Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro 16 review – AMD Ryzen budget 16-inch 16:10 laptop

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Design and exterior
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By Andrei GirbeaLenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro 16 16ACH6, last updated on December 22, 2022

Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro 16 16ACH6

Summary: As an all-around full-size laptop for daily use and multitasking, the IdeaPad 5 Pro 16 is unbeatable over here in Europe at the current price levels. This should meet most expectations with the sturdy build quality and clean design, the versatile 16:10 high-resolution screen, the complete IO, the competent specs and thermal design, and the long battery life, only skimping on audio quality and a few other minor aspects. So if you're after this sort of a full-size laptop that weighs 2 kilos and offers a 16-inch screen, you can't go wrong with this one.

Our score: 4.5 / 5
Price when reviewed: from 650 EUR

THE GOOD

clean design and very good build quality for the class
high-res 16:10 IPS matte screen
multiple configurations
good all-around performance, thermals and noise levels
75Wh battery and long battery life
excellenty priced, where available

THE BAD

somewhat mushy keyboard and flimsy clickpad
mind the higher temperatures and noise-levels on the dGPU configurations
lacking audio and camera quality
limited availability in some markets

Table of Contents

Specs as reviewed – Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro 16
Design and build
Keyboard and trackpad
Screen
Hardware and performance
Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others
Battery life
Price and availability- IdeaPad 5 Pro 16
Final thoughts- IdeaPad 5 Pro 16

I was looking to get my hands on what is over here a very good value full-size laptop, the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro 16, and I was able to snag one for an excellent price this Black Friday.

This is similar to the IdeaPad 5 models that I’ve tested in recent months, but also a superior design in several crucial ways.

The construction is entirely metal, Lenovo no longer skimped on the screen and included a 16-inch 16:10 matte panel with ~100 sRGB color coverage, and internally this is built on a full-power Ryzen platform with optional Nvidia graphics, as well as a large 75 Wh battery. Throw in a USB-C charger, an excellent selection of ports, and a webcam with IR, and this is unrivaled at the ~650 EUR that I paid for my unit.

Sure, this here is only a Ryzen 5 5600H configuration, but with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of fast SSD storage, so plenty for everyday use and multitasking. Higher tier models are also available going up to a Ryzen 7 5800H processor and Nvidia GTX 1650 graphics, but the better value is in this affordable model here. Especially since the thermal design is similar between all configurations, and it allows for quieter fans and excellent temperatures on the configurations without a dGPU, such as this one.

Now, there are still some aspects that might steer you towards something else, such as the poor audio quality, the only average inputs, and the fact that this is a full-size 16-inch computer, so not necessarily an ideal travel companion. But if you’re OK with these, the IdeaPad 5 Pro 16 could be your next laptop, as long as available and competitively priced in your region.

Specs as reviewed – Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro 16

	Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro 16 16ACH6
Screen	16-inch 2.5K 2560 x 1600 px IPS, 16:10, 120 Hz, non-touch, matte, Lenovo LEN8A93 panel
Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 5600H, 6C/12T (up to Ryzen 9 5900HX, 8C/16T)
Video	AMD Radeon Vega 7, 7 CUs, 1.8 GHz, with optional Nvidia GTX and RTX graphics
Memory	16 GB DDR4-3200 (soldered)
Storage	1x 512 GB SSD (SK Hynix) – single M.2 2280 slot
Connectivity	Wireless 6 (Mediatek MT921), Bluetooth 5.1
Ports	2x USB-A 3.1 gen1, 2x USB-C 3.1 gen2 with data, DP, charging (??), HDMI 1.4b, SD card reader, headphone/mic
Battery	75 Wh, 95 W USB-C charger
Size	356 mm or 14.02” (w) x 251 mm or 9.88” (d) x 17.5 mm or .69” (h)
Weight	1.92 kg (4.23 lb), .42 kg (.92 lbs) power brick, EU version
Extras	white backlit keyboard, 2x 2W stereo speakers, HD webcam with IR

There’s also a more compact and lighter IdeaPad 5 Pro 14-inch that you could consider if you plan to bring your laptop to work/school every day. That’s not as competitively priced, though, only gets a 56 Wh battery, and a more basic single-fan thermal design. For a dual-fan 14-inch design, you’d have to upgrade to the more expensive Yoga Slim 7 Pro.

Update: A more recent generation of the 2023 Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5 and 5i lineups is available in the meantime.

Design and build

You’ll know what to expect from this IdeaPad 5 Pro in terms of design if you’ve seen an IdeaPad laptop from recent years: simple looks, clean branding, and plenty of stickers on the arm-rest, that I’d recommend to peel off as soon as you get the computer.

