If you are considering the Lenovo Legion 5 15" mainly due to its lower price compared to the Lenovo ThinkPad P16, it's important to consider what you'll use the laptop for. The Lenovo Legion series is tailored for gaming and therefore typically offers powerful graphics performance, making it suitable for gaming, video editing, and other graphics-intensive tasks. However, it may be heavier and have shorter battery life, which can affect portability. On the other hand, the ThinkPad P16, part of Lenovo's professional series, is designed for business and engineering applications, offering high-quality build, reliability, and often, better screen accuracy and professional graphics capabilities that might be necessary for engineering software. It could also provide better security features and a longer battery life, which could be important if you're frequently on the move or need a machine that can handle long days of work. So if your priority is gaming or you're on a tight budget, the Legion might be the way to go, but if you're a professional needing power and reliability for intensive engineering tasks and better portability, investing in the P16 could be worthwhile. 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 Legion 5 15"
Good for gaming and AI
Advantages of the Lenovo ThinkPad P16
Very good for general use
Very good for software development
Very good for content creation
Very good overall build quality
Very good battery life
Excellent speakers
Excellent keyboard
Key differences
General Use
7.5/10
8.0/10
2560 x 1440
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2400
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
350.0 nits
DISPLAY BRIGHTNESS
569.0 nits
4.0 Hours
BATTERY LIFE
10.0 Hours
8.5/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
9.0/10
6.8/10
PORTABILITY SCORE
5.8/10
The Lenovo ThinkPad P16 is very good for general use, while the Lenovo Legion 5 15" is good.
The Lenovo Legion 5 15" has respectable processing power and storage for everyday tasks and offers a high screen refresh rate suitable for gaming, but it's less portable and has shorter battery life, making it less ideal for on-the-go use. The Lenovo ThinkPad P16 boasts a high-resolution screen and longer battery life which is great for professionals needing detailed visuals and extended use without charging, but it's heavier and bulkier, so not as easy to carry around.
Gaming and AI
7.9/10
6.9/10
9.5/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
4.5/10
2560 x 1440
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2400
165Hz
REFRESH RATE
60Hz
Yes
SUPPORTS DLSS
Yes
Yes
MUX SWITCH / ADVANCED OPTIMUS
No
6.5/10
FAN NOISE SCORE
7.5/10
The Lenovo Legion 5 15" is good for gaming and AI, while the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 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
7.4/10
8.2/10
8.0/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.6/10
2560 x 1440
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2400
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
The Lenovo ThinkPad P16 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
7.3/10
8.4/10
8.0/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.6/10
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
2560 x 1440
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2400
8.5/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
9.0/10
The Lenovo ThinkPad P16 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
8.0/10
8.2/10
15.6in
SIZE
16.0in
2560 x 1440
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2400
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
165Hz
REFRESH RATE
60Hz
350.0 nits
BRIGHTNESS
569.0 nits
The Lenovo Legion 5 15" has a better screen than the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 for gaming and AI, while the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 has a better screen for general use, engineering and design, content creation, and software development.
The Lenovo Legion 5 15" likely offers a balanced screen with adequate resolution and brightness suitable for everyday tasks, but it falls short in color accuracy that's critical for engineering and design, and its refresh rate isn't high enough for the smooth visuals gamers expect. The Lenovo ThinkPad P16, on the other hand, emphasizes color fidelity with a wider color gamut, making it ideal for professionals in design who require true-to-life color representation, but similarly to the Legion, may not cater to the high refresh rates desired by 3D gaming enthusiasts. Thus, while both laptops are equipped for general use and professional design work, neither is optimized for the high frame rates and swift responses demanded by gaming and 3D applications.
Battery
4.0 Hours
10.0 Hours
The Lenovo Legion 5 15" has 4 hours of battery life. The Lenovo ThinkPad P16 has 10 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
Fair
Poor
15.6in
SIZE
16.0in
5.3 lbs
WEIGHT
6.5 lbs
0.9in
THICKNESS
1.2in
The Lenovo Legion 5 15" has only fair portability, while the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 has poor portability.
The most portable laptops are small, thin, and light.
Build Quality
7.6/10
8.5/10
The Lenovo ThinkPad P16 has very good 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
$999
$1,449
$500
$1,000
$1,500
$2,000
$2,500
The Lenovo Legion 5 15" has a price of $999 and the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 costs $1,449.
The Lenovo ThinkPad P16 and Lenovo Legion 5 15" are both very good for engineering and design.
The Lenovo Legion 5 15" offers a high refresh rate screen and powerful GPU suited for both engineering applications and gaming, while the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 stands out with a higher resolution display and more color accuracy for professional design work, alongside a longer battery life which can also impact its portability. Despite being less portable, both have excellent CPU and RAM configurations for engineering tasks, but the ThinkPad P16 has the edge in display for design professionals due to the superior resolution and color gamut coverage, however, it also tends to be heavier, which might affect its ease of handling compared to the Legion 5.
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How the Lenovo Legion 5 15" and the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 compare to other laptops
"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."
"It's only a few months since we gave the MSI CreatorPro X17 one of our rare 4.5-star ratings and our top mobile workstation honor, but the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 1 matches that achievement in a more premium overall build. Ultimately, its build quality, screen, and keyboard give our latest Editors' Choice nod to the Lenovo—it's enough of a monster on almost all fronts that it simply cannot be ignored."
Get a great deal on the Lenovo Legion 5 15" or the Lenovo ThinkPad P16
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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