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日本[Video Review] Lenovo Legion Pro 7 (16, 2023) – NO compromises and ALL the performance
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (16" Intel, Gen 8) in-depth review
Well, 2023 aspires to be a year, where everyone goes all in. NVIDIA released a crazy fast roster of graphics cards, which reach extremely high power targets. Now, manufacturers seem to have no fear to implement them in various form factors.Today, we're going to have a look at the Lenovo Legion Pro 7 (16", 2023). This is a new addition to the Legion family and currently occupies the top spot for premiumness and awesomeness from the brand.As such, the expectations are set really high. Furthermore, its spec sheet is impressive enough to scare everyone who thinks powerful laptops need to [...]
Pros
- Bright RGB
- Capable vapor chamber solution with liquid metal
- 98% DCI-P3 coverage and accurate color representation thanks to our Gaming and Web design profile (MNG007DA2-3 (CSO1628))
- No PWM (MNG007DA2-3 (CSO1628))
- 240Hz panel has very quick pixel response times (MNG007DA2-3 (CSO1628))
- HDR, G-Sync, and MUX switch on board
- Wi-Fi 6E and 2.5Gbit Ethernet support
- Great keyboard and touchpad
- 2x DDR5 SODIMM + 2x M.2 PCIe x4 slots
Cons
- Loud during gaming
- No SD card slot
- Quite expensive
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (16" Intel, Gen 8) - Specs
- HDD/SSD
- up to 16000GB SSD
- M.2 Slot
- 2x 2280 PCIe NVMe 4.0 x4 See photo
- RAM
- up to 64GB
- OS
- Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro, No OS
- Battery
- 99.9Wh, 80Wh, 99.99Wh
- Body material
- Aluminum
- Dimensions
- 363.4 x 262.15 x 21.95 - 25.90 mm (14.31" x 10.32" x 0.86")
- Weight
- 2.80 kg (6.2 lbs)
- Ports and connectivity
- 3x USB Type-A
- 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
- 1x USB Type-A
- 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Sleep and Charge
- 1x USB Type-C
- 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
- 1x USB Type-C
- Thunderbolt 4, Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
- HDMI
- 2.1 (8K@60Hz)
- Card reader
- Ethernet LAN
- 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
- Wi-Fi
- 802.11ax
- Bluetooth
- 5.1
- Audio jack
- 3.5mm Combo Jack
- Features
- Fingerprint reader
- Web camera
- HD / FHD with E-camera shutter, fixed focus
- Backlit keyboard
- Microphone
- Dual array microphone
- Speakers
- 2x 2W Stereo Speakers, audio by HARMAN certification, optimized with Nahimic Audio, Smart Amplifier (AMP)
- Optical drive
- Security Lock slot
All Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (16″ Intel, Gen 8) configurations
[Intro]
2023 has already seen gaming laptops become bigger and bolder. However, while everyone is going all in on 18-inch displays, Lenovo is bringing all the performance of Raptor Lake’s 55W HX-series processors and the new 175W 40-series graphics in a smaller 16-inch chassis.
[Design]
First off, Lenovo is kind enough to give you replaceable button mechanisms and keycaps in the box, as well as a plastic tool for doing the whole operation.
Keeping up with Legion traditions, the Pro 7 has a sleek and minimalist aluminum chassis with superb durability. The laptop is rectangular in appearance, but there’s still RGB around the place, especially the strip on the bottom panel. The new heat vents have diamond-shaped cutouts, which also look interesting. The laptop has a profile of 25.9 mm while weighing 2.80 kg, making for a heavy notebook that needs a sturdy bag and a fit owner.
[Input devices]
The keyboard and touchpad are among the best that we’ve seen on a laptop. The board not only has per-key RGB backlighting, but tons of key travel and satisfyingly clicky feedback. The touchpad is large and smooth as well. We noticed some issues with the responsiveness, however, it felt like a software problem that should be easily resolved.
[Ports]
The port selection is staggering, as it’s so much that it needs the space on the left and right, as well as the back. The left side has one USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port and a Thunderbolt 4 port. On the back, there’s the power plug, two more USB Type-A ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, one USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port, and a LAN port. Lastly, on the right side, there’s the fourth USB Type-A port, the audio jack, and a switch for the shutter.
[Display]
There’s only one display available, but it’s so good that you don’t have to look for anything else. The 16-inch QHD+ IPS display supports G-Sync, Dolby Vision, and DisplayHDR 400, all of which make for a great gaming and media-consuming experience. The panel gets really bright, up to 552 nits, while showing 98% sRGB coverage, so you can get busy with video editing and graphic design on the side. If you plan on that, don’t forget our Design and Gaming profile, which improves color accuracy, giving you the almost perfect dE value of 1.0.
We’ll leave our profiles linked down below.
[Sound]
Lenovo is partnering with Harman for the audio setup of the Legion Pro 7, and it doesn’t disappoint. While all speakers are found on the bottom, they produce really good sound, with no significant deviations across the frequency range, while the max volume is high as well.
[Performance]
Finally, we get to the good parts. With a 24-core Core i9-13900HX, you get all the computing power you need. In benchmarks, the Legion 7 Pro shows less performance than both the MSI Raider GE78 HX and the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 18. The laptop is still insanely fast, it’s just that the other two are faster. The 175W RTX 4080 is very competitive with the one inside the MSI device as well as the new Helios 18 from Acer.
However, it’s best if you show some real-world scenarios in games. We test on an external 1080p monitor, so the FPS on the QHD+ display of the Legion 7 can be a smidge lower, but you’ll still have a great time.
In God Of War, for example, we get 157 fps on the Ultra preset. If you prefer exploring a dystopian Earth, Death Stranding is the game for you. The 4080 is able to run the game at 192 fps on the Very High preset.
[Cooling]
The task of cooling the laptop is left in the hands of a large vapor chamber with two fans. It does a very good job at keeping the CPU running at high wattages, spiking up to 171W for a few seconds, while being able to maintain 137W for more than 15 minutes.
On the side of the GPU, the 4080 maintains 174W without a problem, while keeping a clock speed of more than 2400MHz. The high power limits do mean extra heat, which bleeds into the base, heating it up to 51°C in certain hotspots.
[Battery life]
This isn’t a laptop oriented towards efficiency, so even with a huge 99.99Wh battery pack, we get around 6 hours and 40 minutes of Web browsing, or 5 hours and 58 minutes of video playback.
[Teardown and upgradeability]
Lastly, the inside of the laptop houses two SODIMM slots for up to 64GB of DDR5 memory of up to 6000MHz. For storage, there are two M.2 slots that support the faster Gen 4 SSDs. Both the RAM and storage slots are covered by metal brackets that should help with lowering the temperatures.
You can check out our teardown video, which shows how to open the laptop for upgrades and maintenance, cleaning, repairs, and more.
[Verdict]
The Lenovo Legion Pro 7 keeps the Legion traditions going, offering a sleek twist on the gaming notebook formula. It’s not alone in its quest for performance, so while you can get other powerful laptops, some even more powerful, there’s nothing like the package that Lenovo’s got going, so it’s certainly a strong contender in the space for 2023.
Don’t forget to check out our detailed review on our website LaptopMedia.com.
