'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,/9j/2wBDAAYEBQYFBAYGBQYHBwYIChAKCgkJChQODwwQFxQYGBcUFhYaHSUfGhsjHBYWICwgIyYnKSopGR8tMC0oMCUoKSj/2wBDAQcHBwoIChMKChMoGhYaKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCj/wgARCAAGAAoDASIAAhEBAxEB/8QAFgABAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQG/8QAFAEBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA//aAAwDAQACEAMQAAAAizASf//EAB0QAAICAgMBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAECAwQAIQYREyL/2gAIAQEAAT8A53zGNL6VIKzRrEBG+ge8ivWPJPiNtDZZuzn/xAAVEQEBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAf/aAAgBAgEBPwCv/8QAFxEAAwEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEDMv/aAAgBAwEBPwCmUf/Z'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
The Lenovo Legion Slim 5i has been refreshed as part of the Gen 8 design with the latest RTX 40 series GPUs and Intel Core 13th-generation Raptor Lake CPUs. The laptops now support up to an RTX 4070 laptop GPU and Core i9 chips. With faster memory and the tried and tested Colfront 5.0 cooling design, these laptops are great for portable gaming.
The Legion Slim laptops don't compromise on the experience for the portable experience. These laptops feature a high-resolution 16" display and 1 TB of storage out of the box, all while costing less than other high-end devices in the market.
Lenovo was kind enough to send over the Core i7-13700H and RTX 4070 laptop-powered Legion Slim 5i for us to check out. I ran the device through its paces and will share my thoughts in this article.
Trending
What does the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i offer?
Pre-delivery
The Lenovo Legion Slim 5i is an interesting laptop. As its name suggests, it has a slimline design, which makes it an option worth considering in the high-end RTX 40 series laptop, Most laptops with a 70 or 80-class GPU generally become very bulky and difficult to carry. However, this Lenovo laptop isn't plagued by this issue.
A detailed specs list of the device is listed below:
Overall, the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i is a solid desktop replacement machine for gamers and professionals alike. There are no red flags for us to highlight, so let's dive deep into what the device brings to the table.
Unboxing experience
The Lenovo Legion Slim 5i is packaged in a regular cardboard box that follows the traditional formula the company follows with all of its gaming laptops. Inside, we get the laptop, the charging brick, and some paperwork. That's it.
Overall, Lenovo didn't reinvent the wheel in terms of the unboxing experience. It is simple and it works. We have no complaints about it.
A closer look at the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i
The Slim 5i isn't an attention grabber. The laptop is made of aluminum and plastic and sports an all-grey finish. For the most part, it doesn't even look like a gaming laptop. It can easily pass as an office-use device.
I dig the minimalist looks of the Legion Slim 5i laptop. The device blends well with any work environment: school, office, or gaming.
Is the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i portable?
The Legion Slim laptop is pretty heavy despite its name. Weighing over 2350g, this can be pretty hefty to carry around regularly in a backpack. However, the device is still lighter than most other devices of its caliber. It is definitely portable, but users might need some strong shoulders if they plan to carry it around a lot.
Display
The Legion laptop bundles a high-end display that is great for gaming, content consumption, and creation. For starters, it is a 16" 2560 x 1600 IPS panel. Gamers get 100% sRGB coverage, which makes it very color-accurate. In addition, the display goes up to 350 nits brightness and boasts a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz.
We found the display bundled with the Legion Slim 5i to be pretty capable of all kinds of workloads. It is a superb panel that lets gamers soak in the beauty of modern AAA titles.
Keyboard and touchpad
The Lenovo Legion Slim 5i packs the same keyboard as other laptops in the range do. All of the keys have 1.5mm travel and the typing experience is standard. These keys aren't the best on laptops, however. There are premium options that offer ultra-low profile mechanical options too. However, the price builds up.
