Good day, buddy.
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First of all, this laptop is purchased using my own money and not sponsored (i hope someone can spend this for me, lol) , and this is not my first laptop (or gaming laptop), i love gadget and like to try something new (only the moment when i have some spare money), therefore, this review may contain some experience from my past used laptop, thus, nothing will be professional here as I dont install any benchmarking tools or show you any result point that comparing here and there :( I can only provide my real world use experience. My apologize ~
Here is my Legion 7i specification :
Intel Core i7 - 10875H (8-C / 16 T) 2.3Ghz Base, Turbo-Boost up to 5.1Ghz (only below 65'c, 4.9Ghz if above that)
16GB DDR4 3200MHz (Factory overclocked, 6-Core Model like 10750H will only run 2933Mhz)
1TB PCIE SSD (Samsung PM981a)
RTX2060 - 6GB GDDR6 (2020 Refreshed Version, 110W)
Vapor Chamber Cooling + Dual 12V Fan with ultra thin fan blade
15" FHD 1920x1080 500Nits Display with 100% Adobe RGB, HDR Versa 400, 144Hz Refresh Rate and G-Sync
WIFI 6 (Intel AX201)
Bluetooth
Per Key RGB true-strike keyboard (1.3mm Travel) with iCUE software to control lighting effect.
Multi-touch trackpad
Stereo Speaker
3x USB 3.1 Gen2 (USB-A)
2x USB 3.1 Gen2 (USB C, 1 are Thunderbolt )
Network Port
HDMI Port
3.5mm audio jack
Talking about to choose a right spec for the Legion 7i was a painful experience, the Lenovo Malaysia website showing lot of confusing data ! There has alot of misleading specification in the page ! (After searching online, found out not only Malaysia, other country get same as well !) I end up waited another 3 weeks just to get the right model i wanted, and sold the earlier ordered unit when it come !
If you want to purchase this model, beware of some confusion :
1: Vapor Chamber Cooling is only available for 8-Core processor model (10875H) or RTX2070 graphic card above (model : 81YU, or 15IMHg05) ! (For Malaysia) Mean if you purchase 4 core model (like earlier 10300H Model +1660Ti) or 6 core 10750H + RTX2060 , you will get normal heat pipe cooling instead of vapor chamber ! I know it only after i sold my previous Legion 7i, which i sold it because of no G-Sync, i though it will come with Vapor Chamber, but not !
2: G-Sync only available for 8-Core model - 15IMHg05 (but not all 8-Core Model in some country) and with 144Hz display ! 240Hz display will get NO G-Sync ! Which is why i sold my 1st Legion 7i after known this issue, i sold it because it already shipped and can't cancel !
3: 240Hz Display get 100% sRGB, not 100% Adobe RGB ! The 240Hz display get lesser color than 144Hz one, and the 300nits +144hz version also come with 100% sRGB, but i cant confirm the 300nits got G-Sync or not, since all 8-core model come with 500nits display. (Some country mention that the 300nits display come with g-Sync, but only 8-Core CPU model)
4: Per Key RGB - All Legion 7i come with per key RGB, not 4-Zone RGB. Lenovo Malaysia show "4-Zone RGB" for all pre-built model included 8-Core high end model is false info. Only Custom built model it show "RGB Key Slate" Thats why i made mistake during 1st purchase !
5: DDR4 3200Mhz RAM is only available for 10875H (8-Core) model, the system come with 3200MHz out of the box, no setting required. For 6 and 4 Core model, 3200Mhz ram are installed but it will only run 2933Mhz.
6: Dont forget to choose model that come with "Free Microsoft Office" which cost RM467 ! Else, you will get Office Trial ! Normally, you can only get this select on custom built unit (Which you need to click on the office bundle during customization) . Like my model, it have 2 model number, 1 doesn't have Free Office . 81YU003MMJ will come with Office while 81YU003VMJ did not. ( Please use https://psref.lenovo.com/ to search "Legion 7" , filter the region/country to Malaysia, and get the model number with Office bundle, and add the model number in cart by using (quick add to cart), check out and you will get the free Office.
So, please choose carefully base on your need.
Quality, design, size & weight
I admit that i was a Apple fan during 2000 to something 2015, as on those day, the built quality of windows laptop just can't stand close to Mac, the awful look, bulky size, terrible track pad, dull color screen, bad battery life, below average speaker. Apple built good quality laptop especially in Steve's era, the Unibody design still look great and stable even by today standard. But recent years, Windows laptop has come closer to the gaps, some manufacture has really great quality laptop, the Lenovo Legion are one of it.
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If you ask me to purchase Legion Y-Series before Y530, i wouldn't want to consider it, no, they are good, but just not good as after that. The look are very gamer's, the red and blue color like the laptop are from spaceship or UFO, and they usually quite bulky to name it laptop.
Thanks to Tim-Cooking Apple up, the price of Mac become more expensive, some more, the specification is making it more hard to choose. I use to gaming in a Mac, since i am not a hardcore gamers, most games i like can run in my previous 2013 15"MBP quite well, not until Apple choose AMD Discrete Graphics Card for all of it pro model, it just painful slow compare to nVidia, but wait, you must say i am dumb ass as no body will game on a Mac ! Yes, i admit that, but i like the stability of OS X (Now MacOS) , how convenience to do some serious work with the OS than Windows, and i can have both Windows and MacOS in one devices really a gain on that time. A simple restart will give you a premium PC Laptop, why not?
During 2017, i give up the MBP15 and try PC Laptop, as Windows 10 is getting better and more user friendly than before, the Legion y530 catch my attention, the built quality for plastic is simply amazing, the hardware also work very well, it make me hat off for a PC laptop, really. I know there has some brand make great laptop too. I like the way that Lenovo blend the professional look on their Legion line-up, it is so great that you can bring it to office and not forfeited the gaming ability at night.
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The Legion 7i come with the same family slang, the look are so muted during working time which only surprise you after the RGB lighting come on at night. It is great that Lenovo stick to previous design language, the Legion 7i look really premium and professional during day time. The Aluminum quality is great, but not smooth as Apple did. The surface has some rough feeling when you touch it for the first time, it like feel a raw aluminum without smooth finished, but i found out this actually an advantage after several day of usage, it did not record finger print ! Like some aluminum laptop eg Razer, the smooth aluminum actually catch a lot of finger print and skin oil.
Some ppl report that their unit has trackpad gaps, but i don't see my unit has such defect. The hinge is firm but still able to open with 1 hand, the back ccover is made of aluminum and the joint part between upper chassis is solid, no gaps and it is very straight. The build quality really up standard, and there is very little flex in whole chassis, same does the very thin aluminum screen (Thinner than Legion 5), it is very solid. Just that, since it is not built from a solid aluminum block like Razer and Mac, when you hold it, you can still feel some "free gaps" between screen and keyboard area but there has no cracking or squeezing noise, to me, it still a very much improvement, consider the price i paid.
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This 15 inches laptop feel slim when hold it up, and the weight is fair consider the hardware and performance it packed, the thickness is somewhere like first Retina MacBook Pro 15 announced on 2012, and the weight is 2.15kg. It will be 3kg plus if included the slim 230W charger, which also Lenovo slim it very much this year, the last 230W charger ship with Y530 & Y7000 was like a brick ! Considering we got 8-Core processor, a many times powerful graphic card, 1TB of storage, in this thickness is insane compare to past ! Imagine that you get so much power on the same chassis in 2012 !
The port placement also very friendly, Lenovo put those cable-needed like power port and network port at the back of the laptop is a smart choice to me, as it will be so convenience to manage those messy cable. They arent forgot to place some port in left and right part also, which is really convenience ! Whats more, this laptop come with 5 USB port !!! Which is really a day when you want to transfer something, plug the mouse, this and that. There has 2 USB C on the left side, 1 are the thunderbolt , which also can use as USB 3, and there has a very good amount of space between 2, mean you easily plug 2 USB C at the same time.
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I also want to point out something that really good are, the back side of the laptop are using plastic rather than aluminum, which is good as i dont have to worry about scratching everytime i plug or unplug something, and the symbol actually light up, i can see it very clear that what port it is, this is the premium that 5i/5Pi don't have. Overall, the design should be very comfortable to majority of user, and the size & weight is fair consider the hardware it packed, nothing can be picky against it.
