Lenovo leans on luxurious leather with flagship Yoga 9 series refresh

Ditch that aluminum lid for leather-wrapped goodness.

What you need to know

• Lenovo unveiled refreshes to its flagship Yoga 9 series today.
• New are the Yoga 9i and Yoga 9i Slim, both of which come with an optional leather-wrapped lid and haptic trackpads.
• The Yoga 9i is expected to launch in October starting at $1,400. The Yoga Slim 9i is expected in November starting at $1,600.

Laptop makers are gearing up for the holiday season, and Lenovo is among the first to reveal what it has up its sleeve. That includes the new Yoga 9 series, made up of the Yoga 9i and Yoga Slim 9i, both of which offer some rather luxurious finishes. And though you might have to wait to get your hands on them, these new Yogas could make some of the best Ultrabooks of the year.

Lenovo Yoga 9i 14-inch and 15-inch

The standard Yoga 9i comes in both 14-inch and 15-inch versions and packs all of the latest hardware you'd expect. Lenovo promises up to Intel's next-gen CPUs, which are presumably the 11th Gen Core series expected to debut this week. That also includes the Xe graphics architecture that Intel has been working on for some time.

Both of those additions should bring some quality upgrades in performance over Intel's 10th Gen ice Lake chips.

The real stars of the show here, however, are the design upgrades Lenovo has thrown in. While you'll be able to snag the Lenovo Yoga 9i with the standard all-metal exterior, Lenovo also has an option for a "Shadow Black Leather" covering on the lid. We've seen PC makers toy with new materials on their laptops for a couple of years now, and Lenovo's implementation looks quite attractive.

For the leather, Lenovo says that it designed a 20-step bonding process to ensure the covering is integrated securely with the laptop while still retaining the ripples and natural texture you expect from leather. Lenovo claims it should stand up to some abuse as well, thanks to UV and tension testing.

The leather models also get the added benefit of a haptic, all-glass trackpad. Haptics are something we've seen Apple incorporate in its MacBook line for a few years now, eliminating the moving "click" mechanism for a simulated click. This helps to slim things down while still providing the feeling of clicking when you press.

Category	Yoga 9i 14	Yoga 9i 15
OS	Windows 10	Windows 10
Processor	Up to next-gen Intel	Up to 10th Gen Intel Core i9 HK
RAM	Up to 16GB LPDDR4x	Up to 16GB DDR4
Graphics	Up to Intel Xe	Up to NVIDIA GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q
Storage	Up to 1TB M.2 PCIe SSD	Up to 2TB M.2 PCIe SSD
Display	14 inches Up to 4K touch VESA DisplayHDR 400 500 nits Dolby Vision	15 inches Up to 4K touch VESA DisplayHDR 400 500 nits Dolby Vision
Active pen	Built in	Built in
Ports	Two Thunderbolt 4	Two Thunderbolt 3
Audio	Soundbar hinge Dolby Atmos	Soundbar hinge Dolby Atmos
Wireless	Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.0	Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.0
Keyboard	Glass palm rest (leather model)
Touchpad	Haptic (leather model)
Security	Fingerprint reader (leather model) Webcam shutter	Webcam shutter
Battery	Up to 18 hours	Up to 13 hours
Material	Aluminum	Aluminum
Dimensions	0.60 inches (15.3mm) thin 0.77 inches (19.7mm) thin (leather model)
Weight	2.9 pounds (1.37kg) 3.08 pounds (1.44kg) (leather model)	4.4 pounds (2kg)
Color	Mica Shadow Black with leather	Slate Grey

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i

Where the Yoga 9i packs all of its features into your standard laptop chassis, the Yoga Slim 9i shrinks things down to be as portable as possible. Built with a 14-inch screen, Lenovo still managed to squeeze a lot of power in here. You get a lot of the same features as the standard 9i models, but slimmed down into a tighter package.

The same leather cover is available here, as is the all-glass haptic trackpad. Lenovo also offers an optional 3D contour glass display that wraps around the edges for a "streamlined design." Intel's latest 11th Gen CPUs and Xe graphics architecture are on offer here as well.

All of this is in a design that's only a little over half-an-inch thick and weighs 2.64 pounds. That's combined with an estimated up to 20 hours of battery life, along with fast charging through three Thunderbolt 4.0 ports.

Category	Spec
OS	Windows 10 Home
Processor	Up to next-gen Intel
RAM	Up to 16GB LPDDR4x
Graphics	Intel Xe
Storage	Up to 2TB PCIe SSD
Display	14 inches Up to 4K touch DisplayHDR 400 90% DCI-P3, 500 nits Dolby Vision
Ports	Three Thunderbolt 4
Audio	Dual front-facing speakers
Wireless	Intel Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.0
Camera	IR camera Electronic privacy shutter
Keyboard	Smart Sense backlight Glass palm rests
Touchpad	Haptic
Battery	Up to 20 hours
Dimensions	0.54 inches (13.9mm) thin
Weight	2.64 pounds (1.26kg)
Material	Aluminum
Color	Shadow Black (leather)

The new Lenovo Yoga 9 Series is expected to go on sale later this year in time for the holiday season. For the standard 14-inch and 15-inch Yoga 9i models, Lenovo says it expects them to be available starting in October at a starting price of $1,400. The Yoga Slim 9i, meanwhile, is expected to go on sale in November (as the IdeaPad Slim 9i in North America) starting at $1,600.