The Legion Pro 7i from Lenovo has been available in stores for one a half years now and is most likely due for a refresh in 2025, but before that happens, I wanted to discuss it once more, as this is arguably one of the better full-size high-performance laptops available in stores at this point, at the end of 2024.
And although a new model with new specs is coming next year, I still think this 2024 series is going to attract many buyers over the years, as it will get discounted.
I’ve used several Legion Pro 7i variants for quite a few months over the last years, and recently I got this 2024 gen 9 model in the i9-14900HX + RTX 4080 configuration, which is arguably the best-value variant offered for this series. And that leads us to this post, a longer-term review of this now mature Legion lineup.
Down below we’ll discuss the particularities and quirks of this notebook, its performance capabilities and its overall behavior in multitasking, workloads and games, with all the tweaks released over its lifetime. So you’ll know what to expect if you consider getting one of these in late 2024 or in 2025.
Specs as reviewed– Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9
Len0vo Legion Pro 7 16IRX9H (Gen 9, 2024 model year)
Screen 16-inch, 16:10, matte, non-touch,IPS QHD+ 2560 x 1600 px , 240 Hz 3ms w/Overdrive,
Processor Intel 14th-gen Raptor Lake Refresh HX,
Video Intel UHD + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 with 12GB GDDR6 VRAM 150-175W,
Memory 32 GB DDR5-5600 (2x DIMMs), up to 64 GB
Storage 2 TB PCIe gen4 (Samsung PM9A1) – 2x M.2 2280 PCIe gen4 SSD slots
Connectivity WiFi 6E (Killer 1675i), Bluetooth 5.2, Gigabit Lan
Ports Left: 1x USB-C 3.2 with Thunderbolt 4, 1x USB-A gen1
Battery 99.9 Whr, 330 W GaN power adapter, USB-C charging up to 140W
Size 363.5 mm or 14.31” (w) x 262.1 mm or 10.32 (d) x 21.95 – 25.9 mm or .86″ – 1.02” (h)
Weight 2.63 kg (5.8 lbs) + .95 kg (2.1 lbs) for the charger+cables, EU version
Extras clamshell design with 180-display, vapor chamber cooling,
This series is available with several specs, with either Intel Core i9 HX or AMD Ryzen 9 HX hardware and up to RTX 4090 graphics. We’ve covered other configurations in past reviews, such as this one of the 4090 model .
Chassis, keyboard and display I’m not going in-depth over these again, as I’ve discussed the design and build particularities, the inputs and the display options in previous articles, like this initial review .
In just a few words, this Legion is a top-tier performance and gaming notebooks from Lenovo, in theory a step-down from the top-of-the-line Legion 9i , but in practice a top-model on its own, since the 9i is a thinner chassis with a peculiar format that might not suite many of you. That’s also darn expensive.
The Pro 7i is a classy and well built black chassis, with an all-metal construction (anodized aluminum) and limited branding accents. It does get a handful of RGB elements, but those can be switched off when you need a sleeper laptop for work/school environments.
Ergonomics are top notch, with a 180 screen, excellent grip on the desk and plenty of ports, most of them conveniently placed behind the display, on the rear edge. There’s no card-reader and the LAN port is Gigabit only, not 2.5G, but those aside, you’ll hardly find anything to complain about this.
From my experience, my main pet peeve with it is the fact that it smudges easily, both on the arm-rest and around the keyboard and on the metal lid. You’ll have to wipe this clean often. Past Legion models came in a gray variant that required far less maintenance in this regard. But this black one looks more exquisite to me.
On the other hand, I greatly appreciate having a 180-display on this sort of device, something most gaming laptops do not offer. Makes my experience when using this on the lap or on the couch a lot more enjoyable.
I also think it’s smart that some of the USB-A and C slots are on the laterals. Having the ports behind the screen is convenient as it hides away the cables, such as the power plug or a display connector. But for the ports that you need to use more often, such as the USBs, finding them back there is quite a hassle, especially in the dark, since these ports are no longer backlit as on past Legion models.
Moving on, the inputs on this series are as good as they get, with a Per-key RGB keyboard made in collaboration with Steelseries and a spacious touchpad – this is made out of plastic, not glass, but it works and feels fine. As a side note, the travel on this keyboard isn’t as deep as on other full-size laptops, which suits my typing style fine, but this sort of feedback will require adaptation time for some of you, especially if you’re coming from an older laptop. Something to keep in mind.