Screen, Keyboard, RGB, Trackpad, Speaker, webcam
The screen is the main point sold me in for this laptop ! When i purchase Y7000SE last year, i have miss the ship to own Y740, as it only come out after i got my Y7000. As a person who come from Mac, i really want a good screen, this laptop has a very good quality 1, and it has fast refresh rate !
Lenovo advertise that this laptop pack with bright 500nits matte screen, i dont have the true number for my screen as i dont have device to measure it, but it is super bright ! I will not set the brightness over 50% during normal use, as it is more than enough even use below LED bulb environment at my office, it really bright ! I will need to set at least 80% brightness on my previous Y530/Y7000 to read the content clearly at the same environment. It should be enough if want to use it in outdoor.
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My display manufacture are AUO 038E , and it has very great color accuracy out of the box, well, same does brightness, i dont have any device to test "how accurate" it has, it does come with X-Rite software out of the box which you can choose few profile from sRGB, Adobe RGB, DCI-P3 and Rec.709. I upload a same picture to the laptop and compare with my Note 10 plus, the color are very close, the skin tune are more natural, the color is vivid, the cloud in sky look more detail between sky. so i assume it has alot better color than my previous laptop, i even put the same MacOS wallpaper like my MacBook Pro to try, it look really close to Mac ! Compare to my previous Y530/Y7000 (both are 300nits + 144hz panel), it is night and day different. So, i am very happy to it. When the first power on, the X-Rite software has an option "restore display profile" which sound like it will download the display profile for your exact screen from Lenovo server, which it will set within few sec, i tried and it did change my display color little bit.
The HDR also work as advertise, the Youtube HDR content show very vivid color, and the black is deeper. Just that, Windows 10 built-in color management really bad, you can have different color in different program, you can see 2 type of color if you open a same image using 2 different software, say, a Chrome and Photos ? Both photo shown slightly different color. Overall, i will still rate it a premium screen !
The 144hz refresh rate also make thing smooth no matter you are on desktop or scrolling webpages in chrome, it just - smooth. I get the same feeling from my previous Y530 and Y7000, you wouldn't want to go back once you have high refresh display. But, the built in G-Sync make thing even better, i turn G-Sync on for all fullscreen apps (you can set it on nVidia Control Panel), and the games i play is much more smoother than before, games like CS-GO, GTA V, Forza Horizon 4 look smooth, from sudden fast moving object to slow walk in combat, you can really tell the different between G-Sync or not, it really made my day each time i play games from this laptop. You should really get this option if you want smooth gaming experience, this make me feel like million worth choosing 7i than 5i/5Pi. I will cap the max frame rate to 144hz on some games (Like Battle Field V) to fully utilize this display. Anyway, my graphic card is "just" a entry level for RTX , i have no regret to choose 144hz over 240hz since most graphic intensive games will not able to hit that number from this RTX2060, i will rather buy 144Hz + G-Sync than 240Hz without G-Sync. 144hz is more than enough for casual gamer like me, unless your eyes really up to 240Hz level to get some one headshot before they saw you :lol: The built in Lenovo Vantage software also allow you to enable "Over Drive" mode for the display, which say can further lower the response time, which i see no different between on and off, maybe my eyes arent fast as the screen, lol.
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Now come with the keyboard, well, Lenovo make really good keyboard, not mention their Thinkpad line-up, the Legion 7i keyboard also very very good. The keyboard travel in my previous Y530/Y7000 are longer, but the feedback is very clear in Legion 7i, and the key is much more stable than it, and also sound lot quieter. The key cap is flat to me, i like the 1 in 5/5i/5Pi which the key cap slightly curved, your finger is landed comfortable than this, maybe they want to have slim chassis, so has to built slim keyboard, curved design may not able to make it here. You will be fine after few minutes of type to accept the 1.3mm travel, when gaming, each key strike is very accurate, i did't face any error like i do in MacBook Pro previously. I get not register when i gaming in my previous MacBook Pro, but not this Laptop, and my previous Y530/Y7000 also working very well. But i still can't use to the new arrow key layout, it just place too low for me, i always need to low down my hand to get arrow key, and it keep pressing aluminum instead of left or right key, well, maybe it is more focus on gaming side, or maybe i am too get used of normal laptop keyboard layout. One thing great are the Fn key can be set to "Lock" , which you dont need to keep pressing Fn to adjust volume or brightness , it will lock the function key, a missing feature i need on my previous Y530/Y7000, the Thinkpad series has this but now also come with Legion. When you press Fn, the blue light will light up the part of function available on the keyboard, show you clearly what function available, a nice touch !
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The RGB led is super bright ! Like the screen, it is more than double bright than what Y530/Y7000 offer ! It has 3 bright level to adjust (4 level if including Off) , the y530/Y7000 only has 2 level. Even i set to minimum level, it still very bright on some color setting, say - ocean blue and pink. Luckily, you can turn it dimmer using iCUE software customization, you can set the "Opacity" slider lower to dim it down further, the slider has way more level, which you can actually more level to control brightness than using Lenovo own keyboard hot key (Fn+ up or down ). I also found that it actually brighter if you turn the "Opacity" in ICUE ! Mean it more than more brighter than out of the box ! It can even make your screen look colorful karaoke when you turn off your room light, that level of bright ! The preloaded rainbow spiral light effect will also turn on everytime you turn on the laptop, this is quite annoying as when you turn on your laptop in office, it will spin like funfair until log in to Windows and iCUE is loaded. Although you can also turn it to other mode or off by quickly press Fn+Space or Fn+Down few times, but it is quite annoying as you will need to press each time you turn on the laptop, hopefully Lenovo will fix this by update the BIOS in the future. (But Y740 face the same issue which does't solve until now). Otherwise if you really like those RGB, this laptop can make you fun, and the setting inside ICUE is million way to customize, you can stack each effect to each other as much as you can ! I am stacking 10 lighting effects in 1 profile. Something like you can have few effect on each key or section of the keyboard, you can set multiple key in multiple opacity (dim or bright) of you can set multiple effect for any key , any section, all load at once. You can spend many hours just to customize the light ! The light bar below the front side look cool when you put the laptop in glass surface as it will reflect the bar toward you. The exhaust vent at the back also very bright even you turn to min, when turn to max, it can light up anything surrounding it at night. Well, i am so fresh to RGB, i love the effect but i dont use it very much, but left it run some during not using the laptop can made up your mood.
The trackpad is very good, the sensitivity is great, the tracking is quite accurate also, above average standard, BUT, yes, a big BUT. But the clicking sound is very loud, it sound like light switch, it do click almost entire surface, but like most of the diving board style trackpad, the upper part will need to press harder, whats more, the trackpad will have some flex when press hard (but not diving), i can feel that the trackpad surface are made of quite thin plastic, thats why i can feel the flex of it in the middle part. And the surface material is made of Mylar , though it is smooth to use but i afraid it may wear out faster than glass type, but still, it get the job done when you need it. While gaming, i always use bluetooth mouse, so, it will not annoying me very much. If want the best trackpad experience,only Apple ForceTouch Trackpad has no body come close kind of it, but you will pay way more than this, many times more.
Laptop speaker has never made me love it, they usually sound flat and less volume, as a person come from a MacBook Pro (both 13 and 15" Touchbar) before, i still haven hear any windows laptop that sound like Apple, they are like Rolls-Royce's class in laptop speaker. Well, i can't compare it, as each company has their invention section, but Windows laptop really need to spend more time on speaker, just like the display and design, they actually keep up quite a bit compare to last few years. Say 5 years ago, Gaming laptop usually get very bad screen and bulky case, but today they have much better screen and nice looking, i wish it will be the same story for speaker. It will be perfect when a great gaming laptop has good screen, proper nice casing, good keyboard, and a very best speaker. But i am asking too much for it, as i know it everyone will be say : It is too expensive for an Windows Laptop ! Well, so we have to take some compromise if we want something affordable :console:
Legion 7i speaker is loud, clear, and no unwanted noise even crank up to max, which can hear that it contain quite a quality speaker, although they are very tiny left and right box (can see from those tear down video in youtube). At 40% volume, you can hear basically any dialog in games, there has even some audible low bass. iIf you crank more than 60%, you will hear only mid-high range, and you wouldnt want to crank more than 80%, as it will be very loud to listen. You can use it as media consumption like Youtube or Netflix, you will hear voice clearly even in mid noisy environment, but dont expect you will hear an helicopter vrooming from back or front even Lenovo (or some manufacture) keep mention it got Dolby sound effect, those speaker just to tiny to sound, you will need an headphone if you want to get those effect, but i rather suggest you to go for proper AV setup for your living room if you really want to get in such result, dont expect much from a laptop. If you are casual gamer or music lover like me, any external speaker will sound good enough.
