DoctorEldritch
Hello Legion Gamers!
Last week we had a chance to ask some questions to the Lenovo Legion product team! Thank you to everyone who asked a question, and we're now happy to share answers with you! Behold!
Question from @M2lobaz:
Question is mainly about the LA AI chip and AI Engine+ How it was planned for, how much effort and time it has taken to come in fully service and what are your plans for AI machine learning in future?
Amazing question!
The team began training the machine learning algorithm over three years ago.
Our R&D Team first surveyed what were the most popular AAA games across the globe, then trained the model on those 17 titles. This allowed us to issue custom CPU and GPU TDP settings to allocate the correct graphical power ratio depending on the game being played. Ex: CS:GO has traditionally been a more CPU-intensive game, whereas Cyberpunk 2077 would be more GPU-intensive.
After training the model up for three years, we decided to embed the LA AI Chip to replace our older embedded controllers to allow for the hardware to deploy the algorithm while simultaneously offering general UX benefits across other parts of the device like "Scenario Detection" or augmenting our "Q Control" fan system, which helped improve battery life and general performance.
The scenario detection is particularly fun. Let's say you played a game 10 times, and 2 of those times your FPS popped up to 165 from 144. The Lenovo AI Engine+ and LA chip will key into that scenario and try to figure out what parameters were in place to achieve that extra boost in performance, then attempt to duplicate it in future game launches to eke out those consistent gains in performance.
On our Legion Pro 7 with LA2-Q, the RGB will also intelligently sync to the scene on screen to match the color pantone. Ex: Let's say you are playing Red Dead Redemption 2, and you are riding your trusty steed across a lush and green field. The AI Engine+ will sync those colors to the keyboard and front facing light strip to create this environmental ambient effect. Bonus: it also works with audio and video making music or movies feel super immersive!
Question from @JokerZida:
Question is when the new devices will be available in the markets?!
It depends market by market. We have introduced our new Legion Pro7 and Pro5 at CES last week and we expect to see first units in EMEA from February/M.
“A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.” (c) Gandalf the Grey
"Should be February/March." (c) Sergey
Questions by @gohan:
For Christopher Piazza: What is your favorite marketing campaign of all time?
Oh wow, amazing question.
I absolutely adore the campaign we ran last year (see video). As a big MMO player this one hit super close to home. I still stand by it, anyone who was a raid leader should put that on their CV!
Outside of traditional gaming pcs, I always really enjoyed this ad campaign that ran from Nike around the World Cup call "Take It To The Next Level" (would link but I dont see any "official" channels, so you'll have to venture on your own to see it :))
What is your favorite marketing software tool?
My role is on Product Marketing, so less "ad campaign/Google AdWords", so I don't have a favorite marketing software per se. That being said I have been enjoying ChatGPT for copy and technical feature explanations. The future of AI (on or off gaming PCs) is looking bright.
What are the most common misconceptions about marketing that you often hear?
When I started working in the Gaming Industry 10 years ago, everyone stereotyped PC gamers as that dude from that South Park episode "Make Love Not Warcraft". The team took a fair bit of time to help people not familiar with gaming appreciate that the exact opposite was the reality, and that gamers were hyper social, fun, cool and that the gaming community can be a really amazing place.
What do you think is the most important thing to keep in mind when using social media for marketing purposes?
Authenticity. I say this as a gamer, we know when we are being "marketed to", so at all marketing touch points a gaming brand needs to be authentic in their communications.
For Sergey Balashov: How often do you launch new features?
I'd say yearly - that is the cycle, more or less. We estimate how useful new features will be and whether they are ready to be sold on the markets. Some small software updates may take half a year, but any new hardware features have to wait until the next product cycle, because integrating them into already finished designs would take too much effort and time. Oh, and it would delay the next generation, which is a big "no-no".
Where do ideas for new features come from? How do you decide which ones to build?
The idea can come from anywhere - end-user question on the forum, hands-on developer experience (I truly believe those who develop products should use them every day to understand the end-user pain points better), some influencer idea from a video. Also, we have a special department of guys getting paid to be creative about the features!
