added lenovo yoga 9i review

1 files changed, 51 insertions, 16 deletions

diff --git a/wired.txt b/wired.txt
index 8448742..8bf9855 100644
--- a/wired.txt
+++ b/wired.txt
@@ -1,36 +1,37 @@
 # Scratch
 
-## Lenovo Slim 7 Pro Review
+## Lenovo Yoga 9i
 
-Lenovo's new Slim Pro 7 manages to be both powerful enough to edit video, and portable enough—with enough battery life—to actually be useful o the road. That's a rare combination, especially at this price. 
+Lenovo's latest Yoga 9i is everything a flagship laptop should be: powerful, sleek, and portable with an excellent 2.8K OLED display. The latest iteration of the 9i even includes Bowers & Wilkins speakers in the rotating soundbar hinge for some truly impressive sound (for a laptop).
 
-That's not to say it's perfect, but the compromises it makes to achieve what it is are the right compromises to meet the needs of those who, for lack of a better term, get called content creatives. That is, video editors, photo editors, perhaps even programmers who appreciate a 2.5K screen.
+The 9i uses Intel's 13th-generation processors with integrated graphics. That will be the only real rub for some, the lack of a dedicated graphics card. Otherwise this laptop is a tech-savvy traveler's dream.
 
-## HD
+### Hardware
 
-The Slim Pro 7 is a 14-inch AMD-powered laptop that sits somewhere in the middle of the Lenovo Slim/Yoga lineup (Lenovo uses the Yoga branding in some markets, but not the U.S.). The Slim Pro 7 X is the more powerful version with a slightly better screen, while the Slim 7i is less powerful. The Slim Pro 7 then, is something of a Goldilocks, or at least it would like to be.
+The Yoga 9i has enough business vibes to it that no one is going to look at you funny when you lay it on the conference room table, but it's also very much not a Thinkpad. The 2023 Yoga 9i is a stylish, powerful 2-in-1 convertible with a unique, impressive soundbar. It's now on its eighth revision and at this point Lenovo pretty much has things down. This release is largely a spec bump. 
 
-I tested the Slim Pro 7 with a new 7000 series AMD Ryzen 7 chip (7735HS) and both integrated Radeon graphics card and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050. It comes with 16 gigabytes of RAM (soldered, not upgradeable) and a 512-gigabyte SSD (upgradeable by anyone with a Torx screwdriver and a modicum of courage). 
+You’ll find the same rounded edges and overall elegant design as the last release, which is one of my favorite aspects. I wish more laptops embraced rounded edges. Why make sharp edges right where your wrists are going to rest for hours at time? Typing on the 9i was noticeably more comfortable on my wrists than my Lenovo T14 which has sharper edges. 
 
-Those components are wrapped in a very solid, all-aluminum chassis that didn't flex even when I picked it up with from the front with one hand. It's a solid, well-built machine, though it is on the heavy side at 3.5 pounds. It didn't mind toting it around, but it's not an ultralight by any means.
+There are two colors available, a light "Oatmeal" and a darker gray model. All models use a 13th-generation Intel i7 chip (1360P) and come with 16 gigabytes of RAM (soldered, not upgradeable). Prices start at $1,700 for the 2.8K model with 512-gigabytes SSD, which I tested, and go up for the 4K OLED screen version with a 1-terabyte SSD. The price puts them in the luxury laptop range, and the design and overall 2-in-1 styling reflects that as well. 
 
-One of the highlights of this machine is the screen. This 14.5-inch display crams in 2560 x 1600 pixels, making it 2.5K resolution. It's touch capable, though I still haven't found much use for touch on a laptop. More interesting is the 90 Hz refresh rate, which isn't quite enough to make hard core gamers happy (if that's you, the Slim Pro 7 X is the machine you want, with it's 144Hz refresh rate), but it's makes everything else quite smooth. The screen has 16:10 ratio, giving you a little extra height of the more common 16:9. It doesn't sound like much, but I find it helpful when browsing the web. It also makes the preview pane in video editors a bit larger.
+Probably the most impressive aspect of the 9i is the sound. Lenovo has tucked two Bowers & Wilkins 2W tweeters into the hinge, and added two 3W woofers on the bottom. The result is absolutely the best sound I've ever heard come out of a laptop. Admittedly, laptops make a low bar when it comes to sound, but this thing sounds good. Like actually good. It's even better in "tent" mode, which is what you'd want for watching movies.
 
-Speaking of editing video, I did, and the Slim Pro 7 handled it quite well. I used both Blender on Windows and Kdenlive on Linux. I had to enable GPU support in Kdenlive before I saw much performance boost, but in the end I was able to render out a 5 minutes of 5.2K footage in just over 12 minutes. For reference, my Lenovo X14 with an 6000 series AMD Ryzen 7 takes over 30 minutes to render the same footage. Presumable the main difference is the dedicated graphics card.
+The 14-inch display is equally impressive. I was quite sure Lenovo had sent the 4K version until I checked the specs and realized I'd been using the 2.8K version for two weeks thinking it was a 4K. That actually made me think I'd probably skip the 4K version and get the improved battery life of a slightly less hi-res screen. The 2.8K screen also has a 90Hz refresh rate to the 4K's 60 Hz which makes the lower density screen slightly smoother and better for gaming.
 
