Lenovo Legion Slim 5i Review: A Versatile Gaming Laptop with a Sleek Design

When it comes to no-nonsense gaming laptops, Lenovo's Legion series has often been a step ahead of the competition. Lenovo recently sent us the eight generation of the Legion Slim 5i laptop.

Unlike the traditional Legion gaming laptops, the Slim 5i has been shrunk, making it thinner and lighter. But will this thinner and lighter design hamper the Legion Slim 5i's performance, let's find out. Before we dive into our Lenovo Legion Slim 5i review, it is worth noting that our model comes in at just under two lacs.

Design

The Lenovo Legion Slim 5i features an anodized aluminium display lid, although the laptop's chassis is made from hard plastic. However, the overall build quality is solid felt pretty sturdy with zero flex. The Legion Slim 5ii weighs 2.39 kg and measures 25.2mm thick, putting it on the slimmer side.

The Lenovo Legion Slim 5i arrives in a single Onyx Grey shade and the masks its gaming DNA quite well. The laptop has a subtle Legion logo on the lid, while the ports are marked with indicators for convenience. Moreover, the Legion Slim 5i also opens 180 degrees, allowing it to lay full flat on a table.

Connectivity

The ports on the Legion Slim 5i are primarily located on the back, where you'll find two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen 2) ports, an RJ45 Ethernet jack, an AC power connector, and an HDMI 2.1 port. The laptop has two more USB Type-C (Gen 2) ports and a 3.5mm audio jack on the left side, while an SD card slot sits on the right side.

Wireless connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1. Overall, the Legion Slim 5i has a solid assortment of ports. The Legion Slim 5i also comes with a 1080p webcam, which is a slight upgrade from the 720p webcams we are accustomed to seeing on most gaming laptops. However, webcam performance is strictly average and only suitable for video calls in good to decent lighting.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The Legion Slim 5i's four-zone RGB backlit keyboard is the only gaming aesthetic here. The keys have a nice travel distance of 1.5mm, which offer somewhat of a tactile feel. Additionally, the spacing between the keys also makes it comfortable to type on. The Slim 5i boasts a full-sized keyword with a Numpad on the side.

This is the same keyboard we've seen on higher-end Legion models, so it is nice to see Lenovo isn't compromising here. While the Legion's keyboard worked well for gaming and typing, the same couldn't be said about its touchpad. The large-sized touchpad made it easier to use for navigation, while the buttons had a clicky feel. However, I primarily used a mouse during my time with the Legion Slim 5i.

Display & Audio

For the display, Lenovo has opted for a 16-inch WQXGA IPS display with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels. The panel boasts a 240Hz refresh rate and a 3ms response time. The panel offers a peak brightness of 500 nits, which is quite impressive for a gaming laptop and coupled with the anti-glare finish, makes the Legion Slim 5i's screen easily visible in all scenarios.

Additionally, the screen is VESA DisplayHDR 4000 certified and supports Dolby Vision, which improves the overall entertainment experience. Moreover, the panel also supports 100% sRGB coverage, which makes it a versatile tool for content creation as well. And lastly, to add to an already impressive list of specs, the display here supports Nvidia's G-Sync to avoid any tearing in games.

Overall, the Legion Slim 5i has a versatile display that is superb for gaming, content consumption, and content creation. Audio on the Legion Slim 5i is handled by two 2W bottom-firing speakers with Lenovo's Nahimic audio.

The speakers tend to get quite loud and do not distort easy at higher volumes. Lastly, the smart amp feature adds a bit of bass, while the Nahimic audio allows you to further customize the sound to your liking.

Performance

Powering the Legion Slim 5i is Intel Core i7-13700H CPU with six performance cores and eight efficiency cores. The laptop also came with 32GB of DDR5-5200 RAM and a 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. The CPU is paired with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 laptop GPU.
On paper, the Legion Slim 5i appears stacked with all the hardware required to deliver flagship gaming performance. But how does it fare in the real-world.

Let's start with the gaming tests. Cyberpunk 2077 delivered an average of 75fps on high settings in QHD+ resolution. Battlefield V delivered an average of 90fps on high settings in QHD+ resolution, while Control managed 70 fps on average on high settings in the same Quad HD+ resolution. You shouldn't have any trouble getting playable frame rates in any game even when ray tracing is turned on.

I also tested a few multiplayer titles on the Legion Slim 5i, including Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, which averaged 125fps on high settings. Overwatch 2 averaged little over 200 fps on high settings, while Valorant saw an average of 220 fps. Battlefield 2042 also managed around 100 to 110 fps on high settings. It is worth noting that all multiplayer titles were tested in QHD+ resolution without raytracing turned on.

I also ran a few benchmarks on the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i. Geekbench 6 saw the CPU achieve a single-core score of 2,567 points and a multi-core score of 14,496 points. In Cinebench R23, the CPU managed a single-core score of 1,860 points and a multi-core score of 17,432 points. In Port Royal DXR and Time Spy Extreme tests, the Legion Slim 5i score 5,691 point and 4,501 points, respectively.

The laptop is equipped with Lenovo's Legion Coldfront 5.0 cooling system, which includes several air vents, dual fans, and a myriad of heat pipes. The laptop stayed relatively cool with most of the heat steering clear of the keyboard area. The CPU sat at around 85 to 90 degrees Celsius when gaming, while the GPU averaged at around 80 degrees Celsius.

The fans do work overtime to keep things cool, although with upwards of 80% speaker volume, they shouldn't be a bother. I did witness some throttling after a long four-hour gaming session, although the laptop's cooling system was well-above the average given its slim form factor. The overall gaming performance on the Legion Slim 5i was impressive to say the least.

Battery

As with most gaming laptops, despite the large cell, the Legion Slim 5i packs an 80Whr battery and comes with a 240W charging adapter. In my testing, I found that the laptop could deliver around six to seven hours of battery life on a single charge.

My tasks involved multitasking between MS Word and Google Chrome, while maintaining screen brightness at 40%. For a gaming laptop, the figures were impressive. For the Legion Slim 5i to almost get through an entire workday with a powerful dedicated GPU and a QHD+ display is no small feat.

Verdict

When it comes to gaming, the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i makes little concessions. The Legion Slim 5i performed admirably in our gaming tests, better than most of its competitors. Apart from gaming, the Legion Slim 5i also delivered strong productivity numbers and endured through most of our workday on a single charge.

Beyond performance, the Legion Slim 5i also delivers on the display front, offering a vibrant yet incredibly responsive display to put out those excellent visuals. The laptop also has a subtle design that doesn't scream gaming. However, the Legion Slim 5i did have a few flaws, like the lack of a Thunderbolt 4 port and a sub-par touchpad.

And while the Legion Slim 5i delivered solid performance for a slim and light gaming laptop, it was far from the perfect article. As with most thin and light gaming laptops, we did face some slight performance hurdles due to throttling but that is expected when fitting such powerful hardware in a slimmer chassis. And then there's the price, which is on the hefty side.

If you are looking for a sleeker and lighter gaming laptop than the traditional chunky machines, then the Legion Slim 5i won't disappoint. This makes the Legion Slim 5i the perfect laptop for a travelling creator by day and hardcore gamer by night. However, if raw performance is all you seek, a non-Slim Legion model maybe a more suitable choice.