The Lenovo Yoga 9i was my favorite laptop from last year, and the new iteration is just as good

Published Sep 21, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT His love of PCs and their components was born out of trying to squeeze every ounce of performance out of the family computer. Tinkering with his own build at age 10 turned into building PCs for friends and family, fostering a passion that would ultimately take shape as a career path. Besides being the first call for tech support for those close to him, Ty is a computer science student, with his focus being cloud computing and networking. He also competed in semi-pro Counter-Strike for 8 years, making him intimately familiar with everything to do with peripherals. Sign in to your XDA account When I got hands-on with last year's Lenovo Yoga 9i, it was nothing short of a pleasure to use. Great keyboard, gorgeous screen, and an improved battery made it one of my favorite laptops of the year, and so when I got the opportunity to take their latest Yoga 9i for a spin, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit excited. This laptop checks a lot of the same boxes as its predecessor: you get a very well-built laptop with a slick design, and while it's definitely not going to win any value awards, it executes incredibly well on all the things that matter to someone who wants a great convertible laptop. About this review: Lenovo provided a loan unit of the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition (2026) for the purposes of this review. The company did not have any input into this article, nor did it see its contents before publishing. Pricing and availability of the Lenovo Yoga 9i Aura Edition The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition is available on Lenovo's website starting at $2,380. At the time of writing, it can also be found at Best Buy for $2350 for the base spec, which is an Intel Core UItra 7 355 with 32 GB of LPDDR5X-7467, and a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 QLC SSD, upgradable to 2TB through the online configurator. At this time, that looks like the only spec available. The display is standard across both models, being the 12" 2.8K OLED. Lenovo Yoga 9i Aura Edition (2026) CPU Intel Core Ultra 7 355 GPU Integrated Intel Graphics Display type OLED, Touch Display (Size, Resolution) 14" 2.8K WQXGA+ (2880x1800) RAM 32GB soldered memory, LPDDR5X-7467, dual channel Storage 1TB M.2 2242 SSD Battery 70Wh Li-ion Charge speed supports Rapid Charge Express (get 3 hours of runtime with a 15-minute charge) Ports 1x USB-A (USB 10Gbps), Always On 2x ThunderboltTM 4, with USB PD 45-65W and DisplayPortTM 2.1 1x HDMI® 2.1, up to 8K/60Hz 1x Headphone / microphone combo jack (3.5mm) Operating System Windows 11 Home Webcam 5.0MP + IR, with privacy shutter, fixed focus Wi-Fi connectivity Wi-Fi® 7, 802.11be 2x2 Wi-Fi® Bluetooth Bluetooth® 5.4 Form factor Convertible Dimensions 317.21 x 222.62 x 15.29 mm (12.49 x 8.76 x 0.60 inches) Weight Starting at 1.29 kg (2.84 lbs) Colors Cosmic blue, Aluminum top and bottom Pen compatibility Yes (Yoga Pen Gen 2 Included) Stylus Yoga Pen Gen 2 Brand Lenovo NPU NPU 5.0 AI Engine, up to 50 TOPS A familiar design The Yoga 9i is easy on the eyes in more ways than one Lenovo stuck to their guns on the design of the Yoga 9i, and that's a good thing. I really enjoy the design from top to bottom, but there's some notable changes from last year's 9i. First, the keyboard is almost identical, but they removed the rightmost column of keys that used to occupy the space under the Delete key. This bought them some more space on either side of the keyboard, but it also came at the cost of a fingerprint reader. Windows Hello via the IR Camera is good enough, but I would've liked the option on a laptop of this price. Moving to the I/O, Lenovo has replaced one of the USB-C 20Gbps ports with a full-size HDMI 2.1 port, which is a welcome change. Some may have appreciated that extra non-Thunderbolt USB-C port, but to me, this is a worthwhile swap. You can also snap the new Yoga Pen Gen 2 to the back of the display with its neat little cover. When you close the laptop fully into tablet mode, that pen case does give a slight angle to the display, which does feel a bit better to use than if it were totally flat. Besides those changes, everything else is pretty much the same as far as the body of the laptop goes, which, again, is a good thing. Moving on to the features that are relatively unchanged: the speakers on this laptop are still really solid. The forward-facing soundbar across the bottom hinge can fill a decently sized room at its highest volume. There are two woofers and two tweeters that have the Dolby Atmos seal of approval, and overall, this is one of the best-sounding laptops I've used for sure. The display is that same 2.8K OLED from the previous year, and it looks just as good as it did. Lenovo removed the ability to kit this machine out with a full-fat 4K display, but for a screen of this size, the bump in sharpness wouldn't be worth the consequences for the battery, which is actually a bit smaller this year, coming in at 70Wh instead of 75Wh. Presumably, one of the keys behind that change is Panther Lake, which has a great showing in this chassis. Does most of what you want through a full workday Unsurprisingly great performance from Intel Panther Lake I feel like a broken record when I review these Panther Lake-based laptops, but they really are excellent, and the Yoga 9i is no different. Lenovo Yoga 9i Aura Edition (2026) Core Ultra 7 355 Lenovo Yoga 9i (2025) Core Ultra 7 258V HP EliteBook X G2i (Intel Core Ultra 7 366H) Dell 14S (Intel Core Ultra 7 355) Geekbench 6 (single / multi) 2,577 / 10,829 2,701 / 10,739 2,778 / 16,333 2,720 / 11,318 Cinebench 2024 (single / multi) 120 / 552 117 / 490 121 / 939 177 / 577 3DMark (Time Spy / Wild Life / Night Raid) 3,256 / 5,270 / 29,025 4,551 / N/A / 34,066 3,293 / 16,583 / 28,220 3,194 / 21,267 / 29,409 CrossMark (Overall) N/A 1761 2,221 1,969 PCMark 10 (AC / Battery) N/A N/A 8,081 / 7,518 7,464 / 7,921 Despite the smaller battery, I didn't notice a difference in battery life across a full workday of web apps, some light photo editing, and a bit of note-taking with the Yoga Pen Gen 2. At full brightness or anywhere near it, you'll be reaching for the charger by the day's end or at the start of your next one, but with VRR on and even just a little bit of brightness management, this is easily an all-day machine. Graphics performance is what we've come to expect from Panther Lake's integrated offering, which is solid, and while the peak benchmark scores don't reflect it, CPU performance is a genuine step up from last year. This machine does get quite warm under a sustained load, but its fans aren't ramping up nearly as much as its predecessor did during normal use. I did run into a very odd quirk with CrossMark and PCMark 10—I could not get either benchmark to output a valid score. Even with a completely fresh install, PCMark reported a "valid" score of 0, and CrossMark would crash at the same point of every run. With all of that said, you can expect similar performance to other Ultra 7 355 machines in those tests. Should you buy the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition? You should buy the Lenovo Yoga 9i Aura Edition if: You need a convertible laptop with good performance You want a laptop with a great-looking, bright OLED display You want a laptop that looks the part You should NOT buy the Lenovo Yoga 9i Aura Edition if: You want the best price-to-performance possible Dedicated graphics are important to you The 2026 iteration of the Lenovo Yoga 9i is one that holds the same position as it had with previous iterations. It's one of the best convertible laptops on the market, a little pricey, but well-built and well-designed enough to earn your dollar.