There’s also an IR camera with Tobii Horizon support. Again, something most gaming laptops do not offer. The camera itself is FHD, so not that much in quality.
As for the display, Lenovo have updated the panel offered on the 2024 Legion series to a more modern IPS option, now with 500-nits of brightness, 100% DCI-P3 color coverage, and 240 Hz refresh / 3ms response. This panel is excellent for daily use, media consumption and gaming. The novelty is the DCI-P3 gamut coverage for this 2024 generation, as previously only 100% sRGB panels we’re offered for the Pro 7 lineups.
And while we’re here, I’ll also mention the audio on this series, which is one of this laptop’s two most notable drawbacks.
You’re only getting two small speakers on this Legion, and while these can get fairly loud, the quality is lackluster. These will do ok for some music playing in the background and perhaps some Youtube/Netflix, but I’d still recommend hooking external speakers or headphones on this notebook. I got my unit hooked to my Audioengine A2+ desk speakers during my time with the laptop, and this kind of left me with mixed feelings on the audio-jack placement on the right edge. I’d much have that on the left, away from my mouse, or even on the back.
With those out of the way, let’s get to what this laptop can actually do for you.
Hardware and performance Our test model is a mid-specced configuration of the 2024 Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, code name 16IRX9H, with an Intel Core i9-14900HX processor, 32 GB of DDR5-5600 memory, 2 TB of fast SSD storage, and dual graphics: the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 dGPU and the Intel iGPU integrated within the Intel processor.
Disclaimer: This is a retail unit provided that I borrowed from Lenovo for a different project, and was not sent over specifically for a review. For out tests, it ran on the software available as of mid-November 2024. Nothing significant will change with later software updates at this point.
Spec-wise, the 2024 Legion Pro 7i is built on the latest and most powerful Intel and Nvidia hardware available to date.
The Core i9-14900HX is a high-performance mobile processor in Intel’s Raptor Lake Refresh 14th-gen platform, with 24 Cores and 32 Threads. It is a hybrid design with 8 High-Performance dual-threaded Cores, and 16 extra Efficiency cores, which work together or on their own in the various loads. The design and thermal module of this Legion allow the processor to run at ~130W of sustained power in demanding CPU loads.
For the GPU, the 2024 Legion Pro 7i series is available with full-power RTX 4000 graphics chips, either the RTX 4080 12GB (on this sample) or the RTX 4090 16 GB, Both can take up to 175W of TGP power with Dynamic Boost. This design comes with a MUX and Advanced Optimus.
For the RAM, the series offers two DDR5 soDIMM slots. Our unit is a 32 GB DDR5-5600 RAM (2x 16 GB) configuration.
For storage, there are two M.2 2280 PCIe gen4 slots on this series, and our sample comes preconfigured with a fast 2TB Samsung PM9A1 drive.
Getting to the components requires you to remove a few Philips screws, all visible around the back, and then pull up the D-panel. You’ll need a plastic pin and some sort of suction cup to pull out the bottom panel, as it is snugly attached to the main chassis. Inside, everything is encapsulated, as the RAM, storage and WiFi slots are also covered in metallic thermal shields. You’ll have to remove these covers in order to access the components, but it’s a basic chore.
For the software, this unit came with Windows 11 preinstalled and the standard set of Lenovo apps. Vantage is the control app and offers the standard Legion power profiles: Quiet, Balance, Balance with Legion Ai, Performance and Custom, with the later offering more granular tweaking of various settings and CPU/GPU power limits, as well as custom fan control.
The standard profiles work just fine at this point, but if you’re into tweaking, diving into the Custom mode can yield some benefits, especially if you’re interested in specific scenarios. For instance, you can design a quiet fan profile that doesn’t limit the GPU performance as much as the default Quiet mode.
Anyway, here’s a table that shows the power limits and fan levels for each of the default profiles:
Quiet (blue) Balance (white) Performance (red) Custom (red)
CPU only, PL1/PL2 TDP
35/65W
75/125W
135/190W
140/175W
GPU only, max TGP
55W
100W
175W
175W
Crossload
95W, 40 + 55 W
135W, 35 + 100 W
210W, 35 + 175 W
220W, 45 + 175 W
Noise at head-level, tested
<35 dBA
~42 dBA
~50 dBA
~54 dBA, max fans
These settings have been refined over time, especially for the Quiet mode.
