The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro is one of my favorite gaming laptops of 2021. The last time I worked on a Legion gaming laptop was a couple of years ago. I had always used Lenovo ThinkPads for business and school. As such, I had never considered Lenovo as a candidate for the gaming laptop scene. But I was wrong.

The Legion 5 Pro configuration that arrived for review was quite substantial for only $1,650. However, the SSD was only available in the 512GB model, which is a bit small considering the larger installed game capacity. It is difficult to compare the overall cost to the size of the hard drive, but at least the SSD can always be upgraded.

The 16-inch QHD IPS display deserves an early mention, as it is a wildly bright and colorful 500 nits IPS panel that is a dream for work and play. Because the uniform colors pop and the fact that the Mets are in first place is objectively awesome, whether it's the red in Fights in Tight Spaces or the cyberpunk neon lighting in Necromunda Hired Gun or watching my military dogs tear up gang bums.

"It looks so good.

One of the most underrated features of the Legion 5 Pro is that the keyboard is entirely crammed with a number pad. At first I was concerned that the full keyboard might feel too crowded, but while the enter key feels a bit oppressive, it did not interfere with typing while using it.

People have always raved about how good Lenovo keyboards are, but I always ignored them because I don't trust people who get too into keyboards. But I'll admit it. The rounded bottom keycaps have a nice feel. Add to this a large 4.7 x 3-inch touchpad, and you have a nice work laptop that can also play games. I hope other laptop makers will take advantage of the added space in their 17" gaming laptops to make our lives easier.

The added screen space provided by the new 16:10 aspect ratio and 2,560 x 1,600 resolution makes it easier to browse the Internet and work, as more things fit on the screen.

Gaming takes a bit of getting used to the 2560 x 1600 resolution, but you can see more of what is happening around you. Since no other gaming laptop we recently looked at boasted a native 1600p resolution, we decided to run our gaming benchmarks at 1080p for comparison.

If you're wondering, playing at 1600p will almost always exceed 60 fps, with the exception of Metro Exodus, which is in the 50-55 fps range; if 1600p just doesn't fit, you can always switch to 1440p. For example, in the multiplayer medieval dismemberment simulation Chivalry 2, we consistently recorded over 100 fps. In other words, if you want to skillfully decapitate an enemy archer, you need to do it at a high frame rate.

As expected, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 and AMD Ryzen 75800H laptop proved to be in the middle of the pack for both CPU and GPU. At least, the Gigabyte Aorus 15G Core i7 10870H/RTX 3070 configuration outperforms. On the other hand, it slightly outperforms the new Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5, which has the same Ryzen 7 5800H CPU but only an RTX 3060.

If there is anything to fault the Legion 5 Pro, it would be its underwhelming speaker and microphone combination. Everything with a hint of bass tends to suffer, which is unfortunate. The microphone was also surprisingly disappointing; combined with a mediocre 720p webcam, the 2021 laptop experience is not the best. I do appreciate Regions' effort to include a webcam on such a small bezel screen.

The Lenovo Legion Pro 5 made me believe that Legion laptops deserve a top spot. It is one of the more impressive AMD-powered laptops we have had this year. From the bright, colorful screen to the great-feeling full-size keyboard, the Legion Pro 5 has everything you could want in a gaming laptop for under $2000.