[Review] An all-rounder gaming laptop - Lenovo Legion 5i 15IAH7H
Pros | Cons |
+ Many ports available | - Poor battery life |
+ 2K 165Hz IPS display | - Costly |
+ E-camera shutter | |
Lenovo Legion 5i
RM 7389
I bet you have heard of the Lenovo gaming laptop product line, Lenovo Legion. You wanted to give it a try but just couldn’t trust the branding as most of the competitors (Acer Predator, ASUS TUF, ROG, and MSI) out there sound more professional and promising when it comes to the gaming side. But don’t worry, min min is here to review the Lenovo Legion 5i laptop (Intel i7-12700H) and find out whether the Legion 5i is a perfect laptop for gamers and creative creators who need powerful hardware to get their job done.
Design 💻
The Lenovo Legion 5i (15IAH7H) offers a professional look rather than the bulky body that most “gaming” laptops have as one of their characteristics. The Legion 5i on hand comes in Storm Grey colour. The Legion 5i weighs about 2.4kg which is standard for gaming laptops to have.
Besides, the Legion 5i provides plenty of ports at the back and on both sides. The available ports on Lenovo Legion 5i are listed below:
Back
Ethernet (RJ-45)
USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
HDMI
USB 3.2 Gen 1
USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Always On)
Power connector
Left
Thunderbolt 4
USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (data transfer / DP 1.4 only)
Right
Headphone/microphone combo jack (3.5mm)
USB 3.2 Gen1
The Legion 5i has a full-size keyboard with adjustable 4-Zone RGB via the Legion Spectrum RGB Lighting from preset RGB profiles in the Lenovo Vantage (built-in software).
The bottom of the Legion 5i is where the speakers and both cooling fans are located. Although the bottom of the laptop will not be seen most of the time. Lenovo nailed it by keeping the bottom of the Legion 5i looking minimal yet professional with the honeycomb ventilation panels.
Moreover, the Legion 5i has prepared four exhaust areas around the base to provide better cooling, delivering consistent fan curves and smooth framerates with zero throttling.
Display
In terms of the display, the Legion 5i comes with a 15.6-inch WQHD (2560 x 1440) IPS 16:9 with a super-fast refresh rate of up to 165Hz refresh rate which means, you don't require to spend extra bucks for a second gaming monitor with a high refresh rate!
Pro-tip, the Lenovo Legion 5i performance mode can be adjusted according to the shortcut keys shown on the laptop, which is Fn + Q, switching between Quiet mode (power saving), Auto mode where AI will automatically tweak the performance based on the usage, and Performance mode (Max Power).
Aside from that, the Legion 5i display supports G-Sync technology which delivers the smoothest and fastest gaming experience by eliminating screen tearing and minimizing display stutter while gaming.
Before we move on to the other section, let me show you another cool trick you can pull off with the Legion 5i. Taa daa~ the display can be expanded for up to ~180° hinge, laying flat on the table which is quite efficient to showcase their work to others (also for more comfortable use).
Specifications ✨
Now, the interesting part of the Lenovo Legion 5i. The Legion 5i is equipped with a 12th Gen Intel Core i7 12700H processor and an NVIDIA RTX 3060 6GB GDDR6 graphics card. Both of this hardware is enough to run most of the games (of course don’t expect to run it smoothly on max settings Triple-A games).
Other than that, it supports up to 32GB of DDR5 (2 x 16GB) 4800MHz frequency RAM and a storage capacity of 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD. To be relevant, the Legion 5i uses Windows 11 Home as its operating system.
While unplugged, the Lenovo Legion 5i can last for nearly 2 hours of normal operation with balanced power settings which is normal for gaming laptops as it mainly focuses on performance.
However, if you insist on bringing out the Legion 5i outdoors for work or education purposes, you might need to turn on the thermal mode to lower power consumption. Also, the Legion 5i packs a 230W AC Adapter that supports Rapid Charge to juice up the laptop to 80% for a 30-minute charge as advertised.
Benchmark & Gaming Performance 🚨
Cinebench R15
Cinebench R15 is a rendering software to test your system processing power to render a 3D scene. As you can see the results of the 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700H in Cinebench R15 scores 2198.
Cinebench R20
Cinebench R20 uses all of your system’s CPU (full potential), mostly used to test if the PC/laptop is able to run on a high-CPU load. The result of the 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700H is 5659.
Time Spy
Time Spy is a DirectX 12 benchmark test for gaming. Without Overclocking, the result of Legion5i landed on 8453 compared to Overclocked performance, 9756.
Port Royal
Port Royal is for ray tracing benchmark for graphics cards. For the RTX3060 6GB, it scores 4710 without OC, and 5407 with OC. (Excellent)
Fire Strike Extreme
Fire Strike Extreme is used for testing multi-GPU systems and future hardware generations. The score for RTX3060 6GB is 9474 without OC, and 10727 with OC.
CPU Profile
CPU Profile is used for benchmarking how the CPU performance with the number of cores and threads used. You may refer to the results below to see the difference between the threads used in the benchmark. For example, without OC, the 2 threads perform slightly better than the overclocked ones. (1880>1868)
PC Mark
PC Mark is a complete PC benchmark of the tasks performed in the modern workplace. The benchmark results have been divided into 3 sections, Essentials, Productivity, and Digital Content Creation.
Game Test - Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered 🎮
The Lenovo Legion 5i runs at an average of 54 FPS on Ultra settings with Ray-tracing on.
The Lenovo Legion 5i runs at an average of 74 FPS on Ultra settings with Ray-tracing disabled.
(RTX On 1 ~ RTX Off 2)
I don’t get the rain puddles so I’ll have to show it by the building’s reflection ;-; Basically, without Ray-tracing on, the reflections will be replaced by some sort of clipart instead of legit reflection. Nonetheless, you will still see some minor reflections on some buildings (which is kinda unnoticeable).
(RTX On (top) ~ RTX Off (bottom)
Lenovo Vantage
Lenovo Vantage serves a supportive role (as Lenovo’s PC manager) in your laptop, mainly providing quick settings including system tools, hardware/software status checks, WiFi Security, Legion Edge, and Legion Spectrum.
Users are able to check on their Hardware/Software Status of the Legion 5i in the Lenovo Vantage efficiently, to view the CPU, GPU, VRAM, and Storage (SSD) information just like the task manager but more user-friendly.
The System Tools section acts as a shortcut for users to navigate through system updates, keyboard macro key, power settings, Legion Arena, Media, Hardware Scan, and Nahimic audio without having to find the dive in the settings on the Windows.
Legion Edge
Legion Edge provides gaming-related features such as GPU Overclock, Network Boost, Auto Close, GPU Working Mode, Over Drive, and Touchpad Lock.