I have been unhealthily obsessive about Razer Blade gaming laptops because it actually nailed that matte black MacBook aesthetic over the previous few years, and managed to jam high-end graphics silicon inside that glossy chassis and nonetheless make it fly. It is unhealthy as a result of the damned issues are so frickin’ costly, commanding a premium as a result of there hasn’t actually been one other PC machine to return shut.
Now, I do not wish to channel the Jeremy Clarkson/High Gear ‘…till now’ factor an excessive amount of, however Lenovo has nearly come out of nowhere this 12 months to hit the highest of my most-wanted gaming laptop computer record. The newest Legion machines supply a degree of favor, efficiency, and construct high quality that belies their relative affordability.
In comparison with equivalently specced Razer Blade or Asus ROG laptops your Lenovo Legion will ship all the identical gaming and artistic efficiency however usually for a far decrease price. Certainly, our favorite gaming laptop computer, the Lenovo Legion Professional 7i, has been on sale at B&H Photograph for a lot of the 12 months, making all of it however unimaginable to advocate every other RTX 4080-toting pocket book.
However after I say it is ‘come out of nowhere,’ that is doing an enormous disservice to Lenovo. It is paid its dues as one of many main workplace laptop computer makers on the planet, with its ThinkPad gadgets dominating tray tables in half the enterprise class seats within the air proper now. It is solely this 12 months, nevertheless, that its Legion laptops have made an actual splash within the gaming market.
It seems I am additionally weirdly a sucker for its easy ceramic keycaps and the texture of the solid carbon lid.
It is not solely in its worth proposition the place the Legion machines have staked a declare for this nerd’s coronary heart, both. I like a little bit of smart-speccing and smarter pricing, for positive, however I do nonetheless have goals, these money-no-object needs, too. That is the place the glossy black Blade machines have lived for therefore lengthy, however I have been testing the Legion 9i just lately and it is wonderful.
It is the RTX 4090 model, and I nonetheless stand by my assertion that solely a idiot would buy a gaming laptop computer with that fake top-end Ada GPU inside it, as a result of you will get an RTX 4080 model with all the identical good things inside it. And it actually is nice stuff, even when the promise of built-in liquid cooling is a bit over-enthusiastic (c’mon, it is an energetic vapour chamber, at finest).
Largely it is due to that wonderful 1,200cd/m2 mini-LED display, the stunning keyboard, and the completely rock-solid, inflexible, however nonetheless impressively slim, chassis. It seems I am additionally weirdly a sucker for its easy ceramic keycaps and the texture of the solid carbon lid. It is so damned tactile, even when it appears to be like like some odd city camo.
This 12 months has been all about cell gaming improvements for me—I’ve beloved testing the Steam Deck OLED, have tweaked and toyed with a ton of different nice handheld gaming PCs, and pulled aside my forgiving Framework 13 laptop computer to stay in lots of new, completely different mainboards and a few with real gaming chops, too. But it surely’s my affection for the Legion laptops that has shocked me essentially the most.
Lenovo might not have 2024 all its personal means, although. Razer is bound to be updating its Blade vary, and I am excited to see a 13-inch Meteor Lake Stealth. However we additionally know that Asus is upping its recreation to attempt to be extra like Razer, switching out the plastic Zephyrus chassis for an all-metal unibody design. That is going to make the Asus Zephyrus G14 an actual factor of magnificence and I for one can’t wait to get my arms on that.
Although, if Lenovo releases a 14-inch Legion subsequent 12 months, that is a very good deal lower than the ROG or Razer premium, it may nonetheless get my vote. And my coronary heart. And my axe.
