Lenovo Legion gaming series is probably one of the most value-for-money propositions from the brand that brings the right mix of performance and functionality. The latest Lenovo Legion Slim 5i is yet another product from the company that offers top-notch specs, advanced thermals, a responsive display, and more. However, is it enough to make it a worthy gaming laptop? Let’s see in this review.
Lenovo Legion Slim 5i
Rs 1,73,901
What Is Good?
- Solid Display
- Good Performance
- Solid Battery Life
- Well-managed Thermals
What Is Bad?
- Loud fans sound at full load
- The speakers could have been better
Lenovo Legion Slim 5i Review: Design and Build Quality
- The Legion Slim 5i offers a clean design aesthetics with a slimmer design and well-spaced keyboard.
- The lid and bottom are made of aluminium, while the keyboard is plastic.
The Legion Slim 5i laptop offers a sleek design for a gaming machine. You get 21.9mm thickness, which gives it a sleek look as compared to the likes of Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 (22.9mm) or HP Omen 16 (23.9mm). Lenovo has smartly played with the materials on this one. You get aluminium alloy on the lid and bottom cover, while the keyboard deck is made of plastic.
| Ports (Right side) | SD card reader, webcam kill switch |
| Ports (Left side) | 2 x USB Type-C ports and a headphone jack |
| Ports (Rear) | 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, an ethernet port, a HDMI 2.1 port, and power connector |
| Connectivity Options | Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 (2×2) and Bluetooth 5.1 wireless card (supporting gigabit data rate) |
The hinge and lid are quite sturdy, though there is some flex on the keyboard when you use it down. However, this is not something that will bother you with your daily usage. Interestingly, the company has placed the ports quite well on this laptop.
The majority of the ports are located on the rear, which provides a cleaner placement of cables or accessories that you will add to your gameplay. Moreover, the ports are marked on the laptop, which makes it easier to identify the ports. Moving on, the laptop also supports charging via a USB Type-C port over a 3-pin charger.
Lenovo Legion Slim 5i Review: Display and Audio
- The Lenovo Legion Slim 5i offers a beautiful display that enhances the gaming experience.
- The display provides true-to-source colours and good viewing angles.
| Display | Specifications |
| Type | IPS |
| Size | 16.1-inch |
| Resolution | 2560×1600 pixels |
| Refresh rate | 165 Hz |
| Screen brightness | 300 nits |
| Certifications and other features | 100% sRGB, G- SYNC, anti-glare, up to 3ms response time, low blue light |
The brand is offering a competitive screen in this price segment. We faced no issue with the display as the visuals were crisp and the 165Hz refresh rate made the whole scrolling and other animations quite fluid. The viewing angles were good and watching HDR video was a delight, though we felt that the brightness could have been a bit better. You can also switch between 60Hz and 165Hz or put it in dynamic mode where the system will automatically choose the best refresh rate.
Coming to audio, the laptop offers stereo speakers, which are optimised with Nahimic Audio. This is one area where we thought there was room for improvement. The volume levels are not that great and the sound lacks treble and bass. So it is best to use a pair of headphones or wireless earbuds to play your favourite game on this laptop.
Lenovo Legion Slim 5i Review: Performance
- Lenovo Legion Slim 5i lives up to expectations and offers some good gaming performance
- The cooling system is quite effective in keeping the core temperature under check
| Lenovo Legion Slim 5i | Hardware Specifications |
| Chipset | Intel Core i7-13700H, 14C (6P + 8E) / 20T, P-core 2.4 / 5.0GHz, E-core 1.8 / 3.7GHz, 24MB |
| RAM | 16GB of DDR5-5200 MHz RAM (2 x 8GB) |
| Storage | 512GB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0×4 NVMe |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 (6GB GDDR6 dedicated) |
The core performance of the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i is pretty much spot on. The laptop delivered great results on the tasks we threw at it. Whether be it playing high-graphics games or opening multiple Chrome tabs (20+) while working, we never faced any kind of struggle or lag. The benchmark scores below also back these claims.
| Benchmark | Score |
| Geekbench 6 | 13953 (Multi-Core)/ 2585 (Single-core) |
| PC Mark 10 | 7940 |
| 3D Mark CPU Profile | 4748 |
| 3D Mark Time Spy | 9023 |
| 3D Mark Time Spy Extreme | 4157 |
| 3D Mark Port Royal | 4769 |
| CrystalDiskMark | 7079.65 MB/s (read speed) / 1161.54 MB/s (write speed) |
The GPU isn’t all that advanced, but it does its job with finesse. We managed to get steady frame rates on heavy AAA games like Forza Horizon 4 or Ghost Recon Breakpoint. Most of the games ran pretty smoothly on this machine.
| Games | Average Frame Rates (FPS) |
| Tekken 7 | 80fps |
| Spider-Man (Remastered) | 70fps |
| Apex Legends | 109fps |
| Forza Horizon 4 | 130fps |
| Valorant | 180fps |
| Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint | 38fps |
One of the biggest highlights of the Legion Slim 5i has to be the thermals. The company has added ColdFront 5.0, which includes dual liquid crystal polymer cooling fans, larger copper heat pipes, increased air intake and exhaust system. You get the option to choose between Quiet, Hybrid, and Performance modes.
The Performance mode unlocks all the processing prowess of the machine, which is ideal for running heavy games. There is also a Custom mode that allows you to customize different performance attributes and fan speeds. Moreover, the GPU Overlock settings help get additional clock speed to improve the gaming performance.
Lenovo Legion Slim 5i Review: Keyboard and Trackpad
- Lenovo Legion Slim 5i offers a large keyboard.
- The trackpad is large, though a bit off-centre.
Lenovo is known for delivering some of the best keyboards and trackpads in the laptop industry and this one is no different. The laptop comes loaded with a full-sized keyboard with a dedicated number pad and arrow keys. You also get four-zone RGB lighting, which is customisable in nature.
The keyboard felt smooth and large with smooth key travel and tactile feedback. Once you get past the learning curve, you will love using the keyboard here, whether it be typing or gaming. However, the trackpad is a bit off-centre. There were instances when we accidentally Right-clicked instead of left. But apart from that, the trackpad feels smooth, though you need to get used to it.
Lenovo Legion Slim 5i Review: Battery Life
| Battery capacity | Integrated 80Wh Li-ion |
| Charging wattage | 170W |
Despite being a gaming laptop at heart, the Legion Slim 5i offers decent battery backup. During our usage, we were able to get around 4.5 hours of battery life under day-to-day usage, which included browsing, and watching series or movies on Netflix. The 170W power adapter comes to the rescue as it charges the device from 10 per cent to 100 per cent in just over one hour.
Lenovo Legion Slim 5i Review: Verdict
The Lenovo Legion Slim 5i is a competitive laptop for its price. You get sturdy design language along with some excellent performance. The thermal management is probably one of the finest in this price segment and the display looks sharp. However, we felt that the 512GB of SSD storage is quite limiting in today’s world, though it is a welcome move from the company to provide a secondary storage slot.
So, if you don’t want anything flashy in a gaming laptop and can upgrade the storage space with an extra SSD, you can definitely consider the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i, which is priced at Rs 1,73,901. It may look a bit pricey, but remember most of that premium comes with the added advantage of a slimmer form factor than the competition.
That said, the laptop still faces some stiff competition from the likes of HP Omen 16, Asus ROG Zephyrus M16, Acer Predator Helios Neo 16, and more.
