Specification of Lenovo Legion 5 2022 15IAH7H

Design and Build Quality of Lenovo Legion 5 2022

The 2022 Legion 5 adds a metal lid cover, while the rest of the case is polycarbonate plastic. It has a matte finish. The metal lid reduces the flex compared to the last year’s plastic lid. Being a mid-tier segment, the chassis does have a bit of flex to it compared to the high-end Legion 7 series. While Lenovo has managed to make the 2022 model a bit more compact than the previous generation, the weight remains around 2.4 kg, considering it has a metal lid cover in the new model. Being a full-sized laptop and that too a gaming laptop, keep in mind this is still a slightly oversized machine with a dimension of 14.13 x 10.33 x 0.79 inches. This makes it slightly heavier and bulkier to some of the competitors but not considerably more.

The lid can be opened with a single hand. The little projection on the top housing the fullHD webcam, makes it easier to open. The hinges are stable and can do 180 degrees flat lay of the display.

Most of the IO ports are placed towards the back behind the screen, which in my opinion is good, and is also unobtrusive. You get a LAN port, another USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2), an HDMI 2.1 connector, two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, and the power connector at the back.

On the right, there is a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port and an Audio jack. Also you find the e-shutter physical switch for the webcam here.

And to the left, there is a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port with DisplayPort 1.4 output, as well as a USB4

At the bottom, there is the ventilation grill and the speaker cutouts. The heat exhaust happens through two vents on the back and one on each side of the laptop. The footers are prominent and keep the laptop fixed in position when placed on the table.

Keyboard and Touchpad of Lenovo Legion 5 2022

Typing on Legion 5 is very comfortable and well, am typing this review right on this machine now. It has a full-size key and the spaced well. It has a Num-pad section and full-sized arrow keys as well. There is an array of function buttons on the top. The power button with a LED light is placed at the middle on top above the keyboard deck. The power button LED shines in blue, white or red depending on the performance mode you select.

The keyboard has an RGB backlit. There are 4 zones for illumination, and a profile in the Lenovo vantage software to customize it along with other lighting effects. There is no light-dimming button on the keyboard. You need to fiddle with the software for the tweaks.

The touchpad is quite big with a size of 75 by 120mm. Its Mylar surface is smooth, the tracking is good, and the response time is super quick, which is further aided by the 165Hz display.

Speakers, Webcam and Biometrics

There is a fullHD webcam housed in the small projection on top of the display, flanked by microphones. There is no privacy shutter for the webcam, but it can be electronically disabled by a press of a switch, which is found in the right side of the laptop. There is no fingerprint sensor or face recognition.

Display of Lenovo Legion 5 2022

The configuration of the Legion 5i 2022 we got for testing has a Quad-HD 165Hz IPS panel with a 15.6-inch size. It has a matte finish. The resolution is 2560 x 1440 pixels with a pixel density of 188 ppi. The screen ratio is 16:9. Do note Lenovo offers many display options in the series.

The viewing angles are excellent. The display as mentioned earlier can be flat-laid. The maximum brightness is around 390 nits in the middle. The display has a 97% sRGB, 71.6% DCI-P3, 73.8% AdobeRGB. The panel has GSync and Advanced Optimus support.

The panel is good for daily use and the 160Hz in my model makes it good for gaming too with good response time.

Performance of Lenovo Legion 5i

Lenovo has refreshed the intel lineup with the 12th gen. The machine I have is powered by Intel Core i7-12700H, with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, 16 GB of DDR5-4800 memory in dual channel, and 1 TB of GB of fast SSD storage. The graphics are handled by Nvidia RTX 3060 dGPU with 6 GB of vRAM and the Iris Xe iGPU integrated within the Intel processor.

A MUX is offered here, with several modes including dGPU-only or Advanced Optimus (several Hybrid modes). Switching to dGPU requires a restart while opting between the Hybrid modes does not.

For those who are interested in the synthetic benchmark tests, I have run a few tests for you and also benchmarked the FarCry 5 and Forza 5. Please note these tests are run on balance mode, and it might be notch higher score on performance mode.

In PCMark 10 test, it delivered a score of 7195 in the Timespy test. In 3DMark test, it returned a healthy 9344 score.

In the FarCry 5 benchmark test, it returned an average FPS of 125.

In Forza Horizon 4, the average FPS achieved was 81 fps.

The gaming performance is as expected for a high-power RTX 3060 laptop in 2022.

Lenovo has taken care of thermals with a two fans, four radiators and four heatpipes, there is an extra heatpipe for the GPU. Plus, there are radiator shields on top off RAM modules, SSDs and even the WiFi card. Legion 5 2022 manages a good thermal control for the gaming segment laptop. While playing game in balance mode, the thermal around the keyboard deck was manageable and was under 40 degree, it was only at the back bottom, you see it raises to 50 degree.

The read and write speed has pretty impressive results in the CrustalDisk Mark test.

Lenovo Vantage software

The Lenovo Vantage app is the one-stop place to access power profiles, updates, and other settings. The power profiles are Quiet, Balanced, and Performance, and you can select them from Vantage or switch between them with Fn+Q. Performance is only available with the laptop plugged into the wall. These profiles apply different power settings to the CPU/GPU and different fan profiles. The RGB illumination lighting can also be tweaked with various presets here.

There are three thermal mode settings – performance mode, which works when AC adapter is plugged in and delivers the maximum performance. It also gets noisier a bit since it runs on higher fan speed but helps in better thermal management too when you engage in full-throttle gaming.

Battery

My model of Legion 5 comes with an 80 Wh battery. The display panel is 165Hz and if you want more battery life you can manually set the refresh rate to 60Hz if battery life is your priority, you might end up with a bit more battery juice. The power brick is a chunky one, weighing around 1.2kg, adding considerably more to your travel weight. It is a 300W power brick. Alternatively, you can also use a 135W USB-C charger but optimal performance might be hampered with the USB charger while gaming. In my video loop test, I barely got 2 hours of battery life, which is disappointing. So basically it works, if you use it majorly on desk, connected to power.

Lenovo Legion 5i (2022 ) Review – Verdict

Overall, the Legion 5i is a good mid-tier gaming laptop that won’t disappoint you in gaming and also other intense use cases. It is a full-sized laptop, slightly oversized and a bit heavy at 2.4kg. It also comes with a chunky power brick, though you can use a type C charger.

What is Good

• Good inputs, IO and ergonomics
• Good performance.
• Comfortable keys
• Good display for gaming with 165Hz

What is bad

• Bit bulkier and heavy but it is expected being a gaming laptop
• Chunky power brick
• Poor battery life.

MSI GF75 Thin 10SC Specifications

• Processor: Intel Core i5-10300H, Comet Lake-H
• Memory: 8GBgb RAM @ 1600Mhz, single channel, DDR4 SDRAM , expandable upto 64GB
• Storage : 512 NVMe
• Graphics: GeForce GTX™ 1060 GPU with 4GB GDDR6 SDRAM
• Display : 17.3″ FHD (1920*1080), IPS-level TN display,144Hz , 45% NTSC
• Keyboard: Steelseries RED Backlit Keyboard
• I/O Port: 1x Type-C USB 3.2 Gen1, 3x Type-A USB3.2 Gen1, 1x RJ45, 1x (4K @ 30Hz) HDMI
• Battery: 51 WHrs
• Webcam: Yes
• 2.2 kg
• Operating System: Windows 10 Home

Design and Build quality

The lid is the first thing one notice in a laptop, the brushed metal finish of the MSI laptop along with their unique logo of a red dragon on a red shield has an appealing stance. Most of the parts are made of metal and the machine has a solid feel and presence though at 2.2kg, it is bit on heavier side to be carried around at ease. It follows angular design approach. The lid top edges are slightly angled. Considering this is a large 17-inch laptop, the GF75 thin, still manages well on its dimensions and weight distribution.

