I just found my new favorite gaming laptop, and it’s the Lenovo Legion 5i

After the Asus TUF Gaming A14 broke my heart, I’ve been left floundering — looking for a new favorite gaming laptop. Well, that time has now come, and after testing the OLED-laden value for money greatness of the Lenovo Legion 5i, I’ve found my new favorite gaming laptop.

If I were told that for $1,249/£1,151, you can get an RTX 5060 gaming laptop with an OLED display, impressive all-round performance, zippy frame rates and a properly good utilitarian build, I’d have thought you were mental. But here we are, at a time when gaming laptop affordability is becoming a bit of a running joke, with something that offers pure value for money.

And of course, it’s Lenovo, so you’re not just getting a good gaming experience. The strong thermal (sometimes to its own detriment with loud fans) and stellar keyboard ergonomics make this laptop a great workhorse too.

That’s not to say it’s completely without fault. The battery life is…well…there isn’t really battery life. Off the charger, you can get an hour of gaming. For general productivity, you do get better endurance for sure, but it kind of feels like if I ever looked at the laptop funny, it would go to zero. But in the world of gaming laptops, you already know the key rule: always be plugged in.

And through that lens, and for what you get for the money, this is a problem that quickly fades away. This is one of the best gaming laptops you can buy to extract maximum bang for your buck.

Lenovo Legion 5i: Cheat Sheet

• What is it? This is a mid-range gaming laptop.
• Who is it for? It’s for those who want a good quality gaming experience, but also care about value for money and a well-rounded system.
• What does it cost? You can pick one up for $1,249/£1,151.
• What do we like? For the price you pay, this system overdelivers with stronger RTX 5060 performance than its competitors, a gorgeous OLED display, stellar ergonomics and a nice amount of I/O for play and productivity.
• What don’t we like? But battery life is a letdown, and the fans can sound a bit like a jet engine under pressure.

Lenovo Legion 5i: Specs

Lenovo Legion 5i: The ups

Over the past few months of reviewing gaming laptops, I’m normally left thinking “wait, they expect me to spend HOW much for it!?” For the Legion 5i, it's the same situation, but the opposite intonation.

Real attention to detail

When you go for cheaper gaming laptops, there’s always a baked-in expectation of some serious compromises here and there — normally the build quality, the display and ergonomics. Turns out Lenovo didn’t get that memo with the Legion 5i, because this is a sleek system from all angles.

Sure, it does have some junk in the trunk (that lip proves as much), but with an aluminum lid and a durable plastic casing, this is a refined, utilitarian aesthetic that doesn’t give off gaming laptop vibes. It works well as both a system for play and a productivity powerhouse, too.

Then, you open it up, and you’re greeted by a mesmerizing 15.1-inch OLED display, which turns any game or content you’re looking at into a flash flood of color. It gets impressively bright at up to 500 nits, keeps it crispy with a WQXGA resolution, and buttery smooth at 165Hz.

Whether it’s blasting through the vivid streets of Mexico on Forza Horizon 5, or plunging to the dark depths to really see that HDR in action in Silksong, this is a gorgeous screen, and a real value driver of this system.

But then, there’s the other laptop-y things that a lot of budget systems forget. The keyboard deck itself is strong with minimal flex, and the typing ergonomics are finely balanced — every key press has a nice tactile thump with a comfortable landing. And that touchpad has none of that weird softness that can come with other lower-cost systems. It’s nice and snappy with every click.

Impressive performance across the board

Let’s tear it open. Of course, I’m testing a UK-only model here with the Intel Core i7-13650HX. But given that in the U.S., you’re getting Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX, expect the numbers to either be practically the same or slightly better on this newer chip.

Even for the older silicon I had, paired with the RTX 5060 and 16GB DDR5 RAM, you’re getting a solid mid-range workhorse for the price.

This completes the picture of being able to use this system for productivity, too. But the party’s just beginning for gaming, as the patented Coldfront cooling allows for upwards of 100W to be pushed through that GPU — making for some tasty performance.

Applying it to the games themselves, you’re getting solid 1080p 60+ FPS across the board of games that you play on this machine. Then, of course, you’ve got DLSS 4 to ramp things up even further with AI trickery. Latency is low with frame gen, and there’s practically zero ghosting around any fast-moving objects.

So what you’re left with at the end of the day is a decently powerful system for all purposes. Top job for something at this price.

Real value for money

I never thought I’d see the day in 2025 when I’d find a new gaming laptop that was fully worth the money you pay for it. There’s normally a sting of an upcharge here and there, but no. This package is worth every cent of that $1,249.

For context, the Asus TUF Gaming A14 with RTX 5060 is $1,699, and the RTX 5050-armed Alienware Aurora 16 is $1,199.

It’s one of the cheapest OLED gaming laptops you can buy, and one of the cheapest RTX 5060 systems, while continuing to take care of those ergonomic details and ensuring the configuration gets enough wattage through effective thermal management to be one of the fastest 5060 laptops you can snag.

Lenovo Legion 5i: The downs

But while the Legion 5i avoids some of the budget laptop stereotypes, there are two it does stumble on.

Bit of a jet engine

It all started when I fired up Cyberpunk 2077 for a play session, and the fans kicked up an absolute storm. I don’t have a microphone to give you exact numbers here, but for context, it’s about twice as loud as the TUF Gaming A14.

That’s surprising given that both of these systems have about the same total graphics power pumping through their veins, which to me indicates a cheaper cooling solution on Lenovo’s system. Just make sure that if you’re AAA gaming, you pick up the best gaming headset to counteract it.

Battery life = lol

Yes, I know that battery life is probably one of your lowest concerns when buying a gaming laptop. Horsepower is the critical element to the price you pay, but it’s still worth noting that in the PCMark10 gaming performance test, this didn’t do so great.

It’s gaming laptop 101 to always plug in a charger. And given the budget build, a low life on battery isn’t the most surprising thing to see from my tests. For general productivity, that goes up to about 3-4 hours. But if you do go down this route, just keep in mind that you are going to be spending long amounts of time away from an outlet.

Lenovo Legion 5i: Verdict

Finding an affordable gaming laptop is like clearing a Soulsborne boss on your first try — which can be nearly impossible. But then, by gum, Lenovo pulled it off with a real value package that goes the extra mile in paying attention to the details.

The Legion 5i is a phenomenally well-rounded package that gives you mesmerizing OLED gaming, a sleek system with plenty of I/O, solid mid-range performance and a real focus on good ergonomics.

And these override the cracks in fan noise and battery life to make this my new favorite — and a tough one to beat at that.