Lenovo's Legion laptops generally offer very good gaming experiences, and the latest Legion Pro 7i is an absolutely phenomenal machine. It packs powerful performance and a solid display into a premium design that stands out for all the right reasons — except for its price.

Indeed, with the latest and greatest hardware from both Intel and Nvidia, the Legion Pro 7i Gen 8 tears through just about any task, and it does so while looking fantastic. It doesn't really feel outdated in any way, whereas some gaming laptops sometimes sacrifice certain aspects of a typical premium experience to focus exclusively on gaming.

It's not perfect. The only notable flaw I can point out is that the display isn't quite as good as I'd like for something this expensive. Plus, as is expected from a high-end gaming laptop, battery life is atrocious. However, considering everything else you're getting here, it's hard to complain. It's easily one of the best laptops I've used, and certainly one of the best gaming laptops out there.

About this review: Lenovo sent us the Legion Pro 7i Gen 8 for the purposes of this review. It did not have any input into its contents.

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i: Pricing and availability

• The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is available directly from Lenovo
• This configuration costs $2,749.99

Lenovo announced the Legion Pro 7i earlier this year during CES, and it's already available to buy. At writing time, Lenovo's website indicates that it's out of stock, but we've previously seen it available. You'll want to keep an eye out for it. It may also show up at other retailers eventually, but that's not the case yet.

The price for the configuration we received is $2,749.99, which is the only option available to buy right now. However, Lenovo has also mentioned versions with RTX 4090 and RTX 4070 GPUs, so prices will vary if you want to go for one of those. Plus, Lenovo holds a lot of sales throughout the year, so be on the lookout for discounts.

Design: It looks and feels premium

• The build quality and materials of the Legion Pro 7i feel premium all around
• It's quite heavy, as you'd expect
• There are a ton of ports

The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i's design exceeded my expectations in almost every way. The chassis is entirely made of anodized aluminum, and not only does it feel sturdy, it feels good. It has a soft touch finish that I don't think I've ever seen on a laptop, and it just exudes this premium feeling that I would never expect from a gaming laptop — or many laptops in general.

The hinge has just the right amount of tension to make the laptop easy to open with one hand without feeling flimsy. It also helps that Lenovo uses a sort of reverse notch at the top, making it easier to lift the display with your thumb.

The laptop looks great, too. I do like complaining about how laptops should be more colorful, but this shade of gray looks great in person. It also doesn't necessarily lack personality, with the fan exhaust vents having a finish that makes it look as though there are tiny water droplets on the laptop. It's imperceptible when you're using the laptop, but when you look closely, it makes it feel that much more unique.

The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i's design exceeded my expectations in almost every way.

And, of course, it's a gaming laptop, so there's RGB to give you some extra flair. In addition to per-key RGB lighting on the keyboard, the laptop has a light strip running across the front. It's fairly thin, but the light bounces off your desk, and it makes for a cool effect that's not overly bright. RGB lighting is customizable in the Lenovo Vantage app, which has plenty of effects to choose from, so you can tweak it to your liking or just turn it off.

Gaming laptops tend to have a lot of ports, but the Legion Pro 7i is one of the best I've seen. Most of the ports are on the back, including the proprietary charging port, HDMI 2.1, two USB Type-A ports (one always on for charging), RJ45 Ethernet, and a USB Type-C port with DP Alt Mode and support for 140W charging. You won't be charging your laptop very fast with this port, especially while gaming, but it gives you something to use in a pinch if you don't have the proprietary charger. One cool thing about these ports is that the labels are actually on the top side of the laptop, so you can easily plug accessories into the back without having to move the laptop to see where the ports are.

On the left side, there's a USB Type-A port and a Thunderbolt 4 port for connecting to a docking station or other peripherals. On the right are another USB Type-A port, a headphone jack, and an electronic webcam shutter.

This laptop has a downside, but it's one you probably already expected. It weighs around 6.17 pounds, so it's not a machine you want to carry around often. You should expect that with a high-end gaming laptop, though, and it's certainly not exclusive to this one. There are lighter models, but it will never be about great portability in this category.

Keyboard and touchpad: It's comfortable and spacious

• The keyboard feels great to type on and has a number pad
• The touchpad is fairly large and smooth

The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i's keyboard has a good layout. All the arrow keys are full-size, which is always welcome, and there's a numpad, which can be helpful. I always use it for signing into my PC with my PIN since there's no Windows Hello support on this machine.

The keyboard feels also feels nice to type on. The keys have the right amount of travel distance, and they feel nice to press overall. They don't require a lot of force to actuate, which I also liked, even though laptops like the HP Omen 16 have a bit more tension to the keys that I also liked. This is a matter of preference, but this is still a great keyboard.

As I've already mentioned, there's per-key RGB lighting available, which is more flashy than some other laptops since the lights are visible through the key labels but also around the edges. I like how it looks, but it may not be ideal if you like something more subtle.

The touchpad is also smooth and responsive, and I never really had any complaints. It's offset from the center, but that's necessary because the numpad pushes the keyboard to the side. Coming off of the Lenovo ThinkPad T16, I'm a bit more used to this layout, so I didn't have the same problems. The offset isn't as bad as it was on that laptop, so that helps, too.

