Smaller, Lighter, and More Refined Build
The redesigned 2026 Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i comes in a smaller footprint and 150 grams lighter compared to last year. This gives it a footprint similar to the MacBook Pro 16 while also lighter, thereby more portable.
Build quality is a clear step-up when compared to last year. The fit and finish are tighter, and the laptop looks more stylish with the darker colorway. While the front edge can feel surprisingly sharp on the wrists, the overall design feels more mature and very close to the premium feel of a MacBook or Razer Blade.
A Stunning Display With One Big Catch
The 16 inch-tandem OLED display is gorgeous. With a 3200 x 2000 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and impressive brightness it's one of the best mixed-use displays out in the market. Fast-moving content looks flawless and the high refresh rate avoids any blur that can sometimes be seen on Mini-LED competitors. Overall this is a display for those that intend to creative work, or simply want a beautiful display to consume media on.
The catch to all this? It's incredibly glossy. It looks fantastic indoors or in dark environments, but reflections are hard to ignore in bright environments or when using dark mode.
The Yoga Pro 9i uses Intel’s highest-end Panther Lake Core Ultra 9 Series 3 chip, and overall CPU performance is good. For programmers, audio engineers, and other users with CPU-dependent workflows, it has more than enough power.
Powered by Intel's Panther Lake Core Ultra 9 Series 3, the 2026 Yoga Pro 9i packs enough overall CPU performance for programming, creative work, and other equivalent productivity tasks.
Max CPU Performance - Cinebench 2026 Single Run, Higher is Better
But this is also where the Yoga Pro 9i runs into a problem: Apple. In this size and price bracket, the MacBook Pro 16 with M5 Pro or M5 Max simply outclasses it in CPU-heavy work. And if you are willing to move to a gaming laptop, there are Windows machines in this price range with stronger HX chips as well.
Creative Work Reveals the Trade-Offs
If you are buying a laptop like this for video editing, photo work, and other creative applications, the Yoga Pro 9i is usable, but it does not lead the field.
Puget Benchmark Premiere Pro 2.0. Highest Performance Mode, Higher is Better
Apple's MacBook Pros offer smoother timeline playback and faster exports, while full-powered gaming laptops pull ahead in heavy 3D rendering. That does not make the Yoga Pro 9i bad for creators. It just means you are paying for versatility rather than class-leading media performance.
Summarized shortly: If your work is mostly photo editing, lighter video work, or balancing creative tasks with general productivity and some gaming, it still makes sense. But for buyers whose income depends on these workloads, there are better options.
Gaming Is Solid, Not Exceptional
The Yoga Pro 9i is better suited to gaming than a MacBook Pro, and for many buyers, that will matter. Its RTX 5060 can absolutely run modern AAA games at respectable settings, and the experience is generally smooth.
Marvel Rivals Benchmark, Upscaling & Frame Gen Off
Games like Marvel Rivals, Cyberpunk, and Forza Horizon 5 are all playable here, especially with upscaling in the mix. If your goal is to game casually or mix gaming into a broader work-focused laptop, the Yoga Pro 9i can do that.
Average GPU Wattage while playing Forza 5 in different power modes.
The issue is that Lenovo is not unleashing the full potential of this RTX 5060. At 100 watts, it trails similarly sized gaming laptops using the same GPU at higher wattages. So, you pay for a premium 16-inch laptop with gaming hardware, but don't get the full gaming performance. Overall, it’s good for gaming, but not the top pick if that’s your main priority.
Fantastic Keyboard
Lenovo continues to be a deliverer of industry-leading keyboards in laptops. It's comfortable, tactile but quiet, and features a premium soft-touch finish on the keys. For this year's Yoga Pro 9i Lenovo has chosen to drop the numpad, thereby perfectly centering your hands. A massive win for the typing comfort and at the same time disappointing spreadsheet-heavy users.
The only real flaw is blacklight bleed. Too much light spills around the keys, making them harder to read in some situations. It is a small flaw, but on a laptop at this price, it stands out.
Battery Life Still Needs a Workaround
While the 2026 Yoga Pro 9i model has the hardware for good endurance, the out of the box battery life is underwhelming. In testing, battery life improved significantly once the dedicated GPU was prevented from waking unnecessarily, and improved further when it was disabled entirely in the BIOS. This leads to us to suspect that is is an optimization issue that Lenovo needs to fix.
On the plus side Lenovo has improved the charging for this laptop. The new 245 power brick eliminates batter drain while plugged in and running heavy workloads. In addition to this the CPU performance no longer throttles when you switch to battery power.
Ports Selection and Speakers
Port selection is solid, featuring a fast UHS-II SD card and a decent internal upgradeability for a premium laptop. However, all charging ports and display ports are crammed onto the left side of the laptop, this includes both Lenovo's proprietary charging port and the two Thunderbolt USB-C ports.
This leads to a messy and somewhat messy looking desktop setups as you'll have to run cables behind the laptop if what you are trying to connect to the right of the laptop, whether it is to charge or connect to an external monito. For gamers, it is also important to know that the HDMI port connects directly to the dedicated GPU.
Lastly the speakers, the ones on this Yoga Pro 9i are phenomenal. Easily ranking amongst the best of any Windows laptop and at the same level as MacBook Pro 16
Linux Compatibility
For Linux compatibility, we chose to test it with Fedora 44 Beta, since we’ve had challenges with Fedora 43 not booting on many of these new laptops. After completing the setup, we can confirm that there were no issues with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Furthermore, changing the display brightness and keyboard backlight, along with testing the webcam, also went off without a hitch.
Who is This Laptop For?
The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i is a much better, more polished laptop than last year’s version. It is lighter, more refined, cooler under load, and still offers one of the best displays and keyboards in the entire Windows laptop market. But it is also a laptop defined by compromise, balancing performance, portability, and battery life.
It is not as fast as a MacBook Pro 16 for CPU-heavy or creator workloads. It is not as good for gaming as a similarly priced gaming laptop. And it still needs battery-life fixes that Lenovo should have handled already.
That leaves the Yoga Pro 9i in an interesting position. It makes the most sense for someone who wants one premium Windows laptop that can do a bit of everything, values the screen and keyboard highly, and does not need maximum performance in any one category.
If that sounds like you, it deserves a serious look. If your needs are more specific, there is a good chance one of its rivals will make more sense.
Pros
- Very premium, well-rounded laptop with strong CPU and GPU performance in a portable 16-inch machine.
- Excellent, very bright 16-inch tandem OLED display with sharp 3200 x 2000 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and near-perfect color coverage.
- Outstanding keyboard with great travel, satisfying click, premium feel, and centered layout now that the numpad is gone.
- Haptic trackpad is a welcome upgrade and supports pen input.
- Excellent speakers, easily as good as the MacBook Pro 16’s.
- 2 upgradeable SSD slots.
Cons
- Very expensive, especially compared with last year’s model.
- CPU is completely outclassed by Apple’s M5 Pro and Max chips in this class.
- GPU is only midrange for the price and is not fed full wattage.
- Display is extremely reflective, even more so than the glossy MacBook Pro display.
