Tom's Hardware Verdict

Lenovo’s Legion 5i Pro Gen 9 is an excellent value with its Core HX-class CPU and GeForce RTX 4060 for under $1,500. Its battery life isn’t that long but we like almost everything else about it, making it an easy recommendation.

Reasons to buy

+
Well priced
+
Solid gaming performance
+
Bright screen
+
Comfortable keyboard and touchpad
+
Good port selection

Reasons to avoid

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Below average battery life
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Only a 512GB SSD in base model
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No biometric features
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Single-channel RAM

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Providing a good value is a noble pursuit, especially as laptops are getting more expensive. We found that value in the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i Gen 9. Our $1,313.99 test model with a GeForce RTX 4060 often matched much pricier RTX 4070 laptops in our testing. Solid build quality, a comfortable keyboard and touchpad, and excellent connectivity are also among its many likeable attributes.

It could use longer battery life and the 512GB SSD in our model is smaller than we prefer, but those are forgivable for the price. Is the Legion 5i Pro Gen 9 is easily one of the best gaming laptops under $1,500? Let's find out.

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The onyx gray design is rather plain and there’s no external RGB lighting outside of the keyboard, so it’s not a visual standout. Branding is limited to reflective Lenovo’s silver logo and Legion lettering on the otherwise featureless lid. The lid’s webcam notch makes a good fingerhold for opening the device, which can be accomplished one-handed. The lid has good strength and doesn’t flex without using significant pressure. The rest of the laptop has excellent strength, too. Only the lid is aluminum while the rest of the build is plastic, but it overall feels like a quality machinet.

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CPU	Intel Core i7-14650HX (8 Performance and 8 Efficient cores, 5.2GHz P-core Turbo Boost, 55-watt base power)
Graphics	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 (8GB GDDR6, 1,890 MHz boost clock, 140W maximum graphics power)
Memory	16GB DDR5-5600 (1x 16GB SODIMM)
Storage	512GB SSD
Display	16-inch, 2560 x 1600, 16:10, IPS, 165 Hz, G-Sync, Advanced Optimus
Networking	Intel Wi-Fi 6E + Bluetooth 5.3
Ports	4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C w/ DisplayPort, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C w/ DisplayPort and 140W power delivery, HDMI 2.1, 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, 3.5 mm headphone/microphone
Camera	1080p
Battery	80 WHr
Power Adapter	300 watts (proprietary connector)
Operating System	Windows 11 Home
Dimensions (WxDxH)	14.3 x 10.25 x 1.05 inches (363 x 260 x 27 mm)
Weight	5.51 pounds (2.5 kg)
Price (as configured)	$1,313.99

For our performance comparisons, the Legion will face the Alienware m16 R2 (Core Ultra 7 155H, RTX 4070, 140W), the Asus ROG Strix G16 (Core i9-13980HX, RTX 4070, 140W), and the smaller 14-inch Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (AMD Ryzen 9 8940HS, RTX 4070, 90W). The ROG Strix G16 is an older model but can still be found for sale. Meanwhile, the ROG Zephyrus G14 is the smallest laptop here and has the least powerful implementation of the RTX 4070. Our Legion will probably face an uphill battle with its RTX 4060, but the card is rated for a hearty 140W.

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Lenovo Legion Pro 5i Gen 9 (Intel) — (Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

In Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Highest detail preset), the Legion did very well next to the RTX 4070-equipped Alienware, producing 109 fps at 1080p and 64 fps at native versus 113 fps and 68 fps, respectively. The ROG Strix G16 drove a bit further ahead at 1080p, at 116 fps, and it didn’t see much of a drop at its native resolution (108 fps). The ROG Zephyrus G14 expectedly took the hardest hit at native resolution.

We also stress-test gaming laptops by running the Metro Exodus benchmark 15 times on RTX settings to simulate half an hour of gaming. During the test, the Legion averaged 75.05 fps across all runs, with all runs within one fps of the average. The P-cores on the Core i7-14650HX ran at an average frequency of 4.3 GHz and temperature of 79 degrees Celsius while the E-cores averaged 3.4 GHz and 75 degrees. Meanwhile, the GeForce RTX 4060’s average core clock was 2,473 MHz and it had an average temperature of 68 degrees.