Lenovo does offer the series in two colors option, this standard silver variant that I got here, and a darker-gray model. I haven’t seen that one in person, but it looks more interesting from the pictures than this one, which I personally find rather bland. That darker model will show off smudges and finger-oil far easier than this silver variant, though, so will require extra maintenance. Plus, I’d also expect that to show eventual scratches and dents easier as well.

Compared to the regular IdeaPad 5 models, the 5 Pro is entirely made out of metal and feels somewhat sturdier and more premium to the touch. I’d say the construction and overall quality are on par with the Yoga/IdeaPad Slim 7 lineups, with the only material that looks a bit cheaper being the textured plastic used for the bezel around the screen.

Speaking of, Lenovo puts a 16-inch 16:10 display on this laptop, taller than the 16:9 panels previously available in this mid-range segment. That allows for extra screen real-estate and somewhat smaller bezels. Don’t expect an ultra-compact format here, though, as you can tell from the pictures. I do appreciate that there’s a camera at the top, with included IR for signing into Windows and a set of microphones right next by.

Now, you should also be aware that this IdeaPad 5 Pro 16 is not an ultraportable product, due to its overall footprint and the total weight of almost 2 kilos, plus .4 kilos for the charger. At the same time, considering the sturdy build and everything inside this laptop, this is nonetheless a fairly-balanced product in terms of overall size, thickness, and weight.

As far as the ergonomics go, grippy rubber feet on the bottom allow for good stability on the desk and sturdy hinges keep the screen in place as set-up, and allow to pick it up and adjust it with a single hand, as well as push it back to almost 180-degrees.

I’m not a fan of the sharp lip around the interior chassis though, that can bite into your wrists in certain cases. There’s also an always-on light in the power button, but at least it’s very dim and hardly noticeable even in a dark room.

The status LEDs are on the side, though, where you’ll also find an almost complete set of ports, with two USB-Cs, two USB-As, a full-size HDMI port, an SD card reader, and an audio jack.

There’s no lock or Thunderbolt support, but the USB-C ports both allow for data, charging, and video (further look into this, though, a few users have reported that video via USB-C is not working properly on their unit). There’s no fingerprint reader either, and an SD card only fits in halfway into the reader.

Keyboard and trackpad

The inputs on this 5 Pro lineup are borrowed for the regular IdeaPad 5 series, and that means they’re OK, but do not excel in any way by today’s standards.

The layout is alright, with a full-size deck of main keys, smaller and still well spaced-out arrow keys, and a narrower format for the NumPad section. The keycaps are a rather ordinary kind of plastic, and not as smooth or nice to the touch as what Lenovo offers on their higher-tier products.

As far as the typing experience goes, this is a shallow typer with mushy feedback. I’m fine with it since I’m already used to this sort of keyboards from other ultrabooks, but even for me, the experience is not as reliable or fast as on other keyboards. Furthermore, if you’re coming from a different kind of laptop it might take you a while to get accustomed to this one. At the same time, this is a very quiet typer, including for the Space key.

This keyboard is also backlit, with two intensity levels to choose from. The LEDs are bright enough and do their job, but plenty of light creeps out from underneath the keycaps. The illumination doesn’t seem to time-out either, unlike on other IdeaPad models – there might be a setting that I’ve missed, will look into it. I also appreciate that the layout includes physical indicators for CapsLock and NumLock.

The clickpad is larger than on other Yoga/Ideapad models and felt alright with daily use during my time with this laptop. It’s plastic, though, so not as smooth to the touch as other implementations, and is also flimsy, as it rattles with firmer taps. The clicks are clunky and noisy as well.

Lenovo also aligns this under the Space key, so to the left-side of the arm-rest, and that might lead to occasional miss-clicks or swaps with the palm of your left hand. I haven’t noticed any during my time with this laptop, but I only have skinny averagely sized hands.

As for biometrics, there’s no finger-sensor on this unit, but you do get an IR camera with Hello support, and it works well. This might be an extra option in some regions and not be available with all configurations, though.

Screen

The screen is one of the major selling points of this IdeaPad 5 Pro 16 series, as it’s a 16:10 format with a high-res IPS matte panel.

What we have here is a 2.5K IPS panel with 2560 x 1600 px resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 350+ nits of brightness, fair blacks and contrast, and almost 100% sRGB color coverage.

This is well-balanced for every use, multitasking, and work/school apps, but it’s not wide-gamut and it might not be bright enough for outdoor use or bright office environments. Blacks are also a little washed out at high brightness levels.

