Lenovo Legion 5pi Review | Geek Lifestyle

A pretty good option.

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Last week, we released our first impressions of the Legion 5pi, a new gaming laptop from Lenovo that packs a GTX 1650 Ti, a 10th generation Intel Core i7, and a 144Hz display. Based on our initial time with the laptop, the Legion 5pi proved to be quite promising, especially in the design department as well as the specs sheet.

While it should live up to the Legion moniker in terms of performance, there’s more to a laptop than just its capabilities for games. There’s also the fact that it has to be reliable enough for everyday use, especially in today’s time where lots of people are either working or studying from home.

So does the Legion 5pi deliver in this regard as well? Find out here in our full review of Lenovo’s new gaming laptop!

 

Geek-sthetic

As I’ve noted in my first impressions of the laptop, the Legion 5pi is another low-profile gaming notebook from Lenovo. Unlike its fellow Legion laptops though, the 5pi has a more eye-catching logo; for comparison, the Legion 5i simply has a Lenovo logo on the upper left side.

While this Legion logo gives it more of a gamer look (especially as it lights up when plugged in), the Legion 5pi overall is still a stealthy gaming laptop. This means gamers can also use this laptop while at cafes or in work meetings without drawing too much attention. Personally, while I prefer an even more subtle-looking laptop, the Legion 5pi does strike a good balance between edge and subtlety.

For I/O, the Legion 5pi has a comprehensive selection of ports. The laptop’s I/O include one USB Type-C port, four USB Type-A ports, one HDMI 2.0 port, one 3.5mm combo jack, and one ethernet port. This setup should be more than good enough for most users, though it is missing an SD or microSD card reader which isn’t ideal for content creators. At least the 4 USB Type-A ports make up for the lack of card reader.

 

Binge Watching Factor

For its display, the Legion 5pi has a 15.6-inch FHD (1920×1080) screen with a 144Hz refresh rate. The display’s high refresh rate makes it great for gaming, though 144Hz doesn’t really help for binge-watching given that pretty much all movies/TV shows are between 24-60 FPS. Not that it needs to though as the Legion 5pi is good enough for binge-watching thanks to good color output and sharpness. The thin side bezels also help in giving users a more immersive experience.

If there is one weakness of the Legion 5pi’s screen, it’s the brightness. When indoors, I had to crank up brightness to 50 or 60%. While This means if you’re using this laptop outdoors or in places with lots of natural light, it may not get bright enough for your liking.

 

Sound Trip

The Legion 5pi packs onboard stereo speakers that are tuned by Harman, so I expected good sound quality. In this regard, the 5pi’s speakers did not really disappoint, as audio quality is decent enough for a laptop. Take note though, the laptop’s speakers don’t get too loud, meaning headphones or external speakers are a must for binge-watching and/or gaming.

 

Pro-Gaming Controls

The Legion 5pi sports a full-size keyboard with four-zone RGB lighting. For both typing and gaming, the 5pi’s keyboard feels great to use, as the keys offer a decent tactile feel. The keys also don’t feel cramped even if Lenovo packed in a numpad. Plus, the four-zone RGB lighting is a nice touch as users can customize the laptop’s look to their liking.

As with new Lenovo gaming laptops, the Legion 5pi packs a Legion M300 RGB Gaming Mouse inside the box. This is always a nice touch as gamers won’t have to buy a new mouse when getting the 5pi. The M300 RGB is not too shabby either, as it feels great to play on; not to mention that it’s an ambidextrous mouse which makes it great for both right and left-handed gamers.

 

Gaming Prowess

As mentioned above, the Legion 5pi is powered by an Intel Core i7-10750H processor along with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti 4GB GDDR6 graphics card. As for memory and storage, the 5pi has 8GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD storage. With this setup, I expected the laptop to work well for both esports and triple-A games; in my test, the 5pi did deliver.

For esports titles, the Legion 5pi should have no issues at near max or even at max graphic settings. Dota 2 for example, ran at the highest setting at 1080p with an average of 100 FPS, meaning it was able to take advantage of the high refresh rate display. Though if you want to take full advantage of the 144Hz display, you may want to drop the settings a bit to hit over 144FPS.

As for Overwatch, the game ran at a stable 120FPS on Ultra. The 5pi can also run the game at the Epic setting, though with around 80 FPS.

Moving on to triple-A games, the 5pi had an overall score of 59.07 FPS on Rise of the Tomb Raider’s in-game benchmark tool. In actual gameplay though, the 5pi runs the game with an average of 45 FPS on Ultra. Resident Evil 2 meanwhile, ran at a fairly stable 75 FPS on the Balanced graphic setting, though there are some dips to 60 in some cutscenes.

Now for benchmarks. The Legion 5pi scored 3942 on 3DMark Time Spy and a 5650 score on PC Mark 10. This is quite an interesting result as the 5pi’s 3DMark score is a bit over 2000 lower than the 5i, but its PC Mark 10 score is over 500 points higher.

 

Everyday Reliability 

While the Legion 5pi shines for gaming, it’s also a great laptop for everyday office or online school work. In fact, the laptop should even be able to handle some content creation tasks such as video editing (as long as you don’t edit 4K video of course). If you do plan on editing videos on this laptop, an upgrade to 16GB of RAM is recommended.

In terms of battery life, the Legion 5pi is pretty decent for a gaming laptop. After running a 2 and 1/2 hour movie at 50% volume and brightness, the Legion 5pi still had around 50% charge. This should translate in a battery life of 4-5 hours, depending on your use.

One thing that’s missing from the Legion 5pi though is a webcam. Given that a lot of people are currently working from home or are taking online classes because of the pandemic, the lack of a webcam is not ideal. The lack of a webcam is something that buyers should consider considering the present situation.

 

Final Geek Lifestyle Verdict 

The Lenovo Legion 5pi is a good gaming laptop thanks to its stylish yet low-profile design, high refresh rate display, and most importantly, great gaming performance for esports titles and triple-A games alike.

There are some things that prevent us from fully recommending the Legion 5pi, and one is that it has no webcam–a feature that’s pretty much a requirement given the pandemic.

Another though is its competition, specifically Lenovo’s own Legion 5i. Because the 5i is just a couple of thousand more expensive, some gamers might see it as the better deal as it already packs an RTX GPU. Though there are still some reasons to go for the 5pi over its more premium brother, including the higher refresh rate display and slightly better score for home/work use.

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