Lenovo Yoga 9i Aura Edition 14” mini review

[Wizec]

Lenovo Yoga 9i Aura Edition 14”.

I just bought this at Best Buy for about $1,550 on sale.

• 32GB RAM, 1TB storage
• 14” 3K OLED screen looks better to me than the MacBook Air screen
• Build quality is superb
• Keyboard has more travel and feels better to me than the MacBook keyboard (subjective, I know)
• Trackpad is large and precise
• It’s silent on the Optimized profile. I’ve never heard the fan except when opening the lid, or when I’m benchmarking on the Ultra Performance profile
• It’s faster than the M4 (iPad Pro) single core performance (Speedometer 3.1) on the Ultra Performance profile, but just barely (I have an M4 iPad Pro)
• Intel 140V GPU has faster gaming performance in DirectX, OpenCL, and Vulkan games than the M4 ( https://nanoreview.net/en/gpu-compare/intel-arc-140v-vs-apple-m4-gpu )
• I get about 14hr Web / Email / Productivity app battery life
• I about 10-11hr using Visual Studio 2022

It’s normally about $1,750, but watch for sales.

One caveat. Lenovo installs a stupid “Lenovo Vision Service” app that runs in the background and spins the CPU for a long time, eating the battery. There’s not an uninstall for this service as far as I can find. Having done IT for 30yr, I wiped the disk and reinstalled Windows to get rid of the bloatware and now I have the best setup I’ve ever found. 😊

 

[maflynn]

Keyboard has more travel and feels better to me than the MacBook keyboard (subjective, I know)

Lenovo has the best keyboards imo.

One caveat. Lenovo installs a stupid “Lenovo Vision Service” app that runs in the background and spins the CPU for a long time, eating the battery. There’s not an uninstall for this service as far as I can find. Having done IT for 30yr, I wiped the disk and reinstalled Windows to get rid of the bloatware and now I have the best setup I’ve ever found. 😊

Sounds similar to their Vantage App, I disabled the service, so that largely prevented the app from running. Wiping and reinstalling is the safest however and I also did that with my thinkpad.

 

[mezer]

It’s faster than the M4 (iPad Pro) single core performance (Speedometer 3.1) on the Ultra Performance profile, but just barely (I have an M4 iPad Pro)

What browser did you use to test on the Lenovo? The iPad is locked to Webkit which is what every browser on Apple's mobile/tablet devices use.

Chromium browsers ie Chrome/Edge are much faster than Webkit based ones. Google tested the M4 on macOS using Chrome (duh!) and it currently is the fastest CPU for the web.

Chrome achieves highest score ever on Speedometer 3.1, saving users millions of hours

Update (6/10/2025): This blog was updated to reflect that testing was done using the Speedometer 3.1 benchmark, and resulted in a 22% perf...

blog.chromium.org

• Intel 140V GPU has faster gaming performance in DirectX, OpenCL, and Vulkan games than the M4 ( https://nanoreview.net/en/gpu-compare/intel-arc-140v-vs-apple-m4-gpu )

Gaming is just better on Windows, although for productivity the M4 GPU should take the lead.

• 14” 3K OLED screen looks better to me than the MacBook Air screen

Much better. I love the OLED.

now I have the best setup I’ve ever found.

Enjoy, Lunar Lake + that OLED is great

 

[Wizec]

What browser did you use to test on the Lenovo? The iPad is locked to Webkit which is what every browser on Apple's mobile/tablet devices use.

Chromium browsers ie Chrome/Edge are much faster than Webkit based ones. Google tested the M4 on macOS using Chrome (duh!) and it currently is the fastest CPU for the web.

Chrome achieves highest score ever on Speedometer 3.1, saving users millions of hours

Update (6/10/2025): This blog was updated to reflect that testing was done using the Speedometer 3.1 benchmark, and resulted in a 22% perf...

blog.chromium.org

Gaming is just better on Windows, although for productivity the M4 GPU should take the lead.

Much better. I love the OLED.

Enjoy, Lunar Lake + that OLED is great

Good point. I used Safari on the iPad and MS Edge (Chromium) on the Lenovo, so I guess it wasn’t exactly a fair test.

 

[pshufd]

I have one arriving tomorrow. It just left Shanghai. I got the 4k display, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD. It amazes me that they offer this expensive for its category laptop with 16 GB of RAM, fortunately the upgrade is only $50. Price for me was $1,514 and that's with the senior discount ($83) and the one time coupon for signing up to get their ads.

I've been watching the price daily and the price online changes almost daily in terms of discounts and coupons but the net result is usually around $1,600 - $1,700. Best Buy sometimes has great discounts on laptops. The best I've seen is $550 off the Asus ProArt 13 from $1,800 to $1,246.