On the cross-platform Geekbench 5.5 CPU test, where the Legion’s Core i7-14650HX scoring 1,926 points in single-core and 14,707 points in multi-core, was second only to the ROG Strix G16’s Core i9-13980HX, at 2,067 and 18,227 points. Those HX-class CPUs notably have a 55-watt base power rating; the Alienware’s 45-watt Core Ultra 7 chip just couldn’t keep up, nor could the 35-watt Ryzen chip on the ROG Zephyrus G14.

When I played Cyberpunk 2077, the panel on our unit offered very good visual quality. Good black levels and well-saturated color made Night City’s dark alleys and bright lights an immersive experience. I found it almost too bright and often used 80-90% brightness in a darker room. The screen also works well for movies. Watching Christopher Nolan’s Inception, I found that the warm colors in the intro scene looked as I expected and I also enjoyed the stark white snow landscape around the snow hospital in the finale.

I didn’t see a way to customize the keyboard’s four-zone RGB backlighting in an app (which is usually done in Lenovo Vantage, but I didn’t see an option on our review model), though you can toggle different lighting modes using Fn + Spacebar, including color cycling, a solid color, a pulsing mode that illuminates each zone left to right in a different color, and off. The backlighting offers plenty of contrast against the dark gray keys. Per-key RGB backlighting would be better, but we aren’t expecting it at this price.

Meanwhile, the touchpad is another one of the Legion’s upsides, with an appropriately sized surface relative to its 16-inch screen and physical clicking action that seems to require just the right amount of pressure. The physical clicks are audible, but you can always tap to click if quietness matters. Of course, many people will use a mouse for gaming, but it's good to have a solid touchpad for work.

The Legion’s twin speakers are under the palm rest and face horizontally. The included Nahimic app basically rescues these speakers from mediocrity, which I found after turning the app’s effects off. The default settings to boost voices, bass, and treble settings worked well in Seven Lions’ “Falling Away”; vocals were clear and the soundstage was believable. Bass is a weak point like it is for most laptops, but it’s not flat.

The 80 WHr battery takes up about one-third of the space and is replaceable. Two M.2 2280 slots for storage drives flank it, each covered by a heatsink. The M.2 2230 wireless card slot is next to the right M.2 2280 slot. There are also two DDR5-5600 SODIMM slots in the center that are covered by a plastic shield. Our system’s 16GB of RAM was unfortunately a single module instead of a higher-performance 2x 8GB module loadout, which would have offered dual memory channels.

We measure surface temperatures of gaming laptops while running the Metro Exodus benchmark at RTX settings for 15 loops (about half an hour). During the test, the Legion’s keyboard (between the G and H keys) reached 95 degrees Fahrenheit and the touchpad was barely above room temperature, at 77 degrees. Meanwhile, the maximum temperature on the laptop’s underside was 99 degrees. Lenovo appears to have done a good job of keeping the heat under control.

The Legion’s webcam sits in its rightful place centered over the screen. Its 1080p resolution looks slightly soft but is much sharper than the pixelated 720p cams that can unfortunately still be found on some laptops. The clarity is adequate for casual calls. The camera doesn’t have a dedicated privacy shutter, but there’s a physical kill switch on the right edge of the laptop that is an arguably more secure solution since it disconnects the webcam from the laptop.

Lenovo Vantage is the most important included app, controlling access to all major functions including system updates, macro keys (which can be set on numeric keypad keys), and a troubleshooting hardware scan. There are also power settings that check battery health (including a battery conservation mode that limits the charge to 75-80%), toggling flip to start (where opening the lid starts the laptop) and always-on USB settings.

Lenovo’s pricing is competitive for the model we tested. A similar Alienware m16 R2 was $1,599 with a Core Ultra 7 155H and a 1TB SSD. I also saw the latest version of the ROG Strix G16 for $1,599 with a Core i9-14900HX and a 1TB SSD. Granted, those laptops offer some higher-end features not available on the Legion, such as per-key RGB backlighting, but whether they’re worth a few hundred extra dollars is debatable.

Battery life is this laptop’s number one downside, which is typical of gaming notebooks, but it’s still more than capable of lasting half a workday off the plug. We’d also like to see a fingerprint reader or an IR camera the next time around to provide some biometric capability. Last, 512GB SSD is a squeeze for a gaming laptop considering the size of today’s games, though upgrading this laptop after purchase is easily done.