Lenovo’s new Legion Pro 7i gaming laptop is here, but they’ve actually downgraded
it and removed lots of nice features compared to last year’s Legion 7i.
My new Legion Pro 7i has Intel’s new 24 core 32
thread Core i9-13900HX processor with Nvidia RTX 4080 graphics.
The CPU, GPU, RAM and screen are all better this generation, so it will offer more performance,
but almost every other part of the chassis design takes a step backwards, so let’s compare them!
This year’s model still has an aluminum metal exterior with an anodized finish,
but it’s available in a darker onyx grey finish.
This year’s version is slightly wider and thicker,
but not quite as deep, it’s only a small size difference though.
The new one was 129 grams or almost 0.3 pounds heavier without the power bricks.
Last year’s version had a big 300 watt power brick, while this year’s has been bumped up
to a new 330 watt GaN charger, which is actually smaller and lighter. This
helps close the weight gap a little, but the new one was still a little heavier.
The RGB lighting is far more subdued this year. There’s still per-key RGB
lighting for the keyboard, but the front light bar no longer wraps around the left
and right sides. The colors still look pretty good in person though.
There’s no more RGB lighting in the air exhaust vents which I’m fine with,
and no lighting in the Legion logo on the lid either.
The lighting is still managed through Lenovo’s Spectrum software and has 6
built in profiles which can be customized just like before.
The power button still lights up and changes color based on which performance mode you’re in,
but it’s back to the simple dot design found in the cheaper Legion 5 series. Yeah
it still does the job, but not only did last year’s design look cooler,
it also had a fingerprint scanner built in, so that’s gone this year too.
For some reason they got rid of the lighting over the rear port icons. I really liked this
in last year’s version, as it made it super easy to see where to plug cables into in a dark room.
You had the option of turning it off if you didn’t want it, but now it’s completely gone.
Speaking of ports, the left side now has a USB Type-A port and one Type-C with Thunderbolt 4
instead of two Type-C ports with Thunderbolt 4. The right still has the 3.5mm audio combo jack
and a switch to disable the 1080p camera, but the Type-C port has turned into a Type-A now.
The back still has an ethernet port, but it’s back to being upside down now. I’m told the
laptop would have to be thicker to support it the other way. Fortunately it seems to sit high
enough off the table that I can still remove the cable without lifting the laptop, but they also
downgraded it from 2.5 gigabit in 2022 to gigabit in 2023. Otherwise the rest of the ports seem to
be the same, with USB Type-C, HDMI 2.1, two more Type-A ports for 4 in total, and the power input.
So this year’s model has two Type-C ports and four Type-A ports, the inverse of what last
year’s had. But both of those Type-C ports on the new model can be used to charge the
laptop with up to 140 watts, which is an improvement compared to last year’s model
which only supported Type-C charging on the one rear Type-C port with 135 watts.
Unfortunately Lenovo still do not appear to be using the power delivery 3.1 standard to
pull this off, as they note that it requires 20 volts and 7 amps, while PD 3.1 uses 28 volts and
5 amps. So this certainly isn’t ideal because it means that a number of third party Type-C
chargers won’t be able to give you the full 140 watts with the new model. It’ll probably
still be limited to 100 watts, just like last year, unless you get a special Lenovo charger.
The touchpad is the same size as last year’s version and still feels nice to click,
but it’s got a mylar or plastic surface now compared to last year’s smoother glass finish,
and I also found it slightly louder to click.
The keyboard feels the same to type on, so still nice with the same 1.5mm of key travel,
but this year it’s got black keys, and the pressure sensitive WASD keys are gone. I also
noticed that the newer model no longer has the small air ventilation holes above the keyboard, so
it will be interesting if this affects thermals, though air still comes in through the keyboard.
The screen still goes the full 180 degrees back,
but the hinge design is different. Last year the hinges were right on the outside edges,
now they’re a little closer into the middle, and I also found that the screen on the new
model was stiffer to open, which I preferred as it felt sturdier.
