Poor battery life and off-charger performance mean this laptop is best used plugged in, though.
-Price and availability-Design and build quality-Display-Performance-Gaming-Battery life-Keyboard and touchpad-Camera and audio-Software-Competition-Should you buy it?
For those needing a pure gaming beast on a budget, though, Lenovo has built another fantastic option.
The Legion Pro 5i is a chunky laptop, but it does look a bit cleaner this time around.
This review was made possible by a review unit provided by Lenovo.
The company did not see the contents of the review before publishing.
So, which configuration should you go with?
It’s a middle-of-the-road offering that should be perfect for most people.
With 1TB SSD, you’ll have plenty of room for your gaming library.
Not a particularly attractive design, but it’s very practical.
Lenovo has been building these laptops for years, and it knows how to construct a quality gadget.
However, you’ll also find a few other connections on either side.
I would have preferred a physical webcam shutter, but we’ll talk more about that later.
The display itself is WQXGA at 165Hz, and it surprised me with how good it looks.
Not to mention, it feels very responsive.
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 ran multiple benchmark tests to check the laptop’s CPU, GPU, SSD, and system performance.
The Legion Pro 5i is a chunky laptop, but it does look a bit cleaner this time around.
I’ll get to the rest of the time later, but first, let’s talk about thermals.
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.
This translates to allowing the laptop to offer better performance when on battery power than its predecessor did.
Most of the body is made of plastic, but the lid is metal and loves fingerprints.
Well, it’s great (when plugged in).
The Legion Pro 5i handled absolutely everything I threw at it and was a blast to use.
It’s not going to play every game at max configs, max resolution, and max framerates.
(Image credit: Rebecca Spear / Windows Central)
However, it will play basically all the latest and greatest games and do an awesome job at it.
Overall, the laptop handled these games very well.
I even ran various Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark tests at different tweaks to get a read on performance.
(Image credit: Rebecca Spear / Windows Central)
With ray tracing on low graphics prefs, the laptop managed an average of 52 FPS.
However, the Legion Pro 5i (Gen 9) doesn’t quite hit this average.
It’s not the worst Windows Central has ever seen, but it could certainly be better.
(Image credit: Rebecca Spear / Windows Central)
The key action feels great and responsive, even if it’s not a mechanical keyboard.
The function row gives you plenty of extra controls, too.
Still, if you often find yourself entering numeric data, you’ll appreciate having it.
The Legion Pro 5i (Gen 9) produced 100% of sRGB, 76% of AdobeRGB, and 78% of P3 in a color gamut test.
Lenovo once again shows it builds some of the best keyboards in the business.
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.
(Image credit: Windows Central )
Finally, there’s the touchpad, which is… fine.
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.
(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.
But that’s basically what you should expect for this kind of gaming laptop.
(Image credit: Windows Central )
Lenovo Arena is intended to be your all-in-one launcher that pulls all your games in from multiple sources.
It works well enough but is very barebones compared to other third-party options like GOG Galaxy 2.0.
The app is a little clunky, but it works and is relatively easy to use.
(Image credit: Windows Central )
The display is even an OLED to help make game visuals pop.
Motion clarity is also fantastic, thanks to 120Hz and G-Sync support.
Much of the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i’s best competition are more expensive laptops.
(Image credit: Windows Central )
ASUS' ROG laptops (like the Strix G16) are also solid options.
Legion Pro 5i (Gen 9): Should you buy it?
You should buy this if …
You should not buy this if …
(Image credit: Rebecca Spear / 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.
(Image credit: Rebecca Spear / Windows Central)
(Image credit: Rebecca Spear / Windows Central)
(Image credit: Rebecca Spear / Windows Central)
(Image credit: Rebecca Spear / Windows Central)
(Image credit: Windows Central )
(Image credit: Windows Central )
(Image credit: Windows Central )
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.
(Image credit: Windows Central)
(Image credit: Windows Central)
The Razer Blade 16 (2024) is a fantastic gaming laptop, but it costs a lot more than the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i (Gen 9).
This is a fantastic mid-range laptop, but you should probably try to use it mostly when it’s plugged in.