One perk of the keyboard I noticed is that all four arrow keys are full-sized. Gamers, especially in racing titles, need bigger arrow keys for a better experience. Being a gaming-focused laptop, Lenovo didn't side with compressed and smaller arrow keys that some devices do.
The Legion also features a sufficiently large trackpad that is very responsive. It is good enough for day-to-day tasks and for some casual gaming (if you prefer playing with trackpads). In my testing, I found the trackpad to be pretty good and have no complaints about it.
Speakers
The Lenovo Legion Slim 5i bundles two speakers for a true stereo experience. However, the downside is that both of them are down-firing, which can cause problems if you place the device on your lap.
For the most part, the speakers are standard. They don't feature any extra bells or whistles that classify them as top-notch. You can use them for some background music while working. However, for a better experience in video games, we recommend headphones.
How does the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i perform?
Synthetic benchmarks
We tested the Legion Slim 5i in a bunch of synthetic benchmarks that test the hardware in a uniform workload. This helps pitch the device against multiple other components, including desktop hardware.
Let's start with graphics rendering power tests before delving into the CPU, RAM, and SSD.
The 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark is a test of DirectX 11 performance. The RTX 4070 laptop scored a whopping 25,404 points, which ranks it just below the RTX 2080 Super and above the 3060 Ti desktop GPUs.
Fire Strike Extreme is simply a more demanding version of the benchmark listed above. Our sample size is relatively smaller because this test is a recent addition to our test bench.
3DMark Time Spy is a test of DirectX 12 rendering performance. In this test, the RTX 4070 laptop scored an impressive 12,316 points, which ranks it below the RTX 4060 Ti and just above the RTX 2080 Super in our charts.
Time Spy Extreme is simply a more demanding version of the benchmark listed above. This test is relatively new to our test bench as well, hence our sample size is small. The RTX 4070 laptop is only slightly slower than the RTX 4060 Ti desktop GPU and much faster than the 2070 Super.
3DMark Port Royal is a test of ray tracing performance. In this benchmark, a similar trend continues as the RTX 4070 laptop GPU is just slightly slower than the 4060 Ti. However, the 4070M beats the 2080 Super by a considerable margin.
3DMark Speed Way is a test of DirectX 12 Ultimate performance. Thus, it is representative of the performance of the GPUs in the latest video games. The RTX 4070 laptop GPU, again, is slightly slower than the RTX 4060 Ti.
The Legion we are reviewing bundles the same Core i7 13700H that was in the Dell Alienware laptop we previously looked at. Thus, in this test, we will pitch the i7 in the laptops against each other and compare them against some desktop chips.
3DMark CPU Profile is a comprehensive test of workloads that require varying thread counts. The Legion's 13700H came off as slightly slower than what the Alienware packs. However, the difference is negligible and can be attributed to the slightly lower-end cooling design of the Legion Slim laptop.
Coming to a more standard test, the Cinebench R23 single-core benchmark tests the capabilities of a single core of the 13700H in the Legion Slim 5i. The processor scored 1,882 points in this test, which makes it slightly slower than the 13700H in the Alienware. Both the processors are slower than the Ryzen 5 7600X but faster than the Ryzen 5000 and Intel 12th-generation chips.
The multi-core test employs all the threads in a CPU. It mainly reflects performance in 3D rendering, video editing, and other intensive workloads. The Core i7 13700H in the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i turned out to be much slower than that in the Alienware. The difference is almost 2,000 points. Both processors are slower than the desktop-grade Core i5 13600K.
The 7 zip benchmark is a test of how powerful a CPU is in file compression workloads. The chip is generally a test of how much computing horsepower a chip packs. The 13700H in the Legion Slim 5i turned out to be slightly slower than that in the Alienware X16 R1 we previously tested.
The Lenovo Legion Slim 5i scored a staggering 8,010 points in the PCMark 10 benchmark. In comparison, the 4080 and 13700H-powered Alienware X16 R1 scored a much lower 7,122 points. Paired with better portability and system footprint, the Legion makes more sense for a lot of users.