So review away please as I want to get rid of the crapware/spyware too.

I looked at this model and the Yoga Slim 9i as they were the only two 4k 14 inch laptops I could find.

These laptops are not for gamers, heavy users, AI, etc. They're not really for creatives either unless you create on this laptop and edit and render on a desktop. This is what I consider a niche machine - good for business users, school users, etc. Very good single-core but weak multi-core and good battery life. I think that this was just a design tradeoff from Intel. If you need performance, then you're better off with the AMD HX3** laptops.

 

[pshufd]

I went around looking for articles on stuff to disable on a new Windows 11 installation and I found one with a really large list of things. I suppose that I've done these things on my Windows 11 desktop in the past but it's been a little at a time when something annoying pops up. I guess it's better to try to do it all at once or schedule times to go through the list.

I need to make a list of programs to install and set up too.

In doing some analysis on current laptop chips, what I see is that:

The Core 9 Ultra stuff has good single-threaded performance but poor multicore performance. The HX 370 and similar have weaker single-threaded performance but better multicore performance. The 14900HX has stronger multicore performance and good single-core performance but uses a lot of power.

I'm a bit puzzled why Intel went this route on Core 9 Ultra as they could have added high-performance cores to it. My guess is the cost of the chips that they're making at TSMC and keeping the die size down. Battery life is pretty good on what seems to be a low-power process but they could up the multicore performance with a more Apple Silicon type approach. They are really ramping up the cores in Nova Lake so maybe that happens for 2026.

 

[pshufd]

I received it earlier and the toughest part has been getting the network running. I used the BypassNRO trick so that I don't have to log into Microsoft and it's possible that it screwed up the network settings so I reset the network and got up and running. Geekbench 6 results were weaker than I expected at 2,629 and 8,854 but I'll run it again. It's possible that battery numbers are lower than plugged in numbers and the laptop did sleep on me during the test.

I tested my main Intel program and it runs nicely, much faster than my M1 Pro MacBook Pro 16. The 4k screen is great and I think that this laptop will do what I need it to do. One thing that I need to figure out are the trackpad gestures as they are kind of like macOS but there are a few things that I need to figure out how to do. I generally never click a trackpad - I try to do everything with tap gestures.

I love Windows Hello. It knows when I'm using it and when I'm not and it can do stuff in battery saving mode when I'm not around.

It is far more portable than my MacBook Pro 16.

Speakers are very good but not MacBook Pro good (I don't think that anything matches the MacBook Pros).

There's a lot of other stuff to explore on this (notably the pencil), and I need to setup some other programs.

Edit: big performance difference plugged in going to 2,723 / 11,019 or +3.6% single-core and +24% multicore.

 

[pshufd]

Stuff I love: Windows Hello, portability, display, battery (it seems to sip power like my MacBook Pro), responsiveness.

What I don't like: three finger drag and drop, iCloud (I'll have to do it in the browser or install a macOS virtual machine), missing Magsafe, ads from McAfee, Lenovo and probably the Windows App Store. I need to make a list of the things that I need and then add them.

It had me asking if I could gave just picked up a MacBook Air 13 or 15 instead but the answer is no as I'd have to set that up as well. My process takes about a week to set up a new system. Windows takes longer than macOS because there are usually several rounds of Windows Updates.

I like the approach of Lunar Lake where the emphasis is on battery life. There are a lot of complaints from those that want higher performance systems in that Lunar Lake isn't an option and I'd agree with them. Those people buy laptops with Intel 14900HX chips in them which have far higher multicore performance at the expense of battery life. Intel uses Taiwan Semi to make their Lunar Lake chips and I suspect the reason for weak multicore performance is cost. Intel wanted to keep chip costs down so they limited the number of cores in this series. The upcoming Panther Lake mobile chips will have up to 16 cores. Both Nova Lake and Panther Lake will focus on performance whereas Lunar Lake focused on efficiency.

I suspect that the Panther Lake laptops will be a lot more usable by the consumer that wants great battery life but also much higher multicore performance on demand. Panther Lake was supposed to go on Intel's 18A architecture but they might be abandoning it and I guess that they'd have to go to Taiwan Semiconductor to make them.

So it will take me a while to get all of my stuff on this new laptop and I expect it to feel comfortable when I'm done. Lenovo has done a nice job with this adding functionality that I appreciate. I do think that the usability will improve quite a bit with upcoming Intel chips. That is if they survive.