We’ve still got the function plus R shortcut to quickly swap the screen’s refresh rate between
240Hz and 60Hz to save battery, but there’s still no option to make this automatically
happen when you unplug the power cable - a nice feature others like ASUS and MSI offer.
Just like last year, it’s still got a MUX
switch and the option of enabling or disabling hybrid mode with a reboot,
or you can leave hybrid mode on and dynamically change without rebooting with advanced optimus.
The bottom panel wasn’t too hard to open,
despite the return of these plastic side pieces around the air exhausts.
Inside we’ve got the largest possible 99.9Wh battery down the front,
two PCIe Gen 4 M.2 SSDs just above on the left and right sides,
two DDR5-5600 memory sticks in the middle, and Wi-Fi 6E card on the right. There’s also
a vapor chamber cooler up the back on the 4080 and 4090 configurations.
The primary M.2 slot on the right cannot fit my double sided 4TB SSD,
but it fit fine into the secondary slot on the left.
Although there’s a 99.9Wh battery, there’s also a lower 80Wh battery option. The RAM can
apparently be overclocked to DDR5-6000 through the BIOS, however mine didn’t have this option,
I think because I don’t have 6000 capable sticks with XMP.
The BIOS gives us the option to change the maximum fan from 50 to 55 decibels,
so faster and louder if you want more performance.
The vantage software also adds a new custom mode, which finally gives us some level of fan
control as well as the option to set the fans to full speed. There’s also CPU and GPU power
limit adjustments, I’ve never seen so many GPU power options available through software before!
According to the spec sheet, the speakers are the same as last year's version,
but I thought the newer one sounded clearer with a little more bass.
So then, when can you actually buy the new Pro 7i? Well, Lenovo did release last year’s
Legion 7 series a bit later in the year, around the middle if I recall, but I’ve been told that
they’re trying to change this and launch this year’s model much earlier. Just for comparison,
I got this year’s early model in February but I didn’t get last year’s early model until May.
Actually while making this video, Lenovo’s site updated to list it shipping from February 25th.
As for price, right now the US site has my same configuration listed for $2750 USD, so not cheap,
but it’s still around $1000 less compared to the RTX 4080 in the Blade 18 I recently tested.
So then is this year’s Legion Pro 7i worth considering? Well compared to last year’s Legion
7i, the new version is thicker and heavier, the touchpad is plastic instead of glass,
the fingerprint scanner is gone, the rear port icon lighting is gone, the pressure sensitive
WASD keys are gone, the ethernet port has been reduced from 2.5 gigabit to gigabit and been
turned upside down, there’s just less RGB lighting overall, and personally I just don’t think the
design looks a good. I don’t know, I just really liked the brushed metal trim finish around the
edge of last year’s version compared to what this year’s is doing. But of course that is subjective!
At the end of the day, none of these changes are super serious. It’s just that the Legion
7 series has been Lenovo’s premium gaming laptop option with all the extra bells and whistles. So
it’s sad to see these nice to have extra features removed. Especially when they’re adding the “pro”
name onto the model this year. I’d argue that it’s less pro when you start taking
away features instead of adding them. The only improvements I could see from this year’s model
are the smaller power brick, the sturdier hinge and the better sounding speakers. The
Vantage software update to customize fan speed and power limits really is the cherry on top
So not sure if it will also apply to older models. Although I’ve got no doubts at all
that the new faster CPU, GPU, RAM and screen will offer better gaming performance than ever,
I think the actual chassis design is a step back this year, which kind of makes
you wonder if they're saving all those high end features for a new Legion 9 series or
something. Or maybe Nvidia’s new RTX 4080 and 4090 laptop GPUs are so expensive that Lenovo
had to make all these cuts just to keep the price from going even crazier. I’m not sure.
Unfortunately this is an early engineering sample, so I can’t test things like thermals,
battery life or game FPS just yet as things could change, but the final version isn’t far off!
Subscribe so you don’t miss the full review, and check this video next to find out how the
new RTX 4080 laptop GPU compares against the best Nvidia had to offer last year, the RTX 3080 Ti!