Lenovo's Legion 7 series gaming laptops have impressed us in the past and today the company revealed the new 7th generation lineup that delivers a number of firsts to the 16-inch gaming laptop market.
The Lenovo Legion 7 and 7i offer peak performance with top-of-the-line CPU options from AMD or Intel along with the best laptop GPUs available from Nvidia and AMD. Paired with a 99.99Whr battery and a new thermal system, these powerful laptops could also offer solid battery life for gaming on the go.
Content creators may be more intrigued by the new Lenovo Legion Slim 7 and Slim 7i, which drop over a pound in weight with minimal changes to the specs and add an enticing Mini-LED display option.
Here's a closer look at the full Lenovo Legion 7 lineup including our hands-on time with the Legion 7.
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Lenovo Legion 7 and 7i
Lenovo boasts that the Lenovo Legion 7 and 7i are the "world's most powerful 16-inch gaming laptops" and while we'll see if they can live up to that title when we get them in for review, it's certainly plausible given the vast power packed inside. Like John Hammond in Jurassic Park, this laptop spares no expense.
That includes best-in-class components like Intel 12th Gen Core i9 HX Series or AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX processors and an Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU (up to 175W TGP) or the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT mobile graphics. All that power may have you worried about overheating, but Lenovo claims its new Legion Coldfront 4.0 thermal system can take the heat with improvements to the vapor chamber, airflow, phase-change thermal compound, and venting that allow it to displace up to 115W without throttling. If the cooling system does its job the Legion 7 and 7i should offer strong battery life with a 99.99Whr battery that is the maximum allowable in a laptop while still being able to take it on a plane.
All that power wouldn't do you any good without a great display and Lenovo thinks it has you covered there too with a 16-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600-pixel) panel at up to 240Hz and an impressive 1,250 nits of peak brightness along with full DCI-P3 color calibration. If you care about how you look on-screen too then you'll appreciate the upgraded full HD webcam onboard.
The aluminum and magnesium aerospace-grade metal unibody construction of the Legion 7 and 7i delivers a minimal appearance that you can spice up with the "environmental RGB system" that rings the outside of the laptop and the Legion logo on the lid. At 0.75-inches thick and 5.5 pounds, the Legion 7 and Legion 7i aren't as compact as their "Slim" siblings that we'll cover in a moment, but it's a reasonably portable package given the desktop-class performance you can likely expect.
Port options are of course plentiful and the only difference between the two is that the 7i offers two Thunderbolt 4 ports on the left side, while the Legion 7 features two USB 3.2 Gen 2, DisplayPort 1.4 Type-C ports, and a USB 4 Type-C port. Both include a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C on the right, along with an E-Shutter Switch for the webcam and a 3.5mm combo headphone/mic jack. The majority of the ports are located along the back with two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, an HDMI 2.1, RJ45 Ethernet, and a DC-in.
The Intel-powered Lenovo Legion 7i will be shipping later this month starting at $2,449 and the AMD Advantage Edition Legion 7 will arrive in June with a starting price of $2,059.
Lenovo Legion Slim 7 and 7i
If the Legion 7 and 7i sounded intriguing, but you want something a little sleeker (or a little more affordable) then look no further than the Legion Slim 7 and 7i. These 16-inch laptops fit into the footprint of a 15-inch laptop; coming in at 0.63-inches thick and just 4.4 pounds they are going to be better suited to content creators or gamers that are frequently tossing their laptop in their bag to work or game on the go.
That portability costs you just a bit off the top when it comes to the components with Intel 12th Gen Core H Series and AMD Ryzen 9 6900 HX processor options that can be paired with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 (up to 100W Boosted TGP) or AMD Radeon RX 6800S. However, it retains that awesome 99.99Whr battery capacity, which paired with that same Legion Coldfront 4.0 thermal system bodes well for the battery life on the Slim 7 and Slim 7i.
The standard display is the same 16-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600-pixel) at 165Hz with the option to bump up to 240Hz, but it gains a Mini-LED option that may appeal to content creators in particular.
The Legion Slim 7 and 7i again differ only slightly in their port configurations. On the left side the 7i pairs a Thunderbolt 4 port with a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, while the 7 gets two identical USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports. On the right side, you get a 4-in-1 SD card reader, an E-Shutter switch for the webcam, and a 3.5mm combo headphone/mic jack. The back adds 3 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports on the 7i (2 on the 7), along with HDMI 2.1 and DC-in.
The Legion Slim 7i is shipping later this month starting at $1,589, while the Legion Slim 7 is coming in June starting at $1,519.
