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Lenovo Legion 9i (2023)
The Lenovo Legion 9i is a powerful gaming laptop with a self-contained liquid cooling system, allowing it to be thinner and lighter than most laptops in its class. Besides packing a 13th-gen Intel Core i9 processor and an RTX 4090 graphics card, it also has a stunning mini-LED display and a unique forged carbon design.
Pros- Blazing-fast Intel Core i9-13980HS procesoor and RTX 4090 GPU
- Beautiful 3.2K mini-LED screen
- High capacity 64GB DDR5 memory
Cons- Very expensive
- Refresh rate caps at 165Hz
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Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 8
$1950 $2300 Save $350The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is a super fast gaming laptop that pairs Intel's latest 13th-generation Core i9 processor with an Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics card to offer maximum performance in all your favorite games. It has a surprisingly thin chassis, and includes a 2.5K display with a high refresh rate of 240MHz.
Pros- Latest processor and graphics card provide amazing performance
- High 240Hz refresh rate
- Pretty affordable despite packing an RTX 4090
Cons- A bit on the heavier side
Key Takeaways
- The Lenovo Legion 9i is the better choice for gamers looking for superior performance, thanks to its self-contained liquid cooling system, powerful processor, and high RAM.
- However, the more affordable Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is a great alternative for casual gamers, offering a good price-to-performance ratio and a higher 240Hz refresh rate for competitive gaming.
- Both laptops have impressive displays and battery life, but the Legion 9i outshines the Pro 7i in terms of display resolution and brightness.
If you’re looking for a powerful laptop to play your favorite games, you might want to consider the new battlestations Lenovo released under the Legion brand this year. The Lenovo Legion 9i is already on its way to becoming the best gaming laptop of 2023 thanks to its revolutionary liquid cooling system. The Gen 8 Legion Pro 7i isn't far behind either as it adds new hardware from Intel and Nvidia to an already popular series of laptops.
But the real question is: Which one's the better choice? The new flagship that costs a fortune or the affordable ol’ reliable that brings updated specs to the table? In this article, we’ll give a detailed account of the differences between the two Legion machines to help you pick your next gaming laptop!
Lenovo Legion 9i vs Legion Pro 7i: Price, specs, and availability
The Lenovo Legion 9i was announced during IFA 2023 and is expected to hit the shelves in October. The base model of the Legion 9i ships with an Nvidia RTX 4080 graphics card and costs a whopping $3,800, so it's not the most affordable laptop on the market. Lenovo allows you to customize the laptop to your liking, and if you’ve got the money, you can grab an RTX 4090 GPU by shelling out $4,320. As with other Lenovo laptops, we expect most online retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy, and Newegg to stock up on the Legion 9i after its official release.
In contrast, Lenovo already released the Legion Pro 7i Gen 8 in March. Lenovo renamed the 2023 revision of the Legion 7i series as Lenovo Pro 7i, perhaps to separate it from the Lenovo Legion 7i Slim, a professional-looking laptop designed for creators. The cheapest model of the Legion Pro 7i includes an RTX 4070 for $1,950 and is a lot more affordable than the Legion 9i. Purchasing the laptop from Lenovo’s website allows you to customize its internals, and you can even go for an RTX 4090 variant if you don’t mind paying $3,065 for a better GPU. As of writing, the pre-built models of the Legion Pro 7i are sold by Best Buy, Micro Center, and third-party sellers on Amazon.
