When deciding between the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (Late 2019) and the Lenovo Legion 5 17", consider what you value most. The MacBook Pro offers a superior display with higher resolution, which is better for creative work, and macOS, known for its smooth interface, which could benefit productivity and general use. Its portability is a strong point due to its lighter weight and compact dimensions. On the other hand, the Legion 5 houses a more powerful processor and graphics card, making it more suitable for demanding tasks like gaming, 3D rendering, or machine learning. However, this performance comes at the cost of portability and shorter battery life. If budget is a concern and your tasks are less demanding, the MacBook Pro's lower price point is appealing, while if you need top performance for specialized applications and can handle a larger, heavier laptop, the Legion 5 might be a better fit despite its higher cost. Give Feedback
this description is based on the product variant with some specs and product variant with some specs. At the time of writing, the variant with some specs cost some dollars and the variant with some specs cost some dollars.
Advantages of the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (Late 2019)
Very good for content creation
Best in class overall build quality
Good portability
Very good battery life
Best in class speakers
Best in class keyboard
Advantages of the Lenovo Legion 5 17"
Good for gaming and AI
Key differences
General Use
7.8/10
7.2/10
3072 x 1920
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
477.0 nits
DISPLAY BRIGHTNESS
305.0 nits
12.0 Hours
BATTERY LIFE
4.5 Hours
9.5/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
8.5/10
7.7/10
PORTABILITY SCORE
5.8/10
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (Late 2019) and Lenovo Legion 5 17" are both good for general use, though the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (Late 2019) is somewhat better.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (Late 2019) offers a high-quality screen, better portability, and longer battery life, making it well-suited for general use that involves carrying the device around and using it for extended periods without charging.
Gaming and AI
6.4/10
7.4/10
4.2/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
7.5/10
3072 x 1920
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
60Hz
REFRESH RATE
144Hz
No
SUPPORTS DLSS
Yes
No
MUX SWITCH / ADVANCED OPTIMUS
Yes
8.7/10
FAN NOISE SCORE
6.5/10
The Lenovo Legion 5 17" is good for gaming and AI, while the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (Late 2019) is only fair.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (Late 2019), with its AMD Radeon Pro 5300M graphics unit, is less suited for gaming and 3D applications compared to the Lenovo Legion 5 17", which has a more powerful Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics card and a higher screen refresh rate, enhancing visual performance and gameplay smoothness.
Content Creation
8.0/10
7.2/10
4.5/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
7.4/10
3072 x 1920
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (Late 2019) 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
7.9/10
7.0/10
4.5/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
7.4/10
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
3072 x 1920
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
9.5/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
8.5/10
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (Late 2019) and Lenovo Legion 5 17" are both good for software development, though the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (Late 2019) is somewhat better.
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
7.8/10
7.3/10
16.0in
SIZE
17.3in
3072 x 1920
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
60Hz
REFRESH RATE
144Hz
477.0 nits
BRIGHTNESS
305.0 nits
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 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.
For general use, the Apple MacBook Pro 16 has a high-resolution screen and superior brightness, providing crisp visuals and better readability in various lighting conditions, while the Lenovo Legion 5 17" offers good resolution and brightness but may not match the MacBook's visual clarity. The MacBook's screen also excels in engineering and design due to its wide color gamut coverage, ensuring accurate color representation crucial for professional design work, whereas the Legion's color range is adequate but less precise for fine-tuned work. However, for 3D tasks, the Legion 5 may have an advantage with a higher refresh rate permitting smoother visuals in dynamic scenes, which is a critical factor, even though its overall screen quality is rated lower than the MacBook's for this use case.
Battery
12.0 Hours
4.5 Hours
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 has 12 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
Good
Poor
16.0in
SIZE
17.3in
4.3 lbs
WEIGHT
6.5 lbs
0.6in
THICKNESS
1.0in
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (Late 2019) has good 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 Pro 16 (Late 2019) 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.
Cost
$540
$1,200
$0
$500
$1,000
$1,500
$2,000
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (Late 2019) has a price of $540 and the Lenovo Legion 5 17" costs $1,200.
The Lenovo Legion 5 17" and Apple MacBook Pro 16 (Late 2019) are both good for engineering and design.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (Late 2019) excels in screen quality with a higher resolution and color accuracy, making it ideal for design tasks, and its powerful CPU and GPU combo is suitable for engineering software. The Lenovo Legion 5 17", while heavier and less portable, boasts a superior gaming-grade GPU and higher screen refresh rate, making it better for engineering tasks that require real-time rendering, and it also has the expandability with additional RAM and storage slots, which is beneficial for scalability in resource-intensive projects.
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How the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (Late 2019) and the Lenovo Legion 5 17" compare to other laptops
"The Apple MacBook Pro 16 2023: M2 Max challenges GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. The new MacBook Pro 16 2023 with the M2 Max SoC is the most powerful laptop Apple has on sale right now. While we do not get the expected performance and efficiency improvements from completely new 3 nm chips, which we expected ahead of the launch, the 2023 model is still a solid update. The CPU of the M2 Max can be up to 20 % faster than the old model and we also see an advantage of 25-30 % for the GPU with 38 cores. However, both components also consume more power, so the efficiency did not change that much under maximum load."
"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 Pro 16 (Late 2019) 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.
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Joe Golden, Ph.D
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Joe is an entrepreneur and lifelong electronics enthusiast with a Ph.D in Economics from the University of Michigan.
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Staff Expert & Software Engineer
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