Lenovo has nearly made a hypocrite of me. Since this newest technology of gaming laptops rocking Nvidia RTX 40-series graphics chips first landed I have been saying solely a idiot would purchase a pocket book with an RTX 4090 in it. And but, right here I’m, coveting the Lenovo Legion 9i with exactly that GPU inside it, wishing I had the type of disposable earnings that will make a nigh-on 4 grand pocket book attainable.
Fortunately you do not want the RTX 4090 model of this attractive machine to get the most effective bits of this Lenovo lappy; there is a reasonably extra reasonably priced mannequin with an RTX 4080 that can seemingly ship virtually the identical stage of gaming efficiency. And that is actually what this poor nerd’s coronary heart is basically aching for.
I’ve turn into an enormous fan of Lenovo’s gaming laptops since I first obtained my fingers on the RTX 4080-toting Legion 7i Professional. That is a wise machine: properly made, restrained, reasonably priced, and delivers excellent efficiency for the cash, particularly as it has been fairly closely discounted for the previous six months.
And it kinda got here out of nowhere. Legion laptops have not likely been on my radar till this technology, they usually’ve quick turn into the machines I am recommending to anybody keen to pay attention. However nonetheless, if it is a money-no-object query, I’ve at all times leaned in direction of the premium really feel of the Razer Blade in both 14- or 16-inch trim.
Legion 9i specs
CPU: Intel Core i9 13980HX
GPU: Nvidia RTX 4090
Reminiscence: 32GB DDR5-5600
Storage: 2TB NVMe SSD
Display measurement: 16-inch Mini-LED
Decision: 3200 x 2000
Refresh fee: 165Hz
Peak luminance: 1200 nits
Battery: 99.9Whr
Dimensions: 18.99 – 22.7 x 357.7 x 277.7mm
Weight: 2.5kg
Worth: $3,693 | £3,950
However the Legion 9i would possibly simply have modified my thoughts on that. If I simply need the most effective laptop computer I can theoretically purchase, with out the fiscal restraints of my very own actuality, then that is the place my financial institution steadiness is being spent. Why? Effectively, it is nearly the entire package deal, although in reality it is the display screen and chassis design which swing it for me.
The construct high quality is definitely the very first thing that jumps out, even apart from the flashy carbon fibre composite on the lid this factor feels S O L I D. There isn’t a noticeable give to the chassis, and all of it feels fantastically engineered and strong, and actually a pleasure to make use of full-time. And that composite high layer is delightfully tactile, too, and as particular person as your personal fingerprints.
What’s additionally slightly tactile are the set of white ceramic key caps that come secreted within the field. They’re perhaps a little bit slippy, however they do look slightly cool as your WSAD toppers. And the precise keyboard is basic Lenovo fare, in that it is the greatest round. The total measurement board is nice to kind on, from the ergonomic form and measurement of the important thing caps to their depth of journey, and the complete numpad is at all times going to attraction to a sure consumer.
You alt-code folks know what I am speaking about.
It is also impressively slender for one thing that may home RTX 4090 laptop computer silicon. And that’s largely because of its cooling design, although arguably much less about what Lenovo is ambitiously calling “built-in liquid cooling.” Let’s be sincere, it is a barely bigger vapour chamber—there is no radiator and nearly no pump.
What Lenovo has performed is create a little bit loop across the GPU within the laptop computer, with the warmth pipe circulating liquid atop the VRAM through a tiny pump. It is little, quiet… and I do not actually know what the purpose is that if I am sincere. As I stated, there is no radiator, so it isn’t really cooling the liquid down a lot because it travels the quick distance across the scorching graphics reminiscence chips and again.
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But it surely’s the remainder of the design which delivers the additional cooling wanted to run this comparatively slender high-end machine at its high speeds—that is the quickest I’ve seen any machine run its RTX 4090. Key to that is the move by means of cooling the dual followers can have interaction in, pulling in air from the underside and expelling it straight out of the highest and the edges of the chassis.
Because of this the keyboard has been shifted down, so there’s area for the vented space straight beneath the display screen. This has considerably modified the usual ergonomics of typing on a laptop computer, however I’ve shortly gotten used to the altered format and have been tapping away comfortably on the usually glorious Lenovo keyboard for all my latest in-office work. That shift has additionally had an influence on the trackpad, nevertheless, leading to one which’s a slightly small affair. Which, while you’re attempting to work it on the 3200 x 2000 decision display screen, generally is a little bit of a ache. It is also not been essentially the most responsive pad, both, and I’ve spent not just a few irritating moments scrabbling on the clean floor questioning if it is simply my callused fingers at fault.
