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Mini PCs are great for people who want minimal desk setups, but aside from the Mac Mini, they’re not really something that appeals to the average user. Most are boring and still-slightly-chunky boxes, come from lesser-known companies like Geekom, and are built either for enterprise or thrifty gamers. What’s a Windows user who doesn’t want to swap to Apple to do? This year, Lenovo’s launching a new Mini PC with some of that Apple sleekness, to try to fill that niche.
Unveiled at CES, the Lenovo Yoga Mini i is a cute little circle that fits in the palm of your hand and weighs just about 1.3 pounds (with small variations depending on how you configure it). A slightly textured, silvery-gray paint job covers the entirety of the device, and ports are generous but stay in dedicated areas on either the rear or side of the device. The rear’s got slots for an ethernet port, a USB-A cable, an HDMI cable, and three USB-C cables, with one set aside for power, one for Thunderbolt 4 accessories, and one for all the rest. The side has a 3.5mm headphone jack (thank goodness) and another Thunderbolt 4 port.
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
It’s an overall attractive appearance, which is important when you’re selling something based on form factor, but the kicker is that the power button is actually on the side of the device. It sounds simple, but that’s bound to drive people who bought the latest Mac Mini, which has its power button underneath the computer, crazy with envy. Better yet? That power button also doubles as a fingerprint reader for easy sign-ins.
Lenovo Yoga Mini rear view (left) and power button view (right)
Credit: Lenovo
Specs wise, it comes decked out with the latest Intel Core Ultra X series AI chips, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to 2TB of storage. It also features a WiFi 7 adapter, two speakers, and even a microphone built-in, for zippy internet connectivity and easy audio calls. That’s more than enough performance for the average person, and probably even outclasses my years-old full-size desktop. Don’t expect to play the latest games at max settings on it, but this should be roughly equivalent to a high-end productivity laptop if you go for its most powerful configuration options.
To push it over the edge, the Yoga Mini i also has its own “one more thing.” There’s actually an accelerometer with a touch sensor inside this thing, so it can work with Lenovo’s Smart Connect ecosystem. The company says you can use this to take calls by tapping on the PC, use certain touch gestures to adjust the Yoga Mini’s performance mode, or use a customizable double tap to do other actions, like calling up an AI chatbot.
What do you think so far?
Taken all together, the smooth appearance, user-friendly design tweaks, and tiny size make for probably the closest thing I’ve seen to a Windows version of the Mac Mini yet—and that goes for the pricing, too. The Yoga Mini i will start at $700, which is $100 more than the base Mac Mini, but is still pretty affordable for those kind of specs in the middle of a memory shortage. Lenovo hasn’t said how expensive it could get if you go for extra storage or RAM, too, and it’s possible its mid-range configurations could come in at less expensive or around the same price as the Mac Mini’s.
Personally, I was seriously considering downsizing to a Mac Mini for my next computer, but with the Lenovo Yoga Mini i, maybe I’ll stick to Windows for at least a little bit longer. If you’re in the same boat, Lenovo expects to release the Yoga Mini i sometime this June.
