Intel and Nvidia have release their new laptop components forgaming laptop , Intel ’s Arrow Lake - HX Core Ultra 9 275HX that coincide with Nvidia ’s release of its Blackwell 5000 - series GPUs . Both represent crucial milestone in carrying into action and image quality , severally , and I had a chance to get my hands on one of the first machines utilizing both .
Specifically , it ’s the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i , which has the Core Ultra 9 and the second - fastest Blackwell GPU , the GeForce RTX 5080 . And it ’s a very fast laptop indeed , the fast Windows laptop computer I ’ve reviewed yet , in fact . It ’s also a nicely built machine with a fun gamer aesthetic and a gorgeous OLED display . It ’s a solid spokesperson of the late wafture of really profligate gaming laptops ( that will also appeal to Lord ) .
Specs and configurations
Lenovo is still working out its distribution of the Legion Pro 7i , and that include both availability and pricing . As I ’m writing this revaluation , there has been just one configuration useable and it ca n’t presently be purchased . It was price at $ 3,399 for an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX chipset , 32 GB of very truehearted RAM , two 1 TB SSDs , an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 GPU , and a 16.0 - inch QHD+ OLED display running at up to 240Hz .
That ’s more than enough computer for most gamers , and they ’ll pay for it . That ’s a very premium price . We ’ll have to wait and see if Lenovo offer other contour , and if the Mary Leontyne Price continue that high .
Design
The Legion Pro 7i is obviously a gaming laptop computer . That ’s apparent first in its overall sizing , where it ’s quite thick by modern standards at a small more than an inch and also lowering at 5.67 pounds . There ’s good reason for it , of course . Lenovo had to build in a lot of way to move tune around and it incorporate a sophisticated thermal solution to keep heat down and performance up . The Legion Pro 7i can use up to the full 250 watts TDP between the CPU and GPU , which require a complex “ ColdFront ” system with evaporation sleeping room , expectant dual sports fan , and a “ hyper bedchamber ” that draw out cool air in from the bottom and crowd hot air out the back . There ’s some marketing hype mixed in there , but the thermic solution works — and while the fans speed up , I ’ve heard meretricious gaming machine .
The design also incorporate several gamer ocular cues , bulge out with the per - fundamental RGB inflammation on the keyboard and the RGB strip along the front edge that projects a nice splashing of color across a open . Turn the Legion Pro 7i around and you ’ll see RGB LED outlining the stereotypical fighter squirt exhaust ports that look even cooler to me than usual . The lighting can be controlled using the LegionSpace app , and you’re able to get at more controls in Windows preferences .
Beyond the lighting and the complex body part , the Legion Pro 7i is relatively simplistic . It ’s all - black , and there are no special textures like you ’ll discover on theLenovo Legion 9i . The visual aspect of volume is increased a number by the offset hat , where the rear of the laptop carry outward and makes it seem even bigger than it is . The top and side showing bezels are very small , but the bottom chin is quite magnanimous . Combined with that rearward boundary , that make the Legion Pro 7i even deeper than it might otherwise be . It ’s an imposing laptop .
Lenovo did a good job of balancing what I think gamers likely want to see without recur to an overly pretentious style . The Legion 9i that we review in 2023 was a little more like a “ traditional ” laptop , but I do n’t rule this latest machine to be over the top .
The chassis is made from CNC aluminum , and it feel solid enough . That pretend sense , too , because it ’s heavy enough that Lenovo had no reason to trim any corners . It ’s a load to bear around , and it will feel plenty robust as you do so . TheApple MacBook Pro 16and theRazer Blade 16are both solid devices as well and perchance finger a lilliputian more tone overall thanks to the density afforded by their thinner physical body , but the divergence might be more down to aesthetics than work up . The Legion Pro 7i is more than near enough .
