Gaming laptops are a bigger market than most buyers realise. With a lot of processor options coupled with a sea of other specs and plenty of colourful choices, customers do have quite a buffet from choose from.
But, while hardcore gamers with deep pockets can buy machines with the best specs money can buy, not everyone has that kind of luxury. The latter kind are left juggling between use cases. If you fall in the second category, and are looking for a gaming laptop that can be used to create content, there’s the Lenovo Slim 5i. Having spent the past few days using it, here’s our review of the new Lenovo laptop.
Lenovo Legion Slim 5i design
The Lenovo Legion Slim 5i comes with typical gaming laptop aesthetics but isn’t as hardcore as some of the flagship Legion or ROG Strix series laptops. It’s no surprise as the laptop has ‘Slim’ in its name after all. Yes, it does weigh about 2.5 kilos, but that is expected from a 6.1-inch gaming laptop with decent specifications.
Otherwise, this product feels the most ‘gamified’ laptops can get without being too loud and turning heads. You get to choose from sleek colours and a minimal design with no in-your-face brand logos.
Adding to that are upward-facing stereo speakers and plenty of ports, ideal for gamers, but also pretty useful to everyone else. Then there are features that make it seem like Lenovo wanted this gaming laptop to be a great choice for other users, and creators in particular.
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The screen goes back a full 180-degrees, there’s a full-sized SD card reader built into the right edge, and a 1080p webcam with a dedicated kill-switch. The laptop sat comfortably on our office desk, not catching anyone’s eye for days. But does it game? Oh yes!
Lenovo Legion Slim 5i performance
At first glance, some design elements did make us feel that the Legion Slim 5i falls down the slippery slope of being a gaming laptop that tries too hard to be a good-for-everything laptop. But spend a few days with it and you’ll find that isn’t really the case.
We enjoyed playing titles like Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Control, along with classics like FIFA 23 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Playing these games was a bliss thanks to the 13th Gen Core i7 chip and Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU. These internals provide plenty of graphical processing power for the average gamer, and then some.
The IPS display also made colours pop, and viewing angles were great. The SSD storage also helps with load times, but a 512GB cap means you can only have a few large games installed at a time.
The laptop manages thermals better than some of the previous models in the Slim series. It’s only when playing graphic-intensive games for a long time that the laptop started generating some heat. A couple of FIFA 23 matches or a few races in Forza Horizon 5 were not a problem. A lot is down to the large vents that go all across the bottom of the laptop, as well as the sides.
While I’m not much of a FPS gamer, the 165Hz display panel on offer should offer plenty of frames per second for the Call of Duty: Warzone and PUBG: Battlegrounds players out there.
The 165Hz display should offer plenty of frames per second for fans of first-person shooting games
But that’s just the gaming performance. The Legion Slim 5i is also great for general tasks. It can copy large video files from an SD card quickly, is surprisingly good at tasks like video calls or simply playing music on the stereo speakers, although some more volume would have been great.
We are a tad disappointed that this laptop doesn’t come with features like a fingerprint scanner for quicker authentication or Thunderbolt ports. But that’s when you realise that is still a gaming-first laptop.
Lenovo Legion Slim 5i display
The Legion Slim 5i’s 16-inch panel is big, rich in colours, and can go up to 500nits of brightness. That’s on par with most gaming laptops out there, and is enough to enjoy games, as well as movies and shows. Creators editing photos and videos will also appreciate the display.
The IPS panel also offers good viewing angles, making this panel even more versatile for entertainment. It’s also pretty good if you have a partner who loves watching gameplay more than actually playing!
Lenovo Legion Slim 5i keyboard and trackpad
The laptop’s keyboard grew on us the more we used over the past few days. It’s not the best backlit keyboard, but features decent travel and a well-spaced layout that you can actually type on at length.
There are also full-sized arrow keys and a numpad on the right, which means if you like flying aircraft in GTA V the old-fashioned way, this laptop has you covered. Some neat keyboard shortcuts like the ability to lock the Fn keys to their secondary function, as well as pressing Fn+Q to put the laptop in a quieter mode are also pretty handy.
Coming to the trackpad, there’s nothing to boast of here. The average-sized trackpad here is decent and gets the job done for when you’re not gaming. For when you are, you’ll likely be using a mouse anyway.
Other features
Other aspects that we must talk about, includes Lenovo Vantage – a neatly laid out software suite that features all the controls you’d expect on a gaming laptop. Settings for everything from the RGB keyboard to sourcing display output exclusively from the GPU are all placed in here.
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The ports on offer include two USB 3.2 Type-A ports, an Ethernet port, an HDMI port, and the proprietary 180W charging port, all of which go on the rear. This makes it your setting cleaner and no cables are left sticking out from the right, where you’re likely to have a gaming mouse moving around.
On the left are two USB 3.2 Type-C ports, one of which supports USB-PD charging, and none of which come with a Thunderbolt certification. That means those looking to take the gaming sessions to a bigger screen will have to stick to the HDMI port on the back. Although for the price-to-performance ratio you get here, I doubt that would be a deal-breaker for most people.
Lenovo Legion Slim 5i review verdict
The Lenovo Legion Slim 5i is a mid-spec gaming laptop, and what we like about it, is that it doesn’t feel like it’s trying to punch above its weight. This was never a laptop for the hardcore gamer who prefer something that’s more performance oriented. Instead, the Legion Slim 5i does its best to offer features that would cater to most people looking for a new, powerful laptop for a multitude of use cases.
That however doesn’t change the fact that this 16-inch laptop weighs almost twice as much as the average Ultrabook. Or the fact that it is designed to be largely used plugged in, and as a result, its battery life may not last as much as a regular office notebook.
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If these things are deal-breakers, you shouldn’t just look away from this product, but gaming laptops in general. Instead, pick up something like the Asus Zenbook S 13 or the HP Envy x360 15.
However, if the gaming aspect does matter to you, the basics are all here. A zonal RGB keyboard – check. Rear facing ports – check. A high-resolution 165Hz display – check. Performance to enjoy most AAA titles of today – big check!
This is one laptop for those who want a gaming laptop that they can use for more than just gaming. If that sounds like you, the Legion Slim 5i is a terrific recommendation at Rs 1,29,344.
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Chetan Nayak
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