Nelson Morales

REVIEW: Lenovo Yoga Slim 9 14 is a sleek, premium, powerful 4K ultrabook

Article (news)

Arthur Fuentes

ABS-CBN News

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1773038216461lenovo yoga 9 slim 14 10.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960" alt="The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9 14 ultrabook. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News"/>The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9 14 ultrabook. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</div>MANILA — The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9 14 is one of the best-looking Windows ultrabooks right now, and it packs a lot of power in its very sleek chassis. But it also makes me wonder if Lenovo hired someone from Cupertino when it comes to expansion ports. When I got the review unit and unboxed it, the first thing that struck me was how different it was from the other laptops I had reviewed so far. Lenovo designers really put a lot of effort in making this notebook’s design stand out. The glossy Tidal Teal (cobalt) gradient finish of the lid is visually striking—it’s not every day that you see an ultrabook that’s not aluminum gray, black or dark gray. Lenovo says that while the whole notebook is made of aluminum, the top is made from ‘2.5D glass’. I like the top’s glossy, shifting color effect, but it can also collect fingerprints and get smudged easily, like all glass surfaces tend to be. Its rounded sides also make it comfortable to hold, while its light weight means it’s easy enough to lug around. The build quality is excellent, and the keyboard and trackpad are top-notch. The keys are clicky and feel nice to type on. <div style="margin-left:20px"> </div><div style="margin-left:20px">SPECS: Lenovo Yoga Slim 9 14ILL10</div>CPU - Intel Core Ultra 7 258V (Lunar Lake) 2.2 GHzGPU: Intel Arc 140V (16GB shared)RAM - 32GB STORAGE - 1 TBSCREEN - 3480 X 2400 (4K+) OLED TouchscreenPORTS - 2 Thunderbolt 4 portsAUDIO - 4 stereo speakers, quad mic arrayCONNECTIVITY - WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4OS - Windows 11WEIGHT -  1.23 kg<div> </div>Open the lid and you are greeted by a gorgeous 4K + display. The screen’s 16:10 aspect ratio is perfect for work as it offers more vertical space than a standard 4K. And since it’s an OLED, the contrast is superb—blacks are black, not gray, and colors really pop. <div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1773038274238lenovo yoga slim closed.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960" alt="The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9 14 ultrabook. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News"/>The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9 14 ultrabook. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</div>I was also pleasantly surprised that this was a touchscreen. You don’t often find a 4k OLED touchscreen on a laptop. Another plus is the very thin bezels on the screen. Even the top bezel was just a few millimeters thick, as Lenovo hid the front-facing camera under the screen, just like in some flagship smartphones. It would have been nicer, though, if the screen could lie flat or even folded up like a 2-in-1 PC tablet, which would allow artists to use it for drawing.Still, it is a gorgeous screen, and one of the best I’ve seen so far on a notebook. If you like watching HDR content from Netflix and other streaming services, this laptop won’t disappoint you. People who like to work in cafes will also not be disappointed with this laptop’s battery life. The efficient Lunar Lake chip allows me to get through a whole day of work without needing to recharge. Lenovo says this notebook can last 14 hours on web-based tasks, and up to 17 hours when watching FHD movies. In my case, I usually work with sometimes over 20 Chrome tabs open at any time, along with Viber, Teams and Spotify. Even with the screen often at a high brightness setting, I would still finish the day with around 20 percent battery life left. <div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1773038304880lenovo yoga slim keyboard.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960" alt="The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9 14 ultrabook. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News"/>The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9 14 ultrabook. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</div>This laptop can also handle the workload of power users who edit large batches of photos or edit long-form videos. With 32GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage, it can handle heavy lifting from Affinity to CapCut to DaVinci Resolve. It can also support up to 2 external displays at 4K each, or one 8K display at 60Hz. The only issue I could see about using this as a laptop for graphics professionals is the number of ports. It only has two USB-C Thunderbolt ports. It doesn’t have an audio jack or memory card reader. Of course, you can just buy a dongle for peripherals, as the Thunderbolt 4 port has enough bandwidth. Still, it would have been better if the laptop simply included more ports in the first place.  Even the 2018 MacBook Air had at least an audio jack. As this is not really a gaming machine, we’re not going to discuss how it fares handling AAA games.  It can, but don&#x27;t expect Lenovo Legion performance.But all things considered, this is an impressive machine—great screen, great battery life, great choice of specs. And right now, every time I need to go back to using my M2 MacBook Air, it feels like returning from a nice vacation to real life.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9 14 is one of the best-looking Windows ultrabooks right now, and it packs a lot of power in its very sleek chassis.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9 14 is one of the best-looking Windows ultrabooks right now, and it packs a lot of power in its very sleek chassis.