Lenovo Legion 5pi Impressions | A 144Hz display, a 1650 Ti, and more

Last month, we reviewed the Legion 5i, Lenovo’s low-profile gaming laptop that packs an RTX 2060 GPU while having a fairly affordable price tag. Now, we got our hands on the Legion 5pi, another gaming notebook from Lenovo. The 5pi shares a lot of the same specs as the 5i, though there are some key differences.

One of the most apparent differences between the two is the new Legion logo. Unlike the 5i which only has a small Legion branding on the upper left side, the 5pi features the new Legion logo right on the middle. While this makes the 5pi a bit more eye-catching than the 5i, it’s still a low-profile laptop overall, especially as both laptops share the same chassis.

When plugged in though, the Legion 5pi’s logo does light up. This makes the laptop look more like a proper gaming laptop, all while still being subtle enough to not grab too much attention in the office or in a cafe. Personally, I prefer the Legion 5i’s design slightly over this as I like a more simple look, but the 5pi is still a good-looking laptop overall.

For its display, Lenovo packed the Legion 5pi with a 15.6-inch FHD (1920×1080) display with a 144Hz refresh rate. Thanks to the screen’s high refresh rate, the Legion 5pi should be a great match for FPS, MOBAs, or other esports titles such as League of Legends, Valorant, and more. Though it is a bit interesting that the 5pi’s screen has a higher refresh rate compared to the 5i, even if its GPU is not as powerful.

Another thing that’s different with the Legion 5pi is that it lacks a webcam. While the 5i has some extra space at the top for a webcam, the 5pi maintains a sleek look by removing the camera entirely. While not everyone uses a webcam, given that more and more users are working from home or are taking distance learning courses, the lack of a webcam for the 5pi is definitely something to consider.

Moving on to the keyboard, the Legion 5pi has a full-size keyboard with 4-Zone RGB LED lighting, with light profiles that can be modified via the Legion Vantage software. Thanks to this, you can set the keyboard to have different lights per area, or have wave or breathing effects.

Now for its internals. The Legion 5pi is powered by an Intel Core i7-10750H processor, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650Ti GPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. The 5pi’s internals are the same as the 5i, except for the GPU as the 5i has an RTX 2060 graphics card.

With its GTX 1650Ti processor, the Legion 5pi should have no issues playing popular esports titles at higher graphics settings. Modern triple-A titles should also be playable on the Legion 5pi, but not at high settings.

For I/O, the Legion 5pi has a nice amount of ports, including one USB Type-C port, four USB Type-A ports, one HDMI 2.0 port, one 3.5mm combo jack, and one ethernet port. The four USB Type-A ports are definitely welcome as other gaming laptops may only have two. Though a SD or microSD card reader would’ve been welcome.

Priced at PHP 71,995, the Legion 5pi has a lot going for it. For one, it has a 144Hz refresh rate display, and it has capable hardware including 10th gen i7 and a GTX 1650Ti GPU. To top it all off, the laptop has a low-profile design that should appeal to both gamers and professionals alike.

The thing is though, the 5pi has tough competition in its price range, including Legion’s own 5i. After all, the 5i has a more powerful RTX 2060 GPU, all while only being PHP 7k more expensive.

Given this, it’ll be interesting to see how the Legion 5pi stacks up. So watch out for our final verdict in our full review of the new Legion gaming notebook which should come out soon!

Lenovo Legion 5pi Specs

Processor: Intel Core i7-10750H
Installed Memory: 8GB DDR4
Operating System: Windows 10 Home
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti 4GB GDDR6
Storage: 512GB SSD
Display: 15.6” FHD 144Hz
Ports:
- 1 x USB Type-C
- 4 x USB Type-A
- 1 x HDMI 2.0
- 1 x 3.5mm headphone and microphone combo jack
- 1 x Kensington lock
- 1 x RJ-45 (Ethernet) jack
Price: PHP 71,995