Lenovo’s 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. My new Legion Pro 7i has Intel’s new 24 core 32 thread Core i9-13900HX processor
with Nvidia RTX 4080 graphics. 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! This year’s model still has an aluminum
metal exterior with an anodized finish, but it’s available in a darker onyx grey finish. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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! 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. 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. 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, 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. 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! Subscribe so you don’t miss the full review,
and check this video next to find out how the new RTX 4080 laptop GPU compares against the best
Nvidia had to offer last year, the RTX 3080 Ti!