Display: A tall screen with high resolution and refresh rate

• The 16-inch display has a 16:10 aspect ratio and Quad HD+ resolution
• A 240Hz refresh rate makes it ideal for gaming

Unfortunately, we're on to the most negative part of the review: the display. It's not necessarily bad, though. For one, this is a large 16-inch display with a 2560 x 1600 resolution. That's very sharp for a screen of this size, and it works out to a nice, tall 16:10 aspect ratio. Taller screens should be the standard, even for gaming laptops, especially when you're paying this much. It makes laptops that much more versatile.

The refresh rate is 240Hz, which will make everything look smooth, and it's frankly more than what you can get out of most modern titles without lowering the graphics settings (more on that later). That makes this screen great not just for gaming but also for getting work done.

This is a screen that's great not just for gaming but also for getting work done.

However, I did notice a lack of vibrancy on this screen. It's not bad per se, but using it side-by-side with the monitors at my desk, I could tell they have slightly punchier colors than this panel. I probably wouldn't have noticed that by itself, though.

Lenovo touts 100% coverage of sRGB for this display, which seems to check out in my measurements. I measured 100% coverage of sRGB, 76% of Adobe RGB, 78% of DCI-P3, and 71% of P3. That's good enough for gaming but not amazing for tasks like photo editing.

The Alienware m16 has similar specs and comes with a display that covers 100% of DCI-P3, so I think it would be possible to have better color accuracy on a gaming laptop. Granted, that laptop costs $50 more, but at this price range, that $50 probably doesn't make a huge difference, and I would say the upgrade is worth it.

As for brightness, Lenovo promises up to 500 nits, and my measurements showed that my unit surpassed that and reached almost 536 nits. Interestingly, the minimum brightness level is extremely low, with the black measurements registering as 0 nits on my calibration tool. It doesn't turn off completely, but it is extremely dim. Outdoor visibility is just OK, though I think the lack of vibrancy I mentioned above contributes to the display being a bit harder to see in bright environments. But it's not like you'll be using this laptop outdoors that often.

I should also mention the webcam, which is a 1080p camera that's always welcome on a laptop. As far as 1080p cameras go, it's not exceptional, but it's serviceable for the most part. Many gaming laptops still use 720p cameras, so this is still a win.

Performance: The cream of the crop

• It comes with an incredible 24-core, 32-thread processor
• The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 handles modern games with no problems

It shouldn't come as a surprise considering the specs, but the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is an incredibly fast machine. It's powered by a 55W Intel Core i9-13900HX processor, which has a whopping 24 cores and 32 threads and boost speeds up to 5.4GHz on the performance cores. It also comes with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, which is configured to the maximum TDP allowed by Nvidia's design: 175W.

Lenovo also boasts its dedicated AI engine, powered by the LA2-Q proprietary chip. This is designed to optimize performance based on multiple sensors inside the laptop, ensuring the best possible performance based on the load you're running. Lenovo says the engine gets smarter over time, so you could actually see performance improved even further later on.

Obviously, performance is fantastic for gaming here. I tried a few titles on Steam, and I could play them all at max settings and full resolution without any issues. Here's a rundown of the games I played and the measurements I got with MSI Afterburner. (I didn't have to include Elden Ring here since the frame rate is locked at 60 FPS, but if you were wondering, it runs perfectly fine.)

With max settings enabled and the games all running at maximum resolution, it was impossible to hit the 240Hz refresh rate of the display, but that's kind of expected. You'll need to tone down some settings to go further than that. As it stands, these frame rates are already fantastic. I also wanted to test the effects of Nvidia's Deep Learning Frame Generation, which uses AI to create additional frames without rendering them in the traditional sense.

It shouldn't come as a surprise considering the specs, but the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is an incredibly fast machine.

Of course, I also ran the usual set of benchmarks, and the results are about as impressive as you'd expect. Here's a look at how it compares to other laptops.

As you can tell, both Intel's 13th-generation processors and Nvidia's GeForce RTX 40 series Laptop GPUs offer nice performance bumps over their predecessors. There were some odd results in the VRMark tests, but ultimately, both 3DMark tests show that this new generation is a noticeable upgrade.

These upgrades kind of fall flat once you unplug the charger, and that's also expected with these kinds of laptops. Performance takes a big hit in an attempt to save power, but even then, battery life is a letdown. Most of my tests saw the laptop die in two to two and half hours, and I could quickly drain it twice during a work day. Once again, it's important to note that this laptop, and others in this category, aren't meant for that kind of portability. These machines are easy to carry to a friend's house or an esports event, but they're not meant to be used for gaming while you're out and about.

Should you buy the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 8?

You should buy the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 8 if you:

• Are looking for top-tier gaming performance in a somewhat portable package
• Appreciate the premium look and feel
• Want to use the laptop for some office work
• Have a lot of money to spend

You shouldn't buy the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i if you:

• Have a more reasonable budget
• Need good color coverage for content creation
• Are looking for something easy to carry

It's not often that I can say I like a product as much as I like the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, but it does hit many of the right notes. The build quality is fantastic, it's incredibly fast, and the tall display makes it great for tasks beyond gaming. The high price tag is probably its biggest downside, but considering how versatile it is, I'd say it's worth it if you have this kind of money.

However, I do wish the display was just a bit better in terms of color coverage, as that would make this a more versatile laptop that you can also use for color-sensitive work, like photo and video editing. If that matters to you, look at options like the Alienware m16 or the Razer Blade 16.