Here’s what we got in our tests, with a X-Rite i1 Display Pro sensor:

Panel HardwareID: Lenovo LEN8A93 (LEN160WQXGA);
Coverage: 97.4% sRGB, 71.4% AdobeRGB, 73.3% DCI P3;
Measured gamma: 2.12;
Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 368.54 cd/m2 on power;
Min brightness in the middle of the screen: 2.72 cd/m2 on power;
Contrast at max brightness: 1239:1;
White point: 6100 K;
Black on max brightness: 0.29 cd/m2;
PWM: 25K and <50% brightness;
Refresh rate: 120 Hz;
Response: 16 ms GtG (source).

The panel can be further calibrated from the default settings and proved uniform once updated. We also noticed very little light bleeding around the edges.

It’s also worth mentioning that this panel gets very dim on the lowest brightness settings, something to consider if you use your laptop at night, in the dark. As per NBC’s tests, PWM was used at sub 50% brightness levels at a 25KHz frequency on their unit tested around August 2021, which is the kind that nobody will actually notice during use, not even those ultra-sensitive to flickering.

I’ll also add that with the 120Hz refresh rate and middling response times at around 16 ms GtG, this panel is fairly competitive for gaming as well, even if there’s no sync technology. Our configuration is the Vega-only variant, so not much in terms of gaming abilities, but there are also some variants with entry-level Nvidia dGPUs that you could consider for occasional gaming in your spare time.

Hardware and performance

Our test model is an entry-specced configuration of the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro 16ACH6, with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H processor, 16 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM, 512 GB of fast SSD storage, and Radeon Vega 7 graphics embedded into the AMD APU.

Our review unit is a retail model bought locally, running on the software available as of late November 2021 (BIOS GSCN29WW, Lenovo Vantage 3.9.23.0).

Specs-wise, this generation of the IdeaPad 5 Pro is based on the full-power 2021 AMD Ryzen 5000 H45 hardware platform, with options starting with the 6C/12T Ryzen 5 5600H processor – on this unit, and going up to the 8C/16T Ryzen 7 5900HX.

Graphics are handled by the Radeon Vega chip with 7 EUs and frequencies of up to 1.8 GHz in the 5600H. Configurations with either GTX 1650 35+W or RTX 3050 35+W dGPUs are also available in this chassis if you’re looking for superior graphics performance. This review goes over a Ryzen 7 + 3050 configuration in a similarly sized laptop, if interested in the kind of performance available with those higher specs.

The memory is DDR4-3200, soldered on the motherboard, and tops up at 16 GB. It’s not upgradable, so better go with a 16 GB variant.

The storage on our configuration is a fast 512 GB SK Hynix drive. This can be upgraded, and there’s a single M.2 2280 SSD slot on this laptop.

Accessing the components is a basic task, you just need to pop out the back panel that’s held in place by a handful of Torx screws. There are no warranty stickers over the screws on this unit.

As far as the software goes, everything can be controlled through the Lenovo Vantage app, which offers access to the power profiles, keyboard customization options, system updates, battery settings, etc. I find this unified implementation one of the better system control apps in this segment.

There are three performance/thermal profiles to choose from Battery Saving, Intelligent Cooling, and Extreme Performance, and you can switch between them by pressing Fn+Q.

I’ve kept my unit on Intelligent Cooling most of the time and only switched to Extreme Performance for benchmarks and gaming. The fans rest completely silent with light use on Intelligent Cooling, but quietly kick in with multitasking.

The next part of this article goes over this laptop’s performance in demanding loads, benchmarks, and games.

We start by testing the CPU’s sustained performance by running the Cinebench R15 benchmark for 15+ times in a loop, with 2-3 seconds delay between each run, on the Performance mode.

On the Extreme Performance profile, the Ryzen 5 5600H processor in our unit peaks at 65W and then quickly stabilizes at 54+ W, with clock speeds of ~3.8 GHz, temperatures of 95+ degrees Celsius, and fan-noise levels of around 41-42 dB. The CPU runs at full blast in this laptop, but also at very high temperatures.

On Intelligent Cooling, the system limits the fans at around 40 dB at head-level, and the CPU stabilizes at 45W with clocks around 3.6 GHz and temperatures in the mid to high 80 degrees C. This is a better-balanced profile, and returns only 2-3% lower scores in this multi-core test.

You can also opt for the Battery Saving mode, with greatly limit the power, so we didn’t test it here.

Finally, the same Ryzen 5 processor runs at 35W on the Intelligent Cooling mode with the laptop unplugged, which is excellent power and performance for a portable design. All these findings are detailed in the chart below.

To put these in perspective, here’s how this Ryzen 5 5600H implementation fares in the Cinebench loop test against other AMD/Intel mid-tier and portable 14-16 inch laptops. This is competitive against other 6C models, about 20% slower than the 8C Ryzen 7 5800H implementations, and a major step-up over the 4C Intel 11th gen H35 models.

