Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5 Gen 8 14' with AMD Ryzen 7000 Review

Hi guys,

Here is my review of the Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5 Gen 8 14" with the AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs. I think that it is a decent laptop, that can be found at a good price.

This is my first product review, so please bear with me! I will try to improve the content quality in the future.

[henrykaung]

A follow up to my previous comment. My Ideapad Pro 5 16arp8 arrived two weeks ago after multiple delays and here's my quick thoughts on it. It's the Ryzen 7 7735HS variant with 32gb of ram.

Hardware:

The display, although being only 2.5K is quite amazing for a 16 inch. It has decent brightness both indoors and outdoors. The colour accuracy is very very good; amazing for entertainment such as watching netflix and etc. I asked a professional photographer friend of mine to give it a go and she said the colour accuracy is good enough for professional colour grading in something like Photoshop – I'll talk more about performance in such applications later on. The built quality is very good with full aluminium build apart from the plastic display bezels. It's fairly light for a 16 inch laptop. The keyboard is has fair key travel and it's a great typing experience. The touchpad is a chef's kiss. It's one of my favourite parts about the laptop. It's really big and the glass finish on top makes it really smooth to use. Clicks are mechanical and not haptic so that's a plus for me (albeit some might prefer the haptic touchpad clicks). The webcam is decent with the windows Hello IR face unlock working like a charm. Now for the battery. It's a 4-cell 75Wh battery, and for what it's worth, it's really good. It can last unplugged for at least 6-8 hours on a regular day with no performance heavy usage. I'll talk more about performance and battery later on. I watched Oppenheimer at full brightness and when the film ended, the battery was around 75% from the 100% I started with. I'll test it again wirh other films too. So to sum it up, hardware is really good and for me, there's nothing to complain about.

Performance and software:

In the performance category, it does really well. It'll do everyday tasks like web browsing and content consumption with no sweat. Windows 11 feels smooth to use and programs open easily and quickly. For a regular user, the laptop has more than enough performance. Now let's talk about performance heavy workloads. And for that, the Ryzen 7 7735HS paired with the 32 gigabytes of DDR5 ram does not disappoint. If you're a power user, you won't have to worry much. It runs professional software like Photoshop, Premier Pro, AutoCAD, Blender and VS Code really well. Of course it's no Pro level performance but it's enough to get things done. The laptop also handles CPU intensive tasks pretty well. But I wouldn't bet much on graphic intensive professional workloads. My variant doesn't come with a dedicated graphics card (though the Ryzen 7 7840HS variant can be equipped with an RTX 4050 or higher). It does come with an integrated Radeon 680m graphics card, which I'll talk more about later. It's meh for graphics intensive professional work but it's surprisingly good for gaming. You can also press FN + Q to toggle between power modes; switch to performance mode if you want everything to go full gear.

WARNING: Keep in mind the fact that once you start doing performance heavy tasks, it'll take a huge toll on the battery. If you're unplugged, the computer will try saving battery and throttles the performance down accordingly. This is not noticeable in everyday tasks but it becomes very obvious once you start doing performance heavy tasks. You won't be getting the most outta what the laptop can offer so my advice is to keep it plugged in if you're going heavy duty.

Thought I mention that although it's a known thing with Windows laptops. For gaming, it does it really well. For not having a dedicated graphics card, it's very impressive on how well it does in heavy games. Of course you won't be running triple A titles at high graphics and expect good fps, but for most games, it'll do just fine. The Ryzen 7 7735HS has very good gaming performance. But the main highlight of the show is the Radeon 680m Integrated graphics card (iGPU) that comes with the Rembrandt Refresh series CPU. The 680m handles most games really well. GTA V will do 70-80 FPS on high settings so that's already good for me. Other games like Forza Horizon 4 at high settings will have stable 60fps with v-sync enabled, War Thunder at recommended settings will have 100-120fps in Air combat and 70-90 fps in ground, Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered does well over 100fps. I haven't tested many games, but from what I can tell, the CPU, iGPU paired with 32gb of ram can handle a lotta games really well. So performance wise, you're getting a ton for what you're paying, and for me, I paid a little over 800 USD for my variant.

