The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021) offers a high-resolution Mini LED display, longer battery life, and robust performance with its M1 Pro chip, making it well-suited for professional creative work, multitasking, and users preferring the macOS ecosystem. It stands out with its build quality and screen but comes with a heftier price tag. The Lenovo Legion 5 15", on the other hand, is tailored for gaming and performance-oriented tasks with its AMD Ryzen processor and RTX 4060 graphics. It offers a high refresh rate IPS screen, which is great for fast-paced games, but it's heavier and may have a shorter battery life, making it less portable but more cost-effective for users needing a powerful Windows machine. 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 (2021)
Excellent for general use
Very good for software development
Very good for content creation
Excellent overall display quality
Best in class overall build quality
Good portability
Best in class battery life
Best in class speakers
Best in class keyboard
Advantages of the Lenovo Legion 5 15"
The Lenovo Legion 5 15" has no clear advantages over the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021).
Key differences
General Use
9.0/10
7.5/10
3456 x 2234
RESOLUTION
2560 x 1440
Mini LED
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
497.0 nits
DISPLAY BRIGHTNESS
350.0 nits
17.5 Hours
BATTERY LIFE
4.0 Hours
9.5/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
8.5/10
7.6/10
PORTABILITY SCORE
6.8/10
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021) is excellent for general use, while the Lenovo Legion 5 15" is good.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021) exceeds in general use with its powerful CPU, ample RAM, superior screen quality, longer battery life, and better portability, making it well-suited for a wide range of tasks in various environments. In comparison, the Lenovo Legion 5 15" has a good screen and adequate performance for general use, but falls behind in battery life and portability, although it offers a robust gaming experience with its dedicated graphics card.
Gaming and AI
7.0/10
7.9/10
5.0/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
9.5/10
3456 x 2234
RESOLUTION
2560 x 1440
120Hz
REFRESH RATE
165Hz
No
SUPPORTS DLSS
Yes
No
MUX SWITCH / ADVANCED OPTIMUS
Yes
8.7/10
FAN NOISE SCORE
6.5/10
The Lenovo Legion 5 15" and Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021) are both good for gaming and AI, though the Lenovo Legion 5 15" is somewhat better.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021) with its M1 Pro GPU and a screen refresh rate suitable for 3D applications offers a strong performance for creative tasks on Mac operating systems, while the Lenovo Legion 5 15" leverages the Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU for hardware ray tracing and a higher screen refresh rate, enhancing the gaming experience significantly on Windows, with the benefit of having a much wider selection of compatible games.
Content Creation
8.8/10
7.4/10
7.5/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
8.0/10
3456 x 2234
RESOLUTION
2560 x 1440
32.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
Mini LED
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021) is very good for content creation, while the Lenovo Legion 5 15" 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
8.9/10
7.3/10
7.5/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
8.0/10
32.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
3456 x 2234
RESOLUTION
2560 x 1440
9.5/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
8.5/10
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021) is very good for software development, while the Lenovo Legion 5 15" 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
9.4/10
8.0/10
16.2in
SIZE
15.6in
3456 x 2234
RESOLUTION
2560 x 1440
Mini LED
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
120Hz
REFRESH RATE
165Hz
497.0 nits
BRIGHTNESS
350.0 nits
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 has a better screen than the Lenovo Legion 5 15" for general use, AI, engineering and design, software development, and content creation.
The MacBook Pro 16 (2021) excels in screen quality for general use and engineering with its high-resolution Retina display, exceptional brightness, and wide color gamuts that produce accurate and vibrant colors. For engineering and design, this MacBook's screen covers a broad spectrum of colors, allowing for precise work with color-sensitive tasks. However, its screen is less suited for 3D work, as it typically has a lower refresh rate compared to displays specialized for gaming or 3D rendering, which can limit the smoothness of motion in these applications.
Battery
17.5 Hours
4.0 Hours
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 has 17.5 hours of battery life. The Lenovo Legion 5 15" has 4 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
Fair
16.2in
SIZE
15.6in
4.7 lbs
WEIGHT
5.3 lbs
0.6in
THICKNESS
0.9in
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021) has good portability, while the Lenovo Legion 5 15" has only fair portability.
The most portable laptops are small, thin, and light.
Build Quality
10.0/10
7.6/10
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021) has best in class build quality, while the Lenovo Legion 5 15" has good build quality.
PerfectRec’s Build Quality Score incorporates case materials, display and keyboard flex, hinge quality, and overall reliability.
Cost
$1,949
$999
$500
$1,000
$1,500
$2,000
$2,500
$3,000
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021) has a price of $1,949 and the Lenovo Legion 5 15" costs $999.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021) and Lenovo Legion 5 15" are both very good for engineering and design.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021) with its powerful Apple M1 Pro chip, an abundance of RAM, and a high-quality Mini LED screen is ideal for engineering and design tasks that demand strong CPU and GPU performance as well as excellent screen quality. On the other hand, the Lenovo Legion 5 15" offers a potent AMD processor paired with an Nvidia RTX GPU and a high-contrast IPS display, making it suitable for similar tasks with an added emphasis on gaming potential, though it may sacrifice some portability and screen brightness compared to the MacBook Pro.
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How the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021) and the Lenovo Legion 5 15" 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 15 is an affordable gaming laptop with a lot of power. The new AMD processor Ryzen 7 5800H offers plenty of performance and it is also very efficient. The combination with the fast 130W version of the GeForce RTX 3060 ensures high gaming performance. We also like the fast 165 Hz display with the 1080p resolution. The automatic graphics switching causes some problems with stutters, which are very annoying. If you do not need long battery runtimes, you should definitely deactivate the hybrid graphics mode in Lenovo's Vantage app. The Legion 5 15 is never silent."
Get a great deal on the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021) or the Lenovo Legion 5 15"
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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Laptops Expert
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