Reviews

Legion Slim 5i 16IRH8 review: A slim and powerful gaming laptop

The Legion Slim 5i 16IRH8 combines portability, power, and AI enhancement.
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Lenovo Philippines recently announced the Legion Slim 5i 16IRH8, a gaming laptop that combines portability, power, and AI enhancement. This is one of the newest models in the market, boasting a 16-inch display, a 13th Gen Intel Core processor, and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series graphics card.

Can it live up to its hype? Can it handle the latest games and applications without breaking a sweat? And is it worth the price tag? In this review, we will put the Legion Slim 5i 16IRH8 to the test and see if it delivers on its promises. Let’s get started.

Design & Build

The Legion Slim 5i comes in a stylish Storm Grey color that complements its aluminum top cover. It’s not only durable but also thin and light. At 14.16 x 10.25 x 0.86 inches and 2.4 kg (5.29 lbs), it’s one of the most portable gaming laptops you can find. It also comes with an e-camera shutter that lets you block the webcam with a flick of a switch.

The laptop offers a simple yet stylish design with a minimalistic Legion logo on the lid. It’s more slender than most gaming laptops too, forgoing the conventional aggressive aesthetic that screams “I’m a gaming laptop” for a more refined look that we very much appreciate.

The Legion Slim 5i has a sturdy hinge that allows you to open it up to 180 degrees and a comfortable keyboard with four-zone RGB backlighting and large arrow keys. The keyboard also features Lenovo’s TrueStrike technology, which offers a satisfying typing experience with soft-landing switches and anti-ghosting capabilities. The touchpad has a good size and is smooth and responsive.

All this combines for a great user experience, be it for gaming or productivity tasks. Meanwhile, the speakers, located on the bottom of the laptop, deliver decent sound quality and separation but lack bass.

Display

The Legion Slim 5i 16IRH8 has a 16-inch WQXGA (2560×1600) IPS display with a 240Hz refresh rate, a 500 nits brightness, a 100% sRGB color gamut, VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification, and Dolby Vision support.

Legion Slim 5i 16IRH8 Test UFO Refresh Rate Test

The display has narrow bezels on three sides, giving it an immersive feel. It also supports Lenovo’s PureSight technology, which uses AI to enhance image quality and reduce eye strain.

Legion Slim 5i 16IRH8 Display

During testing, we found the display to be sharp and vivid, with good brightness, excellent contrast, and viewing angles. It can also handle fast-paced games smoothly, thanks to the high refresh rate, while offering picture-perfect color accuracy for professional content creation.

I/O Ports

The gaming laptop offers a decent selection of ports. On the left side, it has two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports (one with data transfer and DP 1.4 capabilities), and a headphone/microphone combo jack. On the right side, it has a full-size SD card reader with an e-camera shutter.

At the back of the device, there are two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, an ethernet port, an HDMI port, and a power connector. The laptop also has a Wi-Fi 6E card and Bluetooth 5.1 for wireless connectivity.

Performance

Our review unit is powered by a 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700H processor with eight cores and sixteen threads clocked at up to 5GHz. It also has an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU with 8GB of GDDR6 memory, based on the new Ada Lovelace architecture, and supports ray tracing and DLSS technologies.

The laptop has 32GB of DDR5-5200MHz RAM and a 1TB SSD M.2 PCIe Gen4 TLC storage. It is also equipped with a dedicated AI chip that optimizes the system performance, power consumption, battery life, and fan noise.

Legion Slim 5i 16IRH8

During testing, the Legion Slim 5i 16IRH8 impressed us with its gaming performance. We played several games from Xbox PC Game Pass and Steam, such as Minecraft, Valorant, Sons of the Forest, High on Life, Poppy Playtime, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. The laptop handled them all exceptionally well at high settings without any lag or stuttering. Of course, you can always lower the resolution or graphics quality of more demanding games if you need to for smoother gameplay.

The large display and thin bezels created an immersive visual experience, while the powerful Intel Core-i7 processor and RTX 4070 ensured smooth and efficient gameplay. Moreover, the keyboard was comfortable and responsive, while the RGB lighting added style and mood.

The laptop also stayed cool under load, thanks to the Legion ColdFront 5.0 system. It used phase change thermal compound, hybrid copper heat pipes and fins, increased air intake and exhaust, and dual liquid crystal polymer fans. The only downside was the fan noise, which was noticeable but not annoying.

