So many gaming laptops pass across our desks that sometimes it feels like we've seen it all before. But sometimes, just sometimes, a particular model really stands out, and this Lenovo Legion Pro 7i happens to be just that. We've spotted it at $2,100 at B&H photo, and at that price you're getting our top pick for the best gaming laptop with a huge discount for Presidents' Day weekend.
When it comes to specs you're getting hardware and performance that puts it up there with some of the fastest gaming laptops we've ever tested, and we came away very impressed in our review. The Core i9 13900HX processor at the heart of this machine is an absolute beast of a mobile CPU, and makes short work of multimedia, productivity and gaming workloads, what with its eight P-cores and 16 E-cores.
Pair that with 32GB of DDR5-5600 and you've got a system that screams through the benchmarks, but the best is yet to come.
For those of you scratching your head as to why we're recommending the RTX 4080 version of this lappy and not the full fat RTX 4090, simply know this: The 150W TGP GPU in this model manages to outperform several RTX 4090 laptops we've tested by virtue of the fact that it can be used to its full potential, unlike some RTX 4090 lappys we could mention, which means you're getting all the performance you could reasonably want without the excessive fan noise that will drive you and your living companions to tears.
With all that gaming grunt under the hood, you'll be looking for a screen that can keep up, and thankfully the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i has you covered. It's a 1600p 240Hz unit, and while it might not be the punchiest screen we've ever seen it can absolutely do the job of pumping those RTX 4080 rendered graphics at you at a considerable rate, and looks good doing it.
Storage wise you've got a 1TB Gen 4 Samsung SSD that gives you plenty of room to start with, with the option to stick something bigger in as a secondary drive. You might baulk at the idea of opening up your fancy new laptop for a storage upgrade, but it's honestly a simple thing to do these days, although if you're careful with some of the bigger game installs 1TB should do you just fine.
Here's another thing we love about the Lenovo: As gaming laptops go, it's downright subtle. Yes it's got an RGB lightbar along the bottom of the deck for neon-lighting enthusiasts, but with that disabled this machine would pass in any office setting without comment, beyond looking like a smooth and sleek laptop that says you paid out for a premium system.
It's grown-up, and that's refreshing in a world of gaming laptops that'd look more at home at an EDM show than they would in a meeting.
Downsides? Well yes, that screen could be punchier. And the battery life is pretty rubbish, although that's a common theme in any laptop with this sort of power. But beyond that, this gaming and productivity monster impressed us with its performance, refinement, and well-thought-out implementation.
It's a proper high-performance machine with very few compromises, and at this price is about as much laptop as you could possibly get for the money. Like I said, we've seen it all when it comes to gaming laptops, and take it from us, this is an absolute stunner.
