Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i Gen 11 Aura Edition review: A creative studio that fits in your backpack

TechRadar Verdict The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i Gen 11 Aura Edition is a 16-inch OLED Touch laptop that proved a spectacular Windows machine for creatives. I love the sleek design and the specs, which include a dedicated graphics card. Port selection is great. However, the high power comes at a high price. For general professionals, I'd still recommend a ThinkPad like the T14s or T16. But for those that need workstation-level performance in the creative space, it hits the mark. Reasons to buy +Creator-driven specs and performance +Dedicated GPU +Powerful CPU +Great trackpad +Incredible color accuracy +Surprisingly good speakers Reasons to avoid -Very expensive -Screen is a fingerprint magnet -No memory upgrades -Heavy Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you're buying the best. Find out more about how we test. Jump To: Price and Availability Unboxing and First Impressions Design and Build Quality In use Final verdict Calling all creatives who want a laptop that will not quit. This 16-inch laptop is designed for photo and video editors who don't necessarily need a full 4K display, but still want an RTX 5060 GPU and a touch-based OLED panel.It has a laptop touchpad with designer pen input and photographic design input, with a level of precision most laptops only dream of. It has spectacular ports, an incredible refresh rate, and jaw-dropping color accuracy.In my tests, this proved it's not just a laptop. This is a creative graphics studio that fits in your backpack. If that is the world you live in, then this laptop is purpose-built just for you.Latest Videos FromTechRadarLenovo Yoga Pro 9i Gen 11 Aura Edition: Price and AvailabilityThe Lenovo Pro 9i AE Gen 11 16-inch OLED Touch comes in several build options, and is available from Lenovo US, Lenovo UK, and other territories. Prices start at $2,499.99 / £2,719.99 at the time of review. My review unit came in at just over $3,000. (Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i Gen 11 Aura Edition: Unboxing and First ImpressionsAll right, I'll say it: Lenovo makes some pretty sharp-looking laptops. Even this laptop, as large as it is, still looks sharp and sleek. The box includes the power cable, power adapter, Yoga Pen, and documentation, along with the laptop itself. Everything was fairly well packaged, too. I wasn't quite sure what to expect with Thunder Gray, but I'm actually a big fan of the color.Even with how hefty this machine is, it still feels manageable with day-to-day use. Yeah, I won’t want to carry this around one-handed while working off it, but bringing it from a coffee shop to a desk to a meeting and back to a desk, or lugging it around in my quality backpack, all seem very reasonable.I wouldn't want to commute with it all day, every day, but for the power you can get from this machine, it's pretty spectacular. The OLED panel and 120 Hz motion are spectacular and immediately recognizable.Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletterSign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!Another thing that I noticed right away is the keyboard and haptic force trackpad. For creatives, having that kind of quality input makes a huge difference. That's why so many creatives love having their customized keyboards and fancy mice. Input tools matter when you are creating. (Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i Gen 11 Aura Edition: Design and Build QualityThis is all about a pretty sharp-looking laptop. One of its biggest strengths is the impressive OLED panel and Intel Core chips. It also has that crazy-good force pad and Yoga Pen Gen 2, which reminds me a lot of the drawing and design pads that were popular a few years back. People could use a pen on a surface and have it appear on the screen.It's a little bit interesting in this sense because there is a touchscreen as well. However, after about 2 minutes of learning to match your eyes on the screen to what is in your hand with the pen and drawing on the force pad, it works pretty well. I've seen people who do photo editing or graphic design get used to it pretty quickly, especially those who have used one of those drawing pads before.As someone who normally draws on my iPad, it's a little odd, but nothing out of the ordinary or too hard to get over. Plus, the precision is pretty good, which might be why Lenovo chose the touchpad over the OLED panel. And probably because they didn't want to risk damaging the OLED panel, if I had to guess.Thankfully, the trackpad also works as a pretty high-quality trackpad. As someone who uses my laptop's trackpad as much as possible (gestures, multi-finger motions, and more), I always appreciate a quality, enlarged touchpad.Another thing I really appreciate is the port offering. I'm glad to see that some of these more Pro, power, and tech-savvy laptops are bringing back USB-A and even full-size HDMI.A lot of what I do in my own space is use USB-C, as any good citizen should. I still go to plenty of places that don't have a USB-C hub or dock, so having that HDMI port