CES 2023: Lenovo Legion Pro 7 is a performance machine

This year, we can once again take a look at upcoming technology highlights at the CES in Las Vegas. Especially in the field of gaming notebooks there are exciting news, which certainly also has to do with the recent release of the new Nvidia GeForce 4000 series. Lenovo is also taking the opportunity to hint at its upcoming flagship at the show in the Nevada desert. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7 is not only supposed to offer the powerful GeForce RTX 4090. In combination with a smart cooling system that is controlled by artificial intelligence, the PC hardware expert wants to extract the maximum performance. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Lenovo Legion Pro 7 is supposed to be the “strongest 16-inch gaming laptop in the world”.

Lenovo Legion Pro 7 comes with Intel or AMD CPU

Friends of powerful gaming behemoths have already been able to look at exciting new products at CES 2023. Dell, in particular, presented some highlights with its in-house gaming brand Alienware. Not only the huge Alienware m18 was part of it, which has a sector-unusually large display in addition to great performance. The Alienware x14 R2, which is supposed to be the thinnest gaming notebook ever, is slim. But of course, the competition has also done their homework. Lenovo, for example, was naturally also represented with its Legion gaming brand.

With the Legion Tower 7i, the manufacturer presented, among other things, a gaming PC with brute performance and RGB. However, those who like portability will also get their money’s worth from Lenovo. You do not necessarily have to accept much less performance. After all, the manufacturer combines portability with a lot of performance in the Lenovo Legion Pro 7. An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 in the top configuration paired with either AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX or Intel Core i9-13900HX are supposed to help the notebook fly high.

In order to get the maximum out of the high-end hardware, Lenovo relies on special liquid metal cooling. This principle earned Sony negative headlines in the last few days, as it caused the PlayStation 5 to fail in isolated cases. With the help of AI-assisted cooling, the graphics card is supposed to deliver a performance of up to 175 watts and the CPU up to 15 percent more Thermal Design Power (TDP). According to Lenovo, the result is the most powerful 16-inch gaming notebook on the market.

Display with 240 Hz and 500 nits

Those who don’t want to go all out can also be satisfied with the also very strong GeForce RTX 4080 or the good RTX 4070. There is also freedom of choice when it comes to the working memory. You have the option of installing up to 32 GB LPDDR 6000 RAM. In terms of storage space, a PCIe 4.0 SSD with a full 2 TB of storage space can be installed in the top configuration. Lenovo, on the other hand, has made a commitment to the display. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7 comes with a 16-inch IPS panel with a resolution of 2660 x 1600 pixels. A refresh rate of 240 Hz promises fast moving images without tearing or other image problems. The maximum brightness of 500 nits also reads well.

Speaking of good data. In terms of battery life, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7 offers an untypically good value for gaming notebooks with up to 12 hours. However, this long runtime is only reserved for buyers of the AMD model. Those who opt for an Intel CPU have to be satisfied with eight hours. That is a considerable difference. The choice of processor apparently has no impact on the weight. The gaming notebook weighs 2.8 kg and is just under 2.6 cm thin. In view of the significant difference in runtime, the question arises as to the advantages on Intel’s side. And here the magic word is Thunderbolt 4. Consequently, you probably have to weigh what is more important to you when buying.

Prices and availability

We don’t have to wait much longer for what Lenovo claims is the “world’s most powerful 16-inch gaming laptop” to launch. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i with Intel CPU is scheduled to go on sale in March. An MSRP starting at 2,799 Euros makes it clear that this is a high-end device. However, those who prefer the AMD version will have to be patient. It is supposed to hit the market in the course of the year. However, the price is still uncertain.