Lenovo Slim 9i: Lenovo’s Yoga 2-in-1 laptops continue to be the company’s most premium offering, but the “Slim” line of clamshell laptops isn’t far behind.
The Yoga 9i 2-in-1 has polished edges and rounded corners, and now the Lenovo Slim lineup has a similar design to the Slim 9i 14. After testing one ahead of time, it is safe to say that this laptop exudes luxury.
Lenovo Slim 9i Design
The design of the Slim 9i 14 fits the luxury-level price of $1,800. The elegant design is what stayed with me the most, and it was the reason I couldn’t stop touching this laptop after I was briefed on it ahead of my hands-on time.
Lenovo is using a 3D glass encasement on the top lid, which is reminiscent of the old iPhone 4s, which has a glass back. With its silvery oatmeal finish, it really shines. The sun bounced off the lid of the laptop as I held it for photos, creating a cool glowing effect. I could always see my photographer’s reflection as he used the device to photograph me. You will not get that with a MacBook, which is almost the same price. All-aluminum laptops look so old with the glass top encasement.
Lenovo, like the 9i 2-in-1, chooses rounded polished edges. Lenovo refers to it as “Comfort Edge.” This is a design choice that aims to protect your palms as you type by resting your wrist on the keyboard deck. Coming from the Surface Laptop Studio, which has sharp pointed/rounded edges, I appreciated the 9i’s smooth corners. It was very inviting.
But that wasn’t the only thing that set this laptop apart. Lenovo is also pleased with the design materials used in the device’s production. According to the company, the Slim 9i is a carbon neutral-certified laptop made of recycled materials, a “world’s first.”
The use of 3D glass has no effect on the overall weight and thickness of the laptop. It has dimensions of 12.52 by 9.06 by 0.6 inches. The weight is approximately 3.02 pounds, which is about average for 14-inch laptops in this category. The use of 6000-series aluminum in other areas of the laptops ensures a sturdy build, with no bending or creaking when I tried to flex the lid or keyboard deck.
You may also like Lenovo ThinkPad X13s: The first ARM-powered ThinkPad
Display
The display, like the Slim 9i’s design, shines brightly. I got my hands on a model with a 14-inch, 3840 x 2400 4K resolution OLED panel, and it felt very immersive. (The Slim 9i is only available in one 14-inch size.)
The panel, like most laptop displays these days, has a 16:10 aspect ratio, so I could multitask with three windows open side by side. The 4K resolution pushes extra pixels, making more room on your screen for extra items like Teams chat or an important document.
During testing, however, I was sitting in direct sunlight, and the display was quite reflective, which was slightly annoying. Lenovo, on the other hand, claims that the display can reach 400 nits of peak brightness on all models. It is also VESA Display HDR 500 certified and claims to cover 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut.
It’s also worth noting that the panel has a refresh rate of 90Hz. This is an improvement over the standard 60Hz found on a MacBook or most other Windows laptops. It’s still not as fast as the 120Hz on the Surface Laptop Studio or Surface Pro 8, but 90Hz made Windows scrolling feel very smooth, especially when web browsing.
To put all those credentials to the test, I watched a pre-saved video of a raccoon eating a hot dog on my laptop. The adorable creature almost jumped out of the screen, from the gray in his fur to the black under his eyes. The red in the hotdog itself was also particularly vibrant.
Going back and watching some nature videos confirmed my feelings. The forest greens were vibrant, and the ocean blues were deep and immersive. This OLED panel produces some incredible black colors as well as vibrant light colors. You’ll never get that vibrancy from a MacBook or a laptop with an LCD screen.
You may also like Lenovo Tablet: Lenovo Tab P11 Pro with Aluminum Unibody
Lenovo Slim 9i Performance
According to Lenovo, the Slim 9i allows users to “tap into a mode of portable performance.” This is due to the laptop’s use of Intel’s 12th-generation processors, which include both performance and efficiency cores on the chipset. There are Core i7-1280P and Core i5-1240P options.