The Webcam placement also improved for this model, unlike last gen of Legion, the "nose" cam ppl called. Well, i did'nt use webcam very much, so i dont mind for that, same does the Legion 7i. The quality for my eyes is fine, nothing special to talk about, it just like an average laptop webcam, well, it just a webcam, it will get your job done in very normal way. Unless you want to take selfie with it, you better use your phone. The built in mic were also average, nothing fancy about it like MacBook Pro 16", not even that level
Performance, temperature, fan noise, and battery life
For RM400 more, you will get 8-Core instead of 6, which one will you consider ? The 10750H model cost RM7999 and my model cost RM8399 both RRP without discount. I know you will be saying like hey, the AMD 4800H is way cheaper than Intel 10875H, and it has more performance and run cooler (due to 7nm), you can just go for Legion 5 for 8-Core, why need to spend that much of extra money for 7i ? Well, i got what you mean, which i actually consider this before i purchase this laptop. I went to Lenovo website almost everyday to customize and compare, the AMD model get awful screen, less powerful graphic card, and well, i came from y530 and y7000, i tried the plastic built laptop before, they are great but i need something premium built, and whats more, i really want a great display which Legion 5 dont offer that. The processor is only internal but the screen you have to view it everyday, i wish Lenovo have AMD version of this laptop but wait, is Intel really that bad ? Well, it may sound less performance and awful temperature (really ? more on that later) after recent AMD hit, but at least, it run stable on my many previous laptop, it as great reliability history (at least for me), it never fail me yet.
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I am not tech professional here so i cant show you a fancy bench mark for comparing, but base on my usage, i am comparing my previous Y7000, which has 6-Core i7 9750H, 16GB of 2666 DDR4, same RTX2060 (but in 80 or 90W variant as i remember) , same Samsung PM981a 1TB NvME SSD, same 144hz refresh rate display, i feel the Legion 7i run much more faster than it.
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It run even cooler during low load task compare to Y7000, it will not pass 55'c, and the processor use only 20 to 45W (mostly 20) in Auto Mode i assume that due to extra core, and i monitor there has not much than 35% load average for 1 hours of few tab chrome browsing, youtube video running. Everything feel snappier, and game load much faster. I spotted it hit 5.0Ghz quite frequently from HWiNFO.
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Switching to Performance mode, what amazed me is for the first time, i can install 2 games at once at the background and i can still use Chrome with multiple tabs (with youtube somemore) without any lag detected, the system is like fresh start. There has 2x 60GB games unpacking (from *ehemm Fit ehemm girl) simultaneously in the background, with Chrome running, the first minute of two, the processor crank up to 107W, and stay 85W for the rest until the unpack finish. during 107W, i spotted all-8 core running 4.8Ghz steady for many seconds, and 4.3 to 4.5ghz all-8 core for whole session, this is unbelievable for the first time i seen in laptop, and this thin of laptop ! I spend about 40 mins to done unpacking TWO! 60GB games ! I remember i spend about 30 mins per games in my last Y7000 , and i already jaw-dropping to see how fast of 9750H is on that time, this laptop lagi kuat ! Even all core is 100% load, the temperature is hovering between 82 to 87c', it seems to be pretty impressive.
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Well, the RTX2060 in this laptop is insanely powerful, from some rough in game benchmark, it is about 15 to 25% more performance than RTX2060 in Y7000 ! Some games like Battle Field V run very smooth even with RTX on, i got average of 73FPS with all setting set to ultra and HDR on ! The G-Sync make the game run even smoother. 1 thing quite surprise me is that this card actually run much higher clock speed than i expected, it hit 1920Mhz core and 5410mhz memory shown in HWiNFO ! I dont believe my eyes for the data, as last year my Y7000 only run at something 1250 to 1500mhz as i remember. Whats more, it can be overclock further using MSI Afterburner to 2055Mhz Core / 5710Mhz Memory (+155 Core / +300 Memory) give me another 5-7% boost in games. I saw 7% more on Forza Horizon 4 ! It run average of 90FPS with Max out setting on 1920x1080 Resolution, as you can see, this card actually perform very well, even it is years old of technology, i believe it can stand maybe extra 2-3 years more.
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During "Silent Mode", the fan is quiet, even "Auto Mode" if you doing light load like browsing and watching video, the laptop still very quiet, until you run some intensive task, the fan is audible then, but still, nothing about level of loud, bear in mind that from my observation, in Auto Mode, the PL1 power limit is set to 60W, and PL2 is 107W, so you will still get decent performance in Auto Mode, same does the fan noise, it can be range from quiet to audible, but not as loud as Performance mode, which set the PL1 to 85W, while the PL2 stay 107W.
In performance mode, the laptop act very differently, unlike previous Y530 or Y7000, you actually can feel the different very much, and if you observe the processor speed, it always stay above 4Ghz range. If your load is light, even in performance mode, the laptop will still stay quiet, until you load the games, the fan noise will be maximum. It is loud, but not sharp like some other laptop. What you hear the loud is the "Air Sound" squeezing from the vent, the noise is from the friction created by the air with the vent, sound Whoosh ~ not Pzzzz, so, it is acceptable to me. If you put your hand to feel the air from the vent, you can actually see how powerful are the both fan inside, you can still feel the air even 6 to 7 inches behind the vent, like that powerful. Lenovo stated that the fan are now power directly from main supply, which is 12V, and the fan blade is super thin, which i can verify it, it really powerful fan, much much powerful than the Y530 and Y7000. The amount of air is noticeably more. If you really mind about the fan noise during gaming, you will need an headphone. But, the built in speaker actually cover up the noise quite well, any volume above 50% will cover the max fan noise, nothing worry bout that.
Due to the laptop is made of aluminum in majority of part, it can be very warm during normal use, although you will only saw 43~55'c in HWiNFO monitor app. The palm rest stay cool even full load, but the upper part of the keyboard can be very hot to touch, same does the backside plastic panel, the power input port were also hot, the laptop can pull 200-210W total system power during very heavy load. The keyboard area stay comfortable no matter you are gaming or exporting video, which is quite amazing consider it is aluminum. The heat also dispense very quick by the 2 very powerful fan, after load it only take not more than a minutes for cooling down. The backcover can be uncomfortable even in light load, you wont want this laptop on your lap, really. So, dont expect to put on your lap during heavy load.
I didnt able to undervolt it until i learn the way to get in advance BIOS in Reddit, the first few days i am using my laptop without undervolt, get me the temp max at 94'c in CPU, and 69'c in GPU. You might say, wow, 94'c is very hot ! But wait, the 94'c actually come from the first minute when the processor crank up to 107W which is 5.1Ghz power, after the PL2 107W, it only stay between 83-87'c during continue of 85W all-8 core 100% load @ 4.3 to 4.6ghz ! The processor did thermal throttling when it reach 94'c, but i found no more throttling after PL2, during 85W of load, the processor stay below 88'c, which is quite impressive consider the thickness of laptop. Well, some might say 88'c still hot when this laptop has vapor chamber cooling, but if you look some review from youtube, the Razer use the same 8-core 10875H processor like this actually run cooler, ya, but if you read properly, Razer actually turn down the clock speed quite abit to 3.plus ghz, they arent run at full all core speed. The Legion 7i actually stay above 4Ghz, this create lot of heat compare to that, so you got to pay attention for this.
I am not an Intel or Lenovo fan boy, this laptop did run hot compare to, say, AMD laptop. This is due to the limitation of 14nm technology, intel only upgrade clock speed within this few generation of processor, it may seems not impressive if we compare to AMD, i can't blame Lenovo here, as they really doing very good job for cooling, especially this model, the Legion 7i. The continue load of 85W + 30W RTX2060 (Hybrid mode off) stay below 90'c are quite impressive, my previous Y7000 can only stay below 50W if want to maintain below 90'c, this is out of the box setting, no undervolting applied. So the Vapor Cooling + 12V fan system actually handle more than 100W of heat, imagine that if this laptop using AMD 7nm or Intel coming 10nm of processor ? The performance increase will be huge !
