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ZDNET’s key takeaways

• The Legion Professional 7i (2025) is a top-tier gaming laptop computer, on sale now for $2,450.
• It effortlessly runs the most recent gaming titles, exudes premium energy, and contains a 16-inch OLED show that calls for your consideration.
• In addition to the excessive value, all that {hardware} runs sizzling, it is power-hungry, and it has an enormous, cumbersome energy provide.

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The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is the most recent gaming laptop computer within the Legion sequence, sticking to an accessible 16-inch measurement and placing all its stat factors into the standard of the show and {hardware}. 

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The result’s a complicated laptop computer with dramatic (however totally customizable) RGB lighting, a modern kind issue, and a stacked set of {hardware}. It begins out with 32GB of RAM (upgradable to 96GB), 2TB of storage, a 24-core Intel Core Extremely 9 processor, and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 GPU. All this, mixed with the 16-inch 500nit, 240Hz refresh OLED show, makes for not solely a aggressive gaming machine but additionally a succesful workstation for professional creatives, animators, and designers. 

A design with commanding presence

The Legion Professional 7i is hefty, to make certain, however for a gaming laptop computer, it’s really on the modern aspect. This places it in a type of center floor: it is a bit of too large to be one thing you’d need to frequently commute with, but it surely’s definitely not certain to the desk.

Sadly, the matte black end is a fingerprint magnet, like lots of Lenovo’s different laptops (ahem — ThinkPads) that, if this bugs you prefer it bugs me, will compel you to maintain a material readily available. All of that is mitigated by the keyboard lighting, nonetheless, which could be adjusted per key to be as delicate or loud as you need.

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The gamer aesthetic is in full impact right here, with a dramatic single bar of sunshine throughout the entrance of the clamshell that displays onto the floor and appears completely superior. The again is illuminated throughout the diamond-shaped fan exhausts, and the “Legion” brand pulses with the remainder of the results.

The complete-size keyboard with outstanding arrow keys, appropriately-sized quantity pad (and a delicate branding on one letter key particularly) feels premium and well-made, if quite normal. Key journey feels good, and the trackpad — aligned over the area bar — is satisfactory and useful.

The facility button on the prime middle of the keyboard acts as a visible indicator of your efficiency profile: Quiet is blue, Balanced is white, and Efficiency is pink. (It is referred to as Silent mode each due to the fan and since muting the laptop computer robotically disables the lighting results.)

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All of those components are individually customizable within the Legion app and could be shut off solely if it’s essential save battery energy or maintain a low profile within the workplace or espresso store. 

That being mentioned, this isn’t precisely the kind of laptop computer you will need to deliver to the tiny bistro desk in your neighborhood espresso store. It is large, it is heavy (5.67 kilos), and it’s thirsty for energy. Even in the event you do have entry to a close-by outlet, the 400W energy brick is so large that it is primarily the load of one other laptop computer. 

It is chonky, sure, but it surely’s additionally highly effective — offering 70% battery energy in simply half-hour, a surprisingly fast quantity of juice for the large 99.9Wh battery. The charger connects through a proprietary port on the left aspect of the laptop computer (not the again), which some will discover extra handy, however is barely much less so in the event you’re utilizing the laptop computer as a desktop and are used to having your connections within the again.

When it comes to different I/O, the laptop computer has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI and USB-A on the left aspect, two extra USB-As, a headphone jack, and a 2.5GB Ethernet jack. In the event you do not need to plug the laptop computer instantly into your modem, it additionally helps Wi-Fi 7 for quick connectivity. 

All in regards to the visuals

The Legion Professional 7i’s show is one in every of its finest options. It’s brilliant and vivid and completely pops at 500 nits and a 240Hz refresh price. It options 100% of the SRGB coloration gamut, 93% Adobe RGB, and 100% P3 and swirls with deep, inky blacks and wealthy neons. 

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The 16-inch show is non-touch and has WQXGA decision at a 16:10 facet ratio. It’s powered by the GeForce RTX 5080 GPU and affords a various set of use case potentialities for players, creatives, animators, and designers. Simply notice that it is a notably shiny show, and it’ll replicate mild sources relying on its positioning, particularly with how darkish the blacks get.

Efficiency: Convey on the boss combat

Let me not mince phrases right here. This factor is a beast. The Legion Professional 7i is designed to shred by way of probably the most demanding titles on the market proper now, and the {hardware} on board nicely equips it to take action. The Nvidia GeForce 5080 GPU paired with the 24-core Intel Core Extremely 9 ends in responsive, snappy efficiency in “Cyberpunk 2077” and “Baldur’s Gate 3”, with older titles not breaking a sweat.

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That being mentioned, all this highly effective {hardware} heats up. Temperatures throughout intense gaming classes can simply strategy 100 °C, which is simply too sizzling for sustained use. In Efficiency mode, the followers can hearth at max energy, which considerably brings the temperature down, however you will additionally should take heed to them cranking. 

The cooling system is environment friendly, expelling sizzling air out the again and bleeding a minimal quantity of warmth out by way of the entrance to the keyboard. Nevertheless, the fan does take some getting used to, because it pops on even throughout regular day-to-day duties like multitasking and net looking. 

The Legion Professional 7i is a pleasure to recreation on, nonetheless, with its well-designed keyboard, attractive show, and implausible efficiency. The expertise carries over to the audio, as its audio system are above common for a laptop computer. Two are upward-facing and two are downward, leading to a sound that is a bit of extra engrossing and fuller than most laptops’ shallow sound profile. 

When it comes to benchmarking, the Legion Professional 7i proves it could possibly dangle with spectacular numbers, particularly in multi-core efficiency.

The caveat of a gaming laptop computer

Like all laptop computer with this quantity of {hardware} on board, the 99Wh battery is extraordinarily variable. This isn’t a skinny and lightweight Copilot+ PC with a battery that drains at a trickle when it is not on. In actual fact, it depletes surprisingly shortly simply sitting round, one thing to remember in the event you depart it unplugged for a day or two and count on to return again to it prepared to fireplace up. 

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The efficiency mode you activate will drastically impression how lengthy your battery lasts, in addition to what you are doing. For instance, I took this laptop computer to the workplace and labored unplugged in Balanced mode, solely to seek out the laptop computer did not fairly make it by way of the workday. It received to 1% proper round six hours, and that is after regular duties that are not notably demanding. 

In the event you’re speaking about gaming, you will get round 1.5 hours of recreation time unplugged, which really is not all that dangerous for a gaming laptop computer of this caliber. All of that is to say that the Legion Professional 7i performs about as anticipated contemplating the {hardware} on board and the OLED show. Whereas it is attainable to hold round, you will be compelled to maintain the charging brick in tow as its thirst for energy is actual. 

ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation

The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i looks like an 18-inch gaming laptop computer in a extra subtle, 16-inch kind. I really like the show, the stalwart but nonetheless modern construct, and the {hardware} that gives what you are searching for in a gaming laptop computer: efficiency. 

In the long run, Lenovo employed a considerate design right here to compensate for the system’s weaknesses. It runs sizzling however has a really efficient cooling system. It is extremely power-hungry, but it surely costs manner quicker than you’d count on. 

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The elephant within the room is the sky-high beginning value, at $2,600 for the 32GB configuration, going as much as $3,200 if you would like the top-of-the-line GeForce RTX 5090 GPU. I might completely suggest this laptop computer to players searching for a robust, out-of-the-box gaming laptop computer that hits all the correct notes, so long as it is inside your finances. The Legion Professional 7i is a complicated, highly effective machine that dares you to run your favourite recreation at max settings and can finally depart you feeling spoiled.