Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (14) review – it’s a Yoga! No, it’s an Ideapad… actually, it’s both

Are you in the market for sleek and premium laptops? Well, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (14) might just be the device for you. To get it out of the way, this laptop also comes by the name of Ideapad Slim 9 (14) in some regions, which in our view is a more suitable name, since it doesn’t have a 360° hinge.

So, on the point of this being a premium machine, we have to tell you that this is probably the laptop in which Lenovo invested most of its innovation tokens last year. One of the newcomers is the electronic privacy shutter, which has a dedicated toggle switch on one of the sides of the laptop. Then, you get the IR face recognition system which enables Windows Hello. Lastly, and probably the biggest “innovation” of them all, there is the touchpad and the palm-rest area. Instead of a conventional one, Lenovo has decided to use a haptic motor to provide feedback when you click it.

The last time we saw this, we took a look at the 2-in-1 version of this notebook, and the software wasn’t really well thought off. On the bright side, the processors inside of the Yoga Slim 9i (14) are part of the 10nm Tiger Lake lineup from Intel. Moreover, they are Evo-enabled, which should provide more versatility and performance.

Also, let’s not forget the 14-inch UHD IPS display option, which, according to Lenovo, is VESA HDR400 and Dolby Vision certified. We are particularly interested in seeing the color gamut coverage and color accuracy of the panel, so stay tuned.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-yoga-slim-9i-14/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (14") - Spécifications

  • AUO B140ZAN01.7
  • Précision des couleurs  4.6  2.7
  • HDD/SSD
  • jusqu'à 2000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 16GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11 Home
  • Batterie
  • 63.5Wh
  • Matériau du corps
  • Aluminum
  • Dimensions
  • 318 x 200.9 x 13.9 ~ 14.6 mm (12.52" x 7.91" x 0.55")
  • Poids
  • 1.29 kg (2.8 lbs)
  • Ports et connectivité
  • 3x USB Type-C
  • Thunderbolt 4, Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • Lecteur de cartes
  • Ethernet LAN
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Prise audio
  • 3.5 Combo Jack
  • Caractéristiques
  • Lecteur d'empreintes digitales
  • optional
  • Caméra Web
  • HD
  • Clavier rétro-éclairé
  • Microphone
  • Dual Array Far-Field Microphone
  • Intervenants
  • 2x 2W, Dolby Atmos
  • Lecteur optique
  • Fente de verrouillage de sécurité

Tous Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (14″) configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

Besides the laptop, itself, there are some paper manuals, as well as a 65W USB Type-C power brick. Also, we found a protective bag that comes with it, so you can carry the laptop around without worrying about scratching the leather texture.


Design and construction

As there are more and more 14-inch ultrabooks, it is not uncommon to see very thin and light notebooks from various manufacturers – see the Acer Swift 5 Pro (SF514-55GT). However, the Yoga Slim 9i (14) not only has very low measurement figures (13.9-14.6mm profile, and 1.20 kg weight), but it also feels extremely portable in practice. Add a leather lid, glass display cover, and aluminum base and bottom panel, and you get a mashup of premium materials. This makes the structure of the laptop very rigid with a very low amount of flexing seen from the chassis and the lid when you twist them.

Speaking of the lid, you can easily open it with a single hand. This is made even more comfortable, thanks to the notch, which prevents you from poking with your nails to get a better grip. As we said, there is a leather cover on the lid, which feels nice, but is prone to scratches.

As for the bezels, they are extremely thin all around the glass-covered display. The notched part we mentioned earlier, also houses the IR sensors, the ToF sensor, and the HD web camera.

Next, we got the keyboard. It has a backlight, which means you can comfortably use it in dark conditions. However, we found the key travel to be too short, but yet, this is something to be expected from a laptop this thin. Thankfully, it has clicky feedback, and the board is surrounded by the Dolby Atmos speakers. Also, there is a bit of deck flex to be observed – most pronounced in the bottom part of the keyboard.

Then there is the palm rest-touchpad combo. We say combo because the entire thing is a single glass sheet slapped under the keyboard. You can distinguish the touchpad because it is the only one that lacks a dotted texture. This is great, because you actually know where the touch-sensing surface ends, even without looking. However, we just can’t express how big of a fingerprint magnet this is. And also, the actual usability of the touchpad is not ideal. Yes, it has very good gliding and tracking, the actual clicking mechanism is hindered, once again. For example, if you want to click something and then drag it, and after that, you need to open it – the entire process feels stuttery, each moment you actually press harder in order to “click”. Indeed, the haptic motor provides a slight vibration, so you know it has registered your input as an actual “click”, but we feel that it still needs a lot of work to be done, in order to make the experience smooth and comfortable… like that on a MacBook for example.

So, if you turn the laptop upside down, you will only see the ventilation grill. Here, the hot air is exhausted from two cut-outs in between the lid and the base.

