Lenovo Legion Pro 5i (9th Gen) review

The Legion Pro 5i largely follows the design of the Lenovo LOQ laptop we reviewed earlier, though the Legion is a slightly heavier device. Lenovo has replaced the LOQ branding with the Legion lettering on the lid and keyboard area but exactly the same spots. You will find a lot of similarities in design including the Grey colour, but the Legion Pro has an anodised aluminium top with an ABS bottom. There is no dazzling RGB magic happening around the body, except for the keyboard backlighting. The laptop radiates a sturdy feel and the well-defined opening lip, and the smooth rectangular hinges enhance this feel.

The main air intakes are at the bottom, with the keyboard area supplementing it with additional inlets. The side and rear vents serve as outlets, ensuring unhindered heat dissipation.

The laptop offers enough ports for you to dock your devices, and most of these are lined up at the rear. There are two Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports supporting DisplayPort1.4, with the rear one offering 140W Power Delivery. Of the four Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, two are at the rear with one in always-on mode. The rear also has an HDMI 2.1 port and an RJ45 LAN port. There’s a 3.5mm combo audio jack and a camera switch on the right side.

The Legion Pro 5i’s 16-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600) IPS display offers up to 240Hz refresh rate and supports Nvidia G-Sync and Dolby Vision. While it is naturally tuned for gaming, the display also appeals to designers and photographers with 100 percent Adobe RGB support and X-Rite Pantone certification for colour accuracy. The display has an anti-reflective finish, making it great for colour-critical tasks.

The laptop’s TrueStrike keyboard is one of the best we have experienced so far, with optimal 1.5mm key travel and springy action providing a premium feel. The full-size keyboard offers large keys with ample spacing except at the top. The top row with the function, navigation and multi-functional keys bury the all-important Delete button within the clutter. Another inconvenient change is the Copilot key replacing the right-hand Ctrl button. These are minor inconveniences that need some adaptation. The large trackpad makes navigating a breeze. You can choose between a white backlit version or a Legion Spectrum 4-zone RGB backlit version of the keyboard.

The device hosts a wealth of useful software to monitor, personalise and optimise gaming, audio, display and other features. The Lenovo Vantage software acts as a hub for all useful software and custom settings. You get settings for GPU overclocking, thermal profile selection, GPU mode selection, variable refresh rate toggle and so on in addition to monitoring features. The software also serves as a launchpad for other components like Legion Arena game hub, Nahimic app, X-Rite Color Assistant and some other optional tools. It also allows you to configure Macro keys.

The X-Rite Color Assistant allows you to choose between pre-installed display profiles. You can choose between Adobe RGB, DCI-P3, Display P3, Rec. 709, and sRGB. There’s also an option to disable all profiles and use the display in the uncalibrated mode. However, there is no option for periodic re-calibration even with X-Rite’s colourimeters from within this app. However, creative professionals like designers, photographers and video editors will find this an extremely tempting feature.

The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i uses up to Intel Core i9-14900HX processor and up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU for top-notch performance. The 4070’s 4th Gen Tensor cores enhance the AI processing power to render pixels and boost frame rates while its 3rd Gen RT cores bring improvements in Ray Tracing. Lenovo uses its latest Legion AI Engine+ AI module with its LA1 chip at its core for AI smarts in gaming. Gaming on this machine is smooth with the device capable of handling any game genre without lagging or uncomfortable heating. Coming to benchmarks, the Legion Pro 5i scored 2757 on 3D Mark Steel Nomad and passed the stress test with 99.1 percent stable frame rates. In the case of 4K video rendering, Cinebench returned a score of 10286 in GPU benchmarking.

The laptop comes with an 80Wh battery, and is bundled with a massive 300W charger that tops up the battery in no time. The battery offers rapid charging with Lenovo’s Rapid Charge Pro, and is compatible with an optional 140W Legion Slim USB-C charging adapter. We didn’t feel any unbearable heating even when the device was nursing off the 300W charger, thanks to Lenovo’s brilliant ColdFront thermal management system.

The Legion Pro 5i houses two 2W stereo speakers with Nahimic Audio. However, we found it at the most mediocre without much definition in music. We have seen much better systems in similar or even lesser laptops.

The Legion Pro 5i brings a competitive esports advantage, leveraging AI processing power and thermally efficient design. The laptop offers extensive optimisation options via the Lenovo Vantage software. Apart from gamers, the laptop will be a great option for creative professionals who need a factory-calibrated display capable of reproducing 100 percent Adobe RGB gamut. The keyboard is a pleasure to type on. The only gripe we have with the device is the unimpressive audio output.