Lenovo Legion 5 (2021) Review

Verdict

The Lenovo Legion v offers well-balanced and impressive speed aslope good thermal performance, an impressive keyboard and a subtle pattern that's packed with ports – and information technology'due south often cheaper than rivals. But think that this machine is heavier and thicker than the competition and that it's got an underwhelming display, besides.

Pros

A great CPU and a smooth, capable graphics core
Understated and robust design
High-quality keyboard
Loads of ports

Cons

Underwhelming display
Mediocre battery life
Thicker and heavier than competitors

Availability

Uk RRP: £1399
USA RRP: $1999
Europe RRP: €1799

Key Features

Tiptop-notch internals The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 and AMD Ryzen 7 5800H deliver great all-round performance, specially considering the toll
A smart, subdued pattern The Legion looks subtle, with a night body that doesn't have any silly gaming additions – ideal if you want a more than unimposing laptop.
Loads of practical features The Legion has a cracking keyboard, reasonable battery life and loads of ports, and so information technology'south a skillful option for versatile everyday computing.

Introduction

The Lenovo Legion 5 is an impressive gaming laptop on newspaper, with loftier-end components throughout, but it's going to have to work hard when lined up confronting some potent rivals.

Lenovo's latest laptop gets off to a practiced get-go with an Nvidia RTX 3070, and the GPU is bolstered by an AMD Ryzen seven 5800H which is ane of the about popular laptop chips on the marketplace right now.

And in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, at to the lowest degree, the Legion is available at a brilliant £1399 cost, making information technology one of the cheapest laptops around with this level of hardware. In the US you'll have to pay $1999 for this auto, which is a niggling expensive, and in Europe the Legion is available for a mid-range €1799.

Keep an eye on the big retailers, though: prices drop all the time, and the Lenovo could easily become a bargain in the US and Europe aslope the UK. And, if that's the case, it'll have even more of a merits to a spot in our all-time gaming laptop chart.

Lenovo'southward machine squares upwardly against two other large names. The MSI Katana GF66 uses an Intel processor and an RTX 3060 graphics core, only it'south more than affordable: it costs £999 / $1399 / €1482. If you lot're comfy spending more, then there's the Asus ROG Strix G15 G513, too, which matches the Lenovo's core components for a toll of £1699 / $1999 / €1999.

Design and keyboard

Smart, subtle blueprint with decent build quality, albeit in a heavy frame
Has cracking connectivity, with more ports than almost any other laptop
Lenovo's keyboard is typically excellent: fast, consequent and comfortable

Lenovo'due south machine doesn't wait like a gaming laptop. The lid and body utilize matte black metal and plastic, and there are no odd angles or RGB LEDs – just an extended section at the rear to house actress cooling gear.

The simply gaming-friendly design is the lid's Legion logo, which has a great-looking iridescent sheen.

The understated looks are no surprise coming from a company with as much business pedigree every bit Lenovo – and the decent build quality is no shock either. The Legion is sturdy in all departments, and easily up to the challenge of travelling between bags, rooms and bedrooms.

As usual, Lenovo delivers a great keyboard: the buttons evangelize a smashing balance between the snappiness required for gaming and the softness needed for longer typing sessions. The buttons are fast and consistent, likewise. The layout is solid: at that place's a numberpad, and the full-size cursor keys are separated from the remainder of the unit.

At that place's one final applied expanse where the Lenovo excels: its port selection. The Legion has 4 full-size USB 3.2 Gen i ports and ii USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C connectors, with most of those installed effectually the back. In that location are more ports than rivals – and cable-tidying is easier, also.

It'south a skillful commencement, but elsewhere the Legion doesn't stack up. The keyboard has iv-zone RGB LED backlighting rather than per-fundamental backlighting, and the trackpad is mediocre – use a USB mouse instead. Utilise a headset or external speakers, also: the Lenovo'southward sound kit is tinny and muffled.

The Lenovo's 2.4kg weight and 25.7mm-thick trunk mean that this laptop is thicker and heavier than the MSI and Asus notebooks. That Asus doesn't take a numberpad, but it does accept per-key RGB LED lighting and a snappier keyboard. That laptop has ameliorate speakers and a bolder exterior also.

Screen

Low contrast and a high black point means this display lacks depth
Colours are not particularly accurate or vibrant
Information technology can handle games, but the Legion's display looks a little washed-out

Lenovo's 15.6in display has a 1080p resolution and a 165Hz refresh rate, and that specification is ideal for gaming – the refresh rate is quick enough to continue single-player games and eSports titles moving smoothly.

In terms of quality levels, though, the Legion disappoints. The brightness level of 328 nits is good, but it's undermined by a black point of 0.46 nits. That creates an underwhelming contrast ratio of 713:i. In existent-world utilise that means the display doesn't accept much depth or nuance – the brightness means you get enough of punch, but darker areas aren't intense and games wait flat.

The colours are middling, too. The panel does display a decent 91.7% of the sRGB colour gamut and its Delta East of two.39 is reasonable, but the temperature of 7809K is cool. Combine this with the low contrast figure and you've got a display that looks pallid.

The Lenovo'south brandish is adept plenty for gaming – the brightness level, resolution and refresh charge per unit see to that. Just the lack of contrast and color accuracy means that games look far ameliorate on the Asus, which also added a 300Hz refresh rate into the deal.

Performance

The RTX 3070 is a fast and effective mainstream gaming GPU
AMD'south Ryzen seven 5800H is perfect for mainstream work and content creation
Lenovo's machine kept cool and serenity, no thing the test

Nvidia's latest laptop graphics chips run at different ability levels to deliver varying levels of performance and efficiency. The GeForce RTX 3070 inside the Legion runs at 130W, which is nearly every bit high as this chip can get. Elsewhere, it's got the usual 8GB of retentivity and 5120 stream processors.

