Regardless, we believe that many of you will be content with this laptop if you can locate one in your area for a reasonable price. Of course, we’ve evaluated a tonne of gaming PCs over the years, including tower and laptop models. In fact, except from a few desktops, we ‘ve probably examined every single Lenovo Legion laptop from the company’s launch. But the Lenovo Legion Slim 7 is something else, and we have become quite fond of it. also you can check our article on Lenovo Legion S7 review.
Design
The Lenovo Legion S7 immediately catches the attention thanks to its svelte metal body and the LED that is discreetly integrated into the Legion insignia on the lid. Unquestionably one of the most portable 15-inch laptops we’ve seen in a while, it’s small and light for a gaming laptop with a dedicated GPU. Lenovo was able to integrate tiny LED indicators for the power connector and two USB-A ports located on the back edge because the hinge is positioned forward by around 1.5 cm from the back of the laptop. If we turn our attention to the other edges, we can see two USB-C ports on the right, an SD card reader on the left, and an audio jack on the right. Although we would have preferred to see more ports, there are enough for daily use. The laptop’s front edge tapers upward and away from the surface it is placed on, and the entire unit is supported by sturdy rubber feet. To avoid muffling them, the two speakers are cleverly positioned on the sloped undersides at each front corner.
Lenovo Legion S7 review: Keyboard and touchpad
The keyboard’s chiclet keys are a dark grey colour to match the chassis. Lenovo chose to forgo the typical RGB gimmicks featured on gaming laptops, as was previously discussed in the case portion of our review, and instead gave the keyboard a bluish-white lighting. However, an additional fee is required for the optional RGB lighted keyboard. The keyboard features a number pad and nearly fills the entire width of the chassis. Extra-large arrow keys, which are uncommon for laptops, are one standout feature. Although this is good, we weren’t fans of the little enter key. Overall, typing on the Lenovo Slim 7i is fairly enjoyable. The keys are 1.5 mm (0.06) thick “) of travel, a sharp actuation point, and don’t feel mushy as a result. Additionally, the strong metal chassis keeps the keyboard from bending when typing. Having a size of 12 x 7.5 cm (4.72 x 2.95) “), we believe the touchpad may be a little bit bigger. The glass trackpad provides a premium-feeling smooth, matte surface that is easy for fingertips to slide across. The classic click operation of this clickpad leaves us unimpressed (actuated by pressing down the lower zone). The touchpad generates rather obtrusive clicking noises, which can be bothersome. The software implementation of features like multitouch gestures is flawless, and the mouse cursor can be controlled with extreme precision. This is the only issue we have with the touchpad.
Display
A 15.6″ UHD (3840 x 2160) IPS panel running at 60Hz was included with our test model. Three of the edges have thin bezels, with the bottom edge’s bezel being the thickest and bearing a subdued “Legion” branding. Pricing begins at 7,350 AED. The display has a maximum brightness of 500 nits, is certified by VESA DisplayHDR 400, and supports Dolby Vision. To change the display settings to suit your needs, you can use the Lenovo Vantage software. You can use this laptop comfortably even in bright outside lighting because to the clear display and easily readable text. Unfortunately, you’re only left with a 60Hz panel here; if you want 165Hz refresh rates, you’ll need to get a FullHD screen. However, you can still play practically any gaming at 60Hz, and frame rates are generally consistent. Here, FreeSync and G-Sync from Nvidia are both accessible, along with support for external displays. When using USB-C to drive a sizable Lenovo external monitor at close to 4K resolution, the Legion S7 performed admirably. you can read our article on Lenovo Legion S7 review. A 720p camera, the best a laptop camera can be, is located at the top of the display. Even in bright light, it struggles to distinguish fine details, so bear that in mind if you want to use this laptop for video chats or livestreaming. Additionally, Lenovo includes a privacy shutter that you can simply slide into position while not using the webcam. Unfortunately, this laptop lacks IR cameras, thus using facial recognition to get into Windows is not an option. Instead, you must use your password or the fingerprint sensor on the power button.
Lenovo Legion S7 review: Audio
We don’t have high expectations for laptop speakers because the majority of devices only provide mediocre audio quality. The Lenovo Slim 7 features speakers, which surprised me considering how much is jammed into such a small form. The laptop’s bottom is where the twin speaker setup is located. The Harman Kardon-tuned speakers include support for Nahimic audio as well. Our daily Spotify/YouTube playlist was used to test the speakers, and we were impressed. To begin with, the Slim 7’s speakers are quite loud for their size. When turned up to maximum volume, the two bottom firers provide what some may refer to as “room-filling sound.” Even at maximum volume, there is no audio distortion or crackling. As is customary, the bass is not particularly audible, but you occasionally hear a thump. The audio experience is amplified by the integrated Nahmic software, which makes it louder and somewhat richer. To assist you in finding the ideal profile, the software also includes several pre-set modes including Music, Movies, Games, and more. Although the Slim 7’s speakers are not loud enough for large parties, they will more than suffice for your entertainment needs.
