Lenovo Legion 5 15IRX10 review

Frame rates

1920×1080, High preset, upscaling off. Averages 130fps across the 5 core benchmark games.

Measured on this machine. Source: Notebookcheck, 2025-10-26.

In use

The short version

The Lenovo Legion 5 15IRX10 is a difficult machine to recommend at its listed UK price of £2,359, despite having a specification that looks attractive in isolation. It combines an RTX 5070, 32GB of memory, a 1024GB SSD, an 80Wh battery and a 15.1in 2560x1600 OLED display with a 165Hz refresh rate. It is also relatively light for a gaming laptop at 1.895kg. Those are meaningful strengths.

The problem is that the published gaming figures do not create enough separation from nearby RTX 5070 laptops to make this price easy to defend. Notebookcheck’s measured results show a capable machine, not a slow one: it averages 130fps across the scoring-suite games at 1920x1080 on the High preset with upscaling disabled. It can produce very high frame rates in F1 24, Strange Brigade, Dota 2 and GTA V, while still keeping demanding games such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Assassin’s Creed Shadows playable under the same test conditions.

But this is not a laptop that consistently turns its 165Hz OLED panel into a 165fps gaming display. In the measured data, only F1 24 and Strange Brigade clearly exceed the panel’s refresh rate. Dota 2 comes close at 162fps, but GTA V, Final Fantasy XV, Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, X-Plane 11 and Assassin’s Creed Shadows all fall below 165fps. That is normal for a modern gaming laptop in demanding games, but it matters when the machine is priced as a premium purchase.

The larger concern is the machine’s position among the closest listed rivals. Across the games shared with the Gigabyte Gaming A16 Pro GA6DH, this Legion is level on average despite the Gigabyte using an RTX 5070 Ti. It is only 1fps behind the HP Omen 17z-db100, 2fps ahead of the Schenker XMG Core 16 M25, 2fps ahead of the Razer Blade 14 with its 115W RTX 5070, and 3fps behind the Lenovo Legion 7 with an RTX 5060 at 115W. Those are very small average gaps. They suggest that the Legion 5’s gaming results are competitive within this group, but they do not suggest that it is a clear performance leader.

That does not make the Legion 5 15IRX10 a bad laptop. The combination of an OLED screen, a 165Hz refresh rate, 32GB of memory, 1024GB of storage and a sub-2kg weight gives it a more rounded specification than many gaming laptops. If those particular features matter more to you than obtaining the strongest possible frame rate per pound, it has a case. It also has a clear role for someone who wants a portable gaming machine with a high-resolution OLED display rather than a large, heavier gaming system.

However, anyone buying primarily for gaming performance should be cautious. At £2,359, the Legion 5 needs to offer either a clear frame-rate advantage, a confirmed high GPU power limit, unusually strong measured native-resolution results, or a major pricing advantage over similarly fast alternatives. The supplied data does not establish any of those points. The screen and weight help its appeal, but the measured frame rates below show why the price remains hard to justify as a performance-first purchase.

Performance

What the measured results show

Notebookcheck’s figures were measured at 1920x1080, using the High preset with upscaling disabled. That is an important baseline. It means the results are useful for comparing the Legion 5 with other machines tested under the same conditions, but they are not native-resolution results for this laptop’s 2560x1600 display. The numbers show what the RTX 5070 can deliver in a consistent 1080p High test, rather than what every game will run at on the built-in panel.

Across the scoring-suite titles, the Lenovo averages 130fps. That is a strong average for the tested settings, and it places the machine in a category where high-refresh-rate gaming is realistic in many games. The average should not be read as a promise of 130fps in every title, though. The individual results range from 100fps in X-Plane 11 to 162fps in Dota 2 among the scoring-suite games. Outside that suite, the spread is wider still: F1 24 reaches 244fps, while Assassin’s Creed Shadows records 66fps.

