While it’s getting a bit repetitive, it’s actually worth starting this review of Lenovo’s Yoga Book 9i by critiquing the fact that the portable form factor has changed very little since… well, ever. The keyboard is at the bottom, the screen is at the top, and the hinge is in the middle. Of course, we’ve seen this framework run into some challenges with foldable screen technology, but it’s not often we see manufacturers actually use this UI paradigm.
But the Book 9i does, so maybe it’s worth spending the beginning of this review explaining what exactly this is…well, is. Okay, so when you open your Book 9i, there’s no keyboard attached to the bottom half of the machine. Instead, there are two 13.3-inch 2880×1800 OLED panels, both touch-enabled. In the box, you get a small package consisting of a foldable stand and a Bluetooth keyboard, which can be placed under the bottom screen and activate the top widget, a bit like Asus’s ZenBook Pro Duo machine, if you Move the keyboard up and the lower part becomes an analog trackpad. If you want to avoid using a Bluetooth keyboard entirely, by touching the bottom screen with all eight fingers you can launch a tactile touch keyboard that can easily handle an email or two.
Remember that position I mentioned earlier? It can be folded so that the entire machine can be hinged vertically, or the screens can be placed “on top of each other” via horizontal hinges. You can then use the keyboard on your desktop to create something similar to your desktop setup.
Okay, doesn’t this sound crazy? How versatile is this? With the keyboard placed on the bottom screen, this is a slightly bulky but still efficient 13.3-inch laptop that weighs just 1.3kg and gives you 26 inches of overall space, more than an iMac, if you have the desk space. need more. You also get the stand, keyboard, mouse, and pen included with all versions of the Yoga Book 9i, and they all fold up to take up a little more space than the 14″ MacBook Pro with the slim mouse — This Is Us Life Crazy times.
Innovation, yes, no doubt, but does it work in the real world and can you rely on machines to perform actual work tasks? it turns out? Yes, completely. Sure, mounting the laptop on a folding stand requires more assembly, and sure, the tactile keyboard isn’t comfortable to type on for long periods of time, but think about how much space you get in a relatively portable package. You can easily carry the Yoga Book 9i in a simple shoulder bag – when will you be able to carry 26 inches of screen space in a shoulder bag?
However, there were internal compromises. All you get here is an Intel Core i7-1355U, along with 16GB of DDR5 RAM and 512GB of space, and there are only three Thunderbolt ports. But on the other hand, the U processor means you can squeeze six to eight hours of use out of a single charge, which is pretty crazy when it’s made up of two fairly large OLED displays.
The hardware is inspired, to say the least, so it’s especially unfortunate that Lenovo can’t fix flaws that Microsoft hasn’t fixed yet in Windows 11, such as technical glitches, sudden rotation of screen orientation, and more. There’s also a lot of disturbing bloatware here, including the most aggressive McAfee adware I’ve ever seen.
But even with that in mind, it’s easy to recommend the Yoga Book 9i, even at its current price of just under £2,300. No, it may not be suitable for small, fast-paced tasks. But if you really need a portable, productive workstation, there’s no better solution.
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