PC Pro - UK 2021-12)

I

f youhavebetween£1,000

and£1,500 to spendona

gaminglaptop,youroption

are,well,legion.Onlyrecently

I’vereviewed boththeAsusTUF

DashF 15 (seepcpro.link/ 326 TUF) and

theAcerNitro5 (seeissue 323 ,p 58 ),

twomachinesthatresetthe levelof

performanceyoucanexpectfroma

sub-£1,500 gaminglaptop.Now

Lenovohasweighedinwithitsnew

Legion5,but canitoutdo therest?

It’savailablein n and in

flavours,with

fora Ryzen5 4 60

ofRAM,256GBof

storageanda GeF

GTX1650.Lenovo

usthe £1, 299

machinewithits

Ryzen7 5800H,

GeForceRTX

3070 graphics

(130W), 1 6GBof

RAManda 512GB

SSD.Thehigher

pricealsobuysa

betterscreen, wit

a 1 65 Hzrefresh

andanRGBkeybo

Thedesignb

newground:itloo

feelsmuchlike p

That’snobadthin

juvenilethansom

withnothingthatobnoxiouslyshouts

“gamingmachine”.Twocoloursare

available:phantombluewitha 4-zone

RGBkeyboardbacklightanddiamond

whitewithbluebacklighting.

Thealuminiumbody is solid, with

littleflextothelid.Ilikethewaythe

hingehasbeencalibratedsothatyou

canopenitwithonlyonehand,too.

Thisrevealsa spacious,full-width

keyboard with a numeric keypadand

a setoffull-sizecursorkeysset

slightlyapart.Itechoesthesturdy

buildofthe Legion5 as a whole,with

perfectlyjudgedkeytravelof1.8mm.

The 105 x 70mmtrackpadis inevitably

offsettotheleftbyquitesomeway,

butis otherwiseequallyperfect.

tsarelinedupalong

’llfind a Gigabit

nnector, twoUSB-A

orts,a USB-Cport

supports

DisplayPort1.4,

anHDMI2.1

connector anda

DC-injack.A

secondUSB-C

portand 3 .5mm

audiojacksiton

theright,witha

thirdUSB-Aport

ontheright.

Overall,this is a

mprehensive and

laid-outselection.

moregoodnews

rs,evenifgaining

Legion’sinternals

rt;unclippingthe

bottomofthecaseisa nerve-wracking

business,andyou’llneeda thintoolto

prythecaseapart.Onceinside,you

mustremovethreescrewsanda cover

plateto accesstheslot fora second

2280 M.2SSDanddothesametoget at

thepre-installedSSDandWi-Fi6/

Bluetooth5.1wirelesscard.To access

thetwoSODIMMmemoryslots,you

gentlypriseaparteightmetalgrips

thatholdyetanothercoverplatein

place.AccordingtoLenovo,themost

youcanupgrade theLegion5 to is two

1TBSSDs andtwo16GB sticksofRAM.

Notthatthere’sanyimmediate

needtodoso:theLegion 5 chewed

throughthePCProbenchmarksin

shortordertoscore284.It’sequally

fastingames,averaging61fps in

Hitman 2 and 6 8fpsinShadowofthe

TombRaider. Thelatterwaswithray

led,DLSSoffandall

icssettingssetatthe

. Finally,I ran
ein:Youngbloodwith
off,thenwithray
hedonandDLSSoff,
ithbothraytracing
on.Theresultswere
impressive,returning
ratesof 1 60 fps,
143fpsrespectively.
scoresarehigherthan
ecordedbytheAcer
theAsusTUFDash.
ona parwiththose
heAsusROGZephyrus
, a £2,600gaminglaptop
ththesameGPUbuta
yzen 9 5900HSCPU.As
ionedintheLegion 7
w (seep 58 ),Lenovo’s
softwareandcoolingtweaksappearto
givethis laptopa legupingames.
Battery lifeislessstunning,lasting
for7hrs32minsinourvideo-rundown
test(halfthatof theAsusTUFDash
F15).Thoughthe 3 00Wpowermodule
thatcomeswiththeLegion5 is a 600g
brick,a USB-Cchargerwith65Wor
higheroutputwillkeepit going.
Myfinalwordgoestothe15.6in
screen.Don’texpecthugedetail,with
a restrained1,920 x 1,080 resolution,
butI haveno complaintsabouta peak
brightnessof345cd/m²,contrastratio
of1,313:1oraverageDeltaE of 0.63.
Especiallywhenitcovers94%ofthe
sRGBgamut.Ifyouwanta displaywith
a QHDresolution,you’ll needtolook
atthemoreexpensiveLegion5 Proor
Legion7 models.Look elsewherefor
top-notchspeakers,too.Thesoundis
tightand punchybuttheabsence of
bassisa problem,andsomethingthe
pre-installedNahimiccontrolpanel
canonly do so muchtoameliorate.
Sotherearesignsof cutbacks,
butthenewLegion5 is a greatoption
fortheprice.It’scapableofbetter
gamingperformancethanboththe
AcerNitro 5 and theAsusTUFDash
F15andevencomeswithinstriking
distance offarpricier
machines.It’snotjust
aboutgaming,though:the
Legion5 both looksand
feelslikeamoreupmarket
devicethan eitherofthese
rivals.ALUNTAYLOR

ABOVEPerformance

inourgamingtestswas

onaparwithfarmore

expensivelaptops

LenovoLegion 5

Amasterclassinmid-pr

gamingwithlooksand

performancethat

impressevenifitcost

PRICE£1,083(£1,300incVAT)

frombox.co.uk

“Thedesignbreaksno

newground:itlooks

andfeelsmuchlike

previousmodels.

That’snobadthing”

SCORE

SPECIFICATIONS

8-core3.2GHz(4.4GHzboost)AMDRyzen 7

5800Hprocessor16GBDDR4-3200RAM

16GBNvidiaGeForceRTX 3070 graphics

15.6in165Hznon-touchIPSdisplay,1,920x

1,080resolution512GBM.2PCIe3SSD

720pwebcam2x2Wi-Fi6 Bluetooth5.1

HDMI2.12xUSB-C 3 .23xUSB-A3.1

Ethernetport3.5mmjack80Whbattery

Windows 10 Home 363 x2 61 x25.8mm

(WDH)2.4kg1yrlimitedwarrantypart

code82JU002YUK

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BREAKDOWNSCORES

BENCHMARKS

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OVERALL 284

LEFTTheLegion5’s

aluminiumbodyis

solid,withlittleflex

tothelid