench, which tests a mix of computing tasks, it fared a bit better in Cinebench multi-core, which tests the processor at full throttle.

Efficiency is where this new processor truly shines. Drawing 55W under load, this year's Core Ultra processor uses 30W less than last year's model while maintaining similar performance. This phenomenal improvement further lowers the noise for an already quiet laptop. In light use, the laptop is dead silent. The processor remained cool throughout our testing as well.

Despite its efficiency gains, we still noticed throttling in our 10-minute torture test. Given the thermal headroom of this laptop, Lenovo probably could have prevented this performance drop by allowing it to run a little hotter. Lenovo isn't alone in this; we are seeing the need for many manufacturers to tune their laptops for these new processors.

GPU Performance

Last year's Yoga Pro 9i maxed out at an RTX 4060 in the United States. The 2024 update now bumps it up to the RTX 4070. This new option brings a health gain in graphics prowess. The Yoga Pro 9i ties with ASUS' new Zephyrus G16 in Timespy and gets very close to Lenovo's gaming-oriented Legion Slim 7i, which sports the same GPU.

In addtion, both the Zephyrus G16 and Legion Slim 7i were much louder and hotter to the touch while gaming than the Yoga Pro 9i.

Power Draw

An interesting observation came up during testing. We recently tested several smaller laptops with Intel's Core Ultra processor, including the HP Spectre 14, Asus Zenbook 14, and Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon. The power efficiency improvement for those laptops were more modest despite also upgrading from Intel's 13th-gen processors to the Core Ultras. In contrast, we see a substantial improvement for higher-performing laptops like the Yoga Pro 9i.

Here is a scatter plot showing how Intel's older 13th gen processor performs as you increase the power input. This data was compiled from a variety of laptops running in different performance modes. The plot indicates a curve that suggests diminishing marginal returns as power input increases.

Now, take a look at Intel's new Core Ultra. It shows more of a straight line. This means that if you fed Intel's older processor 55W of power, you'd get a Cinebench 2024 score of a little under 800 points. Conversely, with the new Core Ultras, you'd see closer to 1,000 points for the same power draw.

Battery Life

This year's model uses a larger 84Wh battery, an upgrade from the last year's 75Wh battery. This, combined with the more efficient processor, means that battery life is much longer overall. However, the laptop's performance on battery power does drop a bit.

To test battery life, we ran Cinebench on a loop for 30 minutes in high-performance mode while on battery. We got 57% remaining, which is much better than last year. When we switched to a more realistic battery test, watching a Netflix movie on repeat over Wi-Fi for 4 hours, we got 55% remaining. It's not class-leading, but it's better than last year's model and the Legion Slim 7i with its 100Wh battery.

Upgradeability

Rounding out the improvements, this year's model can now be configured with up to 64GB of fast LPDDR5X memory. Previously, it maxed out at 32GB. This is important, as this laptop's memory is soldered and can't be upgraded after purchase.

Ports

Great news: the laptop now has a second USB-C port on its left side. This combo port supports 10-gigabit USB transfer speeds, DisplayPort 1.4, and charging. One thing to note is that while it retains the USB-A port from the prior generation, it has been moved to the right side. The addition of the USB-C port is a valuable upgrade. It gives users the freedom to still connect a USB-C peripheral when the charging port is occupied.

Additionally, the dedicated HDMI port has been upgraded from the 2.0 to the 2.1 standard, but the SD card reader still seems slow, which is unfortunate for a laptop in this price range.

Drawbacks

The Yoga Pro 9i includes a few great improvements this year, but it falls a bit short in build quality compared to its current-gen competitors. Many manufacturers have launched completely redesigned versions of their premium 16-inch laptops this year. HP has redesigned the Spectre 16, and Asus has redesigned the Zephyrus G16.

Although the Yoga Pro 9i's build quality would have been considered premium last year, it isn't the case today. The chassis of its competing laptops feels noticeably higher quality.

Conclusion

When it comes to premium 16-inch laptops, the Yoga Pro 9i may not be the prettiest nor the lightest, but it has what counts: usability. It's substantially quieter than the new Asus Zephyrus G16 in every scenario, yet it's just as powerful for graphics and more powerful for CPU tasks. It also doesn't get uncomfortably warm to the touch like the HP Spectre 16. Plus, it has a much brighter and nicer display than both those laptops.

Compared to the MacBook Pro 16 with M3, the Yoga Pro 9i is an incredible deal. You get 90% of the MacBook Pro 16 for a fraction of the price. Every aspect of this device is between good and very good. If you're looking for the best Windows laptop right now for programming or video editing that you can also do some solid gaming on in your downtime, the Yoga Pro 9i is THE laptop you should buy.