Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16 Gen 8 Laptop Review: A Top Tier Laptop for Process-Heavy Work

2 weeks ago

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16 Gen 8 combines power, function, and a gorgeous Mini-LED surface for a adjacent price.

Rear of nan Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16-inch Gen 8.

Key Takeaways

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16 Gen 8 is simply a top-tier laptop pinch awesome specs, including a Mini-LED show and quad microphone system.
While nan laptop has useful features for illustration an fantabulous camera and comfortable typing experience, it does person immoderate weaknesses specified arsenic so-so speakers and mean artillery life.
If you prioritize capacity and a nice-looking surface complete artillery life and gaming performance, nan Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16 Gen 8 is worthy considering.

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16 (Gen 8) is simply a top-tier laptop that mostly meets nan hype of its awesome specs. With nan Slim Pro 9i's estimation down it and immoderate caller features for illustration a Mini-LED show and a quad microphone system, this instrumentality will support you captivated during activity hours and beyond.

With my expectations precocious since I antecedently reviewed Lenovo's Slim Pro 9i 14 (Gen 7), I wanted this upscaled type of nan Slim Pro 9i to execute well. Thankfully, too a fewer hiccups, Lenovo has continued to battalion nan Slim Pro 9i statement pinch useful features geared toward group who usage their laptops a lot. Of course, contempt these awesome integrations—such arsenic nan fantabulous camera, comfortable typing experience, and 3.3K Mini-LED display—I besides encountered immoderate weaknesses.

If you're okay pinch sacrificing artillery life for performance, so-so speakers for a awesome mic and camera, and a casual-only gaming acquisition for a binge-worthy screen, you'll want to adhd nan Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16 Gen 8 to your cart correct away. But if artillery life and gaming capacity outweigh these different features, I counsel looking elsewhere.

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16-inch (2023) laptop sitting open.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16 (2023)

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16 (2023) laptop gives nan Slim Pro 9i lineup an upgrade pinch a 16-inch Mini-LED display, a quad microphone system, and 1TB of storage. The Intel Evo i9 and NVIDIA GPU harvester for powerful processing and stunning graphics.

Operating System Windows 11 Home

CPU 13th Generation Intel Core i9-13905H (24MB Cache, up to 5.40GHz, 14 cores)

GPU NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 (6GB, 100W)

RAM 32GB LPDDR5X 6400MHz (soldered)

Storage 1TB PCIe Gen 4 M.2

Display (Size, Resolution) 16in Mini LED 3.2K show (3200 x 2000)

Camera 5.0MP IR camera pinch E-shutter, fixed focus, ToF sensor

Speakers 2W x 4 (dual broadside woofers), 2W x 2 (tweeters), optimized pinch Dolby Atmos

Color Storm grey

Ports 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (1 pinch Always On), 1 x Thunderbolt 4 USB-C larboard (Power Delivery 3.0 and Display Port), 1 x HDMI (up to 4K/30Hz), 1 x 3.5mm Headphone / microphone combo jack, 1 x Power connector, 1 x Full sized SD paper reader

Dimension 14.27 x 9.64 x 0.71in (362.44 x 244.82 x 18.16mm)

Weight Starting astatine 4.94lbs (2.23 kg)

Brand Lenovo

Model 83C0

Adaptor and Battery Integrated Li-Polymer 75Wh artillery (with Rapid Charge Pro), 170W slim extremity (3-pin) AC adapter

Connectivity Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.1

Box contents 1 x Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16 (2023) laptop, 1 x 170W charger, 1 x personification manual

Starting Price $2,199.99

Pros

3.2K Mini-LED Display provides beautiful colour and contrast
Quad mic array and 5MP camera are top-tier
X Power Performance keeps nan laptop cool
Comfortable typing and slim design

Cons

Some capacity hiccups erstwhile utilized successful Balance Mode
Speaker strategy is so-so
Battery life could beryllium better
Memory isn't upgradable

The Sleek Design: Classy and Slim

rear-of-the-lenovo-slim-pro-9i-16-inch-gen-8-2jpg_53035749522_o

At first glance, 1 mightiness see nan Lenovo Slim Pro 9i a spot chunky, particularly erstwhile nan connection "slim" is successful nan name—but astatine astir 5 pounds, its size is astir mean for a 16-inch laptop, and erstwhile closed it was rather thin.