Ports

Well, the I/O here is abundant in many essential ports, making the use of dongles or adapters mandatory. Nevertheless, there are two Thunderbolt 4 connectors on the left, as well as an audio jack. And on the right, there is the power button, a Thunderbolt 4 connector, and a camera privacy shutter toggle.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

In order to get to this laptop’s internals, you need to remove its bottom panel. It is held in place by 4 Torx head screws, and three Phillips-head ones, hidden beneath the back rubber foot. After you undo them, pry the panel with a plastic tool.

Here, we can see that most of the space inside is dominated by the 63.5Wh battery pack. By the way, before you start removing anything, unscrew the battery connector from the motherboard.

Unfortunately, there are no memory upgrades for you. Thankfully, though, the soldered RAM is capable of working in dual-channel mode, delivering higher bandwidth, thus better performance. Also, it’s good to see that there is one M.2 PCIe x4 slot for storage upgrades.

As for the cooling, it employs two heat pipes and two very thin fans. Also, you can see that the heat pipes are surrounded by some heat spreaders, which further helps with thermal management.


Display quality

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (14) has a 4K touchscreen IPS panel, AUO B140ZAN01.7 (LEN8B95). Its diagonal is 14-inch (35.5 cm), and the resolution – 3840 х 2160p. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 315 ppi, their pitch – 0.08 х 0.08 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 28 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

Viewing angles are excellent. We offer images at different angles to evaluate the quality.

The maximum measured brightness is 520 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 503 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 7%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6400K – slightly warmer than the 6500K temperature for sRGB.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 55% Brightness (White level = 146 cd/m2, Black level = 0.11 cd/m2).
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is good – 1350:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (14)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display not only covers 100% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard), but it is also reaching DCI-P3 territories, which makes it exceptionally vibrant.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (14) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 32 ms.

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.


Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (14)’s display is free of flickering across all brightness levels. This makes it comfortable for extended work periods, without harming your eyes in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusion

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (14)’s touchscreen IPS panel has a very high UHD resolution, providing a detailed image. It also has high maximum brightness, a good contrast ratio, comfortable viewing angles, and VESA HDR400 + Dolby Vision certifications. Its color coverage spreads well into the DCI-P3 gamut, which results in a punchy and vibrant image. Even though its color accuracy isn’t top-notch, our Gaming and Web design profile helps it get really close to the sRGB standard.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (14) configurations with 14″ AUO B140ZAN01.7 (UHD, 3840 × 2160) IPS panel.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

En plus de recevoir des profils efficaces et favorables à la santé, en achetant les produits de LaptopMedia, vous soutenez également le développement de nos laboratoires, où nous testons les appareils afin de produire les examens les plus objectifs possibles.

Travail de bureau

Le travail de bureau devrait être utilisé principalement par les utilisateurs qui passent le plus de temps à regarder des morceaux de texte, des tableaux ou simplement à surfer. Ce profil vise à offrir une meilleure distinction et une meilleure clarté en conservant une courbe gamma plate (2,20), une température de couleur native et des couleurs perceptuellement précises.

Conception et jeux

Ce profil est destiné aux designers qui travaillent avec les couleurs de manière professionnelle, et pour les jeux et les films également. Design and Gaming pousse les panneaux d'affichage à leurs limites, les rendant aussi précis que possible dans la norme sRGB IEC61966-2-1 pour le Web et la TVHD, au point blanc D65.

Santé-Guard

Santé-Guard élimine le modulation de largeur d'impulsion nocive (PWM) et réduit le lumière bleue négative qui affecte nos yeux et notre corps. Comme il est adapté à chaque panneau, il parvient à maintenir la précision perceptive des couleurs. Santé-Guard simule le papier, ce qui réduit considérablement la pression sur les yeux.

Obtenez les 3 profils avec 33% de réduction


Sound

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (14)’s Dolby Atmos 2W speakers produce a sound of very good quality. Its low, mid, and high tones are clear of deviations.


Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/yoga-series/yoga-slim-9-14itl05/downloads/driver-list

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This notebook’s 63.5Wh battery pack delivers 10 hours and 50 minutes of Web browsing, and 9 hours and 40 minutes of video playback.


CPU options

Currently, this laptop can be found with the Core i5-1135G7 and the Core i7-1165G7. Also, it’s possible to have a Core i3-1115G4 version in the future.


GPU options

Ultimately, there are no dedicated graphics cards to choose from. This leaves only the Intel Iris Xe Graphics on the table, including the Xe Graphics G4, the Xe Graphics G7 (80EU), and the Xe Graphics G7 (96EU).