We then ran the 3DMark CPU profile test, where the R5-5600H in this chassis scored very well.

We then went ahead and further verified our findings with the more taxing Cinebench R23 loop test and Blender- Classroom

We also ran our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time, and this unit easily passed it, which means there are no significant performance losses that might be caused by thermal throttling on this laptop.

Next, here are some benchmark results. We ran the entire suite of tests and benchmarks on the Extreme Performance profile on this Ryzen 5 5600H configuration, with the screen set on FHD+ resolution, for consistency with other laptops tested in the past. Here’s what we got.

3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 3208 (Graphics – 3475, Physics – 20002, Combined – 1132);
3DMark 13 – Nigh Raid: 14019 (Graphics – 14725, CPU – 11026);
3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 1266 (Graphics – 1114, CPU – 5698);
Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 2237;
Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 671;
Handbrake 1.3.3 (4K to 1080p encode): 35.75 average fps;
PassMark10: Rating: 5408 (CPU: 18558, 3D Graphics: 2431, Disk: 29204);
PCMark 10: 6214 (E – 10839, P – 9681, DCC – 6207);
GeekBench 5.3.1 64-bit: Single-Core: 1414, Multi-core: 6353;
CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 1601 cb, CPU Single Core 225 cb;
CineBench R20 (best run): CPU 3680 cb, CPU Single Core 535 cb;
CineBench R23 (best run): CPU 9465 cb, CPU Single Core 1368 cb;
x265 HD Benchmark 64-bit: 41.13 fps;

And some workstation benchmarks, on the same Extreme Performance profile:

Blender 2.90 – BMW Car scene- CPU Compute: 4m 24s;
Blender 2.90 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 11m 26s;
SPECviewerf 2020 – 3DSMax: 15.14;
SPECviewerf 2020 – Catia: 10.31;
SPECviewerf 2020 – Creo: 27.73;
SPECviewerf 2020 – Energy: .8;
SPECviewerf 2020 – Maya: 47.55;
SPECviewerf 2020 – Medical: 8.3;
SPECviewerf 2020 – SNX: 32.58;
SPECviewerf 2020 – SW: 24.75;
V-Ray 5 Benchmark: CPU – 6630, GPU CUDA – 156.

These are good results for a mobile Ryzen 5 5600H implementation, made possible by the high CPU power settings which also allow the Vega iGPU to run at full blast all the time. Of course, that doesn’t mean much in performance, not compared to the Iris Xe chips in the current Intel i7 processors, and definitely when compared to even an entry-level modern dGPU such as the Nvidia RTX 3050.

If you’ll opt for an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H configuration with Vega graphics, expect up to 20% extra performance in multi-threaded CPU loads and up to 10% extra in GPU loads, thanks to the extra EUs and higher clocks of the Vega 8 chip. For everyday use and multitasking, the Ryzen 5 configuration should do just fine.

As far as the potential gaming experience goes, well, don’t expect much. However, if you’re OK with lowering the resolution to 1200p and the graphics details to low, you can expect 60+ fps in older titles, and 15-35 fps in the more recent AAA games. Demanding games are a challenge for this sort of hardware. I haven’t run all the tests here, but you can find framerates in a couple of titles in this review of the Ryzen 7 5800H Yoga Slim 7.

The logs down below show the CPU/GPU clocks and temperatures in a couple of games, on the Extreme Performance profile.

The Ryzen hardware runs somewhere in the 35-45W of power between the tested titles, with the GPU maintaining its maximum clock of 1.8 GHz all the time. As for the temperatures, we measured between 70 to 85 C on the CPU and 60-65 C on the GPU in the tested games.

Lifting up the back of the laptop from the desk in order to improve the airflow into the fans helps shed between 1 and 5 degrees of the components. Expect an even greater impact on the configurations with a dGPU.

You could also opt to run games on the Intelligent Cooling mode, which slightly lowers the fan noise with barely any impact on the temperatures and performance.

Finally, I’ll also mention that you can run games while unplugged with almost the same performance as when the laptop is connected to the wall, and expect 1.5 hours of runtime.

Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others

The thermal module in this laptop is designed to cope with the Ryzen H hardware and a 35+W GTX/RTX dGPU, thus oversized for this configuration that only relies on the Vega integrated graphics.

As a result, both the internal and the external temperatures are excellent on this configuration, with low noise levels in most loads.

The fans are not noticeably choked on this Ryzen 5 configuration, with the laptop sitting on a desk. However, that will most likely change with the dGPU configurations, where the thermal module would need to cope with a higher combined power envelope and higher internal temperatures.