Take note of the P-series designation here. This laptop lacks the standard 15-watt or 9-watt U-series CPUs found in thinner and lighter devices. Instead, it uses Intel’s P-series chips, which operate at 28W for balanced performance and battery life when combined with the performance and efficiency cores. These are the same processors found in the XPS 13 Plus. The Core i7-1280P, as previously stated, has six performance cores and eight efficiency cores. Meanwhile, the Core i5-1240P has four performance cores and eight efficiency cores.
I tested the Core i7-1280P model, and despite being an early sample unit, it handled everything I threw at it. We’re looking forward to more in-depth testing in our labs, but the Slim 9i performed admirably in terms of web browsing with about 10 tabs on Microsoft Edge, as well as multimedia consumption.
Aside from the Intel chip, the Slim 9i also has the Lenovo A.I. Core 2.0 Smart Chip. Lenovo claims that this results in improved AI-enabled performance and smarter security, including hardware-level encryption designed to protect the device from root and ransomware attacks. To optimize and accelerate performance, the Lenovo AI engine can also dynamically adjust fan speed and hardware performance. That extra security is welcome for a device that costs close to $2,000.
You may also like Microsoft Surface Pro 9: Release Date and Specs
Keyboard and trackpad
If you’ve ever used a Lenovo Slim laptop, you’ll understand how the Slim 9i 14 should feel. When I tested the keyboard, I discovered that there was plenty of key travel, but the keycaps felt a little too shallow in comparison to what I am used to from using a ThinkPad. The large-sized and curved keycaps did make typing easier, and the matching silver color completed the all-premium look.
Lenovo claims to have increased the size of the trackpad by 50% between generations. That’s critical, given how much time most people spend on the internet these days. I enjoyed using the trackpad, which, while not haptic like the one on the new XPS 13 Plus or the Laptop Studio, is smooth and accurate. Because of the glass surface, I missed no clicks or scrolling while using Microsoft Edge.
I’d also like to mention the speakers next to the keyboard deck. This laptop has four speakers, all of which are powered by Bowers & Wilkins.
When turned up to around 80%, a sample audio clip played by Lenovo woke up the speakers and shook the desk the laptop was sitting on. The speakers and bass levels are unquestionably powerful.
Ports and Webcam
With such a thin design, you shouldn’t expect many ports on the Slim 9i. In contrast to Apple’s new MacBooks, this laptop only has USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports.
On the right side, there’s a webcam kill switch that disables the webcam in all apps by killing it in Windows’ device manager. It’s a significant improvement over the physical shutter on the webcam that Lenovo first included in its ThinkPads. Following that is another Thunderbolt 4 port. Two Thunderbolt 4 ports and a headphone jack are located on the left side. All of this necessitates the purchase of dongles.
Lenovo includes a Windows Hello IR webcam as well as dual microphones with the webcam and microphones. The webcam is 1080p, and the image quality wasn’t too bad when I turned it on. Even though I was sitting in direct sunlight, my image wasn’t overly blown out, and I could still make out the M.T.A. subway line letters in my mask.
The webcam, like on the Yoga 9i 2-in-1, is housed in a small hub at the top of the screen, a nice design feature that I appreciate for its aesthetics.
You may also like Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon: The Touchscreen AMD Ryzen
Lenovo Slim 9i battery life
According to Lenovo’s MobileMark 2018 testing, all of this adds up to up to 12 hours of battery life. In addition, the company claims up to 15 hours of battery life for 1080p video playback. Rapid Charge Boost also means that you can get two hours of use out of a 15-minute charge. I wasn’t able to do much battery testing with the device during my time with it, but we’re looking forward to testing it in our labs. The 4K OLED panel, on the other hand, concerns me because we’ve seen these panels be quite power-hungry in the past, such as on HP’s Spectre lineup.
Would you like to read more about Lenovo Slim 9i-related articles? If so, we invite you to take a look at our other tech topics before you leave!
