Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (16″ Intel) Review

The 16-inch Lenovo Slim Pro 9i is a desktop replacement laptop that targets creators of all kinds, and it’s nearly perfect for that role. Just be sure to pack the power supply, as battery life is perhaps its only major downside.

And in this case, I can live with that. For the past two months, I’ve done most of my work on the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i, and its unusual assortment of hardware components delivered a delightful level of performance that was perfectly suited for the video and image editing that I did as part of my digital decluttering work during this time. Indeed, the Slim Pro 9i was critical to this work: Switching to less suitable PCs from time to time proved unbearable, and I returned again and again to this workhorse.

Let’s jump in.

Design

The Slim Pro 9i is typical of Lenovo’s premium laptops, with a high-quality design with rounded corners and edges and understated Lenovo design elements. It’s also quite durable, with the expected MIL-STD 810H certification.

And it’s solid: This is one of the most rigid laptops I can recall. The keyboard base doesn’t flex at all, even when pressing hard on the center of the keyboard.

The Storm Gray color contributes to the all-business workstation vibe and is a nice respite from the standard-issue medium gray that’s so common these days. If it signals anything, it’s that it’s time to get to work.

Display

This is where things get really interesting. The Slim Pro 9i ships with a stunning 16-inch Mini-LED display, the first I’ve experienced, and from what I can tell, it’s everything that’s great about OLED but taken to 11. For starters, the brightness is off the charts—600 nits typically, but up to 1200 nits (!) in HDR—but so, too, is the contrast, as it can output 0 nits when displaying dark content. And you can really see this if you switch between a dark on-screen display and a whiter window: The screen explodes into brightness in a way that almost hurts my eyes.

But it’s not just that. The display also offers an unusual 3200 x 2000 resolution, which is somewhere between 1440p and 4K, I guess, at an ideal 16:10 aspect ratio. It’s a nice middle ground, frankly, between two more common resolutions that would be too little and too much, respectively, in a panel this size.

As good, the display offers a very high refresh rate of 165 Hz, making this the ideal vehicle for movies and, with its powerful innards, video games. And it hits 100 percent of the sRGB, DCI-P3, and Adobe RGB color gamuts, which is exactly what its creator customer base will want.

Dolby Vision HDR capabilities, TÜV Low Blue Light Certification+, and Eyesafe Certification round out the accolades. This may very well be the best display panel I’ve ever experienced. And the bezels are notably small for a panel this size.

Internal components

The Slim Pro 9i may look and feel familiar, but it’s powered by an unusual microprocessor and a powerful graphics chipset. The former is the 14-core, 45-watt Intel Core i9-13905H processor, a rare variant of the more common i7-13709H which lacks Intel vPro management capabilities (unnecessary for the target market) and ships in a smaller package size (40 mm x 25 mm, vs. 50 mm x 25 mm) that justifies the term “Slim” in the PC’s name. And the latter is an Nvidia RTX 4050 or 4060 GPU with 6 GB of dedicated vRAM, depending on configuration. (There are only two.)

These are nicely supported by 32 GB of fast LPDDR5 RAM and a 1 TB NVMe TLC SSD—there are no upgrades beyond the GPU—and the overall effect is one of seemingly unlimited power. The Lenovo quietly handled everything I threw at it, from massive file transfers across the network in either direction to video editing and encoding, plus all my normal office productivity work.

And then there were the games. No, the Slim Pro 9i is not a gaming laptop, and I’m sure there are much more powerful rigs out there for those who only need such a thing. But it has no issues playing 3D shooter games as diverse as DOOM 3, Quake II Remastered, and Halo Infinite, all with the resolutions and effects cranked high.

And Lenovo offers various performance-related tweaks via its Vantage app that can make the creator (and gaming) experiences even better via “X Power” CPU and GPU overclocking and an extreme performance mode. Naturally, these activities will cause the fan noise and temperatures to rise depending on the workload. But other than that, I had no issues with either.

Connectivity

Connectivity is modern, with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1, but no cellular data. The latest Wi-Fi was handy during my massive file downloads, as the Slim Pro 9i could hit 700 Mbps via my Eero wireless router.

Ports and expansion

The expansion capabilities are reasonable for a laptop this size, and I like that the two USB-A ports are identical. But I’d prefer to see two Thunderbolt 4/USB4 Type-C ports.

On the left, you’ll find the large proprietary Lenovo power port, a full-sized USB 3.2 Type-A port, a full-sized HDMI 2.1 port, the PC’s only Thunderbolt 4/USB4 Type-C port, and a combo microphone/headphone jack.

The right is less busy, with a second full-sized USB 3.2 Type-A port and a full-sized SD card reader, plus the power button (for some reason) and a large physical webcam privacy shutter toggle. The power button should be on the keyboard deck, not the side.

Audio and video

The Slim Pro 9i provides six speakers—two upward-facing 2-watt tweeters and four downward-facing 2-watt subwoofers—paired with Dolby Atmos immersive audio, and as you might expect, this completes the picture for both movies and video games.

With the right A/V setup, I can lose track of time “testing” films like Atomic Blonde and Alien Covenant because of their vivid visuals and immersive soundtrack. And the Lenovo is a near-perfect example of this type of experience. (A 4K display would put it over the top.)

The Lenovo also packs everything a hybrid worker could need, with a high-quality 5 MP webcam tucked into the laptop’s camera bar bump at the top center of the display alongside the Windows Hello-compatible IR sensor and other electronics, plus a quad-array microphone with configurable meeting noise cancelation.

