Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 9 (16-inch) review

The Legion 9i doesn’t appear to be another gaming laptop computer available on the market. It doesn’t even appear to be any laptop computer in its line. That’s as a result of Lenovo used solid carbon fiber for its lid that with the corporate’s eight-layer stamping technique, the lid is 10% lighter and stronger than common aluminum. In phrases of appears, the lid falls someplace in between a kind of old-school composition notebooks and a few elegant camouflage. And whereas that course of makes for a lighter, more durable lid, the marginally textured panel is a one-of-one with every pocket book sporting a special sample. As good because the lid appears, you’ll need to have a microfiber material helpful because the lid is very vulnerable to fingerprints and smudges.

There’s a small silver metallic Lenovo plate embedded into the lower-left nook of the lid with a big RGB-backlit Legion emblem operating vertically down the precise. The digital camera and mic housing sits prime heart with its shiny metallic masking protruding ever so barely, The hinge connecting the lid and backside of the laptop computer is giant and extends right into a fairly giant vent that has a number of ports. A skinny RGB gentle strip creates a line of delineation between the hinge and vent.

The pocket book’s inside and undercarriage are made primarily of recycled magnesium coloured carbon black. Compared to different gaming laptops, the palm relaxation is fairly small, however there’s nonetheless sufficient room to accommodate most wrists and a small metallic Lenovo tag within the lower-right nook. The trackpad is lengthy as a substitute of tall and sits under the island-style keyboard because it glows seductively. Above that may be a giant air vent with the facility button sitting entrance and heart. The 16-inch show is ensconced in matte black bezels with a small lip on the prime making the lid simpler to open.

The Legion 9i’s undercarriage is nearly all vent with two raised rubber ft to help with airflow. The again foot has a center divot stamped with Legion, which is a pleasant contact. You have a pair of bottom-firing audio system towards the entrance and two giant vents alongside the edges. The backside panel is held in place with six screws in case you need to entry the laptop computer’s inside.

The pocket book has a stable array of ports and slots befitting a laptop computer of this measurement. You have a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port and a USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 port on the precise with a bodily digital camera disable swap. On the left sits an SD card reader and a headset jack. You’ll discover the remainder of the ports within the rear with one other USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a HMDI 2.1 port, Ethernet port, and a proprietary DC-in jack.

Lenovo’s smile-shaped keys convey a smile to my face. While they’re inferior to what you’d discover on the corporate’s ThinkPad line of laptops, the Legion 9i’s keyboard with its Chiclet-style keys with their 1.5mm key journey are tremendous cozy to sort on with agency suggestions and no bottoming out. The keycaps are giant with beneficiant spacing. And whereas I not often use the NumPad, I’m at all times glad to see it included. I surpassed my regular 70-words-per-minute common on the MonkeyType typing check, hitting 85 wpm.

The keyboard options per-key backlighting, which lets you create a customized gentle present with each key glowing in a special shade through the Lenovo Vantage app. This can also be the place you may set macros, monitor system well being, alter digital camera and show settings, and far more.

The Legion 9i’s touchpad is smaller than what I’m used to these days, however it obtained the job carried out. Multitouch gestures similar to pinch-zoom, two-finger scroll and three-finger faucet carried out seamlessly. The trackpad provides good palm rejection with robust suggestions on the underside corners.

The Legion 9i has among the best built-in webcams I’ve seen this yr on a gaming laptop computer. The colour on the 1080p shooter is nice, capturing the precise shade of bubblegum pink of my wrapped locs. Details had been so sharp, you may see nearly each wrinkle in my sunflower yellow shirt. It’ll undoubtedly maintain up in a video name or a stay stream.

And in another webcam enjoyable, the laptop computer has Tobii’s eye-tracking software program preinstalled within the type of Tobii Aware and Horizon. The former dims the display screen while you’re not taking a look at it whereas the latter enables you to management a recreation utilizing head-tracking.

As for connectivity, the Legion 9i has a Killer WiFi 6E* 802.11AX (2 x 2) community card with Bluetooth 5.1.

Who ordered a ridiculous quantity of energy, as a result of the Legion 9i has a double serving. The pocket book sports activities a 24-core Intel Core i9-14900HX processor, one of the crucial highly effective cell processors available on the market. The juggernaut got here out swinging on the Cinebench R24 multi-core check, beating all rivals.

While it’s good that the Legion can deal with all of your productiveness and content material creation duties, you’re right here to recreation. And with its Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, the Legion 9i is greater than prepared for these marathon gaming periods. That’s to not say there wasn’t some competitors. While the Legion 9i achieved excessive marks on the 3DMark Time Spy check, it wasn’t sufficient to topple the ROG Strix Scar 18. The Legion nonetheless, is just a few factors shy from matching the Scar. The Legion 9i obtained the higher hand on the 3D FireStrike check.

Gaming laptops this stacked are a collection of checks and balances. Sure, you’ll get ridiculous energy, however man, is that battery life going to suck. However, the Legion 9i lasted longer than anticipated with a time of 4 hours, 9 minutes on the video playback check with the facility setting on Best Performance at 100 nits of brightness. That’s a bit longer than the Scar 18, however it falls wanting the Alienware m16 R2 and the ROG Zephyrus G16.

Still, that point is respectable for a gaming laptop computer, particularly one with these heavy obligation specs. Thanks to Nvidia’s Advanced Optimus software program, which is actually a MUX swap, the laptop computer can swap over to its built-in Intel UHD Graphics chip, when dealing with much less graphically taxing duties. That approach, the laptop computer can last more on a cost.

If you’re on a quest for energy, the Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 9 (16-inch) lies on the finish of the journey. The desktop alternative is a licensed beast, sporting a one-two punch of an Intel Core i9 processor and an Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU. Whether it’s gaming, creating content material, or productiveness, the Lenovo Legion 9i can deal with all of it with unflappable aplomb. On prime of that, it’s obtained a beautiful show, comfy, customizable keyboard, a crispy webcam, and it’s obtained an attention-grabbing design.

The solely actual flaw the pocket book has is its weak audio system and naturally, the exorbitant value, which is a disgrace because the Legion 9i is only a stone’s throw from excellent. Offering some extra customization by way of configurations could have allowed a extra inexpensive entry level too. Sure the followers can get loud, however that’s to be anticipated in a gaming laptop computer.

If you need one thing with longer battery life, think about the Alienware m16 R2 or the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16. But for those that need energy, plain and easy. It’s a little bit of a distinct segment laptop computer at this value, however you’d be exhausting pressed to search out one thing higher than the Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 9 (16-inch).