Featuring Lenovo's premium anodized aluminum chassis, nan Slim Pro 9i comes successful a prestigious acheronian shadiness of grey and shows an unassuming Lenovo logo connected nan apical lid. Also connected nan apical lid is simply a mirrored tab on nan apical bezel, branded for nan 5MP camera and nan quad microphone array. When open, you'll spot nan protruding apical bezel supra nan 16-inch display. On nan guidelines of nan laptop is simply a ample keyboard complete pinch a number pad, different Lenovo logo, and a trackpad that measures astir six inches.

The up-firing speakers are located connected either broadside of nan keyboard, and you'll find 2 much tweeters connected nan corners of nan laptop's base, while nan down-firing speakers are connected nan bottommost corners.

A important creation characteristic of nan Lenovo Slim Pro 9i is nan extended cooling strategy connected nan bottom, which ties into nan capacity conception below.

Ports

Without going overboard, nan Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16 has a decent number of ports to get you by. On nan near broadside is nan charging port, a USB-A port, an HDMI port, a USB-C port, and a headphone/microphone jack. The correct broadside has different USB-A larboard and a full-size SD paper reader. You'll besides find nan powerfulness fastener connected nan correct broadside and nan webcam privateness slider.

Smooth Response: Keyboard, Touchscreen, and Trackpad

the-keyboard-and-trackpad-on-the-lenovo-slim-pro-9i-16-inch-gen-8-1jpg_53035751352_o

Whatever activity (or play) tasks you've sewage connected your plate, you tin comfortably navigate pinch nan responsive touchscreen, nan ample trackpad, and nan sizable keyboard. Of these three, my favourite facet was nan keyboard, which has a 1.5mm debased recreation response. The 1.5mm felt awesome for typing up documents and emails because it was well-balanced and easy to onslaught without making galore mistakes arsenic tin hap pinch looser keys. But if you for illustration a afloat recreation keyboard for gaming aliases otherwise, to set your laptop's typing experience, you tin ever put successful a abstracted Bluetooth mechanical keyboard to upgrade your setup.

The touchscreen was arsenic responsive arsenic 1 would hope, and nan touchpad had a smooth-as-butter consciousness that kept maine from emotion nan request to usage my wireless mouse.

Display and Graphics: The Vibrant Mini-LED

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16-inch Gen 8 laptop playing nan movie

Mini-LED isn't OLED—but nan benefits of a Mini-LED surface are a higher opposition ratio and accrued brightness (most commonly, Mini-LED is seen successful TVs). And boy, did I announcement nan upgraded brightness and blacker blacks. If you are large connected colour and contrast, a Mini-LED laptop isn't a bad measurement to go, moreover if OLED is still considered superior.

Speaking of brightness, nan Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16-inch Gen 8's surface reaches a whopping 1200 nits, truthful if you often activity successful agleam environments, you'll person zero problem seeing your screen. If you support nan surface astir 80 to 100% brightness, expect a drop-off successful artillery life, though.

Streaming YouTube videos was a pleasure, and watching Bravo's "Below Deck: Down Under" and nan Vasilis Katsoupis flick "Inside" on Peacock was engrossing capable successful 3.2K that I couldn't attraction little if nan show was OLED aliases not (though I still champion OLED). In fact, nan Slim Pro 9i whitethorn person officially made maine a Mini-LED believer.

Performance: Great, minus a fewer Issues

For nan astir part, nan Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16-inch laptop kept maine moving (and goofing off) successful awesome spirits. I did announcement immoderate slower processing than I expected while multitasking successful "Balanced" mode, and this importantly affected my cognition of this device's wide capacity since moving successful Balanced mode is nan champion measurement to conserve artillery life without wholly sacrificing processing speeds. After utilizing "Balanced" mode for a mates of days, I switched to "Performance" mode and knowledgeable processing nirvana. From my experience, you tin expect a small resistance successful "Performance" mode but an occasional 1 successful "Balanced" mode erstwhile doing dense computational lifting.

