The Lenovo Flex 5 14 offers a more budget-friendly option with good general-use performance, a touch screen, and better battery life, making it well-suited for daily tasks and offering more portability. On the other hand, the Lenovo Legion 9i, while more expensive, provides superior performance for 3D rendering, machine learning, and engineering tasks. It includes a more powerful graphics card and processor, more memory, and a high-refresh-rate display, but it's also heavier and has a shorter battery life, which may not be ideal if you need to work on the go and away from power outlets. Additionally, the Legion 9i’s enhanced screen features better color accuracy and quality, ideal for intensive gaming and professional creative work. 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 Lenovo Flex 5 14
Very good portability
Very good battery life
Advantages of the Lenovo Legion 9i
Very good for general use
Best in class for engineering and design
Excellent for gaming and AI
Very good for software development
Very good for content creation
Best in class overall display quality
Very good overall build quality
Best in class speakers
Excellent keyboard
Key differences
General Use
7.7/10
8.4/10
1920 x 1200
RESOLUTION
3200 x 2000
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
Mini LED
277.0 nits
DISPLAY BRIGHTNESS
682.0 nits
11.5 Hours
BATTERY LIFE
3.0 Hours
7.0/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
9.0/10
8.3/10
PORTABILITY SCORE
6.3/10
The Lenovo Legion 9i is very good for general use, while the Lenovo Flex 5 14 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
6.2/10
9.2/10
3.6/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
9.8/10
1920 x 1200
RESOLUTION
3200 x 2000
60Hz
REFRESH RATE
165Hz
No
SUPPORTS DLSS
Yes
No
MUX SWITCH / ADVANCED OPTIMUS
Yes
7.5/10
FAN NOISE SCORE
6.5/10
The Lenovo Legion 9i is excellent for gaming and AI, while the Lenovo Flex 5 14 is only fair.
The Lenovo Legion 9i surpasses the Lenovo Flex 5 14 in gaming and 3D performance thanks to its far superior Nvidia RTX 4080 graphics card and a higher screen refresh rate of 165Hz for smoother visuals, compared to the Flex 5's Vega 8 graphics and 60Hz screen.
Engineering and Design
7.0/10
9.6/10
6.9/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.9/10
3.6/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
9.8/10
16.0 GB
RAM
32.0 GB
The Lenovo Legion 9i is best in class for engineering and design, while the Lenovo Flex 5 14 is good.
The Lenovo Legion 9i outshines the Lenovo Flex 5 14 for engineering and design due to its superior main processor, double the amount of memory, and a significantly more powerful graphics card, which translates to faster and more efficient handling of complex tasks and applications. Additionally, the screen quality is higher on the Legion 9i with a Mini LED display, providing better clarity and color accuracy, making it more suitable for precise design work, whereas the Flex 5 is more compact and portable with decent performance for less demanding engineering tasks.
Content Creation
7.6/10
8.7/10
6.9/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.9/10
1920 x 1200
RESOLUTION
3200 x 2000
16.0 GB
RAM
32.0 GB
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
Mini LED
The Lenovo Legion 9i is very good for content creation, while the Lenovo Flex 5 14 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
7.4/10
8.3/10
6.9/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.9/10
16.0 GB
RAM
32.0 GB
1920 x 1200
RESOLUTION
3200 x 2000
7.0/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
9.0/10
The Lenovo Legion 9i is very good for software development, while the Lenovo Flex 5 14 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
6.4/10
9.7/10
14.0in
SIZE
16.0in
1920 x 1200
RESOLUTION
3200 x 2000
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
Mini LED
60Hz
REFRESH RATE
165Hz
277.0 nits
BRIGHTNESS
682.0 nits
The Lenovo Legion 9i has a better screen than the Lenovo Flex 5 14 for general use, gaming and AI, engineering and design, content creation, and software development.
If you prioritize everyday tasks and media consumption, the Lenovo Legion 9i's superior resolution and brightness present images and videos more vividly than the Lenovo Flex 5 14. For engineering and design, the Legion 9i offers wider color coverage, which ensures more accurate color representation critical for professional creative work. However, for gaming and 3D applications, despite the higher quality panel in the Legion 9i, the absence of a high refresh rate—most important for smooth visuals in fast-paced scenarios—means neither of these laptops is ideal for such demanding tasks.
Battery
11.5 Hours
3.0 Hours
The Lenovo Flex 5 14 has 11.5 hours of battery life. The Lenovo Legion 9i has 3 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
Very Good
Fair
14.0in
SIZE
16.0in
3.4 lbs
WEIGHT
5.6 lbs
0.7in
THICKNESS
1.0in
The Lenovo Flex 5 14 has very good portability, while the Lenovo Legion 9i has only fair portability.
The most portable laptops are small, thin, and light.
Build Quality
7.0/10
8.5/10
The Lenovo Legion 9i has very good build quality, while the Lenovo Flex 5 14 has good build quality.
PerfectRec’s Build Quality Score incorporates case materials, display and keyboard flex, hinge quality, and overall reliability.
Cost
$950
$3,420
$0
$1,000
$2,000
$3,000
$4,000
The Lenovo Flex 5 14 has a price of $950 and the Lenovo Legion 9i costs $3,420.
"The highlight of the latest IdeaPad Flex 5 14 is clearly its AMD CPU. The octa-core Ryzen 7 5700U is insanely fast even when compared to the best Tiger Lake Ultrabooks in the market or even Core H CPUs in many gaming laptops. It's a lot of raw processing power for what is supposed to be a budget 14-inch convertible. If your daily workloads can benefit from extra multi-thread CPU performance, then look no further than the inexpensive AMD-powered Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 14. For regular on-the-road browsing or video streaming, however, a slimmer and lighter 10th gen Core Yoga, Spectre, or XPS would be a more balanced option."
"The Lenovo Legion 9i is meant as a top-end flagship showcase for enthusiasts, and on that, it delivers. You'll find flashier designs in this price tier—Razer’s all-metal build in a similarly sized laptop like the Blade 16, or monstrous 18-inch machines—but this is a well-thought-out laptop. The chassis is trim for a 16-inch powerhouse, the lid is unique, and bespoke liquid cooling takes performance to the next level."
Get a great deal on the Lenovo Flex 5 14 or the Lenovo Legion 9i
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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