Lenovo new Legion Pro 7i gaming laptop is here, but
they’ve actually downgraded
it and removed lots of nice features compared to last
year’s Legion 7i.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Laptop Specs:
My new Legion Pro 7i has Intel’s new 24 core 32
thread Core i9-13900HX processor with Nvidia RTX 4080
graphics.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 2023 vs 2022:
The CPU, GPU, RAM and screen are all better this
generation, so it will offer more performance,
but almost every other part of the chassis design
takes a step backwards, so let’s compare them!
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Design Changes:
This year’s model still has an aluminum metal exterior
with an anodized finish,
but it’s available in a darker onyx grey finish.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Size And Weight:
This year’s version is slightly wider and
thicker,
but not quite as deep, it’s only a small size
difference though.
The new one was 129 grams or almost 0.3 pounds heavier
without the power bricks.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i New Smaller Power Brick:
Last year’s version had a big 300 watt power brick,
while this year’s has been bumped up
to a new 330 watt GaN charger, which is actually
smaller and lighter. This
helps close the weight gap a little, but the new one
was still a little heavier.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i RGB Lighting:
The RGB lighting is far more subdued this year. There’s
still per-key RGB
lighting for the keyboard, but the front light bar no
longer wraps around the left
and right sides. The colors still look pretty good in
person though.
There’s no more RGB lighting in the air exhaust vents
which I’m fine with,
and no lighting in the Legion logo on the lid either.
The lighting is still managed through Lenovo’s
Spectrum software and has 6
built in profiles which can be customized just like
before.
Legion Pro 7i Power Button Downgrade:
The power button still lights up and changes color
based on which performance mode you’re in,
but it’s back to the simple dot design found in the
cheaper Legion 5 series. Yeah
it still does the job, but not only did last year’s
design look cooler,
it also had a fingerprint scanner built in, so that’s
gone this year too.
Legion Pro 7i Rear Ports Light Missing:
For some reason they got rid of the lighting over the
rear port icons. I really liked this
in last year’s version, as it made it super easy to
see where to plug cables into in a dark room.
You had the option of turning it off if you didn’t
want it, but now it’s completely gone.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Ports:
Speaking of ports, the left side now has a USB Type-A
port and one Type-C with Thunderbolt 4
instead of two Type-C ports with Thunderbolt 4. The
right still has the 3.5mm audio combo jack
and a switch to disable the 1080p camera, but the
Type-C port has turned into a Type-A now.
The back still has an ethernet port, but it’s back to
being upside down now. I’m told the
laptop would have to be thicker to support it the
other way. Fortunately it seems to sit high
enough off the table that I can still remove the cable
without lifting the laptop, but they also
downgraded it from 2.5 gigabit in 2022 to gigabit in
2023. Otherwise the rest of the ports seem to
be the same, with USB Type-C, HDMI 2.1, two more
Type-A ports for 4 in total, and the power input.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Has More Type-C Ports:
So this year’s model has two Type-C ports and four
Type-A ports, the inverse of what last
year’s had. But both of those Type-C ports on the new
model can be used to charge the
laptop with up to 140 watts, which is an improvement
compared to last year’s model
which only supported Type-C charging on the one rear
Type-C port with 135 watts.
Unfortunately Lenovo still do not appear to be using
the power delivery 3.1 standard to
pull this off, as they note that it requires 20 volts
and 7 amps, while PD 3.1 uses 28 volts and
5 amps. So this certainly isn’t ideal because it means
that a number of third party Type-C
chargers won’t be able to give you the full 140 watts
with the new model. It’ll probably
still be limited to 100 watts, just like last year,
unless you get a special Lenovo charger.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Touch Pad:
The touchpad is the same size as last year’s version
and still feels nice to click,
but it’s got a mylar or plastic surface now compared
to last year’s smoother glass finish,
and I also found it slightly louder to click.
Legion Pro 7i Keyboard:
The keyboard feels the same to type on, so still nice
with the same 1.5mm of key travel,
but this year it’s got black keys, and the pressure
sensitive WASD keys are gone. I also
noticed that the newer model no longer has the small
air ventilation holes above the keyboard, so
it will be interesting if this affects thermals,
though air still comes in through the keyboard.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Hinge Change:
The screen still goes the full 180 degrees back,
but the hinge design is different. Last year the
hinges were right on the outside edges,
now they’re a little closer into the middle, and I
also found that the screen on the new
model was stiffer to open, which I preferred as it
felt sturdier.