However I am going to forgive nearly something by way of crimes in opposition to trackpads when the show panel is nearly as good as this. The mini-LED display screen is nothing wanting beautiful. It is tremendous shiny, and like the opposite top-end mini-LED laptop computer panels I’ve checked out, would not have any of the backlight points I’ve recurrently seen in full-size mini-LED gaming screens.
Given its DisplayHDR 1000 score, and the very fact it may hit peak luminance ranges of 1,200cd/m², this factor is attractive with regards to HDR content material. The colors significantly pop, and there is depth and distinction in darker scenes—it is punchy as all get out and I am very a lot right here for it.
I may also fortunately go away HDR enabled inside Home windows with out feeling like I am sacrificing the color depth of normal SDR content material. That is been a function of recent laptop computer screens—such because the Nebula panels within the likes of the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 and the Acer Predator Helios 16—however is taken to the acute right here.
That top decision, nevertheless, is a little bit of a double-edged sharp factor. A crisp 16:10 show is at all times welcome on the desktop, and I have been fortunately utilizing it as my principal work machine over the previous few weeks (boiler points at PCG Towers have resulted in hot-desking away from my desktop PC). However for gaming, even with essentially the most highly effective cell GPU you should purchase, these further pixels completely do come at a processing value.
You are taking a look at a drop of round a 3rd by way of common body fee going from 1600p to the display screen’s native decision, and while you’re speaking a couple of 16-inch panel, the precise distinction in constancy is extremely onerous to parse. All mini-LED issues being equal, I would have fortunately taken this very same panel as a 2560 x 1600 show.
And that is actually simply me attempting to choose faults, as a result of once more, at that 16-inch scale, you are not likely dropping lots by way of constancy both packing in some upscaling to your recreation settings with both FSR or DLSS—as long as you are not going for the first-gen variations of both—or simply merely working video games at a decrease decision.
Although if there was one true fault that bears mentioning in earnest it is the battery life, or the conspicuous lack of. Now, I am used to gaming battery life being all however nugatory in fashionable high-end laptops, however this takes issues to a daft stage. At simply 40 minutes of gaming uptime it turns into an utter irrelevance away from a plug socket. Greater than every other fashionable laptop computer it is a gaming desktop alternative with naught however an uninterruptible energy provide.
Which I suppose is why you get provided with two totally different chargers within the package deal: One 330W large boi, and one other smaller 140W Sort-C charger for while you need to take it out and about. That 140W mini-brick is not going to ship sufficient cost so that you can recreation plugged in, nevertheless, so is extra about protecting it topped up.
Battery annoyances apart, the one system which might give me pause in wholeheartedly recommending the Legion 9i is the wonderful Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D, and solely due to that excellent cache-rich Ryzen 9 cell CPU at its coronary heart. The equal RTX 4090 model is a bit more costly than the Lenovo right here, however when you’re after the most effective processing and properly as the most effective outright gaming efficiency, then the Scar 17 X3D is essentially the most highly effective laptop computer round at the moment.
It is simply not as fascinating.
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I do know, that is a slightly woolly, solely subjective discount, however as an entire package deal the Legion 9i has way more going for it. It is a smarter design the place the Scar 17 is only a very classically aggressive Asus ‘gamer’ aesthetic, which means the Legion is nowhere close to as chunky a tool. With the crushed carbon end of the Lenovo laptop computer you are by no means going to be describing it as delicate, however I would nonetheless be happier flipping that open in conferences than the ROG machine.
It is also obtained that display screen. The 1440p show within the Asus laptop computer is ok, however one in every of my largest points with the Scar 17 is the truth that its 17-inch panel is not one of many attractive Nebula designs Asus has in its smaller techniques. The Legion 9i’s wonderful mini-LED display screen is superior in each respect.
And whereas the Scar 17 does pack the very best general gaming efficiency, while you’re working at both 1440p or 1600p the efficiency distinction could be very slight certainly.
Which all brings me again round to this inescapable conclusion: the Legion 9i is the money-no-object-of-desire gaming laptop computer at the moment. It appears to be like good, it performs properly, and that show is beautiful. I would need the RTX 4080 model myself—even when I had the money to drop on the top-end choice—however for me this well-designed and well-built machine continues to be Lenovo’s best hour.
