Lenovo Legion 5i

amazon Lenovo Legion 5i reviews

Referring to Lenovo, most likely you will immediately think of “serious” laptops like the legendary ThinkPad or ThinkBook, Yoga, but Lenovo also has a product line for gamers called Legion. Since the launch of the first product, which is now the 7th generation, Lenovo has constantly improved and improved the Legion line to be able to compete fairly with seasoned players in the industry gaming segment like Asus and MSI.

Last week, I had the opportunity to experience the Lenovo Legion 5i 2022 with the code name 15IAH7H. This model owns the latest 12th generation Intel Core i7-12700H chip, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card with 32GB of DDR5 RAM and 1TB of NVMe SSD. Lenovo offers a lot of configuration options for users to consider to suit their needs, for example, you can upgrade the graphics card to GeForce RTX 3070Ti and of course, the price will change based on your choice.

Design: When Entrepreneurs Are Gamers

If you just glance at it, you definitely won’t realize that the Lenovo Legion 5i 2022 is a gaming laptop. With a thickness of less than 26mm and a weight of 2.4kg, Legion 5i 2022 has a desirable body for a 15.6-inch gaming laptop and has a discrete graphics card. With square edges and a minimalist top with only the Legion brand name placed along the side of the machine, the Legion 5i 2022 is no different from an ultrabook for business. The only “style” features of the laptop are in the heat sink, which is carefully hidden by Lenovo at the back and left edge of the chassis.

Finished with aluminum and magnesium alloy, the Legion 5i 2022 feels solid in the hand and everyday use. The rough surface helps to limit sweat and fingerprints very well. As a person who sweats a lot, I have experienced many laptops but the Legion 5i 2022 is one of the products that makes me most satisfied in this aspect.

The hinge of the machine is pushed in quite deep like the previous generation, creating space for connection ports, signal lights as well as heat sink slots. This Lenovo approach will help expand the space on the sides of the machine, avoiding affecting the gaming process and daily use in general. The special design also helps Legion 5i 2022 to open the screen at a 180-degree angle, and you can completely open the lid with just one hand.

As a gaming laptop, the number of connection ports of Legion 5i 2022 is very rich. Behind the machine is the main connection area, including one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports (one Always On port), Slim Tip charging port, HDMI, and Ethernet RJ45. Meanwhile, the left side of the machine contains a Thunderbolt 4 port and an additional USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port that can both charge Power Delivery, transmit data, and output DisplayPort 1.4 images, and the right side is a 3.5mm combo headphone jack + microphone, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port and a webcam toggle to protect privacy.

Below is a cooling system that Lenovo calls Coldfront 4.0. According to the manufacturer, Coldfront 4.0 owns a cooling fan system with 40% thinner blades, 4 heat pipes, and a copper CPU heatsink block. Combined with the Lenovo Legion AI Engine, which adjusts gaming performance through fan performance prediction, as well as balances out GPU and CPU resources in real-time for each game.

Overall, I appreciate the design of the Lenovo Legion 5i 2022. The device offers a youthful, modern appearance but still has the necessary gaming features. Along with a neat body, you can confidently use the machine in many different environments, something that few high-end gaming laptops can do.

Beautiful 2K screen, satisfying both work and entertainment

The Legion 5i 2022 model I experienced has a 15.6-inch screen, a QHD (2560 x 1440 pixels) IPS panel with a 16: 9 ratio with a 165Hz refresh rate, and 300 nit brightness. Some Legion versions will have a wider 16:10 aspect ratio screen in the vertical direction, but I think that with mainstream gaming needs, the traditional 16: 9 ratio will still be better, especially if you I’m a fan of old games. Except for the slightly thick bottom border to balance the chassis containing the full-size keyboard, the remaining three screen edges of the machine are very thin, only a few mm, providing a feeling of open and spacious viewing.

Practical experience, Legion 5i 2022 offers good display quality compared to the common ground of gaming laptops, vivid colors, and high contrast, 300 nit brightness is more than enough for all uses (most of the time I just set the brightness at 60-70%). With 100% sRGB color coverage, the Legion 5i 2022 can also handle tasks like photo and video editing if you need it.

