Lenovo Legion 5 (2024) Review

The Lenovo Legion 5 (2024) is a gaming laptop that strikes an excellent balance between performance, affordability, and versatility. Known for its solid build quality and impressive gaming capabilities, the Legion 5 continues to be a popular choice among gamers and content creators who need powerful hardware without the premium price tag. Here’s a detailed review of its key features and performance.

Design and Build Quality

The Lenovo Legion 5 (2024) has a clean and minimalist design that sets it apart from more aggressive-looking gaming laptops. Its understated aesthetic is perfect for both work and play, making it suitable for gamers, professionals, and students alike. The chassis is mostly made of durable plastic, but it feels sturdy and well-constructed. Weighing about 5.3 pounds (2.4 kg), it’s relatively portable for a gaming laptop, though a bit heavier compared to ultrabooks.

The cooling system has been improved, featuring dual fans and strategically placed vents to maintain optimal temperatures during intense gaming sessions. Lenovo’s Legion Coldfront 5.0 technology helps keep the system cool while reducing noise levels.

Display

The 15.6-inch display of the Legion 5 comes in several configurations, ranging from Full HD (1920 x 1080) at 165Hz to QHD (2560 x 1440) at 240Hz. The high refresh rate options ensure smooth visuals during fast-paced gameplay, and the QHD model provides excellent detail and sharpness for games and creative work. With a 3ms response time and support for NVIDIA G-Sync, the display delivers a tear-free gaming experience. Additionally, the display supports 100% sRGB color gamut, ensuring vibrant and accurate colors, making it a good option for content creators and graphic designers as well.

Performance

The Lenovo Legion 5 (2024) is powered by the latest AMD Ryzen 7000 series or Intel 13th Gen Core processors (up to Ryzen 9 or Intel Core i9), giving it impressive processing power for both gaming and productivity tasks. It can be configured with up to 32GB of DDR5 RAM and up to 2TB PCIe NVMe SSD storage, ensuring smooth multitasking, fast data access, and ample storage for games and applications.

In terms of graphics, the Legion 5 is equipped with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 or RTX 4070 GPUs, delivering powerful performance for modern AAA games at high settings. The RTX series also supports ray tracing and DLSS 3.0, which enhances graphics quality and frame rates without sacrificing performance. This makes the Legion 5 capable of handling demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077, Call of Duty, and Assassin’s Creed at high resolutions and settings.

Battery Life

Gaming laptops are not known for their long battery life, and the Legion 5 is no exception. However, it offers decent battery performance for its class, providing around 5-7 hours of light usage such as web browsing or video streaming, and around 2-3 hours during gaming sessions. The laptop supports Rapid Charge Pro, which allows it to recharge to 50% in just 30 minutes, making it convenient for users who need quick top-ups between gaming or work.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Lenovo’s Legion TrueStrike keyboard is one of the standout features of the Legion 5. It offers a satisfying typing experience with 1.5mm key travel, making it comfortable for both gaming and typing. The keys are well-spaced, and the full-sized keyboard includes a number pad, which is a bonus for those who need it for work. The RGB backlighting (customizable through Lenovo’s software) adds a gaming flair and can be adjusted to match your style.

The precision touchpad is responsive and accurate, though most gamers will likely prefer using an external mouse for more precise control in games.

Connectivity

The Legion 5 is well-equipped with a variety of ports, including three USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, two USB-C ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, Ethernet port (RJ-45), and a 3.5mm headphone/microphone jack. This wide selection of ports ensures that users can connect to a variety of devices and peripherals, including external monitors, gaming mice, and controllers.

Additionally, the laptop supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2, ensuring fast and stable wireless connections, which are especially important for online gaming and streaming.

Software and Features

The Legion 5 runs on Windows 11, offering a modern interface and gaming-focused features. Lenovo’s Legion Vantage software allows users to customize performance settings, monitor system temperatures, and adjust RGB lighting. You can also switch between performance modes such as Quiet, Balanced, and Performance Mode, depending on your needs.

Price and Value

The Lenovo Legion 5 (2024) starts at around $1,299 for the base model, with configurations increasing in price depending on the processor, GPU, RAM, and storage options chosen. For a gaming laptop with RTX 40-series GPUs and high-refresh-rate displays, the Legion 5 offers excellent value. It’s priced competitively compared to similar gaming laptops from other manufacturers.

Conclusion

The Lenovo Legion 5 (2024) is an outstanding choice for gamers and power users who want high performance without breaking the bank. With powerful CPUs, cutting-edge NVIDIA GPUs, and a fast, vibrant display, it’s well-suited for modern gaming, content creation, and everyday productivity. While it’s not the lightest or longest-lasting laptop, its gaming prowess, robust build quality, and versatility make it a strong contender in the mid-range gaming laptop market for 2024.a