Lenovo Legion 5i Pro Review: Best Performer with Dull Design

In the past, gaming laptops were uncommon, but today, the market is flooded with portable gaming PCs that can efficiently run top games, even those with AAA titles. Several excellent laptop options are already available while we eagerly await laptops with Nvidia's 4000-series graphics. One standout option is the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro Gen 7, a powerful gaming laptop that is considered the upgraded variant of Legion 5 Pro. Its top-of-the-line features offer substantial improvements over its predecessor, including an Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti GPU and an Intel 12th-Gen i9 processor. As a gaming enthusiast, we tested the Legion 5i Pro fully loaded version, and we were pleased with how well it performed.

Specifications

Lenovo Legion Pro has many great specifications in it, and we will discuss some of their specifications in detail below. Let us take a quick look at notable specifications for now:

Design and Build

The Lenovo Legion 5i Pro features a balanced design for gaming and professional aesthetics owing to its sleek design. It resembles the 2021 Legion 5 Pro and is available in matte white or Storm Grey. The laptop is made of a durable material with aluminum top and bottom panels and little flex. A sizable air intake mesh vent can be found on the lower panel, and the top panel displays a shiny Legion tag and angular lines for an elegant look. A bezel-free display with a 16:10 aspect ratio and little flex is visible when the lid is opened. This Legion laptop sports the TrueStrike keyboard, with full-sized, huge keys and a dedicated numpad.

Despite being somewhat left-aligned, the trackpad has enough room. The Legion 5i Pro is desirable for people seeking a sophisticated appearance because its design combines gaming aesthetics and business appeal. The laptop weighs 2.5kg and is less portable and more appropriate for stationary use. The Legion 5i Pro is an appealing alternative for picky users thanks to its sturdy construction, thoughtful design cues, and capacity to combine gaming and professional looks.

Display Quality

The Legion 5i Pro has a 16-inch WQXGA IPS display with a 165Hz refresh rate, 500 nits of brightness, Dolby Vision, G-Sync, 100% sRGB, and a 16:10 aspect ratio. You can tell it's a hell of display features on paper even before dissecting it. Furthermore, it appears to function the same. We used this monitor for everything from regular office work to watching videos and playing first-person shooter games.

Its superb display also performs admirably in business and entertainment settings. The text is clear and visible thanks to the anti-glare coating and brilliant 2560 x 1600 resolution, making it comfortable without tiring your eyes. In addition, the 16:10 aspect ratio gives you extra vertical screen space, which is very helpful for activities like writing and online browsing and enables you to increase productivity and view more material without constantly scrolling.

The Legion 5i Pro doesn't fall short when it comes to fun. The visual experience is improved by its HDR and Dolby Vision compatibility, especially while watching content that uses these technologies. For instance, watching the fantastic Netflix series "Our Planet" becomes a very immersive and lovely experience thanks to the display's realistic representation of colors, which creates a vivid and lifelike viewing experience. Even though the Legion 5i Pro's display may not be fully DCI-P3 compliant, it does support 100% sRGB, which is still excellent. This was verified at the 'Beebom' office using the Spyder X Pro calibration tool, ensuring correct color representation.

The Lenovo Legion 5i Pro has a vivid display that functions well in various circumstances. The X-Rite Color Assistant offers two profiles; however, we didn't see much difference. The YouTube viewing experience just got better with the excellent screen specs that showcase the display's capabilities. The display supports HDR and has a 500-nit brightness level, which is more than adequate in any lighting situation. Although the contrast ratio is respectable, an OLED screen might offer truer blacks. However, the display offers a pleasurable experience when used for gaming. Scenes from well-known games like Cyberpunk 2077, God of War, and Rainbow Six Siege are enhanced by the precise colors and high brightness, which create visually appealing scenes. Additionally, the fine details and textures in gaming environments are accurately portrayed thanks to the display's color accuracy.

Apart from these, the display's uneven brightness adjustment is one notable problem. It can feel too dim at about 50% brightness, necessitating modification for the best visibility. However, maintaining a more extraordinary brightness setting for streaming media ensures a pleasurable experience.

Performance

The hardware within the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro laptop is top-of-the-line from the ground up. It has an Intel i9-12900H processor running at the speed of up to 5.00 GHz with boost capability. You also get a potent Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti graphics card with a TGP of 150 Watts. The laptop includes 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 SSD and 16GB SO-DIMM DDR5 RAM running at 4800 MHz in terms of memory. Although you can upgrade the RAM and storage, you probably won't need it anytime soon.

Legion 5i Pro also has the Legion Coldfront 4.0 thermal system, which the manufacturer refers it as a cooling solution for all this gear. The laptop has a dual fan and four heat pipe arrangements, to put it simply. A specific CPU copper heat transfer block is also included.

Software and Lenovo Vantage

Microsoft Office Home and Student, Dolby Vision, Lenovo Smart Keys, and McAfee Antivirus are among the pre-installed programs on the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro. However, Lenovo Vantage is the most remarkable software, an all-in-one control hub that makes managing laptops simple. Vantage provides settings geared toward gaming and enables the monitoring of CPU, GPU, and VRAM usage.

Vantage users can choose various thermal modes to enhance performance, thermals, and silence. The software also permits GPU overclocking for improved performance, but users should use caution because Lenovo is not liable for any harm. A MUX Switch on the Legion 5i Pro automatically chooses whether to use the integrated graphics or the dedicated GPU.

