Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i has a 14 inch OLED display with a camera hidden inside

As expected, Lenovo has unveiled the first laptop with an under-display camera that’s invisible to the eye when not in use. The new Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i is a laptop with a 14 inch, 3840 x 2400 pixel OLED display with a 120 Hz refresh rate and a 98% screen-to-body ratio since the top bezel doesn’t need to be thick enough to accommodate a camera.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i laptop will be available in February for $1760 and up, and the notebook features support for up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V Lunar Lake processor, 32GB of LPDDR5x-8533 memory and up to a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD.

The laptop’s most unusual feature is obviously its under-display camera, so it’s interesting that none of the pictures that Lenovo included in its press kit actually show the laptop with the camera disabled (the picture above is a screenshot from a promo video).

You can tell because the camera is actually visible when you’re using it. When you want to take a picture, record a video, or hop on a video call, a small circle of pixels in top center portion of the screen turn black, allowing the laptop’s 32MP camera to capture video through the screen. And all of the promo pictures show the laptop in this state.

Fortunately, the folks at Digital Trends have posted a short video that gives a better look at how the screen transitions from an unobstructed 14 inch display into one that looks like it has a smartphone-like camera cut-out when the camera turns on.

A handful of smartphone makers have been using under-display cameras for the past few years as a way to offer a full-screen experience without any visible camera notches or holes. But Lenovo is the first company I’m aware of to use this sort of technology in a laptop.

Unfortunately even though the 32MP webcam in the Yoga Slim 9i is a much higher-resolution camera than those used in most laptops, Digital Trends notes that images still tend to look a little soft and fuzzy when compared with better laptop webcams even though Lenovo uses some AI features to try to improve image quality.

Still, if you’re somebody who values a compact laptop with slim bezels and who doesn’t actually plan to use the camera much anyway, I can see how this sort of design could be appealing.

The notebook weighs just 1.25kg (2.76 pounds) and measures just 313 x 204 x 14.6mm (12.3″ x 8″ x 0.57″) at its thinnest point, but still has room inside for a 75 Wh battery and quad speakers.

One area where the notebook is lacking is in its selection of ports. There are two Thunderbolt 4 ports, but that’s it. The good news is that both of these ports can be used for power, data, and video. The bad news is that there’s no headphone jack, USB Type-A ports, or anything else – so if you need to connect more than two things at once you’ll need a USB hub or dock.

Other features include a backlit keyboard with 1.5mm key travel, support for WiFi 7, and a 65W USB-C power adapter.

press release