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Take Forza Horizon 4 gaming session 40 mins for example, the HWinFo shown that the RTX2060 pull up to 109W (without GPU overclocked), CPU pull up-to 79W ! The average gpu power is 79W, and CPU is 60W, the total system power draw is 218W, the GPU temp shot up to 68'c while the CPU run up to 91'c. Next is Battle Field V, with all setting to max and RTX on, this is by far the heavies load for game i have seen, it pull the RTX2060 to 114W (!!!) , but the CPU pull only 69W, but the average was quite high at 63W while the GPU is lower at 72W. The system also run hot in Battle Field V, CPU hit up to 93'c, and GPU come at 71'c. The average temperature for CPU is 84'c while the GPU is 66'c.
I got the way to enable XTU interface thru Advance BIOS mode, and try to undervolt the system. The first attempt are -0.145v (which same as my previous Y7000 and Y530 value) , first hours is okay until i reboot the system, it stuck at blank screen for 2 minutes, the system auto goes to BIOS healing mode (another good from Lenovo, i feel so nervous before the healing show up), the BIOS then back to factory mode and disable the XTU, all thing reset to normal. I then tried few setting, -0.135, -0.125, -0.120, none of it work stable, the system will freeze and give the blank screen again on next startup, and the BIOS healing itself again. The final working 1 is -0.115v, which work beautiful until today, no problem. 1 thing to mention that the Advance BIOS has lot of tweaking menu from Overclocking the CPU to RAM, to adjust system power level, but i dont touch anything as i am not understand it, afraid of flied my laptop, but it really has many engineer option to tweak, beware to set it unless you really understand what you doing.
I am at BIOS 2.02 (updated once), the XTU still available, and the Advance BIOS still working. I can see this laptop are so great for those who want to tweak this and that.
After undervolting, the temperature did goes down few degree but not as much as my previous Y7000 and Y530, the Y7000 for example, before undervolting can goes as high as 99'c ! Maybe the extra core need more power to feed, but still, it lower down 4 'c in Forza Horizon, and 5'c in Battle Field V, although it will increase few 'c back after GPU overclocked, but, better than no. I also noticed the undervolting made 107W stay longer , mean the CPU can boost up to 5Ghz longer (some times 5.1Ghz, but only a sec). Next, the overclock GPU does made the temperature hotter, by 3 'c for CPU, and 2'c for GPU. The Forza Horizon 4 ramp the GPU to 70'c, and pull 113W (before is 109w) graphic power, the total System power draw were also increase to 223W, which nearly the power adapter 230W limit !
The CPU will still hit 90'c during 107W of boost (5.0Ghz), but compare to 94'c before undervolt, it seems to be quite impressive, consider my last Y7000 crank to 4.06ghz only for this temp. Overall, like i said, the Lenovo Legion 7i has a very capable cooling solution, i bet if AMD use the same 14nm technology in this kind of setup will also generate the same result. But the performance gain is noticeable if we compare what they offer from last year. I see we actually get the same temperature number as last year Y740 (from youtube review) but the processor are now 2-core extra, hit up to 5.1ghz with 107W, and the graphic card now pull 110W instead of 80~90W, anything below 90'c to me consider fair, as it still bring me really good day to day and gaming performance.
For 80Whr battery, Lenovo claim that the Legion 7i can goes up to 8 hours of juice, but well, i of caused take that as a advertising candy. With current intel technology, it quite a hard task to make laptop that efficiency like AMD 4000 series did. I did't expect much about this as i moving between office and home everyday and i dont use laptop in mobile like some user do. I get about 7 hours battery life with 40% brightness , Utorrent running downloading with WiFi, RGB light off , Silent mode, that is without iCUE software running, as before i receive my laptop, some user from internet complaining that iCUE drain lot of battery so i disable it to run on startup, only run manually when i need it, no uninstalling needed, just disable it at start up option will be very fine. I also observe that when iCUE is running, it drain extra 15W on top of system power, it can drain as much as 50W even in Silent Mode, so that is really a problem for iCUE, i think they (lenovo or iCUE) will fix that soon by updating the software.
If browsing web something like Youtube running and multiple tab scrolling with 40% of brightness will get you about 5.5 hours of use, not impressive but as expected from such hardware. Some more, the 40% screen brightness is brighter than lot of laptop out there, it still more than comfortable to read, i assume it is somethimg 200 to 250nits of brightness, as it is very bright to use, even in my office with LED light environment. I also found that even in Silent Mode, the CPU sometimes still hit 4.5~4.8Ghz with up to 52W max and 30W average, it should be more battery life if you disable the turbo boost, well, quite hassle to gain some juice but still, it is an available option too.
Price, conclusion
Lenovo, they are like dell, they like to have promotion each day, few times per month. Very few will buy their laptop in RRP price (Normal price), ether you get student 15% discount, or some times they have some running coupon code for 5% all the way to 45% depend on model. But for Legion, they offer less discount than other model during normal season. You can still request extra few % by chatting with the sales rep in live chat, some will give you freegift, some will provide extra discount code for you, they just want you to key in their rep number at the order so that they can have some job incentive (i guess) .
I purchased this Legion 7i with 20% discount, which cost me around RM6750 without any freegift except 2 Yrs Premium On-Site, thanks to my Citibank Card Promo Code (CITI30) , i also found that in some forum that ppl are buying with 20% Discount using LENXCIMB code, actually i also can use LENXHLB as i receive the same promo from Hong Leong Bank, too. But my CitiBank Credit Card give me extra 0.5% if i spend using their card, so, why not ? I tried to chat with the sales rep, they can offer max 15% without student card needed, that is the max they can, all 4 different sales rep tell the same, they said the 20% discount is highest, no other country has such offer, and it will be end soon (It did end after my 2nd purchase, at 17/Jul as i remember), now all code only gave 6% discount, so you need to try your luck to chat with them or wait for next promo.
To me, the price is more than fair, and if compare with other's it seems like cheaper, you dont get G-Sync at most other laptop, and you dont get same screen quality like other laptop, too. For this price, say, Asus G14, for RTX2060 model it sell even expensive at RM7199 as i remember, but that 2060 is Max-Q variant, and the screen quality is no where like Legion 7i. Well, i dont mean to bash that, but after 20% discount, the attractive will be goes to 7i more. My previous Y530 and Y7000 both brought at around 5000 +-, and both working very well and the MYCS (Lenovo Malaysia) service is very responsible to me, they will reply any request you ask, and they are very helpful, too. So, i come back to Lenovo again, this brand is my 2nd trust-able after Apple.
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For below RM7000, the laptop worth the paid. The overall performance is impressive especially the RTX2060 actually improved so much compare to last year, and some review even prove that it better than last year RTX2070 from some laptop, and the overclocking work like charm. The chassis is solid and the built quality is on the premium side, which make it more appearing than the lower end 5-Series, although it do have some imperfection like flex and loud track pad, gaps between screen and keyboard, but it still feel solid when you hold it, it will not be this price if this hardware pack in more premium Apple-like chassis. The keyboard is fantastic, the RGB light is super bright although it quite a hassle to turn it off each time you power on the laptop. The Speaker is loud, which can also cover the fan noise, work as it should, nothing can be asking more. The temperature work as advertise although not great like some others laptop like Razer, but consider the continue full load of 85W and all core 4Ghz above and the graphic card crank up to 113W, while the fan is audible loud during full load but not sharp, this imperfect is forgivable. At the end, no laptop are perfect, every year there will be another replacement for this year top-end laptop, i would just buy what's the best to suit my budget.
There has still other laptop out there if you want to slot in for compare like Dell XPS and HP OMEN, but to me, at the time i purchase this laptop, below RM7000 is the best thing i can get.