We’ve still got the function plus R shortcut to
quickly swap the screen’s refresh rate between
240Hz and 60Hz to save battery, but there’s still no
option to make this automatically
happen when you unplug the power cable - a nice
feature others like ASUS and MSI offer.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i MUX Switch:
Just like last year, it’s still got a MUX
switch and the option of enabling or disabling hybrid
mode with a reboot,
or you can leave hybrid mode on and dynamically change
without rebooting with advanced optimus.
The bottom panel wasn’t too hard to open,
despite the return of these plastic side pieces around
the air exhausts.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Inside:
Inside we’ve got the largest possible 99.9Wh battery
down the front,
two PCIe Gen 4 M.2 SSDs just above on the left and
right sides,
two DDR5-5600 memory sticks in the middle, and Wi-Fi
6E card on the right. There’s also
a vapor chamber cooler up the back on the 4080 and
4090 configurations.
The primary M.2 slot on the right cannot fit my double
sided 4TB SSD,
but it fit fine into the secondary slot on the left.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Ram Overclock and Fan Boost:
Although there’s a 99.9Wh battery, there’s also a
lower 80Wh battery option. The RAM can
apparently be overclocked to DDR5-6000 through the
BIOS, however mine didn’t have this option,
I think because I don’t have 6000 capable sticks with
XMP.
The BIOS gives us the option to change the maximum fan
from 50 to 55 decibels,
so faster and louder if you want more performance.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Custom Mode and Fan Boost:
The vantage software also adds a new custom mode,
which finally gives us some level of fan
control as well as the option to set the fans to full
speed. There’s also CPU and GPU power
limit adjustments, I’ve never seen so many GPU power
options available through software before!
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Speakers:
According to the spec sheet, the speakers are the same
as last year's version,
but I thought the newer one sounded clearer with a
little more bass.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 2023 Price:
So then, when can you actually buy the new Pro 7i?
Well, Lenovo did release last year’s
Legion 7 series a bit later in the year, around the
middle if I recall, but I’ve been told that
they’re trying to change this and launch this year’s
model much earlier. Just for comparison,
I got this year’s early model in February but I didn’t
get last year’s early model until May.
Actually while making this video, Lenovo’s site
updated to list it shipping from February 25th.
As for price, right now the US site has my same
configuration listed for $2750 USD, so not cheap,
but it’s still around $1000 less compared to the RTX
4080 in the Blade 18 I recently tested.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 2023 is Worth It:
So then is this year’s Legion Pro 7i worth
considering? Well compared to last year’s Legion
7i, the new version is thicker and heavier, the
touchpad is plastic instead of glass,
the fingerprint scanner is gone, the rear port icon
lighting is gone, the pressure sensitive
WASD keys are gone, the ethernet port has been reduced
from 2.5 gigabit to gigabit and been
turned upside down, there’s just less RGB lighting
overall, and personally I just don’t think the
design looks a good. I don’t know, I just really liked
the brushed metal trim finish around the
edge of last year’s version compared to what this
year’s is doing. But of course that is subjective!
At the end of the day, none of these changes are super
serious. It’s just that the Legion
7 series has been Lenovo’s premium gaming laptop
option with all the extra bells and whistles. So
it’s sad to see these nice to have extra features
removed. Especially when they’re adding the “pro”
name onto the model this year. I’d argue that it’s
less pro when you start taking
away features instead of adding them. The only
improvements I could see from this year’s model
are the smaller power brick, the sturdier hinge and
the better sounding speakers. The
Vantage software update to customize fan speed and
power limits really is the cherry on top
So not sure if it will also apply to older models.
Although I’ve got no doubts at all
that the new faster CPU, GPU, RAM and screen will
offer better gaming performance than ever,
Why Features Are Removed From Legion Pro 7i 2023:
I think the actual chassis design is a step back this
year, which kind of makes
you wonder if they're saving all those high end
features for a new Legion 9 series or
something. Or maybe Nvidia’s new RTX 4080 and 4090
laptop GPUs are so expensive that Lenovo
had to make all these cuts just to keep the price from
going even crazier. I’m not sure.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Thermals & Battery:
Unfortunately this is an early engineering sample, so
I can’t test things like thermals,
battery life or game FPS just yet as things could
change, but the final version isn’t far off!
Follow so you don’t miss the full review, and I’ll see
you in thr next one.
Thank You……..
.jpg "Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Thermals & Battery") |
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