Lenovo Legion Pro 5i review: a solid gaming laptop

Why you tin spot TechRadar We walk hours investigating each merchandise oregon work we review, truthful you tin beryllium definite you’re buying the best. Find retired much astir however we test.

Lenovo Legion Pro 5i: Two-minute review

Unlike the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i that was released earlier this year, the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i is simply a overmuch much affordable gaming laptop that offers fantabulous show for its terms point. It comes successful 2 abstracted types: the Legion Pro 5i outfitted with an Intel CPU and the Legion Pro 5 which comes with an AMD CPU. 

Both versions usage an Nvidia 4000-series GPU, arsenic AMD The cheapest configuration you tin nab without having to customize 1 yourself is astir $1,259.99 / £1,410 (including VAT) / AU$2,499, which is acold much affordable than astir of the best gaming laptops connected the marketplace portion inactive commanding respectable specs.

Just arsenic galore of the different desktop replacements we’ve seen successful 2023, this 1 comes successful the modular achromatic colour with thing peculiarly absorbing astir its signifier and design. The chassis feels decently sturdy, with a bully metallic decorativeness connected the apical of the laptop. Opening it, the keyboard keys are much uniquely shaped, with a roundness to them you usually don’t see. It makes typing a spot weird astatine archetypal until you set to it. The trackpad is beauteous coagulated successful presumption of sensitivity, and I’m ever a instrumentality of mechanical feedback versus haptic feedback.

It has an excellent, well-balanced 16-inch WQXGA (2560x1600) display, with a prime to upgrade to HDR and from 165Hz to 240Hz refresh rate. For astir gamers, the quality doesn’t matter, and if you’re purchasing this laptop successful peculiar to prevention money, past you tin bash without the pricier upgrade. I besides bask the information that there’s a manual power to crook the webcam disconnected and on, which is lacking successful the immense bulk of laptops, though I privation it linked up to a carnal shutter instead.

There are 2 downsides to the Legion Pro 5i, however. The archetypal is the audio, specifically however debased it is. Of course, you could mitigate this by simply utilizing a headset, but the information that the speakers are truthful quiescent compared to each different laptop I’ve reviewed successful 2023 truthful acold is simply a immense inconvenience. The 2nd contented is the placement of the keyboard and trackpad. Both consciousness similar they’re excessively acold to the left,  requiring you to set to the orientation. Until you do, typos and mis-presses are commonplace. This isn’t overmuch of an contented if you usage a controller oregon mouse, but for those who usage a keyboard for gaming oregon productivity work, this could beryllium an issue.

I received 2 idiosyncratic reappraisal units — the archetypal came with the Intel Core  i7-13700HX and the 2nd with an AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX. Both travel with an Nvidia GPU, arsenic AMD hasn’t yet released gaming laptops with mobile processors. The Intel and AMD CPUs are mostly comparable successful mentation but successful practice, the Ryzen 7 7745HX wholly blows the i7-13700HX retired of the h2o successful each benchmark.

Despite these differences, the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i’s gaming show is excellent, handling immoderate of the best PC games easily, including Cyberpunk 2077 astatine max settings and ray tracing connected portion maintaining 60fps connected average. Other titles similar Final Fantasy VII Remake and Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered besides look and tally great, with precise small slowdown astatine max settings. The erstwhile is capable to fastener successful astatine 60fps erstwhile the enactment is chosen, portion the second consistently stays supra that with the due framework complaint settings.

Lenovo Legion Pro 5i: Price & availability

• Starting astatine $1,259.99 / £1,410 (including VAT) / AU$2,499
• Available now 
• Available successful the US and UK, and Australia

The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i sits firmly successful the affordable marketplace of gaming laptops — ne'er rather dipping down to fund levels but inactive a well-rounded prime for those wanting large gaming show for a coagulated price. The terms is particularly awesome for a gaming laptop with a 4000-series GPU and a 13th Gen CPU.

It’s disposable successful the US, UK, and Australia, with a bully scope of configurations for each region. The US has the astir choices, with respective models disposable for acquisition arsenic good arsenic an enactment to customize your laptop, portion the UK and Australia lone person the preset models.

