04/10/2023
In this day and age, there’s probably a laptop available for every kind of personality. Whether you’re after design, power, performance, or all of the above, you’re bound to find something that would check most if not all your boxes.
With the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro, things are simple and straight to the point. It’s a quietly-designed laptop aiming to offer a stress-free experience no matter the task. With powerful internals backed up by impressive hardware, this laptop can be seen not only as a machine for gamers but for power users in general.
Lighter and thinner
The Lenovo Legion 5i Pro receives a makeover this year and it’s looking pretty slick.
They slimmed it down and made it lighter, so it’s easier to take with you wherever you go.
The top cover is made of anodized aluminum and has the new Legion logo that gives it an understated, but still commanding look. And, like always, they put most of the ports at the back, which helps protect your wireless dongles from snagging cables. Four exhaust vents around the back and sides keep the whole machine cool and running at top performance even during long periods of use.
For a gaming laptop, it’s portable enough. It’s no Yoga 9i in terms of portability and I think it would still work best as a stay-at-home device. But it’s light and thin enough to easily pack up should you ever need to work of the house or office.
Though, in all honesty, I wish Lenovo would venture a little bit out of the mold. This design is quite common which is a shame as it can get lost in a sea of other gaming laptops. But it does achieve a classic, more timeless look if what you’re after is something that’s sure to look good a few years down the line.
Power to fuel your creativity and game
With a 12th Generation Core i7-12700H processor, the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro can handle the most demanding tasks like a boss. Whether you’re rendering high-quality videos or playing the latest AAA titles, this processor won’t let you down.
The laptop also has up to 32GB DDR5-4800 memory and up to 2TB PCIe SSD, which provides plenty of storage for all your games and files. Two M.2 slots are also available if you require even faster transfer speeds and performance.
The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i also has a unique thermal design, which is essential for long gaming sessions and long editing sessions. The company includes its Coldfront 4.0 system, which promises a more thermally efficient machine while keeping noise to a minimum with the use of a greater heat transfer area and two 12V thin-bladed fans.
True enough, whether I was editing for hours on end or investing a couple of hours with Genshin Impact, there was little to no degradation in performance. Heat can still be felt, which isn’t unsurprising, but it isn’t a problem that needs to be pointed out.
In addition to hardware, Lenovo Vantage for Gaming also provides a space where you can toggle quick settings like GPU Working Mode, useful when you want to fit your hardware’s performance to the current task at hand.
Visual eye-candy
If you’re a content creator or gamer, then you know that visuals are everything. Capable of up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 graphics, the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro renders stunning graphics that made work easier and games more immersive.
For content creation, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti helped in speeding up my workflow. It has dedicated hardware that’s specifically designed for accelerating certain tasks, like rendering video and 3D modeling which I was able to utilize with my 4K editing workflows and motion graphics projects. Bridging between two programs, like Premiere Pro and After Effects, for example, was also really fast and definitely improved my productivity.
On the gaming side, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti offers real-time ray tracing, which adds a whole new layer of realism and depth. Shadows, fog, and reflections rendered fast and instantly elevated my gameplay. Stuttering and lag were problems I didn’t have even during extended hours of play and high frame rates were easily achievable as well.
Big Screen Energy
One of the standout features of the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro is its stunning display.
The 15.6-inch WQHD display (2560 x 1440 resolution) has a high 165Hz refresh rate, 3ms response time, and Gsync support which are, basically, essentials for modern gamers. Combined with the stunning graphics produced by the graphics card, playing on this computer with this display was a genuinely joyful experience.
And with more screen real estate, editing photos, videos, and even articles was also a breeze when working out of the house. Since I do normally work on an external display, I often feel cramped when I have to transfer to a laptop. This wasn’t the case with the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro. I could rearrange my windows and panels to my liking and have enough room to access all the tools I need and scroll through timelines effortlessly.
Color grading was without fear, too, since this device offers 100% sRGB color accuracy.
Connectivity is a nonissue
Another great feature of the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i is its connectivity options.
Working with all sorts of media, I really appreciate it when a laptop offers a variety of ports because it not only adds versatility but also convenience. On the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro, we have a Thunderbolt 4 port, two USB Type-C ports (Gen 2 and Gen 3), two USB Type-A ports, one of which is always-on, ethernet, and an audio jack. If it just had a memory card reader then it would have been a pretty complete package for me.
With the variety of ports, I can easily transfer files using either the type-c or type-a ports or connect different devices whether phones, tablets, or cameras for tethering. The ethernet port, while obviously useful for gaming, also contributed to improving my content creation workflow since I can directly plug in our network storage and access files faster and easier.
Essentials in check
Of course, Lenovo included all the essentials a modern-day gamer, creator, or even casual user would need.
With an FHD webcam on board (with a privacy shutter), video calls and meetings are accomplished effortlessly. The TrueStrike keyboard is a full keyboard too — number pad and all — and it’s a comfortable experience whether typing long articles or gaming.
For all else, you have a fast-charging battery (80% in 30 minutes), stereo speakers with Nahimic Audio tuning, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.1, and additional Lenovo Vantage features for ease of use.
Final thoughts
In my time with this device, I’ve come to the conclusion that the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro is a no-frills gaming and content creation laptop that packs a serious punch.
Designed to provide users with a powerful, no-nonsense machine that can handle even the most demanding tasks, the Legion 5i Pro has everything you need to take your gaming and content creation to the next level. It aims to hero power and performance above all and it does that really well.
The Lenovo Legion 5i Pro (Gen 7) starts at PhP 114,995 and is already available for purchase online and in-store. In the US, you can grab one for US$ 1,499 here.