Last, hope you all like my review and if any information is wrong please forgive me, as i am not really a professional person. Have a nice day and stay safe.
submitted by TheUgryOne to GamingLaptops [link] [comments]
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First of all, this laptop is purchased using my own money and not sponsored (i hope someone can spend this for me, lol) , and this is not my first laptop (or gaming laptop), i love gadget and like to try something new (only the moment when i have some spare money), therefore, this review may contain some experience from my past used laptop, thus, nothing will be professional here as I dont install any benchmarking tools or show you any result point that comparing here and there :( I can only provide my real world use experience. My apologize ~
Here is my Legion 7i specification :
Intel Core i7 - 10875H (8-C / 16 T) 2.3Ghz Base, Turbo-Boost up to 5.1Ghz (only below 65'c, 4.9Ghz if above that)
16GB DDR4 3200MHz (Factory overclocked, 6-Core Model like 10750H will only run 2933Mhz)
1TB PCIE SSD (Samsung PM981a)
RTX2060 - 6GB GDDR6 (2020 Refreshed Version, 110W)
Vapor Chamber Cooling + Dual 12V Fan with ultra thin fan blade
15" FHD 1920x1080 500Nits Display with 100% Adobe RGB, HDR Versa 400, 144Hz Refresh Rate and G-Sync
WIFI 6 (Intel AX201)
Bluetooth
Per Key RGB true-strike keyboard (1.3mm Travel) with iCUE software to control lighting effect.
Multi-touch trackpad
Stereo Speaker
3x USB 3.1 Gen2 (USB-A)
2x USB 3.1 Gen2 (USB C, 1 are Thunderbolt )
Network Port
HDMI Port
3.5mm audio jack
Talking about to choose a right spec for the Legion 7i was a painful experience, the Lenovo Malaysia website showing lot of confusing data ! There has alot of misleading specification in the page ! (After searching online, found out not only Malaysia, other country get same as well !) I end up waited another 3 weeks just to get the right model i wanted, and sold the earlier ordered unit when it come !
If you want to purchase this model, beware of some confusion :
1: Vapor Chamber Cooling is only available for 8-Core processor model (10875H) or RTX2070 graphic card above (model : 81YU, or 15IMHg05) ! (For Malaysia) Mean if you purchase 4 core model (like earlier 10300H Model +1660Ti) or 6 core 10750H + RTX2060 , you will get normal heat pipe cooling instead of vapor chamber ! I know it only after i sold my previous Legion 7i, which i sold it because of no G-Sync, i though it will come with Vapor Chamber, but not !
2: G-Sync only available for 8-Core model - 15IMHg05 (but not all 8-Core Model in some country) and with 144Hz display ! 240Hz display will get NO G-Sync ! Which is why i sold my 1st Legion 7i after known this issue, i sold it because it already shipped and can't cancel !
3: 240Hz Display get 100% sRGB, not 100% Adobe RGB ! The 240Hz display get lesser color than 144Hz one, and the 300nits +144hz version also come with 100% sRGB, but i cant confirm the 300nits got G-Sync or not, since all 8-core model come with 500nits display. (Some country mention that the 300nits display come with g-Sync, but only 8-Core CPU model)
4: Per Key RGB - All Legion 7i come with per key RGB, not 4-Zone RGB. Lenovo Malaysia show "4-Zone RGB" for all pre-built model included 8-Core high end model is false info. Only Custom built model it show "RGB Key Slate" Thats why i made mistake during 1st purchase !
5: DDR4 3200Mhz RAM is only available for 10875H (8-Core) model, the system come with 3200MHz out of the box, no setting required. For 6 and 4 Core model, 3200Mhz ram are installed but it will only run 2933Mhz.
6: Dont forget to choose model that come with "Free Microsoft Office" which cost RM467 ! Else, you will get Office Trial ! Normally, you can only get this select on custom built unit (Which you need to click on the office bundle during customization) . Like my model, it have 2 model number, 1 doesn't have Free Office . 81YU003MMJ will come with Office while 81YU003VMJ did not. ( Please use https://psref.lenovo.com/ to search "Legion 7" , filter the region/country to Malaysia, and get the model number with Office bundle, and add the model number in cart by using (quick add to cart), check out and you will get the free Office.
So, please choose carefully base on your need.
Quality, design, size & weight
I admit that i was a Apple fan during 2000 to something 2015, as on those day, the built quality of windows laptop just can't stand close to Mac, the awful look, bulky size, terrible track pad, dull color screen, bad battery life, below average speaker. Apple built good quality laptop especially in Steve's era, the Unibody design still look great and stable even by today standard. But recent years, Windows laptop has come closer to the gaps, some manufacture has really great quality laptop, the Lenovo Legion are one of it.
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If you ask me to purchase Legion Y-Series before Y530, i wouldn't want to consider it, no, they are good, but just not good as after that. The look are very gamer's, the red and blue color like the laptop are from spaceship or UFO, and they usually quite bulky to name it laptop.
Thanks to Tim-Cooking Apple up, the price of Mac become more expensive, some more, the specification is making it more hard to choose. I use to gaming in a Mac, since i am not a hardcore gamers, most games i like can run in my previous 2013 15"MBP quite well, not until Apple choose AMD Discrete Graphics Card for all of it pro model, it just painful slow compare to nVidia, but wait, you must say i am dumb ass as no body will game on a Mac ! Yes, i admit that, but i like the stability of OS X (Now MacOS) , how convenience to do some serious work with the OS than Windows, and i can have both Windows and MacOS in one devices really a gain on that time. A simple restart will give you a premium PC Laptop, why not?
During 2017, i give up the MBP15 and try PC Laptop, as Windows 10 is getting better and more user friendly than before, the Legion y530 catch my attention, the built quality for plastic is simply amazing, the hardware also work very well, it make me hat off for a PC laptop, really. I know there has some brand make great laptop too. I like the way that Lenovo blend the professional look on their Legion line-up, it is so great that you can bring it to office and not forfeited the gaming ability at night.
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The Legion 7i come with the same family slang, the look are so muted during working time which only surprise you after the RGB lighting come on at night. It is great that Lenovo stick to previous design language, the Legion 7i look really premium and professional during day time. The Aluminum quality is great, but not smooth as Apple did. The surface has some rough feeling when you touch it for the first time, it like feel a raw aluminum without smooth finished, but i found out this actually an advantage after several day of usage, it did not record finger print ! Like some aluminum laptop eg Razer, the smooth aluminum actually catch a lot of finger print and skin oil.
Some ppl report that their unit has trackpad gaps, but i don't see my unit has such defect. The hinge is firm but still able to open with 1 hand, the back ccover is made of aluminum and the joint part between upper chassis is solid, no gaps and it is very straight. The build quality really up standard, and there is very little flex in whole chassis, same does the very thin aluminum screen (Thinner than Legion 5), it is very solid. Just that, since it is not built from a solid aluminum block like Razer and Mac, when you hold it, you can still feel some "free gaps" between screen and keyboard area but there has no cracking or squeezing noise, to me, it still a very much improvement, consider the price i paid.
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This 15 inches laptop feel slim when hold it up, and the weight is fair consider the hardware and performance it packed, the thickness is somewhere like first Retina MacBook Pro 15 announced on 2012, and the weight is 2.15kg. It will be 3kg plus if included the slim 230W charger, which also Lenovo slim it very much this year, the last 230W charger ship with Y530 & Y7000 was like a brick ! Considering we got 8-Core processor, a many times powerful graphic card, 1TB of storage, in this thickness is insane compare to past ! Imagine that you get so much power on the same chassis in 2012 !
The port placement also very friendly, Lenovo put those cable-needed like power port and network port at the back of the laptop is a smart choice to me, as it will be so convenience to manage those messy cable. They arent forgot to place some port in left and right part also, which is really convenience ! Whats more, this laptop come with 5 USB port !!! Which is really a day when you want to transfer something, plug the mouse, this and that. There has 2 USB C on the left side, 1 are the thunderbolt , which also can use as USB 3, and there has a very good amount of space between 2, mean you easily plug 2 USB C at the same time.
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I also want to point out something that really good are, the back side of the laptop are using plastic rather than aluminum, which is good as i dont have to worry about scratching everytime i plug or unplug something, and the symbol actually light up, i can see it very clear that what port it is, this is the premium that 5i/5Pi don't have. Overall, the design should be very comfortable to majority of user, and the size & weight is fair consider the hardware it packed, nothing can be picky against it.
Screen, Keyboard, RGB, Trackpad, Speaker, webcam
The screen is the main point sold me in for this laptop ! When i purchase Y7000SE last year, i have miss the ship to own Y740, as it only come out after i got my Y7000. As a person who come from Mac, i really want a good screen, this laptop has a very good quality 1, and it has fast refresh rate !
