When most people think of a really great all-in-one computer (AIO), the iMac is what comes to their mind first, but as I argued the same week that Apple launched new M3 iMacs, you can't forget what Windows PCs can offer, either. Whether it's something for working from home, or even for gaming, or just basic multimedia experiences watching YouTube, Windows AIOs can really excel for your needs just as well as an iMac can, even though they might not always be so powerful.

An AIO that especially excels is the Lenovo Yoga AIO. This humble Windows system from Lenovo really packs a lot that makes it worth buying over an iMac. Sure, it's not perfect since the port selection is poor, and there's no touch functionality, but you do end up getting a lot of bang for your buck. The design of this AIO is gorgeous, there's a Qi charger on board for your phone, and you can even use its display as a second screen for your laptop. That's already three things that an iMac can't do, and this seriously was an awesome addition to my home in the month that I had it.

About this review: This review was written after three weeks of testing a Lenovo Yoga AIO 9i, as provided by Lenovo. The company did not have any input and did not see the review's contents before publishing.

Lenovo Yoga AIO 9i: Pricing and availability

You can buy the Lenovo Yoga AIO 9i today from multiple different retailers. It is available at Lenovo, Best Buy, and even Amazon. Lenovo frequently has discounts on the product, and it's currently down to $1,488. At the time of writing, however, there are only models with integrated graphics. Lenovo's documentation provided for this review mentions a model with Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics, but I have yet to see it go on sale.

Note that as part of this price, Lenovo bundles in the Ultraslim Wireless keyboard and Ultraslim Wireless mouse. Both of these work with up to three different devices, so it's a pretty nifty inclusion. Lenovo didn't cheap out and give you a wired keyboard and mouse like most other OEMs might. The keyboard is quite responsive for what it is, and I had no issues using it for work, in place of my usual Logitech MX Keys S.

Design

Beautiful and unique

Windows AIOs come in all shapes and sizes, but the Lenovo Yoga AIO 9i is the most unique I've seen. While other types of these products have computing components built into the back of the screen, this one is built differently. Taking some inspiration from Surface Studio 2+, it has a solid circular base that is made of plastic that houses all the computing components.

Coming off that base in the rear is a metallic arm, in the shape of a paperclip. The arm holds the display, giving this AIO a cool floating effect. The branding is at a minimum, too, with a Yoga logo in the center, and a Lenovo logo on the top right. Everything comes together so nicely, and this AIO quickly became the centerpiece of my living room, with guests admiring it, when I propped it in my living space for photos. Sure the iMac's colors are nice, but this is even nicer!

And yes, just like the iMac, you can adjust the screen a bit. You're able to tilt the screen up and down to about 20 degrees, but there's no way to change the height. Considering the screen is huge at 32 inches, moving the screen around probably won't be too ergonomic or easy anyway. That's better suited for something like the HP Chromebase All-in-One.

Everything comes together so nicely, and this AIO quickly became the centerpiece of my living room.

I can't forget to mention the coolest part of the AIO, though. The Storm Gray-colored base has a Qi charger built into it. It's a little bit finicky since my phone has to be in a certain spot for it to work right (toward the middle), but it is nifty to see that Lenovo can make use of what would otherwise be wasted space. Lenovo has a Qi icon on the case that should make placing your phone easier.

The side of the base also has ventilation holes, which prove handy. Under heavy loads, you'll hear the fans kick in on this thing. The top of the base has a smooth glass-like finish, but it's still plastic. I love the way it feels.

And a note on the speakers. The back of the display is where you'll find the quad speakers. There are two 5W woofers and two 2W tweeters. I enjoyed the audio quality. Pulling up my favorite pop songs on YouTube and listening to them was a joy on this AIO. It filled the room with loud, clear, audio. Even video conferencing did the same, too.

Ports

It's a party in the back, but nothing upfront

The worst part of this AIO is definitely the connectivity. While the ports are modern, and you get a good selection, the ports aren't in the right location. But let's get into the selection first. There's a power button, a power connector, an HDMI 2.1 port, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, a USB4 port, and a headphone jack.

This is plenty enough for an AIO, for connecting keyboards and mice and USB drives, but having the ports on the back really is a pain. I often found myself bending over and behind the AIO to remove my USB drives, a problem that I always had with the iMac. I'd rather these ports be moved to the front, instead.

All is not lost, though. As you can see above, you can connect your laptop to this AIO over what Lenovo calls the "One Link USB-C connection," and get 90W of charging, too. It's super nifty that I was able to use my favorite ThinkPad, the ThinkPad X13s, with this AIO. And if the AIO itself doesn't have to be on for this to work. Just plug your laptop into USB-C, and you're good to go. You'll be able to make the most of this beautiful 4K display (as I get into next).

