Welcome to my review on Lenovo Ideapad 5 Pro 16" laptop. Main specs as below:
Model 82L500WTMJ:
- AMD Ryzen 5 5600H (6C12T)
- Nvidia Geforce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU (35-55W)
- 16GB 3200MHz (8X2) RAM (soldered)
- Samsung PM981a 512GB NVMe M.2 SSD
- 16-inch WQXGA 16:10 120Hz 100% sRGB 350 nits IPS
- Mediatek MT7921 WIFI 6
Build Quality
The laptop chassis is mainly made from metal, the bottom cover is metal but feels more like plastic. The bottom chassis (keyboard deck/C cover) barely has any chassis flex. The body is solid and holds itself when twisted. The lid cover is also made of metal, only minimal flex when pressing middle of the lid cover and when twisting the lid. The lid cannot be opened with one hand, the maximum opening angle is ~150-160 degrees. The hinge has good balance between smoothness and tightness, though first ~25 degrees feel a bit loose. There is a magnet to secure the lid when in closed position. There is no noticeable wobbling when shaking the laptop. Only finishing fault can be seen is on the touchpad, where right bottom is not aligned properly (cannot click on right bottom corner). Due to the chassis colour, you might find some fingerprints after using for some time but can be easily cleaned.
Input Devices
The keyboard has 1.3mm key travel. Typing feels a bit mushy and require some force to get a decent typing experience. The keycaps surface is flat and not curved. Typing noise is moderate. The keyboard layout is excellent, big arrow keys, complete numpad and full-sized right Shift key - a must for me. There are 2 brightness stages for white keyboard backlight.
The clickpad surface is made of plastic and can be quite rough to move on it when you have wet/oily fingers. Accuracy is decent though. The L/R clicks are shallow and a bit mushy. The clickpad surface is quite big but slightly aligned to the left.
Display & Audio
The 16-inch WQXGA 16:10 120Hz IPS display (ID: LEN8A92) has good colour accuracy, brightness and contrast out of the box. Ghosting is less compared to 60Hz panel. There is no GSYNC, it is only available in the newer Gen 7 version alongside MUX switch. You can switch between 60Hz and 120Hz with Fn+R, although it won't switch automatically to 60Hz when you switch off AC adapter.
The 2 down firing speakers are located at the sides. Audio quality is average, even with headphones the bass feels not as high quality. Below are my custom settings in Dolby Atmos software:
Internal speakers:
Headphones (MH751):
Thermals & Performance
Now on to thermal testing. The cooling solution has 2 heatpipes, shared on CPU&GPU. 2 exhaust vents hiding between hinge bar and C cover. Intakes are mainly from bottom of laptop, some through holes on top of keyboard.
Notes for thermal testing:
Ambient temp 28-29C
Laptop is lifted with stand
Extreme Performance Mode in Vantage
Nvidia driver version 526.86
BIOS GSCN31WW
Laptop is plugged in
Power limits:
Battery Saving: CPU STAPM 15W, GPU 25-26W max
Intelligent Cooling: CPU STAPM 50W, GPU 35W max
Laptop is lifted with stand
Extreme Performance Mode in Vantage
Nvidia driver version 526.86
BIOS GSCN31WW
Laptop is plugged in
Power limits:
Battery Saving: CPU STAPM 15W, GPU 25-26W max
Intelligent Cooling: CPU STAPM 50W, GPU 35W max
Extreme Performance: CPU STAPM 54W, GPU 35-55W
Thermal results:
Unigine Heaven settings: Extreme profile, untick fullscreen, 900p
Fan noise is not too loud even when under full load.
3DMark Time Spy
Tweaked with custom GPU settings 1777MHz@0.9V, +200MHz memory clock:
3DMark Fire Strike
Due to metal body, you do not want to touch the bottom of the laptop and top of keyboard area when under heavy load. Meanwhile, keyboard is warm to touch.
When idling or under light load, the fans won't kick in causing unnecessary noise.
There is no dedicated thermal pad or heatsink to cool the SSD. However, the SSD comes with copper wrap.
Battery life
This laptop has an 80Wh battery. Battery life is excellent, you can achieve 8 hours or more Youtube video playback.
Test settings: Microsoft Edge, 1440p quality, brightness 50%, volume 36%, Vantage Quiet mode, iGPU only (dGPU disabled), 60Hz, Varibright off, Windows battery saver (no display dimming)
You can disable dGPU entirely (aka iGPU only mode) in BIOS.
Miscellaneous
Lenovo Vantage:
This laptop weights <2kg and has <17mm thickness. Quite portable for a 16-inch laptop packed with such power.
The included power adapter is a compact 135W brick made by Chicony, which is not that heavy. The USB C port supports PD charging.
You can setup Windows Hello with IR camera. Quite accurate and swift to unlock. There is no feature to disable webcam since it is used for Windows IR login.
There is no upgrade path for RAM (soldered) and storage (only 1 M.2 slot).
So far I have not encounter any Radeon driver related issues, nor any WIFI related issues.
Conclusion
For serious gamers, this is not the laptop for you. The GPU is lower TGP and the laptop does not have MUX. Even though the Gen 7 model has MUX, the GPU is still quite weak. Legion or other proper gaming laptop is the better buy. However, as an all-around entertainment laptop, it ticks the right boxes: Quite portable, decent build quality, good display, decent thermals, good battery life, with Windows Hello and even comes with SD card slot. I wish it could be a little lighter but seems like this is the trend we are getting into - laptops becoming heavier and heavier.
Pros:
Decent build quality
Good battery life
Good display
Decent thermals (iGPU only model will be even better)
IR Camera for Windows Hello
Quite portable for what it packs
Cons:
RTX3050 35-55W not for heavy gaming
Only single storage and soldered RAM
Wish it comes with an extra USB C (dGPU model only has 1)
Thanks for reading!
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