Review Summary
Expert Rating
The Lenovo Legion Slim 5 16AHP9 is a gaming laptop that combines performance with portability. Equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, it caters to gamers and content creators seeking a balance between power and mobility, at least on paper.
In reality, the RTX 4060 is an older card, and most laptops offer it for around the 1 lakh price tag, with some going even cheaper. So why does this laptop fetch a price tag of Rs. 1,42,000? Let’s find out what the buzz is about and if it’s worth your hard-earned money in our in-depth Lenovo Legion Slim 5 (Gen 9) review.
Table of Contents
Design and Display
Starting with the design, it’s the signature Lenovo Legion style that doesn’t scream “gaming laptop,” and that’s a good thing. It’s a clean, subtle design that could easily blend into an office environment. Lenovo has struck a sweet balance between professional and gamer-y, which most consumers would appreciate.
In terms of build quality, the lid is made from anodized aluminium, while the base is primarily plastic—but it’s high-quality plastic that doesn’t creak or flex easily. This combination helps keep the weight down to about 2.3kg, which is quite manageable for a 16-inch gaming machine. You won’t be using this on the go much, but it’s still portable enough to fit in most backpacks.
There are also thoughtful touches like a raised rubber strip underneath that lifts the rear slightly to improve airflow and a subtle “Legion” branding on the lid that gives it character without being gaudy. The hinge is also quite sturdy, with minimal wobble, and allows the display to open nearly 180 degrees.
Moving on to the display, it features a 16-inch WQXGA (2560x1600p) IPS panel with a smooth 165Hz refresh rate. The higher resolution ensures that everything looks sharper, images are more detailed, and you get a lot more screen real estate to work with, thanks to the 16:10 aspect ratio.
For gamers, that 165Hz refresh rate means animations are buttery smooth, especially in fast-paced shooters like Valorant or Apex Legends. Even moving the cursor across the desktop feels more responsive. There’s also support for NVIDIA G-Sync here, which comes in clutch to ensure that there’s no screen tearing, regardless of frame spikes or sudden drops.
Colour accuracy is another strong suit here. The panel covers 100% of the sRGB colour gamut, making it suitable for amateur content creators, photo editors, and even designers working with web-based colour standards. Viewing angles are solid too, thanks to the IPS panel, so colours don’t shift dramatically when seen from the sides. Additionally, at roughly 350 nits of peak brightness, the panel is great for indoor usage, though it may feel slightly dim outdoors or under direct sunlight. Still, this is fairly standard for laptops in this range.
Complimenting the display are the stereo bottom-firing speakers, enhanced with Nahimic Audio software, which helps tweak sound profiles. The speaker output is quite rich, and it has an overall wide soundstage, too. Obviously, you’d be better equipped with a good pair of gaming headphones for your sweaty sessions, but for binge-watching a TV series or enjoying that single-player title, the speakers work very well.
Ports and Webcam
The Legion Slim 5 is a slimmer laptop compared to most gaming laptops in its price range, which explains the name “Slim”. That said, unlike many thin gaming laptops that compromise on ports, this one gives buyers precisely what they need for gaming and productivity.
Starting on the left side, the laptop features two USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports, both supporting DisplayPort 1.4. The one closer to the user also supports USB Power Delivery up to 140W, which is fantastic. There’s also a 3.5mm audio combo jack on this side, offering easy access for wired headphones or microphones.
Then, over to the rear, you’ll find two USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet (RJ45) port for stable, low-latency wired internet, an HDMI 2.1 port, and the proprietary power input. Having these ports on the back makes sense since it helps keep cables out of sight for a tidier setup.
Finally, on the right side, things stay minimal but useful. There’s a physical E-Shutter switch that instantly disables the webcam for extra privacy and a full-sized SD card reader. Because the panel is well-calibrated, a card reader will definitely appeal to most content creators.