The bottom side has a very sci-fi style air ventilation cutouts. It gives a glimpse of the copper pipes and heat sinks under the hood for thermal controls. The screws are easily accessible to give access to the inside. The rubber footings are firm and give stability to the machine. The speaker grills are also placed down here.

On the right side, we get a lock, headphone jack, mic input, Type-A USB3.2 Gen1, one Type C USB 3.2 port, Ethernet port.

Towards the left, you get power input, HDMI port and two more Type-A USB3.2 Gen1 ports and a battery status LED.

Moving to the back you get two large exhaust vents at both ends. In addition to these two, there are also two more one each at the sides of the laptop.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Being a 17″ laptop, you get a wider keyboard deck but I feel MSI could have put the deck area to better use. The power button is aligned to the centre of the top edge of the deck. The idea of MSI seem to be to pull the keyboard closer to the user, which leaves a large unutilized area on the top. The trackpad though is not centered and is aligned towards the left. The keyboard is not bad, they have included NumberPad with half-sized keys. The Arrow keys are just crammed into the rest of the keyboard. I kept pressing the up keys many times instead of the intended Shift key.

There are an array of function keys that include an Fn key to shut off the webcam, shift to eco mode, etc. I was bit disappointed with the Trackpad, would have preferred a larger pad considering the size of the laptop and also aligned to the centre and too close to the edges as well. The two buttons at the bottom of the pad are too small for comfortable use. Nevertheless, the pad itself is responsive enough.

Display of MSI GF75 Thin

MSI states their display as “IPS-level”, a monicker which basically implies it is not IPS but IPS grade TN panel. To give due credit to them, the panel is unlike most TN panels I have seen. They are good. MSI GF75 Thin 10SC is equipped with a Full HD 144Hz panel. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 127 ppi. The viewing angles are adequate. The contrast ratio is good. The brightness works out to around 270 nits on average. Its display covers only 50% of the sRGB.

Biometrics and Webcam

There are no biometrics at work here. The display houses a 720p webcam at the top. There is a Fn key shortcut to disable the webcam when not in use.

Performance of MSI GF75

The machine I got here is powered by Intel i5 10th gen {Core i5-10300H), with 8GB of RAM and combined with GTX 1650 GPU. You can also find options with Core i5-10500H and also push further with Core i7-10750H. The laptop I received is a respectable config for budget gaming and content creation work. I mean for the price it is available now, it performance ratio works in favour of the machine. For those who like to know the synthetic benchmark scores, you can thank me later. I got the CrystalMark test, PC Mark 10 test, 3D Mark test and VRMark test results.

Moving to the real-life use scenario, I am pretty impressed with what I could do with the machine. I did a couple of test video editing, photoshop work and it was a handy machine for those needs. For budget gamers, this could again cheer them.

Battery life of MSI GF75 10SC

There is a 51Whr battery. In my video loop test, running a 1080p video at 50% volume, it exhausted 100% battery to 0% in around 3 hours 45 mins.

Verdict of MSI GF75 10SC

The MSI GF75 10SC is a good laptop option for budget gamers who are looking at a 17″ laptop without having to dig deep into the bank balance.

Pros

• Good sturdy build quality
• Decent display
• Good peformance for budget gamers and content creators
• Value for money
• Good thermal control
• Good weight ratio for a 17″ laptop

Cons

• No biometrics
• Small trackpad
• Only 50% of the sRGB color gamut
• Mediocre battery life
• No SD card reader

What is in the box

The device was rather bulky with good foam padding to ensure damage during shipping is highly unlikely. Inside the box you get the Legion 5 wrapped in a black protective cloth, some documents and a 170W power brick.

Lenovo Legion 5 Ryzen 5 4600H Specifications:

• Processor: Ryzen 5 4600H @3GHz
• Memory: 8GB RAM @ 1600Mhz, single channel
• Storage : 256GB NVMe (Micron), 1TB SATA (WDC)
• Display : 15.6-inch IPS 120Hz Full HD (1920×1080) display
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650Ti with 4GB GDDR5 VRAM
• Design:
• Keyboard: White backlight, 4 zone RGB optional,
• I/O Port: USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 (always on), 3 x USB-A 3.1 Gen 1, USB-C 3.1 (DisplayPort™), HDMI 2.0, RJ45 ethernet, Mic/headphone combo, Kensington lock slot, Audio jack
• Speaker: 2 x 2W Harman Kardon speaker system, Dolby Atmos headphone support
• Battery: 4 cells, 60Wh battery
• 802.11 ax | Bluetooth 5
• 720p webcam
• 2.3kg, 22-24mm
• Operating System: Windows 10 Home
• Software Included: Office Home and Student 2019

Design and Build Quality of Legion 5

Lenovo has carried forward the design profile from its predecessor, the Legion Y540 generation. Entirely built on plastic including the lid and bottom, it weighs around 2.30 kg and measures 22mm in the thinnest point and 24mm at its thickest. The lid can also be lifted by a single hand. It is a bit bulky as expected from most gaming laptops that include all those extra thermal precautions.

The branding are subtle and not flamboyant but still prominent. There is a small ‘Lenovo’ badge and a subtle but bigger ‘Legion’ branding at top edge. Both the branding are seen when you open the lid too beneath the display and on keyboard deck.

The build quality is pretty solid but I could still notice a slight flex on the main deck area. The keyboard deck area has a rubbery texture to it, which actually feels good when resting hand. It has a matte finish and less prone to fingerprints. Since I been using the machine for a week now, it is too early to know if the rubbery finish would have any visible marks in due course of use. I have a feeling it might be prone to it.

The side bezels are thin but the bottom bezels is prominent with the Legion branding. At the top the bezels widens a bit where the webcam is housed. This gives the little extra space for the physical shutter assembly. Yes, you can safely close the webcam with a shutter lid when not in use.

The bottom has an interesting looking round circular cutouts covered by a mesh, the sides and back has air exhaust vents. There are large rubber footers at the bottom that makes sure the laptop stays properly grounded at desk.

Talking about the ports, most of it are aligned at the back.The charging plug, an HDMI 2.0 connector, two USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) ports, one USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) port with DisplayPort 1.2 functionality, and an RJ-45 connector all finds a place here.

On the left side, you find USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) port which is always on and a headphone jack

And to the right, USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) port Both the sides have air vent cutouts.

Display of Legion 5

The lid opens full 180-degree movement to a flat down position. The display is a 15.6 inch IPS panel with 1920 х 1080 pixels resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. The panel has a matte finish, which I normally prefer over glossy screens. The screen ratio is 16:9 and offers a pixel density of 142 ppi. Viewing angles are fine. The display offers 280 nits brightness. The display covers 58% and 39% of sRGB and DCI-P3 colour space respectively. The contrast ratio is decent. I did not notice any backlight screen flickering. The display is slightly underwhelming especially when playing games like Far Cry 5.