Every feature is actually a solution to something - all the features are evaluated by R&D and then the decision is made collectively on which feature will fit on which device (some people love RGB, others love white backlight, and so on), how much will it cost to implement, and how well does it solve the issue compared to alternatives with lower/higher price.
What is the most successful product you have managed? What made it so successful?
One of my favourites was Legion 5 Pro in 2021 and 2022, now continuing in 2023. The trend that we started there with 16:10 screens combined with powerful hardware really resonated with users - we made a bet that gaming laptops are not only for people that game, but also for those who use their gaming laptop as an everyday life and productivity laptop, and we were right!
Question by @Sinber:
Will there be a quiet keyboard? I mean I know there is a K300 in membrane design but in my opinion the wrist tab is missing (since I have a keyboard with a wrist slot I really appreciate it)
So there is also a K500 that has red switches, theoretically they can be switched to silent red? I guess it will be easier and more cost-effective to add a wrist tab to K300 (theoretically). There are no other designs in the works now as far as I know.
Questions by @Saka:
I wonder what the biggest challenges are in adapting the product for release in specific regions.
Oh man, there are so many! That is literally one of the most hard and time-consuming things in my job. The challenge is that every country has its own opinion on what is good and what is not, whereas there are no "regional" products, since they are released worldwide (otherwise you are not able to justify the R&D costs!), and it means that there needs to be an agreement among all continents.
All countries have to agree on some carved-in-stone things like types of CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD/Screens/materials, but then there are things where there may be some flexibility, like webcam, battery or backlight color options where countries sometimes have a choice.
The most difficult one to come to an agreement on is usually the chassis design itself, since everyone has their own opinion (and rightfully so!), and this is partially solved by having many different laptop designs with different naming instead of just single "universal" one.
Sergey nailed this one, but one additional "insight" comes from general user behaviour in different markets.
As an example certain markets may be more "console-forward" or prefer RPG and immersive games, compared to other markets that are more keyboard and mouse competitive shooters. Further some markets may prefer color accuracy, high dynamic range and resolution for game development or content creation vs other markets that prefer high refresh rates and lower latency for eSports gaming.
Our job at the global and regional level is to evaluate those scenarios and market conditions, and ensure that we have a flexible mix of devices for our global users. If we didn't do that, then one group would invariably be neglected, and that would just be a bummer.
To Sergey: I am intrigued by the crystal ball. Does it run on tensorflow?
No, so far my crystal ball runs on organic neural network in my head, as the amount of things to "denoise" from is so big, that by the time you have input all the factors in, couple of emails arrive with new major factors to account for and re-learn from. That is one of the reasons why I am not too afraid to be replaced by AI (at least not among the first professions to fall) - too many unpredictable variables to handle...
What challenges that aren't something that would pop up in the mind instantly are present?
In the office we always joke that if you change A, it will domino to Z.
To give you an example, we had a deep discussion over upfiring speakers vs full sized keyboards.
We went into deep research across the globe and found that, although upfiring speakers are a really solid design choice, more of our respondents were critical of the keyboard layout and wanted that numberpad, full sized arrows and spacious trackpad.
When we dove a layer deeper we discovered that although many users listen to music and game with speakers, a larger majority spend their time using headphones and an even larger majority didn't see a downside to downfiring in the first place or had any preference. Whereas a massive amount of gamers were interacting with their keyboard for hours and hours on end every day and were exceptionally critical of the keyboard experience and layout.
The conclusion for this challenge was to maintain our amazing TrueStrike keyboard layout, update the switches to the soft landing ones, upgrade our audio software with Nahimic by SteelSeries and improve our downfiring speakers chambers to improve the speaker performance (among other technical stuff in the background).
Literally mountains of things that are not obvious but are very logical when you think about it.
Among my favourites is the amount of time and effort that is needed to test anything. Unlike DIY upgrade you cannot just say "oh well, we have run out of this exact RAM module, so we will change it for something with the same or better specs and hope it works" - we need to be sure that the new module works properly in all modes, meaning days of testing. As a bonus headache - the source (production) of this RAM module should be up for the next 6-9 months, so that you did not just waste hours of very valuable engineer time on testing something that you can now not put inside the laptop!
