Lenovo Legion 5i (2021) Review: The solid build allows the Legion 5i to push past its specifications

Lenovo’s Legion gaming laptops are some of the bests in their class. In our review, we noted that the Legion 5 Pro might just be one of the best mid-range gaming laptops of 2021. Now, the Legion 5i has stopped by and at a glance, it looks more or less like the Legion 5 Pro.

But while the Lenovo Legion 5i (2021) boasts a similar design as the Legion 5 Pro (Review), it pairs a flagship 11^th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU with an entry-level Nvidia RTX 3050 laptop GPU. Additionally, the Legion 5i also features a starting price of Rs 94,990 on Amazon India and Rs 111,990 on Lenovo’s official website. So, without any further delay, let’s take a look at the Lenovo Legion 5i in the real world.

Design & Build

When it comes to the design, the Legion 5i tones it down on the gamer aesthetic, going for a more subtle look. The notebook has a plastic chassis but still feels sturdy and durable. However, this rigidity does come at the cost of a sleek design, with the laptop weighing in at around 5.5 pounds and boasting a bulky form factor. But this may not necessarily be a bad thing as it leaves more room for cooling. Additionally, the Phantom Blue finish of the Legion 5i doesn’t really attract fingerprints and smudges.

The only other things that slightly resemble the gaming aesthetics here are the vents on the back of the laptop and the Legion logo on the lid. There’s no fancy RGB lighting, although you can opt for it. In an era where ‘over-the-top design’ is the standard blueprint for gaming laptops, the Lenovo Legion 5i opts for a more subtle and mature look.

Ports

The Legion 5i has an excellent selection of ports, even by gaming laptop standards, this is quite a lot. The notebook has a full-size USB Type-A port on the right and a USB Type-C port and headphone jack on the left. However, most of the ports here are on the back. There are three full-size USB Type-C ports, a USB Type-C port with Thunderbolt 4, an HDMI 2.1 port, an Ethernet port, and a charging port on the back.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The Lenovo Legion 5i comes with a full-size backlit keyboard with a Number Pad. The keys have a nice travel distance of 1.5mm, giving you a nice tactile feel when gaming and typing. Additionally, there was no keyboard flex, although the keys do feel cramped together. The Precision touchpad on the Legion 5i is fairly large, while the matte finish allows your fingers to smoothly glide across the surface area.

You can also disable the touchpad with the FN + F10 command. I defaulted to using the mouse throughout my use of the Legion 5i and very rarely used the touchpad, but it felt convenient to use in the rare instances where I didn’t use a mouse. The keyboard and touchpad on the Legion 5i are top-notch and among the best you’ll find in this range.

Display

The Lenovo Legion 5i sports a 15.6-inch Full HD IPS display with a 120Hz refresh rate. Additionally, the laptop offers a peak brightness of 250 nits and 40 percent NTSC coverage, which was quite weak and something you’d expect with a budget gaming as opposed to a machine that costs over a lakh.

The high refresh rate was good for gaming, but the screen was good for little else. The viewing angles weren’t particularly good and darker scenes in movies weren’t properly visible, even in a bright room. It is quite evident that the screen, which can be laid out flat over a table, is meant for little other than gaming.

Performance

For performance, the Lenovo Legion 5i arrives with an Intel Core i7-11800H mobile processor paired with 16GB of DDR4 RAM and 512GB of PCIe Gen 4 storage. Additionally, the notebook also arrives with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 laptop GPU. Let’s take a look at some of the real-world results.

In Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, the Legion 5i managed an average of 90 fps on medium settings and 70 fps on High Settings. With ray tracing turned on, the laptop only delivered 50 fps on medium settings. It is worth noting that we achieved playable frame rates on all the above-mentioned settings in multi-player, so you will see a 10 to 15 percent gain in single-player modes.

So close!! No!!!!@CallofDuty @LenovoLegion pic.twitter.com/G0qcBiOetB

— Carlsen Martin (@Carlsen0491) January 17, 2022

In Apex Legends, we received an average of 75 fps with the recommended settings. In Battlefield V, the Legion 5i managed 85fps on average on medium settings in multiplayer mode. Battlefield V also ran smoothly with ray tracing turned on in the campaign mode. In Valorant, the Legion 5i managed 140 fps on average, which was more than the display could handle. We also played a bit of GTA: V on high settings, which delivered 80fps on average.

#BattlefieldV on Lenovo's entry-level Legion 5i
11th Gen Core i7/RTX 3050@LenovoLegion pic.twitter.com/0t2RS1t4lM

— Carlsen Martin (@Carlsen0491) January 16, 2022

Moving on to the benchmarks, the Legion 5i did quite well in Geekbench 5, with the CPU recording a single-core score of 1601 points and a multi-core score of 8211 points. Cinebench R23 yielded similar results, with the CPU hitting 1591 points in the single-core test and the 9612 in the multi-core test.

The bulky design of the Legion 5i enables excellent cooling on the machine. In Performance mode, the CPU rarely crossed the 90-degree Celsius threshold, while GPU consistently remained under 85 degrees Celsius. Not only does the laptop has plenty of space for cooling, but there are vents on the back and sides to maintain good heat dissipation and keep the internals cool. Additionally, surface temperatures on the Legion 5i are relatively cool, while there wasn’t any concern about thermal throttling.

Battery

If there’s one area that the Legion 5i could use improving in, it is the battery. The Legion 5i’s 60Whr battery delivered an abysmal three hours of battery life under average use with the power saving mode turned on and brightness set to 60 percent. However, add multi-tasking to the equation and you’ll barely get two hours of battery life on the Legion 5i. There’s no doubt that gaming laptops don’t quite offer the best battery life, but it seems to be non-existent on the Legion 5i. And gaming on the battery is an even worst idea than multi-tasking on it. I have to say that the battery life here was quite underwhelming.

Audio & Webcam

The Legion 5i features dual 2W downward-firing stereo speakers. I mostly stuck to headphones while gaming, but when watching videos or movies, I found the speakers to be quite effective. I very rarely come across a gaming laptop that’s loud enough to watch content without using external speakers, but that didn’t seem to be the case here. The audio quality here definitely punches above its price.

Additionally, the Nahimic Audio app allows you to customise your audio via an equaliser or choose from multiple audio presets for different tasks. Competitive gaming did require a headset but in most other instances I found the speakers to be quite effective. The Legion 5i also comes with a 720p webcam that is adequate for video calls. It doesn’t have a physical shutter but there is a kill switch on the keyboard that shut the camera off.

Verdict

With a starting price of Rs 94,990, the Legion 5i doesn’t come cheap. It is definitely on the more expensive side given its specifications. However, there is clear evidence of opting for a high-end design. First off, the Legion 5i has a premium build as compared to other laptops in the segment. Moreover, it also has some of the best laptop speakers and a vast selection of ports. Additionally, performance here punches above the laptops specifications, which could be done to the improved cooling system. However, there are still clear comprises here with the display and battery life, which definitely need addressing.

When it comes to gaming, the Lenovo Legion 5i certainly won’t let you down, but other than gaming, there’s not much this machine does well. The Lenovo Legion 5i (2021) is designed to offer the best possible performance for its hardware and has a very solid build as compared to its competitors. So even if you get a gaming laptop with an RTX 3050 Ti or RTX 3060 model at this price, you may not get the best performance out of those specs and will likely see plenty of comprises in the build. The Legion 5i is definitely worth considering, but I’d wait for the newer 2022 models, which will likely be a few months away.