A common misconception among people about gaming on a PC or laptop is that you have to spend a lot of money to actually get something for gaming. Maybe that was true a few years ago, but the number of really nice, affordable gaming laptops on the market today is great for budget gamers. Lenovo Legion 5 (Rs. 79,491) is one such machine. Designed to handle most of the games you throw while fitting in the workplace, Legion 5 aims to address gamblers, but their laptops want to carry a double responsibility for work.
Lenovo Legion 5 review: What you need to know:-
The Legion 5 replaces the Legion 5P in Lenovo’s lineup and benefits from a Ryzen 7 5800H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, a 165Hz display and an RGB-filled keyboard. It is available in both 15.6in and 17in flavors and comes with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.
Other cheaper variants of the Legion 5 are available, but they come with less powerful Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPUs and displays with lower refresh rates.
Lenovo Legion 5 review: Price and competition:-
The model I was sent for review retails for £1,299, which is a great price for the specification. But competition in this price bracket is fierce and if you’re after the most gaming bang for your laptop, there are plenty of other contenders.
Acer’s latest Ryzen 7 5800H and RTX 3060-powered Nitro 5 have a lot going for them. It’s incredibly powerful for just £1,000, has a plethora of upgrade options and is uncompromisingly designed with the gamer in mind. On the downside, the battery life is poor and the screen is very inaccurate in terms of color representation.
Meanwhile, the Asus TUF Dash F15 has excellent battery life, a great sound system and a stunning white polycarbonate body, and is paired with the same RTX 3070 GPU as the Legion 5 but an Intel Core i7 processor. The problem with this laptop, however, is holding back the model with both the RTX 3070 GPU and the beautiful 240Hz display. If you can’t do that, the RTX 3060/240Hz combo could go – it costs around £1,400, but it also gets you a useful 1TB SSD.
Finally, MSI’s new Katana GF66 is another option worth considering. Available for just under £1,200 with a Core i7 11800H chip, RTX 3060 GPU and a 144Hz display, it looks like solid value. If you want to save some money, the GeForce 3050 Ti version is just £999.
Lenovo Legion 5 review: Design and build quality
The new Legion doesn’t break any new ground in design: it looks and feels the same as the previous model. But that’s no bad thing, really, as it once again benefits from a few Legion-specific features, such as the thoughtful grouping of most of the laptop ports on the back and a lid-hinge set 30mm forward. It uncomfortably screams “gaming machine,” aside from the RGB lighting on the keyboard and the sticker that Fn+Q is a shortcut to change the cooling profile in the Lenovo Vantage app. The aluminum body feels reassuringly solid and the laptop lid has very little flex. I like how the hinge is calibrated so you can open it with just one hand.
When it comes to size and weight, the Legion 5 is nothing out of the ordinary. Measuring 363 x 259 x 26mm and tipping the scales at 2.35kg, it certainly sits at the top end of the class, especially when it comes to depth, thanks to the tail out hinge assembly. It’s also hard to find fault with the Legion 5’s Lenovo keyboard TrueStrike. It’s a wide, full-width affair with a numeric keypad and a set of full-size cursor keys slightly different from the original keyboard. Physically it feels rock solid, and original travel is perfectly judged at 1.8mm. The 105 x 70 mm trackpad is slightly offset to the left but is otherwise equally perfect.
Most of Legion 5’s ports are backwards. From here, you’ll find an RJ45 1Gbit/sec LAN connector, two USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a Type-C port that supports DisplayPort 1.4, an HDMI 2.1 connector and a bespoke DC-in jack.
On the right is an equivalent Type-C port and a 3.5mm audio jack, while on the left is a third Type-A port and a shutter button to separate the 720p webcam, which sits above the display. Overall, it’s an impressively comprehensive and well-equipped selection that only lacks Thunderbolt support, though its absence isn’t too shocking given an AMD system.
Getting access to Legion 5’s internal hardware takes a little more time and effort than you might expect. To begin with, unclipping the bottom of the case for the first time is a bit nerve-racking. You’ll need a very thin tool to pry the case apart, and it’s much easier to peel if you start from one of the front corners. Do the same again to get the second 2280 M.2 SSD and then the previously installed SSD and wireless card. To access the two SODIMM memory slots, you need to gently separate the eight metal grips that hold another cover plate in place.