Gaming tests

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS189 fps134 fps76 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS134 fps84 fps61 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i7-1165G7 (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (14)2.99 GHz (B+7%) @ 89°C @ 40W2.96 GHz (B+6%) @ 87°C @ 32W2.23 GHz @ 67°C @ 18W
Acer TravelMate P4 (TMP414-51)2.99 GHz (B+7%) @ 94°C @ 33W2.66 GHz @ 93°C @ 27W1.86 GHz @ 68°C @ 16W
Lenovo ThinkBook 15 Gen 23.63 GHz (B+32%) @ 94°C @ 45W3.32 GHz (B+19%) @ 94°C @ 38W2.87 GHz (B+3%) @ 80°C @ 28W
Dell Inspiron 13 7306 2-in-13.12 GHz (B+11%) @ 99°C @ 33W2.68 GHz @ 99°C @ 25W2.04 GHz @ 83°C @ 16W
ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX3713.48 GHz (B+24%) @ 90°C @ 43W2.79 GHz @ 90°C @ 27W1.95 GHz @ 69°C @ 14W
Acer Swift 3X (SF314-510G)3.74 GHz (B+34%) @ 95°C @ 45W3.45 GHz (B+23%) @ 95°C @ 37W3.09 GHz (B+10%) @ 85°C @ 28W
Acer Swift 3 (SF313-53)3.55 GHz (B+27%) @ 95°C @ 44W3.17 GHz (B+13%) @ 95°C @ 34W2.32 GHz @ 64°C @ 17W
Acer Swift 5 Pro (SF514-55GT)3.54 GHz (B+26%) @ 94°C @ 39W3.27 GHz (B+17%) @ 94°C @ 31W2.44 GHz @ 74°C @ 17W

Even though the laptop supports the higher power limit, the cooling solution, and maybe the fact that Lenovo doesn’t want to scare their customers with fans sounding like Jumbo Jets, results in lower frequencies than some of its competitors.

Comfort during full load

Well, the fans were clearly audible, though, and the heat on the outside measured at about 42°C on the keyboard.


Verdict

Well then, this laptop has a lot of strong points, and ultimately a couple of weak ones, which may actually drive some people away. Let’s start with them. First, there is the touchpad. As much as we wanted to like the innovative approach of Lenovo, it just doesn’t work. Well… it works, but it is far less comfortable than a conventional touchpad, that doesn’t use vibration, and is not flushed with the rest of the palm rest. And while it looks cool for the first couple of minutes, it gets smudged up with fingerprints and skin oils very quickly, which leaves marks and looks unpleasant, to be honest.

The second issue we had here was with the ports. There are only three Thunderbolt 4 connectors, and an Audio jack. That’s it. Although Lenovo offers complimentary adapters in some regions and deals, this is not true for every single device shipped, so you will most probably need to buy a dongle.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (14)’s touchscreen IPS panel has a very high UHD resolution, providing a detailed image. It also has high maximum brightness, a good contrast ratio, comfortable viewing angles, and VESA HDR400 + Dolby Vision certifications. Its color coverage spreads well into the DCI-P3 gamut, which results in a punchy and vibrant image. Even though its color accuracy isn’t top-notch, our Gaming and Web design profile helps it get really close to the sRGB standard.

In addition to the brilliant display, you get speakers that produce a dynamic sound with pretty good maximum volume. Also, they are firing towards you, so watching movies, or listening to music on the bedsheets won’t muffle them.

Next comes the performance. With the help of the Evo platform of Intel, we see something spectacular, both in terms of pure CPU performance, and light gaming. In fact, you will be able to play titles like CS:GO at max settings at 1080p with the integrated GPU, and the trio of Thunderbolt 4 connectors enable the connection to an eGPU.

Indeed, the memory is soldered to the motherboard, which is not optimal, but at least it comes in dual-channel variants. And despite our expectations of poor battery life because of the UHD display, we actually got almost 11 hours of Web browsing, and about 9 hours and 40 minutes of video playback. Keep in mind that the panel can go up to 520 nits of brightness, and should you use it at the maximum setting, it will drain the battery a lot more quickly.

At the end of the day, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (14) is a premium laptop with commendable performance and a lot of great features. However, the innovation attempt around the touchpad and palm rest area didn’t quite work out, and actually made the laptop less comfortable to work with. In our view – go for the less expensive Yoga Slim 7 (14), or the Acer Swift 5 Pro (SF514-55GT).

Pros

  • Great build quality with leather, aluminum, and glass all around
  • Three Thunderbolt 4 ports
  • The display doesn’t flicker at any brightness level (UHD, AUO B140ZAN01.7)
  • HDR 400 and Dolby Vision support (UHD, AUO B140ZAN01.7)
  • Great for designers with 100% of sRGB coverage and accurate color representation (thanks to our Gaming and Web design profile) (UHD, AUO B140ZAN01.7)
  • Incredible performance for an ultrabook
  • IR face recognition system


Cons

  • RAM is soldered to the motherboard
  • The vibration-enabled touchpad is fairly uncomfortable
  • Very limited I/O

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-yoga-slim-9i-14/

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