Lenovo’s Yoga Slim 9i is the beauty, HP’s OmniBook Ultra is the beast

Right now, the Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 has just two configurations. You can get an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V chipset, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD for $1,760, and for $1,835 you get the faster Core Ultra 7 258V and 32GB of RAM. The 14.0-inch 4K+ OLED display is the only option.

The OmniBook Ultra 14 has more options. For $1,350, you get an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 14.0-inch 2.2K IPS panel (the only option). Upgrading to a Ryzen AI 9 HD 375 and 32GB of RAM adds $150, while a 2TB SSD costs an additional $180. That makes them most expensive configuration $1,680.

The HP is therefore the more affordable of the two machines, without the sale prices that will inevitably arrive for both laptops. And, both are solidly in the premium category.

Looking at these two laptops side by side, and it’s obvious that they’re going for completely different vibes. The Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 has smooth, rounded edges, a consistent dark blue color way (except for a slightly distracting bright blue keyboard), a glass cover on the lid that gives of a subtle sheen, and is generally a laptop that gleams a bit. The OmniBook Ultra 14 has a brawnier look, with HP’s now-iconic notches cut in the bottom display corners and the rear chassis edges, a dark gray color way that’s less elegant (but still attractive), and speaker grills flanking a slightly darker keyboard. The result is a laptop that’s also good looking, but doesn’t stand out nearly as much.

That’s also reflect in their relative sizes. The Yoga Slim 9i has insanely small bezels, aided by a webcam that’s embedded under the display, and that makes it slightly narrower and a lot shallower. It’s also thinner at 0.57 inches compared to 0.65 inches, and much lighter at 2.76 pounds versus 3.47 pounds. As we’ll see below, part of that extra bulk is to support a cooling system suppressing the heat generated by a lot more processing power. So it’s a reasonable tradeoff if you want more performance and don’t care about a larger, heavier machine.

Both laptops are built very well, made of all-aluminum chassis. The OmniBook Ultra 14 has a lid that’s less flexible, but both laptops have keyboard decks and chassis that don’t give in to pressure.

The keyboards are actually quite similar, with large keycaps and tons of key spacing. The Yoga Slim 9i’s keycaps are more sculpted, but the switches on both are roughly equal in terms of being light and snappy with precise bottoming actions. I like these two keyboards a lot.

The touchpads are also similar, as mechanical versions that are large enough. The Yoga Slim 9i’s button clicks are quieter and more confident, but really, both laptops deserve the great haptic touchpads that both manufacturers use on some of their other laptops. Both have touch displays, which I prefer.

Connectivity strongly favors the OmniBook Ultra 14, which has a mix of legacy and modern ports while the Yoga Slim 9i only has Thunderbolt 4. And, Lenovo dropped the audio jack, which I don’t like at all. Both have equally up-to-date wireless connectivity.

The Yoga Slim 9i has a higher-resolution 32MP webcam compared to the OmniBook Ultra 14’s also high-resolution 9MP version. They both have great image quality, and both have fast Neural Processing Units (NPUs) that support the full range of Microsoft Copilot+ PC AI features. HP has more proprietary AI functionality, including its AI Companion suite, and the Poly Camera Pro software makes for a better overall videoconferencing experience.

If the Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 is the beauty, then the OmniBook Ultra 14 is the beast — and it’s all down to their chosen chipsets. The Yoga Slim 9i uses Intel’s Lunar Lake, otherwise known as Core Ultra Series 2, which have eight cores (four Performance and four Low Power Efficient) and eight threads, running at 17 watts. It’s aimed more at efficiency than sheer performance, is is basically Intel’s new low-power chipset aimed at thin and light laptops. The OmniBook Ultra 14, on the other hand, uses the AMD Ryzen AI 9 lineup, and we reviewed it with the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, which consumes 28 watts (configurable up to 54 watts) and has a whopping 12 cores and 18 threads.

As we can see from these benchmarks, the OmniBook Ultra 14 is a lot faster. Its integrated Radeon 890M graphics aren’t much faster than the Yoga Slim 9i’s Intel Arc 140 integrated graphics, so neither of these laptops is going to be great at gaming. Neither will have the GPU power to speed up tasks like video encoding, either. But for demanding productivity users, the OmniBook Ultra 14 offers a lot more power.

The OmniBook Ultra 14 has one display option, a 14.0-inch 16:10 2.2K (2200 x 1400) IPS panel running at 60Hz. That’s fairly pedestrian today, particularly in a premium laptop. The Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10, on the other hand, has a spectacular 14.0-inch 16:10 4K+ (3840 x 2400) OLED display running at 120Hz. The difference is striking, with the Yoga Slim 9i’s panel being razor sharp and very bright, with brilliant colors and inky blacks. The OmniBook Ultra 14’s display just isn’t in the same class.

The difference is obvious when looking at our colorimeter results. The OmniBook Ultra 14’s IPS panel is pretty good as far as the technology goes, but you can’t beat OLED. Toss in the extremely high resolution, and it’s obvious which laptop wins this category.

The Yoga Slim 9i is thinner, lighter, and smaller than the OmniBook Ultra 14. That makes it quite a bit more comfortably portable.

When it comes to battery life, though, it’s obvious that the Yoga Slim 9i’s gorgeous high-res OLED display has a price. Even though it has a larger 75 watt-hour battery compared to the OmniBook Ultra 14’s 68 watt-hour capacity, and even a more efficient chipset, it can’t keep up with the much longer-lasting OmniBook Ultra 14 — at least, when you’re not pushing the CPU really hard as with our Cinebench R24 test.

For typical productivity work, the OmniBook Ultra 14 will keep you going for significantly longer without being plugged in.

These are two very good laptops. They’re both well-built and attractive. But they’re aimed at different people. The Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10 is thinner, lighter, and more elegant, while the OmniBook Ultra 14 is the brawnier and slightly less portable.

The bottom line is that if you demand faster performance and better battery life, the OmniBook Ultra a 14 is for you. But if you want a beautiful laptop — and that includes one of the best displays I’ve ever reviewed — then the Yoga Slim 9i 14 is the better option.