Speedy, straight-to-the-point, processing happened successful Performance mode, and moving applications simultaneously was nary longer an issue. Even erstwhile I had video games downloading successful nan background, Spotify playing music, and 25 tabs unfastened while editing immoderate photos successful Photoshop, I didn't person to region my workflow. Everything flowed, and location was zero latency.

Another notable characteristic of nan Slim Pro 9i is nan "X Power Performance" standing from Lenovo, which maximizes capacity connected a bladed instrumentality and contributes to nan cooling system. While utilizing nan Slim Pro 9i, I seldom noticed a too-high power level, and moreover while plugged successful and gaming, nan instrumentality felt noticeably cooler than different laptops I've used.

Gaming With nan Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16 (2023) Laptop

A photograph of a virtual man connected a motorcycle playing connected nan Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16-inc Gen 8 laptop.

Gaming pinch nan Lenovo Slim Pro 9i laptop tin beryllium beautiful if you're a casual to mean gamer. Games pinch heavier assets requirements, however, whitethorn not do arsenic well. I had a pleasant clip playing everything from "Disney Dreamlight Valley" to "Bramble: The Mountain King" and "Life Is Strange: True Colors," but erstwhile I tried playing Xbox Game Studios' "Grounded" I noticed latency that made it astir intolerable to play. I had to set nan settings in-game to make it playable.

Immersive Sounds and Sights: Webcam, Speakers, and Mic

Close up of nan camera connected nan Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16-inch Gen 8.

If you activity from location aliases often be Zoom meetings, you'll emotion nan Slim Pro 9i's webcam. Housed successful nan bevel astatine nan apical of nan lid, nan Slim Pro 9i's webcam captures a clear image successful some agleam and dim lighting. Of course, successful full darkness, you'll want to bring successful much light, but nan awesome seizure of my features successful 1 of nan dimmest spots of my spot amazed me.

The speaker system, though location are six speakers successful total, was little impressive. It worked good to watercourse immoderate euphony aliases videos, but it didn't rather deed a satisfying loudness level to make them thing to constitute location about.

The quad microphone strategy captured nan quality sound good and had a stand-out noise-cancelation characteristic that put nan attraction connected my voice. In peculiarly large environments, though, you'll still perceive inheritance sound and immoderate expected muddiness to your sound.

Microphone Test of nan Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16 Gen 8 Laptop successful a Quiet Environment

Microphone Test of nan Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16 Gen 8 Laptop successful a Noisy Environment

Battery Life and Charging

The powerfulness cablegram plugged into nan Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16-inch Gen 8.

Although nan Lenovo Slim Pro 9i has an Intel Evo i9 CPU, artillery life still drained quickly pinch mean to dense laptop usage. For instances for illustration streaming, I could commencement pinch a 90% complaint and watch astir 2 to 3 hours of streaming earlier plugging in, but this was pinch nan brightness hovering astatine astir 80%. Keeping your surface brightness little is 1 measurement to improve artillery life connected Windows.

On average, erstwhile successful use, nan laptop's artillery drained astir 0.48% per minute, which equates to 28.8 percent per hour. A afloat complaint lasted betwixt 3 and 4 hours. During gaming, location was a higher drain complaint of 0.72% per infinitesimal aliases 43% per hour.

Charging was comparatively speedy pinch nan Rapid Charge Pro feature. I did spot nan laptop summation 30 to 40% successful 30 minutes. On average, nan complaint clip was 0.81% complaint per infinitesimal aliases astir a 40% summation successful 1 hour.

Should You Buy nan Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16 Gen 8 Laptop?

If you're successful nan marketplace for a laptop that's dense connected processing and distant moving devices for illustration noise-canceling mics and an fantabulous webcam, nan Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16 Gen 8 packs a worthwhile punch. The unthinkable show is different awesome trading constituent for personification who wants a laptop that will service them good aft moving hours, but nan Slim Pro 9i isn't a competitory gaming laptop and only shines while gaming casually.

Those who for illustration a laptop that is much suited to gaming mightiness effort nan Lenovo Legion Pro 5 Gen 8.

You tin bargain nan Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16 Gen 8 laptop starting astatine $2,199 today.