We’re dicussing the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition in this article, also known as the Lenovo Yoga 9 2-in-1 over here on Europe, Lenovo’s premium lineup of convertible ultrabooks in its latest iteration as of 2025.
This laptop was released earlier in the year, as a hardware refresh of an already estabisbled chassis that’s arguably the best available in the premium 2-in-1 segment. It’s designed as a competent daily-driver in a portable package, and receives as novelties for this generation a slightly brighter OLED display and Intel Lunar Lake hardware, which is more efficient and not quite as fast in sustained loads as the hardware in the previous Yoga 9i units.
By the way, we’ve tested most Yoga 9i iterations over the years, and here are our reviews of the Yoga 9i gen9 and Yoga 9i gen8 . Derek wrote most of those past reviews, and this time around I get to share with you my personal thoughts and impressions on this series.
As mentioned already, this laptop has been available in stores for many months now, and that gives me the opportunity to put up together a longer-term review on a mature product, both in terms of hardware and software.
Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition specs
Lenovo Yoga 9i Aura Edition 2-in-1, 2025 model, gen 10
Screen 14 inch, OLED, 16:10 aspect ratio, touch, glossy,
Processor Intel Lunar Lake Core Ultra 7 256V, 4PC+4LPE/8T, up to 4.8 GHz
Video Intel Arc 140V, 8 Xe Cores, up to 2.05 GHz
Memory 16 GB LPDDR5-8533 (soldered), up to 32 GB
Storage 1 TB M.2 NVMe SSD (WD PC SN7100S) – single M.2 2240 slot
Connectivity Wireless 7 (Intel BE201) 2×2, Bluetooth 5.4
Ports left: 2x USB-C connectors with Thunderbolt 4, 1x USB-A 3.2 gen2
Battery 75 Wh, 65W USB-C charger
Size 315 mm or 12.4” (w) x 218 mm or 8.58” (d) x 15.2 mm or .6” (h)
Weight 2.92 lbs (1.33 kg) + .33 (.72 lbs) for the USB-C charger and cables, EU version
Extras convertible format with a 360-degree hinge,
Design, build quality This 2025 Yoga 9i is a premium and lightweight 2-in-1 chassis. Sturdy pieces of metal are used for the entire construction, creating a solid main chassis and a lid that barely flexes when pressed harder.
The laptop is only available in this Blue version for this generation, while in the past it was also offered in some gray and beige variants. Most surfaces have a matte coating that does a fair job at fending off smudges, while the edge around the main chassis is shiny. Aesthetically, I’m not a fan of this polished edge, but functionally, it is fine and comfortable on the wrists. Everything else looks good, though, fairly professional, even with the branding elements on the lid and the armrest.
There are, in fact, some weird design decisions around this chassis, with the lid part that is a little smaller than the main chassis, and the polished, shiny edge. They’ve been offering this design for a few years now, and it seems to hold on well over time, but I’d still pamper it as much as possible to prevent scratches.
As a convertible design, the hinge on this Yoga 9i allows you to rotate the display all the way to the back, so you can use this as a laptop, as a tablet, or anything in between. And the hinge implements speakers in it.
In all fairness, this is not that comfortable as a tablet due to its weight and size; it’s not a Surface or an iPad, hence this sort of format is still primarily meant for notebook use. But you do get a display that can be adjusted to any angle, a strong hinge, and the ability to transform into a tablet for multimedia use or maybe for taking notes with the included pen. So the format does offer extra functionality that’s not possible with a more traditional clamshell format, without any notable compromises. Well, perhaps a compromise is the slight increase in weight over a traditional format, but at 3 lbs, this is still perfectly portable.
Another slight compromise is the minimalist IO, which mostly relies on USB-C ports, with an extra audio jack and USB-A slot. At least it’s not USB-C exclusive. What’s nice is that you get USB-C ports on both edges, so you can conveniently plug this in or connect your peripherals on either side, something still very few laptops offer these days.
All in all, the Yoga 9i is a solid and functional design, well built, nice looking, and practical in general use. That shiny edge is a bit tacky for my liking, but I can easily learn to live with it.
Keyboard and touchpad There’s a proper keyboard and a large glass touchpad on this device, centered on the middle of the chassis.
The keyboard is standard for a premium-tier Yoga, with full-size smooth keycaps that color match the laptop’s blue theme. They have a slight dash in them and offer good feedback and clickiness, with 1.5 mm of travel depth.
