Lenovo Legion 5i evaluate: Nice efficiency, complicated pricing

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At a look Professional's Ranking Execs

Respectable 1080p efficiency

Wonderful OLED show

Followers aren’t very loud

Not wildly heavy

Cons

Lenovo’s pricing is far and wide

Brief battery life

Our Verdict The Lenovo Legion 5i 15IRX10 pairs a superb show with strong internals for an important gaming expertise. With a $1,199 price ticket on a configuration near our check unit, the worth seems good. Simply keep away from Lenovo’s unnavigable first-party pricing.

Worth When Reviewed

This worth will present the geolocated pricing textual content for product undefined

Finest Pricing At the moment

Worth When Reviewed $1,199

Finest Costs At the moment: Lenovo Legion 5i

$1199

$1,599.99

Lenovo has a brand new technology of gaming laptops out, and Legion 5i 15IRX10 sits on the inexpensive finish of the stack with out reducing down an excessive amount of. It options highly effective processor choices and some RTX 50-series GPUs to energy your video games. Although Lenovo makes discovering a superb worth onerous with a chaotic pricing system, this Walmart configuration comes closest to our check unit and pegs the system at a strong cut price of $1,199. At that worth, issues look actual peachy for the potent Legion 5i 15IRX10.

Lenovo Legion 5i: Specs and options

Mannequin quantity: 15IRX10

CPU: Intel Core i7-14700HX

Reminiscence: 32GB DDR5

Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 5060 (40-watt TGP)

Show: 15.1-inch 1600p OLED,165Hz, Dolby Imaginative and prescient, VESA Trueblack 600

Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD

Webcam: 5MP

Connectivity: 1x USB-C 10Gbps with Energy Supply and DisplayPort 2.1, 1x USB-C 10Gbps with DisplayPort 1.4, 3x USB-A 5Gbps, 1x RJ45, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm combo audio

Networking: WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4

Biometrics: Home windows facial recognition

Battery capability: 80 watt-hours

Dimensions: 13.58 x 10.05 x 0.85 inches

Weight: 4.3 kilos

MSRP: Roughly $1,199 as-tested ($1,299 base)

Although our check unit has the above configuration, Lenovo doesn't seem to supply this precise setup to shoppers. There's loads of customization accessible although. The Legion 5i 15IRX10 can include thirteenth or 14th Gen Intel Core processors on this configurator, and even bump as much as 2nd Gen Intel Core Extremely processors in a separate configurator. On the low finish, you will get an Intel Core i7-13650HX with 16GB of reminiscence, 512GB of storage, and an RTX 5050 for an “Est Worth” of $1,634 (however an precise worth of $1,299 on the time of writing) utilizing the customized configuration device. Bumping as much as a Core i7-14700HX or Core i9-14900HX can be doable, however entails a swap to the RTX 5070 as nicely.

Arrow Lake configurations have the identical reminiscence and storage choices, however they begin out with an Intel Core Extremely 7 255HX and RTX 5060 for an “Est Worth” of $1,704 and precise pricing at $1,309. This may be upgraded to an Intel Core Extremely 9 275HX, which additionally comes with an RTX 5070 as a substitute, and brings the value to $1,559 (although the “Est Worth” reveals as $1,954). One notable distinction of the Core Extremely fashions is that they improve one of many USB-C ports to Thunderbolt 4.

Utilizing Lenovo’s customized configurations, there’s not an enormous delta between the Raptor Lake and Arrow Lake choices, and the Core Extremely fashions are more likely to have superior single-core efficiency and battery life. That mentioned, the configurator tends to have considerably increased costs than pre-configured fashions and due to this fact doesn’t supply an important worth.

For these searching for the perfect worth, Walmart affords the closest configuration to what we’re testing right here. It’s accessible for $1,199 on the time of writing, and consists of all the above specs besides solely 16GB of reminiscence. Fortunately, that DDR5 is user-upgradeable, so you possibly can cheaply bump it as much as this technique’s 32GB if wanted.

The Lenovo Legion 5i has a superb show for gaming and leisure, a sturdy construct, strong efficiency, and surprisingly quiet followers.

