Lenovo Yoga Mini i

Published on August 29, 2026

The Lenovo Yoga Mini i is a round desktop computer. Lenovo’s own model code is Yoga Mini 01IPH11, the Gen 11 machine in the Yoga desktop line, and the chassis is an aluminum cylinder about 5.1 inches across and 1.9 inches tall that Lenovo’s datasheet lists at 1.3 pounds. Inside is Intel’s Panther Lake silicon, which Intel launched in Q1 2026, so this is current-generation hardware rather than a repackaged older part. Two configurations reach US retail through Best Buy, which merchandises the machine as the “Lenovo Yoga Mini Desktop” even though Lenovo and the press call it the Yoga Mini i. We covered the design argument separately when it was announced, in Lenovo’s Yoga Mini i and the race to reinvent the desktop PC shape.

Pros and Cons of the Lenovo Yoga Mini i

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Lenovo Yoga Mini i Comparison Chart

	Lenovo Yoga Mini i	Lenovo Yoga Mini i
Price	List Price: $999.99 Amazon Prices: Check Price on Amazon Best Buy: Loading price...	List Price: $1,869.99 Amazon Prices: Check Price on Amazon Best Buy: Loading price...
Version	16GB/512GB/Core Ultra 5 325	32GB/1TB/Core Ultra X7 358H
Performance Rating	7.0	10.1
Operating System	Windows 11 Home	Windows 11 Home
Processor	Octa-core 2.10 Ghz (max 4.50 Ghz) Intel Core Ultra 5 325	Sixteen-core 1.90 Ghz (max 4.80 Ghz) Intel Core Ultra X7 358H
GPU	Integrated Intel Graphics	Integrated Intel Arc B390
RAM	16 GB LPDDR5X (LPDDR5X-8533, soldered)	32 GB LPDDR5X (LPDDR5X-8533, soldered)
Internal Storage	512 GB NVMe SSD	1 TB NVMe SSD
Dimensions width x length x thickness	5.12 x 5.12 x 1.91 inches (130.05 x 130.05 x 48.51 mm)	5.12 x 5.12 x 1.91 inches (130.05 x 130.05 x 48.51 mm)
Weight	1.32 lbs (0.6 kg)	1.32 lbs (0.6 kg)
WiFi	Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be)	Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be)
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 5.4	Bluetooth 5.4
Ethernet	1 Ethernet port at 2.5 Gbps	1 Ethernet port at 2.5 Gbps
HDMI	1 Full-Size HDMI Port	1 Full-Size HDMI Port
DisplayPort	DP Alt Mode via all 4 USB-C ports	DP Alt Mode via all 4 USB-C ports
VGA	No VGA Ports	No VGA Ports
USB Ports	1 USB 3, 2 USB-C Side: 1x TB4. Rear: 1x TB4, 2x USB-C 10Gbps (1 PD-in), 1x USB-A 10Gbps	1 USB 3, 2 USB-C Side: 1x TB4. Rear: 1x TB4, 2x USB-C 10Gbps (1 PD-in), 1x USB-A 10Gbps
Thunderbolt Ports	2	2
OCuLink	No	No
Internal SATA Ports	No SATA ports	No SATA ports
Card Reader	No Card Reader	No Card Reader
Headphone Jack	combo	combo
Fanless	No	No
VESA Mount	No	No
In the Box	Yoga Mini i, 100W USB-C power adapter.	Yoga Mini i, 100W USB-C power adapter.
Expandability	RAM is soldered. One M.2 PCIe Gen 4 slot up to 2TB under the top lid. External GPU over Thunderbolt 4.	RAM is soldered. One M.2 PCIe Gen 4 slot up to 2TB under the top lid. External GPU over Thunderbolt 4.

Detailed Insights into the Lenovo Yoga Mini i

The port layout wraps around two faces of the cylinder. Lenovo’s spec sheet puts a Thunderbolt 4 port and a combination audio jack on the side, next to a power button that doubles as the fingerprint reader, and it puts the rest on the back: a second Thunderbolt 4 port, two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports (one of which accepts power delivery in), a USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port, HDMI 2.1, and a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet jack. Every USB-C port carries DisplayPort Alt Mode, which is how the machine drives several displays at once, and Lenovo rates it for up to four independent displays across those onboard ports. Reviewing the top configuration, Lon.TV counted five video-capable outputs: the HDMI port, the two Thunderbolt ports, and the two USB-C ports. There is no card reader and no VESA mount, which is a consistent theme: this is a machine designed to sit in the open on a desk, not behind a monitor.

The whole system runs from a single 100W USB-C adapter, so the only thing under the desk is one cable rather than a barrel-plug brick. Memory is soldered LPDDR5X-8533 at either 16GB or 32GB, and it cannot be changed afterward, which puts the Yoga Mini i firmly in the category we wrote about in the soldered RAM trap: the configuration you buy is the configuration you keep. Storage is the one part that is not fixed. A single M.2 PCIe Gen 4 slot sits under the top lid and Lenovo’s datasheet lists factory options up to 2TB, though getting to it is not a screwdriver job.

