Lenovo Legion Slim 5i review: Versatile performance in budget

Over the past few years, affordable gaming laptops have gained significant popularity, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the world to go online. Lenovo Legion, HP Victus, Alienware are the few popular gaming laptop sub-brands in the country that offer a wide range of products for a larger audience. While most gaming laptops are big, chunky and heavy, Lenovo Legion Slim claims to offer performance in a portable and affordable package. Earlier this year, Lenovo launched a new Legion Slim 5i gaming laptop that is claimed to work as an everyday PC as well as a gaming device but at a reasonable price. We got a chance to use the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i laptop and here’s what we think of it.

Lenovo Legion Slim 5i review: Design

We have already talked about the weight of Lenovo Legion Slim laptops in the article and how lightweight they are but you have to keep in mind that we are comparing the Legion Slim 5i with other gaming laptops in the market. At around 2.4 kg, the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i is pretty portable in the gaming segment where laptops can easily weigh over 3 kg. Talking about the design, Lenovo Legion Slim 5i sports a very pleasing design overall. The top half of the laptop looks like a premium everyday laptop with a smooth finish and minimalistic badging. But when you look at the chunky bottom half that houses the keyboard, ports and fans, you notice the gaming side of the device. The storm grey colour option also helps the laptop to easily blend at most places.

The key design elements of the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i are placed in the bottom half that includes stereo speakers, grips, ports and huge grilles for the cooling fans. Coming to the ports, Lenovo Legion Slim 5i comes with four USB 3.2 Gen 2 out of which one also supports, power delivery of 140W, one HDMI port, one card reader, one ethernet (RJ-45), one 3.5mm jack and a power connector.

The Lenovo Legion Slim 5i is relatively thin and doesn’t occupy too much space. The positioning of ports makes it easier to plug it in on the go. The heavy base offers a sturdy usage and adds to the overall usage experience.

Lenovo Legion Slim 5i review: Display

To be a gaming laptop, the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i needed a vibrant display that’s easy on the eyes and that’s exactly what it offers. The Lenovo Legion Slim 5i features a 16-inch WUXGA IPS display with 2560x1600 pixel resolution. The screen gets 100% sRGB colour space which offers saturated colors that enhances the visual experience. The laptop offers a peak brightness of 300 nits.

The display of the laptop is surrounded by thin bezels and the front camera is well hidden at the top edge of the laptop. High refresh rate of up to 165Hz and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series graphics does enhance the overall viewing experience. Low Blue Light certification, anti-glare, add cherry on the top.

The display of Lenovo Legion Slim 5i works quite well when it comes to day to day usage and also while playing lengthy games. The screen on the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i does offer accurate colour contrast and sharpness.

Lenovo Legion Slim 5i review: Performance

As the name suggests, the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i is powered by a 13th Gen Intel Core i5 processor paired with up 32GB (2x 16 GB) of DDR5 RAM and 1TB of M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 storage. The combination of processor and memory makes it an ideal performance oriented laptop and that’s what Lenovo Legion Slim 5i is. After completely setting up the device and signing in for the free Xbox game pass, we directly hopped on to the main stuff, games. We played a bunch of games on the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i, ranging from light to extremely heavy ones. After playing a few games for long hours, we can say that gaming performance of Lenovo Legion Slim 5i is as good as one can expect it to be. Although very rarely the user may notice slight delay while moving between heavy games, it can be neglected if you keep the price point in mind.

It is worth noting that Lenovo has done a pretty decent job when it comes to heat dissipation. Although the Legion Slim 5i is relatively thin for a gaming laptop, it does not heat up that easily thanks to the powerful cooling system. The Lenovo Legion Slim 5i offers a mode that reduces the fan noise to minimal but it is difficult to ignore the sound while gaming even with stereo speakers of the laptop turned to maximum.

If we haven’t told you yet, the stereo speakers on the Legion Slim 5i offer a loud and clear sound experience. For everyday use, the laptop works without a hiccup and it comes preloaded with Microsoft apps that reduces the effort of setting up the device.

Lenovo Legion Slim 5i review: Battery

Lenovo Legion Slim 5i is backed by a 80Wh battery with 170W fast charging support. The laptop also supports a 140W charging via USB-C port which makes it easier to carry the laptop for day to day purposes without lifting the heavy 240W adapter. During our review, the laptop was able to scratch almost 5-6 hours of mixed usage in a single charge. We were able to charge the laptop up to 70% in under 40 minutes.

Lenovo Legion Slim 5i review: Verdict

Lenovo Legion Slim 5i review is a smart and value for money gaming laptop for people who want a device that can function as an everyday PC and a powerful gaming laptop as well. The  Legion Slim 5i’s design, weight, display, performance and price make it stand above the rest in the competition. Although professional gamers may have different opinions when it comes to the gaming part but for occasional gamers, it's a deal to steal. The Lenovo badging also adds to the after sales experience of the product.