This laptop beats the MacBook Air in every way but one

There are plenty of great 13-inch and 14-inch laptops out there, but none that can defeat the M3 MacBook Air head-to-head. That notebook is the complete package when it comes to ultra-portable laptops.

The Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 9, however, puts up an impressive fight. In fact, it beats the MacBook Air in nearly every category other than battery life. It’s not quite as thin, either, but as you’ll see, the Yoga 9i Gen 9 is one of the best MacBook Air alternatives you can buy.

Specs and configurations

Lenovo’s pricing and configurations are highly subject to change, sometimes making it difficult to know when you’re getting the best deal. Right now, the Yoga 9i Gen 9 starts at $1,330 for a Core Ultra 7 155H chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 14.0-inch 2.8K OLED display. With a 1TB SSD and a 4K+ OLED panel, the Yoga costs $1,430.

Apple’s pricing is typically consistent and its full array of configurations remains constantly available. The base MacBook Air M3 costs $1,299 with an M3 8/10 chipset, 8GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 13.6-inch IPS display. With 16GB, which would make it comparable to the Yoga’s base model, the MacBook Air M3 is $1,499, or about $170 more. The MacBook can also be configured with 24GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD for $2,299.

The MacBook Air M3 is therefore the more expensive laptop unless you choose its base model. However, 8GB of RAM isn’t the best performance choice for laptops, except for those with the very simplest workflows.

Design

The Yoga 9i Gen 9 is an excellent example of the modern 360-degree convertible 2-in-1. It has rounded edges and a gorgeous chassis that is cohesively designed and enjoys a 360-degree hinge that’s smooth, but secure in clamshell, tent, and media modes. It’s an all-aluminum laptop that’s extremely well built and has no bending or flexing in its lid, keyboard deck, or chassis. And it’s drop-dead gorgeous, with narrow display bezels and a reverse notch holding the webcam.

That MacBook Air M3 is also one of the best-built laptops available today, with just some slight flexing in its display and an incredibly solid chassis that’s CNC machined out of a block of aluminum. It’s also very attractive, with a slightly more angular appearance and narrow display bezels that, in Apple’s case, require a display notch to house the webcam. It sports one of the smoothest hinges around and sports Apple’s typical elegance.

Simply put, whether you buy the Lenovo or the Apple laptop, you’ll be getting one of the best in its class.

The Yoga 9i Gen 9’s keyboard is excellent, with large, sculpted keycaps and plenty of key spacing. Its switches are light and snappy and have plenty of travel. Apple’s Magic Keyboard remains one of the best, with less travel ,but equally as large and spacious keys with even snappier switches. Either keyboard will keep you typing at full speed.

The MacBook Air M3’s Force Touch haptic touchpad is better than the Yoga 9i Gen 9’s mechanical version, and it offers the Force Click function that adds extra functionality with a “firmer” virtual click. The Yoga 9i Gen 9, on the other hand, has touch- and pen-enabled displays that support Lenovo’s active pen for writing and drawing on the screen.

Connectivity is a clear win for the Yoga, which offers as many USB-C with Thunderbolt 4 ports as the MacBook Air M3 while adding another USB-C port and a legacy USB-A port. Both have the same modern level of wireless connectivity.

Finally, the Yoga 9i Gen 9 has a higher resolution 5-megapixel webcam and builds in an infrared camera for Windows 11 Hello support. The MacBook Air M3 has a Touch ID fingerprint reader built into the power button. Both webcams offer very good images, with the Lenovo’s being slightly better, and both login methods are fast and effective.

Lenovo builds in user-presence sensing technology that manages the laptop when a user leaves and returns, logging off and back on and going to sleep and waking up accordingly.

Performance

The Yoga 9i Gen 9 uses the 28-watt Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, a 16-core (six Performance, eight Efficient, and two Low Power Efficient), 22-thread chipset. It packs in Intel Arc integrated graphics and has been a solid performer across a range of laptops, meeting the needs of demanding productivity users. The MacBook Air M3 uses Apple’s M3 chipset, which has eight CPU cores and either eight or 10 GPU cores. It’s also a solid performer for demanding productivity workflows, but its integrated GPU is faster than Intel Arc.

Looking at our suite of benchmarks, the MacBook Air M3 is faster in all but our Handbrake test and the Cinebench R24 multi-core CPU test. The MacBook Air M3 can also complete the Cinebench R24 GPU test, which Intel Arc won’t run, and its performance in the real-world PugetBench Premiere Pro benchmark is about 56% faster.

All in all, the MacBook Air M3 is a faster laptop for virtually all users. Neither laptop makes for a great gaming machine.

Display and audio

Lenovo offers two display options with the Yoga 9i Gen 9, a 14.0-inch 2.8K 2880 x 1800 (242 PPI) OLED display running at 120Hz and a 14.0-inch 4K+ 3840 x 2400 (322 PPI) OLED panel at 60Hz. The MacBook Air M3 uses a 13.6-inch 2560 x 1664 (224 PPI) IPS display at 60Hz. That makes the two Lenovo displays sharper, with the 2.8K panel offering the highest refresh rate.

We tested the Yoga 9i Gen 9’s 2.8K OLED display and it had wider and more accurate colors and much deeper contrast than the MacBook Air M3’s display. The MacBook’s panel was brighter. Overall, the Lenovo scores a significant win.

The Yoga 9i Gen 9 has Lenovo’s Soundbar that houses two tweeters, and there are two side-firing woofers. The MacBook Air M3 has a four-speaker sound system. While both have very good audio quality, the Yoga’s implementation has more volume, with clearer highs and mids and more bass.

Portability

The MacBook Air M3 is the thinnest laptop available today at just 0.44 inches and it’s reasonably light at 2.7 pounds. The Yoga 9i Gen 9 is thicker at up to 0.64 inches and slightly heavier at 2.98 pounds. The MacBook is therefore the more portable laptop, but neither laptop is a load to carry around.

However, when it comes to battery life, the MacBook Air’s M3 chipset is far more efficient. Even though it has a much smaller battery at 52.6 watt-hours versus 75 watt-hours, the MacBook lasts 19.5 hours when web browsing versus the Yoga 9i Gen 9’s roughly six hours. The MacBook Air M3 will last you more than a full day’s work, while the Yoga 9i Gen 9 isn’t likely to make it much past lunch.

The Yoga 9i Gen 9 puts up a spectacular fight

If you’re looking for a 14-inch convertible 2-in-1, the Yoga 9i Gen 9 should be on your short list. It’s fast, well-built, and has spectacular displays. It’s also reasonably affordable even while being a premium laptop. If you’re considering a MacBook Air, but want something in the Windows ecosystem, it gets a hearty recommendation.

However, the MacBook Air M3’s thinness and battery life are still unbeatable, and in this type of device, those are both paramount aspects. That makes it the better overall laptop in this class, even if the Yoga 9i Gen 9 puts up a spectacular fight.