On the GPU side, Vantage offers an Overclocking toggle, which applies +100 MHz Core, +200 MHz Memory settings. I’ve kept the OC toggle checked for all tests, but the frequencies could be pushed a littler further in Custom mode if you want to.
Before we jump to the performance section, here’s how this laptop handles everyday use and multitasking on the Quiet/Balance profiles, unplugged from the wall.
Performance and benchmarks – Intel Core i9-14900HX + Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 On to more demanding loads, we start by testing the CPU’s performance by running the Cinebench R15 test for 15+ times in a loop, with a 1-2 seconds delay between each run.
If you’ve researched this laptop already or read my previous articles, you might know by now that the cooling module works best when placing this device on a stand or on anything that leaves a space of at least an inch or two undeath the chassis. That’s pretty common with most gaming laptops today, but is especially recommended with this device, as otherwise the internals will tend to run very hot and potentially impact the performance (in minor ways, though).
Knowing that, I decided to run the CPU tests with the back of the laptop raised off the desk, in order to limit any potential thermal constraints. That means your findings might differ from mine if you decided to use the laptop flat on the desk for the same kind of sustained loads and tests.
So, on Performance mode, the Core i9-14900HX processor kicks in aggressively at ~190 W and then stabilizes at ~135W of sustained power. The CPU is power-limited in this sort of load, as the temperatures stabilize at around 85 C. The fans run at 50 dBA at head-level, thus loud.
All these means that at least in theory, the sustained TDP could be pushed higher. As you’ll see in a bit, other OEMs set a higher TDP limit for their max-performance profiles, which yields some benefits in the test scores. Lenovo decided to stick with a more conservative 135W setting, though.
You could also consider undervolting the i9-14900HX with Throttlestop , as explained here , which could yield score increases of a few extra percent. I didn’t get to test that on my loaner unit.
There’s also Custom mode that would allow maxing out the fans, but the 135W TDP limit still applies and this mode doesn’t impact the performance in a significant way. It only makes the fans run louder, and lowers the sustained temperatures by a few degrees to low 80s C.
Switching over to the Balance profile (with Legion Ai switched off) translates into the CPU stabilizing at ~75W sustained. The fans run significantly quieter at around 38 dBA, and the internal temperatures settle in the high 60s C. The performance takes a 30% dip with this sort of power limit.
The Quiet profile sets a hard 35W sustained limit for the CPU, with much quieter fans and low temperatures in the 50s. However, the scores drop to about 40% of what the laptop can do on Performance mode. Hence, the settings on the Quiet mode are very aggressive and a 50W TDP limit would have yielded better results, with still fine temperatures.
Finally, the CPU runs at ~50 W of power on battery, on the Balance profile. Details below.
Overall, these profiles are all quite conservative. The laptop runs cool in all modes, and especially on the Balance and Quiet profiles. The lower power also make the Balance/Quiet profile run quieter in fan noise than similar profiles on competing notebooks, at least in this test.
To put these findings in perspective, here’s how this Core i9-14900HX implementation fares against other performance laptops in this test.
As mentioned earlier, other OEMs tend to set higher TDP limits on their implementations, although the one’s we’ve tested are generally bigger laptops, such as the Scar 18 and the Titan 18. Those higher power limits allow for 10-15% higher scores in this test, which might matter to some of you. As it is, the Legion Pro 7i is a balanced performer in its class of 16-inch devices, but not among the fastest i9-14900HX implementations out there. It is however faster than previous i9-13900HX Legion models, by about 5%.
We then went ahead and further verified our findings with the more taxing Cinebench R23 loop test and Blender – Classroom, which resulted in similar findings to what we explained above.
We also ran the 3DMark CPU test on the Performance profile.
Finally, we ran our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time. This unit passed it just fine while flat on the desk, and that means there’s no performance throttling with longer-duration sustained loads even in this case. As mentioned already, I would recommend raising the laptop on a stand for longer mixed-use sessions. More on that in the gaming section down below.
Next, we ran the entire suite of tests and benchmarks, on the Performance profile with the GPU set on the Hybrid mode (Advanced Optimus), and with the screen set at the native 1600p resolution.