Lenovo Legion 5i: Design and construct high quality

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The Legion 5i 15IRX10 isn’t outstanding in its design, however it’s not disappointing both. The system is totally blacked out apart from its Legion emblem energy button, the white keyboard legend and their RGB lighting, and slightly grey Lenovo branding on the rear thermal shelf. All that black seems advantageous briefly, however it begins to point out finger oils shortly.

The seems are largely clear with rounded corners and chamfered edges across the base that might not be tremendous ergonomic however are a minimum of extra comfy than sharp 90-degree angles. The bottom is all plastic with a easy polycarbonate higher and rougher ABS plastic backside. The bottom is pretty sturdy, not exhibiting a lot flex. The show is surrounded by modest plastic bezels. The again of the show will get the one premium side: an aluminum lid with Lenovo’s Legion branding embossed with a smoky mirror end.

The development is much like lots of Lenovo’s different Legion laptops. The highest of the show has an extra-large part to each home the digital camera and supply a lip for opening the lid simply. The show attaches to the bottom with two hinges barely shifted ahead from the again fringe of the laptop computer. This creates slightly butt (thermal shelf) on the again with additional room for warmth sinks. That again edge is essentially occupied by exhaust vents. No exhaust goes out the edges.

Beneath, the Legion 5i 15IRX10 sits on three massive rubber toes that maintain it firmly in place and carry it up a superb methods to supply airflow into the 2 backside followers. There’s a big grille beneath, although solely a small share of that is really grille — principally proper beneath the followers. On this case, this a minimum of permits adequate air consumption and doesn’t present any additional alternative for mud to get in.

All advised, the Legion 5i 15IRX10 isn’t significantly impressed or thrilling, however it feels first rate and is a sturdily constructed laptop computer. The selection of a 15.1-inch show supplies first rate display area whereas conserving the laptop computer sufficiently small to suit into even some tight laptop computer sleeves. It’s not so heavy both at simply 4.3 kilos. And due to the very skinny show and modest base, the construct isn’t very thick for a gaming laptop computer.

Lenovo Legion 5i: Keyboard, trackpad

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My expertise with the Legion 5i 15IRX10’s keyboard has been considerably blended. On one hand, the keys are surprisingly nicely stabilized, and so they have an honest dish to assist really feel out the middle and edges. However their journey is form of rubbery, giving them a considerably odd really feel, like in addition they push my fingers again when resetting. With some adjustment, I may see this really turning right into a optimistic, as a quick-resetting key is able to press that a lot sooner, however because it stands, it kind of throws my fingers right into a funk. I used to be in the end capable of rise up to a typing pace of 114 words-per-minute with an honest 97 % accuracy, however this nonetheless isn’t fairly distinctive.

I nonetheless love that Lenovo accommodates a full-size set of arrow keys on lots of its gaming laptops. This makes navigation a lot simpler. There’s additionally a full quantity pad on the fitting facet of the keyboard, although this has slim keys that find yourself feeling slightly cramped.

Lenovo packed in 24 RGB lighting zones, which in the end form of seems like overkill for any system that’s not simply going to buckle down and offer you per-key lighting. The 24 zones do permit for a barely smoother wave or lighting that responds to audio taking part in from the pc. However the zones are all vertical columns, not functionally helpful zones. Customization choices are relatively restricted. And the sides of zones mix collectively when displaying totally different colours, so that you gained’t get an impactful and exact customization irrespective of the way you shake it.

The keyboard will allow you to cycle by means of backlighting presets by urgent Fn+Area, however there’s no key for adjusting backlighting brightness. That should be executed by means of Lenovo’s Legion Area software program. On the brilliant facet, the lighting successfully illuminates the important thing legends.

The trackpad is nothing particular. It’s pretty small for a laptop computer this dimension, however nonetheless spacious sufficient for four-finger gestures and basic navigation. It’s far over to the left facet of the pc, although, which might make it awkward to make use of for right-handed customers. It’s mylar floor can be not as easy because it might be.

Lenovo Legion 5i: Show, audio

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The Legion 5i 15IRX10 affords a superb show. Nearly each side of it delivers high quality, and that’s nice to see from a gaming laptop computer that skews towards the price range facet of issues. The 2560×1600 panel is a lot sharp on the dimension. It has the right distinction of OLED, to not point out the ultra-fast pixel response occasions. And with a 165Hz refresh price, you’ll get easy visuals each out and in of video games.