 

[Homy]

• Intel 140V GPU has faster gaming performance in DirectX, OpenCL, and Vulkan games than the M4 ( https://nanoreview.net/en/gpu-compare/intel-arc-140v-vs-apple-m4-gpu )

That’s the downside of using such comparisons. The only reason M4 10c gets lower overall GPU score (15 vs 17) is that it lacks result for Passmark (DX11-12) but if you look closer it actually outperforms Intel Arc 140V. Your own link shows that M4 10c has 123% better performance in GFXBench Aztec Ruins High Tier 4K and 25% higher score in GB 6 OpenCL. Besides OpenCL is deprecated in macOS since 10.14 Mojave.

You don’t write which CPU you have but since it has 32GB it must have Intel Core Ultra 7 258V. In 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited M4 10c is 38% faster and in Steel Nomad Light Score M4 is 21% faster. In games like Civilization VII M4 8c is 59% faster, in BG 3 M4 10c is 20% faster and in SotTR (non-native) M4 10c is 17% faster.

Apple M4 outshines Intel's Core Ultra 7 258V in every key metric: a detailed comparison

The Apple M4 chipset outperforms the Intel Lunar Lake chipset (Core Ultra 7 258V) in all three categories -- CPU, GPU, and NPU.

content.techgig.com

 

[maflynn]

Stuff I love: Windows Hello

That never really grabbed me, maybe because when I tried it, that was fairly new, or the cameras on my laptops were not great, but it never worked on my Razer, thinkpads or dell computers. I would be staring at the screen with the lights flashing that hello is trying to authenticate and it doesn't. I get so frustrated, I just have cancel and use the old fashion way. I finally disabled it, as it was quicker for me to type in a pin to get into windows.

What I love about windows is the simple shortcut keys, minimize all windows, Win+D, in macOS its Option+Command+H+M There's other examples like the prt-scn, one button to take a screen shot

File management, the file explorer is so much better then the Finder, in how it presents files/directories and how interacting with files/directories.

Controversial take - I prefer the cmd shell in windows over the terminal. Yes the Zsh is powerful, but I started off with MS Dos 2.11 and I frequently write scripts in powershell.

Display and Font scaling, windows does a better job imo

Game playing, no matter how you slice it, you get a better experience and better performance. There's no amount of arguments that will convince me otherwise. Are all PCs faster then Macs on gaming? no, but generally speaking you can game on a wider range of PCs starting with low-mid rang, where as you need a Pro/max//ultra to get good performance on the mac side and that means significant price increases at every step up.

 

[pshufd]

That never really grabbed me, maybe because when I tried it, that was fairly new, or the cameras on my laptops were not great, but it never worked on my Razer, thinkpads or dell computers. I would be staring at the screen with the lights flashing that hello is trying to authenticate and it doesn't. I get so frustrated, I just have cancel and use the old fashion way. I finally disabled it, as it was quicker for me to type in a pin to get into windows.

What I love about windows is the simple shortcut keys, minimize all windows, Win+D, in macOS its Option+Command+H+M There's other examples like the prt-scn, one button to take a screen shot

File management, the file explorer is so much better then the Finder, in how it presents files/directories and how interacting with files/directories.

Controversial take - I prefer the cmd shell in windows over the terminal. Yes the Zsh is powerful, but I started off with MS Dos 2.11 and I frequently write scripts in powershell.

Display and Font scaling, windows does a better job imo

Game playing, no matter how you slice it, you get a better experience and better performance. There's no amount of arguments that will convince me otherwise. Are all PCs faster then Macs on gaming? no, but generally speaking you can game on a wider range of PCs starting with low-mid rang, where as you need a Pro/max//ultra to get good performance on the mac side and that means significant price increases at every step up.

It may be that the hardware is a lot better today but it works really well to the point that I don't think about it anymore. This laptop also has a fingerprint sensor but I haven't set it up as I haven't felt that I need it.

I come from the Unix (and other) world so I'm far more used to Terminal.

Explorer is better; there have been a ton of threads on MacRumors on that.

People ask about Macs for gaming, particularly coming from the Windows world. I tell them to keep their Windows system and buy a Mac if they want or need it for battery life, portability, video editing, etc. But yes, it's not all there in gaming and Apple isn't doing the things to make it better quickly.

Lunar Lake, though, is really not for gaming. This is why a lot of people who want gaming laptops are buying them with the previous gen 14900HX CPUs. Not something that I'd really want to carry around on plane trips though.

 

[maflynn]

Lunar Lake, though, is really not for gaming.

I get it, my Thinkpad T14S runs on an AMD 7840U/780M setup, no one would accuse the laptop of being a gaming laptop It can handle some of the older games, but any AAA games today wouldn't work on it. I think the GPU sits between a GTX 1060 and 1650

Yet with that said, its one of my favorite windows laptops that I've owned in a while.