As far as the noise goes, with demanding combined loads (games, video editing, etc) the fans spin at 38-42 dB at head-level on the Extreme Performance profile and between 34-40 dB on Intelligent Cooling. At the same time, reviews of the Ryzen 7 + GTX 1650 configuration mention up to 52 dB of fan noise in combined loads, so make sure to further research those dGPU configurations if interested.

Back to our unit, the fans run quieter with general use and multitasking, normally at under 32 dB on both profiles. Furthermore, they shut off entirely with video streaming and light use, allowing for a silent experience. I also haven’t noticed any coil whine or electronic noises on this unit.

*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Intelligent Cooling Mode, fans at 0-32 dB
*Gaming – playing Far Cry 5 for 30 minutes, Extreme Performance Mode, fans at 41-42 dB

For connectivity, there’s the latest-gen WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 with a MediaTek chip on this unit. It performed well with our setup and the signal and performance remained strong at 30-feet from the router, with obstacles in between.

The audio is handled by a set of stereo speakers that fire through grills on the underside. They’re placed on the sides, and the rounded shape of the D-panel allows the sound to bounce off the table and prevents you from easily covering and muffling the grills when using the computer on the lap.

The sound quality isn’t much at all, though, with low volumes of up to 70 dB at head level, and very little base. These speakers are my number one nit with this series. What’s funny is that the 14-inch IdeaPad 5 Pro gets up-firing speakers and slightly better audio. Not this one, though.

The camera quality isn’t much either, but at least there’s a working camera placed in the right place, at the top of the screen, and flanked by some decent microphones. IR support for Windows Hello is included as well.

Battery life

There’s a 75 Wh battery inside this IdeaPad 5 Pro 16-inch series, above average in size for the class. The screen runs at 120 Hz all the time, though, which slightly impacts the runtimes. For some reason, FN+R doesn’t work on this laptop, but you can switch over to 60 Hz manually, from display settings.

Here’s what we got on this unit, with the screen set at around 120-nits (60% brightness).

12.5 W (~6+ h of use) – 120Hz, text editing in Google Drive, Intelligent + Better Battery Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
8.3 W (9+ h of use) – 120Hz, 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Intelligent + Better Battery Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
6.5 W (11+ h of use) – 60Hz, 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Intelligent + Better Battery Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
8 W (9+ h of use) – 120Hz, Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Intelligent + Better Battery Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
6.2 W (12+ h of use) – 60Hz, Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Intelligent + Better Battery Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
14 W (~4-6 h of use) – 120Hz, browsing in Edge, Intelligent + Better Performance Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON.

These are above-average runtimes.

The laptop ships with a 95W charger that plugs in via USB-C. It’s a dual-piece design with an averagely sized brick, but long and thick cables that add up to about .42 kilos in weight. A full charge takes about 2.5 hours, with quick charging at the beginning.

Price and availability- IdeaPad 5 Pro 16

The Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro 16 is not worldwide available at this point.

Over here in Europe, this Ryzen 5 + 16 GB RAM + 512 GB SSD configuration goes for around 650 EUR, which is very competitive for what this is. The same starts at 750 EUR in Germany, but comes with Windows preinstalled, while over here it does not.

Updating to Ryzen 7 and 1 TB of storage will set you back around 850-900 EUR, and there are also configurations with a GTX 1650 dGPU selling for around 950 EUR. Newer models with an RTX 3050 dGPU are also listed in some regions such as the UK, at around 1000 GBP.

At the same time, this IdeaPad 5 Pro 16 series appears as discontinued on Lenovo’s US, UK, and Canadian websites, at least at the time of this article. You can find it from various other stores, though, such as BestBuy, Microsoft Store, Amazon, or other local venues, so follow this link for updated prices and configurations in your region.

Final thoughts- IdeaPad 5 Pro 16

As an all-around full-size laptop for daily use and multitasking, the IdeaPad 5 Pro 16 is unbeatable over here in Europe at the current price levels.

This ticks important boxes such as the sturdy build quality and clean design, the versatile 16:10 high-resolution screen, the complete IO, the competent specs and thermal design, and the long battery life, only skimping on audio quality and inputs to some degree.

I’d primarily look into these configurations without a dGPU, such as this one tested here, as the better balance of everyday performance and thermal/fan noise. You are significantly sacrificing the GPU and gaming performance this way, though.

I’d also make sure a full-size laptop with this sort of specs and weight is what you’re looking for, as there are also some lighter and less powerful models to consider as well if you’d be OK with a U-type processor and/or smaller battery. Up to you.

The competition in the 16-inch segment also includes many other interesting options, of which we’ve reviewed the Acer Swift X 16, the Asus VivoBook Pro 16X or the Dell Inspiron 16, as well as the higher-tier and more expensive Acer ConceptD 3 16 or LG Gram 16. All struggle to match the overall value per money of this 16-inch IdeaPad Pro series, though.

