Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 laptop review: Great mini-LED panel, but unnecessary cost-saving measures

Short battery life and less hardware. Lenovo is aiming for the crown in the category of 16-inch multimedia laptops with its new Yoga Pro 9i 16. Its trump card is supposed to be the high-resolution and bright mini-LED panel. However, there are unusual weaknesses in the build quality and, in contrast to the 14-inch model, features such as Advanced Optimus are missing.

Andreas Osthoff, 👁 Andreas Osthoff (translated by Jacob Fisher), Published 08/02/2023 🇩🇪

Note: The manufacturer may use components from different suppliers including display panels, drives or memory sticks with similar specifications.

The case design is the same as the smaller Yoga Pro 9i 14, i.e. an aluminum construction is used. However, the 16-inch model has a weak point: the base plate is very thin and emits unpleasant creaking noises when handled, which is not at all fitting for a premium device. The problem was also present (albeit less pronounced) in the second test device, so this may be a general problem. This is a pity because there are no defects otherwise in terms of workmanship or stability. The base unit can only be pressed in minimally in the central area, but practically cannot be twisted at all. The lid is a little more flexible than the smaller 14-inch model, but no issues pop up here either. The two hinges are well adjusted (only minimal teetering) and hold the screen securely in place, even at small opening angles. At the same time, one-handed opening of the display is possible and the maximum opening angle is 180 degrees.

Our test unit is the Strom Grey variant, which is very inconspicuous and fits right into the office without attracting attention. Those who like it more colourful can opt for the Tidal Teal (turquoise green) color variant. Overall, the design looks very modern and the screen’s edges are quite narrow, but the camera hump is somewhat annoying because it sits a little deeper than the rest of the screen lid.

Together with the Schenker Vision 16 Pro and the Apple MacBook Pro 16, the Yoga Pro 9i 16 has the smallest footprint in the comparison field, but is also one of the heavier models at just over 2.2 kg, although the differences here are not huge. The only exception is the Vision 16 Pro at just 1.6 kg. The included 170 watt power adapter weighs around 570 grams.

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Differences to the smaller model are to be found in the ports. Only one USB-C port is installed here, which at least also supports Thunderbolt 4 and can be used for charging if necessary (this worked without issue with a 65-watt power supply). Since there is a dedicated power supply (SlimTip) here, the lack of a second USB port can be overlooked, but we don’t understand why the HMDI output of the 16-inch version supports just the 1.4b standard, which is why 4K can only be output at 30 Hz.

The card reader on the right takes regular SD cards, which protrude about 2 cm from the device. The transfer rates in conjunction with our Angelbird AV Pro V60 reference card are around 80 MB/s. This is an average value that is clearly surpassed by some competitors.

A port for wired network connections is not available, but this can be implemented via an optional USB adapter. Intel’s AX211 module, which also supports the current Wi-Fi 6E standard, is responsible for wireless connections. We measured high and stable transfer rates with our Asus reference router. No issues arose in practice either, neither in large data transfers nor downloads.

The slightly thicker camera hump houses a 5 MP camera that delivers good image quality, both for pictures and videos. This removes the need for an external webcam, especially for video conferences. An IR sensor is also installed, which enables facial recognition via Windows Hello. The camera can be deactivated via a small slider on the right side of the case (e-shutter).

The base plate is secured with a few Torx screws (T5) and comes off easily. You then have access to the two fans, the battery and the two slots for the M.2-2280 SSDs. However, the RAM and the WLAN module are soldered.

Lenovo doesn’t leave the extra case width unused and adds a dedicated number pad to the keyboard. Like in the smaller Yoga Pro 9i 14, the manufacturer installs a comfortable and precise keyboard that also offers sufficient key travel of 1.5 mm. Longer texts can also be typed up without strain. A two-stage white backlight that can be activated automatically via sensor helps in dark environments.

The touchpad of the 16-inch Yoga is even larger and, at 15 x 9.5 cm, offers a lot of space for pointer control and gestures of up to four fingers, which also work very well and reliably thanks to good gliding properties. The lower half can also be pressed down, which is characterized by a very loud and cheap-sound clicking noise. We recommend just tapping the pad for input here. In contrast to the smaller 14-inch model, the touchpad is not in the middle of the case, but is offset slightly to the left.

In SDR mode, the 16-inch mini-LED screen reaches a lower brightness of just around 550 cd/m² (~700 cd/m² for the 14-inch panel), which is roughly on par with the MacBook Pro 16. The black value is 0.18 cd/m² in SDR mode, which is why the contrast ratio is “only” ~3,000:1. This is low compared to other mini-LED or OLED panels, but still very good compared to normal IPS screens.

