Skip to main content

Lenovo just made my favorite gaming laptop even better

The lid of the Lenovo Legion 9i.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

I’ve only given one gaming laptop a perfect score — the Lenovo Legion 9i. And at CES 2024, Lenovo is making that laptop even better.

There are a few big upgrades here. First, Lenovo is switching the processor to Intel’s new Core i9-14900HX and, in the process, introducing the Raptor Lake refresh chip to mobile. I suspect it won’t offer a huge performance improvement over the previous version — read our review of the desktop Core i9-14900K to learn why — but it’s still the latest and greatest.

The more impressive upgrades are elsewhere. The most significant change is the introduction of Lenovo’s LA3-P AI processor. This chip, according to Lenovo, enables features like Scenario Detection that dynamically adjusts CPU and GPU power depending on what you’re doing, Smart Control to optimize the fan curve, and Smart FPS, which looks at your frame rate in games and adjusts power allocation to improve it.

Cyberpunk 2077 on the Lenovo Legion Pro 5.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Lenovo is carrying over many of the aspects that made the previous iteration so impressive. You can still pack in up to an RTX 4090 mobile graphics card, 64GB of DDR5 memory, and 2TB of storage. In addition, the laptop comes with a 3.2K, 16:10 mini-LED display that tops out at 165Hz. It’s a monster laptop, but unfortunately, it comes with a monster price — Lenovo is asking at least $4,400 for the machine now.

Thankfully, nearly all of Lenovo’s Legion laptops are getting an upgrade this year. Both the Legion Pro 7i and Legion Pro 5i are getting upgrades to Raptor Lake refresh, with up to a Core i9-14900HX and a 240Hz, 2560 x 1600 display. The Pro 5i goes up to an RTX 4070, while the Pro 7i can pack up to an RTX 4090. These laptops don’t pack the new AI chip, though they still support dynamic power allocation through Lenovo Vantage.

Lenovo is also giving its Legion 7i and 5i (non-Pro models) a Raptor Lake refresh with the Core i9-14900HX, as well as offering the machines with Ryzen 8040 CPUs. These, too, feature up to an RTX 4070 GPU, and on the Legion 7i, you get access to Wi-Fi 7 and the new Windows Copilot specialty key.

The Pro models are coming first. Prices start at $1,500 for the 5i beginning in January and $2,700 for the 7i starting in March. The non-Pro models will arrive later. The base 5i starts at $1,400 and is launching in April, while the base 7i will arrive in March for $2,100.

Editors' Recommendations

Jacob Roach
Senior Staff Writer, Computing
Jacob Roach is a writer covering computing and gaming at Digital Trends. After realizing Crysis wouldn't run on a laptop, he…
The best monitors we saw at CES 2024
The Asus 480Hz OLED gaming monitor set up at a press event.

It was all about monitors at CES 2024, and we had a chance to see a lot of them. Samsung has exciting new gaming displays, Asus is pushing refresh rates to places they've never gone, and Acer is experimenting with some exciting glasses-free 3D tech. And that's just the products I could fit in a three-item list.

Yes, we saw some exciting monitors at CES this year. Here are the best monitors we had a chance to lay our eyes on.
LG dual refresh rate OLED

Read more
The best PC hardware we saw at CES 2024
Assassin's Creed Mirage on the MSI Claw handheld.

AMD, Nvidia, and Intel all came out swinging at CES 2024, laying the foundation for PC hardware announcements before other brands piled on. We saw a ton of great PC hardware this year, but only a handful of parts rose above the rest.

After spending several days scouring convention halls, we put together this list of the most impressive PC hardware we saw at CES 2024.
Nvidia RTX 40-series Super

Read more
I replaced my gaming laptop with a Legion Go, and I’m not going back
Lenovo Legion Go standing up in case

My HP Omen 15 was one of the best investments I’ve made in my life, right next to my down-filled sleeping bag. That's not because I think it’s the best gaming laptop ever, but because it’s the only one I’ve ever owned. It was my PC gaming device of choice until I got a Lenovo Legion Go, my first portable gaming PC.

I bought my HP Omen 15 in 2020. It was one of the worst years in recent history for building your own PC due to COVID-induced shortages, and I was too depressed to learn anyway. I figured I’d go with a prebuilt gaming laptop because my 2013 Macbook Pro was having issues and I wanted to play PC games. I went searching on Black Friday and saw the HP Omen 15 on sale, but couldn’t get what I thought to be a good enough graphics card for $1,000. I found a similar model on eBay with a RTX 2060 and called it a day. It’s been with me since.

Read more