If there is a need to play on a larger screen, Lenovo now has the Legion line of gaming monitors. For example, the Legion Y25-30 24.5-inch IPS LCD panel supports a refresh rate of up to 280Hz, a super-fast response time of only 1ms, and fully integrates technology for a smooth visual experience like AMD Free Sync Premium, Nvidia G-Sync, and anti-glare. The design of this screen also allows for height adjustment, 90-degree rotation, or right and left tilting very flexibly. Simply connect the Legion 5i 2022 to this monitor via Thunderbolt 4 and the entire gaming experience is fully transformed onto the larger screen thanks to data transfer speeds of up to 40Gbps.

In terms of sound, the Legion 5i 2022 has 2 2W speakers located at the bottom of the chassis. Maybe partly due to the speaker placement, the quality of the Legion 5i 2022’s speakers is below my expectations. The Nahimic Audio app that was supposed to improve the sound quality didn’t help much. Therefore, I think you should invest in a headset or external speakers for the best gaming experience.

The Legion 5i 2022’s webcam has Full HD resolution, an upgrade over the 720p webcam commonly found on many gaming laptops. You can adjust the brightness and contrast of the webcam in the pre-installed Lenovo Vantage software on the device. The quality of the webcam I evaluate is good.

“Perfect” typing keyboard, with 4-zone RGB LED

With a 15.6-inch screen size, the Legion 5i 2022 completely has enough space for a full-size keyboard and that’s also what Lenovo has done. Called Lenovo Legion TrueStrike, Legion 5i 2022’s keyboard offers a good typing experience. Although it is not a mechanical key, you can feel the tactile quite clearly, the key travel is deep and the typing is smooth, without emitting much noise. The size of the keys is balanced, the layout is easy to get used to and the keyboard does not flex when pressed down, indicating a high quality of finishing.

As a gaming laptop, it is clear that RGB LEDs for the keyboard are indispensable. With Legion 5i 2022, Lenovo is equipped with a 4-zone LED system, which can be customized through Lenovo Vantage software. High-brightness LED bulbs, adjustable brightness to suit games in the evening and at night.

Speaking of Lenovo Vantage, this is pre-installed software that acts as a portal as well as a control center for Lenovo laptop features. Here, you can monitor the status of the machine such as CPU clock, GPU, warranty status, customize performance modes, etc.

The touchpad of the Legion 5i 2022 has a large size, which seems to be slightly larger than necessary because often when using a gaming laptop we will buy a separate mouse, not too concerned with the touchpad. In fact, inside the box of the machine will come with a Legion M300 RGB gaming mouse, so most of the time I don’t touch the touchpad. That said, when needed, the Legion 5i 2022’s touchpad will still do a good job with a smooth swiping feeling and full Windows Precision driver support for swiping gestures.

where can you get a Lenovo Legion 5i online

Lenovo – Legion 5i – Gaming – 17.3″ FHD 144Hz – Intel Core i7-10750H – 16GB DDR4 RAM – 1TB SSD + 1TB HDD – NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Graphics – Windows 10 Home – Phantom Black: Buy it now

Lenovo – Legion 5i – Gaming Laptop – Intel Core i7-11800H – 8GB DDR4 RAM – 1TB NVMe TLC SSD – NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Graphics – 17.3″ FHD 144Hz – Windows 11 Home – Phantom Blue: Buy it now

Fast performance, cool running

With an Intel Core i7-12700H chip, a discrete RTX 3060 graphics card, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, we can expect the Legion 5i 2022 to play well in most of the games at the moment. The 12th generation of Intel Core chips with a completely new core design delivers 40% faster performance than the previous generation. The new kernel architecture is a combination of a P-core core geared towards strong performance (e.g. game applications) and an E-core more geared towards efficiency in general and other background running, providing Optimized performance thanks to the Intel Threat Director feature to assign applications to the most suitable processor core, ensuring smooth and optimal gaming performance. Besides, Legion 5i 2022 is equipped with super-fast Wi-Fi 6 11ax wireless connection, 3 times faster than Wi-Fi 5, and 75% reduced latency.

However, at 2K resolution, Ultra graphics settings can be too demanding with the RTX 3060, especially with AAA games that require terrible configuration. With relatively light games like League of Legends, reaching 165 fps to match the 165Hz refresh rate of the Legion 5i 2022 is easy. But don’t worry if your favorite game can’t get to that fps, because the laptop supports Nvidia G-Sync anti-tear technology, so even playing at a lower fps than the refresh rate will not experience tearing.

