Poor battery life and off-charger performance means this laptop is best used plugged in, though.
For those needing a pure gaming beast on a budget, though, Lenovo has built another fantastic option.
Disclaimer:This review was made possible by a review unit provided by Lenovo.
The Legion Pro 5i is a chunky laptop, but it does look a bit cleaner this time around.
The company did not see the contents of the review before publishing.
you’re free to view a quick breakdown of this laptop’s specs below.
Not a particularly attractive design, but very practical.
Lenovo has been building these laptops for years, and it knows how to construct a quality gadget.
The display itself is QHD at 165Hz and surprised me with how good it looks.
It’s even anti-glare, which looks fantastic and works as advertised.
An oddity, but it didn’t hugely affect my experience using this rig.
Fortunately, Lenovo absolutely nails both of these core pillars, with one notable caveat.
I’ll get to the rest of the time later, but first let’s talk about thermals.
The Legion Pro 5i is a chunky laptop, but it does look a bit cleaner this time around.
These fans can move a lot of air, and they get as loud as you expect, too.
Fortunately, the fans aren’t obnoxious, producing a stable low hum rather than a high-pitched whine.
There’s no rattling, either.
I also never noticed any significant performance degradation or thermal throttling.
Unfortunately, this translates to frankly bad performance when on battery power.
Well, it’s great (when plugged in).
Most of the body is made of plastic, but the lid is metal and loves fingerprints.
The Legion Pro 5i handled absolutely everything I threw at it and was a blast to use.
However, the Legion Pro 5i (Gen 8) doesn’t quite hit this average.
It’s not the worst Windows Central has ever seen, but it could certainly be better.
The display on the Legion Pro 5i won’t win any awards, but it’s still pretty good.
The key action feels great and responsive, even if it’s not a mechanical keyboard.
Being a 16-inch laptop, Lenovo also had space to include a number pad.
Lenovo once again shows it builds some of the best keyboards in the business.
The Legion Pro 5i doesn’t have the most color accurate display, but it still looks great in use.
It looks good and functions well as backlighting, but it’s not particularly vivid.
Every color you select in the software will look considerably more faded in real life.
Finally, there’s the touchpad, which is… Fine.
The Legion Pro 5i’s i7 can even compete with some older i9 processors.(Image credit: Windows Central)
It’s not haptic, but does it really need to be?
It also lacks Windows Hello support, as this laptop once again does not feature any biometric authentication.
At least there’s a dedicated kill switch for the camera.
It can’t approach the overwhelming Razer Blade 18, but the latest Legion Pro 5i does just beat out its predecessor in multicore performance.(Image credit: Windows Central)
It’s an admittedly niche feature addition, but it’s nice to have if you want it.
The dual 2W speakers are also average at best.
The app is a little clunky, but it works and is relatively easy to use.
The Legion Pro 5i performs very well here, seemingly focusing on multicore performance over single-core.(Image credit: Windows Central)
ASUS' ROG laptops (like the Strix G16) are also solid options.
Legion Pro 5i (Gen 8): Should you buy it?
You should buy this if …
You should not buy this if …
A PCIe 4.0 SSD guarantees incredible read and write speeds from the Legion Pro 5i, especially for a smaller 512GB drive.(Image credit: Windows Central)
I really like the latest Lenovo Legion Pro 5i.
It’s not the fanciest or most powerful, but it can play all thebest PC gameswith few issues.
The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i does great with general productivity tasks, too, at least when it’s plugged in.(Image credit: Windows Central)
The Legion Pro 5i delivered some very impressive multicore performance in the Cinebench R23 test.(Image credit: Windows Central)
Lenovo made good use of all the space here, and the thermal performance shows it.
The mobile 4060 couldn’t quite best the 3070 Ti in last year’s Legion Pro 5i, but it was a close battle.
With default settings, the latest Legion Pro 5i struggled to stay away from the bottom of the board.
This keyboard is very similar to last year’s model, but that doesn’t make it any less great.
These fans can make a lot of noise, but it’s fortunately not an obnoxious sound.
The Legion Pro 5i handled everything I threw at it, but I could do with a bit less preinstalled software.
My preferred arrangement for a gaming laptop, most of the Legion Pro 5i’s ports are situated on the back.
This is a fantastic mid-range laptop, but you should probably try to use it mostly when it’s plugged in.
