If you’re after a premium gaming laptop that blends sleek design with real power under the hood, the Lenovo Legion 7i Intel Glacier Edition is a standout. I’ve spent time using this system for both daily productivity and my primary gaming machine. It strikes an excellent balance between raw performance and modern features. With Intel’s Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, an RTX 5070 Laptop GPU, and a stunning 16-inch OLED display, it checks all the boxes if you are looking for hardware that is refined on the outside but built for hardcore gaming on the inside.
In this review, I’ll walk through my experience with the Lenovo Legion 7i, from unboxing and design to real-world performance, battery life, and more. Let’s dive into my full review and explore what the Lenovo Legion 7i has to offer.
Watch my Lenovo Legion 7i Laptop review video
Unboxing the Lenovo Legion 7i
Unboxing the Legion 7i is a straightforward process that has you up and running in no time. In the box, you get the laptop, a 245W power adapter, and warranty paperwork. What immediately stands out is just how slim the laptop feels in hand, paired with its striking glacier-white finish. It’s a refreshing departure from the sea of matte black that dominates most gaming laptops. The lighter chassis, subtle metallic accents, and compact footprint give it a refined look that feels just as at home on a work desk as it does in a gaming setup.
Lenovo Legion 7i: raw power, refined
Out of the box, the Legion 7i looks fantastic. The light finish gives it a clean, premium aesthetic that feels more like a high-end creator laptop than a traditional gaming machine. This is the kind of laptop you could pull out in a business meeting, café, or classroom, and it would fit in all of these settings.
Thin chassis, supercharged performance
What really stood out to me is how thin and light this system feels given what’s packed inside. For a laptop running a Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU and an RTX 5070 GPU, the Legion 7i is impressively portable. I absolutely love this design direction from Lenovo. It makes gaming-grade performance far more approachable for people who don’t want to lug around a brick in their backpack.
At under five pounds, it’s surprisingly easy on the back, and that portability makes a real difference. If you’re moving between rooms, offices, or travel destinations throughout the day, you’ll appreciate the Lenovo Legion 7i’s lightweight design cues.
Lenovo Legion 7i’s keyboard, trackpad, and overall build quality
Lenovo continues to deliver some of the best laptop keyboards in the business, and the Legion 7i is no exception. The keyboard here is excellent and a joy to use. It has a tactile feel that works equally well for typing long articles and hammering out key combinations in fast-paced games.
Keyboard gaming performance
When it comes to gaming, key travel feels just right. Inputs register reliably, and the layout is comfortable even during extended use. Whether I was writing, editing, or gaming late into the night, I never felt fatigued, and my hand placement felt comfortable. This is a keyboard I enjoyed using, which isn’t something I say lightly. On the aesthetics side, the programmable RGB lighting is great too; you can make it more understated or create a whole light show under your fingers.
Responsive, spacious trackpad
The trackpad is large, responsive, and well-positioned. As someone who frequently switches between mouse-driven gaming and trackpad-heavy productivity, I really enjoyed my experience. I found it accurate and consistent across everyday tasks like web browsing, photo selection, and document editing. The only issue with the laptop is where your wrists rest. In the pursuit of a more minimalist style, the edges of the frame come to an abrupt point. This can be uncomfortable if you are resting at the wrong angle, but minor adjustments to how you rest your wrists fix these issues.
Overall, the build quality feels solid and premium. There’s very little flex, the hinge is smooth but sturdy, and everything about the chassis feels thoughtfully engineered.
The Lenovo Legion 7i packs a stunning OLED display
The 16-inch WQXGA OLED display is one of the highlights of this laptop. With its 2560 x 1600 resolution, deep blacks, vibrant colours, and excellent contrast, everything looks fantastic, from games and movies to productivity apps and creative work. I even went back and replayed a few of my favourite titles to see how much better they look on the Legion 7i. I was left very impressed by the clarity and colour expression from the i7’s incredible OLED display.
Vibrant display colour range
Gaming on this panel is a treat. Colours pop, dark scenes retain detail without looking washed out, and the extra vertical space is perfect for modern titles. I also found it excellent for watching movies and shows, where the OLED panel really shines with cinematic contrast.
VRAM ceiling for gaming
That said, this gorgeous display also exposes one of the Legion 7i’s biggest trade-offs. At this resolution and level of visual fidelity, many modern games pushed to max settings increasingly expect more than 8GB of VRAM. The RTX 5070 Laptop GPU performs very well overall, but in some demanding titles, especially with ultra textures enabled, I found myself needing to dial things back slightly to avoid VRAM-related limitations.
It’s not a deal-breaker, but it is something you should be aware of if you are looking to play a majority of your titles on ultra settings. This display invites you to push visuals hard, and the GPU’s memory ceiling can occasionally push back.
Intel Core Ultra 9 and RTX 5070 combined performance
Under the hood, the Legion 7i is a powerhouse. Intel’s Core Ultra 9 275HX paired with 32GB of RAM makes short work of multitasking, content creation, and heavy workloads. My apps launch quickly, large files transfer with blazing fast speeds, and the system never felt sluggish during my testing.
RTX 5070 laptop GPU gaming performance
The RTX 5070 Laptop GPU delivers strong performance across a wide range of titles I tested. Most modern games run smoothly at high settings, like Microsoft Flight Sim 2024 and Forza Horizon 5, which performed incredibly well. Competitive FPS titles like Battlefield 6 are especially well-served by the combination of high refresh rates and fast response times.
Gaming stress test
Lenovo’s thermal management does a solid job here, too. The system gets warm under load, as expected, but the heat never feels overbearing, despite the very thin form factor. The standard movement key combo of “WASD” was cool to the touch. Other areas of the keyboard did get hotter with the higher gaming loads, but it was still comfortable to use. The fans do get loud but the Legion 7i is tuned for performance without sounding like a jet engine. It can be adjusted, especially for more menial tasks like web browsing and word processing.
Legion 7i ports, connectivity, and everyday usability
The Legion 7i features a strong selection of ports offering a range of forward and backward compatibility with devices. Including Thunderbolt 4, USB-A, USB-C, HDMI 2.1, an SD card reader, and a headphone/mic combo jack. This makes the Legion 7i easy to integrate into a desk setup with external displays, storage, and peripherals. Wi-Fi 7 support is a nice future-proofing touch, and I had no issues with wireless stability or speed during my time with the laptop. The 5MP IR webcam is also a welcome upgrade, delivering sharp video quality.
Legion 7i battery life
Battery life is where the Legion 7i shows its biggest drawback. With light, non-gaming use, web browsing, email, and word processing, I consistently landed under seven hours of battery life. That’s usable, but it’s not impressive, especially if you’re coming from ultrabooks or creator-focused machines.
Once gaming enters the picture, battery life drops quickly, which is expected for a laptop of this class. Still, this is very much a system that prefers to be plugged in to experience its full potential. It’s a trade-off for packing this much power into a slim chassis, but it would be ideal to have a bigger battery.
Final thoughts on the Lenovo Legion 7i
The Lenovo Legion 7i Intel Laptop is a premium portable gaming machine that gets a lot right. It combines powerful hardware, a gorgeous OLED display, an excellent keyboard, and a sleek, understated design into a package that feels genuinely versatile.
If you’re looking for a high-end gaming laptop that feels refined, portable, and powerful enough for both work and play, the Lenovo Legion 7i is a great option. It’s a laptop that proves you don’t have to sacrifice style or usability to get serious performance.
The Lenovo Legion 7i Intel Laptop and a selection of gaming laptops are available now at BestBuy.ca.