The rest of the feature list is lifestyle hardware, not computing hardware. From Lenovo’s CES 2026 demo, PCWorld reported the configurable light bar, the Lenovo AI Turbo Engine app that controls it, the Wi-Fi sensing that wakes the machine when it detects someone nearby, and the integrated fingerprint sensor. That demo put the announced starting price at an estimated $699, and a Lenovo product manager told PCWorld the volume was closer to 0.85 liters than the one liter the product name implies. Lon.TV’s hands-on fills in what that lighting does in daily use: a color picked off a wheel, a pulse when you sign in, a light for waiting notifications, and a sound-reactive mode that follows whatever plays through the onboard speaker. Tapping the top of the unit toggles the light, and the same app can assign a double tap to launch an application instead. Notebookcheck later described the shipping chassis as 0.65 liters and 600 grams, which matches the weight on Lenovo’s own datasheet.

What Separates the Two Yoga Mini i Configurations

The two US configurations are not small steps apart. The entry machine pairs the Core Ultra 5 325 (8 cores, 8 threads, PassMark CPU Mark 19,507) with 16GB and a 512GB SSD, and Intel lists its graphics only as the generic Intel Graphics block. The upper one uses the Core Ultra X7 358H (16 cores, 16 threads, PassMark CPU Mark 33,673) with the full Intel Arc B390 integrated GPU, 32GB, and a 1TB SSD. That is roughly a 1.7x gap in CPU throughput and a wider one in graphics, so the choice is not a matter of a slightly faster chip. Lon.TV framed it the same way in the review: the base model is fine for browsing, office work, and light server duty, while video editing, gaming, and local AI are where the more expensive one pulls away.

Lenovo’s own spec sheet lists more configurations than Best Buy stocks, including 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB storage options and both Windows 11 Home and Pro. Notebookcheck reported a 64GB version launched in China in May 2026 at CNY 17,999, and noted that Lenovo had not added it to the PSREF database, which makes a global release of that particular configuration uncertain. Buyers outside China should plan around 16GB or 32GB. For where the Arc B390 sits against other machines using the same silicon, see our look at Panther Lake NUCs and the Arc B390.

Reviewer Insights on the Lenovo Yoga Mini i

One trusted-channel hands-on covers this exact machine, on the top configuration. Lenovo loaned the unit and, per the disclosure in the video and the article, did not review or approve the coverage beforehand.

Lon.TV

Lon Seidman published both a video review and a written recap on 9 August 2026, testing the Core Ultra X7 358H unit with 32GB of memory. He set expectations for the graphics in the opening minute: “graphically it is very, very capable.” The benchmarks he ran back that up. In 3DMark Time Spy the machine scored 7,334, and he compared that directly to older desktop hardware: “The GPU built into this Intel processor is about on par with my gaming machine from a couple of years back that had a GTX 1080.” In 3DMark Wild Life Extreme it scored 12,369, which he said beat the base M4 Mac mini but trailed published M4 Pro results. Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p on low settings held between 70 and 80 frames per second in his testing, and on the browser side a Speedometer score of 37.3 put it close to the Mac mini M4.

Thermals and noise came out well. A 3DMark stress test passed at 99.6% with the chip settling around 73C, and Seidman’s take on the acoustics was direct: “The fan noise on this is very quiet even under load.” Power draw sat at 9 to 12 watts at idle under Windows and peaked around 60 watts. He also booted the current Ubuntu release and found video, audio, networking, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth all detected, with idle power roughly two watts lower than under Windows. On the network side he measured about 2.3 Gbps in both directions on the 2.5GbE port and roughly 700 to 800 Mbps down over Wi-Fi 7, with upstream around 1.2 Gbps.

The complaints were specific. On memory he was blunt: “The RAM is soldered onto the motherboard and is not upgradeable.” Getting to the SSD went badly enough to mention twice; he said “I did try to get in with my spudger earlier and cut my fingers,” concluded that a heavy-duty suction cup is the right tool, and warned that “it’s not as easy as the marketing suggests.” On networking he wanted more for the money: “I would have preferred that they put a 10 gigabit Ethernet port in here, especially considering the price point that you are coming in at on this one.” The tap-to-launch shortcut in Lenovo’s app would not work reliably for him. His summary weighed the hardware against the sticker: “The Yoga Mini demonstrates that integrated mobile processors are now capable of handling tasks that previously required dedicated graphics cards or large desktop towers,” followed by the line he ended the write-up on, “If only the price was more reasonable!”

Conclusion

The Yoga Mini i earns its place on a desk in a way most mini PCs do not try to. The round aluminum shell, the lighting ring, the fingerprint reader in the power button, and the single USB-C cable all point at the same buyer: someone who wants the computer visible and quiet rather than hidden and humming. On the top configuration the performance backs the styling, with measured results in the range of a GTX 1080-era gaming desktop at a fraction of the power draw, and it runs Linux without a fight.

The reasons to hesitate are equally clear. Memory is fixed at purchase, the SSD lid fights back, wired networking stops at 2.5 Gigabit on a machine that lists near two thousand dollars in its top form, and there is no Amazon listing yet, so the buy path in the US runs through Best Buy. Anyone who cares more about performance per dollar than about how the box looks will find more compute for the money in a conventional square chassis. Anyone shopping the entry configuration should note that they are buying a different class of graphics, not a slightly slower version of the same thing.

For those comparing options, see our Mini PC Comparison Chart to find the best match for your needs.

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