The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i is a convertible notebook that’s convertible in more ways than most. That’s because while most laptops have a display and keyboard, the Yoga Book 9i has a 13.3 inch, high-resolution OLED display and… another 13.3 inch OLED display.
This design allows you to use the computer like a notebook, folded in half like a tablet, or opened up for use as a dual-screen device with two screens positioned side-by-side or stacked vertically. But two OLED displays don’t come cheap: the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i is expected to sell for $2100 and up when it hits stores in June, 2023.
Measuring 299 x 204 x 16mm (11.8″ x 8″ x 0.6″) and weighs 1.38 kg (3.04 pounds), the dual-screen computer is reasonably thin and light for a laptop, but pretty big and heavy by tablet standards. But it’s also pretty powerful for a tablet, with support for up to an Intel Core i7-1355U processor, 16GB of LPDDR5X memory, and up to 1TB of PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid state storage.
Each of the system’s two displays is a 13.3 inch, 2.8K OLED with 100% DCI-P3 color gamut and support for pen or finger input. A 360 degree hinge allows you to position the screens in laptop, tablet, tent, or stand modes.
Or you can the screens and use the Yoga Book 9i like a (rather heavy) book, or unfold them 180 degrees and for use as two portrait-orientation screens arranged next to one another horizontally or two landscape displays stacked on atop the other.
Lenovo ships the Yoga Book 9i with a Bluetooth keyboard, digital pen, and folio case that you can use as a stand for the screens while the keyboard is positioned in front. And if you’re not too keen on using an on-screen keyboard for typing in laptop mode, you can also place the keyboard atop the bottom screen.
Other features include an 80 Wh battery, three Thunderbolt ports, a 5MP IR webcam with a privacy shutter and support for face recognition, support for WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5. There’s also a rotating sound bar in the hinge with B&W speakers that will face forward no matter how the screens are positioned.
One rather disappointing thing for a computer that has a price tag that starts at $2100? The entry-level model won’t have a Core i7 processor or 1TB of storage. It will ship with an Intel core i5-1335U chip and 512GB of storage instead.
Lenovo tried the dual screen thing a few times already, remember the original (failed) Yoga Book from 2018? It was promising, the screen-keyboard-pad part was even surprisingly accurate, but it was powered by an anemic CPU (Atom if I recall) that made the price hard to justify.
As I recall the screen keyboard was an e-ink panel, while this is two of the same screens. So I couldn’t extrapolate inevitable failure just from having two screens. It’s still a hard sell from the price, uncertainties in durability, and not having a garaged stylus.
Not extrapolating this to be a failure in waiting at all, I was disappointed the first Yoga Book didn’t work out due to weird desicions like a CPU that was unfortunately way too weak (but thought the e-ink pad/on-screen keyboard was a good idea) – this is the third try I think (after the Yoga Book C9-something), they just keep getting better.
Me, reading this on an LG V60 Dual Screen: If this succeeds while LG was bullied out of business for basically the same idea, only modular, then I’ll flip.
The one person who bought the Microsoft Duo, reading my comment: Yeah, go tell’em!
Toshiba Libretto W100 owners: Been there, done that.
From my perspective, LG failed in the smartphone business because the bigger players had better marketing and promotional presence in the market. They were just too small of a company to play that game.
Every time a new Samsung phone launches here in Canada, Samsung has enormous promotional offers with all of the carriers. Usually several hundred dollars off the price of a new phone if you trade in an older phone, all paid for by Samsung. So their $1200 flagship phones often sell with a monthly financing pricepoint well below their competitors.
Samsung has also bundled promotional accessories if you buy their new flagship phones close to launch. I’ve received Galaxy Gear VR headsets, a pair of Galaxy Pro Buds, etc.
When the LG G8X released, the entry level model was priced nearly the same as the Galaxy S10. However, I managed to get the more expensive S10+ with higher storage space for less than the G8X’s price.
LG was like Sony in the smartphone market. They just release products at MSRP, and never do anything to attract customers. Their phones might have objective advantages, but that doesn’t equal sales.
DOA from price.
Garbage.
This was way cooler when the bottom display was an e-ink screen