Anyway, this wraps up our review of the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro 16 16ACH6, and I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions, and feedback down below, so get in touch.

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Review by: Andrei Girbea
Andrei Girbea is a Writer and Editor-in-Chief here at Ultrabookreview.com. I write about mobile technology, laptops and computers in general. I've been doing it for more than 15 years now. I'm a techie with a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering. I mostly write reviews and thorough guides here on the site, with some occasional columns and first-impression articles.

32 Comments

Aren

November 30, 2021 at 7:51 am

In my country Ideapad 5 Pro costs almost the same as entry level Legion 5 Pro. Legion is heavier.
Can you tell me if in "office" workload Ideapad is quieter and cooler than Legion 5 Pro?

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  November 30, 2021 at 8:52 am
  
  both are quiet and cool with light use. You can't really compare those two series. You're probably looking at a top-specced IdeaPad 5 Pro with a dGPU? If yes, be aware that will run louder and hotter under load than what I have here. Should still be fine with daily use, though.
  
  Reply
  - Juan
    
    December 9, 2021 at 8:04 am
    
    How about multitasking between email office (spreadset and word), onedrive, and youtube music, how many hours will it last?
  - Andrei Girbea
    
    December 9, 2021 at 9:48 am
    
    An average of our browsing and text editing estimations
sowen76635

November 30, 2021 at 11:19 am

Nice review thanks. Very similar in terms of build to this laptop YOGA Slim 7 Pro 16 available in Europe right now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zunHkHAp7GE

Reply
JJ

November 30, 2021 at 2:57 pm

Thanks for the review, especially for the explainations on heat and noise.
Did you notice screen wobble? Other reviewer mention wobble even during typing (which is a No-Go)

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  November 30, 2021 at 3:09 pm
  
  Not really. It wobbles if you poke it or for a few seconds after you move the laptop, but it stabilizes very quickly. I'm not seeing any wobbling or movement as I'm typing right now with the laptop on the desk.
  
  Reply
Stewart Oliver

November 30, 2021 at 10:59 pm

Purchased a Lenovo Idea Pad 5 Ryzen 7 (15.6) which proved to be a disaster after 3 months. On closing the laptop, the black casing near the left hinge came apart with black pieces coming apart. Although laptop worked I couldn’t close it anymore. The Lenovo company refused to honour the warranty saying that the laptop was abused.
“Lenovo guarantee claims that the product is free from defects in materials and workmanship under use.”

I am not impressed with laptop and Lenovo. I do not recommend this product.

Reply
Kalumba

December 1, 2021 at 2:01 pm

Hey Andrei, you guys haven't reviewed the Thinkbook 16p yet. I think it's quite a compelling laptop as it's basically a professional version of the Legion Slim 7. Would love to see your deep dive on it.

Reply
- Moazzam
  
  March 24, 2022 at 3:40 am
  
  very good point. i was also impressed with thinkbook 16p, it was few hundred usd expensive, but the down was the screen refresh rate was 90 or probably 60. and i still think the screen seems bit more beautiful that ideapad 5 16 pro. but this is my personal opinion. there was no hdmi port in that laptop which was again a let down. hence it was not about money, the screen refresh rate and the missing port, i dropped that machine and bought the ideapad 5 pro 16, which i am happy about.
  
  Reply
Martin

December 8, 2021 at 6:32 pm

Have you or anyone who has this laptop made the USB-C docking function work? I have 2 monitors with USB-C docking and this laptop only says "your display connection might be limited" on both of them. I even exchanged the laptop but the issue persists across Windows 10, Windows 11, different versions of AMD drivers etc. I even took it to Lenovo certified service center and they confirmed it doesn't work with their hardware either.

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  December 8, 2021 at 7:09 pm
  
  I don't have any experience with USB-C docks. What is the limitation in your case?
  
  Reply
  - Maritn
    
    December 8, 2021 at 10:01 pm
    
    What do you mean by limitation? I have BenQ EW3270U and Philips 328P6VUBREB and none of them work over USB-C with the laptop…
  - Andrei Girbea
    
    December 8, 2021 at 10:11 pm
    
    Got it. I no longer have the laptop around to restest my USB-C connectivity. Do these monitors work with the same USB-C cable with other laptops?
  - Martin
    
    December 8, 2021 at 11:09 pm
    
    Yeah they do, even with smartphones! It also works with Lenovo Yoga Slim 7, which is Lenovo as well and also AMD Ryzen based so I don't see any reason it shouldn't work.
  - Andrei Girbea
    
    December 9, 2021 at 9:44 am
    
    I looked around and there seem to be other reports as well with the USB-C port not working well on DP: the monitor lights up, but then it turns off. Couldn't find an explanation. Have you tried with both USB-C ports, the one in the back and the one in the middle?
    
