Home Computer The Lenovo Legion 5 gaming laptops | full review

The Lenovo Legion 5 gaming laptops | full review

the Lenovo Legion 5 gaming laptop computer with specs, price, and overall performance that are so straight down the center of the avenue that they would possibly as nicely be studded with cat’s eyes. Apologies in improve if this is now not the most action-packed hardware assessment you’ve ever read.

the Lenovo Legion 5. It’s one of several so-called “AMD Advantage” laptops, alongside the most current HP Omen 16 and Asus ROG Strix G15 models, branded as such for their blended use of the modern-day AMD Radeon GPUs and Ryzen CPUs/APUs. In this case, it’s the Radeon RX 6600M and the octa-core Ryzen 7 5800H (which is additionally new for 2022 notwithstanding the higher-end Ryzen 6000 chips having launched as well). The concept is that matching AMD components will release exclusive, performance-enhancing points like Smart Access Memory (SAM), supporting to shut the hole with Nvidia and Intel – who’ve each been busy making most of the best graphics cards and satisfactory gaming CPUs respectively.

Lenovo Legion 5 specs:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800H
RAM: 16GB DDR4
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6600M (8GB)
Storage: 512GB NVMe SSD
Display: 15.6in, 1920×1080, 165Hz IPS panel
Ports: 1x HDMI 2.1, 4x USB 3.1 Type-A ports, 2x USB-C (both with DisplayPort, 1x with power delivery), 1x 3.5m combined headphone and microphone jack, 1x RJ45 Ethernet
Dimensions: 363x261x25.8mm
Weight: 2.4kg
Price: $1255

the Lenovo Legion 5 gaming overall performance is much extra or much less impressive than a comparably specced RTX 3060 laptop, however, there’s definitely sufficient power right here for the 1080p resolution. Together with a good overall display overall performance and an agreeable price, the Legion 5 may properly deserve to be your subsequent gaming laptop computer even if it’s nothing to get too excited about.

This restrained method has informed the design as much as anything. The mature styling will simply appeal to all of us who by no means developed a style for RGB, although there are lighter gaming laptops, with the Legion 5 weighing 2.4kg, and its “Coldfront” twin blower system evidently isn’t sophisticated enough to prevent fan noise reaching a headset-necessitating 47db.

Still, at least it works nicely sufficient to give up the keyboard getting too toasty. More generally, typing on these backlit mechanical keys feels crisp and comfortable, even with a variety pad having been squished in, and Lenovo has been wise in lining up most of the ports at the rear. These consist of the power, HDMI, and Ethernet jacks, as properly as three of the 4 full-size USB ports and one of the two USB-C ports – all of which will be tucked out of location and out of sight as you play, as adverse to infringing on your mouse motion space. This additionally leaves room on the extra immediately accessible right area for a webcam killswitch: available from a privateness perspective, and a welcome hardware extra. Albeit a dinky one.

There is some flex to the screen, which loses the Lenovo Legion 5 some points on build quality, however, the show itself is the laptop’s brightest flash of greatness. It’s a 15.6in, 1920×1080 IPS panel with added gaming chops coming in two ways: a speedy 165Hz refresh rate and AMD FreeSync assist inside the 60-165Hz range. Besides having this built-in resistance to tearing, there’s nearly no visible ghosting on the Legion 5’s display whatsoever, ensuring that it’s usually lookin’ smooth.

It additionally offers all the vibrancy and viewing angle benefits of IPS except struggling with its frequent weakness: low contrast. I measured the Legion 5’s distinction ratio at a perfectly healthy 1102:1, whilst top brightness got here in at a beaming 330cd/m2. As for colors, it can cowl 98.6% of the SRGB gamut – I’ve viewed £4000-plus gaming laptops do worse with a common delta-E of 1.89, which means the hues it shows are pretty accurate, now not too dull or overly saturated.

I understand 1440p is greater of a candy spot for modern games, and a 15.6in screen size pushes the limit of the place a 1920x1080p resolution can seem “sharp”, however, 1080p helps the GPU keep its pace up. The Radeon RX 6600M has 8GB of VRAM to play with and, unlike the RX 6800S viewed in the modern-day Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, is the full-power model of itself: no longer a GPU that’s been toned down to fit slimline laptops. As such, it’s got enough greater than an adequate punch for AAA work. on its Highest setting with SMAAT 2x anti-aliasing, Shadow of the Tomb Raider averaged 102fps, and with Ultra-quality ray tracing tossed in it should preserve up to 79fps.

Not each and every game will suit its most settings, as Metro Exodus demonstrated. Using the Ultra preset, its benchmark tool averaged 51fps: slick enough to play, but no longer ample to hit the 60fps threshold the place FreeSync kicks in. The addition of Ultra-quality ray tracing results noticed it barely hold its head above water, with 31fps. It took a drop-down to High quality, without RT effects, to average 64fps.

