Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8 Battery Life: How It Compares To Biggest Competitors

Anyone who regularly uses a laptop knows how important battery life can be — because if it's not up to snuff you'll either spend half your time searching for an outlet or have to keep it plugged in. And that sort of defeats the purpose of using a laptop over a desktop — aside from the ease of portability, anyway. And now that our Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8 Review is out, and the device has been released for sale, how long it lasts is a pretty important question.

Before going into specifics, it's important to note that the Gen 8 has multiple settings that can be adjusted that will impact how long a single charge lasts. Additionally, as with all wireless electronics, the battery will last longer or drain faster depending on the actions being performed (i.e. idle, streaming, playing video games, etc). So the comparisons provided won't account for every single possible setting and task combination. And some settings may have an effect on performance, depending on what you're using the laptop for, so keeping it on the most energy-conscious mode may not always be the best course of action.

On average, though, the Gen 8 performs okay — not great, just okay — handling around eight hours of streaming on a single charge and only dropping about 2-3% when left in sleep mode overnight. Though it can't handle more intense tasks for too terribly long, with most games reducing the usage window down to around two or three hours total.

The Gen 8's battery performance isn't bad so much as mediocre, but it does start to look a little rough when you factor in the roughly $1700 price point and compare it to other modern laptops. Even older Lenovo models like the X260 run circles around it when it comes to the battery, and it started at half the price (a little over $800) — though the Gen 8 does also start with an Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB of RAM, plus it uses an OLED touchscreen display.

Looking at more recent opposition, the Gen 8's battery still fails to stand out. It's comparable to the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio's (starting around $1400) 10 or so hours and better than the seven or so you'll get out of the HP ZBook Studio G9 (normally starting at $4000+). But you can also get an M2-powered MacBook Air starting at $1200 that will last upwards of 17 to 18 hours, and Lenovo's own ThinkPad Z13 (starting at $1400) ran for about a day and a half in SlashGear's own previous test run.

Ultimately the Yoga 9i Gen 8 sits somewhere in the middle of the pack — battery-wise — unless you opt for the more performance-heavy settings (in which case it starts to fall behind). If price and how long it can hold a charge are major deciding factors for you, there are more affordable and longer-lasting options out there.