Last year I said Lenovo’s Legion 5 was the best mid-range gaming laptop available,
and in my review of this year’s model I said it wasn’t all that much better. So
now the question becomes is it worth spending more money on a 2022 Legion
5? Or can you save money getting the older 2021 model? I’ve compared both to find out!
Last year’s 2021 model has a plastic lid,
while this year’s newer 2022 version has a metal lid. The Legion logo on last year’s
has a sort of rainbow color to it, while the new one is basically a shiny mirror,
and the colors are a little different too, with last year's model being darker.
The metal lid does feel a little sturdier, despite also being thinner.
Overall build quality feels good with both, but the newer 2022 version is a little better,
it just feels nicer to the touch while also being a bit more solid.
They both weigh about the same, last year’s was only just slightly lighter, however last year’s
also came with a larger 300 watt power brick, so with that included the total package weighs more.
It is possible to buy the same 230 watt brick that came with my newer
model and use that on the older one though, and I should note that some
regions are selling this year’s with the 300 watt brick still. So it seems to vary.
The size is only slightly different,
and having both side by side I could barely tell that the newer one was a little thinner.
The interior layout looks much the same,
but the touchpad in the newer model is larger now and it just feels a little nicer to click.
The keyboards look the same, but the newer one feels slightly nicer to type on. It’s hard to
explain, it might have a little more travel, or it could just be the same keyboard and that
one is just newer. Keyboard layout is otherwise the same, and typing feels great with either.
Both of my keyboards have 4-zone RGB backlighting which can be controlled through the Vantage
software under the Spectrum section, but they’re also available with white lighting only.
Now my 2022 Legion 5 has a 1080p camera, but it is also available with a 720p option
in some regions. So this does make the camera look quite a bit better on the
newer model compared to this 720p camera in the older model, but I suppose it’s
possible that the newer model could also look like this if you had the 720p camera.
Both laptops have USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C on the left. The newer one has two ports
while the older version has one, and its 3.5mm audio combo jack is on this side too.
The newer 2022 model has its 3.5mm audio jack on the right. Otherwise they both
have a switch to disconnect the camera for privacy, and a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port.
The rest of the ports are on the back. Both have Gigabit ethernet on the left,
but the newer model is facing the preferred way so you don’t have to lift up the laptop
when unplugging the cable. Both laptops have a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port here, HDMI 2.1 output,
2 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports on the newer 2022 model, and 3 for the older version.
So basically to summarize the ports situation, the newer 2022 model has 3 Type-C ports instead of 2,
but it’s got 3 Type-A ports instead of 4. Honestly I think that’s still plenty of Type-A ports,
and considering Type-C clearly is the future, I think it’s a good tradeoff for Lenovo to go from
fewer Type-C ports to more Type-C ports with the newer one. And all Type-C ports on both laptops
offer DisplayPort 1.4 support for connecting an external screen, and both HDMI ports connect
directly to the Nvidia graphics. They can both run an external screen at 4K 120Hz 8-Bit with G-Sync.
Only the Type-C ports on the back can be used to charge these laptops, and last year’s was
limited to 100 watts while this year’s goes up to 135 watts. However you need a special
Lenovo charger to actually pull that off, or one that supports 20 volts 6.75 amps which isn’t in
the PD 3.1 standard, so you might have a tough time finding a charger that actually does that.
The key differences between these two Legion 5’s in terms of specs is that the
newer one has AMD’s newer Ryzen 7 6800H processor which uses newer DDR5 memory,
and its RTX 3060 graphics now has a higher power limit - more on that soon.
I found it easier to open the newer 2022 model, as the bottom panel on
the older version has a plastic bit that sticks out for the air vents on the sides,
and I have cracked those before when opening other Legion laptops with the same design.
The layout of the internals is quite similar. Both have the 80Wh battery down the front,
two M.2 storage slots, a removable Wi-Fi card, and two memory slots. The newer 2022 model appears
to have thicker heatpipes, and it’s also got an extra heat pipe that runs near the 2nd M.2 slot.
Although both laptops have 512 gig SSDs, AMD’s Ryzen 6000 in the newer model supports faster PCIe
Gen 4, so we’re able to get faster speeds here. To be fair, Intel 11th gen last year supported Gen 4
too, so with the Intel based Legion 5i from 2021 you should be able to get faster Gen 4 speeds too.
