Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (2022) Review: If It Ain't Broke

The Legion 5 Pro was one of the best gaming laptops on the market last year. Combining beefy hardware with a commendable design and a 16:10 screen, it quickly gained a special place in my heart. So, what’s it like this year? Does the new Legion 5 Pro live up to the legacy of its predecessor? Well, to nobody’s surprise the answer is yes. The Legion 5 Pro Gen 7 keeps everything great about the previous generation and improves on it. Aside from the generational updates, there are a few changes here and there. So, let's take a look at the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (2022) in this full review.

Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (2022) Specifications:

• Design & Build: Plastic/anodized aluminum hybrid build, 359.9 x 262.4 x 19.9 mm, 2.49 kg
• Color Options: Storm Grey, Glacier White
• Display: 16″ anti-glare IPS panel, 165Hz refresh rate, 100% sRGB, 500 nits brightness, 178° viewing angle
• Display Properties: VESA HDR 400, Dolby Vision, Free-Sync, G-Sync, 3ms response time, DC dimmer, X-Rite Pantone factory color calibration
• Resolution: WQXGA (2560×1600) resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio
• Keyboard: Full-size backlit (4-zone RGB) keys
• Trackpad: Mylar surface (plastic) multi-touch trackpad, Windows Precision drivers
• Security: TPM 2.0 chip, No fingerprint sensor
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 6800H CPU, 8C/16T, 4.7GHz Max Turbo Frequency, 16MB L3 Cache, 6nm process, 45W TDP
• RAM: 16GB DDR5-4800MHz (2x 8GB), Up to 32GB
• Storage: 512GB M.2 PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD (2x M.2 slots total)
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (140W), 6GB GDDR6 VRAM
• Audio: 2x 2W stereo speakers, Nahimic Audio
• Battery: 80 Watt-hours 4-cell Li-Po battery
• Power Supply: 300W slim tip (3-pin) AC power adapter
• Webcam: 720p HD camera, E-camera shutter, Dual-array microphones
• Connectivity: WiFi 6 (ax), Bluetooth 5.1
• I/O Ports: 3x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (1x Always On), 3x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (1x Power Delivery), 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm combo audio jack, 1x RJ45 (LAN), 1x power connector
• Price in Nepal: Rs. 220,000 (Ryzen 7 6800H, RTX 3060, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD)
• What’s inside the box: Laptop, power adapter, quick start guide

Buy Legion 5 Pro (2022) here

Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (2022) Review:

Design & Build

• 19.9 x 359.9 x 262.4mm, 2.49 kg
• Plastic, anodized aluminum hybrid build quality

Okay, the first thing I want to talk about here is the design, since Lenovo has further simplified the looks of the Legion 5 Pro this time. While last year’s model featured a big glowing “Y” logo on the lid, this time it's replaced with a simple “Legion” text. The keyboard color also matches the body now, which adds to the flush minimal look of the device. That aside, it still has that same top-notch build quality that I like: the same TrueStrike keyboard, and the same build materials. For me, its build quality leaves no room for complaints and I think it is one of the best-looking gaming laptops out there. Unfortunately, it still comes with the same comically large power brick. I don’t know if I should use it to charge my laptop or build a house with it! Jokes aside, you are looking at a package of over 3 kg which is sure to take a toll on your back if you move around with your laptop a lot. But that bulk is not for nothing, the Legion 5 Pro packs a 16” display on a 15.6-inch chassis. And like last year, this is a fine trade-off in my books. Anyway, there is not much to talk about the design because most of it has remained the same. It is as if Lenovo found the perfect formula and stuck with it, which is not bad in itself.

Display

• 16″ anti-glare non-touch QHD IPS panel
• 165Hz refresh rate, 100% sRGB gamut
• VESA HDR 400, Dolby Vision compatible