Oh yeah, and the "valuable engineer time" - that is another not so obvious but very logical thing. You cannot "just add this feature" or "just add this screen" or "just have this different CPU there" - all this development and testing is done by real people with real and limited time on their hands, so you cannot just throw money at everything, you need to consider reasonable priorities and reasonable amount of things to implement without over-complicating things.
Questions by @mastereur:
Why the USB4 feature is not highlighted in the new product to allow to plus an external graphic card?
External GPUs for laptops have occupied minds for quite some time now, but so far it is easier and cheaper either to use internal ones in the laptop, especially given the laptop card's excellent performance as an opposite to external one's losses over the external ports, or to use a full desktop PC.
The idea itself sets the question as "if you want an external card for upgrade reasons, what do you plan to keep old in two/three years - your laptop or your card?" Usually the answer is "none", which kinda defeats the whole purpose.
For Sergey: When creating the new laptop design, how long does it take and what are the major stages during the reflexion process?
I am not the one creating exterior designs, so can not vouch for the design department that actually comes up with the exterior design.
However, I can say that the design is shown to us, product managers, at early concept stages, and we give feedback to designers on what we think is the right direction and what to try and avoid. Usually it takes a year to design a product - spend more and you are behind on technology, spend less and you risk underdeveloping the product and implementing too little of progress to be meaningful.
Important thing to remember is that design is never distant from function in laptops - the narrow dimentions do not allow for such luxury as non-functional elements. So the design always originates at function - will it be a heavy work/game station, or will it be a portable office with casual gaming capabilities? Who will use this device? That is what defines the looks the most.
Question from @GoLLuM13:
Why the name of our laptop is so simple and user friendly when the name of our screen are so complicated ? (example Legion I7 vs Legion Y27qf-30 ) Why not use simpler names for the screens like U27, F27 or Q27
Well, you used the short name for the laptop - calling it properly would probably result in something like Legion 7 16IAX7 82TD004SGE, so not the easiest tongue-twister... But I will transfer your question to the big-screen guys and will stand there waiting for the answer. Menacingly.
Question from @CB84:
To Sergey: what is the most fundamental difference between designing computers for the EMEA market, as opposed to designing for the Asian or American market?
The colossal difference comes from the amount of markets within each continent. EMEA has very diverse demands to what the product should be, how it should look, which features are the most important, how much should features cost... It is really a challenge to find compromise between what is preferable in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, while every one of them deserves the best product that fits their needs.
What one country will never buy, another country will sell in tens of thousands. The task is to build the portfolio in a way that every country can find a fitting product with options that will be welcome there.
Question from @Inyeon:
My question goes to Mr. Piazza. First to congratulate you for your professional career in the Lenovo group, also for your good taste in video games.
Let's go with the question, recently was announced the new range of Lenovo, the Legion Pro 7 and 7i and the Pro 5 and 5i, which include an artificial intelligence with a learning algorithm that keeps the performance of the device to the maximum, this feature, by itself, already stands out in the good sense of its competitors. My first question, being a brand as recognized as Lenovo is it necessary an aggressive marketing strategy for a product that stands out from its competitors?
The second (if I may) the Spanish-speaking community has a lot of streaming culture, especially on platforms like Twitch, YouTube, etc. Do you follow a Content Marketing strategy different from other countries in Spanish-speaking regions?
Mr. Piazza feels so formal, call me Chris! (or my gamertag: Azorahaiz. Extra credit if anyone can get the reference)
We launched the Lenovo AI Engine+ a few generations ago, and it was and continues to be a very important passion our RD guys have to make our systems the best tuned.
Our team (and general philosophy on Lenovo Legion) has always been "less marketing fluff, more actual results". If you build an awesome product, and do that millions upon millions of time, the experience will speak for itself. I know once people get these machines in hand, they will be satisfied, no additional promotion needed. (and tell your friends!)