 

[maflynn]

Here's what I'm dealing with windows and its wonderfully consistent UI. I was presented this regarding a RDP session


btw, this dialog box is 3585 pixels wide :O

 

[pshufd]

I get it, my Thinkpad T14S runs on an AMD 7840U/780M setup, no one would accuse the laptop of being a gaming laptop It can handle some of the older games, but any AAA games today wouldn't work on it. I think the GPU sits between a GTX 1060 and 1650

Yet with that said, its one of my favorite windows laptops that I've owned in a while.

The 2024 and 2025 chips going into laptops are HX350, HX370 and even some have the HX395 Max and those provide a lot of performance. They are often paired with discrete GPUs too. The best examples are the Asus ROG Flow 13 inch laptops.

 

[Wizec]

I always uninstall McAfee and just use Windows Defender when I buy Lenovo.

Also, make sure you update the graphics driver to the latest. There are power improvements and FPS improvements for the 140V specifically with the April 2024 and later drivers: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-com...rs-expands-power-optimizations-to-all-devices

 

[pshufd]

I always uninstall McAfee and just use Windows Defender when I buy Lenovo.

Also, make sure you update the graphics driver to the latest. There are power improvements and FPS improvements for the 140V specifically with the April 2024 and later drivers: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-com...rs-expands-power-optimizations-to-all-devices

What's your take on Lenovo Vantage? The ability to set the power profile is attractive to me though it appears to want to track some of the things that you do in return.

I am not used to running McAfee and really don't want it. I also normally just run Windows Defender.

 

[Wizec]

What's your take on Lenovo Vantage? The ability to set the power profile is attractive to me though it appears to want to track some of the things that you do in return.

I am not used to running McAfee and really don't want it. I also normally just run Windows Defender.

There’s a key on the keyboard that allows you to set the power profile by just pressing it. I completely wiped my drive and reinstalled Windows 11 because I couldn’t find a way to uninstall the Lenovo Vision Service which kept taking a lot of CPU and battery.

 

[pshufd]

McAfee removed and installing Intel Graphics drivers.

There’s a key on the keyboard that allows you to set the power profile by just pressing it. I completely wiped my drive and reinstalled Windows 11 because I couldn’t find a way to uninstall the Lenovo Vision Service which kept taking a lot of CPU and battery.

Fn + Q. I think that the images indicate which mode I put it in. I am not ready to wipe the drive just yet but I think that I can remove Lenovo Vantage. I'm not sure what Lenovo Vision is but I'm sure I'll run into it as I'm installing and removing things.

What did you do for iCloud Apps if you use them?

 

[pshufd]

McAfee removed and installing Intel Graphics drivers.

 

[Wizec]

McAfee removed and installing Intel Graphics drivers.


Fn + Q. I think that the images indicate which mode I put it in. I am not ready to wipe the drive just yet but I think that I can remove Lenovo Vantage. I'm not sure what Lenovo Vision is but I'm sure I'll run into it as I'm installing and removing things.

What did you do for iCloud Apps if you use them?

The key just below the delete key is the one that changes the power profile.

I downloaded the iCloud app from the Microsoft Store.

 

[pshufd]

Cool. I hadn't even looked at those keys.

Four Intel driver updates to do.

 

[Wizec]

Another thing to keep in mind is that Intel had to budget their die space for each feature.

One feature that they didn’t skimp on with the 258v processore was their neural processing unit. It can do 47 TOPs, which is much higher than the Apple M4 at 38 TOPs.

So, it’s quite decent at local neural processing.

And, using the right SDK, I believe OpenVino, the CPU, GPU and NPU can be combined to offer 115 peak TOPs. See peak TOPs here: https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...-12m-cache-up-to-4-80-ghz/specifications.html

 

[pshufd]

Battery life seems to be about 12 hours using YouTube or doing office stuff. This is comparable to my M1 Pro MacBook Pro 16 when it was new.

The only thing that I really miss at the moment is three-finger drag. I have to click the trackpad with my left hand and drag with my right. I'm going to try to find something that allows me to do three-finger drag. I could also drag on the screen but I'm just more used to not using the screen.

 

[Wizec]

Battery life seems to be about 12 hours using YouTube or doing office stuff. This is comparable to my M1 Pro MacBook Pro 16 when it was new.

The only thing that I really miss at the moment is three-finger drag. I have to click the trackpad with my left hand and drag with my right. I'm going to try to find something that allows me to do three-finger drag. I could also drag on the screen but I'm just more used to not using the screen.

There’s a simple way to drag things by double tapping and then dragging. For example, double tap the title bar of an application, but slower than the double tapping to maximize it, on the second tap just move your finger around and it will drag the window. Same with files.

 

[pshufd]

There’s a simple way to drag things by double tapping and then dragging. For example, double tap the title bar of an application, but slower than the double tapping to maximize it, on the second tap just move your finger around and it will drag the window. Same with files.

Thanks. That's a huge help.