Earlier this year we tested a laptop Legion 5Pi on the processor Intel Core i7 10th generation from Lenovo, which the showed himself well as a solution for games in Full HD, thanks to discrete graphics GeForce GTX 1660 Ti…
Today we again have a laptop under the brand Lenovo Legion… However, the graphics processor is simpler this time, and the processor became the heart of the laptop. AMD Ryzen 7 4000 series. The cost of our configuration with a 256 GB SSD in the Citylink store is 74,990 rubles for the version with Windows 10 Home…
PACKAGING AND DELIVERY
We received a test model of the device, which did not have a Russian keyboard layout. According to the tradition of the line, the laptop comes in a cardboard box with a large LEGION inscription on the entire front side. Inside, it is packed in expanded polypropylene, which provides protection from all sides.
In addition, Lenovo 5 (15ARH05) was also packed in a soft bag that protects it from dust and dirt and will be useful for transportation in a bag for the first time. There is a secret compartment under the laptop where the power supply and power cable are located. Unlike the Intel Core i7 model, where the unit was 230W, you will find a 170W PSU here.
Most likely, according to tradition, when buying, you will have a short instruction and a guarantee inside, but, as usual, they were not in the test sample.
APPEARANCE
Legion series laptops are assembled in a single strict minimalistic style, so that visual differences between the model and the version on the Intel processor are invisible. Outwardly, only the lid is different. Instead of a large glowing logo in the middle, the manufacturer put a mirrored Legion lettering in the corner. It doesn’t glow. Also on the lid appeared a metal nameplate with the inscription Lenovo in the corner on the left side. The cover itself, made of slightly glare soft-touch plastic, is now painted in a dark blue metallic, which looks very nice.
As for the materials of execution, the developers of the traditional line use three types of plastic. The main body at the bottom and the frame around the screen are made of hard and rough black plastic, and the area around the keyboard and touchpad is made of a pleasant matte plastic with a velvety texture.
The laptop is 31mm thick at its widest, 36.5cm long and 26.5cm wide. The device weighs 2kg and 297 grams, which is normal for a 15-inch gaming laptop. Although the power supply unit is less powerful than that of the model with an Intel processor, it is not inferior in size to its brother. However, it weighs just 579 grams, which is almost 300 grams less than the 230 W unit.
The lid is traditionally indented by about 23 mm. Thanks to this, the manufacturer has marked out most of the connectors on the back. It also had a good effect on the cooling system, which uses a radiator with elongated fins. Hot air is discharged from the sides and corners at the back through special large perforations. Air intake is carried out through a large grill from the bottom with large round holes – like on the Xbox Series X. Naturally, there is another grill under it, which does not allow coarse dust and other small objects to get there. At the bottom of the laptop, on beveled edges on the sides, there are speaker holes. The manufacturer, of course, did not forget to mark four rubberized feet for placing the device on hard surfaces.
On the back indentation, the creators engraved the designation of the inputs located nearby, as well as the charging LED. The following interfaces are located at the back: an RJ-45 port for connecting a wired Internet, an HDMI 2.0 connector for displaying images on external screens with a resolution of up to 4K and 60 Hz, a USB Type-C version 3.1 with DisplayPort 1.2 support, a port for connecting a proprietary power supply, two USB Type-A 3.1 connector; and Kensington lock holes. On the left side, next to the ventilation hole, there is another USB Type-A version 3.1, as well as a 3.5 mm mini-jack combo connector for connecting wired headphones, microphones and headsets. On the right, you’ll find a 4th full fast USB port, as well as a power LED and a hole with a button to reset the system.
The lid of the laptop can be easily opened with one hand, which is quite common with this weight. The maximum opening angle is 180 degrees.
The bezels of the laptop are quite thin. The side ones are only 7 mm each, from the top – from 7 to 10 mm, and from the bottom, with the inscription Legion, as usual, the largest – by 28 mm. A built-in camera is present – a standard 1 megapixel module is used, so you should not expect good quality when making video calls, and even more so support for the Windows Hello face recognition function. But there is a shutter to close the camera, so that the secret services do not see how fiercely you are … … at Lady Dimitrescu from Resident Evil Village.
SCREEN
The laptop received a screen from the Chinese manufacturer BOE Technology. This is an 8-bit IPS-matrix with Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels) and a refresh rate of 144 Hz. The response time is less than 5ms. Brightness is 300 nits and contrast is 1000: 1. The sRGB color gamut is 100%, and the NTSC color gamut is approximately 72%. The backlighting is uneven, but I did not notice any visible highlights on black.
The surface of the screen is matte and has an anti-reflective coating. Thanks to him and the brightness of the screen, the laptop can be easily used outdoors in sunny weather.
SOUND AND FUNCTIONAL
As for the audio part, it consists of two speakers of 2 W each, the setting of which was entrusted to the manufacturer to the specialists from HARMAN. The sound is good enough for playing games and watching movies. You can also listen to music in the background while working at the laptop, although low frequencies are still lacking. The computer also supports Dolby Atmos for headphones, but without good headphones we can’t test it yet.
As with all Legion 5 series laptops, the power button is round, concave, and fits well under your fingertip. There is an LED in the middle of the button that glows blue when the computer is turned on. The button is located exactly above the keyboard and under the Legion logo on the screen frame. Turning on takes about 13 seconds, which is quite standard for a solution on an M.2 SSD.