The black value is just 0 in HDR mode, which is why the contrast ratio is also extremely high. Black content is really black here and you can see the difference very clearly in the two comparison images above. With HDR content, the maximum brightness is then just under 1,100 cd/m², which is significantly lower than that of the 14-inch Yoga and also lower than the manufacturer’s specification of 1,200 cd/m². HDR mode also results in visible blooming due to the mini-LED zones, although the effect is not particularly pronounced here.

Unfortunately, Windows’ HDR implementation still leaves a lot to be desired because the HDR mode has to be activated manually first. This in turn means that Windows no longer offers any color profiles and HDR mode is effectively limited to the sRGB color space.

* … smaller is better

We measured the panel using professional CalMAN software. In the preinstalled Lenovo Vantage software, you can choose between the sRGB, Display P3 and AdobeRGB color profiles. Since Lenovo advertises full AdobeRGB coverage, we also used this profile for our measurements.

The panel’s standard calibration turns out much better than the 14-inch model and the average DeltaE-2000 deviation is already below 3, both for grayscale and colors (no outliers here either). We were unable to confirm the advertised DeltaE value of <1, but a subsequent calibration isn't really necessary here and we unable to improve the display with our own calibration, which is why we do not offer a color profile for download at this point. The panel almost completely covers both the P3 and the AdobeRGB color spaces.

Display Response Times

↔    Response Time Black to White
9.2 ms … rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined	↗ 2.2 ms rise
	↘ 7 ms fall
The screen shows fast response rates in our tests and should be suited for gaming. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 18 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is better than the average of all tested devices (22.1 ms).
↔    Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey
14 ms … rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined	↗ 7.5 ms rise
	↘ 6.5 ms fall
The screen shows good response rates in our tests, but may be too slow for competitive gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.25 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 19 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is better than the average of all tested devices (34.8 ms).

Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)

Screen flickering / PWM detected	5800 Hz	≤ 100 % brightness setting
The display backlight flickers at 5800 Hz (Likely utilizing PWM) Flickering detected at a brightness setting of 100 % and below. There should be no flickering or PWM above this brightness setting. The frequency of 5800 Hz is quite high, so most users sensitive to PWM should not notice any flickering. In comparison: 54 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 18875 (minimum: 5 – maximum: 3846000) Hz was measured.

The touchscreen is very reflective and annoying reflections occur even indoors. On sunny days, finding a suitable position in order to be able to properly recognize screen content is not easy. The viewing angle stability is very good.

As previously mentioned, the Yoga Pro 9i 16 comes with either a Core i7 or Core i9 processor as well as the GeForce RTX 4050, RTX 4060 or RTX 4070 graphics cards (100 watts TGP in each case). The working memory consists of faster LPDDR5X-6400 RAM, but this is soldered and cannot be expanded.

The preinstalled Lenovo Vantage app offers three different performance profiles that can be conveniently switched via the Fn+Q key combination at any time. We have listed the respective TDP/TGP values in the table below. We used High Performance mode by default for our benchmarks and measurements.

The 16-inch model of the Yoga Pro 9i also uses the Core i7-13705H, which is the same as the regular Core i7-13700H apart from the vPro capabilities. In High Performance mode, the processor is able to consume up to 125 watts for short periods of time and 80 watts permanently, which brings about very good results. Interestingly, the optional Core i9-13905H performs slightly worse, so the upgrade isn’t worth it. Within our comparison group, the Yoga only has to admit defeat to competitors with significantly faster HX processors.

The processor is able to consume a maximum of 85 watts in battery mode, which leads to a performance reduction of around 20% in the multi-core tests. More CPU benchmarks are available in our tech section.

* … smaller is better

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Performance values in the synthetic benchmarks are very good, although competing notebooks are also on a very similar level overall. In everyday use, the laptop is always smooth and responsive. No issues arose during testing either.

* … smaller is better

Our test unit revealed significant restrictions in our standardized latency test (web browsing, 4K YouTube playback, CPU load) with the present BIOS version and is therefore unsuitable for real-time audio applications.

* … smaller is better

Lenovo uses the extra space of the 16-inch chassis for a second M.2 slot, which however only supports PCIe 3.0 x4. The primary slot is connected via PCIe-4.0, and the 1 TB version of the Samsung PM9A1 (OEM version of the 980 Pro) is installed in our test device. After the first start-up, the user has 891 GB available. Transfer rates are very good overall and performance remains stable under prolonged load, which is not always guaranteed with modern drives. However, the 990 Pro successor (see Schenker Vision 16 Pro) once again offers significant advantages in random accesses. More SSD benchmarks are available here.