Lenovo Legion Pro 7 (2026) REVIEW - The 9955HX3D RETURNS! (Gaming Laptop) — Transcript

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1. 0:00This is the new 2026 Lenovo Legion Pro
2. 0:037, and it's about the most topsp spec
3. 0:06gaming laptop that you can buy. With one
4. 0:08of the fastest laptop processors
5. 0:10available and some very nice build
6. 0:12quality, it should be quite the machine.
7. 0:15But is the entire package worth it?
8. 0:18Let's find out. [music] And please like
9. 0:19and subscribe if you like these type of
10. 0:21videos. From the outside, the Legion Pro
11. 0:237 is about as good as it gets for a
12. 0:26gaming laptop. It's got a bright RGB
13. 0:29logo, RGB vents on the back, and of
14. 0:32course, an RGB keyboard. And in my
15. 0:34opinion, this is some of the best, most
16. 0:37vibrant lighting on a laptop. If that is
17. 0:40a bit too much for your taste, though,
18. 0:42you can of course just turn that all
19. 0:44off. And this way, it actually looks
20. 0:46quite stealthy. But the Pro 7 is built
21. 0:49like a tank. It has a fully metal body,
22. 0:52which is quite rare for a thicker,
23. 0:54bigger size gaming laptop. This makes it
24. 0:56incredibly sturdy and high quality, but
25. 0:59that also means it weighs about as much
26. 1:01as a tank, which is why some other
27. 1:04brands prefer more plastic. [music] It's
28. 1:06also about as thick as your average
29. 1:08gaming laptop, which isn't a bad thing
30. 1:11because combined with that massive ass
31. 1:14on the back, it should have quite the
32. 1:16space for beefy cooling. and beefy
33. 1:19cooling it'll need because this [music]
34. 1:20beast has about the best specs you can
35. 1:23imagine in a laptop including the Ryzen
36. 1:269 9955HX
37. 1:283D. This chip is essentially a desktop
38. 1:31processor with 16 cores and a whole lot
39. 1:34of power available. And the same goes
40. 1:37for its GPU where it should be able to
41. 1:39reach the maximum TGP for a laptop 5080.
42. 1:43It also comes in a bunch of other specs
43. 1:45though, so you're not forced to get the
44. 1:47best of the best at the highest price. A
45. 1:50big body also means lots of space for
46. 1:53I/IO, and it's got basically every port
47. 1:55you could want. This new variant doesn't
48. 1:58have any ports on the back anymore,
49. 2:00though, which some people prefer and
50. 2:03others don't. But it does still have a
51. 2:05physical webcam switch, which is getting
52. 2:08more and more handy these days. And to
53. 2:10power all of its components, it has this
54. 2:13massive 400 W power brick, which does
55. 2:16add some weight on top of it. But you
56. 2:19can bring smaller bricks with you for
57. 2:21emergencies since it also supports USBC
58. 2:23charging up to 100 W. Now, let's look at
59. 2:26its keyboard. [music]
60. 2:28It has a full per key RGB backlight, so
61. 2:31you can customize it to whatever you'd
62. 2:33like. And this thing is simply gorgeous,
63. 2:36especially combined with the rest of its
64. 2:38RGB. It also has a numpad on the side,
65. 2:41which many people need, as well as
66. 2:43full-size arrow keys. Now, here's what
67. 2:46it sounds like.
68. 2:51Lenovo is very good at making keyboards.
69. 2:54It feels nice and thumpy and has more
70. 2:56than enough key travel. And overall,
71. 2:59this is just a [music] nice, comfortable
72. 3:01keyboard. Moving down, we have its
73. 3:03trackpad. And it's not that big. It
74. 3:07could definitely fit a larger size. It
75. 3:09doesn't rattle or anything,
76. 3:14but it is made of plastic, so it feels a
77. 3:16bit cheap.
78. 3:21The clicks don't require much force to
79. 3:23press down, though, and they're very
80. 3:24satisfying. And then again, most people
81. 3:27are going to use a mouse anyways. Moving
82. 3:29up, we have its display. And just by
83. 3:32going off of the specs, this [music] is
84. 3:33a very nice screen to have. It is an
85. 3:37OLED panel, so you've got gorgeous
86. 3:39colors, infinite contrast, and perfect
87. 3:42inky blacks, be it in bright or dark
88. 3:44rooms. And with a [music] 240 Hz refresh
89. 3:47rate, it'll be fast enough for even the
90. 3:49fastest paced games. It's also a nice
91. 3:52high resolution, so you're never really
92. 3:55going to see any pixels, even if you sit
93. 3:57really close to your screen. But it has
94. 4:00one big drawback. It's very reflective.