Speakers , Webcam and Biometrics

There are two speakers on either sides of the laptop. Its a pair of 20W speakers tuned by Harmon Kardon. The audio is cleaner. I have no complaints about the speakers they are better than the average laptop speakers. There is a 720p webcam on top like I mentioned earlier with a physical camera shutter. There are no fingerprint or face login options available for biometrics.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Being a full-sized laptop, the keyboard deck has ample space to accommodate a full-blown keyboard complete with full-sized arrow keys and a number pad. The key travel is good for a gaming laptop with adequate clicky feedback. This is one of the most comfortable keyboards I have come across lately. There is a quick fan control shortcut that can be accessed by Fn key + Q key , that toggles between three modes – Quiet, Auto and Performance. The power button is positioned at the center above the keyboard. It has a soft white LED light when powered on. There is a bit of noticeable flex on the keyboard deck which was surprising since visually, the machine looks solidly built.

There is a fairly large touchpad. There are no visible physical buttons on the pad but it is underneath the surface, so you just see a rectangular pad. The touchpad is made of Mylar, a material that is more shatter-resistant than glass which is often used on laptops.

Performance of Legion 5

A good thermal management is expected of any gaming laptops worth it salt, which contributes to the bulkiness in general of the machines. Lenovo has done a good job here. There are two big metal plates shielding the VRMs and the graphic cards. They have thrown in three heat pipes, one each for CPU and GPU and another shared between them. There are additional four heat spreaders. All this effectively gives a good thermal control to the machine while gaming.

For those who would like to pour through synthetic benchmark scores, I got it covered here for you. On 3D Mark standard Time Spy test, it hit a score of 3402. On PC Mark 10 test, the result was 3342.

On CrystalMark read write test, it showed 3386.31 MB/s on read test and 1451.94 MB/s on write test.

Both the Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 models are equipped with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti graphics cards. This might not be the latest graphics card to get but it is a tried and tested card and which offers decently good performance for a competitively priced gaming laptop. For the price range especially the Ryzen 5 which I got here is positioned it does a remarkable job with gaming. In my Far Cry 5 gaming, 64 fps in normal graphics and around 55 fps in ultra settings, which is a respectable gaming performance for this segment. The thermal management kicks in nicely, I did not find any alarming heating happening during gaming. Overall, it was a good machine for gaming.

Verdict:

In India, the Legion 5 powered by Ryzen 5 4600H is available around Rs 67,000. For this price, the Legion 5 does pretty well as a gaming laptop. It also can double up as a capable work laptop.

Pros of Legion 5

• Good performance
• Value for money gaming laptop
• Good port assortment
• Good thermal management
• Physical shutter for webcam
• Good keyboard layout

Cons of Legion 5

• No SD card reader
• sRGB and DCI-P3 colour gamut on the lower range

Box contents:

ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 TM420UA Specifications:

• Processor: AMD Ryzen™ 5 5500U Processor, 2.1 GHz Base Speed, Up to 4.0 GHz Max Boost Speed, 6 cores, 12 Threads, 11MB Cache
• Memory: 8GB (4GB onboard + 4GB SO-DIMM) DDR4 3200MHz, Upgradeable Up to 12GB using 1x DDR4 SO-DIMM slot
• Storage : 512GB M.2 NVMe™ PCIe® 3.0 SSD from Samsung
• Display : 14.0-inch (35.56 cms) FHD (1920 x 1080) 16:9, LED Backlit LCD, 250nits, Touch screen, Glossy IPS-level Panel, 45% NTSC, 82% Screen-to-Body Ratio
• Graphics: Integrated AMD Radeon™ Graphics
• Design: 0.7 inch Thin | Metallic Lid | Laptop weight: 1.50 kg
• Keyboard: Backlit Chiclet Keyboard
• I/O Port: : 1x USB 2.0 Type-A | 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A | 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C | 1x DC-in | Micro SD 4.0 card reader | 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack | 1x HDMI 1.4
• Other : Built-in speaker | Built-in array microphone | FingerPrint Sensor | 720p HD camera
• Wifi 6 | Bluetooth 4.2
• Operating System: Windows 10 Home
• Software Included: Office Home and Student 2019

Design and Build Quality of VivoBook Flip 14

Asus comes in what the company states as Bespoke Black, an all-black affair. The construction is primarily plastic but has a metallic lid, likely an aluminium alloy. At the price it comes with the extra bells and whistles, we can overlook the absence of all metallic finish here. Visually, the laptop looks good. There is an Asus Vivobook logo in the silver finish on the top lid, and chrome trim around the touchpad. There is one odd choice in the design though, the Enter key is outlined and lettered in lime green, which is a baffling design element since there is no other reference to the colour elsewhere.

This Flip 14 weighs 1.5kg and measures 0.7 inches in thickness. This one is clearly not in the nomination for thinnest and lightest laptop out there. The laptop shows signs of flex in the slightest of pressure especially at the bottom and the keyboard deck. Nevertheless, aesthetically this is a well made machine. But just handle it with care.

With a screen-to-body ratio of 82%, the bezels are slightly prominent, unlike the more premium models. But for a 2-in-1 machine, I would again not nitpicking at it much especially for the price it comes at. Asus has used their 360-degree ErgoLift hinge mechanism here, which lifts the keyboard deck to a more comfortable typing angle. I also expected this angle to provide for better air circulation for air vents but there are no air vents at the bottom. There is a cutout at the left side which is for air exhaustion, the air is drawn in via the keyboard. The hinge is a bit stiff so the lid needs two hands to fully open.

The hinge though helps in the 2-in-1 actions – clamshell, tent, media, and tablet modes.

Ports on VivoBook Flip 14

On the left side, next to the large exhaust cutout, there is a Kingston security lock, and a single USB Type-A 2.0 port.

on the right, you’ll find the charging port, an HDMI connector, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 2) port, a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port, an audio jack, a MicroSD card reader, and the Power button,

Display of VivoBook Flip 14

The Flip 14 has a touchscreen Full HD IPS display. Its viewing angles are excellent. Brightness is just around 240 nits. The contrast is 720:1. Coverage of the Adobe RGB gamut came in at just 50%, and of the sRGB gamut at just 66%. These readings don’t excite me much but in the budget segment, we have many competitors offering similar displays. So this is definitely not an odd man standing in the crowd. If you are not a content creator, who is picky about the colour accuracy on the screen, you should be fine with your regular diet of browsing, watching videos etc. I watched a couple of videos, and it was not a terrible display for watching movies.

Speakers

There are two downward-firing speakers tuned by Harman Kardon. The speakers can get loud but tend to crack at volume above 80%. The audio is not rich, it lacks bass but the clarity is good and has good sound separations. Again, for your work video calls, random videos on Youtube these should suffice but for long immersive listening, you can pick a good pair of headphones or Bluetooth speakers.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard layout is good, it has got a backlight. The keys have 1.4mm key travel. Personally, I found it comfortably for typing with its clicky feedback and decent key travel. The Fn+F key combination toggles between Whisper, Balanced and Performance modes. The backlight can be turned off and additionally there are three brightness levels. The F10 key acts as a camera disable toggle. There is also a hotkey to take you to the MyAsus page that offers more insights and customization, which I will talk about below.

