It’s Techtober and lots of things I’m testing are under embargo, but here’s one I am allowed to talk about: the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i gaming laptop. Key specs on my review unit include an Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus, 32GB, an NVIDIA RTX5080 with 16GB of VRAM, and a 16″ WQXGA OLED that refreshes at 240HZ. Powering all this is a four. hundred. watt. power supply and a thermal management system that keeps the system from throttling — though it can make the air around your desk toasty.
This is an absolute beast which can substitute for a desktop — plug it in, and it performs like one! — yet is nominally portable. It’s also ideal for serious gamers who don’t have room for a desktop/monitor setup: the monitor strikes a good balance between size and resolution while refreshing fast enough for reflex games. It benchmarks on the high side for multi-core CPU performance and near desktop class for GPU, so if you do want to pair it with a large 4K monitor it should be able to drive it even with AAA titles at or near maximum settings.
The keyboard has solid travel, and while I dislike offset QWERTY to include a full numpad, many gamers consider this layout either preferred or essential. There is customizable LED lighting everywhere: on the exhaust ports, on the rear deck logo, on the front edge of the laptop, and of course on the keyboard deck itself. The trackpad isn’t oversized, but most gamers will be using a mouse or a gaming controller; a nice branded mousepad is included in the box.
Downsides: the speakers play cleanly, but not as loud or as low as perhaps they could given the size of the chassis. The other downsides are just things you should expect when you buy a high-end dedicated gaming PC: it’s expensive (though not out of line with the competition), and nobody is confusing this with a thin & light. On my scale the Legion Pro 7i weighs 5.73 lbs, which isn’t too bad, but it’s thick and long enough that it doesn’t fit into Lenovo’s ThinkPad 16″ backpack, which is clearly aimed at more svelte models. And that weight figure doesn’t include the power supply, which adds 2.66 lbs. — as much as some entire laptops — which you are definitely going to want to bring with you for both performance and longevity.
Serious fun.
Disclosures: Lenovo sent the Legion Pro 7i for review. Devices View does not accept paid posts, does not participate in affiliate link programs, and Lenovo had no editorial control over this article. Lenovo is a Techsponential advisory client.