Keyboard and touchpad
Gamers like a certain kind of keyboard . The replacement should have a distinct tactile feedback with dissolute responsiveness , and they should be durable enough to withstand month of key mashing . Lenovo has its TrueStrike keyboard that it touts as possess the kind of primal travel ( 1.6 mm here , within the sweet spot of 1.5 mm to 2.0 mm ) and propulsion response that gamers demand , with 100 % anti - ghosting . I ’m not the most avid gamer , but the keyboard feels pretty near to me . There ’s a numeral keypad slosh in on the side , which is good for macro binding and such . It ’s a chip humble , though , and it take in space away from the rest of the keyboard . From the perspective of a author like me who spends a lot more time type out words than work games , it ’s not my favorite keyboard . But of grade , I ’m not this laptop ’s target substance abuser .
The touchpad is smaller than it could be , but it ’s okay . It ’s responsive enough , and it ’s surrounded by an abrasion - resistant aluminium on the medallion balance . It ’s honorable enough , but I ’m trusted many gamers will use an external gambling mouse . For productivity user , it ’s just fine .
There ’s no touch showing , which is fine . Once again , I ’m sure the objective drug user wo n’t care .
Connectivity and webcam
The Legion Pro 7i is a very large laptop computer and thus has lots of room for a variety of ports . unremarkably , large gambling laptops have a ton . There are plenty here , with a mix of modern and legacy connexion . I wish there was more than one Thunderbolt 4 interface , and I choose this many ports to be placed on the fanny of the physical body where cables are out of the way . There ’s an Ethernet port , which is important for online gamers who want to cut out wireless rotational latency , but there ’s no Coyote State card reader so Maker will be disappointed . That earn connectivity overall something of a mixed base . Wireless connectivity is in full up - to - date , though .
The webcam is a 5MP version , which is high enough resolution . But , there ’s not a passel of attending paid to raise quality for videoconferencing , which understandably is n’t this laptop ’s direction . And , there ’s no infrared photographic camera for Windows 11 Hello facial recognition and no fingerprint lector . That create things feel a little bare - boned , and it ’s weird to trust on a PIN for logging in when almost every other laptop computer I ’ve reviewed and used has one or more biometric method acting .
funnily enough , the Arrow Lake chipsets do n’t have Intel ’s immobile Neural Processing Unit ( NPU ) . Its “ AI Boost ” NPU runs at just 13 Pidlimdi operations per second ( TOPS ) , versus the 40 + peak of some other Intel , AMD , and Qualcomm chipsets and Apple ’s M4 chipsets with a Neural Engine range at 38 crown . That means that technically , Arrow Lake laptop computer do n’t quality for Microsoft ’s Copilot+ PC initiative that ask 40 top or more , and any on - equipment AI processes will run more slowly unless they utilize the GPU . However , while GPUs are the fastest at processing AI tasks by a full margin , they ’re also the least get-up-and-go - efficient . As we ’ll see in our battery surgical incision , that does n’t actually weigh a caboodle because you ’ll rarely use this laptop computer when it ’s not plug in .
Performance
The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX is a high - end member of the Arrow Lake - HX series , direct at gamers and Maker who require the ultimate in processor performance . It ’s a 24 - gist ( eight Performance and 16 Efficiency ) , 24 - thread bit running at up to 5.4GHz ( functioning magnetic core ) and 4.6GHz ( Efficiency cores ) and consuming a root of 55 watts of power . It can ramp up to 160 W sum .
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 is a fellow member of the Blackwell 5000 - serial publication CPU lineup , and it features Nvidia ’s latest CUDA effect , streaming multiprocessors , and RT and Tensor core , all endorse the new DLSS 4 that utilizes AI - driven upscaling and frame generation to furnish much better ocular quality while maintaining exchangeable framerates as the previous propagation . The RTX 5080 can devour up to 175 watts , and as name above , the Lenovo Legion 7i can dynamically provide up to 250 Watt total great power . That ’s a sight .
