Back in May 2021, I bought a Lenovo Legion 5 (15) (Phantom Black) a.k.a AMD Ryzen Gaming Laptop to replace my 3 year old Asus VivoBook. Admittedly, my Asus was still working rather well, but I needed a better machine for my latest gaming addiction: Cities: Skylines.
Here’s my layman’s take on the “best in class” gaming laptop after half a year of usage.
Why Lenovo Legion 5 (15) (Phantom Black)?
My existing Asus VivoBook S14 had been the workhorse for most aspects of my life: online lectures, blogging, YouTubing and simple video editing. Around March this year, I decided to revive my Steam account and resumed my city building craving on Cities: Skylines.
That was when my hardy Asus started to show its age.
The fans were spinning loudly during gaming. Then it started to lag. Eventually, it hang when my city’s population hit 40k. I was just so close to the last milestone to give it all up!
Lenovo Legion 5 (15) (Phantom Black) promised everything. It had 16GB RAM, dedicated GPU and both processors were the top in line at that time.
In simple terms, it was the best gaming laptop on the market. (Click for its full specifications)
This made me certain that the Lenovo Legion 5 (15) (Phantom Black) could satisfy my need to achieve 100k population in Cities: Skylines, and perhaps even more.
First Impression of the Lenovo Legion 5 (15) (Phantom Black)
I bought the Lenovo Legion 5 (15) (Phantom Black) directly off Lenovo’s website during the 5.5 sale. Coupled with Shopback’s promotion, I saved around 30% off the retail price.
The machine felt a lot heavier than my ASUS VivoBook, which was logical, since this is supposed to be a workhorse, while my ASUS’ value was in its light weight (and slower specs). The hard corners and black body shouted hardcore and stirred my younger geek who was buried under years of working life.
The backlit keyboard was also one of the reasons I chose the Lenovo Legion 5 (15). I prefer to use computers in the dark, but it was only possible if I was playing games and not churning out blog posts. What’s more, I could not get tired of watching the LEDs sweep across the keyboard like waves during start-up every day!
Believe it or not, I also like a “traditional” keyboard with a dedicated number pad on the right. This is especially useful when I’m doing my monthly personal accounting. And somehow, I tend to type the numbers wrongly with the linear numeric keypad – something that’s not good when we’re typing in OTPs.
The Lenovo Legion 5 also sported a huge and vivid display, with speakers that sounded full for a laptop.
Even though the machine was delivered one day later than promised, I was still satisfied with what I received.
That is, until the laptop revealed its true colours over the next month.
Unable to Install Latest Windows Updates
Immediately after receiving my Lenovo Legion 5 (15) (Phantom Black), I went through the ritual of downloading and installing the latest antivirus software, drivers and updates. It took me about 3 hours. The greatest headache came when I finally reached the latest version of Windows updates.
It took a longer than usual time (I assumed the system was trying to reconcile the issues) and eventually, I was shown an error message to tell me that I can revert to the version of Microsoft Windows prior to the update.
Unable to Start-up Lenovo Legion 5
For the next few weeks, I tried to update my Windows to the latest security update every other day with the same result – reverting to the last working version.
Eventually, the worst thing happened – it stopped asking me to revert to the previous version.
Instead, it got stuck at the log in page. Or should I say, the screen before the log in page.
Right before the log in page loaded, an error message showed up saying “Preload Fail”, which would eventually lead to another error message that said “Windows failed to complete the installation” and asked me to proceed to restart the installation.
After clicking “OK”, the machine went into reboot and the endless cycle began.
Slow Service at Lenovo’s Helpdesk
Before I went to Lenovo’s service desk at Funan, I had tried out the steps provided on Lenovo’s website to do a recovery. Basically, I was supposed to download an image of Microsoft Windows and then try to install that image right before the error message before the log in page.
I even called (after being put on hold for around an hour) the helpdesk, who kept telling me to reboot the machine and log in to it and carry out the installation, even when I told him I couldn’t even get to the log in page.
Eventually, he gave up and told me to proceed to Lenovo’s physical helpdesk at Funan.