That spread is the real story. A laptop’s average frame rate is useful for a broad view of performance, but game choice matters more than the average when deciding whether a 165Hz screen will be properly used. The Legion 5 is very fast in some titles and merely adequate for high-refresh gaming in others. The RTX 5070 is not a guarantee of 165fps at 1080p High in every current game, even before moving from the test resolution to the laptop’s native 2560x1600 panel.

F1 24 is the headline result at 244fps. At the measured settings, that comfortably exceeds the screen’s 165Hz refresh rate. Strange Brigade follows at 240fps, also well beyond the panel refresh rate. These results show that the Legion 5 has plenty of headroom in games that are able to run at very high frame rates under this benchmark configuration. For players focused on these titles, the 165Hz panel is not wasted.

Dota 2 reaches 162fps. That is extremely close to the screen’s 165Hz refresh rate, though it remains just below it in Notebookcheck’s measurement. In practical buying terms, it means the Legion 5 is close to providing the kind of high-frame-rate output that suits its display in this game at 1920x1080 High. It is one of the better examples of the laptop’s balance between its GPU and its refresh rate.

GTA V records 144fps, which remains a strong result but does not fully meet the panel’s 165Hz ceiling. Final Fantasy XV is close behind at 140fps. Baldur’s Gate 3 reaches 131fps, exactly matching the system’s mean across the scoring-suite games only by coincidence of the listed figure. These are all comfortably high frame rates by normal gaming-laptop standards, but they also show that “high refresh” and “refresh-rate matching” are not the same thing. A game can feel fast at 131fps or 144fps without reaching 165fps.

Cyberpunk 2077 comes in at 113fps under the stated test conditions. That is still a playable-looking result on paper for a demanding game at High settings with upscaling disabled, but it is substantially below the display’s maximum refresh rate. X-Plane 11 is lower again at 100fps. The difference between 100fps and 244fps is enormous in practical use, even though both results come from the same laptop. It illustrates why no single “RTX 5070 performance” statement is sufficient. The title, its engine and the workload it creates all matter.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the lowest listed result at 66fps. At 1920x1080 High with upscaling off, that figure is still materially different from an unplayable result, but it is nowhere near the 165Hz target implied by the panel. It also serves as the clearest warning against assuming that the Legion 5’s headline GPU will provide very high frame rates in every recent demanding title. Buyers who mostly play games of this type should set expectations around the lower end of the listed range, not around the F1 24 and Strange Brigade results.

The benchmark spread matters more than the mean

The 130fps scoring-suite mean is useful as a broad summary, but it needs context. The suite includes Dota 2 at 162fps, GTA V at 144fps, Baldur’s Gate 3 at 131fps, Cyberpunk 2077 at 113fps and X-Plane 11 at 100fps. Those are not minor variations. They represent a laptop that moves from close-to-refresh-rate performance in one game to a much more conventional high-frame-rate result in another.

For a buyer, the sensible interpretation is that the Legion 5 is well suited to games where frame rate matters and the title is not among the more punishing workloads in the published data. Dota 2, GTA V and Baldur’s Gate 3 are all shown running at more than 100fps at the measured settings. F1 24 and Strange Brigade go far beyond that. Someone whose library resembles those games can reasonably expect the 165Hz screen to be relevant, at least when using settings comparable with the benchmark configuration.

For someone whose library is dominated by games closer to Cyberpunk 2077, X-Plane 11 or Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the refresh rate is more of a ceiling than a routine target. Cyberpunk 2077 at 113fps and X-Plane 11 at 100fps are respectable results, but they are not 165fps results. Assassin’s Creed Shadows at 66fps is the clearest evidence that the laptop will still require compromise where the workload is sufficiently demanding. The measured figures do not tell us what settings changes, resolution changes or upscaling modes would produce in those games, because the supplied benchmark data uses High settings and upscaling disabled.

This is why it would be wrong to describe the Legion 5 as either universally fast or disappointingly slow. It is neither. It is fast where the game permits it to be fast, and it becomes much more limited in the demanding titles listed. That is not unique to this Lenovo, but it is especially relevant here because the laptop pairs its GPU with a high-resolution, high-refresh OLED display. The screen encourages expectations of both image quality and fluidity; the benchmark spread shows that users will often need to decide which of those priorities matters more in a particular game.