The Legion 5 additionally simply made it over the 60fps line in Total War: Three Kingdoms, its Battle benchmark producing 61fps on Ultra quality. Final Fantasy XV was once better, flitting around the 65-80fps range on its Highest preset, whilst Assassin’s Creed Valhalla averaged 63fps on Ultra High and 72fps on High. Valhalla has a structure for extracting the most FPS cost out of AMD’s SAM tech, and it looks like that’s the case right here as well: these results are only simply in the back of these of the RTX 3070-equipped Asus TUF Dash 15.

The Legion 5 additionally has higher CPU-only overall performance than the TUF Dash 15 (or at the least the model Katharine tested). That said, the Ryzen 7 5800H’s Cinebench R20 scores have been merely okayish: 555 in the single-core take a look and 4757 in the multi-core test. While these are a match for purpose, it’s hard no longer to appear at the scores of older chips and wonder if these new Ryzen 5000 laptop computer chips weren’t an afterthought in contrast to the 6000 series. Even the humble Gigabyte G5, with its Intel Core i5-11400H, scored ten points greater in the single-core test. Previous-gen Intel Core i9 and AMD Ryzen 9 CPUs additionally consistently beat it on multi-core performance, so the Ryzen 7 5800H isn’t a generational leap.

the Lenovo Legion 5 feels as even though it performs as it should, each in games and in wider desktop duties. Maybe now not a whole lot greater than that, however never any less.

You may want to say the identical of its 512GB SSD as well, as its sequential study and write speeds – 2642MB/s and 1552MB/s, according to AS SSD – are adequate even if they’re no longer the best of the best. Random 4K results are a little higher by using comparison, averaging 44MB/s for reads and 120MB/s for writes.

The Lenovo Legion 5 solely outright failure is battery life. Sadly this is the 2nd AMD-based laptop computer in a row (after the ROG Zephyrus G14) that failed to final a single hour when walking Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Here, the Legion 5 emptied a full charge in simply 52 minutes. Its major use, then, must be a type of all-in-one desktop alternative, alternatively than a definitely portable system. For honestly ambulatory purposes, you’re possibly higher off with a Steam Deck at this point; gaming laptops that can last for hours at a time seem to be an endangered breed, if no longer but a dying one.

the Lenovo Legion 5 in favor, with or without anything else that could have made it a tad more – let’s be honest here – interesting. That 60-100fps performance range is fine for the money and will take advantage of the higher refresh rate, the latter also being just one quality of many possessed by the display. Quieter cooling, a more ambitious CPU, and/or better endurance would have elevated it, but the dedication to simplicity has also left the Lenovo Legion 5 with a nice sensible design and no unnecessary, price-inflating tassels. So, yeah. Kinda okay.

Tech Specs

Processor	Up to AMD Ryzen™ 7 5800H
Operating System	Up to Windows 10 Pro
Graphics	Up to NVIDIA^® GeForce RTX™ 3070 Laptop GPU 8GB GDDR6, listed boost clock 1560MHz, achieved boost clock 1620MHz, maximum graphics power 140W
Display	40.6cms (16) QHD (2560 x 1600) IPS, 16:10, 500 nits, 165Hz / 3ms response time, 100% sRGB, VESA DisplayHDR™-certified, Dolby Vision™-enabled, NVIDIA^® G-SYNC^®, AMD Freesync™
Memory	Up to 16GB
Battery	Up to 8 hours* (MM18), Rapid Charge Pro* All battery life claims are approximate and based on results using the MobileMark^® 2018 v1.0.2.46 battery life benchmark test. Actual battery life will vary and depends on many factors such as product configuration and usage, software use, wireless functionality, power management settings, and screen brightness. The maximum capacity of the battery will decrease with time and use.
Storage	Up to 2TB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD
Audio	2 x 2W Harman^® Speakers with Nahimic Audio
Camera	720p with E-Shutter
Weight	Starting at 2.54kg / 5.4lbs
Color	Storm Grey
Connectivity	2 x 2 WiFi 802.11axBluetooth^® 5.1
Ports / Slots	Left: USB Type-C (USB 3.2 Gen 2, DisplayPort™ 1.4) Headphone/mic combo right: USB-A 3.2 Gen 1E-Shutter ButtonRear:3 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 (1 always-on)USB Type-C (USB 3.2 Gen 2, DisplayPort™ 1.4, power delivery)HDMI 2.1RJ45Power in USB port transfer speeds are approximate and depend on many factors, such as processing capability of host/peripheral devices, file attributes, system configuration, and operating environments; actual speeds will vary and may be less than expected.
Keyboard	White backlightBlue backlight (Stingray White model only)4-Zone RGB backlight (Stingray White model only)
Power Supply Unit (PSU)	235W Slim Adapter
Preloaded Software	Lenovo App ExplorerLenovo PC ManagerLenovo VantageMcAfee LiveSafe™ (trial)Office 365 (trial)Power2Go
Country Of Origin	China
Imported By	Lenovo India Pvt Ltd,RBD Icon, Level, 2, Outer Ring Rd, Doddanekundi, Mahadevapura, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560037