If it’s a gaming laptop, it’s performance that will be on your mind and the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i delivers it with Intel 13th Generation HX-series Core processor and up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 graphics. What this machine offers is not cosmetic changes but massive muscle power over the last generation. It’s easily one of the year’s top laptops, perfect for gaming as well as for editing and everyday tasks. Needless to say, it doesn’t come cheap.
Minimalistic design
Lenovo has managed to keep the design clean and not too focused on gaming. It has a minimalistic vibe with the Legion logo on the lid. Thankfully, it does not glow. It’s not a light laptop but I love the fact that Lenovo continues to stick to the design, retaining majority of the ports at the back, which allows you to keep the desk a lot cleaner. There are some ports on the side, for example, you have a Thunderbolt 4 port, you have a USB-A port on one side and then on the other, you have a camera privacy shutter, a combo audio jack and another USB-A port. On the back, there are two more USB-A ports, HDMI, a Type-C port and, of course, RJ45 jack.
Most of the laptop has a metal build. You got a top metal lid and a metal bottom and there is good airflow. Once you open it up, which you can do easily with one hand because of the reverse notch for the camera, you can put the display almost 180 degrees flat.
The keyboard experience is always top-notch on a Lenovo computer as it tends to have very good spacing between keys. There’s a good amount of click and there is a numerical pad. Unfortunately, that makes the touchpad off-centered, which is something not everyone enjoys. But it’s a design quirk when a numerical keyboard enters the picture. There’s very little keyboard flex and the hinges are solid. When you type, the screen doesn’t wobble like on other laptops. But… and this is something most laptop manufacturers need to address… there are too many stickers. Lately, it has been going out of control.
The 16-by-10 display has been used for the past couple of years and it’s a good option. It has a high refresh rate of 240 hertz and, to save battery, you can bring it down to 60Hz. The display has a matte finish, so it doesn’t pick up reflections from light sources, especially if you have this outdoors or near a window; it’s not going to bother you. The display is not touch obviously. If you’re doing design work on this computer, the colour gamut is pretty good (SRGB 100 per cent and 500 nits of brightness with Dolby Vision). The webcam works at 1080p (30 frames per second) and the microphone sounds decent. The Legion Pro 7i comes with a Harman Super Linear speaker system with Nahimic 3D audio for gamers and it improves surround sound immersion. Further, Nahimic comes with a wide array of customisations. To adjust these features all you need to do is open the Nahimic app.
There’s something extra to discuss about the keyboard because of the number of shortcuts. For example, the brightness logo is almost everywhere but the functions are quite different. For example, on the arrow keys, you have two brightness indicators and this turns up the brightness for the RGB but then you also have brightness indicators on the space bar, which allows you to cycle through different RGB profiles that you have set up on your computer. If you want to change the brightness of the display, you have to hit function F5 or F6.
Blazing speed
In terms of performance, the review unit came with 13th Generation Intel Core i9-13900HX processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080. This promises excellent gaming performance and complements the 16-inch display, 1TB NVME SSD and 32GB DDR5.
The laptop rules the heart with what Lenovo is known for — consistent performance. It gives rival laptops a run for the money when it comes to Cinebench R23 single-core clock speeds; it is up there against the Razer Blade 18. Even multi-core speeds are impressive, going toe to toe with the Blade 18. While running creative applications like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro, there were zero issues. If you’re using this for gaming, there won’t be room for quibbles either. The RTX 4080 offers good performance while playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider or Cyberpunk 2077.
Heat management has also been a good experience. The keyboard deck would never get too hot; only warm. The average clock speed remained more or less steady and once again, pretty consistent performance, like in previous generations. Fan noise is what you’d expect from a gaming laptop. It can reach 50-52 decibels in performance mode, which is acceptable, and in balanced mode, it’s quite silent.
Should you buy it?
It’s an expensive laptop but that’s how high-end gaming machines are. What Lenovo offers is consistent performance and battery life. On a gaming laptop you won’t get day-long battery life but it’s certainly more than what’s available on rival machines. It’s the kind of machine you would see at e-sports event and games run smoothly at max settings. Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is indeed all muscle and performance.
Mathures Paul
At a glance
Device: Lenovo Legion Pro 7i
Price: Rs 303,930 (includes upgrades 1TB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 TLC and Windows 11 Pro)
High notes
Impressive performance
Excellent colour reproduction
Top-notch heat management
Comfortable typing experience
Muffled notes
Too many stickers on the keyboard
Keyboard shortcuts can be confusing