Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro (2022) Overview

The Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro proves that gaming and entertainment laptops don’t have to be expensive – this setup costs $1,149 in the US and £970 in the UK, with cheaper models available.

You get a decent amount of machine for your money, too. This setup boasts a high-res 16-inch screen, Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics, and a decent AMD Ryzen processor.

However, the Lenovo laptop is not the only affordable entertainment machine on the market. Laptops from Asus, MSI, and Dell offer comparable specs at similar prices, and two of them hold long-term positions on our best cheap gaming laptops list, so the Lenovo IdeaPad has strong competition.

Design and build

• Beautiful, thin and light
• Impressive build quality
• Good everyday connection

The IdeaPad is designed for everyday use alongside gaming, so it has a more understated look than many of its competitors, which is a good thing for many buyers. The IdeaPad has a sleek metal body with thin bezels and no RGB LEDs, so it’s suitable for any situation.

The build quality is consistently good, which is not always possible at this price. This is all the more impressive given Lenovo’s modest 1.9kg weight and slim 18mm chassis.

On the right edge, you’ll find two USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 ports and an SD card reader, while on the left side, you’ll find a Type-C connection with charging and an HDMI 1.4b output. There’s also a 720p webcam with Windows Hello for face login. There’s dual-band Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 inside, but no Gigabit Ethernet.

That’s a good connection, though be aware that Lenovo doesn’t have Thunderbolt support and a fingerprint reader.

Despite these omissions, the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro competes well against its competitors. It’s thinner and stronger than the MSI GF63 and this laptop doesn’t have a card reader, but it does have wired internet and a newer HDMI if that’s important to you.

The Asus TUF Gaming A15 and Dell G5 15 Gaming are larger than Lenovo and both have wired internet, but the former suffers from mediocre build quality and the latter has slower USB ports.

Keyboard and trackpad

• Practical, versatile keyboard layout
• Fast buttons, but with soft, unimpressive action
• Disappointingly spongy trackpad

The keyboard is reasonable, not impressive. The layout is good; it has a numeric keypad, separate cursor buttons, and larger keys to make up for the lack of RGB LEDs.

The buttons have reasonable speed so they’re good for gaming and typing, but they don’t have the crisp action you’ll find on the best gaming laptops. If interested, Asus and MSI setups are better.

Mike Jennings / Foundry

The trackpad, meanwhile, feels hollow and shallow, so it’s not satisfying, but good for everyday basic use, but nothing more. And since the pad is on the left side of the wrist rest, its surface is too easy to activate during game play. USB mouse will be much better for gaming and efficient work.

Screen and speakers

• Large and immersive display
• Impressive quality
• refresh rate 120Hz
• Bad sound

The Lenovo display is more immersive than the competition’s screens, and not just because of its 16-inch size. This panel has a 16:10 aspect ratio for extra height, and its 2560 x 1600 resolution also beats the competition.

The 1293:1 contrast ratio beats any competitor and delivers punch and depth, while the display’s Delta E of 1.49 and sRGB coverage of 97.7% are also impressive. This means all the colors needed for games will be displayed accurately, so your IdeaPad games will look great.

Mike Jennings / Foundry

The color temperature of 7165K is a bit cold, which means the screen lacks brightness, but that doesn’t get in the way. And while the brightness level of 362 nits isn’t high enough for decent outdoor use, that’s not a big deal either.

The 120Hz refresh rate isn’t brilliant. It’s OK for a single player game, but lower than the competition and not high enough to satisfy anyone interested in esports.

If you’re concerned about refresh rates, then the Asus TUF Gaming A15 is the best alternative. Its 2560 x 1440 resolution is slightly lower than that of Lenovo, but the quality is good and the frequency is 165Hz.

The speakers here aren’t impressive; they combine tinny high frequency noises with clunky, overbearing bass. A headset or external speakers are recommended for listening to media and of course for the best gaming experience.

Characteristics and performance

• AMD Ryzen 7 5800H
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050
• 16 GB RAM
• 1 TB SSD

The IdeaPad 5 Pro combines an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 graphics core with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor. The GPU is a modest chip with 4GB of memory, while the CPU is a reasonable eight-core piece with a top speed of 4.4GHz. Elsewhere there’s 16GB of dual-channel storage and a fast 1TB SSD.

This mid-range specification delivered average test scores. The AMD chip scored a Geekbench score of 7149 in multi-core testing. That’s much more than the i5-11400H inside the MSI GF63, and it’s powerful enough for everyday computing, lots of browser tabs, and basic creative work like photo editing.