The touchpad is a bit small, but there is not much room either in the deck to accommodate a larger one. The touchpad also includes the fingerprint reader in the right-hand upper corner. The touchpad supports Windows 10 multitouch gestures.

Stylus

Out of the box, you also get an Asus active stylus pen. It comes with a convenient magnet sleeve that helps to latch the pen to the metallic lid. The addition of a stylus would be appreciated by those who love doodling and scribble notes. It gives a natural pen-like feel and is responsive. It is also pressure sensitive something you would appreciate while drawing.

Biometrics

Like I just mentioned above, there is a fingerprint reader positioned on the upper right corner of the touchpad. It works quick and supports Windows Hello Fingerprint. I have no complaints about this sensor. While there is a camera on the display, the face login is not supported on this machine, so no Windows Hello Face sign in.

Performance of Asus Vivobook Flip 14

The machine am testing is powered by Ryzen 5 5500U CPU, you also get Ryzen 7 option in this series. The review unit I received had 8GB of RAM, there are two slots. One has a 4GB soldered on the motherboard, the other has a 4GB plugged, which can be swapped for an 8GB chip if needed and increase your RAM to 12GB. Some markets also have a customization option for a maximum of 16GB. For this segment, I was quiet impressed with the performance. Though, it depends on the kind of action you want to put on this laptop.

If benchmark scores interest you, here are some stats. PC Mark 10-returned a score of 4890. In 3D Mark Spy Test, it showed an overall 1111 score, with a CPU score of 4904 and graphics 978. In the CrystalDiskMark test for read and write speed, it delivered 1813 MB/s read speed and 1312 MB/s write speed on the default test.

Synthetic tests aside, let me tell you how Flip 14 fares in real-world performance. The Ryzen 5 I feel outshines its Intel counterparts. The CPU performance is very impressive in productivity app usages. Like, I could even edit 4K video clips on Premiere Pro with some effects thrown in, if I have to use this machine for some edit on the go. I had no issues with my other office tasks working on the Microsoft Office suite of apps. It really stood up for the everyday tasks. Where it could let down is if you push it for graphic-intensive tasks. The Integrated AMD Radeon™ Graphics is not aimed at gaming. I was over-ambitious when I tried to play Far Cry 5, which it clearly stuttered, not playable. Though you should be able to play multiplayer online games like Fortnight and PUBG, though not at an intense level. If you are a casual player, you could pass through. Though, this machine fits perfectly for my work use and for content consumption.

MyAsus Sofware

Asus has bundled their MyAsus software with the laptop. There is Link to MyAsus feature for quick file transfer, screen sharing between two devices including your Smartphone. It also helps to access your phone from the convenience of PC including making calls and opening mobile apps from here. The customization section allows you to play around with the various battery and performance modes, sound and display settings. There is also this nifty Wifi SmartConnect feature to automatically connect to the wireless router with the best signal.

Battery life of VivoBook Flip 14

I was quite happy with the battery life I managed on this machine. In my video loop test, where I played Tears of Steel 720p clip on 50% brightness and 70% volume, the Flip 14 lasted close to 9 hours. Even in my mixed real-life use, I could get 8+ hours, which is still impressive. The Flip 14 is equipped with 42WHrs, 3S1P, 3-cell Li-ion battery. It supports fast charging with 60% battery topped in 49 minutes.

Verdict:

The Asus VivoBook 14 is a good everyday machine. Barring heavy gaming, it is quiet good on performance level for your CPU intensive tasks. Being a 2-in-1 convertible with touch screen, it is also a decent package for content consumption on the go.

Pros of Asus Vivobook Flip 14

• Decent performance for productivity apps
• Good battery life
• The convenience of 2-in-1 convertible
• Responsive touch screen
• Fingerprint sensor
• Active stylus pen bundled
• Upgradable RAM and storage
• Good thermals

Cons of Asus Vivobook Flip 14

• Bit of flex in the chassis
• Color accuracy could have been better

HP Envy 15 ep0123tx Specifications:

• Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-10750H (2.6 GHz base frequency, up to 5 GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology, 12 MB L3 cache, 6 cores)
• Graphics adapter: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1660 Ti with Max-Q design (6 GB GDDR6 dedicated)
• Memory:  16 GB DDR4-2933 SDRAM (2 x 8 GB)
• Display: 39.6 cm (15.6″) diagonal, FHD (1920 x 1080), IPS, micro-edge, anti-glare, 300 nits, 72% NTSC
• Storage:  1 TB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD
• Networking: Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 (2×2) and Bluetooth® 5 combo
• Battery: 6-cell, 83 Wh Li-ion polymer cell
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10
• Camera: HP Wide Vision HD camera, IR Thermal sensor
• Audio: Audio by Bang & Olufsen; Dual speakers; HP Audio Boost 2.0
• Size: 35.79 x 23.68 x 1.84 cm
• Weight:  2.14 kg
• Ports: 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2, USB-C (Thunderbolt + DP + Power Delivery), SD card reader, HDMI, Headphone / mic combo

What’s in the box?

The laptop and a 83Wh power adapter and some paper manuals.

Design and Build Quality of HP Envy 15

My very first laptop I owned is an HP, so I been following them for quite a long period. When it comes to design, they are a bit restrained but they mean business. You will not find yourself out of place carrying an HP machine. They can blend well.

The device sports a clean design with aluminium chassis. The silver-grey tone comes out well for a classic look. When I weighed it, the scale tipped at 1.997 kg. It looks well chiselled with aggressive lines and corners. It gives a comforting good build vibe. There is the HP logo on the top lid, the lid itself is easier to lift with a single finger, which I have struggled with on many laptops.

The back hinge has ENVY branding subtly etched with a clean line drawn horizontally for aesthetics.

The backside is angled at three sides at the edges. The speakers are housed at the angled edges on the bottom sides. The dual speakers are tuned by Bang & Olufsen. There is a large vent for the airflow. There are two long rubber footers to enable space beneath for air circulation and also avoid scratches at the bottom.

The bezels are thin and the black colour bezels strike a good contrast with the silver-grey body tone. The top bezels house a webcam, there is no physical shutter in the bezel area but the privacy shutter can be enabled via a dedicated button on the keyboard. Nevertheless, it is a physical shutter and not software that disables the camera, you can actually see a plastic veil that closes the camera when you click the button.

Ports

Talking about the ports, on the left side you got a power jack, USB Type A port, HDMI 2.0a, two USB Type C ports (Thunderbolt 3) and a SD card reader.

The right side offers a Type A port and an audio and mic combo. There is an air vent too here.

Display of HP Envy 15

• 15.6-inch IPS panel, 300 nits brightness, 72% NTSC
• 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution
• No touchscreen control

The variant I got here has a full-HD IPS panel, though the series also offers a full-blown 4K OLED panel. The display offers an anti-glare coating, which I prefer over reflective panels. You won’t have to worry about any light source behind you to distract your viewing. The 300 nits brightness proved to be sufficient for my daily use. The viewing angles are good, I worked on it for some days writing articles, watching movies and it catered well to my requirements.

