Lenovo Legion Pro 7 16 (2024) review: Cream of the crop amongst RTX 4080 laptops

[Redaktion]

Power is something the 16-inch doesn't lack: the GeForce RTX 4080 and Core i9-14900HX achieved their new best results in some of our tests. The rest of the specs are likewise compelling: 32 GB of RAM, Thunderbolt 4, a bright QHD  display (Dolby Vision, G-Sync, 240Hz, DCI-P3 coverage). Is this the perfect laptop for gamers and creators?

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-Legion-Pro-7-16-2024-review-Cream-of-the-crop-amongst-RTX-4080-laptops.819046.0.html

[NikoB]

Lenovo laptops are becoming more technologically boring. More and more overtime and less and less desirable.

As I predicted more than a year ago, Lenovo cut out part of the technologies for marketing reasons from the L7 series for the launch of L9 Seria.

A shameful antique 1Gbps of 25 years ago in models 2023 and this semi-2024, instead of 2.5 Gbps in the models of 2022, is immediately striking. Buyers of such laptops want to see at least 5GBPS.
They also cut out TB3/USB40 in L5Pro/L7 on discrete chips below 4080. Although it was previously with everyone. It looks especially stupid and shameful against the background of Ideapad GAMING 2022 with TB4 Port.

Instead of the output of the second port, TB4, they brought out only the shameful USB-C 3.2 Gen2.

As usual, a keyboard with a small travel of keys and insufficient tactile dedication.

Judging by the author, the noise is simply the wildest even in surfing, 45db in IDLE! How can this be used at home or at work? I don't understand..

The screen is again mediocre. Bad contrast, slow response (fake "240Hz"), low PPI, insufficient for clear text and graphics in chromium/edge (and FF with default settings) with constantly muddy fonts due to the error in the rendering system of text rendering for many years. In addition, it is clearly visible that the mobile 4080, losing 1.5 times with a trumped chip, like 4090, is already on the verge of possible games possible.
Here, it would just be as beneficial as possible 4K@120Hz (real 120). It is at least easy to switch to FHD mode with perfect pixel sharpness to increase FPS at times in games (with honest full rendering, rather than fraudulent crutches DLSS) and moreover, the panel can easily be switched to "480" Hz in fhd mode. And from the battery switched to 4K@60Hz or FHD@60Hz.

As usual, everyone will solve discounts, because The price is clearly overstated by $ 800-900.

If there were 64GB of operations and 2x2TB 990Pro SSD from Samsung with DRAM buffer from the plant, this would still explain a somehow high price..

Sadly sees Lenovo from the market leader in 2020-2021, rolled into the catch-up, real leaders, like Asus.

The only reason why the Lenovo series is still a relative popularity - keyboard with a full -fledged numpad. If Asus had not been lying a fool, arranging a wild mess with a numpad in different series and squeezed out a maximum technologies of SOC with the AMD (taking out the obligatory 2xusb40 + DP2.1 ports), Lenovo would really have to sit on the bench..

[petar]

I'm struggling to see who this laptop is aimed at. As a desktop replacement, the screen size is too small (only 16"). As a portable gaming machine, it gets too hot (in the Witcher 3 test, the reviewer measured 45 to 47 degrees C in the keyboard area). As a laptop for creators, it is too heavy (2.7 kg plus 1 kg for the power supply).

Kudos to Lenovo for sticking with a good keyboard layout (fundamental if you are designing a laptop for both work and gaming), but otherwise, by trying to be an "all-arounder", this laptop might end up not suiting anyone.

[NikoB]

I really don't see any point in heavy laptops with a battery life of less than 10 hours during normal operation without a 17-18" 16:10 4k@120Hz screen.

I especially find the "game" models funny, howling wildly and extremely uncomfortable for playing in reality.

But players are a special breed of people. Quite strange creatures, ready to sacrifice silence and comfort for the sake of some illusory "portability" and "autonomy". At the same time, this product does not offer either the first or the second.