Lenovo advertise that this laptop pack with bright 500nits matte screen, i dont have the true number for my screen as i dont have device to measure it, but it is super bright ! I will not set the brightness over 50% during normal use, as it is more than enough even use below LED bulb environment at my office, it really bright ! I will need to set at least 80% brightness on my previous Y530/Y7000 to read the content clearly at the same environment. It should be enough if want to use it in outdoor.
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My display manufacture are AUO 038E , and it has very great color accuracy out of the box, well, same does brightness, i dont have any device to test "how accurate" it has, it does come with X-Rite software out of the box which you can choose few profile from sRGB, Adobe RGB, DCI-P3 and Rec.709. I upload a same picture to the laptop and compare with my Note 10 plus, the color are very close, the skin tune are more natural, the color is vivid, the cloud in sky look more detail between sky. so i assume it has alot better color than my previous laptop, i even put the same MacOS wallpaper like my MacBook Pro to try, it look really close to Mac ! Compare to my previous Y530/Y7000 (both are 300nits + 144hz panel), it is night and day different. So, i am very happy to it. When the first power on, the X-Rite software has an option "restore display profile" which sound like it will download the display profile for your exact screen from Lenovo server, which it will set within few sec, i tried and it did change my display color little bit.
The HDR also work as advertise, the Youtube HDR content show very vivid color, and the black is deeper. Just that, Windows 10 built-in color management really bad, you can have different color in different program, you can see 2 type of color if you open a same image using 2 different software, say, a Chrome and Photos ? Both photo shown slightly different color. Overall, i will still rate it a premium screen !
The 144hz refresh rate also make thing smooth no matter you are on desktop or scrolling webpages in chrome, it just - smooth. I get the same feeling from my previous Y530 and Y7000, you wouldn't want to go back once you have high refresh display. But, the built in G-Sync make thing even better, i turn G-Sync on for all fullscreen apps (you can set it on nVidia Control Panel), and the games i play is much more smoother than before, games like CS-GO, GTA V, Forza Horizon 4 look smooth, from sudden fast moving object to slow walk in combat, you can really tell the different between G-Sync or not, it really made my day each time i play games from this laptop. You should really get this option if you want smooth gaming experience, this make me feel like million worth choosing 7i than 5i/5Pi. I will cap the max frame rate to 144hz on some games (Like Battle Field V) to fully utilize this display. Anyway, my graphic card is "just" a entry level for RTX , i have no regret to choose 144hz over 240hz since most graphic intensive games will not able to hit that number from this RTX2060, i will rather buy 144Hz + G-Sync than 240Hz without G-Sync. 144hz is more than enough for casual gamer like me, unless your eyes really up to 240Hz level to get some one headshot before they saw you :lol: The built in Lenovo Vantage software also allow you to enable "Over Drive" mode for the display, which say can further lower the response time, which i see no different between on and off, maybe my eyes arent fast as the screen, lol.
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Now come with the keyboard, well, Lenovo make really good keyboard, not mention their Thinkpad line-up, the Legion 7i keyboard also very very good. The keyboard travel in my previous Y530/Y7000 are longer, but the feedback is very clear in Legion 7i, and the key is much more stable than it, and also sound lot quieter. The key cap is flat to me, i like the 1 in 5/5i/5Pi which the key cap slightly curved, your finger is landed comfortable than this, maybe they want to have slim chassis, so has to built slim keyboard, curved design may not able to make it here. You will be fine after few minutes of type to accept the 1.3mm travel, when gaming, each key strike is very accurate, i did't face any error like i do in MacBook Pro previously. I get not register when i gaming in my previous MacBook Pro, but not this Laptop, and my previous Y530/Y7000 also working very well. But i still can't use to the new arrow key layout, it just place too low for me, i always need to low down my hand to get arrow key, and it keep pressing aluminum instead of left or right key, well, maybe it is more focus on gaming side, or maybe i am too get used of normal laptop keyboard layout. One thing great are the Fn key can be set to "Lock" , which you dont need to keep pressing Fn to adjust volume or brightness , it will lock the function key, a missing feature i need on my previous Y530/Y7000, the Thinkpad series has this but now also come with Legion. When you press Fn, the blue light will light up the part of function available on the keyboard, show you clearly what function available, a nice touch !
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The RGB led is super bright ! Like the screen, it is more than double bright than what Y530/Y7000 offer ! It has 3 bright level to adjust (4 level if including Off) , the y530/Y7000 only has 2 level. Even i set to minimum level, it still very bright on some color setting, say - ocean blue and pink. Luckily, you can turn it dimmer using iCUE software customization, you can set the "Opacity" slider lower to dim it down further, the slider has way more level, which you can actually more level to control brightness than using Lenovo own keyboard hot key (Fn+ up or down ). I also found that it actually brighter if you turn the "Opacity" in ICUE ! Mean it more than more brighter than out of the box ! It can even make your screen look colorful karaoke when you turn off your room light, that level of bright ! The preloaded rainbow spiral light effect will also turn on everytime you turn on the laptop, this is quite annoying as when you turn on your laptop in office, it will spin like funfair until log in to Windows and iCUE is loaded. Although you can also turn it to other mode or off by quickly press Fn+Space or Fn+Down few times, but it is quite annoying as you will need to press each time you turn on the laptop, hopefully Lenovo will fix this by update the BIOS in the future. (But Y740 face the same issue which does't solve until now). Otherwise if you really like those RGB, this laptop can make you fun, and the setting inside ICUE is million way to customize, you can stack each effect to each other as much as you can ! I am stacking 10 lighting effects in 1 profile. Something like you can have few effect on each key or section of the keyboard, you can set multiple key in multiple opacity (dim or bright) of you can set multiple effect for any key , any section, all load at once. You can spend many hours just to customize the light ! The light bar below the front side look cool when you put the laptop in glass surface as it will reflect the bar toward you. The exhaust vent at the back also very bright even you turn to min, when turn to max, it can light up anything surrounding it at night. Well, i am so fresh to RGB, i love the effect but i dont use it very much, but left it run some during not using the laptop can made up your mood.
The trackpad is very good, the sensitivity is great, the tracking is quite accurate also, above average standard, BUT, yes, a big BUT. But the clicking sound is very loud, it sound like light switch, it do click almost entire surface, but like most of the diving board style trackpad, the upper part will need to press harder, whats more, the trackpad will have some flex when press hard (but not diving), i can feel that the trackpad surface are made of quite thin plastic, thats why i can feel the flex of it in the middle part. And the surface material is made of Mylar , though it is smooth to use but i afraid it may wear out faster than glass type, but still, it get the job done when you need it. While gaming, i always use bluetooth mouse, so, it will not annoying me very much. If want the best trackpad experience,only Apple ForceTouch Trackpad has no body come close kind of it, but you will pay way more than this, many times more.
Laptop speaker has never made me love it, they usually sound flat and less volume, as a person come from a MacBook Pro (both 13 and 15" Touchbar) before, i still haven hear any windows laptop that sound like Apple, they are like Rolls-Royce's class in laptop speaker. Well, i can't compare it, as each company has their invention section, but Windows laptop really need to spend more time on speaker, just like the display and design, they actually keep up quite a bit compare to last few years. Say 5 years ago, Gaming laptop usually get very bad screen and bulky case, but today they have much better screen and nice looking, i wish it will be the same story for speaker. It will be perfect when a great gaming laptop has good screen, proper nice casing, good keyboard, and a very best speaker. But i am asking too much for it, as i know it everyone will be say : It is too expensive for an Windows Laptop ! Well, so we have to take some compromise if we want something affordable :console:
Legion 7i speaker is loud, clear, and no unwanted noise even crank up to max, which can hear that it contain quite a quality speaker, although they are very tiny left and right box (can see from those tear down video in youtube). At 40% volume, you can hear basically any dialog in games, there has even some audible low bass. iIf you crank more than 60%, you will hear only mid-high range, and you wouldnt want to crank more than 80%, as it will be very loud to listen. You can use it as media consumption like Youtube or Netflix, you will hear voice clearly even in mid noisy environment, but dont expect you will hear an helicopter vrooming from back or front even Lenovo (or some manufacture) keep mention it got Dolby sound effect, those speaker just to tiny to sound, you will need an headphone if you want to get those effect, but i rather suggest you to go for proper AV setup for your living room if you really want to get in such result, dont expect much from a laptop. If you are casual gamer or music lover like me, any external speaker will sound good enough.
