Buzz
Lenovo Legion 5 series has long been highly regarded for its design, cooling system, performance, and quality compared to competitors in the market. The Lenovo Legion 5i 16-inch HX continues to inherit and enhance these strengths.
Design of Legion 5i 16-inch: Familiar yet Unique
The design of the Legion 5i 16-inch is unmistakable, with characteristic elements such as the hinge, cooling vents, keyboard, and screen, making the Legion series stand out from the rest of the gaming laptop world.
The Legion 5i 16-inch features a familiar design with its hinge, cooling system vents, keyboard, and screen, setting it apart from other gaming laptops.
The Legion 5i 16-inch boasts a familiar design that's easy on the eyes.Sporting a sleek gray color with an aluminum top cover and a sturdy plastic body, the Legion 5i 16-inch is surprisingly lightweight at just 2.3kg. Its lid can be effortlessly opened with one hand, making it convenient for on-the-go use.
The screen features thin bezels on all sides, enhancing its modern look.
At the top of the screen sits a small notch for easier opening and houses a 1080p camera. Instead of a physical shutter, it utilizes a physical shortcut key located on the side of the laptop.
Like other Legion models, it boasts a 180-degree hinge for versatile usage.
Equipped with a spill-resistant RGB backlit keyboard divided into 4 zones, the Legion 5i 16-inch inherits Lenovo's expertise from ThinkPad, providing an exceptional gaming and typing experience. It stands as one of the best gaming laptop keyboards on the market, rivaling only high-end models with mechanical keys.The Legion 5i 16-inch features a spacious touchpad measuring 75 x 120 mm, equipped with a smooth glass surface for precise tracking and a comfortable feel.
Flipping the laptop reveals three rubber feet, a large ventilation grille, and two speakers. Heat dissipates through two rear vents.
A notable absence on the Legion 5i 16-inch is the lack of side air vents, replaced instead by a rear air intake, redistributing ports to the sides.
Diverse Connectivity Options
On the left side, you'll find a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen 1) port, two USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen 2) ports supporting DisplayPort 1.4, and a headphone jack.
The rear panel houses an HDMI 2.1 port for external displays up to 8K at 60Hz and the power connector.
On the right side, you'll find an Ethernet port, E-shutter switch, microSD card reader, and two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen 1) ports.
Impressive 2K 165Hz Display
The Lenovo Legion 5i features an IPS WQXGA panel, model number Innolux N160GLE-GT1 (CMN1631), with a refresh rate of 165Hz. It boasts a 16-inch diagonal screen with a resolution of 2560 x 1600p, a 16:10 aspect ratio, and a pixel density of 189 ppi.
The maximum brightness recorded is 367 nits (cd/m2) in the center of the screen, averaging 342 nits (cd/m2) across the surface with a maximum deviation of 13%. The color temperature at maximum brightness is 7000K (HDR off).
The screen covers 88% of sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 and 71% DCI-P3 color gamuts. Out of the box, color accuracy is somewhat off due to the white point set at 7000K, suitable for gaming but not for color-critical tasks. However, with the excellent panel quality, calibrating to a white point of 6500K improves color accuracy, making it suitable for image editing, design, and light video editing.
Before color calibration
After color calibrationStrong Performance and Excellent Cooling
All benchmarks and tests were conducted with the 'Performance' mode activated in the Lenovo Vantage app. 'GPU Overclock' and 'dGPU' modes were also applied. Additionally, 'Best performance' settings were configured in the 'Power & Battery' settings in Windows.CPU OptionsThe Lenovo Legion 5i 16-inch HX offers various CPU options including the Intel Core i5-13450HX, Core i7-13650HX, Core i7-14650HX, Core i7-14700HX, or Core i9-14900HX. The model tested in this article features the base configuration with the Intel Core i5-13450HX, a 10-core, 16-thread chip (6P + 4E). Impressively, in multi-core performance tests with Cinebench R23, the Legion 5i 16-inch HX with the Core i5-13450HX outperforms the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 with the Core i5-13500HX (14 cores, 20 threads).
GPU OptionsThe Legion 5i 16-inch HX offers three GPU options: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 (Laptop, 140W), GeForce RTX 4060 (Laptop, 140W), and GeForce RTX 4070 (Laptop, 140W). The tested model comes with the RTX 4060 and demonstrates superior performance compared to most competitors with the same GPU, showcasing a notable advantage.Temperature TestingIn this test, the Legion 5i 16-inch was subjected to 100% CPU usage, monitoring frequencies and temperatures. The first column shows the system's response to short loads (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates heavy tasks (15 to 30 seconds), and the third column represents the system's ability to operate under sustained heavy loads such as video rendering.
A notable observation is that the Intel Core i5-13450HX tends to maintain a stable TDP without excessive increases while still maintaining stable clock speeds and temperatures over extended periods.Gaming PerformanceIt's truly impressive to see the GeForce RTX 4060 maintain a stable clock speed of 2715 MHz after half an hour of gaming. This is the highest recorded result, surpassing the Acer Nitro 16 (AN16-41) by 120 MHz, and even further ahead compared to other laptops with the same GPU.
Battery Life of Legion 5i 16-inch is Decent
During the battery life test, the laptop was set to 'Better performance' mode, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs were closed except for the testing tool. With an 80Wh battery, it can last for 8 hours and 20 minutes of web browsing or 6 hours and 40 minutes of video playback.
Under mixed work conditions, it may only sustain about 4 hours. For longer battery life, choosing a model with AMD Ryzen 7040 series chip is recommended as it can double or even triple the battery life for office tasks.Great Upgradeability
The Lenovo Legion 5i 16-inch is equipped with 2 SODIMM RAM slots compatible with DDR5-4800 MHz or 5600 MHz RAM, supporting a maximum upgrade of 64GB DDR5-5600.
Fortunately, the laptop also features 2 SSD slots compatible with Gen 4 SSDs, making storage upgrades easier and more convenient.Regarding storage, there are two M.2 slots for Gen 4 SSDs, with the right slot also supporting the 2242 NVMe standard.
The cooling system of the Legion 5i 16-inch is quite substantial. It consists of two fans and three heat pipes shared between the CPU and GPU – the bottom pipe is particularly thick. Additionally, there are smaller heat conduits for the GPU, explaining why the GPU maintains better performance than the CPU, which is also suitable for gaming needs.Legion 5i 16-inch features a fast SSD but runs too hot
The test version of the Legion 5i 16-inch comes with a WD PC SN810 SDCPNRY-512G-1101 512GB SSD. Tests show read/write speeds are not particularly impressive, only reaching an average level for a Gen 4 SSD. It's noteworthy that the SSD runs too hot, reaching up to 81 degrees during testing. One of the reasons for this overheating may be the plastic underside, limiting heat dissipation through the laptop's casing.
Conclusion
While the Legion 5i 16-inch HX isn't perfect, it's hard to find any major flaws in a mid-range gaming laptop like this.With its ability to maintain stable performance over time, sharp display with a 165Hz refresh rate, relatively quiet gaming fans, support for NVIDIA G-SYNC and Optimus, excellent customization options via Lenovo Vantage, the Legion 5i is truly an excellent choice for gaming and work.
Adding to that: Review of Acer Predator Triton 14: The most powerful 14-inch gaming laptop with a 250Hz mini LED displayIt's currently unclear if Lenovo intends to bring the Legion 5i 16-inch HX to the Vietnamese market or not. While waiting, you can explore other gaming laptop models that offer extremely attractive prices.