OLEDs weren’t all the time very shiny, however this panel fortunately hits 523 nits. And to prime it off, the panel is correct. I measured its colour accuracy at a mean dE1976 of 0.51 with a max dE1976 of simply 1.33. In the event you’ve obtained to do critical colour work or simply wish to see your video games the way in which they’re meant to look, this display is as much as the duty.

The audio isn’t fairly as spectacular, however it’s not dangerous. The audio system depend on the Nahimic app to supply adequate sound, and it fortunately helps ship on that. Enjoying video games and watching films, it supplies loads of audio typically, although I did discover some spoken movies surprisingly quiet whereas listening with the app set to its default Music mode. There’s not a lot stereo separation from the little bottom-firing audio system although they sit on the outer edges of the laptop computer, so that they don’t make for essentially the most engrossing recreation audio.

Lenovo Legion 5i: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

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You’ll get an honest digital camera from the Legion 5i 15IRX10. Regardless that it’s sharp, it's going to seem a bit smooth in modestly lit areas. Even with a number of lights on in my small workplace, footage appeared smooth and grainy. That mentioned, it managed a really pure publicity. Although the digital camera affords a excessive decision, it doesn’t have the infrared tech to allow facial recognition. The laptop computer additionally lacks a fingerprint scanner, so that you’re out of luck for biometrics.

The mic array on the Legion 5i 15IRX10 fails to impress. In a busy surroundings, it struggles completely to seize my voice clearly. It does efficiently get rid of background noise to a level, however absolutely on the expense of its capability to choose me up. As quickly as I discuss in that loud surroundings, the background noise merges with my voice and makes something I say unintelligible. Even in a quiet surroundings, my voice sounds relatively distant with some room echo noticeable.

Lenovo Legion 5i: Connectivity

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There’s little to get enthusiastic about from the Legion 5i 15IRX10’s varied connections. It’s not benefiting from its dimension, providing simply two USB-C ports on the left facet together with a USB-A port and Ethernet. The fitting facet consists of two USB-A ports, a 3.5mm jack, and a digital camera kill swap. The laptop computer’s charging port is positioned on the rear together with an HDMI port. The ports on the edges are relatively awkwardly spaced with gaps of various sizes between them. As an illustration, the USB-A ports on the fitting have all the top of the keyboard dividing them.

Not one of the ports are terribly quick both, with the USB-A ports topping out at 5Gbps and the USB-C ports hitting simply 10Gbps — no 20 or 40Gbps ports. A minimum of the HDMI port is as much as the two.1 spec. Each USB-C ports may deal with video output with one providing DisplayPort 2.1 and the opposite DisplayPort 1.4.

The wi-fi connections are managed by a MediaTek card that gives Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. It’s been quick and dependable in my testing, although as with many MediaTek playing cards I’ve used through the years, there may be usually a small delay when waking up the laptop computer from sleep earlier than it's going to reconnect to identified networks.

Lenovo Legion 5i: Efficiency

The Legion 5i 15IRX10 is constructed with high-performance in thoughts, even when it isn’t aiming for the very best ranges doable on trendy {hardware}. This sort of horsepower typically makes on a regular basis operation and even mild artistic workloads a breeze. We are able to see that fairly clearly in PCMark 10, which measures holistic efficiency of the system. The Legion 5i 15IRX10 performs splendidly.

It’s not distinctive on this class, although. Most gaming laptops have a lot to supply on this space, and the Legion 5i 15IRX10 really finally ends up wanting much less spectacular subsequent to even older machines. The Dell G15 and Gigabyte G6X each ran on a lower-tier CPU and a prior-gen RTX 4060 GPU, and but they got here out forward on this check. The earlier technology Lenovo Legion 5i additionally got here out nicely forward thanks partly to a stronger CPU and sooner storage.

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On the brilliant facet, the Legion 5i 15IRX10 lagging behind these methods in PCMark isn’t the most important deal, since all the methods are providing easy and responsive operation. And with regards to uncooked horsepower, the Legion 5i 15IRX10 claws again some floor. Its processor supplied considerably increased efficiency in Cinebench’s multi-core testing, dramatically outstripping all however the earlier Legion 5i’s Core i9-14900HX.

