Lenovo's Beastly Legion 9i Laptop Rocks An RTX 5090 And Dual-Mode 3D Display
Folks, for those who care (like myself), the 18-inch laptop form factor is alive and well. Just ask Lenovo, which is rolling out a beast of a system in its new Legion 9i (18", 10). Designed for both gamers and game developers (as well as power users in general), the upgraded Legion 9i can optionally be packed to the gills with flagship hardware, but let's talk about the display before going any further.
As we've seen in some recent desktop gaming monitors (and some Razer Blade laptops), Lenovo's going with a dual-mode display on its Legion 9i. What that means in this case is the ability to choose between running the laptop at its native 4K resolution (3480x2400, 16:10 aspect ratio) and a peppy 240Hz refresh rate, or in Full HD 1080p (1920x1200) at a blistering 440Hz refresh rate. Yeah, that's fast.
The dual-mode option is exclusive to the 3D display option. It gets a little complicated because only the 1920x1200 resolution supports the 3D mode, and if you don't opt for the 3D upgrade, you lose the dual-mode capability—the 2D-only option runs at 4K/240Hz (that's my interpretation of the spec sheet, anyway). Whether you opt for a 3D panel or not, you get Dolby Vision and NVIDIA G-SYNC support.
Why the 3D option? While 3D experiences haven't really gained a ton of traction in the consumer space, Lenovo is pitching it as a viable upgrade for designers who regularly work in 3D modeling. Note that the this is a glass-free 3D display that uses a combination of eye tracking and lenticular lens array tech. That said, Lenovo says the software suite supports 3D for 30 games.
It takes some meaty hardware to drive a 4K resolution and/or to take full advantage of a 440Hz refresh rate at 1080p. To that end, you can configure the Legion 9i with up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor (24C/24T, up to 5.4GHz, 36MB of L3 cache)) based on Arrow Lake-HX, up to a GeForce RTX 5090 GPU, and up to a whopping 192GB (4x48GB) of DDR5-4000 dual-channel memory (64GB via 2x32GB and 32GB via 1x32GB configurations run at DDR5-5200). You can also stuff up to 8TB of solid state drive (SSD) storage in this thing.
"Built with top-tier hardware and next-generation AI software innovations, it combines exceptional speed and intelligence — not just for immersive gaming, but also to empower game developers, AI engineers, and designers with the high performance and optional 2K 3D support they need to bring their visions to life," said Jun Ouyang, Lenovo’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Consumer Segment, Intelligent Devices Group, Lenovo.
You also get 2x2 Killer Wi-Fi 7 BE1750x connectivity and a host of ports, including 1x HDMI 2.1 and a DC-In on the rear, and 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (always on), 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 2x Thunderbolt 5 (up to 120Gbps, DisplayPort 2.1, Power Delivery 3.0 140W), 1x combo audio jack, 1x eShutter button, and 1x SD card reader on the sides.
The icing on the 18-inch cake is a carbon fiber lid. According to Lenovo, it consists of eight layers of aviation-grade carbon fiber that is hand applied.
Like the similar ASUS ROG Strix Scar 18 we recently reviewed (hooray for the 18-inch form factor!), we can't imagine a fully loaded config will be cheap. There's no mention pricing just yet, though, only that it will vary by territory. Related, I'm told Lenovo's Legion 9i is available now in China and will ship to North America this fall.