GPU power limit: what we know and what we do not

The supplied specification confirms an RTX 5070 with 8GB of VRAM, but it does not provide a confirmed GPU power limit for this Legion 5 configuration. That missing detail matters. Laptop RTX 5070 performance cannot be judged solely from the GPU name, because different laptop implementations can be configured differently. A power limit can affect how closely one machine performs to another carrying the same GPU designation.

Because no power figure is supplied for the Legion 5, it would be wrong to claim that this is a 115W RTX 5070, a lower-powered implementation, or a higher-powered implementation. The measured results are therefore more useful than speculation. Notebookcheck’s numbers show where this specific machine lands in the tested games, regardless of the configuration decisions behind it.

The closest-rival data gives some context. The Razer Blade 14 is identified as using an RTX 5070 at 115W, and the Lenovo Legion 5 averages 2fps ahead across the shared games. That does not prove the Legion 5 has a higher power limit. It does not prove it has the same power limit either. It simply establishes that, in the games the pair have in common, this Legion is fractionally ahead on average.

Likewise, the Lenovo Legion 7 is listed with an RTX 5060 at 115W, yet the Legion 5 is 3fps behind on average across their shared games. That does not mean the RTX 5060 is inherently faster than the RTX 5070. It means that in this particular comparison, using only the games both machines have results for, the Legion 7 has a narrow average lead. CPU choice, laptop configuration and game-specific behaviour can all affect a shared-game comparison, and the supplied data does not permit a more precise explanation.

The practical conclusion is straightforward: do not buy the Legion 5 on the assumption that its RTX 5070 label alone makes it clearly superior to all alternatives. Its measured performance is competitive, but the rival comparisons show very little distance between several machines with different GPU labels and confirmed or unconfirmed power configurations. If Lenovo’s GPU power limit is important to your decision, it needs confirmation from a source beyond the supplied fact sheet.

Memory, storage and CPU context

The Legion 5 has 32GB of memory and a 1024GB SSD. Those are sensible capacities for a gaming laptop at this price level. The 32GB memory allocation avoids the impression of a premium GPU and display being paired with a compromised memory figure. The 1024GB SSD is also more appropriate than a smaller capacity for a laptop intended to hold several large games, although the supplied specification does not state usable capacity, drive speed, expansion options or the number of storage slots.

The processor is an Intel Core i7-13650HX. The benchmark data does not isolate the CPU’s contribution in each title, so it would be unsafe to attribute the higher or lower results to the processor alone. The figures simply show the performance of the complete Legion 5 configuration tested by Notebookcheck. In titles such as Dota 2, GTA V, Baldur’s Gate 3 and X-Plane 11, the CPU can be relevant to observed frame rates, but the supplied information does not provide the detailed measurements needed to rank the processor’s contribution against the GPU’s.

What can be said is that this is not a stripped-back configuration. An RTX 5070, Core i7-13650HX, 32GB of memory and 1024GB of storage form a serious gaming specification. The disappointment is not that Lenovo has fitted weak components. The disappointment is that the price is high enough that “serious specification” is not sufficient on its own. The machine needs to translate those parts into a clearly stronger buying proposition, and the benchmark and rival data do not show a decisive advantage.

The screen

A strong display specification on paper

The Legion 5’s display is one of its clearest attractions. It is a 15.1in OLED panel with a 2560x1600 resolution and a 165Hz refresh rate. That combination gives the laptop a screen specification that is more ambitious than a basic 1080p gaming panel. The resolution provides more pixels than the 1920x1080 benchmark setting, while the 165Hz refresh rate gives the display room to show very high frame rates where the GPU can produce them.

The OLED panel is particularly important to the machine’s overall appeal because it distinguishes the display specification from the gaming performance story. The RTX 5070 results are good, but not clearly ahead of the closest alternatives. The screen, by contrast, is a direct part of the supplied specification and a genuine reason to look at this Legion 5 if display quality is central to your purchase.