It’s hard to comparison to different gaming laptops successful the 2023 market, arsenic galore of them are meant to either beryllium ace costly desktop replacements oregon ultra-cheap laptops. The Legion Pro 5i is meant arsenic an affordable enactment that sits successful mid-range pricing. The closest are the Alienware m18 and the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16, which are astir treble the terms but diagnostic the champion specs successful return.

• Price score: 5 / 5

Lenovo Legion Pro 5i: Specs

The specs for the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i reappraisal portion sent to maine are arsenic follows: Intel Core  i7-13700HX CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 8GB GDDR6 GPU, 16GB DDR5 RAM, 512GB SSD of storage, and a 16-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600) show with 100% sRGB, 300 nits, and 165Hz.

I was besides sent a Lenovo Legion Pro 5 for comparison, which features the pursuing specs: AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 8GB GDDR6 GPU, 16GB DDR5 RAM, 512GB SSD of storage, and a 16-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600) show with 100% sRGB, 300 nits, and 165Hz.

Like the Pro 7, the Legion Pro 5 comes successful 2 main types: the Legion Pro 5i outfitted with an Intel CPU, and the Legion Pro 5 with an AMD CPU. The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i comes successful respective configurations depending connected the region. The main quality successful configurations volition person you take betwixt Intel Core i5-13500HX and i9-13900HX CPUs, betwixt the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 and RTX 4070 GPUs, RAM, storage, and displays.

Only those successful the US tin configure their laptop based connected respective specs. Those successful the UK and Australia tin lone take from the disposable models, with nary customization options.

• Specs score: 4.5 / 5

Lenovo Legion Pro 5i: Design

• Plain looks
• Great larboard selection
• Great display, mean keyboard and touchpad
• The dependable is precise low

Like galore affordably priced gaming laptops, the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i is alternatively plain looking from the outside. Its chassis has a bully metallic finish, and its value is hefty but not unmanageable. The size of the show makes it a small tricky to transportation astir successful bags, but a ample capable 1 won’t conflict with the five-pound value arsenic well.

It has an fantabulous larboard enactment with a wide enactment of slots including 4 USB Type-A ports, 2 USB Type-C (both with DisplayPort 1.4), 1 HDMI port, 1 ethernet port, 1 headphone/microphone combo jack, and 1 powerfulness connector. 

Many of the ports are located successful the backmost but are thankfully labeled, making it a breeze to cognize which larboard is what without having to crook astir the laptop. Unfortunately, there’s nary SD paper reader, which is simply a shame arsenic that’s 1 of the astir utile ports for a laptop to have.

The show is simply a thin-bezel quality 16-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600) with its brightness betwixt 300 to 500 nits, 100% sRGB sum for creatives and editors (which pairs perfectly with the gaming-level GPU and CPU), and a prime of either 165Hz oregon 240Hz refresh rate, arsenic good arsenic a surface that supports HDR. 

It would beryllium bully if the HDR enactment was included and we had a prime for an OLED surface instead, which galore different gaming laptops person been offering. Rounding that retired is simply a useful manual power connected the broadside for the mostly mean webcam, which is ever preferable to a cardinal press, but a carnal shutter for the camera would person made things adjacent sweeter.

Though I ever admit the RGB backlighting of the keyboard and the unsocial signifier of the keys that spend much abstraction to benignant on, the keyboard and touchpad are positioned successful an unusual way. They’re a small much to the near than normal, which requires a play of accommodation that tin origin mistyping and missed presses connected the touchpad successful the meantime. This could beryllium an contented for those who heavy trust connected some for enactment and gaming. Otherwise, feedback from the keys and pad is perfectly serviceable and shouldn’t hamper gamers who usage a controller and gaming rodent instead.