The webcam offers terrific quality and low-light performance all on its own, but you can use Lenovo’s Smart Appearance app to adjust the background and face-framing, configure eye contact correction, and apply numerous very specific face filters if you’re in an AI kind of mood.

As noted, there’s also a hard toggle switch for the webcam on the right of the PC.

Keyboard and touchpad

Most 16-inch laptops come with a number pad that offsets the keyboard to the left, and this kind of setup always gives me trouble. This isn’t personal: I’m honestly not sure it’s appropriate for the target audience of this PC. But overlooking the multiple times I mistakenly toggled Num Lock on and off every single day—I’m a fast but messy typist—the Slim Pro 9i provides an excellent full-sized and backlit keyboard with the familiar scalloped Lenovo keys and terrific, quiet typing experience with nearly ideal 1.5 mm key throws.

Unlike with its ThinkPad lineup, Lenovo puts the Ctrl key where it belongs here—in the lower-left corner of the keyboard—and there are no other unexpected surprises in the layout. (That said, the webcam privacy shutter toggle is a physical switch on the right side of the PC, and not the more typical keyboard key.)

More problematically, the touchpad is massive and contributed to a lot of typing mistakes, as it would pick up errant palm presses as I typed, moving the insertion cursor again and again. Its sheer size also made it difficult to drag and drop, as it wouldn’t register the necessary click, hold, and drag sequence unless my finger was further to the left than it was normally.

Don’t get me wrong, it was usable overall and some of this is just sloppiness on my part. But I did experience more errors than usual because of the number pad and touchpad.

Security

The Slim Pro 9i ships with Windows Hello facial recognition, but there’s no fingerprint reader. And in addition to the security features built into Windows 11, you can optionally enable Lenovo’s Wi-Fi Security service to monitor your connection; unlike most services in Lenovo Vantage, it’s free.

Sustainability

The Slim Pro 9i is built with 50 percent post-consumer recycled plastic in the keyboard and 50 percent recycled aluminum in the bottom cover. It arrives in a packing cushion that contains 90 percent recycled plastic, and the packaging is 100 percent responsibly sourced Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) paper. The bottom is easily removed and many components can be replaced. But the RAM is soldered on the motherboard and non-expandable.

Portability

At 4.9 pounds, the Slim Pro 9i isn’t exactly portable, but then anyone purchasing a 16-inch laptop with this kind of power knows what they’re getting into. I wasn’t able to fly with it, but I did bring the Lenovo on two car-based trips, to Washington D.C. and the Finger Lakes region in upstate New York, and the only disappointment was battery life: I averaged less than 4 hours overall, and while I tested lowering the display refresh rate to 60 Hz, it didn’t have much of an impact.

Here’s the thing. Given the impressive power of this PC, few will want to spend much time on battery anyway, even when they’re not leaving the building. You’re going to have the best experience on power, and given how most people will use the Slim Pro 9i most of the time, the battery life is an inconvenience, yes, but perhaps not a deal breaker.

Either way, power comes via an enormous 170-watt power supply that connects to the laptop via a proprietary port. It can fast charge the unit’s 75-watt-hour battery to 50 percent in 30 minutes and, conversely, be configured to use an overnight battery charging mode that will reduce the time the PC is charged overnight, similar to how many smartphones work, helping to preserve the battery.

Software

The Slim Pro 9i ships with Windows 11 Home and a reasonable number of utilities, with little in the way of crapware. There are four Lenovo-branded apps, including Lenovo Vantage, three Intel utilities, including the Unison phone and tablet companion solution, Dolby Access, and then the reviled McAfee LiveSafe, which I of course removed.

Vantage is Lenovo’s go-to PC configuration and maintenance hub, and though it has a cleaner and more modern new home page design, at least on this PC, the familiar old cluttered UI appears as you dive into its subpages. As do all those Lenovo upsells are still present throughout the app, which is unfortunate.

Intel Unison is interesting. It works like Windows 11’s Phone Link in that you can connect to a smartphone and then access contacts, messages, the phone, photos, other files, and application notifications from the mobile device on your PC. And Unison also lets you optionally add a tablet, which is vaguely interesting.

In some ways, Unison offers less functionality than Phone Link does now, at least with an Android handset. I tried it with over time with both of my iPhones, and given how limited Phone Link can be, I was pretty impressed. The user interface is cleaner than that of Phone Link, and it works better, especially with notifications, which are immediate.

Pricing and configurations

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i is available in only two configurations and one color, and it costs $1599 or $1799, depending on the GPU choice. Both are hard to argue with. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find either right now, but the cheaper version is sold broadly, including at mainstream retailers like Costco and Best Buy. It comes with a one-year warranty.

Recommendations and conclusions

I test a lot of laptops, many of which are expensive premium models that cast the best possible light on their makers. But the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i is an affordable powerhouse that really speaks to me, and I will be sad to see it go. It offers an astonishing amount of performance for creator workloads and even games, especially at this price point. And it has the brightest, most colorful display I’ve ever used. The understandably poor battery life is an obvious con, but its bulk and size ensure that you’ll stick to the home office for the most part anyway. This is a terrific laptop. If you can get over the battery life, and I certainly did, this PC will meet any challenge you throw at it.

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i is highly recommended.

At-a-glance

Pros

• Expansive and gorgeous Mini-LED display
• Incredible performance for creator workloads (and games)
• Reasonably priced
• Good expansion and connectivity

Cons

• Battery life
• Number pad, error-prone touchpad