That said, the supplied data does not include brightness, colour coverage, response measurements, HDR performance, refresh behaviour, panel finish or any battery impact from the OLED display. It would therefore be wrong to make detailed claims about how this particular OLED panel looks or behaves beyond its confirmed type, resolution, size and refresh rate. The specification is appealing; the missing display measurements mean that the case should stop there.

Can the RTX 5070 drive the 165Hz panel?

At 1920x1080 High with upscaling disabled, the answer varies sharply by game. F1 24 at 244fps and Strange Brigade at 240fps both exceed 165fps. In those cases, the GPU can produce more frames than the panel can refresh. Dota 2 at 162fps is almost exactly aligned with the 165Hz display, though it remains marginally below the refresh rate in the published result.

GTA V at 144fps, Final Fantasy XV at 140fps and Baldur’s Gate 3 at 131fps all make good use of a high-refresh display without fully reaching 165fps. There is no need for a game to hit the maximum refresh rate before a high-refresh screen has value, but buyers should be clear about what the figures show. These are high-frame-rate results, not full 165fps results.

Cyberpunk 2077 at 113fps and X-Plane 11 at 100fps are further from the display ceiling. Assassin’s Creed Shadows at 66fps is further again. In those titles, the 165Hz panel offers headroom rather than a target the machine reaches under the benchmark conditions. A purchaser expecting every game to run at 165fps because the laptop has a 165Hz panel will be disappointed.

More importantly, all of those measurements are at 1920x1080. The built-in screen is 2560x1600. The fact sheet does not provide benchmark results at 2560x1600, so there is no sourced basis for saying exactly what frame rates this Legion 5 will achieve at its native resolution. It would be unsafe to convert the 1080p figures into native-resolution predictions. The right conclusion is simply that native 2560x1600 gaming will not be represented by the supplied measurements.

This creates a genuine buying decision. The display is capable of presenting a sharper native image than the 1080p benchmark resolution suggests, but the benchmark data tells us only how the laptop performs at 1080p High without upscaling. Buyers who value native-resolution gaming should not treat the published figures as native-panel results. Buyers who are happy to select game-by-game settings based on their preferred balance of resolution and frame rate will find the screen more flexible, but the supplied data cannot quantify that flexibility.

The screen and the price

The OLED panel is the strongest argument in favour of paying more for this Legion 5 than for a purely performance-led alternative. A machine is not just its GPU, and a display is used every time the laptop is switched on, whether for games, general work or media. The 15.1in 2560x1600 OLED specification gives the Lenovo a premium feature that is not captured by a simple 1080p frame-rate average.

But the screen does not remove the value issue. At £2,359, the Legion 5 is expensive enough that the whole package must make sense, not only the display. The gaming figures are competitive, yet close to the listed rivals. There are no confirmed UK prices for those rivals in the supplied data, so it is not possible to calculate whether the Lenovo is actually more expensive than each one. Still, the Legion 5’s own price is high, and its benchmark position does not give it a large performance cushion.

For the right buyer, an OLED 2560x1600 165Hz panel may be worth prioritising over a marginal shared-game frame-rate lead elsewhere. For a buyer who will mainly use an external display or who simply wants the highest gaming performance for the budget, it is less persuasive. The display is a reason to consider this model, not a reason to ignore its price.

Build, size and portability

Weight is a genuine advantage

At 1.895kg, the Legion 5 is notably positioned as a portable gaming laptop rather than a machine that must remain on a desk. That weight matters because gaming hardware, 32GB of memory, a 1024GB SSD, an 80Wh battery and a 15.1in OLED display can easily lead to a larger, heavier system. Lenovo has at least kept the stated weight below 2kg.

For a buyer who travels between home, work, study and other regular locations, 1.895kg is more attractive than the weight associated with many large gaming machines. It does not make the Legion 5 weightless, and it does not mean the charger or any accessories are included in that figure, because the fact sheet provides no charger weight. But the laptop itself is not in the category of a very heavy desktop-replacement system.