In regards to our Spanish-speaking community, we absolutely have a strategy in place for specific markets and are always looking to expand further and further into Latin American countries and rely on local regional teams to do what is in the best interest in their particular market.
Questions by @j7schultz:
My questions: Do you have Legion products, which ones?
Lenovo has a huge variety of products, now with these AI embedded laptops, with that in mind, do you plan to expand the range of products, such as: virtual reality glasses, controllers, etc. to further enhance the user experience and build customer loyalty?
I have been using a Legion Slim (Gen 7) as my daily driver for the last year, I love that I can effortlessly undock it from my home office and jet to the office. That 99.99Whr battery is a life saver.
I have a dual monitor setup using an older generation Y27 and a Y27-qc that I picked up in 2021, and it's been amazing for work and gaming. I can't imagine ever going back to a single display.
When it comes to more products, we are always exploring new devices and form factors, and are always researching what technology can make gamers' lives better.
I have a set of Legion 7 and Legion 5 Pro as my devices for gaming. For work, I work currently on a Thinkpad X1 which I will change to a Thinkpad Yoga soon. Also in the household we have a Yoga and a Chromebook Duet so pretty well stocked on Lenovo devices :) As for your other question we do have a wide and holistic range in Gaming devices and are always looking at how we can make it even better. Without saying too much I can assure I'm very excited about some of our future projects, just stay tuned....
I have Legion 7 of 2021 as my work and game device, and I really love it so much that I have not yet decided if I want to upgrade this year or not. But probably will - the new gen hardware is such a huge leap!
My wife has Legion Slim 7, that she uses for photo editing.
As I want to keep working for Lenovo, I cannot disclose some things you asked for, but I can tell that I definitely like where you are going with your questions!
Question from @Yuni:
My deep question is...
Will they continue to bring them out in white? 😜
Please don't stop making them black, it's the nicest thing to do 👑
I promise to keep white on our radar!
As for black - the new Legion Pro 5 and Legion Pro 7 come in an "Onyx Grey", that is closer to black, than to last year's "Storm Grey", so you will probably like it.
Question from @Lalipamb:
Is there an option in Lenovo Vantage to change the keyboard lights or fan speed for the y720 series?
The fan speed manual mode option is only coming this year to Legion series - all the previous series had the fan settings curves that reacted automatically to temperature sensors and power load of different components to keep them at appropriate levels of cool while also not making too much noise.
As for the keyboard lights - I think Lenovo Vantage was developed later than Y720 laptops, so there is probably no legacy support there for older models. I remember the software for Y720 was called the Nerve Center (Nerve Sense), that one should work.
Question from @muhmaed50913333:
Can Legion make a mobile app?
What would you want to have there? The idea is in the air, but so far we are focused on adding new features to the desktop version (Vantage).
Question from @HajarGR:
Will you keep the Legion laptop design for a bit longer or you'll soon change it?
We really like the direction we took with the design, which really stands out compared to others, so we currently see no reason to change what works so well for us and our fans.
Question from @Killua004:
What will be the cost of new devices and do you promise us with a legendary performance?
It's a free market, so the cost is not defined entirely and only by us. But I can say that we carefully weigh all decisions on the new products, and cost discussions are always an important part of it.
That is actually why we took a turn to go from Legion 7 which was a very high-end premium high-performance device to Legion 7 Pro, where focus is shifted to high-performance more, and not so much on the premium features (such as all-around RGB). Hence the change of name, to show that it is not the same niche as Legion 7. I hope that new prices for Legion Pro 7 with such a legendary performance will really be a pleasant surprise for those who look forward to them.
My thanks go to John, Chris, and Sergey from Lenovo’s Product Team for taking the time to answer community questions related to Legion products and what it’s like to work at Lenovo! Let's hope we can do this again sometime!
Last week we had a chance to ask some questions to the Lenovo Legion product team! Thank you to everyone who asked a question, and we're now happy to share answers with you! Behold!
Question from @M2lobaz:
Question is mainly about the LA AI chip and AI Engine+ How it was planned for, how much effort and time it has taken to come in fully service and what are your plans for AI machine learning in future?
Chris answers:
Amazing question!
