A non-gamer tries the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i for hardcore gaming

I got the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i in the Onyx Grey, the quintessential colour scheme on high-end gaming laptops from the brand. My review unit came with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. I used the laptop as a writer, an amateur gamer, and an ardent internet user for almost a week, and here’s my review of the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i laptop.  

First impressions

For a first-time user of gaming laptops, I liked the sleek brick-like design, although the Legion Pro 5i has a design that has been borrowed heavily from its more premium sibling, the Legion Pro 7i. While the design impressed me, I must admit that at 2.5 kg, this is the heaviest laptop I have ever laid my hands on.

Since the Legion series was created with a focus on gaming performance, the Pro 5i has a build that includes an array of exhaust fans and a heavier chassis. However, the weight is negligible when compared to its optimal gaming output.

The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i sports a sleek and minimalistic design. (Image: Bijin Jose/The Indian Express)

Overall, I found the sleek black chassis with minimalistic design and RGB keyboard backlighting quite refreshing. Even though the laptop has a metallic build, it features plastic materials for the deck and touchpad. It looks like this was done to keep the weight in check. 

Performance

The Legion Pro 5i is a gaming laptop that has been built to offer powerful performance. It is powered by the Intel Core i9-14900HX, a high-end chip that can amplify the gaming experience. The powerful chipset is coupled with the NVIDIA GPU – GeForce RTX 4070, and together they make for immersive visuals in high-octane gaming environments. Clearly, this is a machine that has been designed to handle some demanding titles and other resource-intensive tasks. 

The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i comes with a 16-inch QHD (2560 x 1600) IPS display which offers a 165Hz refresh rate, 100 per cent DCI-P3 colour gamut, and Dolby Vision support. I found it to be a great display that produces smooth visuals and accurate colours that are easy on the eyes. While everyday tasks felt like a breeze, when I switched over to gaming, the display delivered an immersive and thoroughly thrilling experience. 

I feel the Legion Pro 5i truly shines when it comes to performance. The combination of a powerful processor and graphics card allows the laptop to handle some demanding games with ease. Based on my understanding, the performance bump from the previous generation is not as great as one might hope. However, it is still a noticeable improvement. With all that great performance, one area that I feel the laptop lacks is the battery life. It comes with an 80W battery and during my usage, I found the battery to be lasting only slightly longer than 2.5 hours. 

The gaming experience

Playing some cool titles like ‘Red Dead Redemption 2’, ‘Forza 5’, and ‘Call of Duty’ on the Legion Pro 5i made me realise what I was missing for so long. The gaming experience is top-notch and truly impressive. While playing ‘Red Dead Redemption 2’, the vast open environments of this survival game looked stunning with excellent detail and vibrant colours. Similarly, the smooth frame rates ensured that the on-screen action remained fluid, even during intense gunfights. 

A snapshot of ‘Red Dead Redemption 2’.

It was a delight to play ‘Forza 5’, as the high-speed racing was handled effortlessly by the Legion Pro 5i. On the other hand, my experience with ‘Call of Duty’ makes me believe that fast-paced multiplayer battles shine with a certain realism while playing on the Legion Pro 5i. The true winner here is the laptop’s ability to maintain high frame rates and that every shot is counted. 

A screengrab at the opening of Forza 5.

Even while gaming, switching between screens has never been easy. I also connected the Legion Pro 5i with my LG OLED-C2 via an HDMI cable. The TV with a 120Hz screen, when backed by the super-smooth processing of the laptop, gave me a larger-than-life gaming experience. Also, when it comes to demanding workloads, especially while playing heavy-duty games, hardware tends to generate heat. Thankfully with Legion Pro 5i, the thermal performance seems quite good as I found the laptop to be relatively cool under load. I feel Lenovo has done a decent job with their cooling solution, and the fan noise is kept reasonably low, even under heavy workloads.

Legion Pro 5i connected to LG OLED C2 via HDMI to play Forza 5.

Regardless, Lenovo seems to have made some compromises with port selection. While it comes with all standard ports, the lack of Thunderbolt 4 port seems like a big omission on a product that has been marketed as a Pro device. Thunderbolt 4 ports make it easy for gamers to connect high-performance devices such as gaming monitors and high-speed SSDs, and the absence of this may upset avid gamers.

The verdict

The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i is a capable gaming laptop that delivers a solid performance and great gaming experience. If you can ignore issues with the scant battery life, I feel it is a good option for gamers especially with its handling of some demanding titles.The biggest advantage of the laptop is its powerful processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPU. The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i delivers value, especially with its superfluid performance and dynamic frame rates which make it a delight for gamers.