Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 review: A gorgeous laptop with few important flaws

At this time’s most typical and, I”m guessing, hottest measurement is the 14-inch laptop computer. You’ll be able to nonetheless get 13-inch machines or bounce as much as 16-inch shows, however there’s an actual candy spot that’s each massive sufficient to make use of comfortably however affords a chassis that’s loads simpler to hold round.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 hits nearly the entire proper notes in that laptop computer measurement, with adequate efficiency, a beautiful show, and a skinny and lightweight chassis. The one factor holding it again is too-little connectivity and battery life that’s impacted by a really high-resolution OLED show.

Specs and configuration

As of when this assessment is being written, there are simply two configurations of the Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10. The bottom configuration, which prices $1,760, contains an Intel Core Extremely 7 256V chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 4K+ OLED show (the one possibility). For $1,835, you possibly can choose a Core Extremely 7 258V with 32GB of RAM. That’s the configuration I reviewed.

These are premium costs, they usually’re larger with different laptops in the identical class — at the very least, taking a look at record costs. The HP OmniBook Extremely Flip 14 begins out at $1,500, but it surely’s on sale for significantly much less. The ASUS Zenbook S 14 is round $1,600 with related configurations. It’s doable that Lenovo will reduce the worth when the laptop computer has been round for longer, however for now, it’s slightly costly.

Design

Now and again a laptop computer comes alongside that’s simply exquisitely designed. It stands out due to some mixture of supplies and aesthetic, and it stands in stark distinction in opposition to the extra widespread minimalist designs which have come to dominate laptops. Even engaging and chic laptops like Apple’s MacBooks and HP’s OmniBooks are quite simple.

The Yoga Slim 9i 14 is a special factor. It has a glass cowl on the lid that provides the darkish blue coloration on my assessment unit a beautiful sheen, the rounded edges are a darkish chrome that spotlight the colour manner, and general the traces create an actual gem of a laptop computer. It’s a beautiful machine that manages to keep away from being ostentatious. The brighter blue keyboard is the one contact that I feel may go slightly excessive. However aesthetically, this laptop computer competes with the best-looking machines I’ve reviewed.

One factor it shares with another excellent machines is a lid that’s slightly versatile. The MacBook Air additionally has that slight weak spot, but it surely’s worse with the Yoga Slim 9i 14 due to the glass. I’m not saying that tumbler may crack or shatter, but it surely does give me slightly pause. It’s a strong laptop computer general, so I gained’t fault it. However slightly stronger steel would have been welcome.

By way of its measurement, the Yoga Slim 9i 14 is a fairly skinny and lightweight laptop computer. It sports activities extraordinarily slender bezels — there’s a camera-under-display (CUD) design maintaining the highest bezel as skinny as doable — that make it eminently transportable even with a 14-inch show. It’s not as skinny because the MacBook Air 15 that’s an insane 0.45 inches thick, but it surely’s moderately gentle and greater than skinny sufficient at 0.67 inches. As I dealt with the Yoga Slim 9i 14, it felt excellent.

Keyboard and touchpad

I discussed that the keyboard’s brilliant blue coloration was the one aesthetic contact I didn’t actually like. Nonetheless, I can’t complain about its design. The keycaps are lots large, there’s a number of key spacing, and the switches are gentle and snappy. Typing up this assessment was comfy and by no means fatiguing, and whereas I nonetheless choose Apple’s Magic Keyboard, barely, I might be more than pleased with this one.

The touchpad is rather less spectacular. It’s slightly small, to start with, and it’s mechanical the place extra premium laptops are together with haptic variations. Lenovo does provide that as an possibility on a few of its machines and it’d try this right here, but it surely’s not listed as an possibility. The touchpad labored okay, however its button clicks have been slightly loud and sharp.

The show is touch-enabled, which I like. Which may not be as essential to many consumers.

Connectivity and webcam

Connectivity is that this laptop computer’s one true weak spot. There are solely two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 assist, and just like the Dell XPS 13, there’s no audio jack. Most 14-inch laptops have extra ports, together with some which might be thinner. The HP OmniBook Extremely Flip 14 has a USB-A port to go together with its two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and it has a 3.5mm audio jack. Wi-fi connectivity is totally updated, although.

