The new Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is an excellent next-generation gaming laptop. It is a machine at a price point that makes the other high-end RTX 40 series machines in the high $4,000+ range look even more ridiculous. The RTX 4080 GPU also delivers gaming performance that makes one wonder why anyone would want an RTX 4090 machine (opens in new tab).

This is the first gaming laptop to use Nvidia's second tier Ada Lovelace GPU.

Like the RTX 4090 before it, the numbering system Nvidia uses for its mobile graphics silicon is distinct from the numbering system inside the desktop version of the same name. but they are not the same as the graphics chumpers found in the latest and greatest gaming PCs.

The mobile RTX 4090 uses the same AD103 GPU as the desktop RTX 4080 (open in new tab), but the mobile RTX 4080 is actually made from a scaled-down version of the AD104 used within the desktop RTX 4070 Ti (open in new tab).

This means that it has 7,424 CUDA cores compared to the desktop GPU's 7,680. This also lags far behind the mobile RTX 4090 with 9,728 CUDA cores, which should mean that the top chips will always have the edge.

We found that this is not always the case, as gaming notebook chassis are very narrow, so the constraints on the GPU work in favor of this GPU. the lower power demand of the second chip allows it to clock up to much higher levels than thirstier, larger chips allows it to really affect relative game performance.

The difference in frame rates is not always as large as one might assume, and sometimes not at all.

The Legion Pro 7i (open in new tab) runs the RTX 4080 at 150W TGP, which is the effective maximum of the GPU. However, manufacturers are given an additional 25W leeway to raise their specs if they feel they can push a little extra power in their systems; in the MSI Titan GT77 (open in new tab) and Razer Blade 16 (open in new tab), the RTX 4090 GPUs are given 175W of leeway; Lenovo did not go that route, and the Legion Pro knows its preferences, preferring 150W TGP and no more.

But the GPU is not all that powers this machine. And the confusing component nomenclature is not limited to Nvidia either; the Legion Pro 7i uses a 13th generation Intel chip, the Core i9 13900HX. If you think, as I do, that it is a slightly higher clocked version of the Core i9 13900H that Asus uses in its excellent Zephyrus M16 gaming laptop (opens in new tab), you are mistaken.

Despite the almost identical name, this is a very different and significantly better CPU: whereas Asus' is a 14-core design with six P-cores, this is a 24-core setup with eight P-cores and twice as many E-cores. Both are capable of 5.4 GHz boost clocks, but inevitably the larger chip has a higher base TDP of 45W.

System Performance

But this translates into actual performance numbers, showing how close it is to the ever so slightly higher clocked Core i9 13950HX used in the Blade and Titan machines.

And backing up the key CPU and GPU combination is a 1TB PCIe 4.0 Samsung SSD and 32GB of DDR5-5600 SK Hynix memory.

Last in the package is a 1600p 240Hz screen. This is good. This is because this display lacks the punch I look for in a gaming panel.

It does, however, have a 16:10 aspect ratio (open in new tab), which I never thought I needed in a gaming laptop until I started using one. The native resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 is an excellent match for the 16-inch screen size that the Legion Pro comes with. It provides a better experience on the desktop and a slightly larger screen area for gaming. With such a high performance graphics chip in the system, a slight increase in resolution will not have a significant impact on gaming performance.

And to sum up my thoughts on the Legion Pro 7i's performance, I have neatly arrived at the characters I have packed in. Inevitably, I was going to compare this to the three RTX 4090-powered machines I've reviewed so far, and I assumed that it would be considerably, or at least clearly, behind Nvidia's top GPUs. But as I said, not so.

Gaming performance

The Legion Pro 7i regularly manages to outperform both the Razer Blade 16 and the Asus Zephyrus M16 at both 1080p and 1440p resolutions. chomping at the bit to get the most out of a GPU of about RTX 4090. Only the MSI Titan GT77. And it may cost you acoustics and sanity.

And especially your bank account.

Because there's one thing I keep coming back to when I'm looking at this Lenovo machine. It may not be the most beautiful, but it sure beats high gaming frame rates. Plus, it's about $2,000 cheaper than the Blade 16; the Blade laptop comes with a Razer premium, but the Zephyrus M16 is still $4,000. Sure, the laptop's screen is not a mini-LED, but I'm willing to compromise if it looks good at 16:10.

I'm talking about compromises here, but honestly, there's nothing bigger that you really have to compromise on than a super expensive screen. And it's a 1600p 240Hz panel. However, the gaming battery life is pretty weak, shorter than any RTX 4090 machine I've looked at, but unless you plan to play without a charging cable, it's much less of an issue.

The actual chassis looks like a Lenovo, more like an office machine than the super angular chassis that Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI traditionally wrap their gaming laptops in. And that's not a bad thing. Each key has RGB illumination, and there's a light bar on the front to light up the laptop. And speaking of keys, the Legion Pro has an excellent keyboard; like the MSI Titan, it has a numeric keypad, but unlike the MSI Titan, it actually works.

I also appreciate that the cursor keys are separated from a large number of keys, and the edges of the keys are slightly curled, making them less prone to accidental hits. At least, that's how it felt with my fat fingers.

So, it feels like a grown-up gaming laptop, very easy to use, and has plenty of performance in both CPU and GPU. $2,750/£2,800 is not cheap, and the price is not too high. But it's not an unexpected price tag for such a high-powered notebook, and considering it's the same price as the Blade 16 with RTX 4060, it's better than many of its competitors. And as a long-time Razer gaming notebook user, I would 100% buy the Legion Pro 7i instead.