Here’s what we got:
3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 13228, 16 – 10030, 8 – 7508, 4 – 4248, 2 – 2247, 1 – 1155;3DMark 13 – Fire Strike (DX11): 34532 (Graphics – 42591, Physics – 40567, Combined – 13069);3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX): 12323;3DMark 13 – Time Spy (DX12): 19329 (Graphics – 19487, CPU – 18483);3DMark 13 – Speed Way (DX12 Ultimate): 4913;3DMark 13 – Steel Nomad (DX12 Ultimate): 4370;
Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 10935;Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 30644;
PCMark 10: 8975 (Essentials – 11451, Productivity – 10944, Digital Content Creation – 15655);GeekBench 6.2.2 64-bit: Multi-core: 17855, Single-Core: 2848;CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 4740 cb, CPU Single Core 301 cb;CineBench R20 (best run): CPU 11705 cb, CPU Single Core 798 cb;CineBench R23: CPU 30090 cb (best single run), CPU 28324 cb (10 min run), CPU Single Core 2053 cb;CineBench 2024: GPU 18004 pts, CPU 1655 pts (loop run), CPU Single Core 121 pts;x265 HD Benchmark 64-bit: 18.36 s.
And here are some workstation benchmarks, on the same Performance profile:
Blender 3.6.5 – BMW scene – CPU Compute: 1m 23s;Blender 3.6.5 – BMW scene – GPU Compute: 11.17s (CUDA), 6.13 (Optix);Blender 3.6.6 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 3m 24s;Blender 3.6.5 – Classroom scene – GPU Compute: 20.54s (CUDA), 11.93s (Optix);
SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 181.14;SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 98.98;SPECviewperf 2020 – Creo: 129.88;SPECviewperf 2020 – Energy: 63.61;SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 536.42;SPECviewperf 2020 – Medical: 52.35;SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 33.11;SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 394.53.V-Ray Benchmark: 20338 – CPU, 2115 – CUDA, 2767 – RTX.
These are solid results for a high-performance laptop.
The RTX 4080 performs just as you’d expect from a full-power implementation of this RTX chip. The scores are even 2-3% higher than on the 2023 i9 + RTX 4080 Legion Pro 7i model tested in the past, possibly a result of tweaked software over the last year.
The CPU performs very well in briefer loads such as 3DMark and Geekbench, but the 135W TDP limit stands out in longer tests such as Cinebench R 23 loop and Blender, where this i9-14900HX implementation falls behind more powerful variants by as much as 10%. Just keep in mind that these differences are much smaller in actual real use, and at the same time, don’t forget that this Legion is mid-sized 16-inch notebook, while the most powerful Core i9 HX implementations available out there are generally larger 18-inch laptops , such as the MSI Titan 18 or the Asus ROG Scar 18 .
Balance Mode This laptop runs loud on Performance mode, with the fans ramping up to 50 dBA.
The Balance mode, with Legion Ai disabled, is the mid-range profile alternative that still promises fine capabilities with quieter fans, at around 42 dBA.
Here are some results:
3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 11506, 16 – 9070, 8 – 7302, 4 – 4349, 2 – 2264, 1 – 1149;3DMark 13 – Fire Strike (DX11): 29524 (Graphics – 34878, Physics – 37722, Combined – 11918);3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 14861 (Graphics – 14545, CPU – 16950);Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 8233;Blender 3.41 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 4m 25s.
That’s roughly 75-80% of the CPU performance and 70% of the GPU capabilities on the top profile. Not great, not terrible for a mid-level profile.
Quiet Mode – still fast, and much quieter at around 35 And then there’s the Quiet mode, which limits fan noise below 35 dBA, but the overall performance takes a more notable hit.
Here are some results:
3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 5733, 16 – 3494, 8 – 2447, 4 – 1644, 2 – 1088, 1 – 646;3DMark 13 – Fire Strike (DX11): 13620 (Graphics – 13793, Physics – 18889, Combined – 9006);3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 10167 (Graphics – 9774, CPU – 13176);Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 7185;Blender 3.41 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 8m 37s.
Both the CPU and GPU work at about half or even less than what the hardware can do on Performance, so this is not a profile I’d use for demanding loads, but a solid option for casual activities and daily multitasking, keeping temperatures low and the fans nearly silent.
