Lenovo Yoga Professional 9i 16 Assessment: A True MacBook Professional Rival?

We shouldn’t anticipate any Home windows laptop computer with a robust discrete GPU to actually replicate what the MacBook Professional does. Sure, there are extra highly effective programs on the market, however effectivity is simply not what these programs are about. Even with the enhancements Nvidia has made in Superior Optimus (automated switching between discrete GPU when wanted), the battery life suffers, particularly whereas operating heavier functions. On a neighborhood video playback check, the Yoga Professional 9i 16 lasted for round 12 hours. Regardless of utilizing the identical 84-watt-hour battery, this seems to be a slight enchancment over final 12 months’s mannequin, although it is exhausting to get an apples-to-apples comparability. I do know that its battery life diminishes shortly below heavy load, because it died in simply 45 minutes whereas operating a benchmark. You will need to be plugged in for those who’re doing something too severe.

Whatever the activity, you will recover from twice the battery life on an M4 Max MacBook Professional. Not till we get ARM-based programs with highly effective built-in graphics that rival the M4 Professional and M4 Max will there be competitors for Apple. The closest factor we’ve seen to this point is AMD’s distinctive Ryzen AI Max+ processor, which confirmed up on the Asus ROG Circulation Z13 and used a large built-in graphics chip to problem conventional discrete graphics. However we’ve nonetheless received an extended method to go.

The one different Home windows laptop computer that may very well be higher is the Asus ProArt P16, which I’ve but to check. It now even comes with an RTX 5070 or 5090 choice, which might make it considerably extra highly effective than the Yoga Professional 9i. Nevertheless, it is also a way more costly laptop computer, configured with a 4K OLED display and solely higher-end GPUs. The Yoga Professional 9i can be tons of of {dollars} cheaper than the Dell 16 Premium when equally configured.

The Lenovo Yoga Professional 9i 16 will get quite a lot of issues proper—lots sufficient to make it value a advice as a sound MacBook Professional competitor. In the end, it’s the efficiency, show, and premium high quality that make it a worthy content material creation machine, and the Yoga Professional 9i succeeds on all these fronts, maybe higher than some other Home windows machine I’ve examined.