The team began training the machine learning algorithm over three years ago.
Our R&D Team first surveyed what were the most popular AAA games across the globe, then trained the model on those 17 titles. This allowed us to issue custom CPU and GPU TDP settings to allocate the correct graphical power ratio depending on the game being played. Ex: CS:GO has traditionally been a more CPU-intensive game, whereas Cyberpunk 2077 would be more GPU-intensive.
After training the model up for three years, we decided to embed the LA AI Chip to replace our older embedded controllers to allow for the hardware to deploy the algorithm while simultaneously offering general UX benefits across other parts of the device like "Scenario Detection" or augmenting our "Q Control" fan system, which helped improve battery life and general performance.
The scenario detection is particularly fun. Let's say you played a game 10 times, and 2 of those times your FPS popped up to 165 from 144. The Lenovo AI Engine+ and LA chip will key into that scenario and try to figure out what parameters were in place to achieve that extra boost in performance, then attempt to duplicate it in future game launches to eke out those consistent gains in performance.
On our Legion Pro 7 with LA2-Q, the RGB will also intelligently sync to the scene on screen to match the color pantone. Ex: Let's say you are playing Red Dead Redemption 2, and you are riding your trusty steed across a lush and green field. The AI Engine+ will sync those colors to the keyboard and front facing light strip to create this environmental ambient effect. Bonus: it also works with audio and video making music or movies feel super immersive!
Question from @JokerZida:
Question is when the new devices will be available in the markets?!
John answers:
It depends market by market. We have introduced our new Legion Pro7 and Pro5 at CES last week and we expect to see first units in EMEA from February/M.
Sergey adds:
“A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.” (c) Gandalf the Grey
"Should be February/March." (c) Sergey
Questions by @gohan:
For Christopher Piazza: What is your favorite marketing campaign of all time?
Chris answers:
Oh wow, amazing question.
I absolutely adore the campaign we ran last year (see video). As a big MMO player this one hit super close to home. I still stand by it, anyone who was a raid leader should put that on their CV!
Outside of traditional gaming pcs, I always really enjoyed this ad campaign that ran from Nike around the World Cup call "Take It To The Next Level" (would link but I dont see any "official" channels, so you'll have to venture on your own to see it :))
What is your favorite marketing software tool?
Chris answers:
My role is on Product Marketing, so less "ad campaign/Google AdWords", so I don't have a favorite marketing software per se. That being said I have been enjoying ChatGPT for copy and technical feature explanations. The future of AI (on or off gaming PCs) is looking bright.
What are the most common misconceptions about marketing that you often hear?
Chris answers:
When I started working in the Gaming Industry 10 years ago, everyone stereotyped PC gamers as that dude from that South Park episode "Make Love Not Warcraft". The team took a fair bit of time to help people not familiar with gaming appreciate that the exact opposite was the reality, and that gamers were hyper social, fun, cool and that the gaming community can be a really amazing place.
What do you think is the most important thing to keep in mind when using social media for marketing purposes?
Chris answers:
Authenticity. I say this as a gamer, we know when we are being "marketed to", so at all marketing touch points a gaming brand needs to be authentic in their communications.
For Sergey Balashov: How often do you launch new features?
Sergey answers:
I'd say yearly - that is the cycle, more or less. We estimate how useful new features will be and whether they are ready to be sold on the markets. Some small software updates may take half a year, but any new hardware features have to wait until the next product cycle, because integrating them into already finished designs would take too much effort and time. Oh, and it would delay the next generation, which is a big "no-no".
Where do ideas for new features come from? How do you decide which ones to build?
Sergey answers:
The idea can come from anywhere - end-user question on the forum, hands-on developer experience (I truly believe those who develop products should use them every day to understand the end-user pain points better), some influencer idea from a video. Also, we have a special department of guys getting paid to be creative about the features!
Every feature is actually a solution to something - all the features are evaluated by R&D and then the decision is made collectively on which feature will fit on which device (some people love RGB, others love white backlight, and so on), how much will it cost to implement, and how well does it solve the issue compared to alternatives with lower/higher price.
