So, you wish to have a gaming laptop that’s sleek then Lenovo Legion 5 Review 2020, durable and minimalist and therefore thinking to go with Lenovo Legion 5 laptop. Great choice! but, before you really think of buying the Lenovo legion 5 laptops make sure to have a complete look at this review and make your decision later.
There are two variants of this laptop for now: the Lenovo legion 5 and the Lenovo Legion 5i and one of the major differences between these two laptops is one is powered by AMD’s processor and the other one is Intel-powered.
Here in this Lenovo Legion 5 Review we have the intel powered version laptop but, the experience of power and hardware will be similar in most cases as these two variants don’t differ much from each other.
This laptop was one of the most anticipated gaming laptops of 2020 for a price of around 800-900 $ for a base variant of the device, Which is really interesting.
The predecessor for this Lenovo Legion 5 laptop was the Lenovo Y540 which was a really great laptop of that year. This laptop also resembles the same and looks like the 2020 version of that laptop.
Lenovo has really put in efforts and tweaked many things in this new device which you should be knowing before you make a purchase of this laptop. So, let’s start our Lenovo Legion 5 Review with the most noticeable thing design.
Table of Contents
Great Built with Minimalist Design for Gamers:-
The design and aesthetics of this laptop seem to be changed slightly as compared to the previous one. The laptops now look more subtle, clean and mature looking laptop without any typical gamer accent to it.
I have to say I personally liked how great this laptop looks without that gaming accent and it is even more minimalist and cleaner looking than the Razer Blade gaming laptops.
As there are no snakes or any type of glowing logos and accents on it and looks even more cleaner and great with this minimalist look. I have to say this Lenovo Legion 5 laptop is probably the least gaming machine looking laptop i have seen.
The top of the laptop looks very simple while not having any glowing logos and placing the legion logo in a different place from the previous version and has a metal insert in the lid which just says the name LENOVO.
Overall, the laptop feels to have a great build even though the laptop is made with plastic. The hinge on this laptop also felt very well made and for now I didn’t face any issue with this hinge.
Also, I personally feel that this is the same hinge used in the previous versions of the laptop the 540 and 570 and so this hinge too should be great.
Overall, I feel the laptop is greatly built with its minimalistic design and i loved the look of the laptop. Enough of the first look of the laptop now let’s see what’s inside the Lenovo Legion 5 laptop.
Great Display with some flaws to address
The display on this laptop seems to be great however mine was an upgraded panel but, the base model of the laptop is a 60-hertz panel which if you are gamer will not prefer this 60-hertz display and will be getting it upgraded.
This laptop also comes with a variant having a refresh rate of around 120 Hertz but comes with a lower brightness level. Which i personally will not recommend to anyone who is buying this laptop for a purpose of gaming.
I haven’t seen this variant of lenovo legion 5 with this lower 215 nits brightness but, as from my experience the brightness level of 215 nits is only perfect for stuff like web browsing and not for gaming.
As while gaming the 215 nits of brightness level will not be enough for you as it will not feel enough brightness from this screen. Also you should be avoiding the variant of the display having the 250 Nits brightness level if you can.
As i think i just spend extra money for that 144 hertz of the screen. Overall, the display on this laptop is great if you pick the right variant as per your need.
Let’s now get to the important part of a laptop which took more importance in the Covid-19 pandemic, the Webcam.
Lenovo Legion 5’s Webcam with Privacy
Webcam on the Lenovo Legion 5 has now shifted up from the bottom of the screen which is really great and also has a privacy filter added this year.
So, the privacy on this laptop increases as you can hit the switch and the webcam will be getting covered physically giving you the peace of mind that no one can watch you through it and technically making you more secure than before.
Personally, I like laptops with this kind of physical switch to close the webcam and more laptops, in general, should be having this kind of physical cover added to it over the lens like an optical slide.
This physical cover is a simple and basic thing to add in a laptop but, still, this is not available on many laptops out there!
The On Point Trackpad & Keyboard of Lenovo Legion 5
The keyboard is simply on point and anyone will love this type of keyboard experience. The keyboard has a number pad added to it and so everything on the keyboard is shifted over to the left if symmetry bothers you.
Though, Lenovo does it every time with their mid-tier laptops which have a number pad included. But, after using this keyboard for a while I have to say the keyboard experience and overall design and build of the keyboard is on point.
The keyboard has also got white backlighting all over which looks clean and great. The trackpad in the keyboard layout is also great though it does not have dedicated keys to press on each side as a typical gaming laptop.
But, still the trackpad feels great to click with all necessary things. One of my favourite parts about this keyboard & trackpad was the deck on which you put your hands on while typing.
The deck has got a really nice soft touch to it which i didn’t expect as i thought the lenovo’s materials are getting kind of clumsy and gummy overtime but this proved me wrong and now i am in love with this deck.
Enough of the overview of the machine let’s come to the performance of this gaming laptop the Lenovo Legion 5.
The performance which feels quite good
The performance on this laptop feels great as I am running the six core intel powered machine with the RTX 2060 and it’s a regular 2060 version, not the max-q version. Therefore, it is just a little more powerful than other competitors.
The cooling on the device is also handled nicely by the cooling system underneath as the fans of the system don’t get super loud. The laptop is also capable of manually switching the performance mode by a shortcut on the keyboard switch.
The performance shifts on this laptop can be between modes like high-performance mode and quiet mode while having a three coloured LED in the power button which will let you know the performance mode visually.
This laptop still doesn’t have the manual fan control to crank up the fan speed for better performance. I wish Lenovo added this manual fan mode to the laptop so that the speed can be adjusted.
Though, I didn’t feel this laptop had any need for the fans to be handled manually as the laptop itself handles the load quite nicely.
Overall, the laptop delivers great performance and will handle anything quite nicely.
Internals of Lenovo Legion 5
As soon as you open the back of the laptop and have a look at the inside of the laptop you can see two big fans which exhaust at the back and sides of the laptop with a nice and great looking heat pipes and thermal system.
Behind the two shrouds at the back, you can find the SSD and the Ram slots, if the shrouds are removed you will be having direct access to the SSD and Ram.
The battery inside the laptop is not that big and is a 60 watt-hour battery which will be giving a very similar battery life to the previous year’s laptop.
As of my use I got a battery life of around three and a half hours which was expected with this much smaller battery. There is also a bigger battery version of the laptop but this will remove the hard drive from the laptop.
This laptop holds the speakers on both sides left and right and this does sound like speakers of gaming laptops but are average and not terrible sounding and also not great sounding speakers.
Connectivitivity & Ports
There are not great ports on this laptop and the majority of ports on these laptops are on the back of the Lenovo legion 5 which again looks great, simple and clean. This laptop overall has a selection of around four USB- A ports.
Two USB-A on the back one on each side so this is a great number of USB-A’s on a laptop.
Conclusion of Lenovo legion 5 Review:-
The Lenovo Legion 5 laptop starts at a price of around 850 – 900$ for the base version of the laptop. But, there’s a bit of twist in this price.
This pricing only applies to the ryzen Amd powered version and once you spec this thing up with intel’s chip this laptop gets a bit expensive.
So, if you are thinking of buying a Lenovo legion 5 laptop make sure to get it in a sale. As lenovo’s stuff much frequently goes on sale.
Make sure you are aware of sales and grab this thing at a discount rather than paying the full retail price which I don’t think is worth it for this laptop.
See you in another laptop review till then make sure you subscribe to our newsletter to get more such laptop reviews directly to your inbox. Till then let me know what do you think about Lenovo legion 5 in the comments section below.
