Lenovo Legion 7 (2022) Overview

The Lenovo Legion 7 is a strong gaming pocket book with an awesome display and keyboard, and it’s bought ample mainstream energy – however extra fashionable rivals are higher choices at this worth. In order for you the Legion, take into account its extra inexpensive variations as an alternative.

Introduction

Lenovo has been a little bit of a latecomer to the world of gaming laptops, and the Legion 7 is the agency’s try to achieve floor towards massive gamers like Asus and Alienware.

It’s definitely bought the ability on paper, with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 and AMD Ryzen processor, and the mannequin I’ve reviewed prices £1999 / $2399 / €2299, so it undercuts opponents just like the Alienware x15 and Asus ROG Strix Scar 15.

However can it ship the products with real-time efficiency? After spending over per week with the laptop computer, right here re my ideas.

Design and Keyboard

• A sturdy aluminium chassis with a great deal of RGB LEDs
• keyboard with a numberpad and strong typing motion
• Thicker and heavier than some rivals, and with some lacking options

The Lenovo Legion 7 doesn’t look that thrilling whenever you haul the machine from the field. Boot the pocket book and it involves life, with a hoop of customizable RGB LEDs across the laptop computer’s base, within the air vents and within the lid’s Legion brand.

This isn’t an unsightly laptop computer, but it surely does look a little bit unusual: the physique is constructed from gunmetal aluminium and, till all these lights activate, it seems a bit like one among Lenovo’s famend enterprise portables. It’s definitely not bought the monochrome luxurious of the Alienware x15 and x17, or the balls-out brashness of the Asus ROG Strix Scar 15.

The Legion is a laptop computer of two halves in sensible areas, too. Construct high quality is outstanding, with no vital motion in any space, however its 2.5kg weight makes it heavier than the Alienware x15 and Asus laptop computer, and its 24mm-thick physique is chunkier than the Dell. That’s no shock provided that equal x15 and Asus rigs value at the very least £2399 / $2399 / €2399, but it surely’s value noting if you would like a very slim or gentle laptop computer.

The Legion’s keyboard is powerful and crisp, with a quick typing motion and a numberpad – it’s nicely constructed for gaming workloads. The Alienware has a barely sharper typing motion, however there’s little to decide on between the 2. You’ll solely get one thing that feels considerably weightier in case you purchase a pocket book with low-profile mechanical {hardware} or in case you go for the Asus and its 2mm of journey.

The trackpad is okay, but it surely’s positioned on the left-hand facet of the laptop computer and it’s too simple to jog when you’re utilizing the WASD keys. In order for you frustration-free gaming, join a mouse.

Both sides of the Lenovo homes a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Kind-C port, with one supporting DisplayPort, and on the again there’s a sooner Kind-C connection alongside three full-size USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports. All these rear-mounted ports have energy supply. The Legion additionally has an HDMI 2.1 output, and connectivity comes from Gigabit Ethernet, dual-band Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1. It’s bought good audio system too, that produce a great deal of bass and loads of crisp treble element.

Above the show there’s a 720p webcam with a privateness shutter, but it surely doesn’t assist Home windows Hey. The Legion additionally omits fingerprint studying, so there’s no biometrics. The Legion additionally has no card reader, and AMD internals imply no Thunderbolt assist.

Display screen

• A excessive decision makes for an immersive show
• Flaunts correct colors and excessive brightness ranges
• The 165Hz refresh price is okay, however rivals go additional

The Lenovo Legion 7 positive aspects again floor within the show division. At 16in, the display is a tad bigger than the 15.6in panels in each rivals, and that bodes nicely for additional immersion. Its 2560 x 1600 decision delivers crisp gameplay, and the 16:10 side ratio means you get a bit extra vertical area than the Alienware and Asus machines, which implies more room for work and play.

High quality ranges are good, too. The height brightness degree of 466 nits is huge and permits indoor and outside use, and the distinction ratio of 1084:1 is excessive sufficient to provide vibrant colors and loads of vary. The delta E of 1.19 is correct, and the panel renders 96.7% of the sRGB gamut – advantageous for mainstream gaming.

The gamut quantity degree of 101.6% is nice, if a bit decrease than the figures provided by these rivals, so the Lenovo is extra sensible and muted – for many individuals and in lots of video games, that’s a superb factor.