95. 4:03Lenovo has, for some reason, still not
96. 4:06integrated any kind of anti-reflective
97. 4:09layer on their OLED displays, and it's
98. 4:11not like they don't exist. Asus has been
99. 4:14using their solution for almost 3 years
100. 4:16now, and it's been great. I almost feel
101. 4:19like they're saving money here because
102. 4:21using it near a window or even outside
103. 4:24kind of just kills the experience, which
104. 4:26is a real bummer. Apparently, they do
105. 4:29sell a separate kind of screen protector
106. 4:32that does have a matte coating, but
107. 4:34that's like buying a monitor and having
108. 4:36to buy the stand separately. It should
109. 4:38[music] have just come in the box
110. 4:39standard. The display itself doesn't
111. 4:42open up all the way, unfortunately. But
112. 4:44its hinge does feel sturdy. It's nice
113. 4:47and tight, and you can easily open and
114. 4:50close it with one hand. And it also has
115. 4:52basically zero wobble during use,
116. 4:54[music] which is great. Now, gaming
117. 4:56laptops usually have some pretty poopy
118. 4:58speakers, especially these thicker,
119. 5:01bigger, dedicated gaming machines. So,
120. 5:04how does the Pro 7 sound?
121. 5:07[music]
122. 5:12[music] Well, it actually sounds really
123. 5:15good. This new Legion has both
124. 5:17subwoofers on the bottom as well as two
125. 5:20top firing speakers on its ass here. So,
126. 5:23it's got a surprising amount of bass. It
127. 5:26gets very loud. And overall, it just
128. 5:28sounds really balanced, and you don't
129. 5:30even need to change any settings. It
130. 5:32just sounds good out of the box. So, for
131. 5:35gaming, movies, or music, it'll be
132. 5:38great.
133. 5:44The Legion Pro 7 has an okay camera.
134. 5:48It's nothing to write home about, and
135. 5:50the same goes for its microphone. you
136. 5:52can easily understand what I'm saying,
137. 5:54but it's not really studio level quality
138. 5:56or anything. But let's get to the
139. 5:58actually important stuff. Performance.
140. 6:02How fast is this thing with the fastest
141. 6:04laptop gaming CPU and a full fat RTX
142. 6:075080? Well, it's really fast. In
143. 6:11Cinebench R23, it reaches the top of the
144. 6:14charts in both single and multi-core
145. 6:16performance, only slightly behind the
146. 6:19newer Ultra 9290HX.
147. 6:21And in 3D Mark Time Spy, again, it's a
148. 6:24full power RTX 5080, so it's really
149. 6:27fast, but it's not the fastest 5080 I've
150. 6:31seen on a laptop. We'll look at why that
151. 6:33is in a little bit. First, let's use
152. 6:36this thing for what it was made for and
153. 6:38see how it performs in some actual
154. 6:40games.
155. 7:06THAT FLASH
156. 7:09[laughter]
157. 7:26MOVE.
158. 7:37Where they go?
159. 7:52[groaning]
160. 7:54[screaming]
161. 8:09Like expected, this thing is
162. 8:12ridiculously fast. Even at its high
163. 8:14native resolution of 2.5K, it got very
164. 8:18high frame rates in GPU intensive games,
165. 8:21but especially in CPU intensive titles
166. 8:24like Rust. It got FPS numbers that I've
167. 8:27actually never seen from a laptop. That
168. 8:309955 HX3D performs like nothing else in
169. 8:34games that can actually utilize that vc
170. 8:37like Rust. And so be it for the heaviest
171. 8:39programs or the newest of games, this
172. 8:42guy is not going to have any issues with
173. 8:44it. But that RTX 5080 was actually a bit
174. 8:48short of its maximum TGP of 175 W, which
175. 8:52is weird, right? Because in such a thick
176. 8:55chassis, it should be able to reach its
177. 8:58maximum wattage. Well, lots of power
178. 9:00also means lots of heat. And this laptop
179. 9:03handles that heat in a unique way. You
180. 9:07can either put it in performance mode or
181. 9:09you can create a custom power and fan
182. 9:12profile or just use the extreme profile
183. 9:15which pushes it to its limits. And this
184. 9:17is what I've been using to test all the
185. 9:19games with. And it turns out that it was
186. 9:22a bit [music] too much for its cooling
187. 9:24system. In that extreme profile, both
188. 9:27the CPU and GPU go a bit crazy. And
189. 9:31while this does make them very vast, it
190. 9:34pushes those components past their
191. 9:36thermal limits, [music] dropping the
192. 9:38profile down to performance does mean
193. 9:40you lose roughly 4 to 5% of performance.
194. 9:44But that's definitely worth it for a CPU
195. 9:46that's not able to cook an egg on your
196. 9:49laptop. Don't get me wrong, it is
197. 9:51awesome that they at least give you the
198. 9:53freedom to push your components to the
199. 9:55absolute maximum, but I would [music]
200. 9:58just stick to performance because in
201. 10:00that performance profile, the CPU stays
202. 10:03a whole lot cooler and stays at a very
203. 10:06nice temperature, but the GPU is still
204. 10:09edging its thermal limits, which is a
205. 10:12little bit worrying. This is also
206. 10:14probably why it isn't reaching its
207. 10:16maximum wattages because it's actually
208. 10:19throttling a little bit. And this also
209. 10:21explains why it did a little worse than
210. 10:23other laptops with a full fat 5080. It's
211. 10:26just running a bit too hot. But what
212. 10:28about fan noise?