I’m not necessarily a fan of this sort of design around the arrow keys, where the left and right are full-size keys and the up and down as half keys. I would preffer having all these keys half-sized, but at the same time many of you might be used with this design from other popular notebooks, such as most MacBooks.
There’s also an extra column of keys at the very right, which you’ll need to adapt to. These are functional keys by design (power profiles, speaker EQ settings, blue filter, and an extra programmable key), while the bottom-right key is a finger sensor. They would make more sense to me as dedicated keys for Home/End PgUp/PgDn, which are instead secondaries for the arrow keys. All these are minor subjective quirks, though.
The keys are backlit, with white LEDs. Light creeps up from underneath most keys with this design, but otherwise the LEDs are bright and uniform and do well what they’re supposed to do.
The touchpad is a large glass surface and worked flawlessly during my time with the laptop. Physical clicks in the corners are fairly smooth, but also cluncky and loud.
Normally, touchpads as large as this one suffer from ghost touches when using the laptop on the lap or on the couch, on your legs, but with the way the front edge is designed here, there’s actually enough space between the front of the laptop and the touchpad’s surface to minimize these ghost touches from your clothes.
As far as biometrics go, there’s IR support in the camera, and there’s also a fingerprint sensor implemented at the bottom-right corner of the keyboard. I would preffer having that separately as on older Yoga models, but even as a key, it’s nice to at least have this option, as most other modern ultrabooks rely entirely on IR cameras these days.
14-inch OLED display, 120 Hz, touch Lenovo offers two panel options for this series, both of them touch OLEDs:
2.8K 2800 x 1800 px 120Hz, 500-nits, 100% DCI-P3 colors;
4K 3840 x 2400 px 60Hz, 400-nits, 100% DCI-P3 colors.
We have the 2.8K panel on our unit, and it is clearly the one I’d choose if given the option, as it’s still sharp enough for a 14-inch display and is faster, brighter, and more efficient than the 4K option.
In fact, this is an update of the 2.8K panels offered in the past, with 500-nits of sustained brightness, while the previous variants didn’t go over 400-nits. This aspect makes the laptop more usable in brighter offices and even outdoors, negating some of the screen’s glare. ANd there’s plenty of glare, as expected from a glass-covered touchscreen.
Anyway, here’s what we got in our tests, with an X-Rite i1 Display Pro sensor :
Panel HardwareID: LEN8AC3 (LEN140WQ+);
Coverage: 100% sRGB, 91.0% Adobe RGB, 99.2% DCI-P3;
Type: 10-bit with HDR400, 120 Hz;
Measured gamma: 2.24;
Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 509.29 cd/m2 on power;
Min brightness in the middle of the screen: <20 cd/m2 on power;
Contrast at max brightness: 1:1;
White point: 6200 K;
Black on max brightness: 0 cd/m2;
PWM: Yes, to be discussed.
The White Point is a little skewed out of the box, but that’s easily fixable with a calibrator.
What’s surprising on this panel is the lack of any grain and muddiness that’s normally visible on light backgrounds on touch OLEDs. Somehow, there’s none of it here, at any brightness level. And this display still offers pen support, with an updated pen included in the box. It charges via USB-C and has an actual rounder pen shape, unlike the flatter pen offered in the past. It still attaches magnetically to the back of the display, and the magnets are seriously strong, so the chance of it falling off accidentally is rather slim.
Finally, you do have to account for the other potential quirks of OLEDs on this panel, such as potential screen burn over time if not used properly, and flickering at lower brightness levels. We don’t have the tools to test PWM frequencies properly, so you should consider other reviews if you’re sensitive to PWM flickering. Past versions of this 2.8K panel flickered at sensible frequencies of only 240Hz at 0-99% brightness. And Lenovo doesn’t offer a flicker-free brightness adjustment setting, unlike other OEMs.
Hardware and performance – Intel Core Ultra 7 Lunar Lake Our test model is a mid-specced configuration of the 2025 Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 with an Intel Core Ultra 7 6processor and Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics, 16 GB of LPDDR5x-8500 memory, and a middling 1TB gen4 SSD.
Disclaimer: This is a retail unit offered by Lenovo for review. It is tested with the software available as of late-October 2025 (BIOS Q9CN25WW, Vantage 4.3.96.0 app, Intel V32.0.101.8136 driver), a mature package at this point.
Spec-wise, this series is based on Intel’s Lunar Lake V hardware platform, with Core Ultra 200V processors and Arc integrated graphics.