The Ryzen seven 5800H is a familiarly great CPU from AMD. Information technology's got eight multi-threaded cores alongside base and heave speeds of 3.2GHz and 4.4GHz. The residual of the specification is entirely normal: the Lenovo has 16GB of dual-aqueduct retentivity and a 512GB SSD aslope dual-ring Wi-Fi vi, Bluetooth 5 and Gigabit Ethernet.

The loftier-power RTX 3070 delivered impressive performance. It scythed through Horizon Cypher Dawn's 1080p Ultimate benchmark at 85fps and played Borderlands 3 at 87fps. The former score is eight frames better than the Asus, and the latter is ten frames ahead. That'southward great given that the Asus also has an RTX 3070 configured to 130W. The MSI had an RTX 3060, so it'due south further back. The Lenovo's 3D Marking Fourth dimension Spy result of 9900 was a picayune quicker than the Asus' result, too.

You'll be able to play absolutely any of today'south biggest single-player hits on this laptop without compromising on graphics settings, and it'll tackle ray tracing also. This machine also has the pace to handle eSports titles at the triple-effigy framerates required by the 165Hz display.

	Lenovo Legion 5 (2021)	MSI Katana GF66	Asus ROG Strix G15 G513
Processor	Ryzen 7 5800H	Intel Core i7-11800H	Ryzen vii 5800H
Geekbench 5 (single / multi)	1404 / 7197	1537 / 6556	1380 / 7086
PCMark 10	7038	6138	6406
GPU	Nvidia RTX 3070	Nvidia RTX 3060	Nvidia RTX 3070
3DMark Time Spy	9900	6907	9769

The eight-core AMD processor is bright. Its PCMark x result of 7038 is more than 600 points ahead of the Asus, which used the same bit to lesser affect. Lenovo's laptop scored 1404 and 7197 in the Geekbench tests, with both results also outpacing Asus. This chip is fifty-fifty further ahead of the Intel Cadre i7-11800H used in the MSI.

The AMD processor tin tackle photo-editing, mainstream video work and other demanding content-creation tasks, and information technology'll zero through Part tasks and loads of browser tabs without complaint. You'll simply need a better processor if you want to tackle actually demanding work, similar 4K video editing or professional pattern.

The last piece of the puzzle is the SSD, which returned decent read and write speeds of 3594MB/s and 1681MB/s, which ways it can relieve and load information on the physical bulldoze at a healthy footstep.

The Legion doesn't brand as well much noise either – there'due south fan noise present when you lot play games or push the hardware, but it'south non irritating or problematic. Temperatures were fine on the inside and exterior, and in that location were no throttling issues. It's just as good as the Asus and MSI here.

Battery Life

At its best for gaming when connected to the ability source
Information technology delivered middling battery life in work and video-playback tests

The battery offers reasonable longevity, but it's not great. During a gaming test it lasted for one 60 minutes and xix minutes, and when running an everyday work criterion the Lenovo ran out of juice after 5hrs 42mins. Its video playback result was 90 minutes more than its work lifespan.

That'south miles better than the cheaper MSI, only the Asus lasted for seven and a half hours during a piece of work test and two hours more when playing video. The Legion will get you through to lunch, but it'southward best to stick to the mains if you lot want to play games and best to consider the Asus if you want more cable-gratis freedom.

Latest deals

Should you lot buy it?

Yous're hunting for a fast and subtle gaming notebook: The Lenovo has a nifty performance inside a smart, robust chassis that's got a peachy keyboard. It'due south ideal if you lot desire a gaming laptop that won't shout well-nigh it.

Y'all'd like a high-quality screen or a bold pattern: The Legion has a passable display, but information technology'south not nifty. Other people may desire a bolder, slimmer or lighter design – even if they've got to pay for it

Final Thoughts

The Lenovo Legion five offers well-balanced functioning and a great keyboard inside a smart case, and information technology's sometimes available at very low prices – so it'south a versatile gaming selection. But you'll want a different laptop if you need good screen quality, lengthy battery life or a lighter notebook.

How nosotros exam

Every gaming laptop nosotros review goes through a serial of compatible checks designed to gauge key things including build quality, performance, screen quality and battery life.

These include formal constructed benchmarks and scripted tests, plus a series of real world checks, such as how well information technology runs when running a AAA game.

Nosotros use every laptop we review as our main device for at to the lowest degree a week.

We apply both synthetic benchmark and existent-world tests to approximate functioning.

We use a colorimeter and the naked eye to evaluate the screen.

We use a criterion exam and our own use to determine battery life.

FAQs

What warranty is included with the Lenovo Legion five?

The Legion is protected by a one-twelvemonth bargain, although you lot tin can pay for upgrade options.

How long is the bombardment life?

The Lenovo Legion 5 lasted 5hrs and 42mins in our benchmark exam for solar day-to-day apply, just only managed ane hr and xix minutes.

Does it take a 4K screen?

No, the Lenovo Legion 5 is limited to a 1080p display.

Jargon buster

Ray Tracing

Advanced light-rendering engineering that allows for more realistic lighting and shadow furnishings within in-game worlds.

DLSS

Deep learning super sampling is Nvidia's prototype upscaling technology which can improve a game's framerate without reducing the quality of the visuals.

Nits

The brightness level of a display. 300 nits is regarded as the minimum target for high-end screens.

Source: https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/lenovo-legion-5-2021

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