I need real data on how hot the 275HX actually gets on this machine which I expect to be very high just like the 275HX 5070 since it's the same chasis. But apart from that the review is complete.
Since laptop has two slots and if the laptop you're getting has only one slot empty, you can easily add
another for much cheaper than what Lenovo gives you and it's very very easy to do so(Surf the internet
before doing it for the first time).
Since AMD eats up RAM for it's iGPU and Windows 11 is getting more and more bloated, 24GB RAM should be
the bare minimum.
Second SSD is a full size slot so an SSD from Amazon will be much cheaper.
First SSD: You can't throw away the SSD for the warranty of the laptop which can't be for four years. Even
if you buy a new SSD you will have to keep this included SSD for some time. Keeping that in mind:
See the difference in SSD on going from 512GB to 1TB is it more than just buying a new SSD? If yes, get
that SSD.
The only exception would be you plan on adding a lot of storage by using the 1TB from Lenovo and getting
your SSD in second slot.
OS/Office 2024 NOT yearly Subscription: Buy from Microsoft if the cost is close to the
ones given by Microsoft
In UK, you have to pay £90 for Windows and £120 for Office Home 2024 when
you can easily get the same from Microsoft directly and that license will not be tied to the mothearboard of
the laptop you're using but to your account.
These license from Laptop Companies are OEM licenses and can't be transferred so it's tied to the current
machine.
It's better to get your own license and activate it and when and if needed transfer it to other PCs.
Also, fuck subscriptions and don't get the Microsoft Subscription at all.
Wifi: 7, No Softwares/antivirus, no accessories, Battery: Highest, Camera: Highest, Color, Keyboard:
Personal Preference
Pretty Clear from the title. Get the Wifi 7 as it's only a little more than the Wifi 6.
Don't get any extra software bundles like Adobe or something or any antivirus.
Get the maximum possible battery although I only see 80Whr as standard.
Both cameras are terrible but it's okay to spend a bit more for the less shit one.
Accessories from a laptop brand are usually shit and so stick to reputable brands when it comes to
accessories like Mouse, Mouse pads, etc...
More information on accessories here.
Also, the backlit RGB keyboard is completely upto you. I will however say you should try to get better
hardware specs in other parts before thinking about this.
Summary
Even though the CPU is pretty efficient, in order to achieve the greatest scores the laptop and the CPU has
been pushed so much that the CPU heats up a lot and to keep temperatures in safe range the performance can
easily drop by 20% or more and requires a bit of setup before you can start using the machine.
However, with safe limits also, the CPU is performing pretty good.
The OLED display is great: (if you're not affected by flickering): pretty fast, color accurate and
bright(glossy).
Some ports like Thunderbolt 4 instead of 5, USB 5Gbps instead of 10(two) and no SD Card are stuff you have
to live with.
Upgradable RAM and SSD and RAM can be upto 6400MT/s although included ones might not be as fast.
Due to the above, it's not my immediate recommendation and you should also look at other laptops which might
not have so much downsides as above.
5070Ti is the fastest that can be on a gaming laptop.
Great upgradibility
Cautions
Asus ROG Strix G16 with the 9955HX3D with 5070Ti gives much better gaming performance and better thermalss if that's what you're after. It might be worth checking that laptop before going into this.
Please check laptops with more than 12GB VRAM before looking into this. Poweful as the 5070Ti is it's still
12GB VRAM and if there are other laptops with more VRAM (4090 laptop, 3080, 3080Ti)of any genreation or any
brand(AMD, Intel) as newer games are becoming more and more VRAM so this is mainly for future.
Heavy CPU tuning required to keep CPU temperatures in check. If you are not ready to do that, don't get this
laptop.
Many Reviewers have only reported the core temperatures(core average) temperatures of this CPU under load.
They have not taken into account the maximum CPU temps(NOT THE MAXIMUM TEMPS REACHED AT PEAK by any component
of the CPU not just individual cores) which is also called Package Temperatures(Package tempertareus are what
is used by Intel/AMD and motherboard manufacturers to determine fan speeds and when to shut down CPUs so
average is of no use to us.)
Generic OLED cautions:
OLED's are *usually glossy(reflective) so using them outside or even in a room with lots of lights will cause
problems in the long run. Either use it by making the environment non-reflective or using the display in a
dark room which again isn't
recommended for long.
Note: Asus has shown us that it's possible to have an OLED that's non-reflective but that must be expensive.
OLEDs diplay flicker very quickly. Few people are affected by this especially using in dark
environment when a bit sleepy so like late night gaming which many many kids do. The huge issue with this
is that it can happend with people who are perfectly fit and have had no previous history of epileptic
seizures and this is also the reason that games have to see an image.
Two-vent fans so if you live in a dusty place, the fans will require more frequent cleaning although the
thermal paste won't be required changing as PTM is pre-applied.
A few things are unclear about this laptop so I am putting them here:
In idle the power consumption is low but it suddenly peaks for a few moments before going back to the
lower idle temperatures.
YouTube playback showed some dropped frames. Cause is still unknown.
Lenovo has started advertising it's various paid features everywhere in the crucial apps just like Xiaomi
started in their phones and it's very very irritating.
Many people will say that the 275HX actually stabilizes at only around 82°C to which I will ask them to
confirm what wattage was those temperatures at because actually the CPU does run cool but at around 60W at
which it loses 20% of it's performance.