Speakers

When you open the lid, you see a grille design on either side of the keyboard and most likely you would assume it would be speaker grille. I did but it is not. The actual speakers are at the bottom like I mentioned earlier. This grille design flanking the keyboard gives a false impression. I am not sure what was the purpose for this may be aesthetics but I would have preferred a cleaner look. Coming to the actual speaker, it’s a dual speaker tuned by Bang & Olufsen. There is a Bang & Olufsen audio control that gives you a 10 band equalizer along with many presets, noise cancellation feature and other general controls. The speaker output has a very good clarity and sharpness, though lacks a bit of bass which you can control by dabbling on the equalizer to your liking.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Being a large 15.6 inch display laptop, there is a lot of room for accommodating a good keyboard. HP has done exactly that. Though, I had to get used to many of the special function keys baked into the keyboard right from the camera shutter key to the fingerprint sensor and power button. I like the font HP uses on their keyboard. The keys are well spaced and are comfortable to use without jumping at the wrong key. The travel length is pretty good too. There is a white backlight for the keys which can be activated by the F4 fn key. It also has two levels of brightness.

The touchpad is large enough for use. It supports Windows gestures. I am a mouse guy but you can get away with the touchpad if you are not carrying it or fine with this.

Biometrics

The HP Envy 15 supports Windows Hello Fingerprint login but not Windows Hello face. The fingerprint scanner as I mentioned earlier is tucked in the last row of the keyboard. I personally prefer the scanner in the touchpad but you can get used to this once you start using it daily. The scanner is very accurate and reliable.

Performance of HP Envy 15 ep0123tx

The buck stops at the performance. So let’s find out what HP Envy 15 delivers. Under the hood, the variant I got is powered by an 10th-gen Intel Core i7-10750H CPU clocked at 2.6GHz. This is combined with a 16GB 2933MHz RAM, a 1TB NVMe SSD, and GTX 1660Ti GPU. The 10750H CPU maxes at 2933MHz RAM and that is on cards here. It’s a dual-channel RAM. There is always an option to further boost the RAM, in case you want to.

For most of us, this configuration would be good enough to sail through most use cases. As a content creator, I could even work on some of my premier pro video edits. Though if you are buying it for regular video edits and 4K, I would suggest you upgrade to 32GB RAM, if not for 4K 16GB should be good enough. This should be good at almost everything, unless you are a hardcore gamer, if that is your priority use case, you should really be considering a full-blown gaming laptop. It does not mean this machine cannot handle gaming, it can play comfortably well. I had no issues playing PUBG with graphics set to High. It tend to warm up a bit.

In the synthetic benchmark scores, PC Mark 10 delivered 4793 overall score.

Battery life of HP Envy 15 ep0123tx

The HP Envy 15 boast an 83Wh battery inside. The company claims 16 hours of battery life, which I initially rubbed off as a tall claim. Usually, I find the test results on lab conditions behave differently in real use cases. But I was pleasantly surprised, the laptop did indeed delivery a good battery life if not the 16 hours but it did manage really well. The battery test is a difficult thing to calculate on laptops since each one use case is very different, the way we put the hardware to use. But rest assured, this laptop gives better battery life than most others in its league.

Verdict:

If you want to mix work and play, wear your suit and carry it for work meetings, later loosen the tie and play games on it – this is a great machine for it.

Pros of HP Envy 15 ep0123tx

• Neat design
• Great battery life
• Dependable performance
• Good display with anti-glare
• physical shutter for webcam

Cons of HP Envy 15 ep0123tx

• No face login

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Specifications:

• Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-1035G1 @ 1.00GHz, Ice Lake-U 1190 Mhz 4 cores
• Motherboard slots: 4xPCI Express x1, 2xPCI Express x4
• Graphics adapter: NVIDIA® GeForce® MX350 2GB graphics
• Memory:  8 GB DDR4 SDRAM dual-channel
• Display: 35.56cms (14 inches) FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, 300 nits, 8 bits primary color
• Storage:  512GB NVMe Samsung SSD
• Networking: Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 Bluetooth 5.0
• Battery: 60.7 WHr Li-ion Battery, 4 cell
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home
• Camera: IR and HD 720P Webcam (with Fixed Focus)
• Audio: 2 x 2W front-facing Dolby Atmos^® Speaker System
• Size: 208.18 x 320.6 x 15.1 mm
• Weight:  1.436kg
• Ports: 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2, USB-C (Thunderbolt + DP + Power Delivery), SD card reader, HDMI, Headphone / mic combo

What’s in the box?

The laptop and a 65Wh USB Type-C charger and some paper manuals.

Design and Build Quality of Yoga Slim 7i

True to its name, the Yoga slim 7 is a light weight and ultra portable device. It is targeted at people who would constantly carry their laptops around, easy to fit into a bag and easy to pull out for a meeting in style. The Yoga Slim I got here is Slate Grey color – you also get couple of other color options but think few are market specific.

The body is made of Aluminium except for the bottom plate which is plastic. when I weighed it the scale tipped it at 1.436 kg. The screen lid is stiff, there is no noticeable flex. Even the keyboard area does not cave in and is quite rigid.

The top lid has a subtle Yoga and Lenovo branding placement. There is a slight protrusion on the middle of the front edge, to help you lift the lid. I found it bit of a struggle to open it with a single hand. That protrusion area also subtly mentions “Yoga series”

The bezels are thin (3mm on the sides, 7mm on the top), the top bezels houses a 720P webcam and also the IR camera is effective at face unlock which I will talk about in a while.

At the underside there is rubberized feet to give a very slight lift to the rear, allowing for a bit of air circulation to the vent below. Though the Slim 7 belongs to the Yoga family, do note that it does not have a 360-degree hinge to rotate the screen fully around, so the modes are limited. You lay the machine flat at the desk, 180 degrees.

Ports

The right side houses two Type-A USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports and a microSD card reader and the power button.

The left side assortments include an HDMI 2.0, and a Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 with Thunderbolt 3, plus the usual charging port (also Type-C USB) and a 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack. There is no ethernet port, so if you need it, you can deal with an adapter.

Display of Yoga Slim 7

• 14-inch IPS panel, 300 nits brightness
• 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution
• No touchscreen control

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 has a 14-inch IPS LCD screen. This is not a 4K screen but a very respectable 1080p panel. The display is glossy and a bit reflective. Lenovo says the panel has a brightness of 300 nits. In my actual tests, the display behaved very well. The viewing angles were good enough. At indoor lighting conditions, the colours were vibrant and I had nothing to complain about. Under direct sunlight, it was still manageable to work with.

Speakers

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 comes with dual speakers which are on either side of the keyboard. It’s a 2W Dolby Atmos-tuned speakers nicely placed under micro-drilled grilles. It has stereo support. For a built-in speaker for a laptop, the sound quality was adequate. It cranked up 84 decibels maximum at full volume.

Keyboard and Touchpad

I liked the click registration feedback of the keys. The keys bounce back quickly. Like in the IdeaPad Gaming 3i I reviewed earlier, the keycaps are curved at the botom side. Once you get familiar with the kyboard size, you should not have much issues while typing. The key travel length is bit less though.

The keyboard offers backlight. The backlight of the Lenovo Slim 7 can be toggled by holding ‘Function’ and tapping the space bar. The arrow key sets also doubles up as ‘Home’, ‘Page Up/Down’, and ‘End’ keys and can be accessed by holding down the ‘Fn’ key.