213. 10:36Well, it's about as loud as your average
214. 10:39gaming laptop, but you can make it a bit
215. 10:42louder in that custom profile without
216. 10:45pumping all the power limits up.
217. 10:49So, I would really experiment in this
218. 10:51custom profile to make it a little bit
219. 10:53cooler. Now, lots of power also means
220. 10:56lots of power usage, [music] which
221. 10:58doesn't sound great for battery life,
222. 11:00right? Well, I tested this thing in two
223. 11:03different scenarios. Under light use and
224. 11:05during gaming. In the light use test, I
225. 11:08played a YouTube video until its battery
226. 11:10died with his display at 80% brightness
227. 11:13at 60 Hz and with the dedicated GPU
228. 11:15turned off.
229. 11:18Yeah, I wouldn't take this thing with
230. 11:20you without a charger. Even in the best
231. 11:22case, lightest use case scenario I could
232. 11:25come up with, it lasted barely longer
233. 11:27than 4 hours, [music] which is basically
234. 11:29nothing. In the gaming test, I played
235. 11:32Minecraft until its battery died with
236. 11:34the same settings as before. And again,
237. 11:37I would really bring your charger with
238. 11:38you. The 9955 HX3D is made for high
239. 11:42performance, not efficiency. I mean,
240. 11:44it's lacking any kind of efficiency
241. 11:46cores. But a bigger body does mean more
242. 11:50internal space. And so the Legion Pro 7
243. 11:53is quite upgradable. It has two sodium
244. 11:56slots, so you can upgrade this thing up
245. 11:58to 128 GB of RAM if you can afford that.
246. 12:03It has two full-size M.2 SSD slots, so
247. 12:06storage upgrades are very easy. And even
248. 12:09the Wi-Fi card is upgradeable, although
249. 12:11Wi-Fi 7 should be plenty. So far so
250. 12:14good, right? Well, let's make it less
251. 12:16good by mentioning its pricing. The
252. 12:19Legion Pro 7 in the spec used in this
253. 12:21video with a 9955 HX3D is almost 4,000
254. 12:26bucks. Yesterday, this model was
255. 12:29considerably cheaper though, so I would
256. 12:31really stay on the lookout for those
257. 12:32deals. There are cheaper, lower spec
258. 12:36models as well, but those are either
259. 12:38last year's variants or just downright
260. 12:41more expensive for some reason at the
261. 12:42moment. And there's also a higher spec
262. 12:455090 model, but yeah, that's 5090
263. 12:49pricing for you. The laptop market is
264. 12:52still in shambles, so none of these
265. 12:54prices really make sense at the moment.
266. 12:56I'll post links for all of these laptops
267. 12:58in the description down below for if
268. 13:00you're interested in buying them. Which
269. 13:01brings us to our conclusion. Is the 2026
270. 13:05Legion Pro 7 worth it? Well, this is one
271. 13:08of the best all-around gaming devices
272. 13:10money can buy, but it's definitely too
273. 13:13expensive right now. [music] The Legion
274. 13:15Pro 7 does a lot of things right. It's
275. 13:18got some of the prettiest RGB I've seen
276. 13:21so far. It's built incredibly well with
277. 13:24more metal than most gaming laptops. And
278. 13:26with a 9955 HX3D, it is almost double as
279. 13:31fast than the closest competition in
280. 13:33games that actually support 3D vcache
281. 13:35like Rust. And overall, this is just a
282. 13:38really fast laptop, but it's certainly
283. 13:41not perfect. Lenovo insists on still
284. 13:45giving this thing a mirror as a display,
285. 13:48even though it's basically their topsp
286. 13:49spec laptop, and that RTX 580 is a
287. 13:53little bit bottlenecked by its thermals
288. 13:55for my testing. But again, a bit more of
289. 13:57an aggressive fan curve can solve that
290. 14:00problem. If you can find it for around
291. 14:033,000 to 3,400 bucks, I would say it's a
292. 14:06pretty good deal for a 5080 laptop, but
293. 14:09at its current pricing, it's [music]
294. 14:11just a bit too much in my opinion. So,
295. 14:14yes, this is one of the best gaming
296. 14:16laptops that you can buy. [music]
297. 14:18Just make sure you're not overpaying for
298. 14:20it. But it does have competition. And at
299. 14:24a very similar price and basically
300. 14:26[music]
301. 14:27identical specs, the Stricks G16 is
302. 14:30definitely a threat. [music] So, which
303. 14:32one of them is better? Well, let's find
304. 14:34out in the next video because I'll be
305. 14:37comparing those two head-to-head in full
306. 14:39detail. [music] I will see you all then.
307. 14:41Bye-bye.
308. 14:45>> You're looking a little rough around the
309. 14:47edges.