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| The Lenovo Legion 7i gaming laptop sports a beautiful 2.5K 165 Hz OLED display along with powerful internals. |
If you’ve been searching for a high-performance gaming laptop that doesn’t look like a hulking spaceship, Lenovo’s Legion 7i has long been a compelling contender. Now, a limited-time sale at Best Buy makes it an outright steal. Priced at just $1,299, this configuration pairs Intel’s new Core Ultra 7 processor with NVIDIA’s latest RTX 5060 GPU, wrapping it all in a relatively slim 16-inch chassis. We’ve spent significant time with this exact model, and it’s a package that largely delivers on its premium promises, albeit with the expected trade-offs. Performance That Punches Above Its Weight At the heart of this Legion 7i is the 20-core Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX processor. In our testing, this CPU demonstrated impressive muscle, easily outperforming many competitors in its class during multitasking and gaming scenarios. It’s complemented by the 115W NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Laptop GPU, which handles modern titles at the laptop’s native 2560 x 1600 resolution with high settings comfortably. It’s not all perfect, but it’s close. Our sustained Cinebench loop test revealed a minor performance dip of around 8% after six cycles, indicating some thermal throttling under extreme, prolonged load. For most gaming sessions and creative work, however, this power duo provides consistently smooth and fast performance. |
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| The Legion 7i gaming laptop sports a 180-degree hinge. |
A Stunning OLED Display for Work and Play
The centerpiece is undoubtedly the 16-inch, 2.5K (2560x1600) OLED display. It’s glossy, which can be a fingerprint magnet, but the visual payoff is immense. Colors pop with incredible vibrancy, thanks to coverage of 99.6% of the DCI-P3 color gamut—a boon for photo editors and content creators. For gamers, the 165Hz refresh rate ensures buttery-smooth motion, making fast-paced competitive games a joy. The combination of OLED’s perfect blacks and high refresh rate is simply superb for immersive entertainment.
The Trade-Offs: Thermals, Noise, and Battery Life
Lenovo’s quest for a slimmer profile comes with audible consequences. When pushed, the Legion 7i’s fans spin up loudly, and core temperatures can get quite warm. This is the price of packing such hardware into a thinner frame. Battery life is also a known sacrifice; in our standardized wireless web browsing test, it lasted about 4.5 hours. This is a machine you’ll want to keep plugged in for serious work or play.
Future-Proof and Upgrade-Friendly
Where the Legion 7i truly shines for enthusiasts is in its upgradeability—a rare trait in slimmer laptops. It comes with 32GB of DDR5-5600 RAM and a 1TB SSD (a Crucial P310 model, which is a great value on its own).
Crucially, both memory and storage are user-replaceable via dual SODIMM slots and dual M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 slots. The WiFi 7 card is also accessible, making this a laptop you can grow with over time.
The Verdict: A Sale Worth Acting On
For $1,299, this particular Lenovo Legion 7i at Best Buy represents outstanding value. You get a sleek, professional-looking machine with a breathtaking OLED display, flagship-class performance for gaming and creative tasks, and the freedom to upgrade down the line.
You do make compromises on fan noise and battery life, but for a desktop replacement or a home-based gaming rig that you might occasionally move, these are easy to accept. If your priority is a powerful, visually stunning laptop that won’t break your back—or your bank, especially at this price—the Legion 7i is an easy recommendation.
Deal Hunters Note: This deal has also been featured on Slickdeals, where it has garnered significant community attention. As with all limited-time sales, stock may not last long.
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| The wireless card is also user-accessible. |
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| The memory and storage are user-upgradeable. |