If you are looking for a thin and light laptop without compromising on performance, read on. Sure gaming and slim laptops don’t go hand in hand but Lenovo has managed to offer just that on the portable Legion Slim 7, which is a beast of a machine that goes beyond AAA titles.
There are several things to talk about the machine, including the form factor. There is a solid finish to the gaming laptop, which weighs around 1.9kg, which is actually quite light for a machine offering a very high degree of performance. There are ventilation chambers all over the laptop, mostly on the back and the rear of the laptop, and some on the sides. Usually bigger gaming laptops come with chunky or sharp edges but here things are rounded and there is a nice grab bar at the back which you can hold on to while carrying the laptop around. Things are almost perfect. I say almost because the lid can be a fingerprint magnet, especially for someone who likes to keep a bowl of chips around while gaming.
Look and feel
Like I mentioned at the start, the machine goes beyond gaming, which is where the display comes in. You get a 15.6-inch (3840 x 2160) IPS panel with 165Hz refresh rate. You can choose from various colour profiles and as far as viewing quality is concerned, it’s brilliant. There is Dolby Vision and 100 per cent Adobe RGB coverage. Anyone who is into content creation, which entails using Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop and other packages, there won’t be any issues as far as colour accuracy goes. I am impressed by the white balance and contrast level. Since this is a gaming laptop, I wouldn’t recommend you using it under bright sunshine because you won’t get the best out of the display.
The RGB lighting on the keyboard adds to the charm
Equally comfortable is the keyboard. In fact, Lenovo keyboards are among the best, this being no exception. There is full RGB lighting on the keyboard while the curved key caps offer a nice finish. Excellent key travel makes typing a pleasure. Even the trackpad is well built and I didn’t experience any dead zones.
All the sounds you hear are from the bottom-firing speakers on side. For a gaming laptop, there is a high degree of clarity and decent amount of loudness. Most gamers wear headphones, yet speakers on the machine are substantially loud.
Under the hood
Powering the laptop is AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor with Radeon Graphics. You must be thinking that Lenovo must have throttled performance to keep heating in check to suit the slim form factor. Even while playing performance-intensive games, I didn’t feel I was dropping frames.
The laptop cruises through all 3D modelling tests. Also After Effects scores are absolutely tops — good medium of the charts benchmark. On Premiere Pro, 4K playback is smooth and you won’t notice frames being dropped. The Lenovo Legion AI engine helps to make this machine standout. It is a series of AI solutions that dynamically shifts power between the CPU and the GPU for more frames per second on your favourite games.
Battery performance is more than average for a gaming laptop
No matter how many Chrome tabs you open, the machine soldiers on. It can take care of all your applications. You can play most AAA titles at full resolution with more than decent frame rates. Lowering the resolution to 1080p, you can massively boost fps.
As far as fans go, they are not noisy on Quiet and Balanced modes. Maybe you will hear them slightly in Performance mode. After 30-40 minutes the machine warms up slightly but that’s natural and if you are using a cooling pad then you won’t feel this at all. The good thing is that temperatures dial back rapidly.
All this brings us to battery life. On Balanced mode, you should get around five hours while in Quiet mode, around seven hours. Of course, gamers will keep the machine continuously plugged in.
Should you buy it?
This is a machine that fits all use case scenarios and there is also some degree of upgradability. The computer offers a big advantage for esports titles while for content creators it’s portable enough to be carried anywhere. With Lenovo Legion Slim 7, power, performance and portability have a party.
At a glance
Device: Lenovo Legion Slim 7
Price: Rs 144,990
High notes
- Portable and slim even though it’s a gaming laptop
- Good heat management
- Excellent keyboard
- Decent audio output
Muffled notes
- The laptop lid can be a fingerprint magnet
At a glance
- Great performance with Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series laptop GPUs
- Xbox Game Pass
- Great for eSports enthusiasts
- TrueStrike Keyboard
- Fuel up to 50 per cent in just 30 minutes with Rapid Charge Pro
