Lenovo’s Legion lineup has improved drastically over the years. However, the company’s offerings have always played second fiddle to gaming laptops from ASUS or Alienware, at least in popularity. Well, that could soon change with the Legion 7i, undeniably the best gaming laptop I’ve used this year. It doesn’t have the most powerful processor or GPU. However, it addresses many of my pet peeves with gaming laptops. So much so that if I were to splurge on a gaming laptop this year, this would be it. Here’s why.
Table of Contents
Design and I/O
Lenovo has knocked the Legion 7i out of the ballpark with its design. The laptop cuts an incredibly handsome package and is constructed using premium materials like metal. The chassis feels exceptionally sturdy, and from the moment I picked it up, I could tell that it would stand the test of time. The frame doesn’t flex or creak, and the laptop’s chassis doesn’t feel hollow to the touch, either.
Make no mistake – the Legion 7i is an expensive laptop. But, unlike most costly things, it doesn’t come with a spiffy paint job or ornamental etching on the lid. Instead, my review unit is decked in black, and only after you open the lid do you see a jazz of colour. I am incredibly fond of this understated design tone as it allows me to use gaming laptops in a cafe or office without attracting too much attention.
The glossy metal accent running across the laptop’s frame deserves a mention, too. The finish is similar to what you may have seen on Dell’s XPS and Latitude laptops, adding more pazazz to the laptop’s design. And, despite packing in extremely potent hardware, the Legion 7i isn’t overtly thick or bulky. While it is a heavy machine, tipping the scales at 2.24kg, it is noticeably slimmer and more portable than competing devices like the Alienware M16 R2 gaming laptop.
Despite that, it comes with a handful of ports. The HDMI 2.1 and DC-in ports are positioned towards the rear, allowing better cable management. The laptop has a USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, a USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, and an SD card reader on its right fascia. The laptop features another set of Type-A and Type-C ports on the left, a headphone-mic combo jack, and a Thunderbolt 4 port.
Unsurprisingly, I could tether a handful of accessories to the laptop, including an external monitor, keyboard, and dongles for my wireless mice and headphones. The illuminated HDMI legend above the port is also a particularly nice touch. If anything, I wish the power button, which also houses the fingerprint sensor, was positioned a smidge lower. As things stand, my fingers press against the laptop’s hinge whilst unlocking the device, which is somewhat annoying.
Thankfully, the fingerprint sensor works as advertised and unlocks the laptop in the blink of an eye. Do note that the Legion 7i’s webcam doesn’t support facial recognition.
Display and Audio
The Lenovo Legion 7i is a decidedly powerful laptop, although, as configured, I find its display a bit excessive for most users’ needs. The laptop comes with a 16-inch screen that is crammed with pixels, offers a 3.2K (3,200 x 2,000) resolution, and refreshes at 165Hz. The IPS panel has other things going for it too, including an anti-glare coating, 430 nits of peak brightness, and 100 percent DCI-P3 colour space coverage.
While I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching movies on the laptop, I’ve rarely leveraged its resolution when playing games. Although some casual games can still run at 3.2K resolution, demanding games perform much better at 2K or 1200P resolution. The real kicker is that a game running at 2K resolution will still appear incredibly sharp when playing on a smaller screen.
Funnily enough, Lenovo tends to outfit its devices with overpowered displays. I noted the same trend when I was reviewing the company’s Legion Go too, a gaming handheld with an 8.8-inch QHD display! Thankfully, you can pick up the laptop with a more reasonable (and economical) 2K display. If you’re eyeing the machine, I strongly recommend opting for that trim, as it also bumps up the refresh rate to 240Hz.
I want to emphasise that I am not looking down on my Legion 7i’s 3.2K screen. On the contrary, it’s incredibly sharp, overturns vibrant colours, and can even be used in creative workflows. In addition, the screen is bordered by narrow bezels and offers stellar viewing angles too. The display’s 165Hz refresh rate came in handy during my XDefiant and Apex Legends sessions as well, displaying smooth visuals with no perceptible tearing. The same goes for the laptop’s downward-firing speakers, which can get quite loud. I remember playing Diablo 4 on the machine, and the speakers comfortably drowned the fan noise, immersing me in the game’s grippy, sinister tunes.
Keyboard and Trackpad
The Lenovo Legion 7i features a full-size keyboard deck with a Numpad and proper arrow keys. Moreover, while some competing notebooks limit the backlighting effects to a zone(s), the Legion 7i has per-key RGB backlighting. In other words, you can customise the colour or the effect of each and every key on the keyboard individually. This paves the way for an unmatched personalisation experience that helps the laptop stand out.
The keyboard deck is quite spacious as well, which will undoubtedly be appreciated by folks with big hands or pudgy fingers. The keys offer a generous travel distance of 1.5mm and don’t feel mushy. The trackpad works well, too. It supports multi-finger gestures and offers a smooth surface. It is positioned a bit off-centre, which will take some time to get used to. Other than that, it should suffice for most users’ needs.
