For comparison, the same specs in the slightly larger Acer Predator Helios 17 return a slight increase in CPU scores (within less than 5% in sustained loads), and the same sort of GPU scores. At the same time, battery life isn’t amazing with these Intel models, so if you don’t need the extra performance provided by the 12th-gen Intel platforms, you could consider some of the AMD variants instead. Lenovo also only offers the series with 100% sRGB screen options, so if you need a high-gamut display for color-accurate work, this is not for you. fhd on such a screen no one will watch a priori if there is a 4k+ source. And even more so the buyer who understands the difference in video quality 4k and fhd on YouTube… The system still doesn’t automatically switch the screen’s refresh from 165 Hz to 60 Hz when you unplug the laptop, as other devices do, and I couldn’t cycle between the 60 and 165 Hz modes by hitting Fn+R, as this combination didn’t do anything on my unit – somehow this only worked on the Legion 7s for me, and not the others. Hence, I had to go and switch between the two refresh modes in the Windows display settings, and you’ll want to do it, as it makes a difference with streaming and lightweight use.

The CPU runs hot and is thermally throttled on the Performance mode, while the middle-ground Balance profile is a fair mix of CPU performance, average temperatures, and medium fan noise, but does sacrifice the performance in sustained CPU loads by 20-25%. That means you’ll have to go with the Performance mode for any serious work, and have to accept the high CPU temperatures. You could opt for some sort of stand or cooling pad to help the cooling, but that will most likely only translate into higher CPU power (and a slight boost in performance), but not lower temperatures. With the current power settings and cooling design, the CPU is always going to run at 95+ Celsius in sustained CPU loads on Performance mode, which is not ideal. I’ve already reviewed the mid-tier i7 + RTX 3060 configuration of the Legion 5i Pro laptop in a previous article, so I’m not going over all the details again in here. If you’re interested in my thoughts on the design and ergonomics, typing experience, and screen options, you’ll find those covered in that article. The one thing you must absolutely not uninstall is the Lenovo Vantage software. Typically, these kinds of control centers are marginally useful and largely just a way to manage the laptop's RGB lighting (which you can also do here). But in the case of the Legion 5 Pro, the hardware controls can make a dramatic difference in gaming performance. Generally, though, this RTX 3070Ti configuration of the Legion 5i Pro earns our recommendation in its segment, and it’s a better value than the RTX 3060 model tested earlier in the year, at the current prices. Take your gaming up a gear with the Lenovo Legion 5 Intel Core i7 Gaming Laptop (82RB000XUK). Powered by an Intel Core i7-12700H 14 Core Processor, you'll have all the ammunition you need to enjoy high octane action within all your favourite games.Finally, I’ll mention the camera placed at the top of the screen, and flanked by microphones. The ensemble does what it’s supposed to, but the camera is still HD-only and washed-out quality. I do appreciate the electronic shutter offered on the right side of the laptop, which let you electronically kill both the camera and the microphones when you don’t want to use them. Battery life That aside, with daily multitasking on Balance mode, the fans stay active, but spin at very quiet levels and are barely audible even in a silent room. On top of that, they idle with video streaming and low-intensity tasks on the Quiet profile. So no complaints there. I also haven’t noticed any coil whining or electronic noises on any of the Legion 5 laptops tested lately. On to more demanding loads, we start by testing the CPU’s performance by running the Cinebench R15 test for 15+ times in a loop, with a 1-2 seconds delay between each run. DDR5 is here and it’s ready to put your gaming in the fast lane. With 2x the bandwidth compared to previous DDR4 technology, witness a big step up in frame rate reliability and power efficiency. With up to 32GB 4800 MHz DDR5 support from the Legion 5 you can enjoy the latest performance benefits. Instead, in this review, we’re specifically looking at the performance gains offered by the RTX 3070Ti dGPU in comparison to the RTX 3060 specs in the same laptop, both for production work and for gaming, so you’ll know which variant is worthy of your money. The price difference between the two is normally of around 200-300 EUR/USD or equivalent, but occasionally you can even find the 3070Ti model for only around 100 EUR/USD more than the 3060. Specs as reviewed– 2022 Lenovo Legion 5i Pro 7th-gen