There’s also a 1080p Full HD webcam at the top, hidden inside the reverse notch. The higher resolution is nice to have since the results do turn out nice, as long as you have enough lighting. The HDR performance isn’t that great, and there is still a lot of graininess here, similar to most other gaming laptops. Nonetheless, it should still suffice for the average video call, be it on Zoom or Discord.
Keyboard and Touchpad
I’ve gone on record to state that outside of the premium mechanical keyboard that MSI offers on their Titan lineup, my personal favourite keyboard on a gaming laptop is that on any Legion laptop. It’s nice to know that the same quality is present in the Legion Slim 5. Whether you’re hammering out emails, gaming late into the night, or navigating spreadsheets, the keyboard here feels solid, comfortable, and reliable.
The keys have decent travel and tactile feedback, which makes typing feel satisfying without being too stiff or too mushy. The layout is full-sized and complete with a dedicated number pad. The arrow keys are also well separated, making them easy to hit accurately, especially for gamers who rely on quick directional inputs.
As for lighting, there’s four-zone RGB backlighting. While not per-key RGB as you’d find on higher-end Legion Pro models, it still lets users personalize their lighting for different moods or setups. One thing I would like to highlight, though, is that animations here are kinda sluggish, so I’d recommend opting for static lighting.
Then there’s the touchpad. Owing to the fact that there are full-sized arrow keys, the touchpad is a bit more towards the left side. Thankfully, the palm rejection works well, and it’s adequately sized too, so no complaints there. It’s also got a tactile clickbar, which means that the click response is solid and not overly loud, making it feel just right for casual usage.
Of course, for your gaming needs, you will be using a dedicated gaming mouse. For general purposes, such as when you’re browsing the web or editing photos in Lightroom, the experience here is smooth and fuss-free.
Performance and Battery Life
Alright, so let’s talk about performance now. Our unit here has an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor coupled with 16GB DDR5-5600 RAM. There’s the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU with a 140W TGP, though there’s also the AMD Radeon 780M graphics for using the laptop on battery. As for storage, there’s a 1TB NVMe Gen 4 SSD from SK Hynix, and as you can see, there are no complaints about its performance.
Internally, Lenovo also offers an additional M.2 PCIe Gen 4 x4 slot, meaning you can add another SSD without sacrificing this one. The same goes for the RAM, with an additional RAM slot. There’s also the dual-fan cooling setup, coupled with a trio of shared heat pipes and an extra heat pipe for the GPU.
All of this works together seamlessly to keep the system cool while delivering impressive performance. To get a better idea of just how well it performs, I ran the laptop through our standard set of synthetic benchmarks, and the results speak for themselves. The Ryzen 7 8845HS showed strong single-core performance in Cinebench R23, Cinebench R24, and Geekbench 6, making it a solid choice for gaming and lightly threaded tasks.
For a clearer picture, I compared it directly to the Lenovo LOQ 15IRX9 (review), which features the Intel Core i7-14700HX. While AMD holds a slight edge in single-core performance, Intel pulls ahead when it comes to multi-core performance. That’s primarily due to Intel’s hybrid architecture. Even though both chips have eight performance cores, the i7-14700HX also includes 12 efficiency cores, giving it more threads to work with in heavily multi-threaded workloads.
Moving on to the GPU, this is where things get interesting. Unlike some budget laptops that come with the lower-wattage version of this GPU (which maxes out at 115W), this model features a higher 140W TGP variant. That extra wattage translates to more consistent frame rates, better thermals, and a noticeable edge in GPU performance, as you can see in 3DMark’s results below.
These impressive benchmark scores carry over into real-world gaming performance as well. In demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Alan Wake 2, and Forza Horizon 5, the laptop consistently delivers over 60FPS at native 1600p resolution on Ultra settings, especially with DLSS enabled. Furthermore, for gamers who prefer smoother gameplay over sharper visuals, lowering the resolution to 1080p unlocks the panel’s full 165Hz refresh rate potential.
