Lenovo Announces Legion 7i Gaming Laptop with New Intel CPU

Today, Intel announced a new range of faster 11th-gen Intel Core H-series CPUs, so naturally Lenovo decided to take those chips and put them into a bunch of new gaming laptops slated to arrive later this summer.

Lenovo’s new lineup of gaming notebooks consists of four new systems ranging from 15 to 17 inches in size, along with a new 24.5-inch 360Hz monitor for gaming at home.

Starting at $1,800, the 16-inch Legion 7i will be Lenovo’s new flagship gaming notebook, and in addition to new 11th-gen Intel Core i7 and i9 H-series processors, it will also include a 16-inch 2560 x 1600 display with a 165Hz refresh rate, up to an Nvidia RTX 3080 GPU, 16GB or 32GB of RAM, and a range of storage to choose from, including an optional 1TB + 32GB Intel Optane H10 SSD.

The Legion 7i’s chassis features a design similar to a number of Lenovo’s previous systems, sporting a Storm Gray paint job and a bunch of RGB lights scattered around (including in its vents and one light on its lid), with Lenovo leaning on Corsair’s iCue app to control the lighting throughout the system.

The Legion 7i also comes with a healthy selection of ports, including a Thunderbolt 4 port and a headphone jack on the left, one USB 3.2 Type-C port on the right, and one more Thunderbolt 4 port, HDMI 2.1, Ethernet, and three USB 3.2 Type-A ports in back. Another nice bonus is that Lenovo includes a electronic shutter button on the right to disable the Legion 7i’s 720p webcam when it’s not in use.

I haven’t had a chance to check it out in person yet, but a couple features I like about the Legion 7i on paper are its display and power options. By going with a 16:10 2560 x 1600 resolution, I think Lenovo is smartly balancing performance with image quality, because on screens this size, you can often see when the pixel density of a lower-res 1080p display doesn’t deliver the kind of sharpness you really want, especially while gaming.

Lenovo claims the Legion 7i’s 16-inch 2560 x 1600 screen is the first of its kind, and while the company might technically be right, the push for more 1440p and 1600p display options has become a growing trend in gaming laptops, with competitors like Razer offering a 240Hz 2560 x 1440 screen in the recently updated Blade 15. The Legion 7i’s display features a smart combination of size and resolution, and I’m hoping to see more screens like this on gaming notebooks in the future.

The other nifty feature is that alongside the Legion 7i’s traditional power brick, Lenovo also includes support for USB-PD charging at up to 95 watts, so if you’re trying to travel light or borrowing a charger from someone else in a pinch, you can still recharge on the go, just not as fast as you would using the main power adapter.

Aside from the Legion 7i, Lenovo is also launching some affordable gaming notebooks in the 16-inch Legion 5i Pro and the standard Legion 5i, which will be able in both 15- and 17-inch sizes. Like their more expensive sibling, all of the Legion 5i models will come with a range of 11th-gen Intel Core H-Series CPUs and Nvidia 30-series GPUs, but no Ryzen or Radeon configs (sorry AMD fans).

All of Lenovo’s new Legion gaming laptops also feature Coldfront 3.0 cooling, which Lenovo says moves 18% more air than before, and the Legion AI Engine, which promises to increase performance while also cutting down on lag.

Finally, for people looking for a monitor to pair with their laptops when gaming at home, Lenovo is also announcing the Legion Y25g-30 monitor, which features a 24.5-inch screen, a 360Hz refresh rate, and support for Nvidia G-Sync and Nvidia Reflex tech.

All told, it looks like a pretty nice revamp to Lenovo’s gaming notebook lineup, though as always, we’re going to reserve our final takes for after we have a chance to test them out in person.

The Legion 7i and Legion 5i Pro will start at $1,800 and $1,330 respectively, and will go on sale in June, with the standard Legion 5i starting at just $970 and following a bit later in July. The Legion Y25g-30 will be available in Octber for $700.