Talking about formulas that work, the display isn’t that different this time either. And once again, I can’t help but be amazed by it! I mean, just look at its specs: a 16” QHD screen with a smooth 165Hz refresh rate, 3ms response time, and 500 nits brightness; all while boasting 100% sRGB gamut? Okay Lenovo, just take my money. Furthermore, there’s also a 240Hz option this time around. The laptop comes pre-calibrated and you can even choose between different color profiles like sRGB and Rec. 709 inside the X-Rite Color Assistant app. We measured its contrast ratio at 1070:1, which is slightly lower than what we got on last year’s model, but it leaves no room for complaints in terms of viewing angles and white balance. In our tests, we found that this screen covers 99% sRGB and 77% P3 gamut. So apart from gaming and media consumption, this thing is good enough for photo editing and similar workloads as well. At 530 nits brightness, Legion 5 Pro’s screen is easily visible outdoors too. And setting it at 50-75% was comfortable enough for my eyes in a well-lit room. Like most gaming laptops, the screen has an anti-glare coating which makes it easy to use when you have a bunch of light sources directly reflecting onto the display. And whether you are gaming, coding, or reading up stuff, this 16:10 aspect ratio makes a big difference. All in all, the Legion 5 Pro’s screen surpasses most of the competition in this price bracket.

Keyboard

• Backlit full-size keys (4-zone RGB)

Getting to the keyboard, our unit has 4-zone RGB lighting, whereas it is also available with a simple white backlight. On the other hand, there’s also the “Glacier White” version which looks quite elegant with its blue backlit keys. I prefer the Legion TrueStrike keyboard over the keyboards on most other gaming laptops. It gives off a decent tactile feel when gaming and typing. The keycaps are not wobbly, and the full-sized keys are a delight to type on. You can also switch between the lighting modes from the Lenovo Vantage app or with the Function + Spacebar shortcut. But like last year, the RGB lighting here is not the brightest, even though the letters and secondary functions are uniformly lit.

Trackpad

And I was also expecting Lenovo to implement a glass trackpad this time, but I guess that was too much to ask for. While the Legion 7 lineup gets the glass trackpad treatment, Legion 5 Pro users are still stuck with the mylar plastic trackpad. By no means is this trackpad bad, but it simply cannot compete with the smoothness of a glass one.

Audio

• 2x 2W side-firing speakers
• Supports Nahimic audio

And this guy houses the same speaker setup as we’ve seen before as well, between the frame and the lower half of the laptop. Like the trackpad, these dual speakers are just okay for a gaming laptop. The bass feels recessed and the mids outshine everything else. After some tinkering in the Nahimic app, I was able to get a slightly immersive audio experience though.

Webcam

• 720p HD camera
• E-camera shutter

Moving on, it’s 2022 but the webcam here is still a 720p unit. That’s disappointing but nonetheless, I found it to be usable for attending video conferences. And this camera-kill switch is always a welcome feature too.

Performance

• AMD Ryzen 7 6800H CPU (45W TDP)
• NVIDIA RTX 3060 140W (discrete GPU)
• 16GB DDR5 RAM, 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD

Well, let’s now talk about the most important aspect of a gaming laptop, the performance! This year, you can pick up the Legion 5 Pro configured with an AMD Ryzen 5 6600H or a Ryzen 7 6800H. Lenovo has discontinued the usage of RTX 3050 here and the GPU options you have now include RTX 3060, 3070, and 3070 Ti. And my Legion 5 Pro is configured with the Ryzen 7 6800H CPU and NVIDIA’s RTX 3060 GPU with 140W TGP. Memory-wise, you’re looking at 16GB DDR5 RAM in dual-channel and 512GB of M.2 NVMe SSD. This particular model retails at NPR 235,000 here in Nepal and around INR 147,000 in India. This is the first Ryzen 6000 series equipped laptop to arrive in our office and I was quite eager to find out how different it is from Intel’s 12th Gen processor. So I fired up a bunch of benchmarks right away. And it seems that the 12th Gen is still the leader as far as raw performance is concerned. The Asus TUF F15 with Core i7-12700H CPU pretty much dominated Ryzen 7 6800H on basically every test. It is ahead by 10-15% on Cinebench R23 and we can notice similar results on other benchmarks like 7 Zip, V-Ray 5, Corona, and PugetBench as well.

Gaming

Okay, let’s now talk about its gaming performance. Playing CS: GO at Very High settings, the Legion 5 Pro managed 317.7 fps on average with a 1% low of 100.7 fps. Strangely enough, this is higher than the TUF 15. Likewise, the Legion 5 pro easily sailed through GTA V and Borderlands 3 at High preset with over 100 fps on average. Hitman 3, on the other hand, yielded an average of 65.8 fps in Ultra settings. And similar to the TUF 15, I didn’t find any notable improvement when dropping the settings to medium.

