There are gaming laptops that look out of the world and come with a plump spec sheet. I like to play AAA titles but that doesn’t mean I am a professional gamer. Far from it, I spend most of the day writing, editing photographs, making videos now and then and browsing the web. There are many people like me, who want a snappy gaming machine but nothing over the top, like Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 6 (15, Intel).

It’s a perfectly-capable laptop with just the right specs to see a gamer like me through for a few years, plus it can help with day-to-day tasks. Of course, it’s not something I would carry around because it weighs 2.4kg but with hybrid work conditions here to stay, this can be an excellent choice.

Extremely well-built, there is no flex, be it the keyboard or the 15.6-inch FHD (1920x1080) IPS panel with 120Hz refresh rate. Being a high-performance gaming laptop, there are vents around the machine while most of the ports are at the back. There is a regular webcam but with a dedicated shutter switch to ensure enough privacy.

Zero compromises on performance
The review unit that was with us had an Intel Core i7-11800H processor with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050, which basically means good benchmark scores. Here, power is untamed and you can run games at any graphic setting, at times performing better than a machine with Ryzen 7 5800H. You won’t feel that power is being throttled while playing The Division 2, Rainbow Six Siege or Borderlands 3. Even ray-tracing performance is good. In the same breath, it comes with a great cooling system, so you won’t have any problem with sustained performance.

Besides gaming, I did a lot of photo editing and a bit of video editing. I was able to edit 4K videos on Adobe Premiere Pro with a couple of layers and rendering a four-minute video took only a few minutes.

What I enjoyed best about the machine is that I could do my everyday tasks on it, which involves a lot of writing. You get a full keyboard with a full number pad and full-size arrow keys that are big. The keyboard is backlit and you can choose from three levels of brightness. There is decent key travel and the overall typing experience is comfortable enough while the touchpad experience is equally good, complete with good amount of palm rejection while scrolling.

Viewing angles are equally great and the panel can go up to 250nits, which is enough for most tasks. There are two 2W speakers at the bottom, which are loud and clear enough but since the machine is for gamers, users will be using headphones to get the most out of it.

Should you buy it?

With gaming laptops the issue is battery life, so I wasn’t expecting anything more than four hours without having to hit the wall socket. I got around 4.5 hours and if I restrict usage to typing documents then I can get a few more hours extra. Battery life is something that varies from person to person, depending on the kind of work you do. Apart from that and the biggish power adapter, it’s tough to nitpick. Packed with stellar features and untamed power, Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 6 (15, Intel) can tackle all gaming needs.

Box at a glance

Device: Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 6 (15, Intel)
Price: Rs 111,990 (Lenovo India online store)
High points
Excellent gaming laptop that can also be used for multimedia needs
Well-designed keyboard
Enough ports — 3xUSB 3.2 Gen 1, USB 3.2 Gen 1 (always on), 2xThunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1, Ethernet (RJ-45), headphone/microphone combo and power connector
Muffled notes
Slightly heavy, especially if you consider the charging adapter