Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 9 (16-inch) review

The Legion 9i doesn’t look like any other gaming laptop on the market. It doesn’t even look like any laptop in its line. That’s because Lenovo used forged carbon fiber for its lid that with the company’s eight-layer stamping method, the lid is 10% lighter and stronger than regular aluminum. In terms of looks, the lid falls somewhere in between one of those old-school composition notebooks and some elegant camouflage. And while that process makes for a lighter, tougher lid, the slightly textured panel is a one-of-one with each notebook sporting a different pattern. As nice as the lid looks, you’ll want to have a microfiber cloth handy as the lid is highly susceptible to fingerprints and smudges.

There’s a small silver metal Lenovo plate embedded into the lower-left corner of the lid with a large RGB-backlit Legion emblem running vertically down the right. The camera and mic housing sits top center with its glossy metal covering protruding ever so slightly, The hinge connecting the lid and bottom of the laptop is large and extends into a rather large vent that has several ports. A thin RGB light strip creates a line of delineation between the hinge and vent.

The notebook’s interior and undercarriage are made primarily of recycled magnesium colored carbon black. Compared to other gaming laptops, the palm rest is rather small, but there’s still enough room to accommodate most wrists and a small metal Lenovo tag in the lower-right corner. The trackpad is long instead of tall and sits below the island-style keyboard as it glows seductively. Above that is a large air vent with the power button sitting front and center. The 16-inch display is ensconced in matte black bezels with a small lip at the top making the lid easier to open.

The Legion 9i’s undercarriage is almost all vent with two raised rubber feet to assist with airflow. The back foot has a middle divot stamped with Legion, which is a nice touch. You have a pair of bottom-firing speakers toward the front and two large vents along the sides. The bottom panel is held in place with six screws in case you want to access the laptop’s interior.

The notebook has a solid array of ports and slots befitting a laptop of this size. You have a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port and a USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 port on the right with a physical camera disable switch. On the left sits an SD card reader and a headset jack. You’ll find the rest of the ports in the rear with another USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a HMDI 2.1 port, Ethernet port, and a proprietary DC-in jack.

Lenovo’s smile-shaped keys bring a smile to my face. While they’re not as good as what you’d find on the company’s ThinkPad line of laptops, the Legion 9i’s keyboard with its Chiclet-style keys with their 1.5mm key travel are super comfy to type on with firm feedback and no bottoming out. The keycaps are large with generous spacing. And while I rarely use the NumPad, I’m always glad to see it included. I surpassed my usual 70-words-per-minute average on the MonkeyType typing test, hitting 85 wpm.

The keyboard features per-key backlighting, which allows you to create a custom light show with every key glowing in a different shade via the Lenovo Vantage app. This is also where you can set macros, monitor system health, adjust camera and display settings, and much more.

The Legion 9i’s touchpad is smaller than what I’m used to nowadays, but it got the job done. Multitouch gestures such as pinch-zoom, two-finger scroll and three-finger tap performed seamlessly. The trackpad offers good palm rejection with strong feedback on the bottom corners.

The Legion 9i has one of the best integrated webcams I’ve seen this year on a gaming laptop. The color on the 1080p shooter is great, capturing the exact shade of bubblegum pink of my wrapped locs. Details were so sharp, you can see almost every wrinkle in my sunflower yellow shirt. It’ll definitely hold up in a video call or a live stream.

And in some other webcam fun, the laptop has Tobii’s eye-tracking software preinstalled in the form of Tobii Aware and Horizon. The former dims the screen when you’re not looking at it while the latter lets you control a game using head-tracking.

As for connectivity, the Legion 9i has a Killer WiFi 6E* 802.11AX (2 x 2) network card with Bluetooth 5.1.

Who ordered a ridiculous amount of power, because the Legion 9i has a double serving. The notebook sports a 24-core Intel Core i9-14900HX processor, one of the most powerful mobile processors on the market. The juggernaut came out swinging on the Cinebench R24 multi-core test, beating all competitors.

While it’s nice that the Legion can handle all your productivity and content creation tasks, you’re here to game. And with its Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, the Legion 9i is more than ready for those marathon gaming sessions. That’s not to say there wasn’t some competition. While the Legion 9i achieved high marks on the 3DMark Time Spy test, it wasn’t enough to topple the ROG Strix Scar 18. The Legion however, is only a few points shy from matching the Scar. The Legion 9i got the upper hand on the 3D FireStrike test.

Gaming laptops this stacked are a series of checks and balances. Sure, you’ll get ridiculous power, but man, is that battery life going to suck. However, the Legion 9i lasted longer than expected with a time of four hours, nine minutes on the video playback test with the power setting on Best Performance at 100 nits of brightness. That’s a little longer than the Scar 18, but it falls short of the Alienware m16 R2 and the ROG Zephyrus G16.

Still, that time is respectable for a gaming laptop, especially one with these heavy duty specs. Thanks to Nvidia’s Advanced Optimus software, which is essentially a MUX switch, the laptop can switch over to its integrated Intel UHD Graphics chip, when handling less graphically taxing tasks. That way, the laptop can last longer on a charge.

If you’re on a quest for power, the Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 9 (16-inch) lies at the end of the journey. The desktop replacement is a certified beast, sporting a one-two punch of an Intel Core i9 processor and an Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU. Whether it’s gaming, creating content, or productivity, the Lenovo Legion 9i can handle it all with unflappable aplomb. On top of that, it’s got a lovely display, comfortable, customizable keyboard, a crispy webcam, and it’s got an interesting design.

The only real flaw the notebook has is its weak speakers and of course, the exorbitant price, which is a shame as the Legion 9i is just a stone’s throw from perfect. Offering some more customization in terms of configurations may have allowed a more affordable entry point too. Sure the fans can get loud, but that’s to be expected in a gaming laptop.

If you want something with longer battery life, consider the Alienware m16 R2 or the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16. But for people that want power, plain and simple. It’s a bit of a niche laptop at this price, but you’d be hard pressed to find something better than the Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 9 (16-inch).