Buying your next Windows laptop? This Lenovo with a tandem OLED display is my top pick

Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• Lenovo's Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition is disposable present for $1,949.
• It's got a gorgeous tandem OLED display, with a bladed signifier and large show crossed aggregate usage cases.
• It has middling artillery beingness and noisy fans.

Follow ZDNET: Add america arsenic a preferred source on Google.

The Yoga Pro 9i (16-inch) is genuinely a gorgeous laptop, and it each centers astir its display. It's the archetypal happening you announcement erstwhile you look astatine it, and it holds your gaze. 

It's got thing unique: it's 1 of the fewer caller Windows laptops with a tandem OLED, resulting successful a crisp, exceptional representation that's creaseless arsenic silk and exceedingly agleam (up to 1,000 nits). 

Also: Don't privation to upgrade to Windows 11? You don't person to, but here's what you should know

Even though I've had a accidental to spot the 3.2K tandem OLED successful person, the exemplary I took location with maine had the somewhat little awesome (but inactive precise good) 2.8K OLED with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050 GPU. Yes, erstwhile up against the tandem OLED moving the RTX 5060, it isn't rather arsenic vibrant, but each things considered, it's a fantastic show with the aforesaid 120Hz refresh rate, HDR 1000 True Black, 100% DCI-P3, and slick solid screen. Especially erstwhile compared to different devices successful the aforesaid terms bracket.

The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i is simply a high-performance Windows laptop designed for professionals and creatives who besides bash immoderate gaming. It comes with 32GB of LPDDR5X (soldered) RAM, and a 1TB M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSD. I utilized it for a fewer weeks arsenic my main operator and emotion however adaptable it is. 

It's a fantastic laptop for work, with the large, crisp OLED display, tactile, full-sized keyboard, and generous I/O. It makes a fantastic instrumentality for creatives, with 1 of the astir almighty CPUs connected the marketplace for ultraportables, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H from the "Arrow Lake" series, moving 16 cores.

Also: Finally, a Windows laptop that I wouldn't caput putting distant my MacBook for

And it's a susceptible gaming machine, if not afloat committed to the identity. The hardware carries for astir titles, with immerse visuals powered by the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050 oregon 5060 GPU. For agelong gaming sessions, however, different laptops successful the terms scope are going to beryllium much optimized for longevity and vigor mitigation. 

And it tin surely get warm. The instrumentality kicks connected often for abbreviated bursts, adjacent portion doing mundane tasks. Copying ample files oregon multitasking with respective browser tabs, for illustration is capable to popular it into gear, and astatine afloat velocity it's large capable to perceive from the different room. That said, the laptop itself doesn't get uncomfortably blistery to the touch. 

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

Its carnal signifier is precise neutral, with Lenovo's grey connected grey connected grey plan that resists fingerprints but looks alternatively corporate. The full-sized keyboard is spacious and well-positioned, with an ample 1.5mm cardinal question and satisfying click. I conscionable privation it had a haptic trackpad, arsenic that would truly seal the woody arsenic a premium creative-first machine, particularly erstwhile paired with the display. 

There's thing incorrect with the trackpad connected the Yoga Pro 9i (although I bash privation it were centered), but successful 2025, but consumers privation to spot these kinds of premium touches circular retired the bundle erstwhile they're paying implicit $2,000 connected a laptop. At slightest arsenic an optional upsell.

Also: The champion laptops for graphic designers successful 2025: Expert tested and reviewed

In the aforesaid vein, the Yoga Pro 9i 16 doesn't consciousness exceptionally premium for its neutral design. It's thin, light, and well-balanced, but the Yoga lineup isn't precisely taking immoderate risks with its design. That said, there's precise small surface wobble, minimal flex of the carnal frame, and astatine 4.4 pounds and 0.76 inches thick, couldn't beryllium much portable. 

It's besides rather well-equipped successful presumption of ports. On the left, you person the charger port, an HDMI 2.1, 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports astatine 40Gbps that some enactment charging, and a headphone jack.

On the right, you get 2 USB-A ports astatine 5Gbps, and an SD paper reader. Just support successful caput that the powerfulness fastener connected the apical close is precise casual to accidentally pat -- particularly erstwhile you're plugging successful the charger. 

So what's the catch? You mightiness cognize wherever this is going. All this hardware is thirsty for power, and the Yoga Pro 9i has immoderate quirks erstwhile it comes to artillery life. First off, I should notation that the 170W charging ceramic it comes with is smaller than the 1 that came with past year's model.

The laptop does complaint via the USB-C ports, but if you person a low-wattage charger, it's not going to support up. In fact, adjacent the included 170W charger whitethorn not beryllium capable successful immoderate cases. If the Yoga is nether a dense CPU and GPU load, some users report that the 170W simply isn't enough, and that it needs a 230W charger (sold separately) to enactment astatine 100%. 

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

During my testing, I didn't brushwood this with the 170W charger, but I did with the USB-C chargers. Note that this is lone erstwhile the laptop is moving hard, similar erstwhile gaming oregon editing video. I didn't person this contented doing mundane tasks similar doing enactment oregon surfing the web. 

Also: How to wide your Windows 11 PC cache (and what happens if you don't)

Battery beingness is different expectedly limited. I got a small implicit six hours of mean usage successful the bureau earlier needing to plug it in. The exemplary with the tandem OLED show would apt person adjacent less, particularly if you're referring to much intensive workflows. 

Let's travel afloat ellipse and sermon performance, wherever the Yoga Pro 9i doesn't disappoint. As I mentioned before, portion of the gully present is this laptop's quality to grip a small spot of everything, but its peculiarly large show with photograph and video editing, graphic design, and animation.

Creative tasks, specified arsenic editing video successful DaVinci Resolve and CapCut, were snappy and responsive, though determination was usually a spot of lag from ample files oregon rapidly scrubbing done video. 

When comparing it to competing 16-inch laptops, the Yoga Pro 9i costs importantly little than its costly gaming cousin, the Legion Pro 7i, exchanging RGB lighting and superior cooling for a thinner, lighter form, amended display, and much well-rounded capabilities. 

ZDNET's buying advice

Lenovo's Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition is simply a fantastic laptop for creatives who privation a gorgeous display, with bonus points for being a coagulated gaming machine, arsenic well. Its bladed signifier makes for a overmuch much portable instrumentality than different laptops with this level of hardware, and each things considered, it's not that expensive, hovering astir the $2,000 mark, depending connected the hardware. 

Also: Lenovo's latest 2-in-1 laptop wowed maine with clever plan and a bold outlook

If you privation to spell each out, the tandem OLED is worthy it. But it's powerfulness hungry, particularly for demanding tasks. On the different hand, if you spell with the regular OLED and conscionable usage the instrumentality for productivity tasks, you'll find the artillery has much longevity.

I urge the Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition to creatives who privation to bash a small spot of everything with a high-performing, portable main driver.