Gaming performance – i9 + GeForce RTX 4080 With benchmarks out of the way, let’s see how this Lenovo Legion Pro 7i handles modern games.
We tested a couple of different types of games on the various available profiles at QHD+ and FHD+ resolution, all with the MUX manually set on the dGPU mode and the GPU on the Overclocked mode.
Here are the results:
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i RTX 41500 Laptop 80-175W QHD+ Performance, QHD+ Balance, QHD+ Quiet,
Black Myth: Wukong 58 fps (34 fps – 1% low)
–
–
Black Myth: Wukong 73 fps (33 fps – 1% low)
62 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
44 fps (23 fps – 1% low)
Cyberpunk 2077 68 fps (39 fps – 1% low)
–
–
Cyberpunk 2077 90 fps (70 fps – 1% low)
68 fps (30 fps – 1% low)
54 fps (28 fps – 1% low)
Far Cry 6 110 fps (54 fps – 1% low)
86 fps (46 fps – 1% low)
62 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
Horizon Forbidden West 78 fps (35 fps – 1% low)
55 fps (30 fps – 1% low)
48 fps (30 fps – 1% low)
Horizon Forbidden West 140 fps (48 fps – 1% low)
115 fps (38 fps – 1% low)
78 fps (42 fps – 1% low)
Red Dead Redemption 2 124 fps (72 fps – 1% low)
104 fps (57 fps – 1% low)
80 fps (52 fps – 1% low)
Resident Evil 4 142 fps (46 fps – 1% low)
116 fps (36 fps – 1% low)
76 fps (28 fps – 1% low)
Shadow of Tomb Raider 148 fps (82 fps – 1% low)
118 fps (74 fps – 1% low)
90 fps (66 fps – 1% low)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (v4.04) 136 fps (46 fps – 1% low)
118 fps (44 fps – 1% low)
60 fps (38 fps – 1% low)
Cyberpunk, Horizon FW, Witcher 3, Resident Evil – recorded with MSI Afterburner fps counter in campaign mode;
Black Myth, Far Cry 6, Red Dead Redemption 2, Tomb Raider – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities;
Red Dead Redemption 2 Optimized profile based on these settings .
All these games run smoothly at QHD resolution with Ultra settings on all profiles. Sure, Performance mode delivers the best results, but the other two are usable as well, especially if you lean into tricks such as DLSS.
Let’s go over some performance and temperature logs.
First, Performance mode, the highest-tier profile. With the laptop flat on the desk, the components run fairly hot in this mode; especially in longer gaming sessions as the heat builds up inside this metal chassis due to the cooling module being choked by the limited intake space underneath the chassis.
What that actually means are CPU temperatures around 80-90 degrees Celsius between the tested titles, the higher readings measured in titles that allocate more power to the CPU and less to the GPU, such as Dark Myth: Wukong. The GPU runs at around 82-86 C in all tittles. All these are hot temperatures, despite the fans running loud at 50 dBA. But at least the performance isn’t throttled in any notable way.
Raising the back of the laptop off the desk changes things, allowing for lower CPU/GPU temperatures. In this case, the CPU no longer goes over 80 degrees Celsius, while the GPU averages around 78-80 C. Those are fine temperatures for a notebook of this sort.
Just keep in mind that you’ll perceive the fans a little louder in this case, at around 52 dBA. That’s loud and you’ll most likely want to use headphones with the Performance profile on this laptop.
I’ll just briefly mention the Custom mode, which allows endless power and fan settings. You could push the fans to their max to maximize the cooling potential, but that will result in even louder fan noise at 54+ dBA, and won’t yield better performance. So that doesn’t make much sense.
You could however try to create a custom profile that balances performance and fan noise better than the default modes, which is possible, especially since both the Balance and the Quiet default modes are quite conservative and favor low temperatures over capabilities.
OK, so then there’s the Balance mode, with the Legion AI Engine disabled.
The fans run at around 42 dBA on this mode, much quieter than on Performance. But this profile also sets a 100W TGP limit on the GPU, compared to the 175W limit on Performance, and that translates in 20-30% poorer results in games.
Thermals, on the other hand, are excellent. With the laptop flat on the desk, the CPU averages around 70-75 C, while the GPU doesn’t go over 70 C.