The webcam, alternatively, is a 32MP model, which is the best decision I’ve seen. It’s mated with the Lunar Lake chipset’s quick Neural Processing Unit (NPU) operating at 45 tera operations per second (TOPS), exceeding the 40 TOPS requirement for Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC AI initiative. That signifies that the entire traditional Copilot+ AI options are supported with quick and environment friendly on-device processing.

Efficiency

The Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 comes geared up with the Core Extremely 7 256V or 258V, that are each a part of the Core Extremely Sequence 2 (or Lunar Lake) technology. I reviewed the latter, which has eight cores (4 Efficiency cores and 4 Low Energy Environment friendly) and eight threads. It’s the lower-power model of Intel’s newest chipsets, and it’s aimed toward larger effectivity moderately than quicker efficiency.

As we will see, the Yoga Slim 9i 14 performs nicely for the chipset, coming in behind the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite and Apple M3 in most of our benchmarks. It’s quick sufficient for demanding productiveness customers, that are the laptop computer’s main goal. The built-in Intel Arc 140V graphics aren’t something particular, which means this isn’t an awesome laptop computer for avid gamers or creators.

Battery life

The Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 has a 75 watt-hour battery, which is normally a good quantity for a 14-inch laptop computer. And, it makes use of a Lunar Lake chipset, which has given some nice battery life within the laptops we’ve examined to this point — among the many finest we’ve seen in Home windows laptops. It has even given the category chief MacBook Air M3 a run for its cash.

However, there’s additionally a really high-resolution 4K+ OLED show. Whereas a few of the machines on this comparability group additionally had OLED, none of them went previous 2.8K resolutions. That makes for an actual hit on battery life.

Due to this fact, whereas the Yoga Slim 9i 14 didn’t do in addition to a few of the different machines right here and, in truth, is nearer to earlier technology Home windows laptops with lower-resolution IPS shows, these are nonetheless good outcomes for a laptop computer with such a pointy panel. Some customers will care extra about higher battery life, and I get that. However, in the event you actually like sharp shows, you may contemplate this to be an affordable compromise.

Show and audio

There’s only one show possibility with the Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10, a 14.0-inch 16:10 4K+ (3840 x 2400) OLED contact show operating at 120Hz. I like my shows to be as sharp as doable, and that is as sharp as you will get. Textual content appears superior, which issues loads to me as a author, and this laptop computer gives the sharpest textual content I’ve seen shortly the place 2.8K shows have grow to be much more widespread. Colours are additionally extremely dynamic and brilliant, and naturally there are the same old OLED inky blacks.

My colorimeter cherished this show. It’s brilliant at 417 nits, manner above our older 300 nit baseline, and it displays near-perfect blacks and a phenomenally excessive distinction ration of 28,790:1. Colours are vast at 100% of sRGB, 96% of AdobeRGB, and 100% of DCI-P3, and coloration accuracy is great at a DeltaE of 0.55 (1.0 or much less is indistinguishable to the human eye).

All the pieces appeared nice on the show, from pin-sharp black textual content on a white background, to pictures and video, after which excessive dynamic vary (HDR) streaming content material at 4K was superior. The Yoga Slim 9i 14 isn’t quick sufficient for video editors, however for everybody else, it is a spectacular show.

Audio is supplied by 4 audio system, together with two tweeters positioned beneath the keyboard and two downward-firing woofers. I discovered the sound high quality to be excellent, with adequate quantity, clear mids and highs, and extra bass than traditional. It’s proper up there with Apple’s MacBook Air four-speaker setup, however not so good as the MacBook Professional’s six-speaker audio. Nonetheless, it’s a power.

A beautiful little gem of a laptop computer

You gained’t discover many better-looking laptops, so the Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 has that going for it proper out of the field. It’s extremely transportable, will get adequate efficiency, and has an awesome keyboard. And also you gained’t discover a higher show on a laptop computer at present.

On the identical time, battery life isn’t nearly as good as another Lunar Lake laptops due to that attractive show. And, connectivity is a letdown. It prices a fairly penny, however the Yoga Slim 9i 14 is a good laptop computer for lots of customers, and it’s extremely really useful.