Newer Isn't Always Better - Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i (Gen 11)

This is a new Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i or

Edition Gen 11. It's been refreshed with

Intel's new Panther Lake processors and

it sports a completely new design while

still keeping the core features that

made the previous generation great. So,

I thought what better way to see how far

Lenovo has come than to put it

head-to-head against its predecessor and

the one before that. So, we have the Gen

9 from 2024, Gen 10 from 2025, uh, with

Intel's Meteor H and Aerolake H

processors, respectively. So, this would

be a great showcase or a great example

to showcase the architectural

advancements, if any, Intel's new Pantal

processors bring to the table, but also

go through some of the physical

differences between these three

generations of laptops. Huge thanks to

Lenovo and Intel for partnering with us

in this video. Now, don't expect any

major GPU surprises here. Lenovo is

carrying over the same RTX 50 series

options from last year, but that's not

what this comparison is about. What I

really want to know is whether, you

know, we've gained any tangible CPU

performance generation over generation.

Uh if battery life has actually improved

and whether these new design updates uh

and and of course touch point upgrades

over the past three generations are

worth the upgrade. Let's start with

design updates. Gen 9 and Gen 10 were

essentially identical from the outside,

aside from the different logo placement

on the lid. Gen 11 changes that it's

roughly 3% thinner and 8% lighter than

Gen 10. Although the form factor

essentially remains the same. Uh albeit

this is the 16-inch laptop, so they are

fairly huge. But you do get a new

thermal bump design for better heat

dissipation, larger vents at the bottom

for uh better or improved intake and a

new thunder gray finish which is

slightly very slightly darker than the

previous generations. But the biggest

change has to be with the interior

space. So Lenovo has completely

eliminated the dedicated numpad in favor

of a more symmetrical layout. Now, I

know that this is going to be divisive,

but I'm a fan. The trackpad is now more

centered, which immediately makes the

whole deck feel a lot more balanced. The

keyboard has been updated as well. You

get black key caps that contrast nicely

against the gray chassis. Uh, the same

concave key caps still make their way

here. The key travel has been bumped to

1.5 mm, and there's an anti-fingerprint

coating. It feels really good to type

on. Lenovo has always had one of the

best laptop keyboards on the market and

the new Yoga Pro 9i, it still manages to

deliver the exact same experience from

the previous generations and that's not

a bad thing. Now, about this new

trackpad, Lenovo went allin with haptics

here. They're calling it the Force Pad,

and the concept is appreciated, but the

execution still needs a little bit of

fine-tuning. I ran into some issues

trying to select multiple files using my

thumb and index finger to drag and

select. It's not quite there yet, but it

is a noticeable upgrade in terms of

quality compared to the previous

generation Yoga Pro 9i. The surface, in

my opinion, at least feels a lot more

smoother. The left and right clicks, it

just feels a lot more satisfying

compared to the button style layout on

the previous generation. Uh I I really

like the Surface. It's super nice to

work with, and it's arguably one of the

best haptic integrations that I've seen

on a Windows laptop recently. You also

now get an included Yoga Pen Gen 2,

which lets you use the trackpad as a

drawing surface. I tried to get a little

creative with it, but the experience

feels a bit disconnected. If you start a

stroke at one point, it sometimes jumps

to a miscalibrated position on the pad.

And again, I just want to let you guys

know that the pen does not work with the

display despite it supporting touch

support, which is really bizarre. Now,

if you do plan to use this, um, you just

need a lot of patience. But if you take

this pen out of the equation, I think

this keyboard and trackpad combination

works really, really well for day-to-day

operations. The hinge has also been

stiffened up significantly. So, there's

not a lot of wobble compared to the

previous generation. And you still get

the magnetic lid uh which gives you that

satisfying snap just like the previous

generation. You also get the signature

features like the comfort edge design

which makes it easier to carry and grip

the laptop on the go. And on the port

side, not a lot has changed compared to

the previous generation, but there are

two noteworthy upgrades. The type A

ports have been bumped to Gen 2 at 10

Gbits per second over the previous

generation at 5 Gbits per second, and

the fulls size SD card slot is now UHS2

compliant, which makes a real difference

when you're pulling footage or photos

from something like my Sony FX3. There's

only one head scratcher, though, and

that's still the implementation of

Thunderbolt 4, but that's actually a

Panther Lake limitation. It's not a

Lenovo decision, which is really

unfortunate. And then we get to the

display. So last year we saw Lenovo

debut their Pure Sight Pro Tandem OLED

display. Just a refresher, Tandem OLED

uses two stacked layers that effectively

doubles the brightness output. And the

result is blindingly bright, guys. I

mean, this thing is just crazy. We're

getting over 900 nits of peak SDR

brightness, making it arguably the

brightest laptop that I've ever seen.

Um, the same thing goes for the Gen 10.

It's just crazy. Like these things are

awesome and I'm a sucker for brighter

displays, so these things just fit the

bill perfectly. This is still a 3.2K

16inch display. Still has a 16x10 aspect

ratio. It's a great canvas uh to

experience watching videos, uh editing

my photos and videos, of course, for the

channel. Uh it covers 99% DCIP3 and it's

pretty color accurate. Now, I do

appreciate Lenovo for pushing forward

with the tandem OLED technology over

here, and it seems like that's the

industry standard going forward, but it

still would have been nice if they kept

the mini LED option in their lineup.

Maybe add an anti-glare coating to cut

down on reflections because this is a

glossy panel. Uh, but I guess the

insanely high brightness output kind of

negates that. Interesting fact, the Gen

9 from 2024 had a 165 Hz display. So, if

you're coming from that, the 120 Hz

option might feel a bit of a downgrade.

Uh although the brightness kind of again

it just it's so good. It's one of the

best displays that I've seen on a

laptop. So those are the physical

updates across three generations. But

what about actual performance? Is Panda

Lake a step up over Aerol Lake and

better yet Meteor from 2024? Now before

I get into the numbers, let me quickly

run down the specs of each laptops. So,

Gen 9 from 2024 is running the Core

Ultra 9185H with 22 threads, 64 gigs of

RAM, and an RTX 4070 laptop GPU. Gen 10

steps it up to the Core Ultra 7255H,

though with six less threads. Uh, it

still has the same memory capacity and

an RTX 5070 laptop GPU. The new Gen 11

is where things get a little

interesting. You're getting Intel's

latest Core Ultra 9 386H with 16 threads

just like Gen 10. we are working with an

RTX 5060 laptop GPU instead and that

puts it at a clear disadvantage against

Gen 10 on the GPU side. Now, there is

supposedly an RTX 5070 12 GB variant

coming later this year, but right now

we're looking at 50/50 and 5060 options

on the current Yoga Pro 9i lineup. Now,

as we ran our usual suite of tests, we

realized something across these three

generations. It seems like Lenovo is

shifting their priorities. It used to be

about raw performance, pushing power