Graphics and gamings
The GeForce RTX 3060 is a mid-range GPU in Nvidia’s lineup for mobile devices. The GA106 chip contains 6 GB of dedicated GDDR6 RAM and 3840 shader units. More information about this and other graphics cards may be found in our GPU list. The GPUs in the other laptops in this comparison are a lot more potent. The Lenovo Legion S7i underperformed the majority of them in the 3DMark tests as a result. The Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 is the lone exception, as it performed slower despite having a GeForce RTX 3070. When the laptop is not plugged in, the performance of the GPU is visibly constrained. In the 3DMark 11 graphics test, the Lenovo Legion S7i only managed to score 9412, which is 65% less than when it is plugged in. Given that all of the devices in the comparison group had faster GPUs, it is not a great surprise that the Lenovo Legion Slim 7i performed slower than them during the gaming benchmarks. Even so, the Legion S7i was only slightly slower than a typical RTX 3060. Additionally, it has sufficient GPU power to run contemporary games at 2K (2,560 x 1,440) and high settings with ease.
Performance
There are enough specs present to achieve some excellent results in our gaming tests. AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900HX processor, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, a 1TB M.2 SSD, and an RTX 3060 laptop GPU with 6GB of GDDR6 RAM were all included in our test unit. If you require additional storage, you may easily add a second full-sized M.2 drive. The bottom cover needs to be opened with a little amount of prying, but once it is, adding the extra storage is simple. It’s a wonderful touch that Lenovo has already pre-installed a heat pad for a second M.2 drive. For our gaming testing, we played a number of titles, all of which ran at 1080p resolution with the highest graphics settings. Framerates of 82 fps were recorded in The Witcher 3, and we observed comparable performance in titles like Far Cry 6, Tomb Raider, and the Final Fantasy XV benchmark. The same games performed worse at 4K, averaging 37 frames per second at maximum settings and rising to 45 frames per second when GPU elements were set to medium or low quality. This laptop isn’t particularly good at 4K gaming, and it wasn’t designed to be, especially with the GPU it comes with. It’s important to note that switching to the “Performance” option can result in a significant framerate increase of 8 to 10 frames per second. By significantly overclocking the laptop, you can enjoy a few extra frames in your favourite games at the expense of increased heat and fan noise. Thankfully, using a keyboard shortcut makes it rather simple to do.
Lenovo Legion S7 review: Battery life
The 71Whr battery in the Legion S7 is reliable, despite being smaller than comparable gaming laptop batteries. In our movie test, the S7 ran at 50% brightness for more than five and a half hours, although the PCMark 10 battery life test depleted the batteries in three hours and forty-five minutes. These are unquestionably impressive numbers for a gaming laptop, which are sometimes maligned for having short battery lives. It won’t be possible to use the S7 for prolonged gaming sessions without a power source, but if you’re prepared to disable the RGB keyboard and reduce the brightness a bit, it should be able to get by during a commute. You can also conserve some electricity by switching the display from the 165Hz to the aforementioned 60Hz setting. A 230W power supply was included with our Legion S7, with smaller 170W and 180W ones available depending on region. It is really surprising that the battery charges completely in under two hours (when the laptop is not in use).
Heat
High temperatures are a natural byproduct of powerful components combined with a thin chassis. The Lenovo laptop maintained a respectable level of cooling even at rest. Despite this, the chassis reached a temperature of 37.6 °C (99.7 °F), which indicated that it produced a substantial quantity of heat. A hotspot on the bottom of the gadget reached a peak temperature of 55°C (131°F) during the stress test, which is already too high. The Witcher 3 test, which is crucial for a gaming laptop, showed that the chassis temperatures on the bottom didn’t rise above 50°C (122°F), but the keyboard deck did. As a result, while you play games on the smartphone, your hands could start to perspire. also you can check our article on Lenovo Legion S7 review.
Configuration options
The Lenovo Legion S7 has a starting price of $1,200 (£1,400, around AU$1,720), but it only gets you the S7’s base model, which has a lower-end GPU than the one we’re testing, the RTX 3060, and uses an RTX 3050 Ti. The RTX 3060 is a far more dependable option for consistent 1080p gaming, therefore we’d strongly advise spending the extra money on it. This is because of its larger quantity of VRAM and faster clock speed. The CPU, GPU, display, memory (up to 32GB total), storage (up to 2TB), and keyboard illumination can all be upgraded by paying extra. The CPU update, which replaces the Ryzen 7 5800H with a Ryzen 9 5900H, is something we don’t recommend because most games won’t noticeably benefit from the change. The new standard for gaming laptops is Windows 11, which is included with every model as standard.
Conclusion
For what it’s worth, both competitive and recreational gamers will find the Lenovo Legion Slim 7 to be the perfect gaming computer. The Legion brand consistently delivers power and portability because to its tiny form factor and strong hardware. It even offers a significant improvement in gaming performance thanks to a high refresh rate display and an RTX-capable GPU. Of course, there are some successes and failures in the Legion Slim 7. It fails to realize its potential to be truly better than before, from dubious exclusions to simply average battery life. It’s still a terrific gaming device for playing on the go with all that it has going for it in the current design.