The CPU on this review unit is the Core Ultra 7 256V, with 4 Performance Cores, 4 Low Power Efficiency Cores, and a total of 8 Threads. The hardware works at 28W sustained on Performance mode in this laptop, higher than most Lunar Lake designs.
The RAM is integrated into the SoC on Lunar Lake hardware, and the Core Ultra 7 256V comes with 16 GB RAM, while the Ultra 7 258V comes with 32 GB.
As far as graphics go, these Lunar Lake processors bundle Arc Xe iGPUs with 8 Execution Cores and speeds of up to 1.95 GHz.
For storage, Lenovo opted for a mid-level PCIe gen4 WD PC SN 7100S SSD here, which is fine for regular use, but will struggle somewhat with sustained transfers.
The SSD is the only upgradeable component inside the laptop. To get inside, you need to remove the back panel held in place by only four Torx screws of the same size.
As far as the software goes, this Yoga gets the standard Lenovo Vantage app, which allows control over the power profiles, battery, and screen settings, updates, etc.
There are three performance/thermal profiles to choose from:
Performance – runs the hardware at ~28W sustained with up to ~42 dBA max fan noise;
Auto (Adaptive Power Mode) – limits the hardware at ~22W sustained with up to ~40 dBA max fan noise;
Battery Saver – limits the CPU at ~15W to favor fan noise of sub 30 dB.
Auto is fine for general use, and Battery Saver is snappy enough as well, an option to consider if you prefer to keep at bay any fan noise that might otherwise ramp up with daily multitasking on the other modes.
Worth mentioning that these power modes are deeply hidden within the settings and not as easily accessible as on past Vantage versions. To find them, you need to go to Device Settings >> Modes >> Power.
Here’s what to expect in terms of speeds and temperatures with daily chores such as streaming video, editing text, or browsing the web.
Productivity Performance and Benchmarks On to more demanding loads, we start by testing the CPU’s performance in the Cinebench R15 loop test.
We keep the laptop on a stand, raised off the desk, for consistency with other reviews.
On Performance, the hardware runs at its peak design PL power of ~38W for a bit, and then stabilizes at 28W, with internal temperatures in the mid-60s °C and fan noise of 42 dBA. The laptop scores around 1250 points.
On Auto, the system limits power at 22W sustained, with fan noise at 40 dBA and internal temperatures in the low-60s °C. The scores drop by about 10% or so.
Battery Saver mode is much quieter at under 30 dBA, but limits the hardware at 15W sustained, with a more notable impact on the scores.
Finally, our sample performed very well on battery, stabilizing at 28W of power in Performance mode. That’s on par with the plugged-in Performance profile.
All these are illustrated in the graph below.
To put these in perspective, here’s how this Core Ultra 7 258V implementation fares against other hardware platforms available in current and past-generation thin and light laptops .
It’s on par with the same hardware implemented in the Zenbook S 14, and about on par with an i7-1360P from two years ago. At the same time, the Intel Core Ultra hardware implemented in the 2024 Yoga 9i or more recent Intel/AMD hardware available in other 2025 lineups outmatch it in this sort of multi-core activity, by as much as 50%.
We then went ahead and further verified our findings with the more taxing Cinebench R23 loop test and in Blender. We measured similar behavior, power limits, fan noise and temperatures.
We then ran the 3DMark CPU profile test.
Finally, we ran our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook, on the Performance profile. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time. This unit passes the test on or off the desk, which means the performance is not impacted in longer-duration sustained loads as the heat builds up. More on that in the gaming section.
Benchmarks results and performance summary With that out of the way, let’s get to some benchmarks. We ran our standard set of tests with the laptop on Performance mode (28W sustained TDP) and the screen set at its default 2.8K resolution.
Here’s what we got.
3DMark 13 –CPU profile: max – 5920, 16 – 5825, 8 – 5940, 4 – 3964, 2 – 2265, 1 – 1161;3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 9058 (Graphics – 10029, Physics – 21878, Combined – 3478);3DMark 13 – Solar Bay: 16203.3DMark 13 – Steel Nomad Light: 2674.3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 4159 (Graphics – 3839, CPU – 7885);3DMark 13 – XeSS: XeSS Off – 7.98 fps, XeSS On – 21.55 fps, 165.2% performance difference.
Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 1886;Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 6299;
PCMark 10: 7093 (Essentials – 10527, Productivity – 9095, Digital Content Creation – 10113);GeekBench 6.3.2 64-bit: Multi-core: 10825, Single-Core: 2720;CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 1566 cb, CPU Single Core 289 cb;CineBench R20 (best run): CPU 3826 cb, CPU Single Core 732 cb;CineBench R23: CPU 10655 pts (best run), CPU 10342 pts (10 min loop test), CPU Single Core 1898 pts (best run);CineBench 2024: CPU 595 (10 min run), CPU Single Core 121 pts.
And here are some work-related benchmarks, on the same Performance profile:
Blender 4.3.2 – BMW Car scene- CPU Compute: 4m 08s ;Blender 4.3.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 11m 08s;Blender 4.3.2 – Classroom scene – GPU Compute, OneAPI: 2m 22s;
SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax 07: 25.02;SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia 06: 20.64;SPECviewperf 2020 – Creo 03: 37.14;SPECviewperf 2020 – Energy 03: 5.74;SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya 06: 111.99;SPECviewperf 2020 – Medical 03: 11.56;SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX 04: 5.79;SPECviewperf 2020 – Solidworks 07: 48.31;V-Ray Benchmark: CPU – 6581, CUDA – 189.
Fair performance for a Lunar Lake platform, on par with other iterations tested so far. I do have to mention that this tends to run cooler than most other Lunar Lake ultraportables, due to its cooling module, its sometimes aggressive fan profiles, and perhaps its slightly larger chassis.
The CPU performance in multi-threaded loads is limited compared to the other modern platforms, such as Intel Arrow Lake H and AMD’s Krackan and Strix Point, but the GPU performance is competitive, with the Arc 140V still being one of the most powerful iGPUs available as of late 2025.
All in all, this platform is fine for casual use and multitasking, but not for heavier loads. It’s also fine for occasional content editing and light gaming.
Gaming Performance Speaking of, we ran a couple of DX11, DX12, and Vulkan games on the Performance profile of this Core Ultra 7 256V – Arc 140V configuration, at FHD+ resolution, with Low/Lowest graphics settings. I threw in a few other platforms for comparison.
Low settings Yoga 9i 2025, Zenbook S 14, Zenbook S 16, Swift Go 14, Zenbook 14 2025,
Dota 2 80 fps (52 fps – 1% low)
82 fps (46 fps – 1% low)
80 fps (46 fps – 1% low)
78 fps (48 fps – 1% low)
80 fps (50 fps – 1% low)
Far Cry 6 50 fps (36 fps – 1% low)
52 fps (38 fps – 1% low)
54 fps (46 fps – 1% low)
43 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
52 fps (36 fps – 1% low)
Horizon Forbidden West 47 fps (36 fps – 1% low)
45 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
40 fps (30 fps – 1% low)
40 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
44 fps (30 fps – 1% low)
Shadow of Tomb Raider 65 fps (36 fps – 1% low)
66 fps (26 fps – 1% low)
72 fps (56 fps – 1% low)
64 fps (50 fps – 1% low)
72 fps (48 fps – 1% low)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 74 fps (58 fps – 1% low)
78 fps (56 fps – 1% low)
60 fps (38 fps – 1% low)
52 fps (36 fps – 1% low)
66 fps (54 fps – 1% low)
Doom, Dota 2, Witcher 3 – recorded with MSI Afterburner in game mode;
Tomb Raider – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities.
Once more, the results are on par with other Lunar Lake implementations, and a little bit shorter than some of the Arrow Lake H platforms with the Arc 140T iGPU.
That means these games are playable with these settings, but expectations from this sort of portable laptop need to be kept realistic.
With that out of the way, let’s go through some CPU/GPU logs.
The laptop runs quieter with games than in benchmarks, with the fan noise rarely going over 38 dBA even on Performance mode, and settling at around 35 dBA on Auto.
Internal temperatures are excellent as well, either with the laptop flat on the desk or raised on a stand. We measured sustained CPU temperatures in the low 70s °C at 28W sustained with the laptop flat on the desk, and low-60s °C with the laptop raised off the desk.
The fan also tends to stay quieter with the lower temperatures, so overall, I would recommend having the laptop off the desk for any serious work, even if the overall capabilities are not impacted in any way. In fact, the GPU works at its full capacity on Performance and Auto in any use case, at 1.95 GHz.
Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others The cooling module on this Lenovo Yoga 9i gen10 is inherited from the previous iteration that ran the hardware at higher power, so it’s somewhat oversized for a Lunar Lake platform. That explains the excellent internal temperatures discussed earlier.