Productivity benchmarks
The 3DMark DXR feature test benchmarks a system's capabilities in ray tracing-heavy workloads. This test was recently added to our test bench, hence the sample size is pretty small. The RTX 4070 laptop GPU in the Legion scored about 34 frames per second in this test, which makes it much slower than the 4070 desktop GPU.
The Blender test suite is a benchmark of the 3D modeling and rendering capabilities of a graphics processor. With a score of 3,916.13 points, the RTX 4070 laptop GPU is much slower than the RTX 4060 Ti and the RX 7900 XTX graphics cards.
The Nvidia DLSS feature test is a benchmark of how good a graphics card is in temporal upscaling technologies. The test measures DLSS 3 as well, which is attributed to much higher frame gains on RTX 40 series cards.
The RTX 4070 mobile GPU on the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i, for example, registered a performance gain of over 500%.
Gaming benchmarks
The Lenovo Legion Slim 5i is built for gaming without performance hiccups. You can expect top-notch performance in the latest video games without sacrificing the visual quality. We tested the laptop extensively in multiple games, including older titles relying on DirectX 9 APIs to some of the latest titles.
Even at a demanding resolution like 1600p, the Legion Slim 5i hit playable framerates with zero sacrifices. In addition to pure rasterization, the latest 40 series cards are also known for their ray-tracing performance. We tested this feature in multiple video games. Let's go over the performance logged by the laptop.
Ray tracing performance on the 4070 laptop GPU is pretty solid as well. In some demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3, gamers won't be able to get a playable FPS without sacrificing the visual quality or relying on temporal upscaling technologies like DLSS, however.
A vast majority of games support DLSS 2 today. Players will be relying on legacy AI-based upscaling for the most part. Thus, it's important we gauge the performance of the Legion Slim 5i with this feature enabled.
Performance gains with DLSS 2 enabled aren't out of place. Framerate bumps range from 20-30% in most games to almost 100% in some titles like Shadow of the Tomb Raider. In recent times, resulting picture quality has improved by leaps to a point where the only noticeable difference with DLSS is the framerate.
However, the signature feature of the new RTX 40 series cards isn't the last-gen DLSS 2, it's DLSS 3. Although support continues to be limited, the new temporal upscaling technology is a buzzword in the gaming community. Luckily for us, the latest Legion Slim 5i with the 4070 supports DLSS 3. Let's go over the performance gains with this tech enabled.
Gains in video games generally range around 250-400% with this tech enabled. With this technology enabled, multiple games went from unplayable to silky smooth, that too in some of the most demanding games players can get their hands on today.
Bundled software
The Lenovo Legion Slim 5i bundles a bunch of software out of the box. For starters, the laptop comes with the X-Rite Color Assistant software to control the color space of the panel. Unlike most other laptops, the Legion Slim 5i features a Pantone-rated 1600p IPS display. It is great for photo and video editors who can leverage the factory-calibrated display to output accurately-graded content.
To monitor the system vitals, gamers get the Lenovo Vantage app. It is a one-stop platform for monitoring system health, stats, pending updates, warranty status, and more. In my testing, I found Vantage to be more useful than software bundled with other laptops. However, it is far from the ideal solution.
The Legion Arena software is more geared toward gamers. The software lists all games installed on a system, including links to quickly launch anyone of them. The software is redundant, given Nvidia's Geforce Experience and literally any desktop client like Steam or Epic Games also delivers the same features.
Overall, I believe Lenovo should merge the Arena and Vantage software for a more unified experience. Jumping between all of the bundled software was inconvenient.
What are the thermals and power draw of the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i?
Thermal efficiency
We tested the cooling system of the Legion Slim 5i under various workloads including gaming and synthetic load testing as well. The laptop bundles a top-notch cooling system to keep the internals under optimal temperatures. Let's go over the system vitals we logged.
