The Apple MacBook Air (2022) is very good for general use, while the Lenovo Legion 5 17" is good.
PerfectRec’s General Use Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for general productivity, web browsing, streaming, video calls, and running a wide variety of apps and programs.
Gaming and AI
6.5/10
7.4/10
4.1/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
7.5/10
2560 x 1664
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
60Hz
REFRESH RATE
144Hz
No
SUPPORTS DLSS
Yes
No
MUX SWITCH / ADVANCED OPTIMUS
Yes
10.0/10
FAN NOISE SCORE
6.5/10
The Lenovo Legion 5 17" is good for gaming and AI, while the Apple MacBook Air (2022) is only fair.
PerfectRec’s Gaming and AI Score strongly emphasizes graphics processing capability, while also taking into account other factors that impact suitability for gaming and AI work.
Content Creation
8.1/10
7.2/10
6.7/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
7.4/10
2560 x 1664
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
The Apple MacBook Air (2022) is very good for content creation, while the Lenovo Legion 5 17" is good.
PerfectRec’s Content Creation Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for photo editing, video editing and other content creation tasks.
Software Development
8.2/10
7.0/10
6.7/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
7.4/10
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
2560 x 1664
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
10.0/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
8.5/10
The Apple MacBook Air (2022) is very good for software development, while the Lenovo Legion 5 17" is good.
PerfectRec’s Software Development Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for software developers.
Screen Quality
7.6/10
7.3/10
13.6in
SIZE
17.3in
2560 x 1664
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
60Hz
REFRESH RATE
144Hz
486.0 nits
BRIGHTNESS
305.0 nits
The Apple MacBook Air has a better screen than the Lenovo Legion 5 17" for general use, engineering and design, software development, and content creation, while the Lenovo Legion 5 17" has a better screen for gaming and AI.
PerfectRec’s screen quality scores take into account various important factors that are relevant for different use cases.
Battery
15.0 Hours
4.5 Hours
The Apple MacBook Air has 15 hours of battery life. The Lenovo Legion 5 17" has 4.5 hours of battery life.
Battery life estimate is based on a mix of common use patterns. More portable and higher performing laptops tend to have less battery life.
Portability
Excellent
Poor
13.6in
SIZE
17.3in
2.7 lbs
WEIGHT
6.5 lbs
0.4in
THICKNESS
1.0in
The Apple MacBook Air (2022) has excellent portability, while the Lenovo Legion 5 17" has poor portability.
The most portable laptops are small, thin, and light.
Build Quality
10.0/10
7.4/10
The Apple MacBook Air (2022) has best in class build quality, while the Lenovo Legion 5 17" has good build quality.
PerfectRec’s Build Quality Score incorporates case materials, display and keyboard flex, hinge quality, and overall reliability.
The Apple MacBook Air (2022) and Lenovo Legion 5 17" are both good for engineering and design.
PerfectRec’s Engineering and Design Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for graphic design and 3D rendering work.
Cost
$1,210
$1,200
$600
$800
$1,000
$1,200
$1,400
$1,600
$1,800
The Apple MacBook Air (2022) has a price of $1,210 and the Lenovo Legion 5 17" costs $1,200.
Give feedback
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How the Apple MacBook Air (2022) and the Lenovo Legion 5 17" compare to other laptops
"The Apple MacBook Air M2 Entry is a very good, but too expensive daily MacBook. The new MacBook Air M2 is undoubtedly once again a very good mobile companion, but we are still a little bit disappointed on a very high level, which is definitely connected with the increased price point. The new chassis is extremely slim and the front edge is no problem during typing, but the bezels are pretty wide for a modern device and in addition with the vertical space required for the notch, the new Air has larger footprint than some Windows rivals."
"The Lenovo Legion 5 17 is a current-gen 17-inch gaming laptop and equipped with the latest AMD CPU and a powerful GPU, that manages to reach its full potential. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600H is a very good choice for this laptop and able to maintain its performance level for long periods of time. Our test model only falls behind consistently in a direct comparison with its competitors that are often equipped with eight cores and 16 threads. Despite this, the Legion 5 17 leaves an excellent impression and is almost able to keep up with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 mobile GPU in synthetic benchmarks."
Get a great deal on the Apple MacBook Air (2022) or the Lenovo Legion 5 17"
About Apple
Apple, an American technology company, is one of the world’s largest company in terms of market capitalization. Their MacBook laptops feature a slim, minimalistic design, class-leading battery life, and premium display and speaker quality. In 2020 Apple switched from using Intel processors to their own silicon chips which have excellent performance and efficiency. The macOS operating system is the second most widely used OS, after Windows.
About Lenovo
Lenovo is a Chinese technology company, and one of the largest personal computer vendor. They are well known for a variety of technology products, including laptops. Their consumer series include their entry level IdeaPad and LOQ series and mid-to-high-end Yoga and Legion series. On the business-oriented side, their series include their entry-level ThinkBook series and mid-to-high-end ThinkPad series. Lenovo laptops offer strong performance for reasonable prices, and are often on sale.
This information was produced and vetted by the PerfectRec laptops team. We are a product research and recommendation organization that meticulously reviews and evaluates the latest laptop information and makes it digestible for you.
By the numbers
380
Laptops evaluated
48,640
Laptops stats compiled
13
Proprietary Laptops ratings developed
109,095
Recommendations made
23,638
Consumer hours saved
About the laptop team
Joe Golden, Ph.D
CEO and Laptops Editor
Joe is an entrepreneur and lifelong electronics enthusiast with a Ph.D in Economics from the University of Michigan.
Jason Lew
Staff Expert & Software Engineer
Jason is a staff expert and software engineer that has been making laptop recommendations for 7 years and moderates one of the largest laptop subreddits.
Chandradeep Chowdhury
Staff Expert & Software Engineer
Chandradeep is a staff expert and software engineer and expert in televisions and monitors. He’s been making monitor recommendations for ten years.
Craig Russell
Laptops Expert
Craig is a UK-based laptops expert. Craig works in IT, where he recommends and supports laptops and PCs for clients and has been recommending laptops on Reddit for five years.