Performance, Software, and Battery Life
The Lenovo Legion 7i can be configured with up to a Core i9 processor. However, my review unit ships with Intel’s Core i7-14700HX processor and an RTX 4070 GPU with a 140W TGP. For RAM and storage, the device comes outfitted with 32GB of DDR5 memory clocked at 5,600MHz and a 1TB NVMe Gen 4 SSD.
As you may have guessed, the laptop leaves no stone unturned in the performance department. I tested the device with several games, including demanding AAA titles and eSports games. Overall, the device was able to comfortably run most games at 2K resolution. Understandably, the performance may suffer when running games at the display’s native 3.2K resolution. While most games are still playable, I wouldn’t settle for a lower frame rate for slightly better fidelity, and neither should you.
Case in point: Witcher 3, an old albeit demanding game. With all the graphics presets maxed out and the game running at 3.2K resolution, the Legion 7i logged around 30FPS. Note that I didn’t enable Ray Tracing for this run, which can significantly impact the laptop’s performance.
That said, at 2K resolution and with Ray Tracing set to the ‘Low’ preset, I averaged around 45FPS. There was a noticeable improvement in smoothness, and all of a sudden, running through plantations and slaughtering monsters felt less of a chore. You can further improve the frame rate by playing the game at 1200P resolution. At the High graphics preset and with RT set to Performance, you will average well over 60FPS.
Moving on, the laptop could run Cyberpunk 2077 at over 60FPS by leveraging NVIDIA’s DLSS technology set to the Quality preset. This was done at 1200P resolution and maxed-out graphics presets, including leveraging Ray-Traced lighting. Bumping the resolution to 2K brings the FPS to the low forties. However, disabling Ray Traced graphics will let you run the game at around 60FPS. At 3.2K resolution, the game crawls at a snail’s pace and averages 25FPS.
Deathloop also runs quite well on the laptop. At 2K resolution, Ray Traced lighting, and with the graphics presets maxed out, I was idling around 80 FPS in the game. However, the frame rate would dip to the low seventies / high sixties when I was engaged in combat in the game. At 3.2K resolution, the game ran at a paltry 30-40FPS. Enabling DLSS does help bring the frame rate up to 50FPS, but you should still keep your expectations in check if you want to run the game at the laptop’s native resolution.
Racing games like NFS Unbound can also run at commendable settings on the laptop. At 3.2K resolution and High graphics preset, the game net around 40FPS. Lowering the resolution to QHD translated into significant performance improvements, and the laptop could comfortably run the title at around 68FPS. At 1200P, the game averaged around 80FPS, which is excellent.
| Game | Graphics Preset | Resolution | FPS |
| Deathloop | High-Ultra | 2K | ~80 |
| Valorant | High-Ultra | 2K | ~450 |
| XDefiant | High | 2K | ~130 |
| Apex Legends | High-Ultra | 2K | 144 |
| Witcher 3 | High with Ray Tracing | 1200P | ~65 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | High with RT and DLSS | 1200P | ~65 |
| NFS Unbound | Ultra | 2K | ~68 |
| GTA 5 | High | 1200P | ~170 |
| God of War | High | 2K | ~70 |
| Diablo 4 | Ultra | 3.2K | ~60 |
| Sniper Elite 5 | Ultra | 1200P | ~130 |
Less-daunting Hero shooters like Apex Legends could run at 144FPS or higher at 2K resolution. XDefiant is a smidge more taxing and logs around 70FPS at 3.2K resolution and 130FPS at 2K resolution. Valorant tops out at 400+ FPS on the machine, which is bonkers, to say the least. All said and done; the Lenovo Legion 7i breezes through AAA games. You can refer to the slider attached to get more insights into its gaming chops.
It’s no surprise that the laptop performs competently as a work laptop. It can also handle creative workflows using applications from Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite. In fact, the laptop achieved outstanding results in the PugetBench Photoshop benchmark, which simulates real-world scenarios such as applying a lens correction filter to an asset within the app.
In addition, the Legion 7i dissipates heat quite well, too. While most P-cores touched 90 degrees during various playthroughs, the laptop’s chassis never felt hot to the touch. Additionally, the machine didn’t throttle, and the frame rate stayed consistent even after playing games for hours at a stretch. 
On the bright side, the laptop comes with user-upgradeable RAM and storage. You can seamlessly access the innards by unscrewing eight screws at the back.
Verdict
The Lenovo Legion 7i costs Rs 2 lakh in India. For its asking price, the laptop gets a lot right and offers an impeccable gaming experience. At the same time, it offers a sleek design and a sharp 3.2K display. While the higher resolution is wasted on newer AAA titles, the laptop can still run games at 2K resolution admirably. If you can look past its battery backup, the Legion 7i will not disappoint you.
Editor’s Rating: 8.5 / 10
Pros:
- Excellent performance
- Per-Key RGB keyboard
- Sleek design
Cons:
- 3.2K display will not be fully utilized by newer games
- Sub-par battery backup
