Key Takeaways
1. New Design and Efficient Chipset: The revamped Yoga 9 14 convertible features a new design and uses Intel’s efficient Lunar Lake chipsets, enhancing battery life and reducing fan noise.
2. Display Limitations: The 4K OLED screen lacks good color accuracy, limited to the P3 color space, making it unsuitable for professional photo and video editing.
3. Low Refresh Rate: The 60Hz refresh rate affects the user experience during motion scenes, although the more affordable configurations have improved displays.
4. Graphics Performance: While multi-core performance is weaker, single-core and graphics performance remain impressive.
5. Need for Better Color Profiles: To compete in the creative professional market, Lenovo must provide adequate color profiles for its high-end displays, especially the 4K OLED models.
Lenovo has recently revamped the pricey Yoga 9 14 convertible, giving it a totally new design, and the latest G10 now uses Intel’s more efficient Lunar Lake chipsets. This upgrade, along with the Copilot+ certification, brings about enhanced battery life and quieter fans, although the multi-core performance of the processor isn’t as strong as it was before. On a positive note, both single-core and graphics performance are impressive.
Display Complications
The situation with the display is a bit tricky, as our test unit priced at €2,199 features a 4K OLED screen. While that sounds appealing, the details tell a different story. Lenovo seems to be aiming this 14-inch convertible at creative professionals, but simply having a high resolution isn’t sufficient. We would anticipate that devices designed for this audience would provide good color profiles with high color accuracy and an appropriate sRGB mode.
Sadly, this isn’t the case for the Yoga 9 14, which is limited to the P3 color space. Some color deviations exceed the critical target value of 3, which indicates the DeltaE-2000 deviation from the P3 standard. Even after manual calibration, we couldn’t enhance this, suggesting that the OLED display isn’t suitable for serious or professional photo or video editing, despite Lenovo’s marketing assertions. Lenovo might want to take notes from Asus, which provides solid color profiles even on more affordable Full-HD OLED screens.
General User Experience
Another drawback impacting all users is the low refresh rate of 60Hz, which is noticeable during motion scenes. However, the 2.8K 120Hz display in the more affordable configurations has seen improvements, being brighter in SDR (500 nits) and HDR (1,100 nits). We’re in the process of testing this panel in the Yoga 7 14 2-in-1, but it has a grainy appearance, a known issue from the previous model’s 2.8K display. This version also lacks proper color profiles.
In summary, the current 10th generation Yoga 9 14 2-in-1 is a solid overall device, but for those serious about image editing, it might not meet their expectations. To stay competitive in this space, Lenovo needs to offer adequate color profiles, particularly for its high-end 4K OLED models. For more in-depth information including detailed benchmarks and additional measurements, you can check out our comprehensive review of the Yoga 9.
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