The Legion’s panel will not be excellent. Whereas its 165Hz refresh price and Nvidia G-Sync compatibility are perfect for any single-player recreation and advantageous for mainstream eSports, the Alienware and Asus machines run at 240Hz they usually’re even sooner in case you spend extra.

Efficiency

• Rock-solid mainstream gaming capacity from the RTX 3080
• Ryzen 7 5800H is nice, however can’t compete with newer Intel processors
• Lenovo’s laptop computer is cool and quiet, with no thermal points

The Lenovo Legion 7’s Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 has a beneficiant 165W energy restrict and it’s the beefier 16GB model of the GPU. It additionally options an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H with eight cores and a prime pace of 4.4GHz. The Legion has 16GB of DDR4 reminiscence and a 1TB Samsung SSD that produces middling learn and write speeds of 3576MB/sec and 3013MB/sec.

None of this {hardware} is unhealthy, but it surely’s a technology behind the curve – the Legion’s opponents have DDR5 reminiscence and PCI-E 4 SSDs alongside newer GPUs and CPUs.

The Lenovo’s RTX 3080 averaged 96fps in Horizon Zero Daybreak at 1080p and hit 88fps on the machine’s native decision. It performed Borderlands at 76fps and 60fps at these resolutions, and the eSports-friendly Rainbow Six Siege averaged 246fps and 201fps in. These are good outcomes.

There’s sufficient tempo right here to deal with any single-player recreation at a easy framerate, irrespective of how demanding, and eSports video games will simply run on the speeds wanted by the 165Hz show.

There’s little between the RTX 3080 and the Asus’ RTX 3070 Ti. Lenovo Legion 7’s 3D Mark Time Spy results of 10,436 rubbed shoulders with the RTX 3070 Ti’s rating of 10,389.

If you happen to’d like a bit extra juice from the Legion, its Efficiency mode improved that Time Spy rating to 11,382, and it was eight frames sooner in Borderlands and ten faster in Rainbow Six. That’s welcome additional grunt, and the noise ranges are by no means unhealthy – you get a bit of additional fan output in Efficiency mode, however the Legion is persistently manageable.

AMD’s processor is okay, however that is one other part that’s beginning to present its age. Its single- and multi-core Geekbench outcomes of 1360 and 7141 are respectable, they usually’re ok to deal with multi-tasking and mainstream content-creation duties.

Nevertheless, the Alienware now makes use of Intel’s Core i7-12700H and the Asus deploys the i9-12900H, and each rating past 9500 factors in that multi-core benchmark. The 5800H will not be gradual, however an Intel Alder Lake laptop computer or a more recent Ryzen chip would all be higher selections for content material creation and more durable workloads.

The Legion is on the market with a beefier Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU, however that chip nonetheless can’t match these newer Intel elements and the laptop computer is dearer whenever you make that improve – so it’s poorer worth when in comparison with the x15 and Asus.

Certainly, the Legion’s greatest worth comes whenever you look decrease down the vary. It’s out there with RTX 3070 graphics cores for £1799 / $1749 / €1799 and with the RTX 3060 for £1399 / $1509 / €1499, and the remainder of the specification stays broadly unchanged. These laptops received’t compete with the Asus and Alienware programs for pace, however they’re much better choices in case you’d like mainstream gaming energy with out spending fairly as a lot. And, importantly, the Legion’s older parts and deficiencies are simpler to forgive on the cheaper price.

If you happen to’re interested by spending £2000 / €2000 / €2000 or a bit extra on a gaming laptop computer, I’d advocate the Alienware or Asus fashions – even when they’re a tad pricier than the Legion, your cash goes far additional. The Legion is simply value your money at its lesser spec ranges.

Battery

• Count on simply over an hour of gaming efficiency
• For work or media use, you’ll get about 4 hours

The Lenovo Legion 7 lasted for an hour and fifteen minutes throughout a gaming benchmark, which is a wholly unusual end result for a gaming pocket book.

The Lenovo coped with 4 hours of on a regular basis work with the display at 150 nits and simply over 4 hours of media playback exterior of gameplay. They’re mediocre outcomes that lag behind the Asus, however they’re no shock for a high-end gaming laptop computer.

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