Hands on: Lenovo Legion Slim 7 review

From what's been shown so far, the Lenovo Legion Slim 7 is shaping up to be an impressive affordable gaming laptop for those who want the premium experience without the premium pricing.

Pros

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  Thin and portable

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  Great display

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  Great specs

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  Solid keyboard

Cons

• -

  Boring color palettes

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Lenovo is no stranger to gaming laptops, putting out rigs that focus either on pure power or portability, with the former represented by the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i. But this year, the manufacturer is aiming for a new target: thinner and lighter gaming laptops that won't break the bank.

And with this new line, appropriately named the Legion Slim, it's going for both portability and affordability — two traits that are surprisingly underserved in the gaming market, as the best thin and light gaming laptops tend to be tied in with luxury models and while the best cheap gaming laptops are almost always bulky and very ugly in design. 

But with these offerings, Lenovo is hoping to change some minds and target gamers who want the next-gen premium experience without the massive size or price.

There are two versions of this model, the Lenovo Legion Slim 7 and the Lenovo Legion Slim 7i, with the only difference between the two being which CPU they've been outfitted with, either AMD or Intel.

Lenovo Legion Slim 7: Price & availability

So far no official pricing has been revealed for the Legion Slim 7 and 7i models, though compared to the LOQ 15 and 15i gaming laptops, these specs are a bit higher so they'll most likely be the more expensive option. Considering that AMD tends to be priced less than Intel, it wouldn't be surprising if the Slim 7 was cheaper than the 7i, as the former uses an AMD CPU.

Though availability has also not been revealed as of yet, Lenovo has a solid track record of making its products not only available in the US, UK, and Australia but in other regions as well. Once we find out the official price, release date, and availability, TechRadar will be sure to report on that. So stay tuned to our ongoing coverage, as well as any other Lenovo news or product reveals.

Lenovo Legion Slim 7: Design

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Both the Legion Slim 7 and 7i come in two colors, Storm Grey and Glacier White, which resembles more of a silver versus dark grey in practice. That's a little disappointing, as a white color palette would inject some visual decadence that it badly needs since the actual colors are a bit boring. It's also a shame because the chassis itself feels solid and boast a unique design that gives it this great metal finish and a sort of cool, futuristic look.

Both have a great port selection, with two USB Type-C ports, two USB Type-A ports, an audio jack, an SD card reader, and an HDMI 2.1 port on offer. These are honestly better than many Ultrabook options, though I wish it had an Ethernet port as well. 

The keyboards have this great clicky tactile feel, feature RGB lighting, have anti-ghosting, and even come with a numlock pad. Meanwhile, the touchpad is spacious, but a little sensitive, which can of course be adjusted in Options. The two 2W Harman speakers with Nahimic audio should deliver decent sound quality, and the webcam is 1080p and comes with a switch on the side that lets you adjust its shutter.

One of the main features of the laptop is how lightweight and thin it is, and considering the specs the Legion Slim 7/7i packs under the hood, Lenovo has done an excellent job of keeping things svelte. It weighs in at 4.4 lbs (about 2kg), which for a gaming laptop already is quite good, and you can feel how much easier it is to hold with one hand versus other gaming portables. 

There's also Legion Slim 5 and 5i options, though I wasn't able to personally test those out. According to other information Lenovo has provided, they're even thinner and lighter than the 7/7i versions.

Lenovo Legion Slim 7: Performance

The Legion Slim 7 and 7i don't skimp out on the specs for the sake of portability either. Both come with up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 mobile GPU, up to 32GB 5600Mhz DDR5 RAM, and up to 512GB or 1TB PCIe SSD (Gen4) of storage. The Slim 7i comes with up to a 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900H CPU while the Slim 7 features up to an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS GPU.

While I can't speak for their real-world performance, as I was unable to try out any games or perform benchmark tests in my limited time with them, these specs alone promise some serious gaming prowess. That's since the best gaming laptops we've tested out so far with the 4000-series mobile GPUs are extremely powerful. I also noticed the excellent ventilation, which is absolutely necessary to run those behemoth graphic cards without having serious overheating issues.

The display is an impressive 16-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600) IPS with up to a 240Hz refresh rate, 3ms response time, 500 nits brightness, and 100% sRGB or DCl-P3. Both versions also support either Nvidia G-SYNC Support or AMD FreeSync. This laptop is perfect for creative work, given it even more value.

Lenovo Legion Slim 7: Early verdict

The Lenovo Legion Slim 7 is impressive as a thinner and smaller gaming laptop than its competitors so far. Though the colors are a little uninspired, the build quality, port selection, size and weight, and specs are all top-notch as we can see so far. The fact that you can adjust the panel for both power gaming and creative work just sweetens the deal.

We're already looking at a powerful gaming laptop with a much lighter form factor than most. And the deal could be even sweeter if it's going for a much more reasonable price point than the competition. It's exactly the kind of option that gamers have been owed for quite some time now.

Named by the CTA as a CES 2023 Media Trailblazer, Allisa is a Computing Staff Writer who covers breaking news and rumors in the computing industry, as well as reviews, hands-on previews, featured articles, and the latest deals and trends. In her spare time you can find her chatting it up on her two podcasts, Megaten Marathon and Combo Chain, as well as playing any JRPGs she can get her hands on.

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