What is the most successful product you have managed? What made it so successful?
Sergey answers:
One of my favourites was Legion 5 Pro in 2021 and 2022, now continuing in 2023. The trend that we started there with 16:10 screens combined with powerful hardware really resonated with users - we made a bet that gaming laptops are not only for people that game, but also for those who use their gaming laptop as an everyday life and productivity laptop, and we were right!
Question by @Sinber:
Will there be a quiet keyboard? I mean I know there is a K300 in membrane design but in my opinion the wrist tab is missing (since I have a keyboard with a wrist slot I really appreciate it)
Sergey answers:
So there is also a K500 that has red switches, theoretically they can be switched to silent red? I guess it will be easier and more cost-effective to add a wrist tab to K300 (theoretically). There are no other designs in the works now as far as I know.
Questions by @Saka:
I wonder what the biggest challenges are in adapting the product for release in specific regions.
Sergey answers:
Oh man, there are so many! That is literally one of the most hard and time-consuming things in my job. The challenge is that every country has its own opinion on what is good and what is not, whereas there are no "regional" products, since they are released worldwide (otherwise you are not able to justify the R&D costs!), and it means that there needs to be an agreement among all continents.
All countries have to agree on some carved-in-stone things like types of CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD/Screens/materials, but then there are things where there may be some flexibility, like webcam, battery or backlight color options where countries sometimes have a choice.
The most difficult one to come to an agreement on is usually the chassis design itself, since everyone has their own opinion (and rightfully so!), and this is partially solved by having many different laptop designs with different naming instead of just single "universal" one.
Chris adds:
Sergey nailed this one, but one additional "insight" comes from general user behaviour in different markets.
As an example certain markets may be more "console-forward" or prefer RPG and immersive games, compared to other markets that are more keyboard and mouse competitive shooters. Further some markets may prefer color accuracy, high dynamic range and resolution for game development or content creation vs other markets that prefer high refresh rates and lower latency for eSports gaming.
Our job at the global and regional level is to evaluate those scenarios and market conditions, and ensure that we have a flexible mix of devices for our global users. If we didn't do that, then one group would invariably be neglected, and that would just be a bummer.
To Sergey: I am intrigued by the crystal ball. Does it run on tensorflow?
Sergey answers:
No, so far my crystal ball runs on organic neural network in my head, as the amount of things to "denoise" from is so big, that by the time you have input all the factors in, couple of emails arrive with new major factors to account for and re-learn from. That is one of the reasons why I am not too afraid to be replaced by AI (at least not among the first professions to fall) - too many unpredictable variables to handle...
What challenges that aren't something that would pop up in the mind instantly are present?
Chris answers:
In the office we always joke that if you change A, it will domino to Z.
To give you an example, we had a deep discussion over upfiring speakers vs full sized keyboards.
We went into deep research across the globe and found that, although upfiring speakers are a really solid design choice, more of our respondents were critical of the keyboard layout and wanted that numberpad, full sized arrows and spacious trackpad.
When we dove a layer deeper we discovered that although many users listen to music and game with speakers, a larger majority spend their time using headphones and an even larger majority didn't see a downside to downfiring in the first place or had any preference. Whereas a massive amount of gamers were interacting with their keyboard for hours and hours on end every day and were exceptionally critical of the keyboard experience and layout.
The conclusion for this challenge was to maintain our amazing TrueStrike keyboard layout, update the switches to the soft landing ones, upgrade our audio software with Nahimic by SteelSeries and improve our downfiring speakers chambers to improve the speaker performance (among other technical stuff in the background).
Sergey adds:
Literally mountains of things that are not obvious but are very logical when you think about it.
Among my favourites is the amount of time and effort that is needed to test anything. Unlike DIY upgrade you cannot just say "oh well, we have run out of this exact RAM module, so we will change it for something with the same or better specs and hope it works" - we need to be sure that the new module works properly in all modes, meaning days of testing. As a bonus headache - the source (production) of this RAM module should be up for the next 6-9 months, so that you did not just waste hours of very valuable engineer time on testing something that you can now not put inside the laptop!