You can find this laptop in stores in multiple variants, going from i5 + RTX 3050Ti up to i7 + 3070Ti configurations, with various amounts of RAM and SSD storage. On the Quiet profile, the CPU runs at only 25W, with sub 30 dB noise levels and temperatures in the 50s C. However, the performance in this mode is only around 35-40% of what the CPU is capable of in Performance mode. If you can get this for the right price of around 1800 USD/EUR, this RTX 3070Ti configuration of the 2022 Lenovo Legion 5i Pro is one of the better-value performance/gaming laptops on the market.We're pleased to note that there isn't a whole lot of bloat on the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (other than perennial offender McAfee), so there won't be a whole lot here that you're going to need to uninstall. It’s also worth noting that the components run at slightly lower internal temperatures on this Balanced mode than on Performance, and this aspect makes the Balance profile even more attractive for longer work/gaming sessions.

The colours are middling, too. The panel does display a decent 91.7% of the sRGB colour gamut and its Delta E of 2.39 is reasonable, but the temperature of 7809K is cool. Combine this with the low contrast figure and you’ve got a display that looks pallid. As far as everyday use goes, the laptop runs snappily and stays cool and quiet, so no complaints here. Nvidia’s latest laptop graphics chips run at different power levels to deliver varying levels of performance and efficiency. The GeForce RTX 3070 inside the Legion runs at 130W, which is about as high as this chip can go. Elsewhere, it’s got the usual 8GB of memory and 5120 stream processors. Witness victory on a 15.6" screen with up to WQHD resolution that lets you employ super-human reflexes from 165Hz refresh rate and only 3ms response time thanks to OverDrive technology. Push what's possible with AMD FreeSync™ and NVIDIA® G-SYNC® support and aim to game with purpose on this incredible screen. The Balance profile allows the laptop to run at around 44 dB, while the Quiet mode keeps the fans at sub-35dB – both these modes come with a drop in performance over the top profile, but Balance is a solid option for gaming and most workloads.

Lenovo Legion 9i review (2023 RTX 4080 model)

The Ryzen 7 5800H is a familiarly great CPU from AMD. It’s got eight multi-threaded cores alongside base and boost speeds of 3.2GHz and 4.4GHz. The rest of the specification is entirely normal: the Lenovo has 16GB of dual-channel memory and a 512GB SSD alongside dual-band Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5 and Gigabit Ethernet. The final piece of the puzzle is the SSD, which returned decent read and write speeds of 3594MB/s and 1681MB/s, which means it can save and load data on the physical drive at a healthy pace.

For connectivity, there’s Wireless 6E and Bluetooth 5 through an Intel AX211 chip on this laptop. It proved reliable during my time with the laptop, but for some unknown reason couldn’t match the speeds provided by other laptops with my router. Still, at 300-400 Mbps, there’s little to complain about. Despite its heft and four large vents—plus a sizable vent area on its bottom—the Legion 5 Pro requires active and loud fans to stay cool when engaged in heavy graphics lifting. The laptop is fairly quiet during routine Windows work, but the fans crank up when running 3D games and media editing apps. It's no louder than competing gaming laptops, but I'd hoped that it wouldn't need to spin its fans at max RPM as frequently as it did, considering that Lenovo didn't try to squeeze the system into a svelte, Razer-like chassis. (Photo: Molly Flores) In our 3DMark tests, the Legion 5 Pro consistently beat the Asus Zephyrus G15. In Night Raid, the Legion 5 Pro scored 44,061 to the Zephyrus G15's 43,645; in Fire Strike, it won 22,031 to 21,211; in Time Spy, the Legion 5 Pro won, 9,583 to 9,333; and in Port Royal, the Legion 5 Pro edged out a win with 5,936 points to the Zephyrus G15's 5,723.

A Unusual Screen Size for a Gamer

NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 30 Series Laptop GPUs power the world's fastest laptops for gamers and creators. They're built with Ampere—NVIDIA's 2nd gen RTX architecture– to give you the most realistic ray-traced graphics and cutting-edge AI features like NVIDIA DLSS. New Max-Q technologies utilize AI to enable thin, high performance laptops that are faster and better than ever. Cinebench is often a good predictor of our Handbrake video-editing trial, another tough, threaded workout that's highly CPU-dependent and scales well with cores and threads. In it, we put a stopwatch on test systems as they transcode a standard 12-minute clip of 4K video (the open-source Blender demo movie Tears of Steel Tears of Steel ) to a 1080p MP4 file. It's a timed test, and lower results are better.