    Also, no need to submit a comment multiple times, just wait for me to get it in order to approve it or reply!
Martin

December 9, 2021 at 10:14 am

Sorry for multiple comments I'm in a place with bad connection so I wasn't sure it made it through… Yeah tried both but according to PSREF only the middle one has DP.

Actually you're right at the beginning in one out of 100 tries it would turn on, display something in like 1024×768 instead of 4k and turn off with the error mentioned above. But never since.

Reply
Michael

December 16, 2021 at 5:47 pm

Hello Andrei, thank you for the detailed review of this model.

I've become somewhat weary of dividing my digital experience between a desktop PC, a beefier Pavillion gaming laptop because of the GPU and my favorite lighter and cool but ageing Matebook D14 with Ryzen graphics.

I want my next laptop to be the only PC I use for everything, take it with me everywhere or dock it with a monitor on a desk, and no longer jump between computers. I want something similar to my Matebook D14 in 14" size, 1,5kg weight, IPS display quality, great battery life and quick USB-C charging but with better performance and the Ideapad 5 Pro 14 seems to fulfill most of these requirements.

Right now there are two models of this Lenovo Ideapad 5 Pro selling in my country, one with AMD Ryzen 7 5800U – RAM: 16 GB – 512 GB SSD PCIe – AMD Radeon Graphics at 900€ and another Intel Core i7-1165G7 – RAM: 16 GB – 1 TB SSD – NVIDIA GeForce MX450 at 1200€

I wish I could find a model with 32GB of RAM but it's so incredibly rare. Anyway, Windows 10/11 does a decent job of caching to disk when needed without noticeable slowdown.

Do you think the i7-1165G7 + MX450 combo is worth the extra 300€?
I do some image editing for scientific publications (figures, graphical abstracts), work with GIS software and might require some light video editing.

The only game I really have interest is Halo Infinite, which runs on low settings at 35FPS on the GTX1050 3GB, but I don't really want to carry a bulky laptop around just because of 1 game, so screw if I can't use my laptop for games. I might as well just build cheap a desktop PC and use it like a console.

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  December 17, 2021 at 11:47 am
  
  The Intel+MX configuration is better balanced, but I don't think is worth that kind of extra. Sure, Graphics-wise, the MX is significantly more capable, so the question is whether the 4C i7 is enough for your needs.
  
  Have you also considered something like e a VivoBook Pro 14X or maybe an Acer Swift X 14, if available? AMD and more capable graphics, plus better cooling than the IdeaPad 5 Pro 14 (which is different from the 16 here).
  
  If possible, I'd also consider waiting for next-gen hardware updates early next year, with potential availability in stores around end of Q1. You'll get more capable Intel Alder Lake platforms and better balanced AMD with similar CPU power, but improved Vega graphics.
  
  Reply
  - Michael
    
    December 18, 2021 at 2:18 am
    
    Hi, thank you for these suggestions.
    
    I wasn't aware of the Asus Vivobook Pro 14X, seems to fulfill pretty much all my requirements (except USB-C is data transfer only – I'd like my laptop to charge with the same USB-C charger of the smartphone so as to avoid another power brick to carry around).
    
    However, it is priced similarly to the ASUS ROG Zephyrus 14, which I thought was ASUS prime offering for this kind of segment. Can you recommend what would be the best choice between the two?
    
    And yes, I'd probably do better waiting for the next-gen, but I wouldn't mind getting a nice discount on a current model if possible. Right now
    
    VivoBook Pro 14X is 1350€ w/ 150€ discount (Ryzen 7 5800H; 1 TB; 16 GB; RTX 3050)
    
    Zephyrus G14 is 1274€ w/ 225€ discount (Ryzen 9 5900HS; 512GB; 16GB; RTX 3050 Ti)
  - Andrei Girbea
    
    December 18, 2021 at 1:27 pm
    
    The G14 is better value imo unless you want that OLED display with 100% DCI-P3 on the VivoBook. It's a better performer with better cooling and a better keyboard. It's also a bit thicker and heavier, though, so up to you. No need for the Ryzen 9, if you can find the Ryzen 7 for a little cheaper.
- Geo
  
  January 13, 2022 at 10:57 pm
  
  I bought 4 of these laptops for me and some friends. The one with GPU (1650) seemed to spin up the fan quite often, but you can actually game on it. Probably I would have disabled the Nvidia card in the bios if I had kept this one for myself.
  
