Lenovo Legion Slim 7i Laptop Review

We say it again and again: Lenovo is a brand to watch in the gaming segment. If it does not have the communication budget of brands that have been established for a long time in the sector, such as the timeless Asus ROG or the premium Razer, it remains one of the people with a heart in this year’s work to convince . With the Legion Slim 7, he mainly seeks to reach gamers who don’t want to play with a huge machine, but a truly portable PC that can be easily carried around.

Features of Lenovo Legion Slim 7i

Buy the Lenovo Legion Slim 7i laptop on the Lenovo website

Design and ergonomics: the Lenovo touch

If you follow the tests on Jeuxvideo.com, you know that this machine is not the first Legion we have tested this year. Just a few days ago, we tested the Legion 5i Gen 7. Also, to describe the design of these machines, it’s starting to be difficult to find new words to describe it, since all Legion computers this year have opted for same artistic direction.

That said, that doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s a really nice design. A discreet gray color, a rather portrait orientation of the logo on the side of the device, the connectors are mainly attached to the back of the device… Everything is done in this Legion Slim 7i to be discreet which will not surprise anyone, even whose muscular configuration is undoubtedly designated as a gamer. What we remember most from this Slim model is its well-controlled footprint, with a thickness of less than 2cm and a weight of more than 2 kilos which is a pleasure to see in this type of machine.

In these two respects, we are in familiar territory, in a good way. The keyboard is still ergonomic, with well-rounded keys that are very easy to use, and even here it’s a numeric keypad that really sees its usefulness by not curling up on itself like many others which is 16 inches. We can also note a fingerprint reader integrated into the ignition button that does its job well, although it remains quite close to the screen, sometimes it’s a bit difficult to put your whole thumb there. We always regret the touchpad that doesn’t benefit from the glass surface, though it remains diagonal and a very satisfying glide.

On the connector side, there is no bad point to distribute. Thunderbolt is present, the mix between USB-C and USB A guarantees good compatibility with many peripherals, and there’s even a full-format SD card reader. HDMI 2.1 will be compatible with the most modern televisions, such as the latest generation consoles. There’s even a switch to electrically disable the webcam, for those who fear video stream piracy. To quibble, we could have found an Ethernet port, but it goes against the thin design that the Lenovo Legion 7i Slim aspires to have. So we understand his absence.

Screen: little contrast

Our Lenovo Legion Slim 7i test is equipped with a 16-inch WQXGA panel at 2560 x 1600 pixel definition, i.e. 16:10 ratio, which supports a native refresh rate at 165 Hz for a response time of 3ms. This display supports Nvidia G-Sync and Dolby Vision, and is DisplayHDR 400 certified.

Under our probe, we were pleased to find a maximum brightness of 526 cd / m², within the strings of what the manufacturer puts. That said, the sRGB mode increases this maximum brightness to 476 cd / m², a small sacrifice that we easily agree with. We weren’t too impressed with the contrast ratio of just 989:1 or the rather cold average color temperature at 6840K, but the average Delta E00 at 0.59 was excellent.

Other X-Rite certified color spaces are also available, such as Rec. 709, but note that they will not work if you activate HDR in Windows 11. This is not a big evil, because in any case, it is a very good panel that only the contrast leaves us little surprise. We also wish we could find X-Rite calibration for the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is especially important these days.

Software: do not disturb

Lenovo always highlights some of its optional experiences like Legion Arena, or like many others can’t help using adware like McAfee that I always invite you to uninstall immediately… But let’s not be bad with a tongue, because its management in Lenovo Vantage the software is still one of the most intuitive to use today.

If we want to combine all the services in one, as is the case with Asus in particular, the management of machine performance is granular enough to serve enthusiasts, but also controlled enough for neophytes to look at it without fear . Enough to spark some desire to dig deeper into the subject, which we always appreciate.

Performance: the flagship couple

Our test configuration includes Intel Core i7-12700H with 16 GB of RAM, and above all Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 at 100W TGP. All this is combined with a storage space of 1 TB on PCIe Gen 4, for the good read/write rate you need.

This configuration is clearly always far from disappointing us, and the management of this Lenovo Legion Slim 7i does not make any sacrifice in performance. We found 16760 points in multi core and 1722 points in single core expected for the flagship of the year, for a total score of 7038 points in PCMark 10. Naturally, you always have the possibility to play a little with the overclocking integrated GPU in Lenovo Vantage to always get more frames from this configuration.

In the game, it’s no surprise either. In the native sense, very high and without DLSS, Shadow of the Tomb Raider offers us an average FPS of 63, which is perfect for an RTX 3060 in Quad HD. Naturally, DLSS will push it all a bit to get the most out of the 165 Hz screen. Finally, Cyberpunk 2077 in the Ray-tracing Ultra configuration (patch 1.6) runs at an average of 41 FPS, again within the bounds expected. A very good machine for 1080p gamers in short.

It is in the heat that it is naturally necessary to make a little more sacrifice. If thermal throttling is not a problem with this Lenovo Legion Slim 7i, which we might fear, it has to activate its cooling system in a slightly more muscular way than usual. The fans are audible, but thankfully there’s no coil whine or any other parasitic noises that really interfere with immersion. Above all, the computer will not exceed 42°C, which will not offer any discomfort in use.

Autonomy: this is a gaming PC

Well… Sometimes AMD configurations can offer us nice surprises in this field, this is still not the case with Intel configs. However, this Lenovo Legion Slim 7i comes with a large 99.99 Wh battery, for a proprietary 230W power adapter the same, but used… we can find about 6/7 hours of use in the office.

That’s not too bad considering all the power this engine has. This is even in the high basket average when it comes to PC gamers. But obviously, we are not in the presence of an ultrabook capable of handling two days in a row either.

Buy the Lenovo Legion Slim 7i laptop on the Lenovo website

Conclusion