Although it’s getting a bit repetitive, it’s actually worth starting a review of Lenovo’s Yoga Book 9i by criticizing the fact that very, very little has happened to the laptop form factor since… well, ever. Keyboard at the bottom, screen at the top, hinge in the middle. Granted, we’re seeing this framework challenged by the foldable display technology, but it’s really not often that we see manufacturers really play with this UI paradigm.
But the Book 9i does, so it might be worth spending the start of this review explaining exactly what this… well, is. Okay, when you open the Book 9i, there’s no keyboard attached to the bottom half of the machine. Instead, there are two 13.3″ 2880×1800 OLED panels, both of which support touch. In the box you get a small package consisting of a folding stand and a Bluetooth keyboard that can either rest on the lower part of the bottom screen, which otherwise, widgets on the upper part activate, a bit like Asus’s ZenBook Pro Duo machines, and if you move the keyboard up, the lower part becomes a simulated trackpad. If you want to avoid using the Bluetooth keyboard altogether, you can enable a haptic touch keyboard by touching the bottom screen with all eight fingers, which can easily work for a single email or two.
Remember the stand I mentioned earlier? It can be folded so that the whole machine can be placed with the hinge in between vertically, or where the screens are “on top of each other” with a horizontal hinge. Then you can use the keyboard on the table to create something similar to a desktop layout.
Doesn’t that sound crazy? How versatile is that? With the keyboard resting on the bottom of the screen, you get a slightly unwieldy but still efficient 13.3-inch laptop that weighs just 1.3 kg, and if you have space on the desk, you get a full 26″ of space, which is more than an iMac. You also get the stand, keyboard, mouse and pen included with all versions of the Yoga Book 9i, and it all folds up to take up no more space than a 14″ MacBook Pro with a slim mouse – we live in a crazy time.
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Innovative, yes, undoubtedly, but does it work in the real world, and can you trust the machine to perform real work tasks? Suprisingly enough? Yes absolutely. Admittedly, it’s more assembly work to set up the laptop on the folded stand, and admittedly the haptic keyboard isn’t comfortable to type on for extended periods of time, but just think of how much more space you get in a relatively portable package. You can easily carry the Yoga Book 9i in a simple shoulder bag – when else would you be able to carry a 26-inch screen in a shoulder bag?
However, there are internal compromises. You only get an Intel Core i7-1355U here, along with 16GB of DDR5 RAM and 512GB of storage, 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 charge, which is pretty wild when it’s comprised of two fairly large OLED screens.
The hardware is inspired, to say the least, so it’s a particular shame that Lenovo can’t fix the bugs Microsoft hasn’t fixed in Windows 11 yet, like technical glitches, sudden screen orientation rotation, and much, much more. There’s also a disturbing amount of bloatware here, such as the most aggressive McAfee adware I’ve ever seen.
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But even with this in mind, it is very easy to recommend the Yoga Book 9i, even at the current price of just under NOK 2,300. No, it is probably not ideal for small, quick tasks. But if you really need a portable, efficient workstation, there’s no better solution than this one.
2024-01-08 09:18:23
#Lenovo #Yoga #Book