Benchmarks Scores:

  • PCMark 10: 7,413
  • Cinebench R23: 14,859 (Multi-core); 1,885 (Single-core)
  • 3DMark Time Spy: 9,734
  • 3DMark Fire Strike: 22,753
  • 3DMark Night Raid: 53,084

Battery Life

The Legion Slim 5i 16IRH8 boasts a 4-cell Li-Polymer battery that can store up to 80Wh of power. Our review unit came with a 230W slim adapter that supports Rapid Charge Pro technology. During testing, it charged the battery from 20% to 90% in a mere 30 minutes and reached a full 100% charge in just 48 minutes.

Legion Slim 5i 16IRH8 230W Slim Charger

Under moderate usage, such as web browsing, streaming, and office work, the laptop can last about 6 to 7.5 hours, which is probably enough for a whole workday. Under heavy usage, such as gaming, video editing, or rendering, the battery can drain in less than 2 hours.

Final Remarks

The Legion Slim 5i is a great gaming laptop for those looking for portability and performance. It has a sleek and sturdy design, a sharp and smooth display, a powerful CPU and GPU, and decent battery life. It also has a good keyboard, touchpad, and speakers, along with a decent collection of ports.

If you are looking for a versatile and powerful gaming laptop, then Legion Slim 5i-16IRH8 is a great option.

In the Philippines, the Legion Slim 5i-16IRH8  starts at PHP 115,995 for the Intel Core i5-13500H model with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX4060.

Price

  • Legion Slim 5i – 16IRH8 82YA008DPH
    16” 2.8K 165Hz | i5-13500H | 16GB+512GB | RTX4060 | Win11 | H&S 2021
    PHP 115,995
  • Legion Slim 5i – 16IRH8 82YA0037PH
    16” 2.8K 165Hz | i5-13700H | 16GB+1TB | RTX4060 | Win11 | H&S 2021
    PHP 125,995
  • Legion Slim 5i – 16IRH8 82YA008EPH
    16” 2.8K 165Hz | i5-13700H | 16GB+1TB | RTX4070 | Win11 | H&S 2021
    PHP 129,995

Legion Ultimate Support & Accidental Damage Protection

The Legion Slim 5i and other Legion gaming laptops come with 3 years of Legion Ultimate Support and Accidental Damage Protection.

Legion Ultimate Support is a unique support service that Lenovo Legion offers to its customers. It is the only gamer-centric support service among competitors that provides users 24/7 access via phone, chat, or email to technicians who are armed with gamer-centric knowledge such as hardware optimization, software assistance, in-game settings for some of the most popular AAA games, and more.

It also includes on-site support and fast repairs for those tricky problems and overall technical support to keep the device running in tip-top shape. Legion Ultimate Support ensures gamers can enjoy their Legion devices without any hassle or interruption.

Accidental Damage Protection is a service that covers your Lenovo device from unexpected mishaps such as drops, spills, surges, and cracks. It offers on-site assistance from trained technicians or a full system replacement. You can have peace of mind knowing that your device and data are protected by Lenovo-Qualified parts and services.

Legion Slim 5i 16IRH8 specs

Display16-inch WQXGA (2560×1600) IPS display, 240Hz refresh rate, 500 nits brightness, 100% sRGB color gamut, VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification, Dolby Vision support
Processor13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700H
Dedicated AI chip
GPUNVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU
RAM/Storage32GB of DDR5-5200MHz RAM
1TB SSD M.2 PCIe Gen4 TLC
Front Camera1080p camera
I/O PortsRear:
1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Always On)
1x USB 3.2 Gen 2
1x Ethernet (RJ-45)
1x HDMI
1x Power connector

Right:
Card reader

Left:
1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (data transfer / DP1.4 only)
1x 3.5mm combo jack
ConnectivityWi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.1
OthersBacklit chiclet keyboard with 1.5mm Key-travel and four-zone RGB, glass multi-touch touchpad, dual mics, Nahimic 2W stereo speakers, Legion ColdFront 5.0
OSWindows 11 Home
Dimensions14.16 x 10.25 x 0.86 inches
2.4 kg (5.29 lbs)
Battery80Wh, 230W AC Adapter

Bryan is a geek at heart and a tech enthusiast by choice. He has a strong background in corporate communications, marketing services, and customer relations having worked in the telecommunications and banking sectors for over two decades. In his spare time, he enjoys watching clips on YouTube and binge watching shows on Netflix.

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