Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 G9 laptop review: MiniLED with 1200 nits and Core Ultra 9

[Redaktion]

Lenovo has improved its multimedia Yoga Pro 9i 16 flagship of the G9 generation in several areas. The 3.2K mini LED panel with 1200 nits is optionally matte and accompanied by Advanced Optimus. We put the most powerful configuration, which has the Core Ultra 9 185H and GeForce RTX 4070 laptop, to the test.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-Yoga-Pro-9i-16-G9-laptop-review-MiniLED-with-1200-nits-and-Core-Ultra-9.829380.0.html

[anonn]

There is a small mistake in the response time part of the review. Looking at the rise and fall values for the gray to gray transition they add up to 22.2 ms instead of 32.2 ms. (The German article has the same mistake!)

[NikoB]

Compare this pathetic Ultra 9 185H to last year's 7945HX:
www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ROG-Strix-G17-G713PI-Gaming-laptop-impresses-in-the-test-with-the-new-Ryzen-9.701633.0.html
The 7945HX, even when running on a 35W battery, is still faster than this pathetic product from Intel:
www.ultrabookreview.com/63622-asus-rog-strix-g17-review/

Lenovo, we don't need Intel - where is the AMD processor?

If set PL1=50W for 7945HX, the 4070 will be able to run at 130W with exactly the same consumption as the Intel version, but the 7945HX will even be 35% faster at 50W than the 185H.

When working only with SoC, you can raise PL1 to 70W, which is still 10W less than with 185H, but the performance will be more than 1.5 times higher!

Complete destruction of the latest Intel from AMD processor 2022.

At the same time, the 7945HX has 20 free pci-e 5.0 lines hanging in the air, which makes it easy to output 4xUSB40... and make both SSDs 5.0.

I'm wondering where the 3000:1 contrast on regular IPS without multi-zone backlight came from? IPS is not capable of this.

3.2K (3200x2000)   None   Mini LED   SDR 600nits /
HDR 1,200nits   Anti-glare   16:10   SDR 1,200:1 /
HDR 1,000,000:1   100% P3, 100% Adobe® RGB, 100% sRGB   165Hz (Max)   89°/89°/89°/89°   ∆E≤1 (Avg.), Eyesafe® Certified 2.0, Dolby® Vision, VESA DisplayHDR™ 1000, TCON

So this is not the first time that the author is openly deceiving readers and falsifying data. This panel physically cannot produce even 1500:1 in SDR (i.e. single-zone mode). The average typical value is 1200:1, as Lenovo declares. Don't expect anything more when purchasing this series. And this is an extremely mediocre contrast even for IPS in 2024.

It should also be noted that this is probably (from memory) the first Lenovo laptop with a 5MP webcam. Finally.

And for the first time Lenovo announced DP2.1 in usb-c with TB4, but this is still an outdated 40Gbps, which does not support UHBR20 mode (80Gbps, as in TB5), so Lenovo is lying about supporting 8k monitors - 40Gbps is not enough to get a picture without loss of information. Only in lossy mode with DSC compression.

HDMI 2.1 is only complete if the manufacturer explicitly states support for FRL6. If this is not in public declarations, HDMI 2.1 is also fake.

[PHVM_BR]

Lenovo, we don't need Intel - where is the AMD processor?

If set PL1=50W for 7945HX, the 4070 will be able to run at 130W with exactly the same consumption as the Intel version, but the 7945HX will even be 35% faster at 50W than the 185H.

The 80W PL1 is the long-term limit for CPU specific tasks.

In CPU/GPU cross loads, the total limit (CPU + GPU) of this Yoga is 130W (just check the consumption in The Witcher and the Stress Test).

How would changing the CPU and setting PL1 to 50W allow the GPU to work at 130W?
Only if the CPU had a consumption of 0W.

In addition, the battery life would be 2 hours, maybe 4 hours at IDLE, with this CPU aimed at desktop replacement models.

[NikoB]

In CPU/GPU cross loads, the total limit (CPU + GPU) of this Yoga is 130W (just check the consumption in The Witcher and the Stress Test).

How would changing the CPU and setting PL1 to 50W allow the GPU to work at 130W?
Only if the CPU had a consumption of 0W.

In addition, the battery life would be 2 hours, maybe 4 hours at IDLE, with this CPU aimed at desktop replacement models.

You're lying as usual.

