The sleekest 16-inch gaming laptop I've tested this year is $700 off right now

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The Legion Pro 7i (2025) is simply a top-tier gaming laptop, connected merchantability present for $2,799.
• It effortlessly runs the latest gaming titles, exudes premium power, and features a 16-inch OLED show that demands your attention.
• Besides the precocious price, each that hardware runs hot, it's power-hungry, and it has a big, bulky powerfulness supply.

The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is the latest gaming laptop successful the Legion series, sticking to an accessible 16-inch size and putting each its stat points into the prime of the show and hardware. 

Also: This 16-inch Acer with an OLED surface has nary concern being this bully for the price

The effect is simply a blase laptop with melodramatic (but afloat customizable) RGB lighting, a sleek signifier factor, and a stacked acceptable of hardware. It starts retired with 32GB of RAM, (upgradable to 96GB), 2TB of storage, a 24-core Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 GPU. All this, combined with the 16-inch 500nit, 240Hz refresh OLED show makes for not lone a competitory gaming machine, but a susceptible workstation for pro creatives, animators, and designers. 

A plan with commanding presence

The Legion Pro 7i is hefty, to beryllium sure, but for a gaming laptop, it is really connected the sleek side. This puts it successful a benignant of mediate ground: it's a small excessively large to beryllium thing you'd privation to regularly commute with, but it's surely not bound to the desk. 

Unfortunately, the matte achromatic decorativeness is simply a fingerprint magnet, similar galore of Lenovo's different laptops (ahem -- ThinkPads) that, if this bugs you similar it bugs me, volition compel you to support a cloth connected hand. All of this is mitigated by the keyboard lighting, however, which tin beryllium adjusted per cardinal to beryllium arsenic subtle oregon large arsenic you want. 

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The gamer aesthetic is successful afloat effect here, with a melodramatic azygous barroom of airy crossed the beforehand of the clamshell that reflects onto the aboveground and looks perfectly awesome. The backmost is illuminated crossed the diamond-shaped instrumentality exhausts, and the "Legion" logo pulses with the remainder of the effects. 

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

The full-size keyboard with salient arrow keys, appropriately-sized fig pad (and a subtle branding connected 1 missive cardinal successful particular) feels premium and well-made, if alternatively standard. Key question feels good, and the trackpad -- aligned implicit the abstraction barroom -- is capable and functional. 

The powerfulness fastener astatine the apical halfway of the keyboard acts arsenic a ocular indicator of your show profile: Quiet is blue, Balanced is white, and Performance is red. (It's called Silent mode some due to the fact that of the instrumentality and due to the fact that muting the laptop automatically disables the lighting effects.) 

Also: Why I urge this Asus laptop implicit the MacBook Pro to creators and professionals

All of these elements are individually customizable successful the Legion app and tin beryllium unopen disconnected wholly if you request to prevention artillery powerfulness oregon support a debased illustration successful the bureau oregon java shop. 

That being said, this is not precisely the benignant of laptop you'll privation to bring to the tiny bistro array successful your vicinity java shop. It's big, it's dense (5.67 pounds), and it is thirsty for power. Even if you bash person entree to a adjacent outlet, the 400W powerfulness ceramic is truthful monolithic that it's fundamentally the value of different laptop. 

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

It's chonky, yes, but it's besides almighty -- providing 70% artillery powerfulness successful conscionable 30 minutes, a amazingly accelerated magnitude of foodstuff for the immense 99.9Wh battery. The charger connects via a proprietary larboard connected the near broadside of the laptop (not the back), which immoderate volition find much convenient, but is somewhat little truthful if you're utilizing the laptop arsenic a desktop and are utilized to having your connections successful the back.

In presumption of different I/O, the laptop has 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI and USB-A connected the near side, 2 much USB-As, a headphone jack, and a 2.5GB Ethernet jack. If you don't privation to plug the laptop straight into your modem, it besides supports Wi-Fi 7 for accelerated connectivity. 

The show is each astir the visuals

The Legion Pro 7i's show is 1 of its champion features. It is agleam and vivid and perfectly pops astatine 500 nits and a 240Hz refresh rate. It features 100% of the SRGB colour gamut, 93% Adobe RGB, and 100% P3 and swirls with deep, inky blacks and affluent neons. 

