The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is one of the newest gaming laptops to hit the market, powered by Nvidia’s spanking new RTX 40-series GPU’s. These powerful laptops offer vastly improved gaming performance on the go, thanks to the dark magic known as DLSS 3.0.
Unfortunately, in keeping with the trend of new gaming laptops, the Legion Pro 7i is prohibitively expensive, starting at $4,599. Our review unit, which comes with a Core i9-13900HX, 32GB DDR5 memory, GeForce RTX 4080 with 12GB DDR6 memory, 1TB SSD and a 240Hz, 16″ WQXGA display costs a whopping $5,599!
There’s no denying that at that price, the Legion Pro 7i certainly delivers on performance, even outpacing many desktop PC’s we’ve reviewed before. However, sheer performance isn’t enough to disguse the weaknesses in its battery life and some of its features compared to the competition.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Review
With a price tag of over $5,000, you might expect the Legion Pro 7i to be made of solid gold or titanium. However, it is actually made from 50% recycled aluminum and polymers, making it Lenovo’s most environmentally sustainable device yet. Design-wise, it’s not too different from previous models, so if you didn’t like the look before, you won’t like this one either.
The Legion Pro 7i has a professional business notebook look, but with a glorious RGB light bar on the front, as well as an RGB keyboard that is customizable using Lenovo’s smart AI technology via Legion Spectrum Engine. The display uses a book-style hinge that is sturdy, with no wobble or flex, and there are large exhaust vents around the sides and back where all the major IO lives.
The back includes an Ethernet RJ-45, HDMI 2.1, two USB 3.2 Gen 1, and a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 with DisplayPort 1.4 and power delivery up to 140W. While it’s lovely having all your ports at the back for cable management, it’s not as convenient when you quickly need to plug in a thumb drive. Lenovo placed another USB 3.2 and audio combo jack on the right side, and on the left, a Thunderbolt 4 and USB 3.2.
The tall 16″ display has a 16:10 aspect ratio, which is something that isn’t new to the Legion family but is suddenly popular with other gaming laptop manufacturers. The IPS panel has a resolution of 2560 x 1600 and a 240Hz refresh rate that competitive gamers will appreciate. This resolution is easy enough for the new RTX 4080 to drive AAA games at well over 60fps in ultra settings. The panel is also HDR 400 with a peak brightness of 500nits.
However, because it’s IPS and not Mini LED, the contrast isn’t the greatest, so HDR doesn’t look as spectacular as it should. Blacks tend towards dark grays when there are opposing brights on the screen since the Legion Pro 7i doesn’t have local dimming zones. There is a Mini LED option listed on the Lenovo site but still no pricing or availability at the time of writing this. This is a huge missed opportunity considering competitors like Asus are pushing high refresh Mini LED and OLED displays across all their gaming laptops.
The display has decent color accuracy, with 100% sRGB coverage, and the panel comes X-Rite Pantone factory color calibrated. To my eyes, colors were vibrant and punchy with no glaring inaccuracies while games and videos looked decent. Essentially, a standard IPS quality display.
Above the display is a 1080p webcam with a physical privacy shutter when not in use. Lenovo says the camera allows for Tobii Horizon eye and head tracking, as well as smart features like auto-locking the laptop when you walk away from it. However, you can’t use the camera for Windows Hello sign in which kinda sucks.
The keyboard isn’t mechanical, something we see a lot more of on high-end gaming laptops. Instead, it uses Lenovo’s TrueStrike tech, which for me, didn’t feel anything special. Typing wasn’t very satisfying, despite the 1.5mm travel, but at least key presses weren’t mushy like most laptiops. The keyboard includes a number pad to the right, which unfortunately makes everything feel somewhat squished and off center; causing plenty of avoidable typing errors.
The touchpad isn’t anything special either but does the job without any fuss. It could be bigger, though, like on the Razer Blades, which would make using it more pleasant, especially for gesture control.
Hidden around the chassis are Harmon-Kardon tuned speakers, which also didn’t quite meet my expectations. They are certainly loud and clear, but lack the richness of warmth and bass to get the most out of your gaming or media consumption. You will likely use wireless headphones anyway, so while it’s not a deal-breaker, it’s disappointing to see such prestigious branding and then be disappointed.
Performance and Gaming
The Legion Pro 7i is a downright, performance champ thanks to that i9-13900HX, RTX 4080, and 32GB of DDR5 memory. A quick jaunt through the usual suite of synthetic benchmarks shows just how quick off the blocks the Legion is. The 13900HX has 24-core architecture split between 8-power and 16-efficiency cores, outpacing gaming PC with a full, fat Core i9-12900K by almost 6000 points in Cinebench R5.
However, when it comes to the new RTX 4080 GPU, things are a bit more murky. This isn’t the same AD103 die found in the desktop RTX 4080 but rather the AD104 found in the new RTX 4070. It’s also clocked much lower, with a max power draw of 150W compared to the 400W of its desktop counterparts. It makes no sense why Nvidia changes the names which makes for an unecessarily difficult choice on what to buy.
Weird nomenclature aside, the new 40-series architecture combined with the wizardry of DLSS 3.0 simply means that the Legion Pro 7i performs magnificently in games. At the native resolution of 2560 x 1600, the Legion easily averages well over 100fps in most games, which is mighty impressive. A few outliers like Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition run at 60fps with ultra settings, but if you turn on the DLSS magic, framerates shoot back up to the silky smooth 100fps range.
All this powerful hardware inevitably translates into heat. While not the hottest laptop I’ve ever tested, the Legion still gets quite toasty, averaging high 80s on both the CPU and GPU during my testing. And loud too, with those fans working hard to maintain those temps.
Sadly, this doesn’t bode well for battery life. I wasn’t able to cross the 2.5 hour mark even when using the AI powered Hybrid mode that switches off the power-hungry RTX 4080 and lowers displays refresh rate to 60Hz. That’s a far cry from Lenovo’s claims of up to 7.5 hours, even when copying their test scenario, using all the power-saving tricks, dimming the screen, and turning it into airplane mode.
It’s 2023 and gamers should not have to compromise on battery life; especially at the premiums being asked for. To be fair, I only had two weeks with the Legion, and most of that was using it plugged into power on my desk so the AI never had much c thance to learn my particular usage patterns. Still, I’d have expected at least 5 hours to begin with which improves as the AI learns.
If you plan on using it as a desktop replacement, then happy days but if you actually need a laptop that you can use on the go for stretches at a time, then the Legion isn’t the best choice.
Verdict
The new Legion Pro 7i is very impressive when it comes down to sheer performance. It’s hard to believe that a laptop this thin and light can outperform many desktop PCs. It’s got everything you need for productivity and gaming, with a great selection of ports, too. However, at over $5000, it’s definitely not cheap, and it’s not the most environmentally friendly option out there.
The battery life is also a major deal breaker as I’ve already stated. I’m sure a lot of gamers would be happy to sacrific some GPU performance for a longer lasting system they can actually use for work on the go. Additionally, the display is rather average and considering this price point, the competition is offering much better Mini LED and OLED options.
It’s entirely frustrating that I can’t recommend the Legion to everyone due to its high price. There’s just no justification to spend this much money on a laptop that doesn’t have the best of the best in everything, and while the Legion is good, it’s not $5000 good enough.
