Question Buying a new laptop: Lenovo Legion 5i Pro 2022 or 2023 model ?

[gmark]

Im really confused which one should I buy, I mean they both have pros and cons.


Here are the specs for both laptops:

Lenovo Legion 5i Pro 2023 16IRX8 - $1700

CPU: i9 13900hx

RAM: 16GB 5600mhz

Storage: 1TB SSD

Graphics: RTX 4070

Display: 240hz

Cons:

No Thunderbolt 4 port

Worse build in quality (plastic)



Lenovo Legion 5i Pro 2022 16IAH7H - $1600

CPU: i7 12700hx

RAM: 32GB 4800mhz

Storage: 1TB SSD

Graphics: RTX 3070ti

Display: 165hz

Cons: Lower specs

I have to mention that I will be using the laptop regularly for 5-8 hours a day for multitasking and work-related tasks. (server engineer) Around 80% of the time, it will be used as a workstation and connected to external monitors. That's why having a thunderbolt port is nice, although this can be achieved via HDMI and USB-C as well. Also, I plan to do some light gaming, but it would be great to have more power under the hood in case I have time to play something more demanding in the future. According to Jarod’s review the 2023 model is running a bit cooler. The fans are louder, but I believe they can be lowered down when needed. The price difference is just 100$ in USA. I wonder how the built-in quality of the newer model compares to the older one, although the touchpad doesn't bother me much as I don't use it frequently.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

To me the clear choice would be the 2023 model, especially for your usage specifications. 13900hx, DDR 5 memory, Rtx 4070.

 

[gggplaya]

According to the hardware manual, the 2023 model does have RAM slots instead of soldered on RAM like some laptops. So I wouldn't let the lower ram hinder your decision. You can upgrade it in the future: https://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mobiles_pub/lenovo_legion_pro_5_16_8_hmm.pdf

Personally, I have a Lenovo 16" with a 3070 for about a year now. It's awesome. Lenovo laptop cooling is the best and has the least amount of throttling. The power brick is large, but it's necessary to deliver good constant power to the laptop to prevent throttling. My previous Alienware R17m2 2060 was horrible for cooling. Laptop got very hot and throttled alot. Before that I had an HP omen with a 1060 which also got very hot and cpu throttled. I specifically bought the Lenovo for the better cooling system.

The Lenovo MUX switch is also very nice. The first time I ran into this problem was on my OMEN. I couldn't get the Gsync to work because it only had an HDMI output which ran through the intel iGPU first, before going to the display. So when I bought my Alienware, I made sure it had a displayport output direct to the GPU. The lenovo Mux switch gives you the best of both worlds, so you don't have to worry about it when wanting to use GSYNC.

As for your decision, mine would be comparable to the 2022 model, except mine has an AMD CPU. The build quality is excellent and feels good in the hand. Hinge feels nice, has decent cooling with no complaints. I love the 16" form factor, gives more height for Excel sheets and web browsing.

Another laptop worth considering is the Lenovo Legion 7 16" with the 6850M XT GPU with 12GB VRAM. Due to all the recent multiplatform games requiring over 8GB VRAM to run properly. The Last of Us on PC and Hogwarts Legacy for example. The extra VRAM will age better moving forward. Since PS5 and Xbox both have 16GB of shared memory. Devlopers don't have to optimize object density and texture quality to stay strictly under 8GB of VRAM.