At the same time, there are practically no normal universal models on the market with an emphasis on a comfortable full keyboard, a large 17-18" screen and the absence of unnecessary discrete data (or only the entry level, if its video part is much better than that of igpu, which has not been the case lately)

It all comes down to the fact that almost all the Chinese except Lenovo spoil the numpad (idiots) from the classic form, which immediately destroys the possibility of fast touch typing, especially for professionals who often switch between different keyboards, including full desktop ones. And they make a lot of other idiotic restrictions and inconveniences, especially for right-handers.

Like a flimsy and unreliable USB-C power plug sticking out on the left without any alternative in all Lenovo business lines, except for one 16p model, moreover, most often it also takes away one tb4/usb40/dp1.4 port without a docking station +.

In reality, 95% of the laptop market is rubbish and only 5% of models can be called more or less adequate, but not in price, due to cosmetic improvements...

I don't like everything that the Chinese do, and Lenovo stopped making normal office models, switching to the idiotic USB-C power supply sticking out on the left in almost all series. Which immediately destroyed interest in them.

It's as if there is some kind of general conspiracy between Chinese manufacturers (or they are too stupid) - under no circumstances make normal models, so that buyers suffer as much as possible and change this garbage as often as possible...

[Benji]

Gaming laptops have their purpose. I often have to go to places, spend days away from home, and I can't lug a desktop around with me. Shut up about how bad of an idea this is already. No-one's forcing you to use a gaming laptop if it doesn't match your use case. I wouldn't be using one if I didn't need to, but I'm sure glad they exist because I need them to, even if they're massively overpriced.

On topic: does this have a 4090 configuration, and what's its purpose in comparison to the gen 9?

[Neenyah]

On topic: does this have a 4090 configuration, and what's its purpose in comparison to the gen 9?

Yes, 4090 is available: https://psref.lenovo.com/Product/Legion/Legion_Pro_7_16IRX9H

Purpose - less premium build quality, no gimmick water cooling, no fancy design/aesthetics and such, but the performance is pretty much the same.

[B]

the "water cooling" on the L9Pro doesn't justify the price jump. nor does the "fancy design"

[Neenyah]

Well obviously but tell that to Lenovo.

[NikoB]

Conversations with the manufacturer from the consumer are short - we buy or we don't buy. The main thing is that the manufacturer should not be a monopolist like Intel/MS in their market niches. And like Apple in the US market with the connivance of corrupt US antitrust authorities.

Lenovo built its reputation several years ago by striving to offer more balanced solutions to consumers around the world. But it is becoming more and more greedy and boring in this regard, like all large corporations that once managed to achieve success, thanks to the fact that they listened to what people needed at the level of developers and managers, that is, they had adequate human capital, which led the company to success in the future. global market at the cost of their horizons and intelligence.
Retribution comes suddenly when consumers en masse for some reason stop buying the company's products, because... There is an alternative and it, the alternative, competitors, are not destroyed by artificial criminal methods.

Or consumers stop buying en masse because they no longer have money for expensive toys, because the middle class (more precisely, children of the middle class, since it is difficult to imagine an adequate adult (excluding the increasingly widespread layer of so-called "young adults"), who will buy this garbage just for fun, without taking into account its payback in business, i.e. considering laptops as the most comfortable and profitable universal solution for many years to come) to whom all this is deliberately being systematically destroyed in all countries.

[Hey its me]

54db under load is super loud and highly dissappointing :( What does Lenovo think? Why do they build such a high end notebook in such an ultra thin chassis? Compare the baseunit with the USB-A slots. If you substract the height for the keyboard, space for cooling is slightly more than 2x tiny USB-A slots!! :O
That is ridicolous. That cooling cannot cope with that heat if it has to get so disturbingly loud. Where is the point in making it so thin? In addition to that the first screenshot in the second row under "Test conditions" indicates that the fans cannot be controlled freely at all! It appears that the fan sliders cannot be reduced which makes the function useless! I would like to adjust the fans to get my personal sweetspot of fan noise and performance. I am okay with loosing slightly performance, but it is mandatory for me to tweak the fans to my personal pain level of noise and cooling.

