Lenovo today announced a baker's dozen of new and refreshed gaming laptops and desktops, plus a spattering of accessories, including an external GPU box. It's a confusing roundup at first glance, but the general takeaway is that these new and updated configurations leverage the latest mobile CPUs from Intel (Comet Lake-H) and AMD (Ryzen 4000).
Interestingly, Intel is being given priority treatment, both in regards to the strength of the configurations and availability. To help make sense of it all, here's a handy reference guide:
- Legion Y740Si—starting at $1,199.99, May 2020
- 15-inch Legion 7i—starting at $1,599.99, May 2020
- 15-inch Legion 5Pi—not available in North America
- 17-inch Legion 5Pi—not available in North America
- 15-inch Legion 5i—starting at $829.99, May 2020
- 17-inch Legion 5i—starting at $1,129.99, May 2020
- 15-inch Legion 5 (AMD)—starting at $759.99, May 2020
- Legion Tower 5i—starting at $799.99, May 2020
- Legion Tower 5 (AMD)—arriving later this year
- 15-inch IdeaPad Gaming 3i—starting at $729.99, May 2020
- 15-inch IdeaPad Gaming 3 (AMD)—arriving later this year
- IdeaCentre Gaming 5i—not available in North America
- IdeaCentre Gaming 5 (AMD)—not available in North America
Systems denoted with a lowercase "i" indicate an Intel CPU, and the ones without it have AMD inside. Or they will—some of the AMD configurations will release later this year, after their Intel counterparts debut. Furthermore, some of the systems will not release in North America, and for those configs, Lenovo did not state pricing or availability.
So, what are we looking at here? Starting at the top, the Legion 740Si is Lenovo's thinnest and lightest laptop, weighing just 3.74 pounds. It sports a 15-inch 4K display that is DisplayHDR 400 certified, and is powered by up to a 10th generation Intel Core i9 Comet Lake-H processor.
The Legion 7i is similar, but offers a 1080p resolution instead of 4K. It's also slightly heftier at 4.62 pounds (which is still light), and is built for speed—it will be offered with up to a 240Hz screen with G-Sync support, powered by an overclocked Core i9 processor. It also supports up to 32GB of RAM and up to a 1TB NVMe SSD.
Lenovo's Legion 5i and Legion 5 in 17-inch and 15-inch form factors are pitched as mainstream gaming laptops. These will also feature Comet Lake-H processor options, as well as AMD's newest Ryzen 4000H series.
This is also where we see some interesting separation between the Intel and AMD configurations. The 15-inch model will be offered with up to a 240Hz refresh rate, but only with Intel inside. Only the 17-inch model will be offered with both Intel and AMD hardware, with a slower 144Hz refresh rate. That's still plenty fast for most people, though it's disappointing that AMD's Ryzen 4000H CPUs won't be offered in the 15-inch model—not everyone is keen on the 17-inch form factor.
The IdeaPad Gaming 3i and IdeaPad Gaming 3 are also 15-inch laptops, but a bit more tame. They feature up to a 120Hz refresh rate (meaning the standard models will be 60Hz), with Core i7 Comet Lake-H CPU options arriving in May, and "AMD Ryzen mobile processors" (presumably the Ryzen 4000 series) arriving sometime later this year.
Both models have a 1080p resolution and will be offered with up to a GeForce GTX 1650 Ti GPU. On paper, I'd consider these the true mainstream options.
Lenovo's also launching a couple of desktop PCs stateside, those being the Legion Tower 5i (May 2020) and the Legion Tower 5 (arriving later this year). Lenovo didn't drill down into detail specifications, but is pitching these as "high performance gaming towers" that will be offered with up to a GeForce RTX 2080 Super GPU.
The most interesting about this from my vantage point is the possibility of the Tower 5 running AMD's unreleased Ryzen 4000 desktop CPUs, based on Zen 3. Those will arrive later this year, as will the Legion Tower 5. It's not clear if Lenovo is planning to use AMD's upcoming silicon right off the bat, but if not, it risks the Tower 5 being behind the curve right at (or shortly after) release.
Finally, Lenovo announced a few peripherals, including the Legion Y25-25 monitor (24.5-inch, Full HD, IPS, 240Hz), Legion M600 wireless gaming mouse, Legion M300 RGB gaming mouse, Legion K300 RGB gaming keyboard, and the BoostStation eGPU, which will be available in May for $249.99 by itself, or offered with a GeForce RTX 2060 or Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card.