For example, Cyberpunk 2077 averages around 70FPS at native WQXGA, but when dropped to 1080p, performance jumps to a fluid 93 FPS on Ultra. Tweaking a few settings down to High can easily push that past 120FPS, perfect for competitive play or just smoother overall responsiveness. That said, one outlier in testing was GTA V. Despite its age, the game hovered under 100 FPS on average, which feels oddly low given the hardware. However, this seems to be an isolated case, as every other title tested ran exceptionally well.
Similar to the synthetic benchmarks, the Legion Slim 5 has an edge over the LOQ in gaming performance as well. You can see that in both Forza Horizon 5 and Cyberpunk 2077, the Legion performs noticeably better. Keep in mind that these are at 1080p resolution with all settings at the maximum.
Alternatively, if you want to compare performance at 1600p resolution, I’ve also compared it with the ASUS TUF Gaming A14 (review), which also features an RTX 4060 GPU, but at a much lower 100W TGP. Once again, the Legion Slim comes out on top, easily showcasing that a higher TGP makes a lot of difference.
Naturally, a higher GPU TGP usually translates to lower battery life. The Legion Slim 5, however, manages to work around that limitation quite smartly, thanks to NVIDIA Optimus. This feature intelligently switches between the power-hungry RTX 4060 and the integrated Radeon 780M graphics to help conserve battery when the laptop isn’t plugged in. That said, the switching process isn’t exactly instant. While many laptops handle this transition in a blink, the Legion takes a noticeably longer time, around 10 seconds in my testing, to switch between GPUs. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it’s something to be aware of, especially if frequently unplugging and replugging.
The good news? The battery life is actually quite respectable for a gaming machine with this much power. The 80Wh battery handles everyday tasks like web browsing, writing, streaming, and light editing for around 5 hours on a single charge. That’s a solid result for a laptop in this category. In the PCMark 10 Battery Video Loop test, it managed 5 hours and 18 minutes, which puts it ahead of many similarly-specced rivals.
Charging is also pleasantly quick. The included 230W Slim Tip charger supports Lenovo’s Rapid Charge, which gets the battery from 0 to 50% in just 30 minutes—perfect for topping up during a short break or while grabbing coffee.
Alternatively, for lighter use on the go, the laptop also supports USB-C Power Delivery up to 140W. While you’ll need to buy a compatible high-wattage charger separately (and they aren’t exactly cheap), it’s a convenient option if you want to carry just one charger for your laptop, phone, and other USB-C gadgets. Just remember that for gaming or any GPU-heavy workload, you’ll still need the full 230W brick to unlock the RTX 4060’s full performance.
Verdict
For a little over Rs. 1.4 lakhs, the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 16AHP9 is one of those rare gaming laptops that manage to strike the right balance between raw power, portability, and everyday usability. It delivers high-end performance thanks to its combo of the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor and full-powered RTX 4060 GPU (140W TGP), all while maintaining a comparatively slim and travel-friendly form factor. The high-resolution 16-inch 165Hz display is vibrant and sharp, while features like good port selection, decent battery life, and upgradeable internals add to its appeal. It’s ideal for gamers, students, and creators looking for a powerful yet versatile machine.
However, those on a tighter budget might want to consider the Lenovo LOQ 15AHP9, which offers similar specs but with a 1080p screen and a lower-TGP GPU, making it more affordable, albeit slightly less capable. Alternatively, you can also check out the ASUS TUF Gaming A15 FA507UV. It has the same CPU and 140W RTX 4060 GPU but does come with a lower resolution FHD display, with an even lower brightness of just 250 nits. Put everything into perspective, the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 is pretty well-priced and is a great option when you factor in a bank offer.
Editor’s Rating: 8.5 / 10
Pros:
- Powerful CPU + 140W TGP RTX 4060 GPU
- Sharp 165Hz WQXGA 16:10 display
- Solid port selection
- Upgradeable RAM and dual SSD slots
Cons:
- No per-key RGB lighting
- GPU switching takes time