The Webcam placement also improved for this model, unlike last gen of Legion, the "nose" cam ppl called. Well, i did'nt use webcam very much, so i dont mind for that, same does the Legion 7i. The quality for my eyes is fine, nothing special to talk about, it just like an average laptop webcam, well, it just a webcam, it will get your job done in very normal way. Unless you want to take selfie with it, you better use your phone. The built in mic were also average, nothing fancy about it like MacBook Pro 16", not even that level
Performance, temperature, fan noise, and battery life
For RM400 more, you will get 8-Core instead of 6, which one will you consider ? The 10750H model cost RM7999 and my model cost RM8399 both RRP without discount. I know you will be saying like hey, the AMD 4800H is way cheaper than Intel 10875H, and it has more performance and run cooler (due to 7nm), you can just go for Legion 5 for 8-Core, why need to spend that much of extra money for 7i ? Well, i got what you mean, which i actually consider this before i purchase this laptop. I went to Lenovo website almost everyday to customize and compare, the AMD model get awful screen, less powerful graphic card, and well, i came from y530 and y7000, i tried the plastic built laptop before, they are great but i need something premium built, and whats more, i really want a great display which Legion 5 dont offer that. The processor is only internal but the screen you have to view it everyday, i wish Lenovo have AMD version of this laptop but wait, is Intel really that bad ? Well, it may sound less performance and awful temperature (really ? more on that later) after recent AMD hit, but at least, it run stable on my many previous laptop, it as great reliability history (at least for me), it never fail me yet.
https://preview.redd.it/id8gj5fh34i51.png?width=584&format=png&auto=webp&s=e953af0002305be07d9910c7882fc33aff00a5a7
I am not tech professional here so i cant show you a fancy bench mark for comparing, but base on my usage, i am comparing my previous Y7000, which has 6-Core i7 9750H, 16GB of 2666 DDR4, same RTX2060 (but in 80 or 90W variant as i remember) , same Samsung PM981a 1TB NvME SSD, same 144hz refresh rate display, i feel the Legion 7i run much more faster than it.
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It run even cooler during low load task compare to Y7000, it will not pass 55'c, and the processor use only 20 to 45W (mostly 20) in Auto Mode i assume that due to extra core, and i monitor there has not much than 35% load average for 1 hours of few tab chrome browsing, youtube video running. Everything feel snappier, and game load much faster. I spotted it hit 5.0Ghz quite frequently from HWiNFO.
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Switching to Performance mode, what amazed me is for the first time, i can install 2 games at once at the background and i can still use Chrome with multiple tabs (with youtube somemore) without any lag detected, the system is like fresh start. There has 2x 60GB games unpacking (from *ehemm Fit ehemm girl) simultaneously in the background, with Chrome running, the first minute of two, the processor crank up to 107W, and stay 85W for the rest until the unpack finish. during 107W, i spotted all-8 core running 4.8Ghz steady for many seconds, and 4.3 to 4.5ghz all-8 core for whole session, this is unbelievable for the first time i seen in laptop, and this thin of laptop ! I spend about 40 mins to done unpacking TWO! 60GB games ! I remember i spend about 30 mins per games in my last Y7000 , and i already jaw-dropping to see how fast of 9750H is on that time, this laptop lagi kuat ! Even all core is 100% load, the temperature is hovering between 82 to 87c', it seems to be pretty impressive.
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https://preview.redd.it/7n3olhuz34i51.png?width=1762&format=png&auto=webp&s=5d88dfb5a683bb8e271d36e7e85952499b76e7ca
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Well, the RTX2060 in this laptop is insanely powerful, from some rough in game benchmark, it is about 15 to 25% more performance than RTX2060 in Y7000 ! Some games like Battle Field V run very smooth even with RTX on, i got average of 73FPS with all setting set to ultra and HDR on ! The G-Sync make the game run even smoother. 1 thing quite surprise me is that this card actually run much higher clock speed than i expected, it hit 1920Mhz core and 5410mhz memory shown in HWiNFO ! I dont believe my eyes for the data, as last year my Y7000 only run at something 1250 to 1500mhz as i remember. Whats more, it can be overclock further using MSI Afterburner to 2055Mhz Core / 5710Mhz Memory (+155 Core / +300 Memory) give me another 5-7% boost in games. I saw 7% more on Forza Horizon 4 ! It run average of 90FPS with Max out setting on 1920x1080 Resolution, as you can see, this card actually perform very well, even it is years old of technology, i believe it can stand maybe extra 2-3 years more.
https://preview.redd.it/1e4rb5nj44i51.png?width=587&format=png&auto=webp&s=5448aa1754cb4c6e878467bfa1d48d1596a6043b
During "Silent Mode", the fan is quiet, even "Auto Mode" if you doing light load like browsing and watching video, the laptop still very quiet, until you run some intensive task, the fan is audible then, but still, nothing about level of loud, bear in mind that from my observation, in Auto Mode, the PL1 power limit is set to 60W, and PL2 is 107W, so you will still get decent performance in Auto Mode, same does the fan noise, it can be range from quiet to audible, but not as loud as Performance mode, which set the PL1 to 85W, while the PL2 stay 107W.
In performance mode, the laptop act very differently, unlike previous Y530 or Y7000, you actually can feel the different very much, and if you observe the processor speed, it always stay above 4Ghz range. If your load is light, even in performance mode, the laptop will still stay quiet, until you load the games, the fan noise will be maximum. It is loud, but not sharp like some other laptop. What you hear the loud is the "Air Sound" squeezing from the vent, the noise is from the friction created by the air with the vent, sound Whoosh ~ not Pzzzz, so, it is acceptable to me. If you put your hand to feel the air from the vent, you can actually see how powerful are the both fan inside, you can still feel the air even 6 to 7 inches behind the vent, like that powerful. Lenovo stated that the fan are now power directly from main supply, which is 12V, and the fan blade is super thin, which i can verify it, it really powerful fan, much much powerful than the Y530 and Y7000. The amount of air is noticeably more. If you really mind about the fan noise during gaming, you will need an headphone. But, the built in speaker actually cover up the noise quite well, any volume above 50% will cover the max fan noise, nothing worry bout that.
Due to the laptop is made of aluminum in majority of part, it can be very warm during normal use, although you will only saw 43~55'c in HWiNFO monitor app. The palm rest stay cool even full load, but the upper part of the keyboard can be very hot to touch, same does the backside plastic panel, the power input port were also hot, the laptop can pull 200-210W total system power during very heavy load. The keyboard area stay comfortable no matter you are gaming or exporting video, which is quite amazing consider it is aluminum. The heat also dispense very quick by the 2 very powerful fan, after load it only take not more than a minutes for cooling down. The backcover can be uncomfortable even in light load, you wont want this laptop on your lap, really. So, dont expect to put on your lap during heavy load.
I didnt able to undervolt it until i learn the way to get in advance BIOS in Reddit, the first few days i am using my laptop without undervolt, get me the temp max at 94'c in CPU, and 69'c in GPU. You might say, wow, 94'c is very hot ! But wait, the 94'c actually come from the first minute when the processor crank up to 107W which is 5.1Ghz power, after the PL2 107W, it only stay between 83-87'c during continue of 85W all-8 core 100% load @ 4.3 to 4.6ghz ! The processor did thermal throttling when it reach 94'c, but i found no more throttling after PL2, during 85W of load, the processor stay below 88'c, which is quite impressive consider the thickness of laptop. Well, some might say 88'c still hot when this laptop has vapor chamber cooling, but if you look some review from youtube, the Razer use the same 8-core 10875H processor like this actually run cooler, ya, but if you read properly, Razer actually turn down the clock speed quite abit to 3.plus ghz, they arent run at full all core speed. The Legion 7i actually stay above 4Ghz, this create lot of heat compare to that, so you got to pay attention for this.
