One of the things I love the most about CES – the world's largest technology show, which takes place in Las Vegas, USA, each year – is that you never really know what you're going to find.
And when I'd heard about the Lenovo YogaBook 9i (Gen 8), I thought it sounded quite fun – but then I actually saw the laptop in person behind closed doors at CES 2023. 'Wow' is about the only word I have.
My picture up top of this page might make the YogaBook 9i look reasonably 'normal', but let me tell you: it's anything but. The YogaBook laptop marries a dual-screen design – two 4K OLED touchpanels, no less – with a magnetically-attachable keyboard, two-position stand, and there's even a stylus included.
What can the YogaBook 9i (Gen 8) do?
It's an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach that can be used in multiple ways: as a relatively straightforward laptop with the keyboard sat atop the lower screen; as a dual-screen portrait mode laptop-meets-giant-phone kind of combination; as a laptop with a digital virtual keyboard; or as a touchscreen-only 'waterfall' display that runs content between the two screens. Check out the gallery above to see a more visual explanation.
Now it's not yet a foolproof setup, I found a few bugs in the software in this pre-release state, and it'll take a bit of getting used to flipping between the various options before any user is completely comfortable, but there are some clear benefits to a setup such as this.
I think my favourite of the lot is how you can use the lower screen as a massive trackpad, then load up (or physically attach) the keyboard to use the YogaBook 9i as a more traditional laptop. There's space for additional on-screen widgets, such as news and weather or your emails, if you'd rather have quick-access extras on a portion of the second display.
It's innovation such as this that makes CES an exciting show. When a sea of 'yet another laptop' gets released into the wild, it takes wilder things such as the LenovoBook 9i (Gen 8) to stir the pot. It's certainly stirred my brain. More please!
The Lenovo YogaBook 9i will go on sale from June 2023, priced from $2,099.99.