The trackpad was a smooth operator. It does its job without any hiccups. It supports Windows 10 gestures for trackpad like zoom in or out, scroll, switching between open windows etc.

Biometrics

The Yoga Slim 7 comes with an IR camera, so it works well even on low light conditions. It supports Windows Hello face login. There is no physical privacy shutter for the camera, though if you dig into the Lenovo Vantage app, you will find a camera privacy mode, that would disable the camera. But each time if you are on a video call, you need to enable it here. There is no fingerprint scanner.

Performance of Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 range features 10th gen Intel laptop processors from the Ice Lake family. The unit I got here for review is powered by Core i5-1035G1 but there is also a Core i7 option available to buy. For GPU you get multiple options with Integrated Intel Iris Plus and also with dedicated Nvidia GE force MX 350. My unit comes with MX350. So I could do a bit of photo editing on the go. I got an 8GB RAM variant but it can be upgraded to 12GB or 16GB. There is also a customization option to throw in an additional 1TB SSD instead of the 512GB I have in my unit.

For those who like synthetic benchmark tests. On my PC Mark 10 test, the machine scored 3835. In the 3D Mark, Time Spy Test it arrived at 3683 CPU score, 1126 GPU score and overall Time Spy score of 1256.

The machine is ideal for normal use. Keeping in mind, this is not a gaming laptop plus it is a low power variant of the Core i5. I would not intend to use it that way but this is an ideal machine otherwise for regular office works and on the move meetings and in-flight entertainment. I could also manage a bit of photo editing when needed. With the dedicated MX 330 onboard, I don’t see any reason why video editing should also be not possible for content creators this should manage it if thrown at but this is not meant for such tasks. It does warm up a bit on continuous use near the air vents area, so I would not be keeping it on my lap for longer use. I was working with 8-9 tabs opened on chrome and was comfortable shifting around. If you intent do play gaming, it should handle Fortnite and Pubg Gaming but not at ease like gaming laptops which comes with better thermals to control throttling.

So if you are someone who spends a lot on typing documents, going through spreadsheets, use the laptop for presentations and constantly on the move, this is an ideal machine considering its design and aesthetics.

Battery life of Yoga Slim 7i

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 uses a 60.7Wh battery. It supports USB-C Power Delivery protocol. What is stated by any vendor and what the real-life use case differs especially when it comes to laptop battery. It took 2 hours 15 minutes to fully charge the laptop from 0% to 100%. I ran a video test with Wifi and Youtube video at 1080p and a 2 hours 38 mins video consumed 38% of battery. On a mixed-use, I got around 5.30 – 6 hours of battery life in actuals.

Verdict

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 is meant for people who like a compact machine that is ultra-portable – lightweight, sleek but still have a premium build quality. For those who are constantly on the go, dabble between spreadsheets and documents, binge on entertainment. Plus, a machine that can also be put to occasional tasks like light multimedia editing if needed.

Pros of Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i

• Sleek and good aluminium build quality
• Comfortable display with no flicker and good contrast
• Reliable performance
• Dolby Atmos-tuned speakers
• Dependable face login
• Decent battery life

Cons of Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i

• No fingerprint scanner
• No Ethernet port (which is a hard find in any case with new ultra portables)

Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 15IMH05 Specifications:

• Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-10300H @ 2.50Ghz Comet Lake 8 MB L3 cache, 4 cores
• Graphics adapter: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 Ti (4 GB GDDR6 dedicated)
• Memory:  8 GB DDR4 SDRAM Samsung M471A1K43DB1, dual channel upgradable
• Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 60Hz (120Hz options available)
• Storage:  1TB SATA, 256GB NVMe SSD
• Connections: 
• Networking: Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 Bluetooth 5.0
• Battery: 45 Whr Li-ion (3-cell)
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit
• Camera: 720p with privacy shutter
• Audio: 2 x 1.5 W Stereo Speakers with Dolby Audio
• Size: 359 x 249.6 x 24.9mm
• Weight:  2.2 kg

Design and Build Quality of IdeaPad Gaming 3i

I got a mixed feeling when it comes to the design. The Onyx Black color with matte finish is unassuming devoid of any extra flashy add-ons or logos barring a simple Lenovo logo in the top left corner. It has a PC and ABS plastic chassis but gives a rock solid feel when you handle it. There is no flex to complain about. Within the restrained mood, what is appealing is the angled corners and the sides of the lid slightly drooping downwards with a lid line, it manages some sort of characteristics to what would have been otherwise a standard plain vanilla look.

When you open the lid, you are reminded the Ideapad Gaming branding in blue on the single-wide hinge. The color matches with the blue backlight of the keyboard but is more subtle. The side bezels are thin. The top bezels is slightly thicker but it also accommodates a 720p web camera. It comes with a privacy shutter built-in. If you are someone who get paranoid or wary of prying web camera looking at you when not in use, you can just shut it out with the slider on top of it.

I kind of have a Russian tank feel to this laptop – they are sturdy not very visually enhanced but still have something that assures you with the quality.

Ports

The left side has almost everything to offer, there’s the power jack, an RJ45 Ethernet port, an HDMI port, one USB Type-A port, one USB Type-C port, a headphone jack, a Novo hole and a power indicator.

The right side has just one additional USB Type-A port. There is no card reader. Usually, have seen gaming laptops come with two USB type A ports but you need to content with two here. Also, the machine lacks Thunderbolt 3 port.

Display of Ideapad Gaming

You get a large 15-inch IPS panel with 1920 x 1080 resolution. The model I received has a 60Hz refresh rate but you can pay a more and upgrade to 120Hz. If you don/t mind paying the extra, would be wiser to go for the 120Hz panel for gaming. It also has an anti-glare coating.

While the colors are decent not exemplary, texts are sharp would have preferred a bit more bump to the 250nits brightness level. The viewing angles are good too.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard has a nice clicky response to it. I used it for a couple of hours of typing and I find it comfortable to use. A number pad is included. The keys have a blue font on it and the backlit is also blue in colour. You cannot customize the RGB-key lighting, so you are stuck with the blue colour. The touch pad is decently large enough, it does not have a physical left and right mouse buttons. It supports Windows 10 gestures, like two-finger scrolling and three-finger tabbing.

Lenovo vantage software gives an option to disable the trackpad while gaming so you won’t end up accidentally firing shots or aim shifts. The best part is if you set this option in the software, it works only when the game is launched and in other use cases the trackpad would work normally.

you can disable the trackpad using the Lenovo Vantage software so you don’t accidentally fire or shift your aim when you’re gaming. This only works when a game is launched, so you can just keep this setting on at all times without worrying about losing trackpad functionality when you’re working.

Lenovo Vantage App

Let’s talk a bit about the Lenovo Vantage app. Every brand in the gaming laptop arena, have their own software to customize and optimize the machine for your needs. With Lenovo Vantage app you get a lot to fiddle around your machine.

You can toggle thermal modes for the laptop between performance, balance and quiet mode, there is also an automatic switch to performance mode when launching games and switch back when exiting the game. There is a Network boost functionality, you can add your games to the list and it gets prioritized in terms of network speed on your network.

There are other options like touchpad lock which we talked about earlier, auto close apps that close and frees up resources when you launch a game. You can also enable rapid charge, which allows the battery to charge faster than usual. In the battery settings, there is also a conservation mode, which when enabled will charge the battery only to 55-60% of capacity thus ensuring the longevity of battery life. Wifi Security mode, Dolby toggle is also found. Miscellaneous Options include, enabling or disabling keyboard backlight, mouse settings, function key switches and microphone settings.