Bump the laptop on a stand and the CPU and GPU temperatures both drop by about 2-3 degrees. Not much of an impact, since the temperatures are already low on this mode by default, as a result of the low TGP setting. Aiming for mid to high 80s on the GPU and perhaps a 120-130W TGP would have made more sense on this Balance profile imo.
With Legion Ai enabled on Balance, the laptop performs more-or-less as in Performance mode.
As for the Quiet mode, it keeps the fans at sub 35 dB levels and caps the GPU power even more aggressively, at 55W TGP. The framerates drop to about 50-60% of what we measured on Performance mode, which isn’t that bad, but again I find these GPU power settings too conservative. A 65-75W TGP level might have made more sense, again aiming at GPU temperatures in the mid 70s.
Here are the logs for the CPU/GPU on Quiet mode with the laptop flat on the desk.
And Quiet mode with the laptop raised off the desk.
The laptop’s performance on battery power isn’t stellar, close to the Quiet mode explained above. Hence, QHD+ with High/Ultra settings should be doable in most games. But don’t expect more than 1 to 2 hours of gameplay on battery power.
Fan Noise and Heat levels This Legion Pro 7i implements an advanced thermal module design, with a large vapor chamber, two high-capacity fans, and four ample radiators (two on the back and two on the sides). Radiator shields are also mounted over the RAM modules, SSDs, and the WiFi card.
This cooling module is generally well suited for this chassis and the implemented hardware, with some observations.
The CPU/GPU heat up quite a bit on Performance mode with the laptop flat on the desk, while running demanding loads for longer times. The actual performance is not affected in any way, as the components never reach thermal throttling levels, but still run in the 80 and 90s C, which isn’t ideal.
Bumping the laptop on a stand addresses these temperatures, stabilizing them in the low 80s on both the CPU/GPU, which are fine levels for this kind of notebook.
On the other hand, the Balance and Quiet modes are perfectly usable even with the laptop on the desk, with quieter fans, but also with a notable toll in framerates and capabilities.
As far as the fan noise levels go with demanding loads, we’re looking at ~50-52 dB at head-level on the Performance mode, 42 dB on Balance mode, and sub 35 dB on Quiet mode.
With daily use, though, you’ll hardly hear the fans. They don’t seem to idle at all, but they spin very quietly. I also haven’t noticed any coil whining or electronic noises on this unit. Chassis temperatures keep low as well with casual use, in the low-30s in the hottest spots.
*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Quiet profile, fans sub 30 dB
With games, I only measured temperatures with the laptop on a stand, for the reasons discussed above. That means you can expect slightly higher readings with this flat on the desk, especially on Performance mode.
OK, so first there’s Performance mode, with a hotspot in the mid-50s Celsius in the middle of the laptop around the 7 8 9 keys, that spreads diagonally towards the arrows keys. This entire middle of the chassis averages around 48-50 C with longer gaming sessions, which can get uncomfortable to the touch. The left side of the keyboard stays cooler, in the low 40s C, so the WASD region doesn’t heat up too much. The back of the laptop develops a hotspot in the 60s C over the components.
So overall, this laptop heats up more than I’d want on Performance mode, even when having it on a stand to favor better airflow into the fans. And there’s really not much that you can do about it, you’ll just have to accept that it runs toasty with games and sustained workloads. Hot and loud, at 50+ dBA.
*Gaming – Performance – playing Cyberpunk for 30 minutes, fans at ~50 dB
These chassis temperatures drop a bit when running games on Balance mode, but not as much as I’d expected. The middle of the keyboard still averages 45-50 C, and the bottom 55+ C over the components, with the laptop raised off the desk. Still high readings, but at least the fans run much quieter.
*Gaming – Balance– playing Cyberpunk for 30 minutes, fans at ~42 dB
Finally, this is what to expect when playing games in Quiet mode. Cooler than on the other profiles, but still warm. And with half the performance this laptop is capable on the top profile.
*Gaming – Quiet– playing Cyberpunk for 30 minutes, fans at ~35 dB
In summary, this Legion Pro 7i runs toasty at the case level on all profiles, with Performance mode being quite uncomfortably hot around the middle of the keyboard and the arrow keys. Somehow Lenovo did an awful job isolating the internals from the metal chassis on this notebook. Past Legion 7 Pro models ran hotter internally, but with lower external temperatures. Yet somehow this insulation was lost on the Pro 7i, and this is a major issue for a gaming series such as this one.
