I Desperately Hope This Lenovo Gaming Laptop Can Make 3D Screens Mainstream

Lenovo is 1 of the fewer large hardware brands that seems to deliberation “the adjacent large thing” successful laptops—beyond amended processors and adjacent much glowy RGB lights—is glasses-free 3D displays. The Lenovo Legion 9i should enactment 30 games with 3D effects, though it whitethorn beryllium brought down by an enormous, tariff-boosted terms tag. Ignoring the imaginable tremendous price, I’m near holding retired anticipation that lenticular lenses tin find a niche successful today’s gaming environment.

The Legion 9i is 1 of those room sink, desktop replacement laptops meant for some gamers and creatives who privation to bash everything from 1 device, adjacent 1 that weighs astir 8 pounds. That’s thing new, though what’s antithetic astir this instrumentality is its 18-inch “PureSight” show that supports 4K solution successful 2D alongside 2K (1,920 x 1,200) solution successful 3D. Like what we experienced with the Samsung Odyssey 3D gaming monitor and Lenovo’s conception 3D curved displays, the surface is an IPS LCD sheet built with a lenticular lens array. This creates a benignant of pseudo 3D popout effect on with a subtle hint of extent connected images. If you ever tried the 3D effect connected a Nintendo 3DS, past you person a bully thought what this looks like.

The Nintendo 3DS was besides notorious for requiring pitch-perfect viewing angles for the 3D effect. The exertion has improved acknowledgment to the usage of eye-tracking cameras that beam the representation to each oculus individually. Lenovo says users volition beryllium capable to power this utilizing the Lenovo 3D Studio software. The institution claims this supports 3D viewing successful “a myriad of video, image, and streaming formats” including immoderate instauration apps.

These are each the games Lenovo confirmed enactment with the Legion 9i’s 3D effects. Yes, there’s lone 29 there. Want to conjecture the missing game? © Lenovo

Yes, the 3D effect is simply a novelty for a niche assemblage of gamers, but from what I played, the effect enhances the otherworldliness of games with much stylized visuals. Our main gripe with the Samsung Odyssey 3D was its specified 13 supported games erstwhile the show itself outgo $2,000. Lenovo told Gizmodo this laptop supports 30 games, including large titles of the past respective years similar Cyberpunk 2077, Death Stranding, Black Myth: Wukong, Forza Horizon 5, and Fallout 4. We person yet to spot this 3D effect erstwhile playing a first-person game, and we’d beryllium acrophobic the presumption would pb to a consciousness of queasiness erstwhile a cyberpsycho’s monofilament leaf aimed astatine your quality pops retired of the surface similar a weapon aimed astatine your eyes.

The surface besides supports adaptable refresh complaint (VRR) that tin power from 240Hz astatine 4K to a blistering 440Hz astatine FHD. That’s handy, since the laptop is acceptable to incorporate an Intel Core 9 275HX CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 laptop GPU, positive up to 192GB of RAM. We inactive don’t person pricing, but considering the stated specs, it could beryllium an enormously costly device. The Legion 9i could outgo adjacent much than the MSI Titan 18 HX, 1 of the beefiest and astir costly laptops I’ve ever reviewed. At slightest it supports 4 slots apiece for RAM and SSD retention extensions.

Lenovo’s conception 3D laptop. © Kyle Barr / Gizmodo

Even the screen of the laptop is unique, sporting a camo-like signifier made of 8 layers of c fiber. The gaming laptop won’t beryllium disposable until autumn this year, though immoderate gamers and creators successful China volition apt beryllium the archetypal to cheque it out. Trump tariffs person pushed prices up for astir gadgets and galore different products besides, truthful we aren’t holding retired overmuch anticipation for a merchandise astir radical tin really afford.

Even with 30 games connected connection astatine launch, that inactive whitethorn not beryllium capable to propulsion 3D screens into the mainstream. We asked Lenovo if the Legion 9i could enactment third-party 3D software, similar Samsung’s Reality Hub utilized connected its Odyssey 3D, but the institution declined to say. The outgo of conception devices similar this volition lone get steeper arsenic clip goes on.