There are no significant changes in the consumption measurements compared to the predecessor. However, there is another problem here: the supplied 170 watt power supply does not sufficiently cover the maximum consumption and the device has to tap into the battery. And not just briefly, but constantly, which can be clearly seen in the chart below. During stress testing, the battery capacity drops by 12% in 75 minutes. Although our stress test is the worst-case scenario and not all customers will use Performance mode, this is clearly a problem and Lenovo is cutting corners here. The Yoga Pro 9i 16 should have been delivered with at least a 200-watt power supply.

[NikoB]

When playing games, this model will kill the battery very quickly, for which I congratulate the future owners...

[Neenyah]

When playing games, this model will kill the battery very quickly, for which I congratulate the future owners...

Wait until you discover that with Vantage not only you can set battery thresholds but you can stop battery from charging altogether at any percentage even at 0% "charge". Also no game is pushing 100% continuous load at the system, it's usually CPU around 15-30% and GPU around 95-99%. Far lower Total System Power than a stock charger can provide so there is no problem.

[DDylan61]

In CPU/GPU cross loads, the total limit (CPU + GPU) of this Yoga is 130W (just check the consumption in The Witcher and the Stress Test).

How would changing the CPU and setting PL1 to 50W allow the GPU to work at 130W?
Only if the CPU had a consumption of 0W.

In addition, the battery life would be 2 hours, maybe 4 hours at IDLE, with this CPU aimed at desktop replacement models.

You're lying as usual.

There are no significant changes in the consumption measurements compared to the predecessor. However, there is another problem here: the supplied 170 watt power supply does not sufficiently cover the maximum consumption and the device has to tap into the battery. And not just briefly, but constantly, which can be clearly seen in the chart below. During stress testing, the battery capacity drops by 12% in 75 minutes. Although our stress test is the worst-case scenario and not all customers will use Performance mode, this is clearly a problem and Lenovo is cutting corners here. The Yoga Pro 9i 16 should have been delivered with at least a 200-watt power supply.

Where are the lies ?

The graphs from the stress test showed in average a CPU consumption of 43W and a GPU consumption of 87W.
43 + 87 = 130W (bravo !)

The 170W consumption are for the whole system, and the latter is not only composed of a CPU and GPU.
There are other components to take into account such as motherboard, RAM modules, display, ..


And I think the other point concerning the battery life is that you compare the core ultra series with the AMD HX series ("desktop replacement").
However, the core ultra series are aimed the compete with the AMD HS series.
The AMD HX series are better compared with the Intel series also conveniently named HX..

[PHVM_BR]

You're lying as usual.

I don't know if you're crazy or if you act crazy to cover up the nonsense you write.

[Dr. T]

Now, all we need to wait is for Lenovo to include an OLED option (or DELL XPS to become more competitive performance-wise).

[anonn]

I'm wondering where the 3000:1 contrast on regular IPS without multi-zone backlight came from? IPS is not capable of this.

3.2K (3200x2000)   None   Mini LED   SDR 600nits /
HDR 1,200nits   Anti-glare   16:10   SDR 1,200:1 /
HDR 1,000,000:1   100% P3, 100% Adobe® RGB, 100% sRGB   165Hz (Max)   89°/89°/89°/89°   ∆E≤1 (Avg.), Eyesafe® Certified 2.0, Dolby® Vision, VESA DisplayHDR™ 1000, TCON

So this is not the first time that the author is openly deceiving readers and falsifying data. This panel physically cannot produce even 1500:1 in SDR (i.e. single-zone mode). The average typical value is 1200:1, as Lenovo declares. Don't expect anything more when purchasing this series. And this is an extremely mediocre contrast even for IPS in 2024.

Just to clear this up, the contrast measurements are probably pretty acurate. The monitor never goes into a single zone lighting more. It always has local dimming enabled. But in SDR it is not very agressive, so you barely notice it. And it's no wonder the author didn't pick up on it.
This isn't communicated anywhere though, which I find a bit weird.

[anonn]

I never realized how unattractive I am until I reread my post.

I sincerely apologize. Kindly remove, from your memory banks, any record of this encounter as I do not want you to become a raging idiot like myself.

Thanks and btw...

I'm a flaming homosexual with no aspirations.

[anonn]

You're lying as usual.

I don't know if you're crazy or if you act crazy to cover up the nonsense you write.

I once was called crazy so I drank laundry detergent to prove people wrong.

Hbu?

Riddle me this, if he wasn't lying, does that mean you're a little bit of a jackass?  Asking for a friend