Battery life There’s a 99Wh battery inside the 2024 Legion Pro 7i, which is the largest possible in a laptop.
Here’s what we got in terms of battery life on our unit, with the screen’s brightness set at around 120 nits (~60 brightness) and 60Hz refresh (the default setting now when you unplug the laptop from the wall).
20-25 W (~4-5 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Quiet Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;20 W (~5 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Quiet Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;20 W (~5 h of use) – 4K Netflix with Dolby Vision, fullscreen in Edge, Quiet Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;25-30 W (~3-4 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Balance Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
That’s not much, even with the huge battery. But at least these are fair results for a high-performance laptop built on an Intel HX platform. Up to you if that’s enough, or you’d rather look elsewhere.
Lenovo pairs this configuration with a 330W charger, a dual-piece design with long cables and a mid-sized GaN power brick. In total, they weigh .95 of a kilo. This charger was a novelty back in 2023 when the Pro 7i was initially announced, but the other OEMs have caught up in the meantime.
You can also charge the laptop via USB-C at up to 140W, in case you don’t want to bring along the main charger; you’re not getting full performance potential on USB-C power, though.
Price and availability- Lenovo Legion Pro 7i The Legion Pro 7i is widely available in stores at the time of this article.
The Intel Core i9-14900HX + RTX 4080 configuration reviewed here is listed at Lenovo’s US store from $2349, while over here in Europe you can get it for around 3000 EUR.
The Intel Core i9-14900HX + RTX 4090 configuration starts at around $2800 in the US and 3800+ EUR here across the pond. The 4090 delivers a 10-15% increase in GPU performance, with 15-20% higher price. But that might change with future discounts.
Follow this link for updated configurations and prices in your region at the time you’re reading this article.
Final thoughts- 2024 Lenovo Legion Pro 7i review I complained about the uncomfortable chassis temperatures in my reviews of the 2023 Legion Pro 7i models, and I was actually hoping Lenovo would address this aspect at least by some extent with the 2024 model year update. They did not, and that’s such a pity.
This is a gaming notebook and it’s supposed to excel in running games. It does perform very well, no complain about that, but the performance pales when a big part of its metal chassis heats up to uncomfortable levels in the 50s degrees Celsius. Sure, you can argue you’re not touching that middle of the keyboard deck with most games, but that heat spreads onto the arrows keys as well and you’ll use those in all games. For me, this aspect kind of ruins the laptop. And it’s such a pity as nearly everything else is great about it.
Now, if you don’t plan to game heavily on your machine, perhaps you won’t care about this aspect as much as I do. But if that’s the case, you shouldn’t buy an expensive 4080/4090 laptop anyway. So there’s just no excuse for how poorly this chassis isolates the internals from the metal outer case.
That’s especially annoying since the internal temperatures are rather low, particularly on the Balance and Quiet profiles, which Lenovo set up very conservatively in power in order to keep CPU/GPU levels low. I found that surprising at first, but not anymore after actually experiencing the laptop in long gaming sessions and measuring the thermal readings.
This aside, the audio quality is lackluster with this series as well, and the black metals smudge easily. But these I can accept.
On the other hand, I much appreciate the design, the build quality and the overall ergonomics of this Legion Pro 7i series. I’m also quite fond of the keyboard, a bit on the shallow side for this segment and closer to what I’m used to from ultraportables. And it’s great to finally see a modern IPS with vivid colors on a Legion Pro. All these make this notebook a viable daily driver. If only Lenovo would offer a more affordable model with a mid-tier GPU instead.
Anyway, that’s about it for this review. I doubt I’ll ever cover this Lenovo Legion Pro chassis in other future articles, so get in touch if you’ve got any questions or feedback on my findings.
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Navigation: Ultrabookreview.com » Lenovo
Review by: Andrei Girbea
Andrei Girbea is a Writer and Editor-in-Chief here at Ultrabookreview.com . I write about mobile technology, laptops and computers in general. I've been doing it for more than 15 years now. I'm a techie with a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering. I mostly write reviews and thorough guides here on the site, with some occasional columns and first-impression articles.
