Lenovo unveils updated Legion gaming laptops, monitors at CES 2022

Lenovo has updated its Legion series of flagship gaming laptops at CES 2022 with the latest chips from AMD and Intel, all wrapped up with better cooling hardware and a slimmer design. The company also unveiled a trio of new monitors, with the top-end model combining color accuracy with a high refresh rate.

Lenovo Legion 5/5i Pro

This year, Lenovo’s Legion 5i Pro gaming laptop will feature 12th generation Intel Alder Lake CPUs, up to an i7-12700H. The AMD-powered 5 Pro variant was also briefly mentioned and will likely offer the recently unveiled Ryzen 6000 mobile chips. With these new platforms, the Legion 5 Pro series will also bundle DDR5 memory, offered at speeds of up to 4,800MHz and 32GB in capacity.

Lenovo was somewhat cryptic on the graphics front, only saying the laptop will include the “latest GeForce RTX 30 series laptop GPU.” However, the spec sheet reveals that at least one model will include 8GB of video memory (VRAM). That strikes out Nvidia’s latest RTX 3080 Ti laptop GPU with 16GB of VRAM from the running, leading us to believe it’s packing either an RTX 3070 or the newer RTX 3070 Ti instead.

See also: The best GeForce RTX 3080 laptops you can get

Lenovo emphasized the Legion 5 Pro’s cooling setup, which it says is quieter and cooler than ever before. The system, dubbed Legion Coldfront 4.0, reportedly allows the laptop to handle a total graphics power (TGP) of 165W or an added 15W over the previous generation. For context, Nvidia’s newest mobile GPUs can operate in a wide range of power envelopes. Increasing the thermal headroom allows the GPU to sustain its boost frequency for longer.

Not much has changed elsewhere. Like last year, the 2022 Legion 5 Pro features a 16-inch 240Hz WQHD+ IPS panel with an impressive 500 nits of brightness, Dolby Vision HDR support, and a 16:10 aspect ratio. The keyboard and magnesium-aluminum build carry over from the previous generation as well. Wireless got a slight boost, however, with Wi-Fi 6E support.

The Intel-powered Legion 5i Pro goes on sale from February 2022 onwards, at a starting price of $1,569.99. The AMD-powered Legion 5 Pro will arrive in April and start at $1,429.99.

Lenovo Legion 5/5i

Lenovo announced similar updates to the Lenovo Legion 5 — the company’s portability-driven gaming laptop series. The Intel variant scales up to an i7-12700H, but the company didn’t elaborate on the Ryzen front. Regardless, both models will be available with up to 32GB of DDR5 memory and Wi-Fi 6E support. As for graphics, the Legion 5 will include Nvidia’s RTX 3060 in its top-end configuration.

Besides those incremental improvements, the new 2022 models are 15% slimmer than the outgoing laptops but still quite heavy, coming in at 19.99mm and 2.4kg (5.29lbs), respectively.

New gaming monitors and accessories

Lenovo also announced a trio of new gaming monitors at the event. The 24.5-inch 1080p IPS Legion Y25-30 boasts 99% coverage of the sRGB color space and, more importantly, a Delta E score of less than two. That essentially means outstanding color accuracy, a boon for creative professionals. Given the emphasis on gaming, the Y25-30 also features a 240Hz refresh rate, with AMD FreeSync Premium variable refresh rate technology and low response times.

Related: The best FreeSync monitors you can buy

The other two monitors were less eye-catching — Lenovo says they’re targeted at casual gamers. Indeed, with a refresh rate of 100Hz (110Hz overclocked), the Lenovo G27qe-20 and G24qe-20 are hardly chart-topping. The 24-inch model will retail for $259.99, while the 27-inch will go for $299.99. Both will hit shelves in March 2022. The aforementioned Y25-30, meanwhile, will retail in May at $339.99.

Lenovo also announced two new gaming mice. The Legion M600s is a wireless mouse with a USB-C port and 19,000 DPI that will start at $84.99. The wired Legion M300s, meanwhile, clocks in at 8,000 DPI and a starting price of $29.99. Both will go on sale from May 2022 onwards.

Looking for Lenovo’s other CES 2022 products? Check out the company’s Yoga and ThinkPad announcements.