-You don't need to edit video to appreciate the performance here, but if you aren't editing video or doing other GPU-intensive tasks this might be overkill for your needs. At the same time, the slower screen refresh rate means this isn't the best option for mobile gaming, though it would no doubt serve the casual gamer.
+Lenovo claims 100% DCI-P3 color accuracy and in my testing I found that my screen supported 100 percent of the sRGB space and 98 percent Adobe RGB color space. I mention my screen because Lenovo screen sometimes vary within the same product line, but these results are generally in keeping with what you'd expect for an OLED screen.
 
-Performance like this often means poor battery life, but that's not really the case here. Lenovo has packed in a 73 watt hour battery that manages to get about 7 hours of battery life in real world use. That number will come down the more time you spend editing video, but it's still very impressive for a laptop with these specs. Suffice to say that for casual use you can just about eek out a day's work, but if you're headed to the coffee shop to edit video, bring the charger.
+Unlike some other premium laptops these days—cough, Dell XPS 13, cough—there are plenty of port on the Yoga 9i. On the left side there are two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, along with one USB-A port. On the right you get another USB-C port (oddly, not Thunderbolt 4, though you can charge with it), and headphone jack, and, sadly, a power button. I detest the power button on the side because I also seem to grab it when I carry it around, inadvertently shutting down the laptop. Not a deal breaker, but something to be aware of if you're similarly clumsy. 
 
-Unlike its port-cutting coompetitors, Lenovo always makes sure you have what you need in its laptops and the Slim Pro 7 is no exception. It's got two USB-C ports, both of which can change, one of which is USB-C 4.0. There's also a USB-A port for older peripherials and an HDMI port for plugging in a monitor. A headphone jack and webcam kill switch round out the sides of the Slim Pro 7.
+The keyboard is one of the more interesting features of the Yoga 9i. It has flat chiclet style keys that are fine. Not nice, not all that pleasant to type on, but they work. What's interesting is the far right side of the keyboard has a series of 1-touch function keys for controlling performance settings, audio settings, color settings, even adding a background blur to the webcam with a single button. There's also a fingerprint reader. I actually found these keys very useful, particularly the power profile button. By dialing back the power when I was just browsing the web I was able to get more out of the battery. 
 
-While there is much to love about the Lenovo Slim Pro 7, there are things I dislike. My number one gripe is the location of the power button on the right side of the body, just about where I instinctively grab it to carry it around. I can't tell you how many times I accidentally shut down the machine doing this. I'd much prefer a power button up where it belongs, one the top of the laptop.
+The touchpad is huge for a 14-inch laptop, on par with Apple’s MacBook Pro 14 in fact, and it worked well with the multi-touch gestures built-in to Windows. The Yoga 9i also comes with an active stylus. It works great for taking notes, and seems like maybe it would be okay for a little sketching as well. 
 
-The webcam was also not that great. It's 1080p, but I found it looked rather dark much of the time. It's fine for casual video conferencing, but if you spend a lot of time in online meetings and otherwise love this laptop, check out our guide to the best webcams for something better.
+I am happy to report that the webcam in the Yoga 9i is actually pretty good. It's 2.1MP, with a 16:9 view, giving you 1080p video capture. It's not 5MP quality like you'll find in some recent machines, but it's the best webcam I've tested on a laptop this year.
 
-The other thing that bothers me isn't Lenovo's fault, but Windows 11 remains a dumpster fire of frustration. It's hard to believe it's the successor to Windows 10. It feels much more like a buggy beta. I considered testing Windows 10 on the Slim Pro 7, but I don't have a copy anymore. Instead I installed Linux, which worked beautifully. I tested both System76's Pop_Os! (which I'd suggest for Linux beginners) and Arch Linux (which is what I use) and both worked great. 
+The Yoga 9i has a 75 Watt-hour battery, which boasts the same Rapid Charge Boost feature found in other recent Lenovo's like the Slim Pro 7 ([8/10, WIRED Recommends](https://www.wired.com/review/lenovo-slim-pro-7-amd-laptop)). I managed 11 hours and 17 minutes in our standard battery test, which loops a 1080p film (local) with the brightness at 75 percent. In more realistic testing, like just using it for work for a few weeks, I was able to regularly get 12 hours, sometimes more so long as I kept the brightness dialed back a bit. That's pretty good for an OLED laptop.
+
+While there is much to love about Yoga 9i it is clearly not aimed at gamers. Even casual gamers will likely be disappointed by the integrated graphics performance. If, however, you're in the market for a stylish, reasonably powerful laptop with awesome sound and a great, movie-friendly screen, the Yoga 9i is a great choice.
 
-If you're in the market for a mobile, video editing workstation that's truly portable, and don't mind sacrificing a bit power to retain that great battery life, the Slim Pro 7 is an excellent choice.
 