Wi-Fi performance wasn’t really different because they use the same MediaTek card.
Again it’s worth noting the Intel configuration last year came with faster Wi-Fi out of the box,
but it should be possible to change this yourself for like $20.
The speakers definitely sound better on the older model, they're just not as tinny sounding
and were clearer. The latencymon results were better with last year’s version too.
Both of my laptops have the same sized 80Wh battery,
but they’re also available with smaller 60Wh options, so expect lower run time with those.
Battery life was lasting around 24% longer with the newer model in the YouTube video playback
test, likely due to the improvements that AMD has made with the newer RDNA2 integrated graphics.
Previously in the review of the newer Legion 2022 I showed that the 2021 was ahead here,
however at that time I did not consider that the older result was taken with the
screen arbitrarily at 50% brightness. I started running this test with screens
set to 200 nits at the start of this year to make things fairer, so after
retesting the older model with the same testing methodology, the newer one was clearly ahead.
Let’s check out thermals next. Although both laptops have vents towards the
back directly above the fans, the newer model doesn’t have a mesh dust filter,
so this could mean more dust gets in over time, but also that airflow is less obstructed.
Both laptops have the same performance mode options in the Vantage software,
which from lowest to highest are quiet, balance and performance modes.
Both laptops weren’t that different when just sitting there idle. Last year’s 2021
model would hit CPU thermal throttling in performance mode at 95 degrees Celsius,
and although the 2022 model wasn’t doing this, it was instead thermal throttling
on the Nvidia graphics in performance mode. It was possible to lower the temperatures on
both with a cooling pad though, the one I test with is linked below the video.
CPU clock speeds were higher in balance and performance modes with the older 2021 model,
and this was the case for GPU speeds in performance mode too, though the difference
is only very minor, and as we'll see soon, the newer model was faster in actual workloads.
We can see the reason for the temperature differences when looking at the power levels
being reached. Last year’s 2021 model would run the CPU at 45 watts, while this year’s was only
a little above 30 watts - at least in this combined CPU and GPU stress test. Although
both laptops have RTX 3060 graphics, last year’s model lowers the GPU power limit to 115 watts
when the CPU is also loaded up. The newer version doesn’t do this, which is why the GPU was thermal
throttling in performance mode, as it tries to run up to 130 watts, and more power equals more heat.
Now I do need to note that my 2022 Legion 5 shipped to me with a 130 watt VBIOS,
however Lenovo have since put out an update that boosts this up to 140 watts.
For some reason the update doesn’t go out through the Vantage software,
so unless you’re aware of this from hearing it in this video or somewhere else, you would
never know. I’ve left a link to the upgrade guide in the description below this video.
But this can only be done on the 2022 version for whatever reason. Nvidia
seems to just be keeping the 2021 3060s to 130 watts. Maybe to try and make the newer
models look slightly better to increase sales, I don’t know I’m just speculating.
I only tested a few games before and after the 140 watt update and didn’t really see any important
differences. 10 watts in most cases would only result in a difference that’s within the
margin of error range, especially if GPU thermal throttling can already happen prior to 130 watts.
The CPUs can boost much higher when the discrete graphics aren’t used,
like in Cinebench. The newer Ryzen 7 6800H is giving us an 8% boost
to single core performance, and an 11% boost to multi core performance.
If we unplug the charger and instead run purely off of battery power, the newer 6800H performs
better as well, however the gap between them is closer together now. This makes sense considering
the 6800H is only a small refresh, taking us from 7nm to 6nm, so better efficiency is expected.
Fan noise was essentially the same between them when under heavy load,
however when just sitting here right now with both of them in quiet mode doing absolutely nothing,
I can hear the fans on the older model while the newer one is silent.
It’s difficult for me to fairly compare the screens between the two because my 2022 one
came with a 1440p 165Hz screen while last year’s had a 1080p 165Hz screen,
and the 2022 Legion 5 is also available with a 1080p 165Hz screen,
and it could be the same panel as last year’s model, but I don’t know for sure.
In terms of screen response time, the newer 1440p panel was quite a bit faster. Last year’s Legion
5 has an overdrive mode available through the Vantage software, but this doesn’t actually affect
the screen response time whether or not it’s on or off. I first noted that in the review last year,
and after fully updating it for this comparison confirmed that this was still the case.
