Lenovo Legion Slim 7i review: powerful

You may discover it exhausting to imagine, however gaming laptops do not need to be in entrance of your eyes. RGB backlighting is not a legally required add-on, and battery life can actually be measured in hours slightly than minutes. Case research: Lenovo Legion Slim 7i.

This 16-inch stunner is skinny and lightweight sufficient to be your on a regular basis workhorse, however beneath it is a beating coronary heart with equal components Twelfth-gen Intel Core i7 CPU and Nvidia 3060 devoted graphics. Its GPU switching know-how ensures you do not have to hold an influence brick with you wherever you go, and the value is not almost as daunting as your typical hardcore gaming laptop computer.

The combo appears like a winner on paper. How does it translate to the true world – particularly now, as the subsequent era of chips is beginning to emerge?

Design and development: a metallic marvel

Weighing over two kilos, you’d name the Legion Slim 7i ultraportable – till you think about the highly effective {hardware} lurking inside. Regardless of making room for a 16-inch show beneath the aluminum cowl, it is comparatively feather-light amongst its gaming-grade rivals.

It isn’t a monolithic machine, however the person panels are reassuringly sturdy and provides it a sleeker look than alternate options to a equally priced, plastic construct. Apart from the neatly engraved Legion emblem on the lid and loads of cooling vents on the again, there’s little to counsel that this laptop computer is for gaming.

Connectivity is excellent for such a skinny machine, with twin USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports on the left, an SD card reader and three.5mm headphone port on the proper, and three full-size USBs alongside an HDMI output on the again. You will additionally discover the proprietary energy port wanted, as USB-C cannot but present sufficient juice to energy the most recent era cellular graphics chips.

There’s additionally a slider on the facet to bodily disable the 1080p webcam constructed into the show bezel. It is a step up from 720p by way of high quality, however it’s not large: broadcasters will need to use devoted {hardware}, even with the perfect studio lighting.

We have seen a number of producers transfer the show hinge away from the sting of the case to make room for further cooling, however Lenovo has gone a step additional with its design. The hinge can open a full 180 levels, so there is no excuse for mild reflections distracting you from the on-screen picture.

Keyboard and touchpad: a light-weight contact

Lenovo did not go loopy for the Legion Slim 7i’s keyboard. It makes use of the identical island-style keys you will discover on the agency’s non-gaming fashions, making room for a separate quantity pad. This can be a welcome addition on a machine that’s possible for use for each work and play, even when the keys have to shrink a bit to suit.

For players who’ve by no means transitioned to WASD, we love the full-size cursor keys, and white LED lighting spreads evenly throughout your complete keyboard tray. Order a Legion Slim 7i immediately from Lenovo and you may improve to full RGB lighting with out paying extra. Players also needs to respect that the facility button is positioned above the keyboard tray, the place unintentional urgent is unlikely. It doubles as a fingerprint reader and shortly detects your digits to bypass the Home windows login display.

Given the laptop computer’s skinny dimensions, every key has vital journey time and all of it snaps again into place sharply. There’s somewhat flex in the midst of the tray, however not sufficient to sluggish you down whereas typing.

The glass touchpad has been shifted barely to the left of the keyboard tray to make room for the full-size cursor keys, and it isn’t the most important round, however it responds completely to scrolling, tapping, and multi-finger gestures. It is going to work fantastic till recreation time, at which level you will need to hook up a mouse.

Display and sound: large and shiny

You’ll be able to equip the Legion Slim 7i with a 1080p show or change to the 2560×1600 panel seen in our check unit. Each are IPS LCDs with skinny bezels and a quick 165Hz refresh price for easy gameplay, however the greater decision has the benefit in brightness. It peaks at 500 nits, which is lots through the daytime and sufficient that you will need to flip it again a bit when gaming at the hours of darkness.

It helps HDR content material, however the modest HDR 400 certification places it a step or two behind the brightest panels at the moment touring (in the event you’re prepared to pay for them).

Colours are vibrant and refreshingly correct. Creators will respect the built-in X-Ceremony software program that permits you to change between sRGB and Rec709 on the fly. Distinction is barely common: if you need higher, you will need to search for an OLED-equipped different. Viewing angles are glorious no less than, and the matte display end does a fantastic job of slicing out reflections.

Audio is not simply a problem, with downward-firing stereo audio system that get fairly loud, however present a reasonably slim soundstage. You will by no means get first rate booming bass from such a undersized unit, however there is a good tonal stability that lives as much as our expectations from the Harman model. YouTube and Spotify will work simply fantastic, however you will need headphones while you begin a recreation.

Efficiency and battery life: gaming enjoyable

With the Intel Core i7-12800H CPU operating the present, the Legion Slim 7i is not asking for efficiency. The 14-core chip has six hyper-threaded efficiency cores for severe tough work and eight effectivity cores that deal with less complicated stuff to maintain energy consumption in examine. Artificial testing places it above M1 Professional powered apple macbook pro 16and for desktop duties, it has confirmed extraordinarily highly effective, arranging pictures seamlessly and panning 4K video footage with little or no effort.

The processor is paired with 16 GB of RAM, however 8 GB of it’s soldered to the motherboard. With just one free slot, you will not be capable to improve to matching reminiscence sooner or later, which can imply a minor efficiency degradation. A minimum of a 1TB M.2 SSD may be swapped out simply sufficient in the event you want extra storage afterward.

Gaming efficiency is commendable, with the RTX 3060 devoted graphics card capable of run esports titles at 165Hz with out counting on Nvidia’s DLSS enhance gimmick. That stated, the display’s native decision of 2560×1600 calls for lots from silicon. Cyberpunk 2077 would not be capable to exceed 60fps with ray tracing enabled, except you elevate DLSS ranges. In case you do not thoughts decreasing some settings and change to Efficiency mode, which pushes the followers to overdrive with out making a noise, you will get glorious playable leads to the most recent video games. Nonetheless, an RTX 3070 ti might be higher suited to a 1600p panel.

On the battery life entrance, we had no complaints. The Legion Slim 7i has an enlarged 99wHr battery, a large enhance over the usual 71wHr cell, and one that does not add a lot to the general value, so it appears like a field price clicking by means of. Off the grid, the devoted GPU is bypassed in favor of the one constructed into the processor, permitting it to last as long as ten hours on easy duties. That is on the perfect 16-inch machines, and it is spectacular for a gamer-friendly mannequin.

Lenovo Legion Slim 7i verdict

With its sharp appears, high-quality show and greater than sufficient desktop efficiency for each work and play, the Legion Slim 7i is a real transportable powerhouse. It has gaming historical past, however it does not shout that reality from the rooftops, so it will not look misplaced within the workplace. Add spectacular battery life because of good GPU switching know-how and there is little it may possibly’t do.

Nonetheless, we don’t think about the model examined right here to be the selection of the group. Now that Intel and Nvidia have introduced their next-generation processors and graphics playing cards, the costs of the ‘previous’ fashions are beginning to drop quick, so you will get them too. A machine exactly the same as the RTX 3070 ti for nearly the identical cash. opponents like Acer Predator Helios P300 Whereas Legion outclasses them by way of whole portability, they’re very carefully matched.

Thirteenth-gen Intel CPUs and Nvidia 4000-series GPUs often is the subsequent large factor, however for the predictable they will carry an enormous value premium, and the {hardware} contained in the Legion Slim 7i is not far behind both. Get one with the proper options and there is a lot to like right here.

Lenovo Legion Slim 7i technical specs