Lenovo Legion Pro 5 (16″, 2023) review – could not be compromised as hard as they tried


Design and construction

Well, the Legion Pro 5 (16″, 2023) has a very familiar design. It sports an elongated backside. This brings two of the heat sinks away from your fingers, hypothetically making it more comfortable to use the laptop.

Its lid is made out of metal, while the rest of the machine is plastic. To be honest, you can feel that in the build quality. The lid is thinner but more resistant to flex, than the base. Still, the sheer volume and mass of the Legion Pro 5 help it with rigidity. Speaking of which, we are talking about a profile of 22.45-26.75mm and a weight of 2.55 kg.

Yes, the lid opens with one hand, which is great. The bezels around the matte screen are thin. Moreover, the top one features a notch, which will help you grip the lid better when you open it. It also houses the Web camera and a couple of microphone holes. The former comes in 720p and 1080p resolutions.

Next, there is the base. It houses a fantastic keyboard, which features a NumberPad section, huge Arrow keys, and a backlight. The latter can be found in White, Blue, and 4-zone RGB configuration. However, what makes the keyboard truly great is the long key travel and clicky feedback. It really is a joy to use it both for typing and for gaming.

A little lower on the base, there is the touchpad. It has a Mylar surface, which is very close to glass in terms of feel. Its size of 75 by 120 mm is decent, but the response rate is even more impressive.

Lenovo has equipped this laptop with only two 2W speakers. They are placed on the bottom. Besides them, you will find the ventilation grill, which supplies cool air to the fans. Hot air, respectively, is being exhausted through two vents on the back, and one on each side of the notebook.

Ports

On the left side, there is a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port and a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port (for data transfer and DisplayPort 1.4 output). Then, the right houses another USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, an Audio jack, and a camera shutter toggle switch. Lastly, the backside is home to the LAN port, a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port (with Power Delivery 140W and DisplayPort 1.4 functionality), an HDMI 2.1 connector, two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, and the power plug.



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Miau
Miau
1 year ago

Some of the Asus laptops with HX Ryzen 7000 and it’s 15W 610M iGPU, only support external monitor when dedicated Nvidia GPU is enabled. This is major flaw when you are on the go and run laptop on battery as HX CPU can’t even go below 8W. I assume running dedicated GPU for external monitor is gonna be 1.5 hour battery life and you can’t use it to give presentation in meeting or conference.

Last edited 1 year ago by Miau
John
John
3 months ago
Reply to  Miau

I’ve done hundreds of presentations and never needed or used a gaming laptop. Nor have I been in a situation where there was not a power outlet nearby.

PaulDamien71
PaulDamien71
1 year ago

You should really edit this review and change all “Pro 5” with “Pro 5i” since what you reviewed was the Intel version…

Anyway, thanks for the review and I’ll wait for the comparison between the Pro 5i (Gen 8, Intel) and the Pro 5 (Gen 8 AMD), in the regards of the CPU.

Andrea
Andrea
1 year ago

The USB-C in the back can be used to charge the laptop? I mean, not for heavy 3D workload, but when used as standard laptop to work with mail and internet?

param
param
10 months ago
Reply to  Andrea

i think yes , as it supports 140ws charger in the back……its meant so u can use it somewhere where you cant carry a 300w charger