Do people still use the internal loudspeakers in their laptop to listen to music? Many of us who use Dongle DACs and powered or active loudspeakers on the desktop have forgotten all about the tiny and crappy sounding loudspeakers built into our MacBooks or PC notebooks. Good riddance. Bowers & Wilkins are pushing back against that trend with something new for the next generation of Lenovo laptops.
The new 2022 Lenovo Yoga 9i convertible (14”, Gen 7) will become the world’s first laptop to feature a bespoke Bowers & Wilkins sound system, specially designed to create a more authentic premium sound performance for portable computing.
Announced at CES 2022, the Lenovo Yoga 9i laptop is designed to deliver an enhanced audio experience with new speakers compared to the previous generation.
The Lenovo Yoga 9i features an up to 4K OLED VESA DisplayHDR 500 True Black, slim bezel touchscreen with 100 percent DCI-P3 color.
Movies and music are heard “as the artist intended” with an improved rotating soundbar designed by Bowers & Wilkins.
Can a laptop soundbar really deliver that?
Two speakers for the Lenovo Yoga 9i sound system are seamlessly integrated into the Yoga’s 360° rotating soundbar hinge and designed to always face towards the user, while two additional sideways-firing speakers are fitted along the edges of the product; for a total of four speakers and a more immersive and authentic audio experience.
By carefully designing the speaker enclosures and selecting the highest quality components while optimizing their position within the soundbar hinge, Bowers & Wilkins has produced a large scale, high resolution, low distortion and accurate sound that projects far beyond the enclosure and brings new realism to the on-screen content.
Commenting on the launch, Dave Sheen, SVP Licensing & Partnerships at Sound United said: “The team at Bowers & Wilkins is always excited to work with world-leading companies with a similar philosophy to our own.”
“Like Lenovo, we think and act differently to redefine what is possible for performance in a different form factor. I’m delighted that we are collaborating with a company also focused on going beyond the conventional and intent on reshaping its markets.”
The Lenovo Yoga 9i convertible laptop (14”, Gen 7) is expected to be available globally in Q2 2022 and will start at $1,399.00 USD.
For more information: lenovo.com
ORT
January 9, 2022 at 3:02 am
Hi Ian –
I have an HP Envy model (just a few months old now) that sports Audio by Bang & Olufsen.
Ummmmm…It is not impressive at all. None of the laptops I have owned with “Audio by…..” have ever impressed. I do NOT mind that as I am sitting in a room with Denon HEOS and a turntable with Andover Audio’s Spinbase prety much within arms reach. In the case of HEOS, it is always within my phones reach. I have maybe 19,000+ songs on my laptop and again, I rarely listen to them via computer. It just does not interest me as much as it once did. It is not a question of “quality”, it just is. Because I can listen to music via my record players or internet radios or Denon HEOS system. I can and do.
I am listening to Enya through my Denon AV Receiver and HEOS. It is fine…No…Make that more than fine. I will never be “Roon Ready”, LOL! I have, on occasion, played the music on my laptop or phone (the same music as I bought it all, LOL!) and it sounds fine and when I do so it is because I want to hear a specific artist, album or even a song. But I just do not listen via the teensie-weensie, tiny-whiny built in speakers.
I can BlooToof my headphones from the computer or because I do not mind being, as I say, “tethered to quality”, plug in my Sennheiser HDXX or Grado SR225 ‘phones and listen that way.
Of course it is all subjective. In my life that spans several decades, I have listened to music from an AM portable with a speaker that was maybe 2″ in diameter. And enjoyed every song.
If the name Bowers &Wilkins had been on that radio, it would not have made it sound any better.
Or worse.
ORT