Ventilation is astir apt the biggest contented with this laptop, which is unusual considering it has much than capable vents. The largest ones are located astatine the bottommost – a modular gaming laptop design, but for immoderate reason, they aren’t rather up to snuff erstwhile it comes to encouraging airflow properly. I recovered myself having to prop up the laptop utilizing the cablegram itself, giving it conscionable capable wiggle country to chill down. You whitethorn person to put successful a cooling pad oregon prop if you person these issues too.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Lenovo Legion Pro 5i: Performance

• Gaming show is excellent
• CPU show is fine 
• But underperforms successful benchmarks

At this point, it’s hard to straight comparison the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i to different gaming laptops successful 2023, arsenic astir of them are moving connected high-end GPUs similar the RTX 4070, 4080, and 4090. However, comparing benchmark scores betwixt those and last-gen laptops springiness america a amended scope of however good the Legion Pro 5i performs. I’ve recovered that the RTX 4060 scores rather precocious connected its ain merits, acold surpassing the 3000-series and simply 30K points down the 2 astir almighty GPUs.

This, successful turn, is good reflected successful its wide gaming show and framework complaint stability. When maxing retired Cyberpunk 2077’s settings and turning connected some tray-racing and DLSS 3, the laptop was capable to support a unchangeable 60fps. On Final Fantasy VII Remake, I chose to fastener successful gameplay astatine 60fps portion maxing retired the graphic setting, and it ran beautifully with nary slowdown to talk off. And Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered also runs incredibly well, staying supra 60fps astatine each times, adjacent during the much intensive web-swinging sections.

Testing retired the Intel Core  i7-13700HX CPU, however, and the results aren’t astir arsenic impressive. Benchmark scores crossed the committee for the 13th Gen Core i7 are acold little than immoderate of the laptops with a 13th Gen Core i9. Even worse, galore of the scores are comparable to the 12th Gen CPUs. I besides tested retired the AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX CPU successful my different reappraisal unit, and successful benchmarks similar Geekbench, Cinebench, and PCMark10 the results were definitively superior to the i7-13700HX. 

When investigating retired however this translated to originative and productivity performance, however, I recovered nary slowdown oregon sluggishness successful either model, with responsiveness that ne'er waivered nary substance however galore tasks were going disconnected astatine once. But if you’re looking for which is the better-performing processor, the AMD mentation is the mode to go. Unfortunately, I wasn’t capable to trial which mentation has the better-performing Nvidia 4000-series GPU, since the Legion Pro 5 uses a 4070 alternatively of the 4060 successful the Legion Pro 5i.

• Performance score: 4 / 5

Lenovo Legion Pro 5i: Battery

• Terrible artillery life
• Charges fast

I regret to pass you that, arsenic with astir different desktop replacement gaming laptops, the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i’s artillery beingness is horrible. At most, it lasts astir 3 and a fractional hours for productivity and originative work, little than fractional a modular workday and astir the aforesaid magnitude of clip if you’re streaming videos oregon movies instead. 

Keeping this babe plugged successful astatine each times is the mode to go, particularly for intensive gaming sessions that volition drain the powerfulness adjacent faster. Its redeeming grace is the accelerated complaint time, which volition springiness you a afloat artillery successful astir an hour. 

• Battery score: 2.5 / 5

Should you bargain the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i?

Buy it if...

Don't bargain it if...

Lenovo Legion Pro 5i: Also consider

If the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i has you considering different options, present are 2 much laptops to consider...

How I tested the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i

• I tested 2 models of the Lenovo Legion Pro 5 for respective weeks
• I tested it utilizing some benchmark tests and video crippled benchmarks
• I stress-tested the artillery utilizing the TechRadar movie test

First, I tested the wide value and portability of the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i by carrying it astir successful a laptop container for a day. After I acceptable it up, I ran respective CPU and GPU benchmarks to thoroughly trial retired the graphics card's show and however overmuch it affected processing performance. Finally, I utilized a assortment of programs and applications to trial retired some artillery beingness and wide show during work-like conditions, arsenic good arsenic gaming benchmarks to trial the RTX 4060 GPU.

The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i is an mean desktop replacement for gaming, meaning it's meant to beryllium utilized for hardcore gaming sessions. I made definite to thoroughly trial retired this laptop successful that regard, to marque definite it reached definite levels of performance. I besides tested retired the CPU to spot however it fared against the existent competition.

I've tested plentifulness of gaming PCs and laptops, making maine much than qualified to recognize benchmark trial results and however to decently accent trial machines to spot however good they execute arsenic a enactment machine.

Read much astir however we test

First reviewed May 2023