Speakers

The speakers are places on the sides of the Ideapad gaming. They are fairly loud but lacks bass. It supports Dolby and the feature can be enabled or disabled in the Lenovo Vantage app.

Performance of Ideapad Gaming 3i 15IMH05

Ideapad Gaming series offers various models as I said in the beginning and you can customize it for your needs if you are buying from their website’s build your own option. I will stick with the machine am reviewing which is powered by Intel® Core™ i5-10300H @ 2.50Ghz CPU and combines NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 Ti GPU with 4GB of VRAM and 8GB of RAM. (It has a dual-channel and you can top it to a total of 32GB RAM)

In 3DMark Time Spy, the laptop scores 3673 points and in Time Spy Extreme it delivered 1671. In PCMark 10 extended, the IdeaPad Gaming 3i scores 4,855 points. This are the synthetic benchmark scores which puts this Ideapad Gaming machine capable for every day tasks. I did some video editing though not the top of the chart performer, I could edit couple of my videos on Premier pro at ease.

Though the RTX 1650 Ti is not the powerful GPU from Nvidia, you can’t disown it, it still has in it. If you are aiming to mix gaming and work and a machine for multimedia editing, this variant proved to be fairly good in my use. This could be a good mid-level gaming machine. I used it for some of my video rendering and real-life use cases and it proved it to be a good reliable workhorse.

Notably, the machine was quieter even while gaming. The thermal designs were well done too. They have a dual fans, which are placed under the WASD keys and thus making sure those keys doesn’t get hot during longer gameplay.

Battery life of Ideapad Gaming 3i

The laptop has a 3 Cell Li-Polymer Internal Battery with 45Wh. Lenovo claims 7 hours of battery life. We all know, none of the laptops would deliver the claimed result conducted in lab testing.

If you are indulging on normal tasks like browsing, youtube etc, it gives around 4-5 hours of battery life. Do note this is with brightness around 60% and in balanced mode battery settings. The battery life might vary depending on your use if you stream more, game, it is obvious you will see a faster drain. Plus, if you are a gamer, you would know playing with AC power on will always give you better gaming performance. Even in some situation if you do play without a power source, Lenovo claims it would give you an hour of intense gaming.

Verdict on Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3i review

Finally, the question you would want to know and probably why you are reading this review. Should you buy Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3i? When it comes to gadgets especially laptops there is no one magic model one can suggest or fit everyone’s needs. If you are buying Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3i, for sure it won’t disappoint in terms of performance. It has lots of positives to talk about in spec to cost value propostion. Do carefully make the right model decision or build your own from the Lenovo website to suit your needs.

Pros: What works for Ideapad Gaming 3i

• Sturdy build quality
• Good neat design
• Good keyboard
• Decent display
• Webcam with privacy shutter
• Quieter fans
• Good thermal design
• Decent battery life
• Customization options

Cons

• No RGB lighting customization for keyboard
• Only NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti option

HP Omen 15 2020 has a wider choice of configurations to choose from. The HP Omen 15-ek0019TX I got for my review is powered by Intel Core i7 10th gen combined with a modest NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 Ti. You can also get more adrenalin rush with GeForce® RTX 2070 with Max-Q configuration, if you are into higher spectrum of gaming.

HP OMEN 15-ek0019TX Specification

• Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-10750H (2.6 GHz base frequency, up to 5 GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology, 12 MB L3 cache, 6 cores)
• Graphics adapter: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 Ti (4 GB GDDR6 dedicated)
• Memory:  16 GB DDR4-2933 SDRAM (2 x 8 GB)
• Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080pixel, 300 nits, 144Hz refresh rate
• Storage:  1 TB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD
• Connections: 1 SuperSpeed USB Type-C 5Gbps signaling rate (DisplayPort™ 1.4, HP Sleep and Charge); 1 SuperSpeed USB Type-A 5Gbps signaling rate (HP Sleep and Charge); 2 SuperSpeed USB Type-A 5Gbps signaling rate; 1 Mini DisplayPort™; 1 HDMI 2.0a; 1 RJ-45; 1 AC smart pin; 1 headphone/microphone combo
• Networking: Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 (2×2) and Bluetooth® 5 combo
• Battery: 52.5 Wh Li-ion (3-cell)
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit
• Camera: 720p
• Audio: SAudio by Bang & Olufsen; DTS:X® Ultra; OMEN Audio Control Support DTS:X® Ultra; Dual speakers; HP Audio Boost 2.0
• Weight:  2.36 kg

Design and Build Quality

With the 2020 model, HP had toned down the aggressive dash of curves and lines in their gaming machines. When you call out gaming laptops these days, there are flurry of offerings with strong accentuated cuts and psychedelic LED colors popping out. The HP Omen 2020 lineup is muted in comparison and follows traditional laptop looks with robust build. It can sneakily blend in an office environment.

It is made of a combination of aluminum and plastic with the underlying chasis in metal and gives a sturdy and robust feel to it and probably can handle few knocks too. The matte finish on the lid tend to catch grease easily and is a fingerprint magnet. The lid has a diamond-shaped mirror-like logo which glistens in green and blue, depending on the angle viewed. Personally, I find the logo too bland but on hindsight, this subtle logo would appeal to even non-gamers.

Weighing 2.36 kg, the Omen 15 2020 definitely has fair bit of heft to it and measures 22.6mm in thickness. If you are planning a machine to carry often, this should be kept under consideration. A Wide Vision 720p HD web camera is housed on the top bezel. There is no privacy shutter, a while light indicator glows when the camera is active. Like most webcams in laptops, this is passable for video calls. The power button finds an odd place between the F12 and delete button.

The bottom has a large ventilation grills, which could inhale lots of air towards the heat sinks.

Ports

The HP Omen packs a lot in terms of port selection. On the left, you get a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, an HDMI port, an full-sized SD card reader, a Gigabit Ethernet port, headphone/microphone jack, and power jacks.

On the right side, you get a pair of USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports along with a mini DisplayPort and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Thunderbolt Type-C port. 

Display

The Omen 15 2020 laptops can be flat laid to 180 degree and the hinge mechanism is confident. The Omen 15’s 15.6-inch 1920 x 1080-pixel display is love at first sight. I liked the popping colors, deep blacks and the colors are vibrant. Details are crisp and you will not miss anything in good game scenarios. It clocks 313 nits brightness which I find to be adequate and 71.8% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut is impressive. In short, the display is extremely likeable. There is also Nvidia G-Sync support.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The chiclet keyboard is almost silent which I kind of like for my laptops unlike the mechanical keyboards I like for my desktops. HP might also have gone for the silent treatment inline with the design choice of blending it in office ecosystem. The keyboard is full-fledged with separate numeric keys and calculator and arrow keys. I didn’t have any issues while typing. The travel distance is comfortable to use.

Then there is the RGB lighting, which most games would love to see. The back lighting can be customized from the OMEN command center. They keyboard is split into four zones for RGB lighting. The customization is not free wheeling but you can pick the colors for the four zones and the lighting is static. There is no strobbing, breathing or other dynamic effects.