The LegionSpace public utility company also rent you hold in carrying out , although that ’s limited to choose a few predetermined fashion or tweaking a few custom context . you could also opt to trade from a hybrid style that switches between the integrate graphics and the RTX 5080 , or run with the RTX 5080 alone to ascertain the quick performance . Some other laptop do provide more dominance over arrangement element , however . In addition , Lenovo uses a custom LA3 AI chip as part of its Lenovo AI Engine+ that utilise machine learning to optimize performance by adjust sports fan and power distribution — as a gaming laptop , the goal is to maximize framerates and not necessarily heighten performance in productivity and creative applications .
In our bench mark ( report below in each laptop computer ’s carrying into action mode ) , the Legion Pro 7i is the fastest Windows laptop computer we ’ve test in almost every chore . The Core Ultra 9 275HX is almost universally faster in both single - core and multi - core operation than the Core i9 - 14900HX and the AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 . It also closes the break with Apple ’s M4 Max 16/40 chipset , which remain much faster in undivided - core job and quicker in some ( but not all ) multi - core tasks . Note that the Legion Pro 7i attain the fastest score ever in our Handbrake mental testing that encodes a 420 megabyte video as H.265 — so tight , in fact , that if chipset execution gets any faster , we ’ll want to update our benchmarking physical process . I ’ll also mark that in all but the Cinebench R24 multi - core test , the AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 was almost as dissipated as as the Core Ultra 9 in CPU - intensive tasks .
I also go two PugetBench tests that hunt down in bouncy versions of Adobe ’s Premiere Pro and Photoshop software , to see how the Legion Pro 7i can go as a Godhead ’s workstation . Both tests can utilize a discrete GPU for firm performance , and the Premiere Pro run leverages faster multi - core performance while the Photoshop test is impacted most by single - heart operation . Those tendencies show up in our scores , where the Legion Pro 7i was slightly faster than the MacBook Pro 16 with the M4 Max chipset in Premiere Pro , while the MacBook Pro 16 was considerably faster in Photoshop thanks to its insanely fast individual cores . Among laptop computer , both are the firm machines we ’ve tested in both of these trial , making them excellent choice for Maker .
Gaming
As mentioned above , the RTX 5080 is aimed more at heighten visual quality than it is at increasing execution . That ’s readily apparent when running game that are optimized for DLSS 4 , of which there are well over 100 available . We do n’t examine carrying into action using these games , however , so you ’ll just have to take my word for it that you ’re getting a real encouragement in realism when running your preferent games — even if framerates are n’t importantly higher than , say , with a laptop computer built around an RTX 4080 .
Of naturally , that does n’t mean the Legion Pro 7i is n’t a really fast play laptop . It might not be the degraded machine ever , but as mentioned just now , it will be as fast and it will look so much well with games that are fully optimise for the platform . I require to keep accentuate that , because my benchmarks show some inconsistency , and it ’s very probable that biz that are amply optimized will also be faster in plus to looking best . I eff that gamers tend to focalize on faster framerates in evaluating a new GPU propagation , but there ’s a lot to be said about being “ only ” as fast but offer up up importantly better visuals . And over time , that will hopefully result in better and better game .
So , how did the Legion Pro 7i perform ? Our benchmarks are a small patched across different laptop , but we have enough data point here to get an idea of how the RTX 5080 performs in our standard suite of gaming benchmarks . take note that , again , these results were generated in each laptop computer ’s performance mode .
To begin with , in the 3DMark Time Spy bench mark , the Legion Pro 7i is the flying laptop we ’ve try out . The only faster car in our database used background RTX 4090 GPUs . It ’s faster than laptop run both the RTX 4080 and the RTX 4090 , which prefigure well for the RTX 5090 that I ’ll be reviewing soon in some other machine . In this benchmark , Blackwell is degenerate .
The Legion Pro 7i also did specially well inCivilization VI , blowing away every other machine in our database — include desktops . This rubric is impacted by the central processor in addition to the GPU , and the Core Ultra 9 275HX is manifestly a very dissolute chipset for running this particular secret plan .
