Most gaming laptops still look the part—loud, heavy, and flashy. The Lenovo Legion 5i doesn’t. It feels like a machine designed for people who want performance without having to announce it. Subtle on the outside, uncompromising on the inside.
The one I’ve been using is the 15-inch Legion 5i OLED (15IAX10) with an Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX, NVIDIA RTX 5070 Laptop GPU (115W TGP), 32GB RAM, and 1TB SSD. That’s a mouthful, I know, but the specs matter because they make this laptop one of a kind. a high-wattage HX CPU, a full-powered laptop GPU, and a 165Hz OLED screen in something that weighs just under 2kg—there’s really nothing else out there quite like it.
Of course, the Legion 5i comes in multiple configurations. You can order one with an IPS panel, or swap in different GPUs, or scale memory and storage to fit your budget. But I’ve found this particular setup—the OLED, the HX processor, the 5070 at 115W—to be the one that makes the most sense if you want something versatile, powerful, and future-proof enough for both creative work and gaming.
Design & Build
The Legion 5i looks nothing like what most people imagine when they think of a gaming laptop. Finished in Eclipse Black, with a smooth, minimalist design, it almost feels corporate. The Legion branding on the lid is subtle, not glowing or oversized. It’s the kind of laptop you can place on a meeting table without worrying about looking out of place. I’ve carried it into a client discussion and no one raised an eyebrow.
That doesn’t mean it lacks personality. The keyboard has per-key RGB lighting, but you can set it to plain white when you want to keep things professional. Later at night, you can bring the colors back. I found myself switching modes depending on where I was. It’s a small thing, but it underlines the dual nature of this machine: office-ready by day, gaming rig by night.
At 1.9kg, it lands in that sweet spot between portability and practicality. It’s heavier than ultra-slim laptops, sure, but not by much. The difference is that here, the extra millimeters in thickness and grams in weight go toward better thermals. Ultra-slims with similar GPUs often throttle under load; the Legion 5i manages heat better, letting it sustain higher wattage for longer. That’s where the balance lies—you don’t get the thinnest body, but you get consistent performance. And honestly, that’s what matters if you’re buying a machine for both serious work and play.
Performance & Display
This is where the Legion 5i really sets itself apart. The Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX isn’t just another laptop processor—it’s an HX-class chip designed for sustained wattage. Unlike the lower-power 255H (which runs at 28W), the HX variant is rated at 55W with higher turbo ceilings, you’re looking at around 50–60% faster multi-core performance. compared to its H-series sibling. That might sound like numbers on a chart, but in daily use, it means something real: smoother 4K video scrubbing, faster exports, fewer slowdowns when juggling multiple creative apps.
The NVIDIA RTX 5070 Laptop GPU is just as important, and Lenovo made the decision to run it at a full 115W TGP. That matters. A lot of laptops in this range cap their GPUs at 80 or 100 watts to keep heat under control, but the downside is obvious once you stress them for more than a few minutes. The Legion, with its stronger cooling system, allows the GPU to hold higher clocks for longer. That extra wattage translates directly into better frame rates and steadier performance, whether you’re gaming or rendering. It’s still a mobile GPU, not a desktop card, but at this wattage it’s as close to “full-powered” as you’ll find in a laptop this size.
In my testing, Assassin’s Creed Shadows hit around 90 FPS at 2K on High, while Stellar Blade regularly ran between 150 and 170 FPS on Very High. With DLSS 4 and Multi-Frame Generation (MFG) enabled, a lot of AAA titles pushed past 100 FPS with ease. That’s when the 165Hz OLED panel starts to feel properly alive. You don’t need to hit 165 FPS to see benefits from a 165Hz screen, but the closer you get to matching refresh rate with actual frame rate, the smoother it feels. Breaking past the 100 FPS mark is where the difference becomes really noticeable, and this setup gets you there.
MFG itself is a fascinating feature, though not flawless. It uses AI to generate frames between traditionally rendered ones, which boosts perceived smoothness. At its best, it feels magical—making gameplay buttery smooth on hardware that would normally be capped lower. But sometimes the motion feels artificial, almost “too smooth,” like when a TV’s motion interpolation is cranked up. You may spot artifacts or feel a hint of added latency depending on the title. Still, on balance, it’s a trade I’d gladly accept. Games that would normally feel choppy at 70 FPS suddenly run closer to 120 FPS, and that transforms the experience.
And then, there’s the OLED display itself: 15.1 inches, 2560×1600, HDR True Black 600, 100% DCI-P3 coverage, 165Hz refresh. Simply put, it’s stunning. Blacks are genuinely black, colors are vivid, and HDR movies on Netflix look cinematic in a way not even IPS panels can’t replicate (don’t even mention about TN panels). Games feel deeper, sharper, more alive. Even mundane tasks—scrolling through a web page, looking at photos—look different on OLED.
The only caveat: reflections. Like most glossy OLED panels, the Legion 5i is prone to picking up background lights and windows. At first, it might seem like a flaw, especially if you’re used to matte displays that diffuse glare. But for me the reflective finish actually gives the screen a sense of depth, almost like looking through glass at a painting. It makes images feel sharper, more three-dimensional, and more vibrant.
And that’s exactly why I’ve always been a big fan of OLED. To me, OLED screens are the best—the contrast, the richness of color, the lifelike detail. Having it on a laptop feels like a dream come true. Honestly, I wish this had been possible earlier. For years, OLED was simply too costly to implement in mainstream laptops, so most of us had to settle for IPS. But now, as prices have come down, we’re finally seeing OLED panels make their way into more laptops, and that’s a great thing. The Legion 5i happens to be one of the first in its class to really get it right, and for me, that makes all the difference.
