Lenovo Legion 9i Laptop Promises On-The-Fly AI Hardware Tuning

On Friday, portable computing vets at Lenovo announced an absolute behemoth of a new gaming notebook. Dubbed the Lenovo Legion 9i, it starts at $4,399 and is being billed as "the world's first AI-tuned gaming laptop with integrated liquid-cooling system." It's also Lenovo's first 16-inch gaming laptop in the Legion series. That self-contained, AI-tuned cooling system features three fans and 6,333 individual air intake vents. Designed by Cooler Master in concert with Lenovo, it allows the Legion 9i to reach 230W TDP — that's the power limit of the GPU — by way of "run[ning] over the GPU VRAM to manage heat under extreme gaming sessions" and turning on when the GPU reaches 84 degrees Celsius.

Because that liquid-cooling system carries additional weight — the laptop, as a whole, comes in at 5.64lbs (2.56kg) — Lenovo designed a new outside cover made out of forged carbon chips. This helps reduce the weight of the laptop. Owing to this process though, each Legion 9i has a unique forged carbon chip pattern on the front.

Lenovo

"The introduction of the Lenovo Legion 9i (16-inch, 8) marks the latest pinnacle of Lenovo Legion's gaming laptop innovation," said Jun Ouyang, Lenovo's vice president and general manager of the Consumer Business Segment, Intelligent Devices Group, in prepared remarks. "The Lenovo Legion 9i is [the] first laptop in the Lenovo Legion ecosystem with an integrated liquid-cooling system and hardware AI chip tuning.

"The forged carbon A-cover, which in addition to its 'unique-to-each-laptop aesthetics' means a lighter laptop for gamers and creators who demand nothing but the best. We are constantly challenging ourselves to push the limits when designing gaming solutions. The Lenovo Legion 9i (16-inch, 8) has set a new benchmark for us that we are excited to meet—and exceed—in the future."

So, at its heart, what's inside this thing? Lenovo's spec sheet says that the Legion 9i features:

• A 13th-generation Intel Core i9-13980HX CPU
• "Up to" an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU with 16GB GDDR6 RAM and a 2370MHz boost clock.
• Dual channel overclocked DDR5 system RAM in configurations of 32GB running at 6400Mhz or 64GB running at 5600Mhz.
• "Up to" 2TB of PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD storage
• "Up to" a 16-inch 3.2K (3200 x 2000) Mini LED 16:10 aspect ratio display, featuring refresh rates up to 165Hz, 3ms response time, 100% Adobe and 100% DCI-P3 color ratings,1200 nits of brightness, "up to" VESA Display HDR 1000 Certification, Dolby Vision support, NVIDIA G-SYNCTM validation, and TUV Rheinland certification.
• Two speakers, each with 2W of power and backed by the Nahimic Audio driver.
• A 99.99WHr battery supporting Lenovo's Super Rapid Charge, which charges the computer to 70% in just 30 minutes and 100% in 80 minutes.
• Intel Wi-Fi 7 (802.11ax) and Bluetooth 5.3

For ports, it includes an audio combo jack, an SD card reader, two USB Type-A ports (USB 3.2 Gen1), one USB Type-C port (USB 3.2 Gen1), an HDMI 2.1 port, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an ethernet port, and an "E-Shutter" button for the 1080p webcam. And as you'd expect with a premium gaming notebook, there's RGB lighting throughout, including in the keyboard.

The Lenovo Legion 9i will ship in October 2023.