  There were variations in the quality of the keyboard too, the one similar with the reviewed one (5600h + 120hz display) had the worse keyboard, while the other 3 had a better version.
  
  In the end I kept the cheapest one for myself, the 600 euros (black Friday price) with 5600h and 60hz display. To my eyes, the display looks pretty much the same as the 120hz version, at least for my usage. I'm also satisfied with the touchpad, once set up at the highest sensitivity can be used enjoyably (But yeah, when you need to click instead of tap it's bad).
  
  There are some irritating issues though – there is no real sleep option, you have to do connected standby sleep, uses some 20-30% of the battery overnight.
  
  I don't care much for the aluminum case – my plasticky latitudes and ThinkPads were much nicer to touch.
  
  I didn't discover how to stop charging the battery at 80% or 90% … Lenovo offers a threshold of 50-60% so maybe the microcontroller has this option …
  
  The bios is very locked down … But there's a guy who discovered a way to unlock de bios to customize the device further … I didn't venture there yet.
  
  As the reviewer said, the display is the real hero – it's almost as two fullhd displays rotated and squished together … Great for work.
  
  Reply
  - Andrei Girbea
    
    January 14, 2022 at 11:34 am
    
    thanks for the feedback.
  - Alex
    
    May 11, 2022 at 10:52 am
    
    Hello Geo,
    
    Thanks for the information, I have a 5800h 60hz without dGPU for just 750$, dirt cheap from Microsoft store. (82L5000XUS)
    Could you please let us know details of your four configs? US versions?
    
    About the keyboard difference, Is there any visible difference to determine if mine is the good one or not?
    
    And finally, is there any difference between 60hz and 120hz in terms of colors or contrast when you look side by side? I don't care about response time.
    
    Thanks for your time.
Armin

May 13, 2022 at 10:04 pm

Hi. I am choosing a laptop between this model with AMD 5800h/gtx1650/16gb ram/512gb ssd/2k60hz 16inch 100% srgb screen/75wh battery and 2021 Asus tuf f15 with Intel 11400h/rtx 3050ti/16gb ram/1tb ssd/fhd144hz 15.6inch 60% srgb display/90wh battery.
I really like this model because of its metal body and thin build and also the screen quality, resolution, and aspect ratio are way better for my work. but I've searched the net for problems with Asus and Lenovo laptops and it seems like a more considerable portion of users are satisfied with Asus laptops compared to Lenovo. and also it looks like Asus laptops tend to work for more years.
I've had 2 Asus laptops and they were very reliable in my experience so my opinion is kind of biased towards the Asus. What do you think is Lenovo that much unreliable?

Reply
- Moazzam
  
  July 14, 2022 at 2:44 am
  
  go with Asus 120hz screen 2.5k, with vivobook 16. you will be fine. dont spend more than 1200 usd.
  
  Reply
Ron

June 30, 2022 at 6:19 am

I have this laptop. Fans are annoying. Even if I use the lowest power mode in Lenovo Vantage fans are constantly pulsing when doing simple web browsing, few minutes of silence then they rev up for 1-2 minutes and so on.
During the whole time the task manager shows that CPU usage is around 2-3%. This is ridiculous.

Reply
- Moazzam
  
  July 14, 2022 at 2:43 am
  
  i tell you the trick. if you are not playing games, disable the ext graphic chip, from device manager, and then you toggle on and off, if you play games. this is for your mode is Fn+Q to Normal, then you temp will be some where remain around 55c, though it will take jump to 80+, but it will stay consistent on 55 avg. And if you make your mode on power saving then the avg temp would be 50.
  Enjoy.
  
  Reply
  - Ron
    
    July 14, 2022 at 10:55 am
    
    This laptop does not have additional GPU, only integrated Vega GPU. Average temperature in Idle is 60.
- Nishan
  
  January 28, 2023 at 3:00 pm
  
  How you feel about this laptop overall.. Let me know. I am planning to purchase this one
  
  Reply
Ron

July 14, 2022 at 11:56 am

Hi

I have the same laptop but my unit has very different behavior. For example lets take your graph "Daily – youtubue".
You have average core clock 1700, in my case it is 3000. Your graph shows that typically clock is low and from time to time it goes up. In my case it is 3000 all the time.
You have average temp 45, I have around 55.

Do you have any idea why my CPU seems to have high clock all the time?
Maybe there was some update to BIOS between the time of your review and now that caused this change.

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  July 14, 2022 at 12:01 pm
  
  A more recent BIOS could be the explanation. I also don't remember if this was running on a fresh Windows install or it came with a default WIndows and the pre-loaded Lenovo stuff. That might effect the behaviour as well.
  
  Reply

Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro 16 review – AMD Ryzen budget 16-inch 16:10 laptop

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