The portability case is strengthened by the 15.1in screen size. A 15.1in machine is easier to consider as an everyday carry than a larger gaming laptop, while still offering more screen space than a smaller display. The 2560x1600 resolution also gives the display specification a more premium character than a basic low-resolution panel, though the supplied information does not provide physical dimensions, bezel measurements or chassis thickness.

What cannot be concluded from the supplied specifications

The fact sheet does not provide the Legion 5’s width, depth or thickness. It would therefore be wrong to claim that it fits easily into a particular bag size, takes up little desk space or is unusually slim. The 1.895kg weight is useful evidence about carrying load, but it is not a complete description of physical size.

There is also no sourced information on chassis materials, keyboard layout, trackpad quality, ports, wireless connectivity, webcam, speakers, cooling system, fan noise or surface temperatures. Those are meaningful considerations for a laptop that may be used for work and gaming, but they are outside the information supplied here. The absence of those details should not be filled with assumptions based on the Legion name or previous Lenovo models.

The same caution applies to the 80Wh battery. An 80Wh battery is confirmed, but battery capacity is not battery life. The fact sheet gives no measured runtime, no gaming runtime, no video playback result and no web-use result. It is therefore not possible to say whether the Legion 5 lasts a full working day, whether it is particularly efficient, or how quickly its battery drains while gaming. Anyone for whom unplugged use is important needs measured battery data before treating this as a portability winner.

Portable, but not automatically travel-first

The Legion 5 has the ingredients of a relatively portable gaming machine: a 1.895kg weight, a 15.1in screen and an 80Wh battery. It is likely to appeal more to someone who wants one laptop for several locations than to someone who is happy with a permanently desk-bound gaming system. The specification also makes more sense for a user who values the OLED panel away from a monitor.

However, portability is not only a weight calculation. Battery life, charger size, chassis dimensions, cooling behaviour and the practicality of using the laptop away from mains power all matter. None of those areas is established by the supplied data. The right language is that the Legion 5 has a good stated weight for its class and a sizeable battery capacity, not that it has proven all-day endurance or proven travel convenience.

For buyers who want a gaming laptop that does not automatically feel like a large stationary machine, the Lenovo deserves attention. For buyers who require confirmed long battery life or a particularly thin chassis, the published specifications here are insufficient to make a recommendation.

How it compares

Gigabyte Gaming A16 Pro GA6DH

The closest listed comparison is the Gigabyte Gaming A16 Pro GA6DH, which uses a Core 7 240H and an RTX 5070 Ti. Across the games both laptops have measured results for, the Lenovo Legion 5 averages the same frame rate as the Gigabyte. The comparison covers seven shared games.

That is striking because the Gigabyte is identified as an RTX 5070 Ti machine, while the Legion uses an RTX 5070. It would be wrong to turn that shared-game average into a claim that the RTX 5070 is equivalent to the RTX 5070 Ti in general. The comparison only tells us that these two particular laptop configurations are level on average in their overlapping benchmark results.

Still, it is positive evidence for the Legion 5’s gaming performance. The Lenovo is not being left behind by the Gigabyte in the shared-game data. At the same time, it does not establish a buying winner because there is no confirmed UK price for the Gigabyte in the supplied information. It also does not give us a screen, weight, battery or storage comparison. The useful takeaway is performance parity across the shared games, not a complete verdict on the two systems.

HP Omen 17z-db100

Against the HP Omen 17z-db100, another RTX 5070 laptop, the Legion 5 averages 1fps less across nine shared games. That is effectively a very narrow gap in the available comparison. The Legion is not shown as decisively faster or decisively slower; it sits extremely close to the HP in the overlapping results.

The fact that both machines use an RTX 5070 makes the small difference unsurprising, but the important point is that the Legion 5 does not turn its specification into a major advantage over this direct GPU-class rival. At £2,359, that matters. A buyer paying this much should look closely at the rest of the package, especially the OLED screen and the 1.895kg weight, because the measured gaming position against the HP is essentially level.