This additionally helps us see why Lenovo opted for an older CPU. The newer Intel Core 7 240H falls nicely shy of the Core i7-14700HX’s efficiency, even failing to match its single-core speeds. It means little that the Core 7 240H is newer, although, because it’s really a Raptor Lake CPU in disguise and never one of many newer Lunar Lake or Arrow Lake architectures.

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The mix of a potent CPU and newer RTX 5060 GPU works within the Legion 5i 15IRX10’s favor with regards to graphics efficiency. The place it had fallen behind the prior-gen Legion in some instances, it turned the tides again into its favor in 3DMark’s Port Royal check, the place it pulled nicely forward of the Legion 5i. It additionally demonstrates how a powerful CPU can keep away from bottlenecks by completely outpacing the Alienware 16 Aurora regardless of this machine working the identical GPU.

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Its efficiency in artificial benchmarks translated nicely to precise video games, too. It churned out a mean of 153 fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Right here once more, it reveals the distinction a CPU could make, because the RTX 5060-powered Alienware fell behind all of the RTX 4060-powered machines as a result of its CPU was holding the GPU again. The Legion 5i 15IRX10 doesn’t have the identical subject, and that lets its RTX 5060 present the generational uptick in efficiency it’s able to.

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This efficiency checks out in Metro Exodus as nicely, the place the Legion 5i 15IRX10 once more leads the pack by an honest margin. The steadiness of a powerful CPU and GPU assist it keep forward of those different methods, which seem largely held again by the constraints of the RTX 4060 (or Intel Core 7 240H in Alienware’s case). In fact, this does additionally spotlight the constraints of the Legion 5i 15IRX10. In very demanding video games, like Metro Exodus, it may possibly wrestle to fulfill the 60 fps threshold. That mentioned, the system may hit an 82 fps common in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p Extremely.

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Efficiency is constant, too. Working a string of Metal Nomad benchmarks, the Legion 5i 15IRX10 maintained almost the identical common framerate between runs. CPU and GPU temps additionally settled in and stopped rising after only a couple minutes. The followers aren’t even terribly loud to handle the thermals.

Because the Legion 5i 15IRX10 has a 2560×1600 show, you is perhaps tempted to play video games at this decision. In some lighter video games, that might be readily doable. The Legion 5i 15IRX10 managed a 98 fps common in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at its native decision. However in Cyberpunk 2077, it solely hit 48 fps. For native decision gaming, you’ll possible wish to faucet into DLSS and doubtlessly body technology expertise.

Lenovo Legion 5i: Battery life

As we see all too usually, efficiency benefits have a tendency to come back on the peril of battery life. And certain sufficient, the Legion 5i 15IRX10 struggles to supply a lot longevity the place runtime is anxious. In our native video playback check, it fell slightly bit shy of 4 hours. That’s not solely a nasty end result for a gaming PC, however it’s dangerous amongst this group, particularly in comparison with the Alienware 16 Aurora’s surprisingly robust 10-hour runtime

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In regular use, the battery life isn’t any higher. I used to be capable of stream a two-hour film with the show at about 50 % brightness and nonetheless have an hour of battery left. Internet shopping, analysis, and writing consumed the battery at the same price, with it simply scraping by at over three hours.

Lenovo Legion 5i: Conclusion

The Legion 5i 15IRX10 has a lot going for it as an inexpensive gaming laptop computer, assuming you keep away from Lenovo’s inscrutable pricing and simply go along with the Walmart mannequin closest to our check configuration. For $1,199, the Legion 5i 15IRX10 is providing loads. It has a superb show for gaming and leisure, a sturdy construct, strong efficiency, and surprisingly quiet followers.

Although the design is decently transportable, the battery doesn’t final lengthy. So that you’ll wish to carry the charger in the event you plan to do a lot on the go. Lots of the worth right here hinges on the low worth although. With upgraded internals, the value of various configurations can actually soar, and the standard of this laptop computer doesn’t fairly really feel prefer it stacks up in opposition to $2,000 methods. However as a low-cost possibility, it’s nice.