For creators, this panel is more than eye candy. With X-Rite Color Assistant, you can swap between calibrated profiles—sRGB for web work, AdobeRGB for print, DCI-P3 for video. It’s rare to have this level of flexibility on a laptop screen. Combined with the CPU/GPU power inside, it makes the Legion 5i a credible mobile workstation for serious design or editing tasks.
time for some couch gaming on a bigger OLED screen..LOL. As you can see im getting about 150-170 fps on 1440p Very High Settings for Stellar Blade..buttery smooth~ hehe
Software & Everyday Use
Lenovo bundles in software that actually feels useful instead of just bloat. Lenovo Vantage works as the overarching system tool: you can see your warranty, hardware specs, battery stats, driver updates, and various system-level settings.
Meanwhile, Legion Space is more gaming-centric. You can force the laptop to use the dedicated GPU (for performance) or fallback to iGPU (to save battery), adjust fan speeds, manage keyboard lighting effects, and quickly toggle between performance modes. Legion Space is where you make the “game or work” decisions—RGB, GPU, cooling—all in one hub.
Audio comes tuned by Harman, but it’s really Nahimic by SteelSeries that makes the difference. The built-in speakers are fine, nothing spectacular—they’ll work for YouTube or casual use, but I didn’t use them much for movies or gaming. With Nahimic, though, headphones get a real boost. You can tweak EQ, enable surround effects, and switch between presets for games, movies, or calls. It’s not the kind of feature you notice every day, but once you start using it, you miss it on other machines.
As a daily driver, the Legion 5i feels smooth and versatile in almost everything I throw at it. The 16:10 aspect ratio gives me more vertical space for documents and spreadsheets, which makes office work and browsing easier. With 32GB of RAM, multitasking feels effortless even when I’ve got dozens of tabs open, a Zoom call running, and a heavy app in the background. The 1TB SSD is fast and roomy enough for games, media, and ongoing projects—and since I usually carry a portable SSD with me, 1TB is more than sufficient for my needs.
What I’ve really enjoyed is how seamlessly it adapts to different uses. I rely on it for office work, Zoom calls, and everyday productivity, but also for Adobe apps when I’m doing creative tasks or light video editing. It’s equally enjoyable for movies and Netflix marathons, where the OLED panel makes entertainment feel more cinematic. On the gaming side, it’s versatile enough for gaming on the go, or even couch gaming on my OLED TV, where I connect a wireless controller for more relaxed sessions. It’s rare to find a laptop that fits all these roles so naturally, but the Legion 5i has yet to feel like the wrong tool for any of them.
Battery Life & Practicality
Here’s the compromise: battery life. With its 80Wh battery and power-hungry 255HX CPU, endurance is modest. Light use gave me around 3–4 hours, creative workloads closer to 2–3, and gaming less than two.
It’s predictable, though. You know going in that this isn’t an “all-day on a café table” machine. That said, Lenovo makes charging flexible. The 245W Slim-Tip adapter gets you full performance, but the laptop also supports USB-C PD up to 100W. I actually liked that. For days when I only needed to write or browse, I left the big brick at home and carried a tiny GaN charger. It charged slower, sure, but it kept me going.
So yes, battery life is the compromise here. But for the power this thing delivers, I’d call it a fair one.
Verdict
The Lenovo Legion 5i OLED is one of those rare laptops that doesn’t sit neatly in any single category. It’s subtle enough for a boardroom, powerful enough to replace a desktop, and versatile enough to act as a console when you want to game.
What makes it unique is the combination: a refined, professional design, a high-wattage HX-class CPU, a full-powered mobile RTX 5070 at 115W, and a 165Hz OLED display. Other laptops may give you one or two of these things. None give you all of them together in this way. Lenovo has built something genuinely different here—something for people who need both performance and professionalism in the same machine.
The configuration I’ve been testing—Core Ultra 7 255HX, RTX 5070, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD—comes in at about RM8,000 on Lenovo’s official website. You can, of course, scale down to a RTX 5060 if budget is tighter, or go all-in and upgrade to an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX for the ultimate performance. That flexibility makes the Legion 5i accessible to different users without changing what makes it special. And frankly, at this price point, I can’t think of another laptop under RM10k that offers the same package of power, display quality, and understated design.
It’s a laptop for gamers who travel, for content creators who demand accuracy and speed, for 3D and multimedia artists who need portable horsepower, and even for corporate users who can’t risk showing up with something that looks like a glowing UFO.
For me, it’s a machine that can replace both a desktop and a console, while still fitting seamlessly into professional environments. That’s not easy to achieve. And it’s why the Legion 5i feels less like just another gaming laptop and more like a true stealth weapon for work and play.
Lenovo Legion 5i OLED (Review Unit) – Quick Specs
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Display: 15.1-inch 2560×1600 OLED, 165 Hz, HDR True Black 600, 100% DCI-P3
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CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX (55W base, with high turbo headroom)
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GPU: NVIDIA RTX 5070 Laptop, 115W TGP (full-powered mobile variant)
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RAM: 32 GB DDR5
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Storage: 1 TB SSD
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Weight: ~1.9 kg
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Battery: 80 Wh + USB-C Power Delivery (up to 100W) + 245W Slim-Tip adapter (for full performance)
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Ports & Connectivity:
• Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C (with DisplayPort & PD)
• HDMI 2.1
• USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 (×2 or ×3 depending on model)
• RJ-45 Ethernet
• 3.5 mm audio jack
• MicroSD or full SD (varies by regional variant) -
Connectivity: WiFi 7, Bluetooth (latest generation)
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Software & Features: Lenovo Vantage, Legion Space, Nahimic Audio by SteelSeries, X-Rite Color Assistant, Harman speakers
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Accessories: 245W Slim-Tip power adapter