There is no confirmed UK price for the HP in the supplied data, so no direct value comparison can be made. If the HP were much cheaper, the 1fps shared-game difference would not justify choosing the Lenovo on performance grounds. If it were more expensive, the Lenovo’s OLED panel and weight might look more compelling. The available data does not settle that question.

Schenker XMG Core 16 M25

The Schenker XMG Core 16 M25 is another RTX 5070 rival. The Legion 5 averages 2fps ahead across eight shared games. Again, that is a narrow result rather than a commanding win. It confirms that Lenovo’s performance is competitive, but it does not establish a major frame-rate lead.

This comparison is useful because it reinforces the pattern seen elsewhere: the Legion 5 is clustered tightly with other machines in its class. It is not dramatically behind, which is good. It is not dramatically ahead, which weakens the argument for its £2,359 price if gaming output is the primary criterion.

With no confirmed UK price for the Schenker, a full value judgement is not possible. The Lenovo’s OLED panel, 165Hz refresh rate, 32GB memory, 1024GB SSD and 1.895kg weight may be more appealing than the Schenker’s specification, but the supplied data does not provide enough corresponding Schenker details to say. The performance comparison alone is close.

Razer Blade 14

The Razer Blade 14 is listed with an RTX 5070 at 115W. The Legion 5 is 2fps ahead on average across nine shared games. This is one of the most useful comparisons because the Razer’s GPU power figure is confirmed while Lenovo’s is not. The Legion’s slight lead shows that its benchmark output is at least competitive with that particular 115W RTX 5070 implementation.

It does not, however, reveal the Legion’s own power limit. A 2fps average gap is too small to support broad conclusions about GPU configuration. The laptop may differ in CPU behaviour, cooling, game-specific results or other factors that are not detailed in the fact sheet. The sensible conclusion is limited: this Legion 5 does not perform worse than the listed Razer Blade 14 on average across their shared games, and it is fractionally ahead.

The Blade 14’s name also suggests a different form-factor focus, but no weight or screen data is provided here, so that distinction should not be overstated. There is also no confirmed UK price. Buyers should therefore see this as a narrow performance comparison rather than evidence that the Lenovo is automatically the better premium portable option.

Lenovo Legion 7

The most awkward comparison for the Legion 5 is the Lenovo Legion 7. The Legion 7 is listed with an RTX 5060 at 115W, yet the Legion 5 averages 3fps behind across nine shared games. That is not a huge deficit, but it is still a deficit against a laptop carrying the lower-numbered GPU label.

There is no basis in the supplied information for saying why this happens. The Legion 7 may differ in CPU, GPU power configuration, cooling, memory, game-specific performance or other factors. The key point is not that the Legion 5 is weak. Its individual frame rates remain good. The key point is that a more expensive-seeming GPU badge does not guarantee a higher shared-game average in this comparison.

This result should make buyers especially careful about shopping by GPU name alone. If a Legion 7 with an RTX 5060 can be 3fps ahead across the shared games, then the Legion 5’s RTX 5070 is not enough by itself to justify its price. There is no confirmed UK price for the Legion 7, so the comparison cannot establish which is better value. But it does undermine any assumption that the Legion 5 is automatically the stronger gaming choice simply because it has the RTX 5070 label.

Who it’s for

Buy it if the screen and weight are priorities

The Legion 5 15IRX10 makes the most sense for a buyer who wants a relatively light gaming laptop with a premium display specification. The 15.1in OLED panel, 2560x1600 resolution, 165Hz refresh rate and 1.895kg weight are the elements that give this model a distinct identity. The RTX 5070 performance is solid, but the screen and portability are the parts that make it more than another conventional gaming laptop.