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Lenovo Legion 9i (2023)
- Operating System
- Windows 11 Home
- CPU
- Intel 13th Gen Core i9-13980HX
- GPU
- Up to Nvidia Geforce RTX 4090
- Storage
- Up to 2TB M.2 NVMe Gen4 SSD
- Battery
- 99.99 Wh with Super Rapid Charge
- Display (Size, Resolution)
- 16″, 3.2k (3200 x 2000), Mini LED, 165Hz, 3ms, 100% DCI-P3, 1200 nits, up to DisplayHDR 1000, Dolby Vision, NVIDIA G-SYNC
- Camera
- FHD (1080p) webcam with electronic e-Shutter
- Speakers
- 2 x 2W Harman Super Linear Speaker System
- Color
- Carbon Black
- Memory
- Up to 64GB DDR5 5600 MHz
- Ports
- 2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1 x USB-C 3.2 Gen 1, 2 x Thunderbolt 4, 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x Ethernet (RJ45), 1 x Combo headphone jack, 1 x microSD card slot
- Network
- WiFi 6E 802.11AX (2 x 2), Starting at Bluetooth 5.1
- Dimension
- 357.7x277.7,18.9mm (14.08 x 10.9 x 0.7 inches)
- Weight
- Starting at 2.5kg (5.5 pounds)
- Price
- Starting at $3,800
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Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 8
- Operating System
- Windows 11 Home
- CPU
- Intel Core i9-13900HX
- GPU
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop (175W)
- Storage
- 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
- Battery
- 99.9 Whr
- Display (Size, Resolution)
- 16-inch IPS, 2560 x 1600, 240Hz refresh rate, 100% sRGB, up to 500 nits
- Camera
- 1080p Full HD webcam with e-shutter
- Speakers
- Stereo speakers (super linear speakers), 2 x 2W, audio by Harman, Smart Amplifier
- Color
- Onyx Grey
- Memory
- 32GB DDR5 5600MHz
- Ports
- 1 x Thunderbolt 4, 1 x USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 (140W PD), 4 x USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1, HDMI 2.1, RJ45 Ethernet, 3.5mm headphone combo jack
- Network
- Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 2x2 + Bluetooth 5.1 M.2 card
- Dimension
- 14.3 x 10.32 x 0.86-1.01 inches (363.4 x 262.15 x 21.95-25.9mm)
- Weight
- Under 6.17 pounds (2.8kg)
- Price
- $1,950
Lenovo Legion 9i vs Legion Pro 7i: Design
The Legion 9i lives up to its name as Lenovo’s new flagship gaming laptop with an attractive body made of forged carbon. As mentioned earlier, the Lenovo Legion 9i is the world’s first gaming laptop with an entire liquid cooling setup inside the chassis. The water block of the liquid cooler is installed on top of its graphics card VRAM to ensure lower temperature during extensive gaming workloads. Meanwhile, the rest of the components, including the CPU, have a vapor chamber cooling arrangement where cool air is pulled from four radiators and warm air is exhausted through multiple vents located on both sides and back of the laptop.
Primarily a gaming laptop, the Legion 9i features plenty of RGB lighting, with two RGB strips covering the front and the back. It also has a backlit “TrueStrike'' keyboard, and you even get RGB lighting on the Legion logo located on its lid. Despite its powerful specifications, the laptop has a thickness of 18.9mm and weighs 5.64 pounds, so you won’t have any trouble carrying this beast of a machine on your travels. The Legion 9i houses all essential ports, including three USB Type-C connections, two USB Type-A ports, an HDMI socket, an RJ45 connection, an audio jack, and even an SD card slot.
The Legion Pro 7i has an aluminum lid and bottom panel, though the rest of the body is made of plastic. The cooling setup here doesn’t hold a candle to the self-contained water-cooling system of the Legion 9i, but you get decent system temperatures nevertheless. The Legion Pro 7i uses vapor chamber cooling for the processor and graphics card, with air being pulled from the bottom of the chassis and warm air expelled from air vents located on both sides of the laptop.
Lenovo’s Legion Pro 7i also bears the typical gamer aesthetics with a backlit keyboard and an RGB strip at the bottom. The height of the laptop varies depending on its specifications, but even the smallest 21.95mm variant is thicker than the Legion 9i. Weighing 6.17 pounds, it’s a lot heavier than its rival. Fortunately, it’s not lacking in the ports department as you get two USB Type-C connections, four USB Type-A ports, a headphone/mic combo jack, an RJ45 socket, and an HDMI connection.