Unlike most other laptops, the CPU temperatures of this Lenovo laptop aren't all that bad. The Core i7 13700H shot up to a maximum of 93°C and settled around 88-89°C for the most part. However, there were a few short periods of thermal throttling here and there, which proves that the cooling design isn't the best.
Under synthetic load testing, GPU temperatures follow a similar pattern as well. The RTX 4070 mobile hit a maximum of 90°C and stayed around 86-87°C throughout our testing. These temperatures are pretty good for a laptop graphics processor, which proves that this Legion packs some heat despite being based on a portable slimline body.
Power efficiency
Let's go over the power efficiency of the Legion Slim 5i next. All of the components in the system are high-performance parts geared toward gaming, hence power draws will be higher than usual.
The Core i7 13700H in this laptop is rated for 45W. However, we found the chip turboing to over 100W in the first few seconds of testing. Regardless, for the most part, it maintained its rated 45W limit when stressed with the AIDA 64 system stress workload.
When stressed with Furmark, GPU power draw characteristics followed a rather unique trend. We started off with a power draw of about 120W, which gradually declined to 79W throughout the stress test.
Operating clock speeds
The operating clock speeds of the CPU and GPU under load say a ton about the thermal dissipation system of the laptop and its efficiency under prolonged workloads. Let's go over the clock speeds of the processors of this Legion laptop.
The Core i7 13700H in the laptop maintained much lower operating clock speeds than promised on paper. For the most part during the test, the CPU ran at about 2600 MHz, much lower than the boost frequencies the 13th-generation processors are known for on desktops. The chip is undercutting its clock speeds to cope with the limited thermal dissipation measures of the laptop.
The RTX 4070 laptop GPU is rated for 1695 MHz boost clocks. In our testing, the graphics processor hit these clocks, however, as the power draw characteristic logged above, the clock speeds gradually declined with time to about 1560 MHz. Since the temperatures remained the same throughout, we can conclude the cooling system couldn't sustain the continued workload.
SSD performance
The laptop bundles a 1 TB Gen 4 Samsung SSD. In our testing, the drive boasted a maximum read speed of 6645 MB/s and a write speed of about 2205 MB/s. These are more than enough for any kind of workload you could throw at this laptop, including loading the most demanding games in the market. However, they nearly aren't the fastest you could ask for today.
RAM speeds and performance
The Lenovo laptop features 32 GB DDR5-5200 memory, which ranks among the fastest RAM you can buy today. In our RAM testing benchmarks, the memory sticks logged maximum read and write speeds of over 70,000 MB/s with a latency of around 103 ns. The memory performs pretty well for a laptop of this caliber. We have no complaints about it.
Is the Lenovo Legion Slim 5i with Core i7 13700H and RTX 4070 GPU worth it?
The Lenovo Legion Slim 5i with the Core i7 13700H, 32 GB RAM, and RTX 4070 mobile GPU is definitely an option worth considering. The device is based on a slimline design, which makes it easy to carry. The particular laptop we reviewed is priced at $1,800, which makes it cheaper than most similarly-specced high-performance machines.
The Lenovo laptop brings solid build quality, sophisticated looks, and a wonderful display to the table. With the company's Build Your PC tool, gamers can customize their laptops to their heart's content to fit use case scenarios.
Overall, I believe the RTX 4070-based Legion Slim 5i is worth the price it asks for. The laptop has been a delight in my last two weeks using it.
Conclusion
Product name: Lenovo Legion Slim 5i laptop with Core i7 13700H CPU and Nvidia RTX 4070 laptop (sample provided by Lenovo).
CPU: Intel Core i7-13700H.
GPU: Nvidia RTX 4070 laptop GPU.
RAM: 32 GB LPDDR5 5200 MHz.
Display: 16" QHD+ (2,560 x 1,600), Nvidia G-SYNC, Advanced Optimus, DisplayHDR 400.
