Lenovo Yoga 9 2-in-1: An Almost Perfect Hybrid Laptop

Earlier this year, when Lenovo was asked to provide a good ultralight laptop for a test, they chose the unusually heavy Yoga Slim 7 G9, which weighs a hefty 1.41 kg. Quite bulky for such a test, but well, if they don’t have anything lighter, they don’t. I criticized the weight and moved on.

Now, I asked Lenovo for a good flippable 360-degree laptop with a touchscreen, without weight constraints, and they sent this, the Yoga 9 2-in-1, which is actually lighter. Still a bit over the ultralight limit at 1.3 kg, but much closer at 1.32 kg. Why didn’t I get to test this among the ultralights? There would have been less to complain about.

The Yoga 9 2-in-1 comes in a 14-inch format, and considering its solid metal chassis, touchscreen layer with glass surface, and relatively large battery, it’s impressive that the weight is kept so low. With rounded edges that shine deep blue and a combination of glossy and matte metal surfaces, it’s not only comfortable to carry around but also really stylish.

The screen lid opens easily with one hand thanks to a tab at the top that sticks out a few millimeters and houses the webcam. Despite this, the hinge for the screen is very sturdy, with no hint of wobble or misalignment.

Several Bonus Buttons

The keyboard and trackpad are framed by matte aluminum surfaces, and the mouse and keyboard are well-built and comfortable. On the right side of the keyboard, Lenovo has placed a row of special buttons: three for switching between different modes for the fan, screen, and usage scenarios, a quick button that opens any program, and a “button” that is a fingerprint reader. It’s nice that they’re there, but a bit annoying that they’re placed right there. I often hit them instead of return and backspace.

They could have been keyboard combinations with the Fn button instead. Some similar functions are like that. The keyboard also has a Copilot button for Microsoft’s AI assistant. This feature isn’t activated in computers in Sweden yet. For now, it goes to an alternative search menu where the only Copilot connection is a click-through to the Edge browser.

On the sides are three USB-C ports and one USB-A. The rounded edges of the laptop make them not entirely practical to plug in. However, their capacity cannot be complained about; two of the type-C ports are Thunderbolt 4 with support for both display, charging, and fast data.

Good Performance with Ultra Processor and Arc

It’s not just fast ports. With an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H under the hood, performance is really good for web and office work, as well as media creation and editing. 32 GB DDR5 memory and 1 TB fast SSD contribute to this. Intel Arc graphics even make it suitable (though not great) for gaming, as long as you set the screen resolution to 1080p and avoid ray tracing, many games run acceptably.

However, the fans run at full speed, not extremely loud, but noticeable enough to be distracting. And the battery drains quickly. You can’t run the laptop at full throttle without the power cable, but even without it, you can deplete the battery in under an hour if you really want to. During more normal high-performance usage, it lasts an hour and a half.

With the screen at barely readable brightness and only simple word processing, the battery lasts 15 hours. This means that with a bit more mixed use, some streaming, a video meeting, and typical Office work and browsing throughout a day, you can’t entirely rely on the battery to last until the end of the workday. So, you should carry the adapter with you.

Colorful OLED

The screen is a high-resolution and sharp OLED screen with features reminiscent of true media professional laptops, such as DCI-P3 color gamut and 10-bit color handling. And an OLED always provides excellent contrast and good light control. However, good color management tools are lacking; I can’t find a way to, for example, set the screen to sRGB mode or try to match Adobe RGB, and how color-accurate it is now is hard to say. It seems to lean slightly towards cooler tones as standard. You can adjust this, though, more for eye-friendly tones than accuracy.

The laptop has powerful speakers, with at least some of the elements built into the screen hinge, in a way that allows them to always be directed towards you whether you have the laptop in laptop or tablet mode. It’s detailed, high-quality sound that can easily fill a small room with music or speech.

You get a small active Stylus pen that appears to be paired directly. It’s not the most comfortable, with a flat design that makes it impractical to grip, but the precision in the pen, with tilt and pressure sensitivity, is quite good. However, the response time is slightly long, which makes the reaction when drawing on the screen a bit delayed.

Lenovo doesn’t offer any proprietary extra programs for using the pen; it’s just Windows 11’s standard apps. But you do get a good control program where you can change the function of the two buttons on the side and adjust the pressure sensitivity.

It’s almost free from third-party bloatware; the only thing I feel inclined to uninstall is a trial version of McAfee Livesafe.

Specifications

Product Name: Lenovo Yoga 9 2-in-1 14IMH9 83AC002SMX
Tested: May 2024
Manufacturer: Lenovo
Processor: Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, 2 P-cores up to 4.8 GHz + 8 E-cores up to 3.8 GHz, 2 LP-cores
Graphics: Intel Arc Graphics
Memory: 32 GB DDR5
Storage: 1 TB SSD
Display: 14-inch glossy OLED, 2880 x 1800 pixels, 120 Hz, multitouch
Webcam: 1080p with IR
Connections: 2 Thunderbolt 4, USB-C 3 Gen 2, USB-A 3 Gen 2, headset
Wireless: Wi-Fi 6e, Bluetooth 5.3
Operating System: Windows 11 Pro
Other: Backlit keyboard, flip to tablet mode, pen
Noise Level: 0-37 dBa
Battery: 75 Wh, 1 hour 20 minutes (high load, full brightness), about 14 hours (low load, low brightness)
Size: 31.6 x 22 x 1.59 cm
Weight: 1.32 kg