 
 
@@ -1456,6 +1457,40 @@ contain microfibers: http://guppyfriend.com/en/
 
 # Reviews 
 
+## Lenovo Slim 7 Pro Review
+
+Lenovo's new Slim Pro 7 manages to be both powerful enough to edit video, and portable enough—with enough battery life—to actually be useful o the road. That's a rare combination, especially at this price. 
+
+That's not to say it's perfect, but the compromises it makes to achieve what it is are the right compromises to meet the needs of those who, for lack of a better term, get called content creatives. That is, video editors, photo editors, perhaps even programmers who appreciate a 2.5K screen.
+
+### HD
+
+The Slim Pro 7 is a 14-inch AMD-powered laptop that sits somewhere in the middle of the Lenovo Slim/Yoga lineup (Lenovo uses the Yoga branding in some markets, but not the U.S.). The Slim Pro 7 X is the more powerful version with a slightly better screen, while the Slim 7i is less powerful. The Slim Pro 7 then, is something of a Goldilocks, or at least it would like to be.
+
+I tested the Slim Pro 7 with a new 7000 series AMD Ryzen 7 chip (7735HS) and both integrated Radeon graphics card and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050. It comes with 16 gigabytes of RAM (soldered, not upgradeable) and a 512-gigabyte SSD (upgradeable by anyone with a Torx screwdriver and a modicum of courage). 
+
+Those components are wrapped in a very solid, all-aluminum chassis that didn't flex even when I picked it up with from the front with one hand. It's a solid, well-built machine, though it is on the heavy side at 3.5 pounds. It didn't mind toting it around, but it's not an ultralight by any means.
+
+One of the highlights of this machine is the screen. This 14.5-inch display crams in 2560 x 1600 pixels, making it 2.5K resolution. It's touch capable, though I still haven't found much use for touch on a laptop. More interesting is the 90 Hz refresh rate, which isn't quite enough to make hard core gamers happy (if that's you, the Slim Pro 7 X is the machine you want, with it's 144Hz refresh rate), but it's makes everything else quite smooth. The screen has 16:10 ratio, giving you a little extra height of the more common 16:9. It doesn't sound like much, but I find it helpful when browsing the web. It also makes the preview pane in video editors a bit larger.
+
+Speaking of editing video, I did, and the Slim Pro 7 handled it quite well. I used both Blender on Windows and Kdenlive on Linux. I had to enable GPU support in Kdenlive before I saw much performance boost, but in the end I was able to render out a 5 minutes of 5.2K footage in just over 12 minutes. For reference, my Lenovo X14 with an 6000 series AMD Ryzen 7 takes over 30 minutes to render the same footage. Presumable the main difference is the dedicated graphics card.
+
+You don't need to edit video to appreciate the performance here, but if you aren't editing video or doing other GPU-intensive tasks this might be overkill for your needs. At the same time, the slower screen refresh rate means this isn't the best option for mobile gaming, though it would no doubt serve the casual gamer.
+
+Performance like this often means poor battery life, but that's not really the case here. Lenovo has packed in a 73 watt hour battery that manages to get about 7 hours of battery life in real world use. That number will come down the more time you spend editing video, but it's still very impressive for a laptop with these specs. Suffice to say that for casual use you can just about eek out a day's work, but if you're headed to the coffee shop to edit video, bring the charger.
+
+Unlike its port-cutting coompetitors, Lenovo always makes sure you have what you need in its laptops and the Slim Pro 7 is no exception. It's got two USB-C ports, both of which can change, one of which is USB-C 4.0. There's also a USB-A port for older peripherials and an HDMI port for plugging in a monitor. A headphone jack and webcam kill switch round out the sides of the Slim Pro 7.
+
+While there is much to love about the Lenovo Slim Pro 7, there are things I dislike. My number one gripe is the location of the power button on the right side of the body, just about where I instinctively grab it to carry it around. I can't tell you how many times I accidentally shut down the machine doing this. I'd much prefer a power button up where it belongs, one the top of the laptop.
+
+The webcam was also not that great. It's 1080p, but I found it looked rather dark much of the time. It's fine for casual video conferencing, but if you spend a lot of time in online meetings and otherwise love this laptop, check out our guide to the best webcams for something better.
+
+The other thing that bothers me isn't Lenovo's fault, but Windows 11 remains a dumpster fire of frustration. It's hard to believe it's the successor to Windows 10. It feels much more like a buggy beta. I considered testing Windows 10 on the Slim Pro 7, but I don't have a copy anymore. Instead I installed Linux, which worked beautifully. I tested both System76's Pop_Os! (which I'd suggest for Linux beginners) and Arch Linux (which is what I use) and both worked great. 
+
+If you're in the market for a mobile, video editing workstation that's truly portable, and don't mind sacrificing a bit power to retain that great battery life, the Slim Pro 7 is an excellent choice.
+
+
+
 ## Nocs Provisions Field Issue 8x32 Binoculars
 
 Nocs Provisions, which makes some of [our favorite binoculars](https://www.wired.com/story/best-binoculars/), has a new model it calls the Field Issue, a 32mm binocular that hits the sweet spot between magnification, price, and weight.