Oh yeah, and the "valuable engineer time" - that is another not so obvious but very logical thing. You cannot "just add this feature" or "just add this screen" or "just have this different CPU there" - all this development and testing is done by real people with real and limited time on their hands, so you cannot just throw money at everything, you need to consider reasonable priorities and reasonable amount of things to implement without over-complicating things.
Questions by @mastereur:
Why the USB4 feature is not highlighted in the new product to allow to plus an external graphic card?
Sergey answers:
External GPUs for laptops have occupied minds for quite some time now, but so far it is easier and cheaper either to use internal ones in the laptop, especially given the laptop card's excellent performance as an opposite to external one's losses over the external ports, or to use a full desktop PC.
The idea itself sets the question as "if you want an external card for upgrade reasons, what do you plan to keep old in two/three years - your laptop or your card?" Usually the answer is "none", which kinda defeats the whole purpose.
For Sergey: When creating the new laptop design, how long does it take and what are the major stages during the reflexion process?
Sergey answers:
I am not the one creating exterior designs, so can not vouch for the design department that actually comes up with the exterior design.
However, I can say that the design is shown to us, product managers, at early concept stages, and we give feedback to designers on what we think is the right direction and what to try and avoid. Usually it takes a year to design a product - spend more and you are behind on technology, spend less and you risk underdeveloping the product and implementing too little of progress to be meaningful.
Important thing to remember is that design is never distant from function in laptops - the narrow dimentions do not allow for such luxury as non-functional elements. So the design always originates at function - will it be a heavy work/game station, or will it be a portable office with casual gaming capabilities? Who will use this device? That is what defines the looks the most.
Question from @GoLLuM13:
Why the name of our laptop is so simple and user friendly when the name of our screen are so complicated ? (example Legion I7 vs Legion Y27qf-30 ) Why not use simpler names for the screens like U27, F27 or Q27
Sergey answers:
Well, you used the short name for the laptop - calling it properly would probably result in something like Legion 7 16IAX7 82TD004SGE, so not the easiest tongue-twister... But I will transfer your question to the big-screen guys and will stand there waiting for the answer. Menacingly.
Question from @CB84:
To Sergey: what is the most fundamental difference between designing computers for the EMEA market, as opposed to designing for the Asian or American market?
Sergey answers:
The colossal difference comes from the amount of markets within each continent. EMEA has very diverse demands to what the product should be, how it should look, which features are the most important, how much should features cost... It is really a challenge to find compromise between what is preferable in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, while every one of them deserves the best product that fits their needs.
What one country will never buy, another country will sell in tens of thousands. The task is to build the portfolio in a way that every country can find a fitting product with options that will be welcome there.
Question from @Inyeon:
My question goes to Mr. Piazza. First to congratulate you for your professional career in the Lenovo group, also for your good taste in video games.
Let's go with the question, recently was announced the new range of Lenovo, the Legion Pro 7 and 7i and the Pro 5 and 5i, which include an artificial intelligence with a learning algorithm that keeps the performance of the device to the maximum, this feature, by itself, already stands out in the good sense of its competitors. My first question, being a brand as recognized as Lenovo is it necessary an aggressive marketing strategy for a product that stands out from its competitors?
The second (if I may) the Spanish-speaking community has a lot of streaming culture, especially on platforms like Twitch, YouTube, etc. Do you follow a Content Marketing strategy different from other countries in Spanish-speaking regions?
Mr. Piazza answers:
Mr. Piazza feels so formal, call me Chris! (or my gamertag: Azorahaiz. Extra credit if anyone can get the reference)
We launched the Lenovo AI Engine+ a few generations ago, and it was and continues to be a very important passion our RD guys have to make our systems the best tuned.
Our team (and general philosophy on Lenovo Legion) has always been "less marketing fluff, more actual results". If you build an awesome product, and do that millions upon millions of time, the experience will speak for itself. I know once people get these machines in hand, they will be satisfied, no additional promotion needed. (and tell your friends!)
