Lenovo's Legion brand is all about high performance gaming devices and today we took a look at the 7th generation of the Lenovo Legion and Legion Slim 16 inch gaming laptops. The Lenovo Legion 7 and 7i are now the world's most powerful 16" gaming laptops while the Legion Slim 7 and 7i still include plenty of power but with a bit more of a thinner and lighter overall package. Both include a huge 99.99Whr battery which is the largest possible battery that's legal to carry in a laptop computer on an airplane.

Lenovo Legion 7i and 7

The big difference between the Legion 7i and the Legion 7 is that the Legion 7i is based on Intel hardware while the Legion 7 is based on AMD hardware. Of course the prices differ as well.

With the Legion 7i, you can get an Intel Core i7-12800HX or i9-12900HX processor, plus there's an option for OC 5600Mhz memory or 4800Mhz memory where as the AMD only gets 4800Mhz DDR5. The Legion 7i has two graphics card options; the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti with 16Gb GDDR6 memory or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti with 8Gb GDDR6 memory. For graphics cards on the AMD version, you can choose between the AMD Radeon RX6850M XT with 12Gb GDDR6 or the AMD Radeon RX6700M with 10Gb GDDR6.

A look at the insides of Legion 7

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Both versions have improved cooling structures with thinner fan blades that can move faster and cause more air flow with less rotational energy. They've also got a 99.99Whr battery for the largest possible amount of battery power that's legally allowed to be in a laptop computer that's carried on an airplane.

a look at Lenovo Legion 7 from the front

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Both versions have two display options. You can get one with 165-240 Hz variable refresh rate or one with a 165 Hz refresh rate. Both 16" displays give you 2560 x 1600 pixel IPS, 16:10 aspect ratio, 3ms response time, 500 nits, 100% sRGB color gamut, DisplayHDR 400 certification, TUV Rheinland certification, and Dolby Vision support.

a look at Legion 7's edge lighting
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All that power on the inside is great for gaming, but what about some flasy looks? The Legion has that too with some RGB colorful LED lights on the edges that make your desk or table top glow.

a look at the Legion 7's edge lighting

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Here's a closer look at the edge lights. They can naturally be programmed to change colors in different patterns or stay specific colors of your choosing.

an image of the backlit keys on Legion 7

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Oh yes, the keyboard has RGB backlighting too. This test model was programmed to have colorful ripple effect lighting expanding through the keyboard backlight whenever each key was pressed. These lighting effects obviously have no effect on the utilitarian capabilities of the laptop, but they certainly do look cool!

a look at the Legion 7's light up logo

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Even the Legion logo on the back of the screen has RGB lighting effects.

a look at Legion 7's backlit port labelling

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There are a lot of ports on the back edge where many laptops have been putting ports only on the sides. Having ports on the back is much better for the type of laptop that's going to spend most of its time on a desk plugged in to a few specific peripherals. Oh, and the port locations are nicely labeled with backlit text and icons so it's even easier to find the port that you want to use. I wish everything had easy to read labels.

a look at the ports and exhaust vents on Legion 7

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Also on the back are some big exhaust ports for airflow to the cooling system while the screen's hinge sits comfortably on top. This thing's dimensions are pretty big at 14.1 x 10.37 x 0.76in and it weighs 5.5 lbs.

a look at keys on the Legion 7 keyboard

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Now here's something that I really miss on laptop keyboards... concave and convex key shapes! Previous Legion models have this too, but I'm so happy to see this kind of ergonomics on an actual laptop keyboard again. Most laptops these days have completely flat chicklet style keys which aren't nearly as comfortable as the concave/convex shapes we had decades ago. All laptop keyboards should be more like the Lenovo Legion's.

Unfortunately our limited time with the Legion laptop didn't involve any actual high-end gaming, but it certainly seems very capable.

For pricing, the Legion 7i with Intel Core processor starts at $2,449 and is expected to be available starting May 2022 while the Legion 7 AMD Advantage Edition with AMD Ryzen processor, starts at $2,059 and is expected to be available starting June 2022.

Lenovo Legion Slim 7i and 7

If the 5.5lb Legion 7 seems a bit too heavy for you, the Legion Slim 7 cuts a pound off to bring the weight down to 4.5lbs. It's a little thinner at 0.67in versus the Legion's 0.76in thickness.

An image of Lenovo Legion Slim 7

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The Legion Slim 7i and Legion Slim 7 follow the same convention where the "i" means it uses Intel chipsets while the 7 regular uses AMD hardware. You can choose between 12th generation Intel Core i9-12900HK, i7-12700H, or i5-12500H processors, or on the AMD side you can choose a Ryzen 9 6900HX, Ryzen 7 6800H, or Ryzen 5 6600H. For RAM, you can choose between 8Gb, 16Gb, or 24Gb. 8Gb is soldered into the motherboard while there's an extra slot for another 8Gb or 16Gb module. For storage you can choose 512Gb to 2Tb PCIe SSD.

The Graphics card options on the Legion Slim 7 are a little different from the Legion 7 as well. On the Intel models you can choose between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 with 8Gb RAM, RTX 3060 with 6Gb RAM, or RTX 3050 Ti with 4Gb RAM. On the AMD version, you can choose between the AMD Radeon RX6800S with 8Gb RAM or the AMD Radeon RX6600S with 4Gb RAM.

a look at the Legion Slim 7 and its display

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Both versions have various display options. You can get one with 165-240 Hz variable refresh rate or one with a 165 Hz refresh rate. Both 16" displays give you 2560 x 1600 pixel IPS, 16:10 aspect ratio, 3ms response time, 500 nits, 100% sRGB color gamut, DisplayHDR 400 certification, TUV Rheinland certification, and Dolby Vision support.

One big difference is that the Intel version also has an option for a Mini-LED IPS display panel with 165 Hz 3ms response time, 100% Adobe RGB color gamut, and 1250 nits. So that option is going to be a nice upgrade for video editors, photographers, and graphic designers. You can also get a less expensive 1920 x 1200 pixel IPS display with 100% sRGB color and only 350 nit brightness.

a look at the side profile of Legion Slim 7

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The Legion Slim 7 is about 0.1 inches thinner than the Legion 7, and you'll also notice that it has a full sized SD slot here. The reason for that is that the Legion Slim 7 may be attractive to content creators as well as gamers. Having an SD card slot makes copying video clips and photos off of your camera much easier.

A look at the ports on Legion Slim 7

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Like the Legion 7, we've got a good amount of ports on the back edge so that they don't clutter the sides where your mouse might be. You'll see lots of exhaust vents here as well.

The Legion Slim 7 models also have the same 99.99Whr battery as the Legion 7. The included charger does either 230W or 170W depending on the model you get, and you can use 135W USB-C chargers, too.

a look at the harmon branding on Legion Slim 7

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Audio is by Harmon and we've got a nice logo on the keyboard area to remind us. Unfortunately, the keys on this keyboard are flat, unlike the awesome ergonomic concave/convex shapes of the Legion 7.

The Legion Slim 7i with Intel Core processor starts at $1,589 and is expected to be available starting May 2022 while the Legion Slim 7 AMD Advantage Edition with AMD Ryzen processor, starts at $1,519 and is expected to be available starting June 2022.