This Lenovo gaming laptop impressed me despite the price swings

Price When Reviewed

$1,199

Best Prices Today: Lenovo Legion 5i

$1199

$1,599.99

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

Lenovo Legion 5i: Specs and options

• Model quantity: 15IRX10
• CPU: Intel Core i7-14700HX
• Memory: 32GB DDR5
• Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 5060 (40-watt TGP)
• Display: 15.1-inch 1600p OLED,165Hz, Dolby Vision, VESA Trueblack 600
• Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD
• Webcam: 5MP
• Connectivity: 1x USB-C 10Gbps with Power Delivery 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: Windows facial recognition
• Battery capability: 80 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 13.58 x 10.05 x 0.85 inches
• Weight: 4.3 kilos
• MSRP: Approximately $1,199 as-tested ($1,299 base)

Though our take a look at unit has the above configuration, Lenovo doesn’t seem to supply this actual setup to shoppers. There is loads of customization out there although. The Legion 5i 15IRX10 can include 13th or 14th Gen Intel Core processors in this configurator, and even bump as much as 2nd Gen Intel Core Ultra processors in a separate configurator. At 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 Value” of $1,634 (however an precise worth of $1,299 on the time of writing) utilizing the customized configuration software. Bumping as much as a Core i7-14700HX or Core i9-14900HX can be attainable, 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 Ultra 7 255HX and RTX 5060 for an “Est Value” of $1,704 and precise pricing at $1,309. This may be upgraded to an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, which additionally comes with an RTX 5070 as an alternative, and brings the value to $1,559 (although the “Est Value” reveals as $1,954). One notable distinction of the Core Ultra fashions is that they improve one of many USB-C ports to Thunderbolt 4. 

Using Lenovo’s customized configurations, there’s not an enormous delta between the Raptor Lake and Arrow Lake choices, and the Core Ultra 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 a fantastic worth. 

For these looking for the most effective worth, Walmart provides the closest configuration to what we’re testing right here. It’s out there for $1,199 on the time of writing, and consists of the entire above specs besides solely 16GB of reminiscence. Thankfully, that DDR5 is user-upgradeable, so you’ll be able to cheaply bump it as much as this method’s 32GB if wanted.

Lenovo Legion 5i: Design and construct high quality

IDG / Mark Knapp

The Legion 5i 15IRX10 isn’t outstanding in its design, but it surely’s not disappointing both. The system is totally blacked out other than its Legion brand energy button, the white keyboard legend and their RGB lighting, and a bit grey Lenovo branding on the rear thermal shelf. All that black seems positive briefly, but it surely 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 no less than extra snug than sharp 90-degree angles. The base is all plastic with a clean polycarbonate higher and rougher ABS plastic backside. The base 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 facet: an aluminum lid with Lenovo’s Legion branding embossed with a smoky mirror end.

The development is much like a lot of Lenovo’s different Legion laptops. The prime 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 a bit butt (thermal shelf) on the again with further room for warmth sinks. That again edge is essentially occupied by exhaust vents. No exhaust goes out the edges. 

Underneath, the Legion 5i 15IRX10 sits on three massive rubber toes that maintain it firmly in place and carry it up an excellent 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 — largely proper below the followers. In this case, this no less than permits adequate air consumption and doesn’t present any further alternative for mud to get in. 

All instructed, the Legion 5i 15IRX10 isn’t significantly impressed or thrilling, but it surely feels respectable and is a sturdily constructed laptop computer. The alternative of a 15.1-inch show gives respectable display screen 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 because of the very skinny show and modest base, the construct isn’t very thick for a gaming laptop computer. 

Lenovo Legion 5i: Keyboard, trackpad

IDG / Mark Knapp

My expertise with the Legion 5i 15IRX10’s keyboard has been considerably blended. On one hand, the keys are surprisingly nicely stabilized, they usually have a good dish to assist really feel out the middle and edges. But their journey is sort of rubbery, giving them a considerably odd really feel, like in addition they push my fingers again when resetting. With some adjustment, I might see this really turning right into a constructive, 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 in a position to stand up to a typing pace of 114 words-per-minute with a good 97 % accuracy, however this nonetheless isn’t fairly distinctive. 