The 2021 model did get an update for advanced optimus though,
and this is available on both the 2021 and 2022 models, allowing you to disable
the integrated graphics and optimus for a speed boost in games without rebooting the
laptop. They both have a standard mux switch too, but that needs a reboot.
The faster screen is probably also why the newer 2022 model had less latency. This is the total
amount of time between a mouse click and when a gun shot fire appears on the screen in CS:GO.
Alright let’s get into some game benchmarks. In Red Dead Redemption 2 at 1080p, the 2022 model
was less than 2 FPS ahead, basically nothing and not a difference that anyone is going to notice
when playing. The differences at the higher 1440p resolution were even closer together, with the
2022 version less than 1 FPS ahead, a difference that I’d say is within the margin of error range.
Cyberpunk 2077 had a whopping 3 FPS boost with the 2022 model at 1080p,
and yes that might be sarcasm. Again at 1440p the differences were even smaller,
with the 2022 Legion 5 less than 1 FPS ahead.
Control had a bit more of a difference at 1080p, but still we’re talking about 4 FPS,
nothing major at all. For a third time, the difference at 1440p was even closer together,
just a small boost with the newer CPU and higher power limited 3060 in the 2022 Legion 5.
I also tested CS:GO because that usually cares about more CPU power,
however the 6800h was only getting us 5% more fps compared to the 5800h.
The gap wasn’t that big in content creation either. The newer laptop was ahead in Adobe
Photoshop, Adobe Premiere and DaVinci Resolve, as expected.
That small gap in games isn’t really Lenovo’s fault,
they’re just using the current CPUs and GPUs available from AMD and Nvidia.
Nvidia didn’t really refresh the RTX 3060 this year,
apart from giving it that extra 10 watts, which as we’ve seen doesn’t really do much.
Now last year you could also get the Legion 5 with RTX 3070 graphics, and this year’s
Legion 5 was refreshed with Nvidia’s newer RTX 3070 Ti, and there is actually a bit of
a performance gap between the 3070 and 3070 Ti. So if we were instead comparing a 3070
from 2021 and 3070 Ti in 2022 the gap in games would probably be bigger than what we’ve seen
in this video. But yeah, as far as the 3050, 3050 Ti or 3060 configurations of Legion 5 go,
I would expect them to perform about the same on last year’s and this year’s.
It’s a similar deal for the CPU too. AMD’s Ryzen 7 6800H is only a minor refresh compared
to the 5800H, so we’re just not seeing big performance differences this generation.
Again this could be a different story if I had an Intel 11th gen Legion 5 CPU in my 2021 model. An
Intel 12th gen Legion 5 would probably destroy it, both in single and multi core performance,
as Intel just objectively improved a lot better compared to AMD this year.
What I’m trying to say is that although the performance difference between my Legion 5’s
isn’t that big, it could be bigger with other Legion 5s. It just depends on the hardware
configuration. Alright let’s check out the price difference next. This will change over time,
so refer to those links below the video, as Lenovo do often run sales.
At the time of recording, Lenovo doesn't actually seem to sell the 2021 config
through their own website anymore. You can still pick up the 5800H with RTX 3050 Ti
from Bestbuy at $800 USD on sale though, and Walmart have the RTX 3060 version for $1200.
If we look at the 2022 model on Lenovo’s website, right now the 3050 Ti config starts for $1150 with
a 6 core Ryzen 5 6600H CPU, so I’d argue the $800 one from last year is much better value.
It seems like you’ve got to spend $300 more to get the 6800H with 3060, though you could save
$200 getting a 6600H with 3060, which will probably perform about the same in games.
Honestly with these sorts of price differences,
if you can find the older 2021 model for a good price, I’d probably just pick that.
It performs basically the same in games, so if that’s your priority,
why spend more? The build quality of the 2022 model is a bit nicer,
the battery lasts longer and performance on battery is better, and there are some other
nice minor improvements as discussed. But that’s just the thing, they’re only minor improvements.
I think you can absolutely buy last year’s model and save some money. Of course assuming you can
still find it for sale. Maybe at this point it’s not worth buying a 3060 laptop at all. In theory
we’ll have some news about RTX 4060 laptops soon, and you can find out more about that in this video
over here next. I’ve also compared the 5800H and 6800H CPUs in far more depth in this video
over here, so check that one out if you’re still having a tough time deciding. Otherwise if you
need even more info on either of these laptops, I’ll leave the full review videos over here.