This cooling module allows for excellent internal temperatures under sustained loads. Have the laptop raised off the desk, and the CPU package will run in the 60s °C for most sustained activities. That’s way cooler than on other Lunar Lake models tested so far.
As far as the noise levels go, expect 35-42 dBA on Performance, 35-40 dBA on Standard, and sub 32 dBA on Whisper mode. The system tends to run louder in some of the CPU benchmarks, but quieter in actual multitasking and even in games.
With daily use, the fans keep mostly idle on all profiles and only become active with heavier multitasking, especially on Performance with the laptop plugged in. I haven’t noticed coil winning or electronic noises on this unit.
As for external temperatures, the chassis keeps cool with light use, with the warmest spot still under 30 °C.
*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Whisper Mode, fans at 0 dB
Even with demanding loads, the hottest spot in the middle of the keyboard barely goes over 40 °C, while the areas that you’ll mostly come in contact with stay in the low to mid-30s °C. These make the Yoga one of the most comfortable ultraportables tested in sustained loads. Just keep in mind we measured these with the laptop raised off the desk; flat on the desk, surface temperatures would rise a few degrees.
*Gaming – Performance mode – playing Witcher for 30 minutes, fans at ~38 dB
For connectivity, there’s the latest-gen Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 through an Intel BE201 module on this laptop. It performed fine during my time with these laptops.
Audio is handled by a set of four speakers, two main ones that fire through the sides and bottom, and two extra tweeters implemented in the hinge. These make the Yoga one of the better-sounding ultrabooks out there, with punchy volumes and pretty good quality, even if the lows are still not great. This isn’t quite on par with a MacBook Air, but it sounds good for a Windows option.
Finally, there’s a 5MPz camera placed at the top of the screen, flanked by microphones. The image quality is somewhat grainy, but actually usable even in dimmer conditions. The camera comes with a physical cover, not with a kill switch as on other Lenovo laptops.
There’s also IR functionality with Windows Hello support.
Battery life – solid runtimes with Intel Lunar Lake There’s a 75 Wh battery inside this Lenovo Yoga 9i, properly sized for a 14-inch thin-and-light unit.
Here’s what we got in our battery life tests, with the screen’s brightness set at around 120 nits (~50 brightness) and at 60Hz refresh rate (the system doesn’t switch between 60 and 120Hz automatically when unplugging the laptop, you have to do it manually). I’ve also set the Windows 11 power mode on Best Power Efficiency.
<3 W (20+ h of use) – idle, Battery Saver Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;7-10 W (~7-10 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Battery Saver Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;<4 W (15+ h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Battery Saver Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;<4.5 W (15+ h of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Battery Saver Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;10-15 W (~5-8 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Auto Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;40 W (<2 h of use) – Gaming – Dota 2, Auto Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON.
Solid runtimes with light use and video streaming, and fair runtimes with browsing and multitasking. Mostly on par with other Lunar Lake notebooks tested so far, although some lasted for longer in the heavier browsing test.
The laptop ships with a 65W USB-C charger. It’s a compact brick, but with two long cables that add to the bulk and weight. I would have expected a more compact format on this sort of premium notebook, ideally something with a detachable cord.
Price and availability At the time of this article, the Lenovo Yoga 9i Aura Edition is widely available everywhere.
It’s mostly sold in a standard Core Ultra 7 258V / 32 GB RAM / 1 TB SSD configuration with the 2.8K OLED touch display, for around $1599 ($1399 at sales) in the US, 1999 EUR here in Europe, and 1599 GBP in the UK. US prices can be highly competitive, while EU prices are not that great compared to some of the alternatives available out there.
There’s also an Ultra 7 256V configuration with only 16 GB of RAM available in some markets, for a little less. Worth a look, although I would generally lean towards the 258V models given the price difference.
I’ll also add that configurations with the 4K display are usually more expensive than those with the 2.8K display. Get the 2.8K display if possible, I’ve explained why in the Display section!
Follow this link for updated prices and configurations in your area .
Final thoughts- 10th gen Lenovo Yoga 9i Aura Edition review There are only a few high-tier 2-in-1 ultraportables available these days, and the Lenovo Yoga 9i is arguably the best in its segment. The competition is the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip and some of the more expensive business options, such as the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Aura Edition and the HP EliteBook X Flip G1i. But around the 1500 USD/ 2000 EUR level, the Yoga 9i is hard to beat.