Performance mode (power plugged in), VSync Off, DLSS Off

Game

Settings

Average FPS

Legion 5 Pro (2022)

Asus TUF F15 (2022)

Cyberpunk 2077

Texture quality: High

32.8fps

27.5fps

Ray Tracing: Ultra

Texture quality: Medium

46.8fps

Ray Tracing: Medium

Control

Texture resolution: Ultra

55.5fps

48.3fps

Ray Tracing: High

GTA V

1080p - DX11 - High

143.8fps

127.7fps

CS: GO

Texture Detail: High

Anti-Aliasing: 8X MSAA

317.7fps

263.5fps

Borderlands 3

1080p - DX12 - Ultra

99.4fps

103.9fps

1080p - DX12 - High

123.2fps

116.9fps

Hitman 3

Texture Quality: Ultra

66.0fps

65.8fps

Anti-Aliasing: 4X MSAA

Playing Control on Ultra with ray tracing set to High was a decent experience with fps averaging at 55.5. Or 68.5 fps on Medium settings. On the other hand, CyberPunk 2077 is basically unplayable with just 32.8 fps on average on Ultra settings without DLSS. But you can get much better gameplay at Medium settings instead. And when turning off ray tracing completely, the Legion 5 pro averages at an impressive 102 fps.

Cooling

Okay, that brings me to the cooling side of things. Compared to its predecessor, Lenovo has significantly upgraded the cooling system this time, with what it calls “Coldfront 4.0”. It also claims that the fans are now 140% more powerful while the blades are 40% thinner too. It also has a dedicated copper block to further cool the CPU. And yes, the thermals here do live up to Lenovo's claims. Even after multiple sessions of gaming, putting my hands on the keyboard deck did not feel uneasy at all. I recorded a temperature of 45.5°C when playing CyberPunk 2077 on medium, where the heat was mostly localized to the area between the Enter and the power button. On the other hand, the temperature jumped up to 47.1°C after about 20 minutes into Hitman 3 on Ultra preset.

Quiet fans

As for the fans, you will hear them only when the laptop goes through some CPU and GPU-intensive workload. Thus, I found myself using it in Performance mode most of the time. Oh, and a neat touch that Lenovo has added here is the color-coded notification light on the power button, so I can immediately tell if the laptop is running on performance, balance, or quiet mode.

Battery

• 80 Watt-hour 4-cell battery
• 300W AC power adapter

In terms of battery, this year’s Legion 5 Pro has the same 80Wh cell as its predecessor. But despite this, I was getting around one or two hours of additional screen-on time here. In my general usage, it lasted me 4 to 6 hours on average, with brightness set to 75% and enabling the Balanced power profile. And you can get much more than 6 hours of screen-on time by switching to iGPU-only mode and limiting the refresh rate to just 60Hz. However, this does come with a significant performance drop, so I’d only use it when there’s a power out or something. But when you need to fill it up, this 300W charger is a proper tank. While it provides a stable power supply and stays relatively cool, the sheer size of the thing is rather intimidating. Anyway, it can take Legion 5 Pro from 0 to 100% in about 2 hours. There’s also Rapid Charge support in case you’re in a hurry and quickly need some juice before you head out.

Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (2022) Review: Conclusion

Okay, let’s wrap up this review of the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (2022). And it’s no surprise that the 2022 edition of Lenovo Legion 5 Pro gets a big seal of approval from me. Granted its AMD CPU is not as powerful as Intel’s 12th Gen processors, but the gains in terms of battery life and thermals are hard to overlook. Plus, it also has an incredible display and a solid build quality, which makes it an easy recommendation. The fact that the bulky power brick is the only setback of the Legion 5 Pro speaks volumes. So yeah, if you are looking for a reliable gaming laptop in this price range, bagging this year’s Legion 5 Pro won’t disappoint you a bit.

• Watch our video review of the Asus TUF Gaming F15 (2022)

Lenovo Legion 5 Pro Review: Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Value for money
• Premium design
• Commendable performance improvements over the last generation
• Well-rounded port selection/placement
• One of the best 165Hz panels on a laptop
• 16:10 aspect ratio
• Excellent gaming performance
• Quiet Fans
• Improved battery life

Cons:

• No glass trackpad
• Oversized 300W power adapter
• Bad 720p webcam