You'll be able to make the most of this beautiful 4K display on this AIO.

It's really rare to see this in an AIO anyway. You can't do this with the iMac. The only one I recall that has this function is the Dell Inspiron 27 7790, from a few years ago. So, I totally see where Lenovo got its inspiration.

Display

Absolutely vibrant

One thing that a lot of OEMs tend to slack off with on AIOs is the display quality. You get low-resolution panels on budget AIOs or have to pay to upgrade to higher-resolution options on other models that they might offer. None of that is a worry with the Yoga 9i AIO. For under $2,000, this nifty computer has a crisp 32-inch 4K resolution display that's probably better than the monitor you have at your desk. It's locked at a 60Hz refresh rate though, and it is extremely glossy and doesn't support touch.

When I used this AIO for work, everything was crisp clear, and bright. Writing this review, the white background in our CMS was so bright, that I had to pull the physical brightness settings in Windows 11 down a bit to stop my eyes from hurting. The 4K resolution also means I could stack three windows side by side and get so much work done. Even when watching a YouTube video showcasing the scenery of Denmark, I was thoroughly impressed with how bright and blue the ocean looked, and how the orange wooden structures and boat stood out against the ocean.

There's no way to adjust contrast, though. What you see is what you get. Only brightness is adjustable. And this isn't even a bad thing. The numbers my colorimeter put up were still very impressive. While not coming close to what an OLED monitor can get, it's excellent 80% or 90% numbers across the board in the categories that matter most for multimedia experiences like sRGB, and AdobeRGB. As for brightness, my colorimeter showed it can hit 600 nits when viewing HDR content on Netflix.

When you combine the color accuracy, the 4K resolution, and the fact you can use the display as a second screen, it's hard to complain about this AIO's display. Since this product has Lenovo's "Yoga" brand, I really expected it to pack touch functionality, though. That would have made interacting with web pages easier, but I assume adding touch would push the cost of the unit way too high.

When I used this AIO for work, everything was crisp clear, and bright.

The display has a 5MP webcam at the top, too, which is pretty good. I didn't look blurry or washed out on my calls. You can easily use this as a video conferencing hub if you want. It even supports Windows Hello, and there's a slider on the base to turn it off when not in use.

Performance

A laptop CPU in a desktop?

Under the hood of the Yoga AIO 9i is a laptop CPU. With the base being so small and thin, you simply can't expect to see desktop parts here. It's the 13th-generation Intel Core i9-13900H that's on board. This is a 14-core CPU, that can hit speeds of up to 5.4GHz. As a hybrid CPU, it also has 6 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores. There is no dedicated GPU on this unit, instead, we get Intel Iris Xe graphics. RAM is configured to 16GB, too.

For everyday tasks, the Yoga AIO 9i isn't going to slow down. My usual workflow of a ton of Chrome tabs, mixed with Microsoft Edge, social media apps, and even Android apps worked fine. You don't need a desktop CPU for that, and this laptop CPU will keep up with it. However, once I went beyond that and tried some video editing in Wondershare Filmora, and photo editing in Photoshop, I did feel it slowed down a bit, with export times for a 4K 20-second video taking about 35 seconds. Export times were slow since this unit has only integrated graphics, but they were still pretty decent. This is where the Apple M-series silicon does much better, especially when you consider our M1 iMac review, where we were able to render similar videos in about 27 seconds.

We don't really review a lot of AIOs here at XDA, but I am comparing this to a MacBook Pro M1, a compact Lenovo IdeaCentre Mini, and Surface Laptop Studio 2 just for kicks to show the power.

As you can tell, the Yoga AIO 9i is no slouch. It puts up some excellent multicore performance in Geekbench 6, past that of a Core i7 CPU, and in line with what we've seen with a MacBook. Even in a test that stresses the CPU, which is Cinebench, you can see some really high numbers in multicore performance, passing that of the MacBook, and even the Surface. The extra added cores really make a difference, should you want to game or video edit, but it's still not suggested especially since there's no GPU. It's for light tasks only, and I really wished I had the model with the RTX 4050 GPU, just so I could see the power.

Should you buy the Lenovo Yoga AIO?

You should buy the Lenovo Yoga AIO if:

• You want a beautiful family PC
• You want an AIO with a 4K display that can be used with laptops
• You want an AIO for everyday web browsing

You shouldn't buy the Lenovo Yoga AIO if:

• You're a gamer
• Your workflows are heavier

There are not a lot of products that I find hard to send back when I finish reviewing them, but the Lenovo Yoga AIO is one that I can now add to that list. It's not only a beautiful-looking AIO PC, but it's also jam-packed with cool features. Performance is also pretty solid for everyday workflows, but not good enough for gaming or photo and video editing. I love this AIO, and I really think it puts the iMac to shame when it comes to design.