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

Lenovo packed in 24 RGB lighting zones, which in the end sort of appears like overkill for any system that’s not simply going to buckle down and offer you per-key lighting. The 24 zones do enable for a barely smoother wave or lighting that responds to audio taking part in from the pc. But 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 received’t get an impactful and exact customization regardless of the way you shake it.

The keyboard will allow you to cycle by way of backlighting presets by urgent Fn+Space, however there’s no key for adjusting backlighting brightness. That should be achieved by way of Lenovo’s Legion Space 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 measurement, however nonetheless spacious sufficient for four-finger gestures and normal 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 clean because it could possibly be.

Lenovo Legion 5i: Display, audio

IDG / Mark Knapp

The Legion 5i 15IRX10 provides a wonderful show. Just about each facet of it delivers high quality, and that’s nice to see from a gaming laptop computer that skews towards the finances facet of issues. The 2560×1600 panel is lots sharp on the measurement. 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 clean visuals each out and in of video games.

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

The audio isn’t fairly as spectacular, but it surely’s not dangerous. The audio system depend on the Nahimic app to supply adequate sound, and it fortunately helps ship on that. Playing video games and watching films, it gives 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 regardless that they sit on the outer edges of the laptop computer, in order that they don’t make for essentially the most engrossing recreation audio. 

Lenovo Legion 5i: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

IDG / Mark Knapp

You’ll get a good digital camera from the Legion 5i 15IRX10. Even although it’s sharp, it’s going to seem a bit tender in modestly lit areas. Even with a number of lights on in my small workplace, footage appeared tender and grainy. That mentioned, it managed a really pure publicity. Though the digital camera provides 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 remove background noise to a level, however totally on the expense of its potential to select 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

IDG / Mark Knapp

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

None 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. At least the HDMI port is as much as the two.1 spec. Both USB-C ports also can 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 over time, there’s typically a small delay when waking up the laptop computer from sleep earlier than it’s going to reconnect to recognized networks. 

Lenovo Legion 5i: Performance

The Legion 5i 15IRX10 is constructed with high-performance in thoughts, even when it isn’t aiming for the best ranges attainable on fashionable {hardware}. This sort of horsepower typically makes on a regular basis operation and even gentle artistic workloads a breeze. We can 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 lots to supply on this space, and the Legion 5i 15IRX10 really finally ends up trying 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 take a look at. The earlier era Lenovo Legion 5i additionally got here out nicely forward thanks partly to a stronger CPU and sooner storage.  

IDG / Mark Knapp

On the brilliant facet, the Legion 5i 15IRX10 lagging behind these techniques in PCMark isn’t the most important deal, since the entire techniques are providing clean and responsive operation. And in relation to uncooked horsepower, the Legion 5i 15IRX10 claws again some floor. Its processor provided 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. 

IDG / Mark Knapp

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

IDG / Mark Knapp

Its efficiency in artificial benchmarks translated nicely to precise video games, too. It churned out a median of 153 fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. 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 difficulty, and that lets its RTX 5060 present the generational uptick in efficiency it’s able to. 

IDG / Mark Knapp

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

IDG / Mark Knapp

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

Since the Legion 5i 15IRX10 has a 2560×1600 show, you is likely to be 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. But in Cyberpunk 2077, it solely hit 48 fps. For native decision gaming, you’ll possible need to faucet into DLSS and doubtlessly body era expertise. 

Lenovo Legion 5i: Battery life

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

IDG / Mark Knapp

In regular use, the battery life isn’t any higher. I used to be in a position to stream a two-hour film with the show at about 50 % brightness and nonetheless have an hour of battery left. Web looking, 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 lots going for it as an inexpensive gaming laptop computer, assuming you avoid Lenovo’s inscrutable pricing and simply go along with the Walmart mannequin closest to our take a look at configuration. For $1,199, the Legion 5i 15IRX10 is providing rather a lot. It has a wonderful show for gaming and leisure, a sturdy construct, stable efficiency, and surprisingly quiet followers.

Though the design is decently moveable, the battery doesn’t final lengthy. So you’ll need to deliver the charger should you plan to do a lot on the go. Plenty of the worth right here hinges on the low worth although. With upgraded internals, the value of various configurations can really soar, and the standard of this laptop computer doesn’t fairly really feel prefer it stacks up in opposition to $2,000 techniques. But as a low-cost choice, it’s nice.