The Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 8 is my first experience with a 13th Gen Intel Core chipset, and the first review laptop that’s been delivered to me here in Mexico City. Which is interesting, because its predecessor was the first PC I reviewed that was based on a 12th Gen Intel Core chipset.

For 2023, Lenovo is carrying over the stunning design it debuted last year with rounded “comfort edges” all around, the unique rotating soundbar with Bowers & Wilkins stereo speakers, and the versatile convertible (Yoga) form factor. I love it: the Yoga 9i 14 remains one of the most attractive laptops I’ve ever used, and it is available in Storm Grey (which I received) and Oatmeal color options this year.

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Also carried forward is the terrific 16:10 display, with 2.8K and 4K OLED panel options, the edge-to-edge keyboard with one-click function keys in the rightmost column, and the large 75-watt battery.

I believe the 100-watt charger is new, but it’s a departure from the standard 65-watt parts from most Lenovo laptops. And it can fast charge to 2 hours in just 15 minutes.

The keyboard retains the classic Lenovo scalloped look, newly curved on all sides, and short key throws, which I like.

Those one-click keys are not great for me, however, as I’m a messy typist and have already started hitting them by mistake. Worse, most of these functions—smart power, background blur, audio profile, and color mode—are so infrequently needed, it’s not clear why this PC needs both horizontal and vertical function keys. (HP is making a similar mistake on a new generation of laptops that we’ll be discussing soon.)

Expansion seems reasonable, with a full-sized USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port and two Thunderbolt 4/USB4 Type-C ports on the left.

You also get a single USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port on the right, with a combo microphone/headphone jack and a Power button. Most PC makers have moved away from side-mounted power buttons on convertible designs, but it is of course accessible no matter which form factor you’re using.

The display is incredible, and I love that Lenovo includes Dolby Vision (HDR video) and Dolby Atmos (immersive sound) capabilities. Its predecessor offered terrific multimedia capabilities, and I suspect this one will as well.

And like its predecessor, the new Yoga 9i 14 offers Wi-Fi 6/6E and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, but no cellular data option. I am of course curious about the 13th Gen Intel Core processor, given my issues with USB-C and Thunderbolt 4 docking with 12th Gen chipsets. Did Intel fix the problems? I’m about to find out.

The webcam is still a 1080p unit, which should be adequate, and it offers IR capabilities for Windows Hello facial recognition. There’s a dedicated fingerprint reader on the keyboard, too, and Zero-touch login and lock features, so this is the optimal configuration for sign-in security convenience. I will test those latter features.

The review unit came with an Intel Core i7-1360P processor with four 5 GHz performance cores and eight 3.7 GHz efficient cores and Intel Iris Xe graphics, so it’s a 28-watt part. It also has 16 GB of dual-channel LPDDR5-5200 RAM (soldered), a 1 TB M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 SSD, and the 4K OLED panel, which emits 400 nits of brightness. The color is Storm Grey.

More soon: I’ll finish this review by the end of the month so I can ship it back to Lenovo before we fly home.