In familiar benchmarks, Legion 5i 2022 all gave impressive scores, exactly what I expected in a configuration like this. The “normal” tasks that I still do every day such as browsing dozens of Chrome tabs, opening Photoshop and Lightroom in parallel to edit photos, and tabs to League of Legends to play the Truth Arena chess game are impossible making it difficult for the Legion 5i 2022. The laptop only proved to have to work hard when performing heavy benchmarks like 3D Mark Time Spy or the game Far Cry: New Dawn.

Here are the results of Legion 5i 2022 through benchmarks:

3DMark Time Spy emulator 2K resolution gaming, DX12 graphics library. Legion 5i 2022 reached 8,309 points.

3DMark FireStrike Extreme gaming emulator 2K resolution, DX11 graphics library. The score this time of Legion 5i 2022 is 9,313.

3DMark CPU Profile measures CPU performance. Max threads indicate maximum CPU performance, and Core i7-12700H on Legion 5i 2022 reached 6,865 points.

Legion 5i 2022 scored 1382 single-core and 12169 multi-core on GeekBench 5.

Meanwhile, the RTX 3060 GPU scored 99885 OpenGL performance points.

Cinebench R23, which measures CPU performance for rendering tasks, single-core, and multi-core. The Legion 5i 2022’s Intel Core i7-12700H reached 1607 single-core points and 14930 multi-core points.

PCMark 10 simulates everyday multitasking tasks. Legion 5 2022 reached 7,324 points.

In terms of gaming performance, I use the available benchmarks of games including Far Cry: New Dawn, Final Fantasy XV, and Guardians of the Galaxy. The games are all configured at High graphics settings, and 2K screen resolution, and the results show that Legion 5i 2022 can fully play these games at more than 100 fps.

Responsible for data storage for the Legion 5i 2022 is the Samsung PM9A1 PCIe 4.0 SSD, with the manufacturer’s announced speeds (sequential read/write) of 7000 MB/s and 5100 MB/s, respectively. These are all much faster numbers than the predecessor PCIe 3.0 SSD. Benchmark with the Crystal Disk Mark tool gives results that are close to the manufacturer’s announcement, and tasks such as starting Windows, opening and closing applications, and compressing and copying data are performed by Legion 5i 2022 in almost no time.

Most of the time, the machine works cool, and the cooling fan does not emit annoying noises. Only when benchmarking with Time Spy Extreme, one of 3DMark’s heaviest benchmarks does the Legion 5i 2022 have to go all out. The maximum temperature of the high-performance cores (P-Cores) of the Core i7-12700H chip is 97 degrees Celsius, while the energy-saving cores (E-Cores) are 81 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, the discrete GPU RTX 3060 recorded a maximum temperature of only 73.6 degrees Celsius in Hot Spot, showing that Legion 5i 2022’s Coldfront 4.0 cooling system is working effectively. Immediately after stopping the benchmark, the temperature of the device also decreased rapidly.

Sufficient battery, super fast charging

With a maximum 140W RTX 3060 TGP GPU and the same chip as the Core i7-12700H, of course, the Legion 5i 2022 will need a powerful enough charging system to meet the power needs. Therefore, inside the product box is a Slim Tip charger with a maximum capacity of up to 300W, the size is no different from a brick, which can be a bit difficult if, for example, you want to take it out to play games. If fast charging is enabled in Lenovo Vantage, with just 30 minutes of charging, the Legion 5i 2022’s battery has been charged to 80%.

The Legion 5i 2022’s 80 Whr battery is just enough to use, about 4 hours with common tasks. If you play games, the usage time will be reduced to only about 1.5 – 2 hours, so if you intend to play the game it is better to plug in the charger to ensure the best performance.

Summary

Lenovo is getting better and better with its Legion product line. That is not debatable. Possessing a compact design like an ultrabook but still having a gaming touch, the Legion 5i 2022 also impresses with its agile performance and a screen that meets a variety of needs and fast charging. Other gaming laptop brands should be wary because Legion 5i 2022 is ready to compete fairly in the high-end segment!

In particular, Legion 5i 2022 buyers will receive Lenovo’s Legion Ultimate Support (LUS) service package with a 24/7 technical support team for hardware, software, and accessories, in any form of phone, email, or chat.