I am not an Intel or Lenovo fan boy, this laptop did run hot compare to, say, AMD laptop. This is due to the limitation of 14nm technology, intel only upgrade clock speed within this few generation of processor, it may seems not impressive if we compare to AMD, i can't blame Lenovo here, as they really doing very good job for cooling, especially this model, the Legion 7i. The continue load of 85W + 30W RTX2060 (Hybrid mode off) stay below 90'c are quite impressive, my previous Y7000 can only stay below 50W if want to maintain below 90'c, this is out of the box setting, no undervolting applied. So the Vapor Cooling + 12V fan system actually handle more than 100W of heat, imagine that if this laptop using AMD 7nm or Intel coming 10nm of processor ? The performance increase will be huge !
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Take Forza Horizon 4 gaming session 40 mins for example, the HWinFo shown that the RTX2060 pull up to 109W (without GPU overclocked), CPU pull up-to 79W ! The average gpu power is 79W, and CPU is 60W, the total system power draw is 218W, the GPU temp shot up to 68'c while the CPU run up to 91'c. Next is Battle Field V, with all setting to max and RTX on, this is by far the heavies load for game i have seen, it pull the RTX2060 to 114W (!!!) , but the CPU pull only 69W, but the average was quite high at 63W while the GPU is lower at 72W. The system also run hot in Battle Field V, CPU hit up to 93'c, and GPU come at 71'c. The average temperature for CPU is 84'c while the GPU is 66'c.
I got the way to enable XTU interface thru Advance BIOS mode, and try to undervolt the system. The first attempt are -0.145v (which same as my previous Y7000 and Y530 value) , first hours is okay until i reboot the system, it stuck at blank screen for 2 minutes, the system auto goes to BIOS healing mode (another good from Lenovo, i feel so nervous before the healing show up), the BIOS then back to factory mode and disable the XTU, all thing reset to normal. I then tried few setting, -0.135, -0.125, -0.120, none of it work stable, the system will freeze and give the blank screen again on next startup, and the BIOS healing itself again. The final working 1 is -0.115v, which work beautiful until today, no problem. 1 thing to mention that the Advance BIOS has lot of tweaking menu from Overclocking the CPU to RAM, to adjust system power level, but i dont touch anything as i am not understand it, afraid of flied my laptop, but it really has many engineer option to tweak, beware to set it unless you really understand what you doing.
I am at BIOS 2.02 (updated once), the XTU still available, and the Advance BIOS still working. I can see this laptop are so great for those who want to tweak this and that.
After undervolting, the temperature did goes down few degree but not as much as my previous Y7000 and Y530, the Y7000 for example, before undervolting can goes as high as 99'c ! Maybe the extra core need more power to feed, but still, it lower down 4 'c in Forza Horizon, and 5'c in Battle Field V, although it will increase few 'c back after GPU overclocked, but, better than no. I also noticed the undervolting made 107W stay longer , mean the CPU can boost up to 5Ghz longer (some times 5.1Ghz, but only a sec). Next, the overclock GPU does made the temperature hotter, by 3 'c for CPU, and 2'c for GPU. The Forza Horizon 4 ramp the GPU to 70'c, and pull 113W (before is 109w) graphic power, the total System power draw were also increase to 223W, which nearly the power adapter 230W limit !
The CPU will still hit 90'c during 107W of boost (5.0Ghz), but compare to 94'c before undervolt, it seems to be quite impressive, consider my last Y7000 crank to 4.06ghz only for this temp. Overall, like i said, the Lenovo Legion 7i has a very capable cooling solution, i bet if AMD use the same 14nm technology in this kind of setup will also generate the same result. But the performance gain is noticeable if we compare what they offer from last year. I see we actually get the same temperature number as last year Y740 (from youtube review) but the processor are now 2-core extra, hit up to 5.1ghz with 107W, and the graphic card now pull 110W instead of 80~90W, anything below 90'c to me consider fair, as it still bring me really good day to day and gaming performance.
For 80Whr battery, Lenovo claim that the Legion 7i can goes up to 8 hours of juice, but well, i of caused take that as a advertising candy. With current intel technology, it quite a hard task to make laptop that efficiency like AMD 4000 series did. I did't expect much about this as i moving between office and home everyday and i dont use laptop in mobile like some user do. I get about 7 hours battery life with 40% brightness , Utorrent running downloading with WiFi, RGB light off , Silent mode, that is without iCUE software running, as before i receive my laptop, some user from internet complaining that iCUE drain lot of battery so i disable it to run on startup, only run manually when i need it, no uninstalling needed, just disable it at start up option will be very fine. I also observe that when iCUE is running, it drain extra 15W on top of system power, it can drain as much as 50W even in Silent Mode, so that is really a problem for iCUE, i think they (lenovo or iCUE) will fix that soon by updating the software.
If browsing web something like Youtube running and multiple tab scrolling with 40% of brightness will get you about 5.5 hours of use, not impressive but as expected from such hardware. Some more, the 40% screen brightness is brighter than lot of laptop out there, it still more than comfortable to read, i assume it is somethimg 200 to 250nits of brightness, as it is very bright to use, even in my office with LED light environment. I also found that even in Silent Mode, the CPU sometimes still hit 4.5~4.8Ghz with up to 52W max and 30W average, it should be more battery life if you disable the turbo boost, well, quite hassle to gain some juice but still, it is an available option too.
Price, conclusion
Lenovo, they are like dell, they like to have promotion each day, few times per month. Very few will buy their laptop in RRP price (Normal price), ether you get student 15% discount, or some times they have some running coupon code for 5% all the way to 45% depend on model. But for Legion, they offer less discount than other model during normal season. You can still request extra few % by chatting with the sales rep in live chat, some will give you freegift, some will provide extra discount code for you, they just want you to key in their rep number at the order so that they can have some job incentive (i guess) .
I purchased this Legion 7i with 20% discount, which cost me around RM6750 without any freegift except 2 Yrs Premium On-Site, thanks to my Citibank Card Promo Code (CITI30) , i also found that in some forum that ppl are buying with 20% Discount using LENXCIMB code, actually i also can use LENXHLB as i receive the same promo from Hong Leong Bank, too. But my CitiBank Credit Card give me extra 0.5% if i spend using their card, so, why not ? I tried to chat with the sales rep, they can offer max 15% without student card needed, that is the max they can, all 4 different sales rep tell the same, they said the 20% discount is highest, no other country has such offer, and it will be end soon (It did end after my 2nd purchase, at 17/Jul as i remember), now all code only gave 6% discount, so you need to try your luck to chat with them or wait for next promo.
To me, the price is more than fair, and if compare with other's it seems like cheaper, you dont get G-Sync at most other laptop, and you dont get same screen quality like other laptop, too. For this price, say, Asus G14, for RTX2060 model it sell even expensive at RM7199 as i remember, but that 2060 is Max-Q variant, and the screen quality is no where like Legion 7i. Well, i dont mean to bash that, but after 20% discount, the attractive will be goes to 7i more. My previous Y530 and Y7000 both brought at around 5000 +-, and both working very well and the MYCS (Lenovo Malaysia) service is very responsible to me, they will reply any request you ask, and they are very helpful, too. So, i come back to Lenovo again, this brand is my 2nd trust-able after Apple.
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For below RM7000, the laptop worth the paid. The overall performance is impressive especially the RTX2060 actually improved so much compare to last year, and some review even prove that it better than last year RTX2070 from some laptop, and the overclocking work like charm. The chassis is solid and the built quality is on the premium side, which make it more appearing than the lower end 5-Series, although it do have some imperfection like flex and loud track pad, gaps between screen and keyboard, but it still feel solid when you hold it, it will not be this price if this hardware pack in more premium Apple-like chassis. The keyboard is fantastic, the RGB light is super bright although it quite a hassle to turn it off each time you power on the laptop. The Speaker is loud, which can also cover the fan noise, work as it should, nothing can be asking more. The temperature work as advertise although not great like some others laptop like Razer, but consider the continue full load of 85W and all core 4Ghz above and the graphic card crank up to 113W, while the fan is audible loud during full load but not sharp, this imperfect is forgivable. At the end, no laptop are perfect, every year there will be another replacement for this year top-end laptop, i would just buy what's the best to suit my budget.
There has still other laptop out there if you want to slot in for compare like Dell XPS and HP OMEN, but to me, at the time i purchase this laptop, below RM7000 is the best thing i can get.
Last, hope you all like my review and if any information is wrong please forgive me, as i am not really a professional person. Have a nice day and stay safe.
