Two gaming laptops with the RTX 4070 are now available. Both are priced really great, but both come with a few caveats. However, we can't decide which one we recommend 100%.

The choice is this: the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, one of the best RTX 4070 laptops, down from $2,300 to just $1,990 with a $310 discount (opens in new tab), or the cheaper RTX 4070-powered MSI Katana for $1,479 ( Open in new tab). This is the one with the caveat that it has a lower wattage GPU variant, so the cooling is middling, and the discount is $20 less.

Now, to give some background, we've checked out the numbers for the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i RTX 4080 model (opens in new tab). The equally attractive Legion Pro 7i we are considering here is virtually the same laptop, with a powerful Intel Core i9 13900HX, only instead it is paired with Nvidia's RTX 4070.

The same 1TB SSD, the same 16:10 screen, and no 32GB DDR5-6000 like the RTX 4080 version, but this sister gives us great hope. Our main issue is the 60-minute battery life, which is a bit short compared to other laptops we've tested.

As for this little dealio dilemma, at least the Legion has a slightly higher-powered GPU than the Katana listed here. This is a major difference between the two laptops; the Katana has a 105W GPU versus the Legion's 140W RTX 4070 variant, which means a slight drop in terms of performance. [But the MSI Katana is not to be outdone, and despite the RTX 4070 being paired with Intel's last-gen Core i7 12th generation 12650H, the price has many advantages: 16GB of DDR5 memory should handle most of today's use cases, and the 144Hz panel and the 144Hz GPU are both very good, 144Hz panel and ample storage, there is little to complain about. Except for the bloatware we've come to expect from MSI laptops, as we noted in our recent MSI Cyborg 15 review (opens in new tab). It also doesn't seem to be the best when it comes to temperature, which is why we chose the 105W GPU.

The much lower price also makes sense now.

Either go with Katana, which is $500 cheaper, or take the performance and heat hit and use potential bloatware: ...... Or spend the extra money on Legion. But can you afford another $500?

Decisions, decisions. At least you have a choice.