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日本[Video Review] Lenovo Legion 5 (15″, 2022) – Do you really need a better gaming laptop?
Lenovo Legion 5 (15" AMD, 2022) in-depth review
The Legion 5 has worked its way to become a more premium gaming notebook, rather than one that suits all kinds of budgets. This is helped by the rise of the IdeaPad Gaming 3 family, and undoubtedly, the higher performance figures of all Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA.However, Lenovo isn't the only brand that is comfortably offering better-looking and better-equipped laptops as the years go by. Acer is an example with its revamped Nitro 5 series, which offers extremely good cooling and very high TGP graphics cards. So is the case with the Legion 5 by the way. You can choose from the RTX 3050 (95W)[...]
Pros
- High TGP GPUs
- 2x M.2 PCIe x4 Gen 4 slots, 2x DDR5 RAM SODIMM slots in dual channel, Wi-Fi 6
- Covers 97% of the sRGB color gamut and has accurate color representation with our Gaming and Web design profile (BOE NE156QHM-NY4 (BOE0A2D))
- Snappy panel with quick response times (BOE NE156QHM-NY4 (BOE0A2D))
- Has a ton of ports
- Great input devices
- The keyboard remains relatively cool after long gaming sessions
- Good build quality
Cons
- No SD card
- Gets more and more expensive
Lenovo Legion 5 (15" AMD, 2022) - Specs
- HDD/SSD
- up to 4000GB SSD
- M.2 Slot
- 2x 2280 PCIe NVMe 4.0 x4 See photo
- RAM
- up to 64GB
- OS
- Windows 11 Home, No OS, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11
- Battery
- 60Wh, 80Wh
- Body material
- Plastic / Polycarbonate, Aluminum
- Dimensions
- 358.8 x 262.35 x 19.99 mm (14.13" x 10.33" x 0.79")
- Weight
- 2.40 kg (5.3 lbs)
- Ports and connectivity
- 2x USB Type-A
- 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
- 1x USB Type-A
- 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Sleep and Charge
- 1x USB Type-C
- 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), DisplayPort
- 1x USB Type-C
- 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), Power Delivery (PD), Sleep and Charge
- 1x USB Type-C
- 4.0, DisplayPort
- HDMI
- 2.1
- Card reader
- Ethernet LAN
- 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
- Wi-Fi
- 802.11ax
- Bluetooth
- 5.1
- Audio jack
- 3.5mm Combo Jack
- Features
- Fingerprint reader
- Web camera
- HD / FHD with Privacy Shutter, Fixed Focus
- Backlit keyboard
- optional
- Microphone
- Dual Microphone Array
- Speakers
- 2x 2W Stereo Speakers, Nahimic Audio
- Optical drive
- Security Lock slot
All Lenovo Legion 5 (15″ AMD, 2022) configurations
Slowly but surely, Lenovo takes off every bit of aggressiveness that the Legion 5 has. Still, despite its more subdued appearance, it’s got performance for days, as you’ll see now, thanks to high TGP RTX Graphics and AMD’s latest processors.
[Intro]
The laptop overall looks great, having a metal lid and plastic base with either a Silver or Grey finish. Our laptop sports the Silver paint and absolutely kills it. The glowing logo is gone, with just a debossed Legion written vertically on the lid. Durability is fantastic, which could also be attributed to the weight of 2.40 kg, while a 20 mm profile keeps it thin.
[Input devices]
Opening the lid is easy and smooth, thanks to the stable hinges. It also reveals the keyboard. The unit is superb for all sorts of use, with long key travel and clicky feedback. There is a White backlight, which you can upgrade to a 4-zone RGB one.
The touchpad is pretty large and covered in Mylar, which we’ve had experience with before. While not glass, it is very smooth, while accuracy and responsiveness are up there.
[Ports]
Lenovo kickstarted the trend of putting ports on the back, with the Legion 5’s backside having a LAN port, a USB Type-C 10Gb port, two full-sized USB 5Gb ports, and a power plug. The left side has one USB Type-C 10Gb port and one USB4 port. On the right, there is an audio jack and one full-sized USB 5Gb port.
[Display]
The IPS display on the front is stunning, with a QHD resolution and a 165Hz refresh rate. It also has close to 400 nits of peak brightness, while showing 97% sRGB coverage and a dE value of 1.0 when applying our Design and Gaming profile, making it ideal for Creator work. Don’t forget to get our profiles, you’ll find the link in the description.
[Battery]
Powering the laptop is an 80Wh battery that lasts for 15 hours and 13 minutes of Web browsing, or 9 hours and 22 minutes of video playback when paired with the Ryzen 7 6800H and the RTX 3060 with a 130W power limit. These are amazing results for a gaming laptop.
[Performance]
The Ryzen 7 does very well inside the Legion 5, performing similarly to the TUF Gaming A15 and the ROG Strix G15, both from ASUS. On the GPU end, the RTX 3060 delivers top-notch performance, both in benchmarks and in games.
There is a MUX switch inside, which will improve performance while sacrificing some battery life.
By the way, check out our new channel where we test all popular graphics cards on all popular games, and on all presets. It’s a lot of work and we’ll be happy if you subscribe to it.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLJ-FnaQC5P7DAJnZz9YZFQ
The 130W RTX 3060 specifically does very well, making easy work of esports titles like Apex Legends or any other shooter or MOBA, including COD Modern Warfare and its Warzone component.
[COD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbua5NGUqoE]
Moving over to single-player titles, the 3060 breaks through the 60FPS mark in lots of games, going as high as 92fps in Need for Speed: Heat at the Ultra Preset.
[NFS: Heat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhIDLgUp59I]
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLJ-FnaQC5P7DAJnZz9YZFQ
[Cooling]
The setup here is simple but very effective, with three bulky heat pipes, two fans, and a couple of large heat spreaders around the motherboard, above the VRMs and GPU memory.
In the CPU stress test, the Ryzen 7 6800H consistently runs at 90W, while clock speeds remain high even after the 15-minute mark. Temperatures are high as well, reaching the 95°C max operating temperature.
The RTX 3060 runs at high clock speeds and maintains the 130W TGP.
In terms of comfort, the temps on the inside cannot be felt on the outside, as the base reaches only 38°C, which is quite impressive. The fans do get loud, but only when you use the max performance preset.
[Teardown and Upgradeability]
The laptop has great upgradeability, offering access to both the RAM and the Storage. There are two SODIMM slots for up to 64GB of DDR5 memory and two M.2 slots which support the ultra-fast Gen 4 SSDs.
If you want to see how to get inside the Legion 5, we’ll have our teardown video in the description.
[Verdict]
The new Legion 5 is a spectacular gaming notebook, but it also has spectacular competition, with the ASUS TUF Gaming A15 offering similar performance for a decent price.
Still, if you prefer the new sleek look and you want to have the latest available tech, by all means, the Lenovo Legion 5 is a good way to spend some money.
If you think we missed something, we’re sure you’ll find it in our written review, which will get you up to speed with everything about the Legion 5.
One more marketing spaghetti article 😉