This is my somewhat full review on the Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5 16ARP8. I'm writing this on the 25th of November 2023 and so far, so good. If anything happens to the laptop, software or hardware wise, I'll post an update on it. Thanks for reading.

[guywithcatpfp]

Excellent helpful review mate. I’ve ordered the IdeaPad Pro 5 16ARP8 variant with the Ryzen 7 7735HS and 32gb RAM for around USD 820. It’s the 16” variant with a 2.5k display. Although your model is a bit different, the review has been great and insightful towards the 8th gen Ideapad pro 5 series. I can hardly find any reviews for the 2023 8th gen on YouTube. I appreciate the very thorough in-detail review, as well as your comments on parts of the laptop. When my Ideapad Pro 5 arrives, I’ll come and update this comment with my thoughts on it. I’ll also share information on how my variant of the Pro 5 performs.

[Hito]

They should really fix the fan ramping up at idle like wtf. You probably can work around it with a Speedfan or something but that's just annoying. Lenovo fix your shit. Awesome review I am torn between this and the miniLED Yoga but that thing is way more expensive.

[mfkfaisal]

Where are the exhaust vents? Does it get hot while laptop remains powered on with the lids closed? Please let me know. Also which third party fan control software works in this laptop?

[Djupadalar]

Great review! I know this isnt a gaming laptop. But do you think it would run some casual World of Warcraft gaming when on the road for work?

[yanzet]

Have Lenovo released a Bios update for the fan issue? Can you please do a video with a level of fan noise during charging?

[han_zhang]

From my use of the Lenovo Ideapad pro 5 14inch, I have the exact same specs as the one you tested in the video. I can agree that the touchpad is quite bad as I came from a macbook pro but the way to fix the double click isssue is quite simple, I just kept the sensitivity of the touchpad on low so that clicking down on the touchpad itself will not trigger a double click. My biggest issue from compared to my macbook pro would be the battery life as it is almost half that of the macbook, however the charger is very good and with rapid charging enabled, it charges up in no time. I prefer not to run demanding software on battery life so I keep to browsing and when I do want to use more of the performance side I just hook it up to a monitor and keep it on charge. So far no major issues and I do think it was worth my money. Although one thing you mentioned was different. My model only runs 60Hertz I am not sure why and I am sure my laptop has the same specs.

[lovesarita]

Have Lenovo released a Bios update for the fan issue? This has put me off buying it! Hate a noisy fan.

[baksobulat]

thank you for your review, my friend..

I'm planning on buying this laptop

[edgargabriel]

I got this with 32 GB RAM for 680€ this January for my son. Added a 4 TB SSD and there you go 😊
Really great machine for the price / performance ratio 🤑
Myseöf am more into the Legion series so, but he isn''t a PC gamer.

[AlirezaCurio]

Great review! Keep up with the good work!

[patrikpukan]

great review! i would like to ask 2 questions:

- do you have any info on why it does not support variable refresh rates (60-120hz)? the hw should support it and i heard that the 16" version does have it, so it just seems weird, like a driver issue.

- even though you disliked the touchpad, does it at least have a good-feeling surface? not that it should be macbook level, but simply nice sliding for a windows touchpad.

[legorreto]

Screen size is fantastico for the price, although I am considering a Thinkbook 15.6 inch, instead, ¿Which would be a better pick for rpoductivity / home-office use?

[bertriffelmacher]

Do you keep it ? For me the fan curve is driving me crazy

[oleksandrpaskalov]

Здрастуй.

Do you use this 14” Lenovo with external display? Show please full photo. Can I use 16” before monitor as well?
I want to but Thinkbook, what do you think about this series?

[luanskai]

Since you chose to not include windows, did you have to provide your own activation key or not?

[marck_]

Is the built-in screen FreeSync compatible? Some Lenovo laptop have this but they never put it on the specs page.

[donutbedum]

About battery life, how long does it last if you set the maximum cpu utilisation to 5%? Should save power, and the processor is powerful enough to run really well even on low power

[thomasskytte]

Thanks for the review. Regarding the fans always on problem, have you updated to the newest bios? And are the fans always on if you choose the lowest power profile running on battery?

[jirikasal]

Is this laptop single fan or dual fan?