Lenovo’s conceit for the Yoga Book 9i laptop computer—ditch the keyboard and exchange it with a second touchscreen—has been executed earlier than, however by no means very nicely. Arguably the perfect instance so far anyplace alongside these traces has been the HP Omen X 2S, which featured a miniature show mounted above a bodily keyboard, but it surely was a decidedly area of interest concept designed for gaming and priced at practically $3,000 at launch. It by no means gained a lot traction. Now it’s Lenovo’s flip to make a journey down this highway, and it might be essentially the most bold, and profitable variation so far.

With the Yoga Book 9i, “second screen” means a full display screen. There’s no keyboard right here in any respect; the decrease half of the laptop computer is a touchscreen an identical to the higher half. Take two 13.3-inch OLED shows and sandwich them along with a hinge in between and also you’ve received the concept.

Lenovo has executed a hefty quantity of engineering to make this work, and whereas there are a couple of tough edges, for essentially the most half, it’s successful. Naturally, you’re free to make use of the laptop computer as if it had been two Windows tablets or one large one, placing completely different apps on both display screen of the system and holding the entire thing prefer it’s one in every of Moses’ monumental stone tablets. Want to get artistic? You may even set it on a desk in an inverted V formation and let two youngsters watch completely different movies on both facet (although you may solely play one audio observe).

All of this will sound fanciful and even frivolous, however the Yoga Book 9i is surprisingly nicely positioned for getting actual work executed—and doubtlessly succeeds on that entrance higher than a typical laptop computer. Open the system up in customary laptop computer mode and use eight fingers to swipe upward on the decrease touchscreen to have the digital keyboard and trackpad space seem. Want to forgo the trackpad and transfer the keyboard nearer to your physique? Just drag it down and the keyboard strikes towards you, leaving room for varied configurable widgets within the few inches of open house which were freed up.

Mastering all the swipes and gestures used to maneuver issues round on the Yoga Book 9i—notably transferring a window from one display screen to a different—takes a little bit of examine and a few trial and error, however with observe, it’s not laborious to get the grasp of.

The Yoga Book works nice with its touchscreen keyboard, although I understandably typed a bit slower than I’d have on a mechanical keyboard, regardless of a haptics-based system that gives some degree of suggestions. The professional transfer is to fireplace up the exterior Bluetooth keyboard and mouse—each are included with buy, together with a stylus—and use each screens as shows. The machine may be propped up with the 2 screens facet by facet or one atop one other by utilizing the included folio stand, a easy gizmo that folds right into a wedge and is held collectively by magnets. It’s all compact sufficient to suit on a typical airline tray desk (sans the mouse), which is able to categorically make you the one particular person utilizing twin displays in coach.

It would after all be prudent to surprise about the remainder of the 9i’s specs, and the info is combined. The two screens every have 2,880 X 1,800-pixel resolutions and are dazzlingly shiny—a lot in order that I needed to flip the brightness down, as a result of they damage my eyes at full energy. (Brightness may be set for every display screen independently.) The unit manages to measure simply 18 millimeters thick and weighs in at 2.8 kilos, which is lighter than it feels within the hand.

But below the hood, the specs are pretty fundamental. A Thirteenth-generation Intel Core i7-1355U (1.7 GHz) supplies the juice, together with 16 GB of RAM and a 512-GB SSD, plus built-in graphics. Performance is somewhat middling throughout the board: I discovered it sluggish to finish easy duties like recalculating spreadsheets and grammar-checking lengthy paperwork, although I used to be a minimum of capable of full my full battery of benchmarks, regardless of repeated warnings that heavier graphics-based exams could not be capable of run on the system.