Lenovo Legion 9i vs Legion Pro 7i: Display
The Legion 9i surpasses the Legion Pro 7i when it comes to the display. The premium laptop comes with a beautiful 16-inch mini-LED screen that has a 3200x2000 screen resolution and 165Hz refresh rate. The tall 16:10 aspect ratio and 100% DCI-P3 coverage make the Legion 9i great for professional workloads. With a peak brightness of 1200 nits, you won’t run into screen glare issues even if you were to use the laptop outside on a bright and sunny day.
Meanwhile, the cheaper Legion Pro 7i has a 16-inch IPS display panel with a lower resolution of 2560x1600. It also has a dimmer screen with a maximum brightness of 500 nits. It does have a 240Hz refresh rate, giving it an edge over the Legion 9i if you’re into competitive gaming.
Both laptops have a 1080p front camera with privacy shutter and feature Windows Hello-compatible fingerprint sensors built into the power button for added security.
Lenovo Legion 9i vs Legion Pro 7i: Performance and battery life
Lenovo’s Legion 9i is designed with top-of-the-line components to provide peak gaming performance. It packs the latest 13th-generation Intel Core i9-13980HX, a 24-core and 32-thread processor that’s perfect for heavy-duty workloads. Pair that with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, and it’s hard to find another laptop that can rival the sheer processing power of the Legion 9i. For memory and storage, the base model comes with 32GB DDR5 RAM that’s clocked at 5,600MHz alongside 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD, and you can upgrade to a higher-capacity 64GB memory and 2TB of SSD storage.
The Legion 9i has a 99.99Whr battery and Lenovo ships two different chargers with this beast of a laptop: a 330W charger and a 140W Type-C charger. The 330W charger has a proprietary connector and Lenovo claims it can charge the laptop from 0% to 70% in 30 minutes. While you can use the other 140W USB Type-C charger to power the laptop, attempting to do so under heavy GPU load will cause the battery to drain even though the laptop is supposed to charge. So, you should stick to the 330W power adapter if you only plan to use your Legion 9i for gaming or other hardware-taxing workloads.
The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i features an Intel Core i9-13900HX CPU with 24 cores, 32 threads, and a boost clock speed of 5.4GHz. This high-end processor can easily run most CPU-intensive games with ease, though it is weaker than the Legion 9i’s i9-13980HX. GPU-wise, you can opt for a cheaper RTX 4070 graphics card, or upgrade to an RTX 4090 if you want better performance. The base model of the Legion Pro 7i has 16GB of DDR5 memory, but you’d want to go for a model with 32GB RAM to avoid bottlenecking the other components. Finally, the affordable Legion laptop includes up to 1TB SSD for a well-rounded experience.
On the battery front, the Legion Pro 7i rocks a 99.9Whr battery that can provide around six to seven hours of backup, though this number takes a hit if you attempt to play games without plugging in the AC adapter. Speaking of, Lenovo ships the Legion Pro 7i with a similar 330W power adapter that supports fast-charging.
Lenovo Legion 9i vs Legion Pro 7i: Which is right for you?
With its better display, processor, and memory, the Legion 9i outclasses the Pro 7i in all metrics except the refresh rate. The premium laptop is also largely immune to thermal throttling issues thanks to its liquid cooling setup. Unfortunately, the fancy specifications come with a premium price tag.
Lenovo Legion 9i (2023)
The Lenovo Legion 9i takes the crown as the better laptop with a self-contained liquid cooling system, better processor, higher RAM, and a stunning mini-LED display. There are plenty of reasons to love the Legion 9i, and its enthusiast-grade performance is one of them.
On the other hand, you should pick the Legion Pro 7i if you want an all-rounder gaming laptop that doesn’t cost a fortune. It may have a weaker CPU, but most casual players won’t notice the difference for all but the most processor-intensive games. From a price-to-performance ratio, the Legion Pro 7i is definitely better than its more expensive sibling.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 8
The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i may lose out to the Legion 9i, but it still remains a great gaming laptop that hits all the right boxes. It also has a higher 240Hz refresh rate, so it's worth choosing this laptop over its pricier sibling if you only plan to use your new laptop for competitive gaming.