The keyboard unit is recessed into the body and takes up most of the base. The keyboard is full-fledged here – with a numeric block on the right.
The block buttons are slightly smaller than those of the main part of the keyboard. For the sake of preserving the size of the arrow buttons, the manufacturer lowered them a little lower.
The keyboard travel is 1.5 mm, but you can’t call it soft and quiet. Although it caused discomfort when printing. There is a backlight of the keys, which is activated using the FN + Space combination or in the proprietary Lenovo Vantage application. In our model, it is white with two levels of brightness adjustment. Glows along the contour of the keys.
It is enough to illuminate the keys and in the dark it does not blind your eyes. There are also models with 4-zone RGB lighting.
The touch panel is not very large here, and the size of the working surface is 110 x 75 mm. The surface is made of soft-touch plastic – like on the cover of the device. It supports multi-finger gesture control. The bottom corners are pressed through and mimic the main mouse buttons.
FILLING, BATTERY, OPERATION AND TESTS
Lenovo Legion, which came to us for testing, is based on a 7nm AMD Ryzen 7 4800H processor, clocked at 2.9 GHz. The processor is 8-core and operates in 16 threads, and the maximum frequency is 4200 MHz. Graphics in this laptop is available only discrete from NVIDIA – GeForce GTX 1650 with 4 GB of GDDR6 memory.
The laptop has 2 DDR4 memory sticks of 8 gigabytes each (operating at 1600 MHz in dual-stream mode) with a maximum frequency of 3200 MHz – from SK Hynix. The memory can be independently expanded up to 32 gigabytes.
The internal drive in the test sample was played by a 256 GB NVMe SSD from Samsung. It is also possible to install a second drive in a free M.2 slot.
In the Lenovo Vantage application, which is already installed on this laptop, the developers give you a choice between three temperature modes:
- Performance mode – here the speed of the fans and power consumption increases, but at the same time without external power this mode still does not work at the limit of possibilities.
- Balanced Mode – The system automatically adjusts fans and overall performance at moderate power consumption.
- Quiet Mode – In this mode, the laptop operates with reduced performance and slow fan speeds while consuming less power.
- There is also a switch for automatically changing the mode to productive when starting games and then returning after exiting them.
The laptop comes with a 6-cell 80,000 Wh Li-ion polymer battery. A full charge will last for 5-8 hours in quiet mode for everyday use (surfing the Internet, working with documents, watching videos and listening to music) with the maximum display brightness set. In performance mode, the laptop will last about 1.5-2 hours. With maximum performance, like all gaming laptops, the system only works when the power is on.
In standard (quiet) mode (default), AIDA64 displays the following temperatures:
- CPU – 40 ° C
- NVIDIA GTX 1650 – 36 ° C
- SAMSUNG MZVLB256HBHQ-000L2 – 37 ° C
Under maximum load in benchmarks, the laptop’s CPU heats up to 91 degrees, which is quite normal. We were able to fix the maximum temperature of the GPU at around 72 degrees. The cooling system proved to be excellent and under a long load, throttling was not noticed in this model.
Crystal Disk Info tests indicate an average solid state drive temperature of 51 ° C. The disk speed in Crystal Disk Mark was 3580 MB / s for reading and 2334 MB / s for writing. The AS SSD test, as usual, shows much more modest results – 2472 MB / s for reading and 2073 MB / s for writing.
In graphics tests, the GTX 1650 performs well. Testing was carried out in Full HD resolution in system performance mode with connected power:
- In the Superposition benchmark test on the Unigine 2 engine at medium settings, the system showed from 37 to 60 frames.
- In the Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition benchmark, the laptop on high graphics settings was able to earn 3723 points and a Standard score.
- The system was also tested in the in-game tests of Forza Horizon 4 and Gears 5 at ultra settings. In both cases, frame rate lock was disabled. In the shooter on Unreal Engine 4, the average frequency was almost 70.5 FPS, and in the popular arcade racing – 71 frames per second.
- In DOOM Eternal, in open locations in dynamic scenes, the laptop was able to produce an average frame rate of around 55 FPS at high graphics settings.
- Finally, we finally launched the long-awaited project from CD Projekt RED – Cyberpunk 2077. We tested the game at medium settings and got an average of 35-40 frames in dynamic scenes during battles in closed locations, as well as 30 frames in the city. Although with a large number of passers-by in the city, the frequency dropped to 23-25 frames.
As for the noise performance, the laptop is almost inaudible in quiet mode with a room noise level of 30-33 dB. Under heavy loads, powerful cooling starts to work and the device becomes noisy, but at the same time the case does not get very hot. The average noise level under load is 47dB, which is normal for a gaming laptop.
RESULTS
The Lenovo Legion 5 (15ARH05), powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 4800H processor, is a good gaming laptop that should be good enough for Full HD gaming at medium to high settings. It has an excellent ergonomic design, many ports, a good screen and cooling, and most importantly, it costs one and a half times cheaper than its brother on an Intel processor, although it offers a less powerful GPU. In some projects it is felt, but is it worth paying so much for the 1660 Ti? The answer is obvious.
Author: Sergey Dyakonenko (Madnfs)
Read also: Lenovo Q24i-10 Monitor Review…