NikoB
December 4, 2024 at 3:13 pm
Three obvious problems:
1. DCI-P3 is actually a problem in normal use, because a lot of software can't work with color profiles and thinks that it draws a picture in sRGB. How correctly do the factory drivers handle this situation by carefully emulating the sRGB space? For example, all owners of Asus G series complain about "poisonous", oversaturated colors in their reviews, actually admitting that Asus does not have normal sRGB emulation. But then what's the use of DCI-P3 on IPS/VA? Rather, 100% AdobeRGB is needed here to work with color, right? In games, DCI-P3 is also useless for a simple reason – there can be no support for Static HDR10 on IPS/VA a priori. Even far from all AM (OLED) in reality have a black level of 0.0005 nits, required by the Static HDR10 standard. Because of which even they, many of them, do not have a factory True Black HDR XXX nameplate. There is also no real hardware support for Dolby Vision (DV) and Dynamic HDR10 (HDR10 +), which is more flexible to the capabilities of IPS / VA panels. And there is not much content for them either.
2. By and large, for new games, 4080 is no longer enough in 2.5k (and increasingly lacking 12 GB of VRAM, in ultra quality, as intended by the studios) – only a mobile 4090 is needed, which itself loses to the desktop version by about 1.5 times in performance. Taking this into account, the model has no prospects for releases in 2025 and beyond. It already has problems with releases in 2024 …
3. Again, the shameful RJ45 at 1 Gbps. The author wrote about this, but did not indicate that earlier there were 2.5G in the same series. Pure downgrade. Where are the standard 5-10Gbps, Lenovo at the end of 2024?
3. Again, the unfortunate location of TB4 (it should be at the back, not on the side) and why is it one, not 2 ports? External TB4 controllers (there are no built-in ones in the HX series, which also affects the performance of the eGPU, as has been shown many times in independent tests), and here the external one is usually 2 ports. And TB4 at the end of 2024 looks somehow pathetic. Buyers expect TB5 and DP2.0+/UHBR20 ports, not the outdated DP1.4b…
It seems that the price considering the 4080 is quite adequate (although looking at the GPU prices after the mining hysteria, these levels can hardly be called adequate relative to the prices of the former before the cryptocurrency boom in 2016-2017), but on the other hand – the model against the background of the soon to be released 5xxx NVidia models is clearly of little interest (and sales of desktop GPUs, according to the latest market statistics, have fallen sharply in anticipation of new chips in 2025) as a "gaming" for the "future". Counting on those who have a poor grasp of the situation in technology, but want to play here and now?
As a top-level work laptop, it has too many shortcomings…
And another real failure of all current models that will happen in the near future with the release of Zen5 Halo – the latter, like the M4 Pro, will have a 256-bit memory controller with a theoretical bandwidth of 273 GB / s (as tests showed, the M4 Pro has a real bandwidth of about 75% – 200 GB / s), which will immediately lower all current "gaming" and "workstation" level models below the baseboard against the background of Zen5 Halo (if it provides at least 200 GB / s, like the Apple M4 Pro, at least). Increasing the RAM bandwidth by more than 2 times compared to current Intel/AMD models is a giant leap in hardware, which I personally have been waiting for (and writing about it regularly) for years…
It is 200GB/s+ in RAM that will allow the mass introduction of TB5/DP2.0+/UHBR20 ports and therefore 8k panels. And these panels are actually the last improvement in visualization for human eyes in practice. Further increasing ppi will become almost pointless even on 32" screens… maybe that is why they are so slow in introducing 8k to the masses?
Altandmain
January 5, 2025 at 9:36 am
Essentially this is one of the cheapest 4080 / 4090 laptops and to reach the price point they did, Lenovo made a bunch of cost cutting compromises. The only other cheap laptop is perhaps the HP Omen, which can also be bought with a 4080 or 4090.
These compromises include poor speakers, the choice of materials on the surface could be better, which is why the chassis runs hot, and they didn't offer any Mini-LED or OLED choices (they clearly want those customers to buy the Legion 9i). Another compromise might be the plastic touchpad, which is common on much cheaper laptops.
It comes down to if saving money is more important than having a laptop full of features. That's a tough one for most people and will come down to personal preferences.
We are now reaching a point where we expect the Nvidia 5000 series to be announced for purchase in early 2025, so it may be best to wait. Even if you don't buy the latest GPU, you can often get the old one at a larger discount after the new generation is released.