The latest Lenovo Legion iteration to cross our desks, the Legion Pro 7i Gen 10 (starts at $2,909.99; $3,559.99 as tested) is physically redesigned from the Gen 9, and makes the leap to Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs. The result is an expensive, but flashy and powerful, gaming laptop for the hard-core crowd. The Intel Core Ultra 9 processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 GPU in our review model delivered top-end frame rates in modern titles, enabling 60fps AAA gaming or high-refresh competitive experiences. While there are no major pitfalls to the Legion, there’s also no particular feature or performance aspect that should compel you to choose it over an alternative—and it’s more expensive than average, even in the high-end tier. For a few hundred dollars less, the Editors’ Choice Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 (G635LW) performs slightly better and includes some sweet features that set it apart.

Configuration and Pricing: Premium Top to Bottom

We’ve seen some more modest configurations of Legion laptops in recent years, and ones that hit a sweet spot of cost and performance, but this edition is a pricey proposition. The starting price alone is high, with the base model coming in at $2,909.99. For that, you get an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, 32GB of memory, a 1TB SSD, and an RTX 5070 Ti GPU.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The display is the same across all models: an advanced 1600p OLED non-touch panel with a 240Hz refresh rate, which is a sweet screen for gaming. This 24-core “Arrow Lake” processor is also used in every model of this machine, making it an inherently high-end system—in case that wasn’t obvious from the entry price.

Our configuration is significantly stepped up from there in the GPU and storage departments. For $3,559.99, it swaps the RTX 5070 Ti for an RTX 5080 and adds a second 1TB drive. The rest of the parts are the same, so that’s a big upcharge for a superior GPU and double the storage—though the RTX 5080 does offer a noticeable gaming-performance boost. Since we have only this one unit, I can’t pit the two head-to-head, but I’ll run through what kind of gaming frame rates you can expect from this machine in the testing section later.

Design: A New Look for Legion

While some generation-on-generation laptop iterations tout minimal design changes, the Pro 7i Gen 10 has a new look. It’s not a massive departure from the Legion Pro 7i Gen 9, but several differences between the chassis are hard to miss.

The basic footprint remains roughly the same, but even then, the new model is a hair larger, at 1.05 by 14.4 by 10.9 inches (HWD), and somewhat lighter at 5.7 pounds. This isn’t especially big or heavy for a 16-inch gaming laptop, so while it’s far from an ultraportable, the idea of throwing it in a backpack won’t seem overly intimidating. The chassis is plastic—a bit underwhelming at this price compared with the all-aluminum Razer Blade 16—but the metal lid lends a more luxe feel, at least.

Other aesthetic and layout changes are clear throughout. The lid logo is now in the center, which is more traditional than the previous logo that ran along the edge. The location itself is fairly minor, and it’s ultimately a personal preference as to which you like more, but the central logo is now RGB-backlit, along with the rest of the customizable system lighting. Previously, it was semi-reflective but had no lighting component.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

An additional change also relates to system lighting: The rear edge of the laptop has been redesigned, now with end-to-end RGB trim outlining the ventilation area. It’s a slick look, though you, as the user, obviously won’t get to see it very much, looking at the laptop from the keyboard side. The side-facing vents have been removed, while the front-edge RGB strip remains. 

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The redesigned vents and cooling system should increase airflow through the chassis, which is all the more important with more powerful RTX 50 series GPUs inside. This machine touts an advanced so-called “Legion ColdFront” vapor chamber and hyperchamber system that pulls cool air in from the bottom cover and pushes it out of these reshaped rear vents. The system also includes a “dual-burn” feature that allows for higher sustained simultaneous CPU and GPU performance, which should add up to higher stable frame rates. These are the sort of hidden inclusions that make the starting price so high, in a less obvious way than the core components, but they’re also what make a premium gaming laptop capable of its performance levels.

The largest visible impact this new layout has is on the ports, which before were mostly on the rear. The updated design leaves no space for connections there, so the back edge has gone from most of the ports to zero of the ports. That’s a relatively big reversal for the Legion line, which had shifted its connectivity to the rear for a while now, and included helpful upward-facing LED icons so you could tell them apart. While that was neat, ports on the flanks of the laptop are simply more accessible than those on the back, negating the need for helpful icons in the first place. 

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

If it’s not essential to place the ports in the back to enable better cooling any longer, I favor this new setup. On the left edge, you’ll find two USB Type-C ports, a USB Type-A port, and an HDMI connection. On the right are two more USB-A ports, an audio jack, an Ethernet jack, and a physical shutter switch for the 5MP webcam. The camera delivers sharp video quality, a plus if you tend to join video calls while gaming or chatting with friends, or if you plan to use this laptop for work conference calls, too.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Keyboard, Display, and Legion Space Software

Meanwhile, the keyboard is one of the least changed aspects of the build. There’s a somewhat crunched number pad and clear per-key RGB lighting. The arrow keys are isolated to help them stand out. This is an above-average keyboard for typing satisfaction and comfort, with bouncy feedback and nicely sized keys. As a compatible PC, there is a dedicated Windows Copilot key, as well. The touchpad is simple, but it’s large enough and pans especially smoothly.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

I touched on the display earlier, and those high-end specs on paper deliver in practice. It’s a great-looking screen, accentuated by the thin bezels. The OLED panel drives vibrant colors, and it’s plenty bright, though the non-matte finish is rather reflective. The glare isn’t quite as bad as some (the Razer Blade 16 recently gave me difficulty), but I can definitely pick up some reflections while gaming, and your lighting setup may prove more irritating depending on placement.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Finally, as with most systems in this tier, the packed-in software can enhance your experience. Lenovo’s included Legion Space software lets you set performance modes, flip on a GPU boost, monitor component usage and temperatures, and more. The system was tested in performance mode (as opposed to quiet or balanced) with the “GPU OC” toggle active.