Driver updates are made more accessible by Vantage, which also gives users access to battery status, warranty details, camera settings, and keyboard preferences (if any). Additionally, it has Legion Arena, which uses AI capabilities for more fluid action while showcasing popular games and providing an overview of installed games.

Overall, by centralizing management and offering practical capabilities for controlling and optimizing the Legion 5i Pro laptop, the Lenovo Vantage software improves the user experience.

Keyboard and Tracker

There is a full-sized keyboard and a dedicated Numpad on the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro. A full 4-zone RGB variant and the white model with blue backlight variant of this laptop are easily available. The keyboard makes typing pleasant with a balanced 1.5mm essential travel distance that offers quick feedback without tiring the wrist. The keycaps are simple to grip because of their slight curvature and U-shaped design. Despite being somewhat displaced to the left by the arrow keys, the trackpad is roomy but facilitates easy navigation.

Wide keys on the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro keyboard help to reduce typing errors and make touch-like typing a pleasant experience. Numerous practical shortcuts are included on the keyboard, including a mic mute button, a Lenovo smart key, and brightness and volume controls. In addition, the specific combination of keys adds extended functionality. For instance, the set FN+Q enables fast switching between heat profiles and is one of the favorite shortcuts. Moreover, the combination FN+Spacebar makes it simple to change the keyboard's brightness and effects.

Unlike most Lenovo laptops, the power button on Legion 5i Pro does not include a fingerprint sensor, but it does have a little light that changes from white when the battery is low to red when charging (although it could have been more logical to have these colors reversed). Although large and comfortable, the trackpad can be troublesome due to its positioning on the left, resulting in unintentional scrolling and clicking when typing. Thankfully, Lenovo has solved this with a keyboard shortcut for "trackpad lock", but it still causes some irritation.

Ports

A wide range of I/O ports are available on the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro for simple connectivity. Fast transfer rates are provided through the Thunderbolt 4 and USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports on the laptop's left side. A physical camera shutter, a 3.5mm headphone/mic combo jack, and a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 connection are all located on the right side of the device. A USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 connector with data transfer, charging, and display capabilities, an HDMI port supporting up to 8K 60Hz, and an RJ-45 socket for wired internet connectivity are all included on the back I/O panel. Two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports (always on) are also present. With its wide range of connectivity options, the Legion 5i Pro can support multiple monitor setups and a variety of peripherals with ease.

Speaker and Audio

A dual speaker setup is at the bottom of the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro. It delivers great Audio with adjustable settings for Bass, Treble, Surround Sound, and more without specialized tuning or Dolby Atmos. The speakers produce high-quality audio, albeit occasionally hollowly. However, adjusting to audio using its Nahimic feature can make this even better. There is no distortion or cracking, even at maximum volume. Although they lack dedicated subwoofers, the speakers deliver a reasonable volume and sound quality ratio. They are appropriate for private events like Netflix sessions and meetings but only for small rooms or groups.

Camera and Microphone

The Lenovo Legion 5i Pro camera is a basic 720p of mediocre quality. Considering its restrictions, the webcam's photographs and movies exhibited respectable detail during testing. Although there was some graininess in low light, it functioned effectively overall. For some games, the webcam also has Tobi Eye tracking, which in our testing, performed great even though we preferred using a controller. However, the laptop's twin microphone configuration is impressive. It provides a well-balanced and relatively loud audio input while capturing voices clearly and without distortion. Additionally, the microphones support Lenovo Smart Noise Cancellation, enabling you to mute background noise from multiple calls and speakers.

Battery Life

It comes with an 80Wh battery and a 300W charger. In our testing, the battery life was satisfactory when the laptop was set to the optimal power efficiency plan, with 60% brightness and a refresh rate of 165Hz. The battery was exhausted by about 28% in an hour of moderate use, which mainly included browsing and writing. The laptop was still pleasant to use. Also, there was no noticeable warmth. From a full charge to 10%, the Legion 5i Pro lasted slightly under 4 hours. Rapid Charge technology enabled the laptop to reach 80% in just 19 minutes; nevertheless, frequent usage of this capability may impact battery life over the long run. Additionally, Lenovo has a Conversation Mode option that restricts charging up to 60% to increase battery life.

Pricing

The Lenovo Legion 5i Pro succeeds as a gaming laptop in many ways. It sports a potent combination of the fantastic RTX 30-series GPU and the potent 12th Gen Intel Core-i9 CPU, providing outstanding performance for business and gaming applications. A laptop is an appealing option for individuals looking to purchase their next high-performance machine.

It is also necessary to remember that the price of the Legion 5i Pro will be quite high. However, this is still an inexpensive version with an Intel Core-i7 and RTX 3060, starting at Rs 162,990, in addition to the wholly customized version, which may cost up to Rs 220,000. There are many variants of laptops available in different price segments to meet individual requirements.

The Verdict

In terms of its gaming and general performance capabilities, the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro is great. An excellent gaming experience is made possible by its robust hardware and great onboard features. However, the poor and unattractive appearance of the laptop leaves much to be desired in the design. While looks may only be essential for only some users, the Legion 5i Pro's design is poor and deserves attention. However, if you value performance and usability over aesthetics, this gaming laptop offers a handsome selection of features and specifications that will please both gamers and power users.