[Gastredner]

DO NOT BUY Lenovo Legion if you want a quiet gaming laptop with good performance!
Lenovo does not want you and even actively prevents you from controlling the fans.

This is only one out of many forums where several customers have complained, returned and sold their Lenovo laptops because of fan noise and lack of fan control: forums.lenovo.com/t5/Gaming-Laptops/Lenovo-Legion-Pro-7-Fan-control-is-broken-in-vantage-please-help/m-p/5275653

In addition to that the first screenshot in the second row under "Test conditions" indicates that the fans cannot be controlled freely at all! It appears that the fan sliders cannot be reduced which makes the function useless! I would like to adjust the fans to get my personal sweetspot of fan noise and performance. I am okay with loosing slightly performance, but it is mandatory for me to tweak the fans to my personal pain level of noise and cooling.

I can confirm that fan speed can not be lowered more than this. I bought a Lenovo Legion Pro5 some time ago and returned it because fan noise was too loud under load (Balanced and Performance). Cooling capacity would be okay, but Lenovo forces you to extremely low temperatures in Quiet and Balanced which lead to poor performance.

54db under load is super loud and highly dissappointing :( What does Lenovo think? Why do they build such a high end notebook in such an ultra thin chassis? Compare the baseunit with the USB-A slots. If you substract the height for the keyboard, space for cooling is slightly more than 2x tiny USB-A slots!! :O
That is ridicolous. That cooling cannot cope with that heat if it has to get so disturbingly loud.

It is a common trend to slim down notebooks until they get super loud.

Is it counterintuitive and contradicts all technical and physical logic? Yes, totally!
Does it lead to drastically less (noise) comfort for the user and all people in the same room? Yes, totally!
Does it make the already poor price performance ratio worse by letting you pay 100% of the price and forcing you to throttle performance to 75-80% for acceptable noise levels? Yes, totally!
Does the slim chassis give you any benefits for portability? No, not at all.
Does notebookcheck as independent review medium critizise that? No, not at all.

[NikoB]

It's quite funny to read what I've been writing for many years from another buyer who has seen the light in hindsight.

And this once again confirms the thesis that most buyers are illiterate and are easily attracted to marketing with light and thin models. Most buy for glamor rather than real comfort and functionality, which requires careful study of each model before purchase.

[GizmoGilbert]

Does Notebookcheck publish a clear explanation of how to interpret the various charts in their reviews?  I'm particularly trying to understand the fan noise chart in this review.  I think I sort of get what it's saying, but a clear explanation of what the charts and numbers mean would be nice to find.  Specifically, on the chart labeled "Noise Level", what exactly do the numbers "25 / 30 / 45 dB(A)" mean?  They look like they're quantifying the idle noise levels, and maybe they mean the minimum, medium, and maximum sound levels measured during an idle period?  Although if the noise at an idle time is peaking as high as 45 dBA, that seems odd.  And what to all the little colored blobs in the chart indicate?  Both the Idle and Load sections of the chart seem to have a solid bar chart line, with some kind of more detailed graphics beneath, but no clear explanation of how to read that.

[RobertJasiek]

what to all the little colored blobs in the chart indicate?

NBC explained to me that they show the distribution of values of all previously tested devices (possibly of the same category).

[Benji]

Who are you to tell others to shut up? You're just a stupid average person who doesn't understand that an 18" screen is much better to carry in a car than an idiotic 16".
In any case, you will be 100% lying if you state here that you are carrying a laptop and power supply with such weight.

So I advise you to think 10 times, and then write your nonsense. Silence is golden when there is nothing to argue with.

I do not drive, and I have no reason to lie to you. This turned out to be an awful laptop to be sure, but it's certainly not that heavy to carry in a bag, lmao. Also, "stupid average person". Kek. "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone," my everpresent and overopinionated friend.