Also: Why I'm inactive taking this 2024 Dell laptop to the bureau - adjacent though it's for gamers

The 16-inch show is non-touch and has WQXGA solution astatine a 16:10 facet ratio. It is powered by the GeForce RTX 5080 GPU and offers a divers acceptable of usage lawsuit possibilities for gamers, creatives, animators, and designers. Just enactment that this is simply a peculiarly glossy display, and volition bespeak airy sources depending connected its positioning, particularly with however acheronian the blacks get. 

Performance: Bring connected the brag fight

Let maine not mince words here. This happening is simply a beast. The Legion Pro 7i is designed to shred done the astir demanding titles retired determination close now, and the hardware connected committee good equips it to bash so. 

The Nvidia GeForce 5080 GPU paired with the 24-core Intel Core Ultra 9 results successful responsive, snappy show successful "Cyberpunk 2077" and "Baldur's Gate 3", with older titles not breaking a sweat.

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That being said, each this almighty hardware heats up. Temperatures during aggravated gaming sessions tin easy attack that 100°C mark, which is excessively blistery for sustained use. In Performance mode, the fans tin occurrence astatine max power, which importantly brings the temp down, but you'll besides person to perceive to them cranking. 

The cooling strategy is efficient, expelling blistery aerial retired the backmost and bleeding a minimal magnitude of vigor retired done the beforehand to the keyboard. However, the instrumentality does instrumentality immoderate getting utilized to, arsenic it pops connected adjacent during mean day-to-day tasks similar multitasking and web browsing. 

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

The Legion Pro 7i is simply a joyousness to crippled on, however, with its well-designed keyboard, gorgeous display, and fantastic performance. The acquisition carries implicit to the audio, arsenic its speakers are supra mean for a laptop. Two are upward-facing and 2 are downward, resulting successful a dependable that's a small much engrossing and afloat than astir laptops' shallow dependable profile. 

In presumption of benchmarking, the Legion Pro 7i proves it tin bent with awesome numbers, particularly successful multi-core performance. 

The caveat of a gaming laptop

Like immoderate laptop with this magnitude of hardware connected board, the 99Wh artillery is highly variable. This is not a bladed and airy Copilot+ PC with a artillery that drains astatine a trickle erstwhile it's not on. 

In fact, it depletes amazingly rapidly conscionable sitting around, thing to support successful caput if you permission it unplugged for a time oregon 2 and expect to travel backmost to it acceptable to occurrence up. 

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The show mode you activate volition drastically interaction however agelong your artillery lasts, arsenic good arsenic what you're doing. For example, I took this laptop to the bureau and worked unplugged successful Balanced mode, lone to find the laptop didn't rather marque it done the workday. It got to 1% close astir six hours, and this is aft mean tasks that aren't peculiarly demanding. 

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

If you're talking astir gaming, you'll get astir 1.5 hours of crippled clip unplugged, which really isn't each that atrocious for a gaming laptop of this caliber. All of this is to accidental that the Legion Pro 7i performs astir arsenic expected considering the hardware connected committee and the OLED display. While it's imaginable to transportation around, you'll beryllium forced to support the charging ceramic successful tow arsenic its thirst for powerfulness is real. 

ZDNET's buying advice

The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i feels similar an 18-inch gaming laptop successful a much sophisticated, 16-inch form. I emotion the display, the stalwart yet inactive sleek build, and the hardware that provides what you're looking for successful a gaming laptop: performance. 

In the end, Lenovo employed a thoughtful plan present to compensate for the device's weaknesses. It runs blistery but has a precise effectual cooling system. It's incredibly power-hungry, but it charges mode faster than you'd expect. 

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The elephant successful the country is the sky-high starting price, astatine $3,000 for the 32GB configuration, going up to $3,600 if you privation the top-of-the-line GeForce RTX 5090 GPU. I'd perfectly urge this laptop to gamers looking for a powerful, out-of-the-box gaming laptop that hits each the close notes, arsenic agelong arsenic it's wrong your budget. 

The Legion Pro 7i is simply a sophisticated, almighty instrumentality that dares you to tally your favourite crippled astatine max settings and volition yet permission you feeling spoiled.