Lenovo has a great reputation for a lot of different things. However, there’s one thing about its laptops that has always been heavily overlooked: its motherboards.
Lenovo’s reputation for providing some of the best motherboards in the industry can be attributed to the Legion T60 and T60p that it produces, the T60 and T60p that it purchases from Lenovo, and the T60p that it created itself.
Lenovo’s ThinkPad Legion series is Lenovo’s answer to the current market of high-end ultrabooks.
The Lenovo ThinkPad Legion series has been a very popular laptop range and has proven itself to be reliable and durable.
One major advantage they have over their big brother the Yoga 900 series is that they’re offered in three different configurations, which leads to a better experience for every user.
The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro and the Lenovo Legion 7 Pro are two different types of laptops from the Lenovo ThinkPad series which came out in 2016.
Both of these machines feature a powerful Intel processor and are both rugged and offer a great balance of design aesthetics, performance, and price.
Short Overview
Specs
It’s possible to get either laptop with different specifications, but I have the most expensive model for each.
I shall instead view the comparison through the lens of what both laptops are capable of offering in the best-case scenario, as this enables a direct comparison of CPU and GPU performance.
Design
Both have a metal lid with a dark grey finish, but the legion 7 looks slightly cleaner. There is no difference in their interiors, either; the keyboard or the touchpad are the same.
While the Legion 7 has plenty of RGB lighting, from the front and back light bars to the vents, the Legion 5 Pro is far less flashy.
Weight and Size
With two large 300-watt power bricks each, the Legion 5 pro weighs a little more than the Legion 7.
The Legion 5 pro is slightly wider and thicker compared to the 7, so along with weighting a little less the 7 is a bit smaller, but its not really an amount you’ll notice.
Screen
In both laptops, the screen is the exact same size, 16:10, 156Hz, and the panel part number is the same.
Consequently, the color gamut of the two monitors is virtually identical, aside from a small difference in margins of error. Also, both monitors achieve over 500 Nits at the same brightness, again with only minor differences in manufacturing.
A MUX switch is present on both laptops in case you want to disable the Optimus after it’s been powered off. By disabling Optimus, both laptops use G-Sync, and by enabling Optimus instead, both have FreeSync.
They both have a screen overdrive mode to boost response time, and with that feature enabled, they both produce the same results.
The same panel is used on both laptops, so this was to be expected. There will be a little variance one way or the other.
Even if they’re equal, the Legion 7 looks slightly better, so it’s just luck of the draw.
Although backlight bleed will vary from laptop to laptop and panel to panel, both of these laptops displayed minimal backlight bleed.
While the screen of the 7 goes back 180 degrees, that of the Legion 5 stops sooner.
Camera
720p cameras are both located above the central screen, and both have a switch on the right side that physically disconnects the camera.
Almost the same result can be achieved by the microphone and camera and works very well.
Additionally, the 7 has Tobii Horizen, which tracks your head and adjusts the camera angles based on where you are looking. This feature isn’t available in legion 5.
Keyboard and Touchpad
Both keyboards have the same layout. A white keyboard is standard, but the 5 Pro is also available with a four-zone RGB option.
Moreover, the 7 features customizable RGB lighting for each key.
In the case of the 7, RGB is controlled by Corsair iCUE software, whereas the 5 Pro without RGB does not use this.
In my opinion, I preferred typing on the 7, the keyboard is similar, however, it felt a bit sturdier, or even a bit clickier. It’s hard to explain, so you can only imagine it in that situation.
There is no difference in the size of the precision touchpads on either laptop. They both have similar features, but I found the 5 Pro to have a better click.
They may be exactly the same and this is just manufacturing tolerance or something, but the 5 Pro was a little louder.
I/O Ports
On the left, the two ports are identical, with the exception of an exhaust vent and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port with Display Port 1.4 support.
The right is a bit different as it has an air exhaust vent on the side and the camera disconnect switch.
Both devices share the same USB 3.2 Gen1 speed. However, the Legion 7 has a Type-C port and the 5 Pro has a Type-A port.
The rest of the I/O is on the back, and both are identical. Right to left, you’ll find gigabit ethernet, a second Type-C USB 3.2 port, a Display port 1.4 same as the one on the left, as well as a charging port.
Additionally, the far right side of the device has three USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports, HDMI 2.1 output, and power input.
To those of you who aren’t keeping track, the only difference is that on the right side of the 5 Pro is a USB Type-A port while the 7 has a Type-C port.
It’s true that both laptops have icons above the rear ports, but they 7’s actually light up, which I found more useful when trying to plug in in a dark room, plus we have the option to turn them off or on with a shortcut.
The Nvidia graphics are directly connected to all displays, which makes sense since both allow Optimus to be disabled.
The lightning on the lids can be turned off or on with this shortcut, though this only works on 7 if there’s no iCUE effect in place.
Bottom Panel and Internals
Similarly, the bottom panels were clean with air intake vents above the fans. It has black metal covers over both the M.2 slots and memory. The internal layout is very similar.
On the front of each machine is a battery, two M.2 storage slots, two memory slots, and the WiFi 6 card.
The main difference is the 7 has a vapor chamber collar while the 5 Pto uses a regular heat pipe solution.
Additionally, since the vapor chamber and fans are assembled together, air can escape less easily.
Battery
Both laptops come with a four-cell, 80Wh battery, although their part numbers are slightly different.
There is a big issue with the legion 7’s battery drain because the iCUE software makes it more powerful than it should be. Thankfully, it’s as simple as stopping the Corsair service and not running iCUE.
It doesn’t mean that you can’t run custom RGB effects. In contrast, the 5 Pro does not come with iCUE software for modifying RGB.
There’s not much difference between the battery timing since both of them may have a very close battery figure, such as 8 to 9 hours a day, which is also a great feature.
Watch the video for more information
Conclusion
Overall, the main difference between Lenovo Legion 5 Pro vs Legion 7 is that the Legion 7 has some nice extra features. It doesn’t matter whether they are important to you or not, since the 5 Pro continues to be one of the best laptops, but if you want everything, the 7 is clearly the better choice. Neither of these laptops is perfect, but nothing in life is
It seemed to me that the biggest issue with the 5 pro was the lack of performance with the stock memory. In fact, that difference alone would make the 7 appear significantly better even when comparing both laptops with the CPU and GPU, which could be designed for the 7 to appear better.
The 7 on the other hand has the battery drain issue with the Corsair iCUE software, fortunately probably both of these problems are very easy to fix.
Anyway if you want my opinion then here ill be perfectly happy with the 5 pro, but if my budget permits then the extra features of the 7 were nice, and if the 7 is around 10% more money compared to the 5 pro like here in the united states. I’d probably just pay a little extra and get the legion 7 as well.
So with all of that in mind let me know which of these two laptops you’d pick.
Thank you so much. Take Care.
CEO
Hi, My name is Bilal Ali and I am an affiliate marketer and have been involved in this field for a number of years. I have a lot of experience and knowledge in this area, which I love to share with others. I am always looking for new ways to improve my skills and learn more about affiliate marketing. I am also very active on social media, and love to connect with others in the industry.