is super helpful. Being able to plug into more legacy items with USB-A is also helpful. USB-C has been around for a long time, but I don't know about you; I still run into way too much USB-A day-to-day.Perhaps it's just my IT and systems background, but I still run into a lot of that day-to-day. As I continue to grow in my creative endeavors, an SD card reader is a benefit I continue to maximize.One more thing I'll mention is that this machine throttles its heat pretty well. By throttling, I mean it just vents heat, not necessarily throttling speed. I haven't noticed any of that through some of the more intense workloads I put this through, but through benchmarking, video editing, running heavy LLMs, and some pretty intense terminal sessions where I'm utilizing a lot of the internal power to build several agents and workers (along with using Codex, Claude Code, and Notion all at the same time, along with some browser views and computer control), this machine seems to be running just fine. Yes, the fans kick on under heavy loads, but it doesn't give up or slow down.In my testing, I handled video editing in DaVinci Resolve while running several lines of 4K video. I could jump in and out without excessive loading, processing, or rendering. It feels fast. It feels like something that I would happily give to any video editor.Yes, it may not be as good as a machine three times the cost, but for the price, portability, and use case, this is a very capable video editing machine. Of course, since it handles video editing, it can also handle some of the larger, several-GB photos I send it.In my day job, we have several-GB files for giant banners that crash some of our other computers, but this one seems to be operating just fine right now. That's a testament to how powerful that chip is and how efficient this is. (Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i Gen 11 Aura Edition: In useAs mentioned above, I've thrown just about everything I can at my very broad workday. As the years go on, my days can include: heavy AI use, terminal use, app building, video editing, photo editing, content writing, systems engineering, heavy database builds, and so onUsing this as a mobile workstation gives me a sense of security that I won't need to transfer to another device or hand off heavier workloads elsewhere. Sure, there's still something to say about servers and things like that, but for what I can and should do on the device, this doesn't seem to limit what I do on a normal day.The OLED panel is also gorgeous. That helps. I've had plenty of computers where the machine is powerful, but the screen is mediocre at best, and it just doesn't feel the same as using a brilliant display like this. To use a machine that a lot of people can compare with, this feels a lot like carrying around a MacBook Pro 16-inch or one of the 16-inch Dell laptops. It's big, but not too cumbersome. If you need that power, it's well worth it, and it's obviously better than carrying a desktop or a remote into a desktop.If you're the kind of person who needs raw power and values the extra screen real estate, then this is absolutely worth getting. Even as somebody who is very partial to the 14-inch form factor, this 16-inch is nothing insane.Lastly, on some other important factors, I've enjoyed using the keyboard. It's been comfortable for even long sessions. The touchpad is comfortable, accurate, and easy to use. The camera is good enough for virtual meetings, and the microphone is good enough, though obviously not the best. In a room or home office, it's fine, but if you're in a public space, please, for the love of everybody else on the call, get a pair of headphones or a dedicated mic.Even if it's just a cheap pair of earbuds, which may be my biggest unlock of the year, it can make a huge difference, especially if you're using tools like Wispr Flow or voice agents. The mic is good enough if you're in a private office or home office, maybe with a little bit of background noise. If you're in a loud space, accurate vocal input is essential. (Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i Gen 11 Aura Edition: Final verdictThis laptop's pretty clearly designed for people in the creative space, or at least for anyone who works with it. Yes, it's wildly powerful, so really anybody who's in the heavy technical space, or if you're in the AI space or vibe coding space, you could utilize something like this as well.With that beautiful OLED panel and force touchpad with pen input, this is clearly designed for graphic designers, photographers, video editors, and similar work. If you don't do those things, you'll still enjoy using this laptop, but there may be another one, even from Lenovo, that better fits your unique specifications and requirements. Image 1 of 14 (Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) For more creator machines, we've tested the best photo editing laptops and the best laptops for video editing. Former TechRadar Pro B2B Hardware Editor, Collin has been in journalism for years, with experience in small and large markets, including Gearadical, DailyBeast, FutureNet, and more. 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