Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 8 (16, Intel) review – hands down, so much power inside a thin chassis

Verdict

The biggest advantage of the Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 8 (16″, Intel) is the compact dimensions (for a top-tier gaming laptop) combined with high-end hardware. It’s not a heavy 30 mm 18-incher – it weighs a bit over 2.5 kilos and has a profile under 19 mm. You get only top-of-the-line hardware including the Intel Core i9-13980HX and you can get one of the two most powerful NVIDIA Ada Lovelace GPUs with 175W TGPs.

Speaking of which, the performance of this device is expectedly great. It feels blazing fast for casual tasks such as Web browsing, social media, or watching YouTube videos. The capable hybrid cooling solution allows good CPU clock and power limits under load as well as 174W GPU TGP after half an hour of gaming. The temperature of both chips is always under control. The noise under load is adequate considering the hardware – the fans aren’t quiet during gaming but they aren’t as loud as a vacuum cleaner. Our only concern is the implementation if the liquid cooling that turns on only when the video card reaches 84°C. During our testing, the graphics card core wasn’t close to this thermal limit so the water cooling wasn’t active at all. That’s a bit of a strange case.

The FPS values in the tested heavy gaming titles are good. Expectedly, no game can challenge this powerhouse, even on Ultra details. Some other laptops can achieve a bit higher scores but they are noticeably thicker and heavier than the Legion 9i.

The next thing that impresses us is the display. The 16″ 3.2K 16:10 Mini LED panel (CSOT MNG007ZA2-2 (CSO1629)) has 100% sRGB and 98% DCI-P3 coverage and great color-accuracy out-of-the-box. You can enhance it even further with our “Design and Gaming” profile to an average dE value of just 0.6 which is a mind-blowing result. So, this laptop is a multipurpose machine that can also be used for color-sensitive work. The screen also out-of-this-world contrast ratio of 16300:1 and wide viewing angles. The only downside here is the PWM usage but our “Health-Guard” profile can make your life easier if you plan to use the notebook for long hours.

The build quality is corresponding to the high price of the machine. You have a unique-looking lid made of forged carbon chips and a magnesium-aluminium base. It’s hard to ask for more in this section. For future upgrades, you get two SODIMM slots for a fast 32GB DDR5-6400 MHz RAM or if you need more memory, you can opt for 64GB of DDR5-5600 MHZ. Unfortunately, the RAM slots aren’t visible because they are positioned on the other side of the inverted motherboard. We were hoping for at least one Gen 5 SSD slot but at the end of the day, you can rely on two Gen 4 slots.

The connectivity and the I/O are on point – five USB ports including two Thunderbolt 4’s and an SD card reader. The input devices are comfortable and there is an E-shutter for the Web camera. The laptop offers plenty of RGBs that can glow in different colors but if you don’t like such extras, you can turn off the illumination entirely.

The Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 8 (16″, Intel) is a powerhouse of a notebook that has compact dimensions for a gaming machine, high-end hardware, tons of ports, a comfortable keyboard, good build quality, and a great 3.2K Mini LED display.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-legion-9-16-gen-8/

#CommissionsEarned

Lenovo Legion 9 16

Processor

Intel Core i9-13980HX

VideoCard

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 (Laptop, 175W)

RAM

64GB RAM

STORAGE

2000GB SSD

Detailed review

Lenovo Legion 9 16

Processor

Intel Core i9-13980HX

VideoCard

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 (Laptop, 175W)

RAM

64GB RAM

STORAGE

2000GB SSD

Detailed review

Lenovo Legion 9 16

Processor

Intel Core i9-13980HX

VideoCard

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 (Laptop, 175W)

RAM

64GB RAM

STORAGE

2000GB SSD

Detailed review

View all results

Author: Nikolay Palaozov

Author: eng. Kroum NikolovHead of Engineering at LaptopMedia.com, inventor and innovator with 40+ years of experience in electronics and high technology.

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