Of course, that’s if you want this sort of format with a 360-degree convertible display . Otherwise, the Surface Pro is a viable 2-in-1 as well, a more lightweight tablet format with a keyboard folio. And then there are the multitude of other excellent clamshell formats, explained in this article on the best ultrabooks of the moment , or this one that goes over options with Lunar Lake hardware .
Speaking of the hardware, Lunar Lake is a competent option for general use, allowing Windows laptops efficiency and runtimes hardly possible in the past. It’s not a powerhouse by any means, though, so if you need a laptop for serious work, for content editing and programming and demanding software, you’re better off with something else, such as portable designs built on Intel Arrow Lake or AMD Strix Point hardware. But few to none of those are convertibles.
All in all, the Yoga 9i Aura Edition is a functional daily-driver portable laptop with a 360-degree display, and arguably the best of its kind. That sums up my time with this Yoga, but I’d love to hear your thoughts and impressions down below in the comment section.
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Review by: Andrei Girbea
Andrei Girbea is a Writer and Editor-in-Chief here at Ultrabookreview.com . I write about mobile technology, laptops and computers in general. I've been doing it for more than 15 years now. I'm a techie with a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering. I mostly write reviews and thorough guides here on the site, with some occasional columns and first-impression articles.
35dBA Too Loud
October 29, 2025 at 11:38 pm
Hi Andrei
I've been reading many of your reviews. I enjoy all the details on the performance / optimization and especially dBA/loudness.
I'm going to ask your opinion – totally knowing how this question is impossible to caveat enough times – but if you were to pick 1 (maybe two) *most silent* gaming laptops that can perform at a point at which you aren't playing and thinking about the performance (meaning say roughly 60fps minimum and graphics settings generally roughly medium at minimum)….which laptops in your expertise would you choose.
Keep in mind , the only criteria is it's nearly silent while running solidly. 30dba feels silent , 35dba is too loud, so fans spinning up at 35dba would be no good.
Excited for a guess or two! Thanks
Andrei Girbea
October 30, 2025 at 1:56 pm
Most gaming/performance laptop peg their Silent profile around 35 dBA though. You can get lower with a custom profile in these laptops, but you will sacrifice performance more than on the standard Silent modes. So you'd need a beefy chassis with proper cooling, the beefier the better.
If I were to pick something, then perhaps a Legion 9 18 or a Scar 18. A 5070Ti GPU and higher can get you 60 fps with QHD settings and medium graphics in most titles.
35dBA Too Loud
October 30, 2025 at 5:27 pm
I realize the question I asked is tremendously challenging to properly quantify , but I appreciate your expertise and giving some suggestions! An answer, even if with a caveat, is still a legit answer and a great starting point from which to work. Thanks for posting a reply!
NikoB
November 2, 2025 at 10:11 pm
Dell/Alienware traditionally have the best noise ramp-up curves in the BIOS and drivers and the highest fan activation thresholds depending on temperature (70C+) among competitors—they can maintain quiet or silent mode longer under increasing load. Asus is often better in games, but it often loses out at idle. Lenovo usually loses to both with comparable hardware and offers less flexibility in settings than Asus. However, the latest versions aren't as impressive as the older ones. Compare the A18 R1 13980/4090 and newer models for noise in reviews. As I've written many times, manufacturers of "gaming" models (and even professional ones, which is doubly unfortunate) don't pay close attention to this, as much as buyers would like to have maximum flexibility in controlling coolers and temperatures, while simultaneously ensuring long-term reliability of the laptop hardware (at least 5-6 years, although for gamers for the latest releases of games this is not relevant – they still upgrade to a new model 2-3 times more often).
The problem is that laptops, which surpassed 120W more than five years ago, haven't gone any lower at this point of view (and this is a problem even in 18" cases, which weigh 3.5-4 kg—meaning the heatsinks aren't heavy enough to handle that levels of heat dissipation + low RPM coolers). The performance per watt increase curve is slowing, and manufacturers need to demonstrate improvement with each new generation, especially in generations with little or no process node changes.
Let's see what they roll out at the end of 2026 with TSMC's "2nm" and Intel's 18A. There's little hope for quieter models, what meaning the start of a trend toward reducing power consumption in "gaming" laptops to at least the levels of 10-15 years ago…
I've long been at a loss as to what to buy for my work tasks(I stopped playing a long time ago), yet still ensuring optimal noise and performance and easy control. There's no model close to ideal on the market yet, and this is just one aspect of a multitude of other mounting technical and ergonomic challenges for my personal choice.