Lenovo 5i
Lenovo is hoping to amass an army of buyers for its new budget gaming build, but is the Legion 5i a convincing call to arms?
Lenovo is pitching its new Legion 5i 15-incher as the everyman’s gaming laptop, balancing price and performance to hit the most broadly popular configuration for those on an average budget.
Price is a critical factor at this end of the market and the Legion 5i starts at $1,599 for a laptop with an Intel Core i5-10300H CPU, 8GB of RAM, a GTX 1650 GPU, 256GB M.2 SSD and a 120Hz FHD screen – a pretty sweet deal for something that is capable of entry-level 1080p gaming. The model we were given to test had an Intel Core i7-10750H CPU, 16GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, which is a good step-up arrangement if you’re trying to get the best performance at an entry level budget. This configuration also bundles in a 512GB M.2 SSD and the same 15.6-Inch 1080p 120Hz screen for a total cost of $2,399. This is a pretty common configuration offered by devices like Dell’s G5 15 and MSI’s GF63 Thin, at very similar price points… so there’s not much variance in value at this end of the market. This means vendors have to go that little bit further to get customers over the line and the Legion 5i has a few tricks up its sleeve to do just that.
In an attempt to squeeze a little more life out of the 60W battery, the Legion 5i is one of the first laptops we’ve seen to utilise Nvidia’s Advanced Optimus adaptive screen technology. Advanced Optimus saves on power consumption by switching the screen input from the discrete graphics card to the integrated GPU when it’s not in use, allowing it to spin down entirely. Unfortunately the automatic switching doesn’t work seamlessly just yet, with input glitches inhibiting a number of our benchmarks before we discovered what was causing the issue. The device managed to last one hour and 42 minutes in PCMark8’s Home Battery life benchmark and 2two hours and 42 minutes in 1080p movie playback when the GPU was constantly engaged, but the latter ended up at closer to four hours when Advanced Optimus was engaged. It is worth noting that the system also seems to cut the overall brightness when the GPU is off, so your mileage will vary with additional battery life.
The other major perk is the 120Hz screen on the least expensive models, which will mean you can play lightweight online shooters at over 60fps for a more competitive experience. This isn’t some magical new screen so there are some caveats including a 250 nit brightness and 45% sRGB colour gamut, which means the display is a little dull, but this will be a sacrifice many are willing to make to get a faster refresh rate on a budget. If you do need a more standard IPS panel you can pay $50 for a 60Hz 100% sRGB panel, or soup it up to a 500 nit, Dolby Vision, 240Hz, <1ms response time display with VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification for $500 extra.
If you look at something like Asus’s TUF A15 you can get similar or better performance for around $400 less, so while the i5 is a decent device, there are better deals around.
JOEL BURGESS
A decent range of entry level gaming laptops with some innovative perks at affordable prices.