Mike Jennings / Foundry

It’s great, but it’s easy to find more processing power: The TUF Gaming A15 includes the newer AMD Ryzen 7 6800H, and Dell is now available with that AMD chip and 12th Gen Intel silicon. All of them are much faster and better suited for creative tasks.

You may also experience some gaming issues on this laptop. In Cyberpunk 2077, for example, it only achieved a playable frame rate of 30fps at 2560 x 1600 when I used the game’s “Low” graphics settings. At 1080p and “Medium” settings, the game hit a reasonable 39fps, but you lose sharpness as you lower the resolution.

Fortunately, the situation was better in less demanding games. The laptop hit 36fps on Ultra Far Cry New Dawn settings at native resolution, while playing Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege at 93fps.

It’s a mixed bag when it comes to gaming. If you want to play popular games and esports games – and if you’re willing to lower your resolution and graphics settings – you’ll be fine. But if you want a laptop that can play the best games at 60fps without compromise, you’ll have to look elsewhere, like Asus and Dell machines with their RTX 3060 GPUs.

The IdeaPad 5 Pro also proved to be a little erratic in temperature tests, although it’s a fairly quiet laptop. Regardless of the task, the IdeaPad was quieter than most gaming laptops, and in many situations you just won’t notice it.

On a negative note, though, a good gaming session makes the metal above the keyboard incredibly hot, and the underside doesn’t lag far behind. This isn’t a deciding factor because it’s the type of laptop you typically use at your desk, but it’s an unfortunate side effect of the thin design.

Mike Jennings / Foundry

If there’s one area where Lenovo impresses, it’s battery life. It lasted five hours and seven minutes during the work test and over nine hours in the video test, so if you’re using this laptop for everyday work tasks, you’ll easily see lunch time. This is a much better result than MSI and Asus machines, and on par with Dell.

The IdeaPad only lasted ninety minutes of gaming, but that’s no surprise and no worse than any other entertainment laptop.

Price and availability

The Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro (16ACH6) costs $1,149 in the US, but for that price you get an RTX 3050 Ti graphics card with slightly better performance than the RTX 3050. The UK model with the RTX 3050 costs £970 and is priced lower. up to £799 if you’re willing to settle for an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H processor.

In the US, it’s available from Amazon and, in certain configurations, from Microsoft and Newegg. It’s also available in the UK on Amazon as well as on Insight. Box, John Lewis as well as curry.

Such a price is not always of great importance. The MSI GF63 may have a weak chassis, processor and display, but costs just $1,003 in the US and £699 in the UK. Upgrade to the RTX 3050 Ti and it’s still only $899 and $799.

Mike Jennings / Foundry

Asus, meanwhile, is £1,399 in the US and £1,099 in the UK, and includes a much faster RTX 3060 GPU. And if you’re happy with the RTX 3050 Ti, the TUF Gaming A15 is only $1,079 or £849, so you you can get a little more for a price comparable to Lenovo’s, albeit with a shorter, thinner design.

Competitor Dell, meanwhile, is priced at £1,129 for a laptop with a Ryzen 7 6800H processor and RTX 3060 graphics core, so that’s a significant performance boost for a relatively small price jump – although Dell does suffer from a massive case design and blur. display. The $1,049 price tag remains enticing, although this model pairs the best GPU with a Ryzen 7 5800H processor.

Check out our table of the best cheap gaming laptops to see all the best options.

Verdict

It’s hard to pick the best one: while some of Lenovo’s competitors offer faster processors and RTX 3060 graphics at similar prices, they’re often heavier, thicker, and weaker than the IdeaPad.

Indeed, the IdeaPad takes a different approach, offering a body that is thinner, lighter, and more mature than most of its contemporaries. It’s reliable, has decent connectivity, and its large display delivers superior quality. It’s also quiet and has decent battery life outside of gaming.

However, this is not all good news. The processor offers average speed, but nothing more, and the graphics core cannot run top games at maximum settings. The keyboard is soft, the speakers are not very.

Don’t discount the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro, its capabilities just lie in different areas than others, and it’s the best choice for those who want a more portable device that’s also good for both work and play.

Specifications

• Model tested
• OS: Windows 11 Home
• Display: 16″ IPS, 2560 x 1600, 120Hz
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 5800H
• Memory: 16 GB on board
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB
• Storage: 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
• Webcam: 720p
• Connectivity: 1 x USB Type-C, 2 x USB Type-A, HDMI 1.4b, combo audio jack, SD card reader
• Network: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
• Battery capacity: 75 Wh
• Dimensions: 14.01 x 9.88 x 0.7 inches
• Measured weight: 1.9 kg