The trackpad is large and easy to use. There are no separate dedicated left and right buttons. Omen 15 supports gestures and responds very well to them

Performance

Coming to the performance, if you are looking at top-notch gaming performance you should go with the GeForce® RTX 2070 for the max performance but that also costs a bit more than the unit I have here. Though the RTX 1650 Ti is not the powerful GPU from Nvidia, you can’t disown it, it still has in it. If you are aiming to mix gaming and work and a machine for multimedia editing, this variant proved to be fairly good in my use. This could be a good mid-level gaming machine. I used it for some of my video rendering and real-life use cases and it proved it to be a good reliable workhorse.

In 3D mark benchmark test we got 3897 in Time Spy test and 1761 in Time Spy Extreme test.

It has a Samsung NVme 1TB SSD storage. On Crystalmark 7 test, we got the following results in real-life performance and peak performance tests. There is 16GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory (8GB x 2 sticks), which can be upgraded to 32GB.

Omen Command center is you go-for destination to customize the keyboard lighting, adjust fan speed, monitor system diagnostics. For gamers, it also has an AI-based software that maps your play and throws pointers on your weak points. The game stream functionality aids to stream your game to another device in the same local network.

Battery life

The Omen 15 packs a 3-cell 52.5 Wh Li-ion battery. I could get a bit above 6 hours on an average on Omen 15 laptop, which is pretty good for a gaming laptop.

Verdict

The HP Omen 15-ek0019TX is a great mid-segment gaming laptop. If you don’t fancy the over the top design cues of gaming laptops and want something that would blend with your office environment, this is a great buy. Plus, the display is stellar and you get decent battery life for this segment.

Specifications

• Display: 15-inch Full HD
• CPU: Intel core i7 10510U
• GPU: Intel UHD Graphics
• Storage: 512GB NVMe SSD From Samsung
• RAM: 16GB OS: Windows 10
• Audio: Stereo speakers with Dolby Audio
• Weight: 1.8 kg

Customizable Configurations

As per the Lenovo India website, the CPU customization options include the following configurations

Other customization options also include memory, storage and display and you can head over Lenovo India website for more information for your build your own device.

Design

What I got here is a 15.6-inch display but you if prefer a slightly more compact machine, there is a 14-inch display option too. On a first look, the device looks solid and really nice. Design-wise, it borrows more hue from the IdeaPad series. The choice of materials used in our ThinkBook machine is a combination of predominant plastics with some metal garnishings. The top lid is aluminium ionized metal. The amalgamation of both materials also means it is relatively lightweight and easier to carry around. It weighs around 1.8Kg and measures 18.8mm in thickness, which is not a bad thing for a 15-inch notebook. Regardless of material, the laptop gets a grey colour finish, giving it an understated and more accomodating look. There is no notable flex to the display lid and overall the machine has good stability and is assuring.

The Lenovo ThinkBook claims to be Mil-SPEC tested. So basically it assures high on the ruggedness and durability of the laptop. Typically, the Mil-spec tests include exposing the laptop to extreme pressure, temperature, vibrations, and so on. The test further makes it reliable to use for a prolonged period, especially for professional and business uses.

An interesting inclusion that would appeal to many who are paranoid about laptop camera staring at them is a physical shutter for the camera. So you can hide the camera and be at peace. The camera is of 720p resolution, sufficient for your video calls.

A fingerprint scanner is integrated within the power button. This is the only bio-metric authentication feature you get in this device, which doesn’t support Windows Hello face.

Connectivity – You will not miss out anything

The ThinkBook 15 is very generous when it comes to connectivity options. It has five USB ports, Two of these are Type-C ports with both supporting DisplayPort and PowerDelivery (both needs extra compatible adapters and chargers) Another interesting aspect here that to be told is a hidden USB 2.0 port behind a flap. This would come handy to plug in Bluetooth USB receivers without sticking it out.

On the left side, you will find an RJ-45 connector, followed by an HDMI connector, a USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) port, two USB Type-C ports – one 3.1 (Gen. 1) and one 3.1 (Gen. 2). Lastly, there is a headphone jack and a quick reset hole.

On the right – there is the proprietory USB-shaped charging plug, a USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) port, an SD card reader and a hidden USB Type-A 2.0 slot, that might be very useful for Bluetooth peripherals.

Keyboard & Trackpad

The ThinkBook 15 has a built-in chiclet keyboard. The keys are pretty big in size and with good spacing around. Lenovo also has managed to find place for numeric keypad. The typing experience is pretty good. Lack of backlight is the only black spot in an otherwise nicely done layout.

Trackpad has the same grey finish to it like the rest of the body. Its surface area measures 10.5 x 7.1 cm. It’s a large pad and convenient to move around to perform multi-finger gestures. There is nothing to nitpick about the well made smooth trackpad.

Display

Lenovo ThinkBook 15 houses a matte Full HD IPS panel. Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9. Viewing angles are comfortable. I binged on movies between the plenty of time I had during the lockdown and it was a good viewing experience. The display can be stretched flat to the table at 180 degree. There is also an eyecare mode if you care about these things. Catching up to 250 nits the screen brightness is pretty good. The anti-glare feature makes it easier to read under direct sunlight.

Speakers & Audio

The speakers are placed at the back of the device. The ThinkBook 15 boasts of Automatic Dolby Audio, the audio quality is appreciable. The microphone and the audio output during video conferencing is quiet on mark. There is a Lenovo Vantage app where you can do a lot of personalized custom settings including for audio.

Performance

For those who care about benchmark tests. On the Geekbench 5.1.0 version, the Lenovo ThinkBook scored 1168 in the single-core and 3771 in the multi-core. On PC Mark 10 benchmark test, it scored overall 3927 points with 8432 essentials, 6591 for productivity, and 2958 for digital content creation

The ThinkBook 15 doesn’t have a dedicated graphics card but is equipped with the Intel UHD Graphics, it is obvious it isn’t dedicated to hard-core gaming. Lenovo is also clear that the device is more targetted at the business users, so the lack of it should not be a concern for the audience it caters to, unless you want a work and play machine.

The Lenovo ThinkBook comes with 16GB RAM and 512GB NVMe SSD from Samsung.On CrystalMark Disk test, the SEQ1M Q8T1 score for the read speed was 3485.47 MB/s and the write speed showed up as 2972.38 MB/s. The RND4K Q32T16 score showed 1143.10 MB/s read speeds and 1190.04 MB/s write speeds.

Battery life

The ThinkBook 15 comes with a 65W charger that can be connected via the always-on USB port. Lenovo claim up to 11 hours battery time but that would be in an ideal scenario. When I tested in practical conditions, I got anywhere between 7 hours and 9.5 hours, still good enough to last your work day. Charge time is around 100 minutes.

Verdict

What is good?

• Mil-SPEC tested build quality
• Plenty of connectivity options
• Hidden port with flap
• Physical shutter for webcam
• Comfortable viewing angles
• Good display for most tasks
• Supports PCIe x4 drives
• Fast fingerprint sensor
• Decent large keyboard
• Decent battery life

What is bad?

• Doesn’t support Windows Hello Face
• Only integrated graphic card option

Yoga S940 Configurations:

World’s First Contour Glass Screen

Smart Face Login & Privacy

Smart External Monitor Interface

Blurred Background Video Calls

Front-firing Dual Speakers