In regards to our Spanish-speaking community, we absolutely have a strategy in place for specific markets and are always looking to expand further and further into Latin American countries and rely on local regional teams to do what is in the best interest in their particular market.
Questions by @j7schultz:
My questions: Do you have Legion products, which ones?
Lenovo has a huge variety of products, now with these AI embedded laptops, with that in mind, do you plan to expand the range of products, such as: virtual reality glasses, controllers, etc. to further enhance the user experience and build customer loyalty?
Chris answers:
I have been using a Legion Slim (Gen 7) as my daily driver for the last year, I love that I can effortlessly undock it from my home office and jet to the office. That 99.99Whr battery is a life saver.
I have a dual monitor setup using an older generation Y27 and a Y27-qc that I picked up in 2021, and it's been amazing for work and gaming. I can't imagine ever going back to a single display.
When it comes to more products, we are always exploring new devices and form factors, and are always researching what technology can make gamers' lives better.
John adds:
I have a set of Legion 7 and Legion 5 Pro as my devices for gaming. For work, I work currently on a Thinkpad X1 which I will change to a Thinkpad Yoga soon. Also in the household we have a Yoga and a Chromebook Duet so pretty well stocked on Lenovo devices :) As for your other question we do have a wide and holistic range in Gaming devices and are always looking at how we can make it even better. Without saying too much I can assure I'm very excited about some of our future projects, just stay tuned....
Sergey adds:
I have Legion 7 of 2021 as my work and game device, and I really love it so much that I have not yet decided if I want to upgrade this year or not. But probably will - the new gen hardware is such a huge leap!
My wife has Legion Slim 7, that she uses for photo editing.
As I want to keep working for Lenovo, I cannot disclose some things you asked for, but I can tell that I definitely like where you are going with your questions!
Question from @Yuni:
My deep question is...
Will they continue to bring them out in white? 😜
Please don't stop making them black, it's the nicest thing to do 👑
Sergey answers:
I promise to keep white on our radar!
As for black - the new Legion Pro 5 and Legion Pro 7 come in an "Onyx Grey", that is closer to black, than to last year's "Storm Grey", so you will probably like it.
Question from @Lalipamb:
Is there an option in Lenovo Vantage to change the keyboard lights or fan speed for the y720 series?
Sergey answers:
The fan speed manual mode option is only coming this year to Legion series - all the previous series had the fan settings curves that reacted automatically to temperature sensors and power load of different components to keep them at appropriate levels of cool while also not making too much noise.
As for the keyboard lights - I think Lenovo Vantage was developed later than Y720 laptops, so there is probably no legacy support there for older models. I remember the software for Y720 was called the Nerve Center (Nerve Sense), that one should work.
Question from @muhmaed50913333:
Can Legion make a mobile app?
Sergey answers:
What would you want to have there? The idea is in the air, but so far we are focused on adding new features to the desktop version (Vantage).
Question from @HajarGR:
Will you keep the Legion laptop design for a bit longer or you'll soon change it?
Sergey answers:
We really like the direction we took with the design, which really stands out compared to others, so we currently see no reason to change what works so well for us and our fans.
Question from @Killua004:
What will be the cost of new devices and do you promise us with a legendary performance?
Sergey answers:
It's a free market, so the cost is not defined entirely and only by us. But I can say that we carefully weigh all decisions on the new products, and cost discussions are always an important part of it.
That is actually why we took a turn to go from Legion 7 which was a very high-end premium high-performance device to Legion 7 Pro, where focus is shifted to high-performance more, and not so much on the premium features (such as all-around RGB). Hence the change of name, to show that it is not the same niche as Legion 7. I hope that new prices for Legion Pro 7 with such a legendary performance will really be a pleasant surprise for those who look forward to them.
My thanks go to John, Chris, and Sergey from Lenovo’s Product Team for taking the time to answer community questions related to Legion products and what it’s like to work at Lenovo! Let's hope we can do this again sometime!
Community members -
what team from Lenovo would you be interested in hearing from,
in case we're able to organize another Ask Me Anything in the future?
what team from Lenovo would you be interested in hearing from,
in case we're able to organize another Ask Me Anything in the future?
