Lenovo and AMD have welcomed the swelling of the latter's product portfolio with PCs packing the latest processors from the red team. "The AMD Ryzen-powered Legion systems have arrived, and they're determined to show your opponents who's in charge," boasted Lenovo. Meanwhile, AMD more soberly and simply welcomed "the ultimate Lenovo Legion lineup". These machines will mostly become available later in the summer.
Five Lenovo gaming PCs are now available packing AMD's latest and greatest processors. For laptops you have the 15- and 17-inch Lenovo Legion 5 laptops, the high-end Lenovo Legion 5P laptop, and the more entry level Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3. (Intel versions of these SKUs come with an 'i' suffix.) Lenovo's newest Legion machines come with AMD's Ryzen 4000 H-Series Mobile Processors and discrete Nvidia GeForce GPUs.
Lenovo Legion 5 laptops are equipped with up to an AMD Ryzen 7 4800 H-Series Mobile Processors paired with up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 GPUs. Both 15-inch (2.3kg) and 17-inch (3.0kg) versions sport a 144Hz FHD panel option with wide viewing angles and Dolby Vision. Watch out for the cheapest spec versions with 60Hz panels. A Harman Kardon speaker system with acoustics chamber and immersive Dolby Atmos audio rounds off the AV appeal.
Under the hood alongside the AMD/Nvidia processing is up to 16GB 3200 MHz DDR4 memory, 1 TB PCIe SSD of storage, and an advanced Lenovo Legion Coldfront 2.0 cooling system. Other features of note are Lenovo's Legion TrueStrike keyboard with (white) backlighting, 1.5mm key travel, 100 per cent anti-ghosting and soft-landing switches. You can enjoy up to 7.5hrs of battery life with the 17-inch version.
The 17-inch Lenovo Legion 5 laptop is expected to be available starting at $1089.99 in September 2020. The 15-inch Lenovo Legion 5 laptop with RTX 2060 is expected to be available starting at $1019.99 in August 2020, and available now with up to Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti GPU starting at $759.99.
Lenovo's Lenovo Legion 5P is an eSports custom version of the above. It only comes in a 15.6-inch version, and its FHD screen sounds pretty similar with a max refresh of 144Hz and Dolby Vision support (but again there is a cheaper 60Hz panel version). Enhancements I spotted were as follows; up to to 32GB of RAM, 4-zone RGB keyboard, and Dual-Burn balanced CPU/GPU overclocking. This machine isn't coming to North America and I don't have pricing and availability to hand.
The Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 laptop is another 15.6-inch FHD model. Buyers can opt for a 120Hz screen with this, but the default choice is a 60Hz panel. While the processor can be specced up to an AMD Ryzen 7 4800 H, the only graphics options are for an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 or GTX 1650 Ti.
This entry level gaming machine can be specced with up to 322GB of RAM and up to 1TB PCIe SSD, and there are hybrid options mixing M.2 and SATA drives. Other features worth mentioning are the IdeaPad Gaming 3's blue backlit keyboard, up to 6.7hr battery life, weight of 2.2kg. The 15-inch IdeaPad Gaming 3 laptop is expected to be available starting at $659.99 in July 2020.
For desktops the new Lenovo Legion Tower 5 is on the way to the higher end with up to an AMD Ryzen 9 3950X desktop processor with 16 cores, as well as up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super GPU. The Lenovo Legion Tower 5 desktop is expected to be available starting at $829.99 in October 2020.
A more entry level gaming desktop option from Lenovo on the way is the IdeaCentre Gaming 5, available in Chameleon Blue (pictured above right) with up to an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X desktop processor paired with up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 GPU. I don't have availability and pricing at hand for this model.