Performance Testing: Keeping Up With the High-End Pack

With its powerful parts in tow, I put the Legion through our usual benchmark suite and compared its results to those of the following systems…

This group mainly consists of similar high-end 16-inch gaming laptops: The Alienware 16 Area-51 ($3,399.99 as tested), the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 ($3,299.99; as tested), and the 2025 Razer Blade 16 ($4,499.99 as tested) are all natural points of comparison. The first two run the same CPU and GPU as the Legion, while the Blade is an AMD-based, RTX 5090-wielding alternative (which helps explain the higher price). Finally, the MSI Raider 18 HX AI ($3,999 as tested) demonstrates what these platforms can do in a larger chassis.

Productivity and Content Creation Tests

Our primary overall benchmark, UL's PCMark 10, puts a system through its paces in productivity apps ranging from web browsing to word processing and spreadsheet work. PCMark's Full System Drive subtest measures a PC's storage throughput. Three more tests we use are CPU-centric or processor-intensive: Maxon's Cinebench 2024 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene; Primate Labs' Geekbench 6.3 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning; and we see how long it takes the freeware video transcoder HandBrake 1.8 to convert a 12-minute clip from 4K to 1080p resolution.

This is an extremely tight field, with little to separate these powerhouses. Blows are traded here and there, but with no wide performance margins (besides the larger MSI Raider 18 pulling away from the 16-inchers in a few cases), other features and performance categories should make your decision. All of these laptops are worthy multitaskers and media-editing workhorses.

Graphics and Gaming Tests

We challenge all systems’ graphics with a quartet of animations or gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark test suite. Wild Life (1440p) and Wild Life Extreme (4K) use the Vulkan graphics API to measure GPU speeds. Steel Nomad's regular and Light subtests focus on APIs more commonly used for game development, like Metal and DirectX 12, to assess gaming geometry and particle effects. We also turn to 3DMark's Solar Bay to measure ray tracing performance.

Our real-world gaming testing is powered by the in-game benchmarks within Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and F1 2024. These three games—all benchmarked at the system’s full HD (1080p or 1200p native) resolution—represent competitive shooter, open-world, and simulation games, respectively. If the screen is capable of a higher resolution, we rerun the tests at the QHD equivalent of 1440p or 1600p. Each game runs at two sets of graphics settings per resolution for up to four runs total on each game.

We run the Call of Duty benchmark at the Minimum graphics preset—aimed at maximizing frame rates to test display refresh rates—and again at the Extreme preset. Our Cyberpunk 2077 test settings aim to push PCs fully, so we run that game on the Ultra graphics preset and again at the all-out Ray Tracing Overdrive preset without DLSS or FSR. Finally, F1 2024 represents our DLSS effectiveness (or FSR, on AMD systems) test, demonstrating a GPU’s capacity with frame-boosting upscaling technologies.

There’s more separation in the graphics testing than processing benchmarks, though it should go without saying that these are all hyper-quick performers and ready for hardcore gaming. Before getting to head-to-head comparisons, the Legion Pro 7i is capable of 60fps-plus gaming in AAA titles, even at its higher native resolution. This is a powerful gaming machine that will take nearly any game and visual settings you throw its way. The only exceptions are the most demanding scenarios possible—like Cyberpunk with ray-tracing and maximum settings active—but none of these high-powered laptops fared all that much better there. DLSS can help bridge that gap significantly, too.

The Legion did drop off when compared with the others, though. Particularly on the synthetic tests, it lagged behind the pack, while the game tests were inconsistent. It pushed the highest frame rates on F1 2024 of this group with DLSS active, but the lowest with it off, and it didn’t quite keep up on Cyberpunk or Call of Duty at either resolution. Getting “value” out of your laptop at this price is less of a concern, but at the same time, if you pay this much, you expect top-end performance, and the Legion is slightly outdone by several systems in this group. The Asus and the Alienware, especially given their lower prices, look better in these tests.

Battery Life and Display Tests

We test each laptop's battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel) with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100%. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off.

To gauge display performance, we use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and its Windows software. With it, we measure a laptop screen's color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the display can show—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).

The Legion’s battery life is good for the category—not exactly long, but long enough to avoid being an issue (unlike the Alienware’s result). Others here ran a bit longer on our test, but the Legion gives you enough juice to get through a class or some work time away from an outlet.

The display testing confirms my eye test as far as brightness, and its color coverage is solid. If any creative professionals aim to use this laptop for work when not gaming, the sharp and accurate display will support their efforts.