Lenovo Legion 7 (Gen 6) review

Two-minute review

The Lenovo Legion 7 (Gen 6) is a fantastic laptop that delivered astounding performance across (almost) all of our tests. If you've saved up enough and want to upgrade your gaming setup to one of the best out there, this is a machine you'll seriously want to consider.

Fans of RGB lighting will have plenty of customization options across the whole outer shell of the laptop, allowing you to give your device its very own unique glow. The slick casing looks stylish even with the lighting turned off though, giving you a more professional look if you need a device for both work and play.

The RTX 3080 GPU and AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU powering the model we were sent allowed the Legion 7 laptop to achieve impressive scores in all of our performance benchmarks, beating out most devices on our best gaming laptops list.

It only performed poorly in one area, as these impressive components drain the battery life incredibly quickly. You'll only get around three hours of regular use out of this thing if it isn't plugged in, and we imagine it would be even less if you're gaming with settings turned to max.

You'll also find the fan noise to be quite loud (which is common of gaming laptops in general) as the fans have to work hard to keep the Legion 7 cool - though you will find it still gets very hot during intense gaming sessions.

If you can afford the $2,689 / £1,999 (around AU$3,700) price tag you won't be disappointed by what the Lenovo Legion 7 (Gen 6) can deliver.

(ed: Have a look at the Lenovo Legion 5i as well)

Price and availability 

The Lenovo Legion 7 is available to buy in the configuration we reviewed at $2,689 / £1,999 (around AU$3,700). This is far from cheap for a laptop, but for a machine that contains some of the best specs on the market, you’d struggle to spend much less.

If you’re wanting to shell out a little more, you can upgrade from our specs to versions of the Lenovo Legion 7 with up to 32GB of RAM, up to 2TB of SSD storage and an AMD Ryzen 9 5900H CPU.

For comparison, you can buy our best-reviewed gaming laptop - the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 - for around $1,799 (the version we received was exclusive to the US) however its specs and performance weren’t as good as the Lenovo Legion 7. If you're after a version of the G15 that better matched the Legion 7, you’d end up spending about the same amount on either laptop.

Because RTX 3080 GPUs are incredibly sought after, the Lenovo Legion 7 is frequently out of stock or in short supply. If you want to snag one of these machines for yourself, you’ll want to act quickly.

Design 

The Lenovo Legion 7 oozes excellence with a sleek design and tasteful RGB lighting decking it out from head to toe. Not only can the keyboard shift through every color in the rainbow, but it syncs up with lighting strips that run around the front of the laptop as well as inside the side and back vents. 

The crosshair in the Legion logo on the lid also glows with RGB lightning too, creating a cohesive glow that will be the envy of your PC gaming rivals.

You’ll also be able to marvel at this laptop’s 16-inch QHD (2560 x 1600) display with Dolby Vision and Nvidia G-Sync support. While it’s not quite 4K (this laptop’s resolution is normally referred to as 2.5K) it still looks great, and with a max refresh rate of 165Hz you’ll be able to enjoy the high framerates this machine can deliver.

If you like to use a bunch of peripherals, this laptop can more than accommodate your needs with its excellent number of ports. On the left side, you‘ll find a USB-C port (USB 3.2 Gen 2, DisplayPort 1.4) and an audio port for headphones. 

On the right, there’s another USB-C port (USB 3.2 Gen 1) and on the back, you’ll find a final USB-C port (USB 3.2 Gen 2, DisplayPort 1.4, supports power delivery) as well as an ethernet port, an HDMI 2.1 (that will let you output 8K gaming to a supporting monitor) and three USB-3.2 ports.

The laptop weighs 5.5 pounds (2.5kg), and measures 23 x 356x 261.04mm (0.93 x 14.01 x 10.27-inches). This isn’t massively heavy and should fit in most bags, but if you’re after a super light, super slim notebook, this isn’t it.

Audio-wise the speakers are a tad disappointing, with the Legion 7 equipped with two 2W Harman speakers with Nahimic Audio. The performance isn’t terrible for videos, but you’ll probably need to use a headset when you’re gaming if you want to clearly hear what’s going on.

That’s because the fan on the Legion 7 puts in a lot of effort to keep it cool during intense gaming sessions - even if it is fighting a losing battle. While gaming this laptop can get very hot so we’d recommend you play with it on a table rather than on your lap.

Performance 

We’d expect nothing less than an astounding performance from the Lenovo Legion 7 laptop, and its AMD Ryzen 7 5800H and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 did not disappoint. 

Across all of our performance tests, this laptop achieved scores that put it well above almost every entry in our best gaming laptops list. In our 3DMark tests, the Legion 7 scored 52,201 in Night Raid, 23,811 in Fire Strike and 10,709 in Time Spy whereas the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 (the device in our number one spot) only achieved 43,645, 21,211 and 9,333 in each test respectively.

The same is true of the CPU tests we performed, with the Legion 7’s 1,407 single core and 7,336 multi-core scores in Geekbench 5 being excellent too, and the trend continued in the Total War and Metro Exodus performance tests - with the Legion 7 outputting a buttery smooth framerate even at ultra settings.

This performance comes at a few costs though, and we aren’t just talking about the ones your wallet will feel.

Battery life 

Thanks to its powerful components, the Lenovo Legion 7 will quickly shred through its battery even when at moderate use.

In our PC Mark 10 Battery test it was able to last for just three hours and three minutes, just five minutes shorter than it did in our HD Movie test (clocking in at three hours and eight minutes).

These scores aren’t awful compared to some gaming laptops, but we’ve seen times in the region of eight hours from other great devices, making the Legion 7’s three hour battery seem more than a little lacklustre.

As long as you have your power cable on you though, you shouldn’t have too much trouble.

Webcam and microphone 

The Lenovo Legion 7 comes with a 720p webcam with an E-shutter to give you privacy if you want to turn it off.

While the webcam isn’t the most capable in the world - and noticeably struggles in darker environments - it can deliver a good-looking picture if you can provide some lighting. 

The in-built microphone isn’t half-bad either, during test calls we were told we could be heard clearly - though with the fan noise during gaming you might be better off with a dedicated headset or microphone if you need to communicate with your squad.

Buy it if 

Don’t buy it if 

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