InCyberpunk 2077 , the 1440p radical resultant were run with FSR 2.1 engaged while in Ultra RT , figure multiplication was turned off . The Legion Pro 7i was fastest among our comparison grouping in most tests , but not by a important margin against the previous generationLegion Pro 7iand theLegion 9i . With DLSS turned on , the Legion Pro 7i 2025 strike 134 fps . Unfortunately , we did n’t test the other laptops with this setting and so I ca n’t make a direct comparison .
The Legion Pro 7i 2025 was n’t the fastest laptop inRed Dead Redemption , but it was airless enough to prove the point that while it ’s not always significantly faster , it ’s not much slower , either . You wo n’t get Blackwell ’s visual melioration in this title , but you wo n’t see a meaningful swiftness penalisation , either .
Finally , inAssassin ’s Creed Valhalla , the Legion Pro 7i 2025 was significantly faster than the late propagation . Again , though , we do n’t have many direct comparisons .
Overall , the Legion Pro 7i with the RTX 5080 was a very strong performer . It will run any modern title at its native 1440p resolution at very high framerates , and the newest game optimized for DLSS 4 will look good than ever .
Battery life
Let ’s face it : no laptop computer with a 16.0 - inch high-pitched - Re OLED display and such fast , powerfulness - hungry components is going to get great battery living . Lenovo fit in the largest battery you could put in a laptop at almost exactly 100 watt - hour , but the Legion Pro 7i is n’t made to last long on a care .
And it did n’t . In both our web browsing and video iteration tests , it shut down at right around two hours . In the most demanding Cinebench R24 psychometric test , it lasted an hour . This is a laptop that you ’ll be carry around with its very gravid and punishing power supply . There ’s just no way around it .
Display and audio
Lenovo fitted the Legion Pro 7i with a 16.0 - inch 16:10 QHD+ ( 2560 x 1600 ) OLED video display that runs at up to 240Hz . Out of the box , it looks as spectacular as all OLED control board , with bright , dynamical colors and inky blacks .
My tintometer agreed , show very high brightness at 523 nits , stark Negro , and very panoptic colors at 100 % sRGB , 95 % AdobeRGB , and 100 % DCI - P3 that are also extremely accurate at a DeltaE of 0.55 ( less than 1.0 is indistinguishable to the human eye ) . The video display will be first-class for every possible function , include the originative work for which this laptop computer is implausibly tight . And the eminent refresh rate means there will be zero snap in games running at full speed .
I also appreciate its high active reach ( HDR ) performance . Turning HDR on in Windows sometimes ensue in inadequate colour , but that ’s not the case here . Everything looks great with HDR sour on , and running Dolby Vision content in Netflix was amazing . It was n’t as bright as the MacBook Pro 16 ’s mini - lead video display , so that laptop remains the queen of rain cats and dogs HDR . But , the Legion Pro 7i was still good than most Windows laptops . And , while I did n’t test any HDR games , I ’m certain that it will make for a great experience .
The audio is power by a quad speaker system with Nahimic 3D Audio for game that bear out the standard . The sound was loud with cleared mids and highs and a bonnie amount of bass . Compared to the best laptop computer loudspeaker , the six - speaker setup on the MacBook Pro 16 , I found the Legion Pro 7i to be just one notch below . Audio just was n’t as crisp and clear as on the MacBook , and the bass was n’t quite as impactful . But , it ’s still very good and will enhance the play experience — although many gamers will practice play headphones , and while the speakers get loud , the fans are still gaudy enough during intense play that a headphone is recommended anyway .
Conclusion
As the first gambling laptop I ’ve reviewed with Intel ’s Core Ultra 9 275HX and Nvidia ’s GeForce RTX 5080 , I have absolutely no complaints . It ’s incredibly fast at any labor you may throw at it , include its core gaming focus , and it has an excellent OLED display that runs at a fast refresh rate that will leverage Blackwell ’s optical sweetening for a phenomenal gambling experience .
It ’s expansive at $ 3,399 , and assuming that damage holds once more configurations and inventory are available , that makes it an expensive laptop computer . It ’s strong to say whether it ’s the most competitive option given that there are so few revaluation available , but taken on its own , there ’s a lot to care for hardcore gamers .