Despite the pandemic, the queue at Funan was horrendous. I waited for more than 2 hours (from 4pm – 6pm) before I even reached the helpdesk. Over there, the service guy delivered another absurd news.
Pay to Fix Lenovo’s Sub-standard Laptop
He told me he would send my machine for a check. And if they found that there was nothing wrong with the hardware, they would reload Windows, but not before reformatting the entire machine.
That didn’t bother me, because it was a new machine and all I would be losing was one month’s worth of Cities: Skylines progress.
Then he told me that they would charge me $32.10 for reinstalling the Windows.
What followed accounted for the majority of the time I was at the helpdesk, because I didn’t think I should have to pay for a faulty machine in the first place.
He told me that Lenovo would only be responsible for any hardware issues. However, a software issue could be a result of user misuse (gasp!). I told him the error arose because I was being diligent to install the latest Windows update, so charging me would be punishing me for my diligence. However, he didn’t buy that. The most he could do was to help me “log my unhappiness with the arrangement” in the system.
Eventually, I paid for the “service”, because I was in a catch-22. I could stick to my principles and refuse to pay $32.10, which meant that they would return a brick to me at the end of the week. i.e. The $1.5k that I had paid would go down the drain.
I paid the $32.10, so that I could still make full use of my “investment”, even though the machine didn’t really reap the full returns in the coming months.
Slow and Low – Reality of Lenovo Legion 5
Why did I say the machine didn’t reap the full returns?
Despite being “out of ICU” at Funan, my Lenovo Legion 5 still had a myriad of other performance issues. For example, starting my Legion took as long, if not longer, than my work laptop. Mark you. My work laptop was NOT a performance laptop and had to go through several layers of enterprise security hurdles before I could really start work proper. You wouldn’t expect the same start-up time for a personal laptop. Much less a top of the line, The Gaming Laptop.
Even a simple act of starting up the laptop to watch a YouTube video could take me up to 15 mins.
The battery life was also another bug. At full charge, I could only use the laptop for at most an hour. With gaming, it would be slightly more than half an hour.
Charging the machine from low battery to full would take around 2 hours. Yup, spend 2 hrs hooked to the wall only to be free for about half an hour. Hardly a good ROI for the Lenovo Legion 5.
Couldn’t Handle Cities: Skylines Population Above 60k
Back to why I bought the Lenovo Legion 5 laptop – to play Cities: Skylines.
Starting my game on the Legion 5 took a longer time than I did on my old ASUS VivoBook. The process on the Legion 5 typically took me about 10 mins.
The fans started to run noisily about 1 hr into gameplay – even if my city was just at its infancy stage.
When my city grew to a population size of 60k, the machine started to slow down. The game just froze when my city hit 70k. I couldn’t even save my game!
Granted, I hit 70k population about 3 hrs into gameplay, so the machine could have become “fatigued” after 3 hours.
So I tried running the game again a few days later. True enough, the game hang again the moment my city hit 70k.
The whole process was deja vu. It happened to my old ASUS VivoBook S14, except it started having problems when my city’s population hit 60k instead of 40k.
Well, to console myself, I could say it was a 50% improvment in performance.
Parting Words
Buying a top of the line gaming laptop was something I always wanted, but I couldn’t bear to part with the money. I did some research and found the Lenovo Legion 5 (15) (Phantom Black) to replace my ageing ASUS VivoBook.
Lenovo Legion 5 (15) (Phantom Black) promised dedicated GPU that ran alongside the up to date, high end AMD CPU. I really liked the backlit keyboard that allowed me to type with the lights off.
Unfortunately, that was where the “fairy tale” ended.
Along with a host of performance issues like a half-hour battery life, 15-min start-to-YouTube time, and 10-min launch of Cities:Skylines simulation game, the machine crashed barely a month after I bought it.
The process to recovery wasted a lot of my time and I even had to spend $32.10 for Lenovo’s service desk to re-install Windows on my machine, even though it was not my fault that the Lenovo Legion 5 crashed. They simply refused to cover that even though it was a one-month old machine.
For its “limited” after sales service, I would be sure not to buy a laptop from Lenovo again. If anybody has recommendations for a better gaming laptop, please let me know!
Till then, stay geeky!
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