It is also a reasonable fit for someone whose regular games resemble the faster end of the published benchmark list. F1 24 at 244fps, Strange Brigade at 240fps, Dota 2 at 162fps, GTA V at 144fps, Final Fantasy XV at 140fps and Baldur’s Gate 3 at 131fps show that the machine can provide high-frame-rate gaming in a broad range of titles at the tested 1920x1080 High setting with upscaling disabled.

The 32GB memory and 1024GB SSD make it better suited to buyers who want to avoid an obviously compromised configuration. The fact sheet does not confirm upgradeability, but the supplied capacities themselves are appropriate for a gaming laptop at this price. The 80Wh battery is also a positive specification point, even though no runtime measurements are available.

Do not buy it purely for the RTX 5070

Buyers chasing the strongest performance per pound should look elsewhere unless the Legion 5’s price falls materially or its display is worth a significant premium to them. The £2,359 price is high, and the shared-game comparisons show that this laptop is separated from its closest rivals by only very small average differences.

It is level with the RTX 5070 Ti Gigabyte Gaming A16 Pro GA6DH across seven shared games. It is 1fps behind the RTX 5070 HP Omen 17z-db100 across nine shared games. It is 2fps ahead of the RTX 5070 Schenker XMG Core 16 M25 across eight shared games. It is 2fps ahead of the 115W RTX 5070 Razer Blade 14 across nine shared games. It is 3fps behind the 115W RTX 5060 Lenovo Legion 7 across nine shared games.

Those numbers describe a tightly packed performance group. The Legion 5 is not a frame-rate bargain established by the supplied figures. It is a premium-specification laptop whose display and weight need to matter to you.

Choose something else if your priority is native-resolution certainty

The panel’s native resolution is 2560x1600, but the published frame rates are all measured at 1920x1080. If you want to know exactly how a laptop performs at its native resolution in games such as Cyberpunk 2077, X-Plane 11 or Assassin’s Creed Shadows, this fact sheet does not provide the evidence. The 1080p High results are useful, but they are not a substitute for native-resolution testing.

This is especially relevant for buyers drawn to the OLED panel because they want to game at 2560x1600. The display specification is good, but the available gaming data does not confirm how closely the RTX 5070 can approach 165fps at the panel’s native resolution. Anyone who needs that certainty should seek measured 2560x1600 results before buying.

Choose something else if you mainly play the most demanding titles

Cyberpunk 2077 at 113fps, X-Plane 11 at 100fps and Assassin’s Creed Shadows at 66fps show the limits of the Legion 5’s high-refresh ambitions at the stated 1080p High benchmark setting. These are not poor results in isolation, but they are far from the 165Hz display ceiling. If your main goal is to run demanding modern games at extremely high frame rates, the published data does not show that this Lenovo consistently does that.

The laptop is best understood as a machine that can be exceptionally fast in some games and clearly less dominant in others. That is a normal pattern for gaming hardware, but it is important to be realistic when spending £2,359. The Legion 5 can provide very good gaming performance; it cannot be presented as a universal 165fps machine.

The final recommendation

The Lenovo Legion 5 15IRX10 is a capable, well-specified gaming laptop with a standout display specification and a sensible 1.895kg weight. Notebookcheck’s figures show that its RTX 5070 can deliver excellent frame rates in lighter or more accommodating games, strong results in many mainstream titles, and lower but still usable-looking performance in more demanding workloads.

Its weakness is not a lack of performance. Its weakness is that the performance is too close to listed rivals to make £2,359 feel persuasive on frame rates alone. The lack of a confirmed GPU power limit, native-resolution benchmark results, battery-life measurements, dimensions, noise figures and thermal data also leaves important questions unanswered.

Buy the Legion 5 if you specifically value the 15.1in 2560x1600 OLED display, 165Hz refresh rate, 32GB memory, 1024GB SSD and relatively low weight alongside solid RTX 5070 gaming results. Avoid it if your priority is simply the strongest gaming output for the money, proven 2560x1600 performance, or confirmed battery and cooling behaviour. At its listed price, this is a screen-and-portability purchase first, and a value-led gaming purchase second.

How it compares