Lenovo Yoga 9i gets rid of a traditional touchpad and slaps leather on its lid
The 14-inch two-in-one and its stablemate, the 9i Slim laptop, promise pure premium experiences with Intel's next-gen processors.
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The 2020 Yoga 9i gets dressed in leather.
Lenovo announced the new premium Yoga 7i and Yoga 6 two-in-ones earlier in the month and now it's pulled the wraps off the top-of-the-line Yoga 9i. The Yoga 9i two-in-one and Yoga 9i Slim laptop (called the IdeaPad 9i Slim in North America) replace the Yoga C940 and Yoga S940 (IdeaPad S940).
Being the most premium of the premium Yoga lineup, the Yoga 9i -- available in 14- and 15.6-inch versions -- gets all the fun extras and is made from the nicest materials. For 2020's 14-inch model that includes an optional lid upgrade with black leather bonded to its aluminum chassis. It "begs to be touched," Lenovo panted.
It'll also have an edge-to-edge glass palm rest with an encased touchpad that uses haptic feedback, allowing for a much larger touchpad area. There's also a new ultrasonic fingerprint reader that'll work even if your finger is slightly wet, such as after you wash your hands -- which we're all doing a lot more of these days, right?
The new glass palm rest does away with the traditional touchpad.
The Yoga 9i will also have a new keyboard with "soft-landing dome-design keypads" that promises a more comfortable, bouncier typing experience, which is saying something since the C940's keyboard was already more comfortable than most. Its updated soundbar hinge will have improved audio, which, like the keyboard, was already pretty great. You can also expect enhancements to everything from screen options to ports (Thunderbolt 4!) to improved cooling to the tip of its included active pen for a better feel when writing on the screen.
Most of these features, including the leather cover, carry over to the Lenovo IdeaPad 9i Slim laptop. The IdeaPad also gets a sensor that automatically adjusts its keyboard's backlight for your room's lighting conditions as well as a kill switch for its webcam. (The Yoga 9i has a physical privacy shutter for its webcam.)
The IdeaPad 9i Slim is the clamshell version of the 14-inch Yoga 9i.
While both of these will feature Intel's next-gen processors -- the i in the naming denotes an Intel CPU -- those who are more concerned with performance in a premium two-in-one body will be more interested in the 15-inch Yoga 9i. There's no leather option, but you can get it with up to a 10th-gen Intel Core i9 HK-series processor and discrete Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q, plus up to 16GB of memory and 2TB SSD storage.
The 14-inch Yoga 9i with the metal lid will start at $1,399 or $1,699 for the leather lid. The 15-inch Yoga 9i will start at $1,799. All three are expected in October.
The IdeaPad 9i Slim is expected in November starting at $1,599.