Lenovo Legion 5i - Review
Reviewing laptops can be a challenge, as a functional device they offer the same thing from one to another but apart from the internals, it's how they present themselves to the user that helps define the experience. Lenovo is one of the originators of the laptop format and to see them craft something so sleek and stylish is amazing, but when you see what's packed inside things are even more impressive.
One of the reasons that I really liked my time with the Legion 5i was because it was a powerful laptop but it wasn't made massive, in order to fit in unnecessary components. The one that was sent to me by Lenovo was sporting a GeForce GTX 1650 for its GPU and yes while we are now in the 3000 range for the cards, the 1650 is still very sufficient for almost all games. One of the big additions for the laptop, was that it was sporting the new Intel 10th gen CPU, which Intel say will provide roughly 18% more performance over the previous generation, which is a big deal. While the CPU is supporting the new Sunny Core architecture, it was still able to provide a really great affordability ratio because it was a core i5 model, which was still able to achieve minimum 2.5 GHz. The reason why this is good is because it's providing enough power to play the most recent games and power system demanding tasks like Photoshop or Premiere editing, but it's also keeping the cost down to make it affordable for everyone, unlike some laptops that start at $5000.
In terms of other specifications that are important, the laptop came with 16 gigabytes of ram and 512 gigabytes of SSD storage, meaning that there was plenty of space to store files or games and enough oomph to keep things running in the background. usually laptops that start around the same price range as the Legion 5i, come with four giga ram or if you're lucky 8, so having 16 was a nice bonus. one of the nicer things about it though was that all of this was packed into a frame that just starts in at 2.3 kilos, which puts it into the very portable range but still provides enough weight that it doesn't feel like a toy. Obviously, there's not a lot of places to go at the moment so I didn't travel with it in a bag like I would normally but whenever I was carrying it I felt that it was a decent weight and was providing a good feel for my usage.
Speaking of feel, one of the things that a lot of laptops do is they fail to provide a decent keyboard, they generally fall into one of two groups they either attempt to squish a full-sized keyboard into a much smaller frame or they throw in so many extra keys that it starts to feel more like you need to know how to play piano to use it. Lenovo have built in a standard size keyboard and then done a smart thing and moved the arrow keys away from the main board, giving you ample space in which to use them and not press other keys accidentally. It does provide a solid array of options with the function keys and the distance between them and the space bar is small enough that they are easily reached. Just below the spacebar is where your locate the trackpad, which honestly was very smooth it didn't provide any resistance in use and was something that I was able to use without any significant issues, there was no underlying custom thing that made it awkward.
Of course we can't talk about a laptop without mentioning the screen, it is the critical aspect of any laptop and this one was a little special. The screen is full HD, so 1920 by 1080 and fits all that in a screen size of just over 15 inches, what makes it special is it the screen supports up to 144 Hertz, though you can opt for the 120 Hertz version. In addition to that it also supports Dolby Vision, which if you haven't seen that in action you're in for a treat, what it does is it takes the image that you're seeing on screen and increases the colour palette, it doesn't change the colours it just enhances them to make them match what you would be looking at if you were seeing them in real life think of it as a more dynamic HDR. While there are countless games that do provide support for Dolby vision you're gonna see it better when you start watching movies, due in part to movies having images that you can easily connect with real life, beaches, trees, sky, things like that. While you might not consider it to be a reason to buy the laptop and if I'm being honest it's not a reason to buy any laptop, as something that is included with specific models here, it is a very nice bonus to have.
We've mentioned things that the laptop does well but now we need to talk about things that it doesn't do so well, perhaps that's not the best way to describe it but there is a bit of an issue with the laptop. It does provide a decent number of ports for your accessories, the problem is the bulk of them are located behind the unit, which isn't a problem if your laptop is going to remain on a desk connected to an external display, but as a laptop you should be able to take it with you anywhere you want and not have to continually worry about cables coming out the back of it. The reason why this was a problem for me is because it only has one USB type-C port and that's located on the back of the device, and sure while it makes sense if you're using that for external drives that don't leave your desk, not having one on the side of the device removes the ability to plug in smartphones or USB sticks, which is almost everything these days. Now it does offer 2 standard USB type-A ports on either side of the device, with one allowing for power transfer even if the device is not currently powered on, but if one of those was a USB type C it would be a much more future proofed device.
The other issue and the final thing that we need to talk about is battery life and it's not great, it's not the worst that I've seen but it falls closer to the bad side of things than it should. Lenovo stated that you should receive around six to seven hours of use on battery, obviously all that is dependent on what you're doing the more intense the task the quicker the battery will rundown. When playing games without the power connected, I was able to get around 2 hours, with a decent level of brightness, lower gave me some more time, but not much. If you were to travel anywhere, without being able to connect it to a power socket, you would not get a lot of use from it and as a laptop, even if the specs tend to skew more to the lower end of the performance side of things, 6 hours is not that great, but it will keep you active. The power pack, like most laptops is sadly a little to large to be easy to take with you, but it is not the largest by far and that again comes down to the Legion 5i being aimed at a more cost-effective product.
If you are looking for a laptop that not only looks good but has enough juice under the hood to help you out with almost every task you can imagine, this is one to seriously consider. The max specs are not the most up to date, but that is fine, because what it offers in terms of power vs cost is just fine, though a USB type-C port moved to the side of the machine, would have helped future proof it a little more.
The Score
9.0
Review unit provided by Lenovo
The Pros
+Solid build, with a really well-balanced weight profile
+Provides a massive amount of power for the dollar
The Cons
-Needs a USB type-C port on the side, instead of the back
-Battery life is not the best around and may not last you a full day