It’s all quite possible, not as straightforward as, for example, the Acer Nitro 5, which also has space for a 2.5in SATA3 drive. According to Lenovo, you can upgrade the Legion 5 with up to two 1TB SSDs and two 16GB sticks of RAM. For completeness, the wireless card is an Intel AX200 unit that supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1.
Lenovo Legion 5 AR150H Specs:-
| Display | 15.6-inch Full HD IPS 120Hz |
| Processor | Ryzen 5 4600H @3GHz |
| GPU | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650Ti with 4GB GDDR5 VRAM |
| RAM | 8GB 3200MHz |
| Storage | 1TB 5400RPM HDD + 256GB PCIe SSD |
| Ports | 4xUSB 3.2 Gen 1 (one Always On), 1xUSB 3.2 Type-C Gen 1, Ethernet (RJ-45), Headphone / microphone combo jack |
| Connectivity | WiFi 802.11ac; Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Battery | 60Whr |
DisPlay:-
The Lenovo Legion 5 comes with a Ryzen 5 4600H pair with 8GB 3200MHz RAM, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650Ti GPU, 256GB PCIe SSD, and a 1TB HDD. Quite standard glasses for a laptop in this price range. I appreciate the combination of an SSD and hard disk here which means you get more storage space, but faster boot-up time which brings the SSD to the table.
Performance:-
Naturally, with these types of glasses, the laptop works quite well. Both work and play are handled very easily by this machine and I don’t really feel it lagging anywhere. Although I would recommend filling that second empty SO-DIMM slot and upgrading the RAM to the laptop to increase performance.
KeyBoard:-
The Legion 5 keyboard found on other Lenovo laptops, including the IziaPad Gaming 3i, is very similar. It has a similar keycap design and the keyboard itself is almost beautiful. The keys seem to be sensitive and a lot of time can be spent traveling, typing, or gaming with the keyboard, it is a pleasurable experience.
There’s also a full-size arrow key layout – yet another thing I appreciate, even a pump. I personally don’t use Numpad too much without typing in my login pin, but it’s something that’s good for you.
TrackPad:-
The laptop has a well-sized trackpad with which I didn’t have enough trouble reading. It comes with support for Windows gestures so you can use three- and four-finger gestures to perform various actions. Often, I had a mouse attached to my laptop, so my trackpad usage was of course limited, but it’s a fairly responsive touchpad so you won’t be disappointed by the experience if you want to use it.
Lenovo Vantage:-
This is with every Lenovo gaming laptop, you will find really useful Lenovo Vantage software here. This allows, among other things, specific control over Legion 5’s battery and performance settings.
Here you can see an overview of CPU and RAM usage as well as your storage devices
Speakers:-
The Lenovo Legion 5 has a pair of speakers, although they shoot from below, but are actually quite decent. I’ve used a lot of laptops on Beebom in my time and most budget laptops look embarrassingly bad. On the other hand, Legion 5’s Herman-tuned stereo speakers aren’t half as bad.
Ports and connectivity:-
At the port selection point in Legion 5. The laptop chassis has four USB 2.2 General 1 Type-A ports, one USB 2.2 Type-C port, one RJ-455 Ethernet port, HDMI out, and of course one port. A combo headphone with power input. Mike Port.
Battery:-
Lastly, battery life. I usually consider battery life on a gaming laptop as the next thought. However, my opinion about this laptop is a dual-purpose work/play laptop, and when you think of working, you should have good battery life.
The Legion 5 comes with a 69Whr battery – by no means a very large number. The company claims 4 hours of battery life on paper, which adheres to the basics of what you can do with this laptop. With my normal work-related tasks, the laptop lasts about 3-hours, which is nowhere near good, leaving great.
Lenovo Legion 5- Should you Buy?
As much as I like Legion 5, it’s complicated to recommend directly. There are many laptops in this price bracket that give the same thing or in some cases give different trades off to get better features among others. For example, the HP Pavilion Gaming 17 comes with the same Ryzen 5 processor, 8GB RAM, and GTX 1650Ti. However, it only offers a standalone 512GB SSD when it comes with a good 144Hz display.
For anyone on Team Blue, the Asus TUF Gaming F15 has an Intel Core i5 processor with 8GB of RAM, 1TB HDD + 256GB SSD, and GTX 1650 TI graphics.
However, these two laptops are not gaming and Legion 5 is definitely a solid option like gaming laptops if you want something suitable for gamers and work.