Chinese versions with the 255HX say DP2.1
CPU Supports 256GB RAM and upto 6400MT/s speed. Although it depends on what the motherboard is limited to,
which there is no way to confirm other than adding RAM into it.
Disconnecitng AC doesn't lower down refresh rate to save battery but is expected to come in a new update
for the Legion Space software.
Advanced Optimus: Differnet people have said different things about it but PSREF says it's there.
Pros/Cons
Pros
CPU: Both CPUs are pretty efficient due to being built on 3nm. The problem starts to happen when they are
pushed to achieve the best performance.
CPU: 275HX
7% performance drop in continous runs. Not as consistent as other laptops like XMG, Asus ROG Scar Strix 16
or the Legion Pro 7i.
Power efficiency better than older Intel CPUs.
GPU: 5070Ti Powerful 3D performance
5% better performance than other laptops with the same GPU.
Only 9% behind the Alienware 16 Area 51 that comes with the 5080
Consistent gaming perfromance.
Great OLED Screen
1000nits in HDR content and 500nits typical. As long as you don't use it in reflective environment this is
enough brightness.
Note: IPS with a matte might coating will seem brighter even at lower nits even at a lower
brightness.
Color Accurate screen so great for professionals
Color Accurate Screeen: Full sRGB, DCI-P3 and even 94% AdobeRGB and it comes fully calibrated with
standard deviation of only 2.49.
No worries about IPS backlight glow or bleed that is inherent in all IPS dispplays.
Very fast response times like 2ms.
Even though it has PWM it is quite high frequency so most users who are sensitive to OLEDs might not
notice it.
Very usable screen outdoors as long as you directly look at it and use something behind your body to
reduce reflections.
Great OLED Display with all the things one would look for from DisplayHDR True Black 1000 to Dobly Vision,
to G-sync and 100% DCI-P3 display. It is fast also. It is also factory calibrated to be
accurate.
Thunderbolt 40Gbps that also supports with Display Port 1.4
Build is solid, no wobbles.
Higher memory speed of 6400MT/s without resorting to soldered RAM however included RAM might be NOT be the
fastest.
Stable metal body.
Battery Life: 5hrs. After manually switching to 60Hz on battery and at reduced brightness.
Comfortable typing experience
Neutral
Netural Good:
PTM comes pre-applied so no need to change the thermal paste for a long time(fans will need cleaning though).
Two RAM and SSD Upgrade slots.
Both SSD slots are full size although the pre-installed SSD comes of smaller size than usually avaialble.
SSD installed can have chips on both sides.
HDMI and two USB-C can be used for upto three outputs. Only one C port connects to iGPU.
Pretty good webcamera
Good keyboard as always: good travel, fast to type on, comfortable and moderate sounding.
Neutral Doesn't Matter:
Aluminium Lid and Plastic Body.
Touchpad is fine as long as you don't press down and only taps.
Wifi 7 speeds are not as fast as a proper Intel Wifi 7 card but still usable as they are still pretty high
speeds.
Great SSD speeds on the Gen 4 1TB SSD in some regions. Since it can change in various regions, this is not in
pro.
Usable Webcam. Says 1440p likes like SHITp.
No IR, no Widnows Hello Sign in. No Fingerprint reader.
Wifi speeds are average on the Wifi6 module but if possible get the Wifi7 if customizing.
Alirght touchpad. No glass so can't expect much.
Neutral Bad:
Lenovo has started to add a lot of advertisment in crucial softwares.
Only one SSD is connected to PCIe-5, the other is PCIe-4.
Fans start randomly spinning while idling for a short time.
Fans are quite loud while gaming in performance mode and even more in extreme mode.
Advanced Optimus is missing with laptop so you can change between hybrid and dGPU only mode from Nvidia control panel
without restarting laptop(If you do it from Lenovo's software it will require restart). This is mostly important
for switching between GPUs when plugged in and battery.
Massive 300W power brick with the laptop.
Cons
CPU: 275HX
Long term CPU tasks drops performance by 8%.
CPU stress tests starat at 195W 4.1Ghz but as soon as 100°C is crossed they clock down hard to 2.3Ghz and 60W.
Note: These are the little problems with Intel that needs to be done as part of "tuning" that I keep saying.
Also since many reviewers don't bother doing such tests it's hard to find another source of this data to cross-reference against.
Oh, there are videos but not many are bothered enough with proper long-term stress tests showing critical/package temperatures. Everyone is obssessed with average temperatures.
Having been using an LOQ 14700HX 4060 that has died 2-3 times already I can assure you, it's important.
GPU: 5070Ti
Without power supply, it only performs 15% of it's performance although it's not recommended to run this
dGPU without power.
Very glossy OLED screen. It is possible to have non-reflective OLEDs but it must be more expensive.
Keyboard gets hot to touch
Battery Life isn't the best. 3,4,5 hrs is what everyone is quoting in controlled environment.
Speakers aren't loud and artificially increaseing sound with Nahimic or other software makes them sound absolute $hit.
Two vent design so the usual issues:
If used in a dusty environment the two fan design will need frequent cleaning by opening the base of the
lapop, you don't have to take out the fan module so no thermal paste change needed.
Usually higher temperatures than other laptops with adequate cooling and four vent design(like comparing
it to the past year's Legion)
No ports at the back so no more clean setup but one thunderbolt 4 port means there can be some sort of cable
management, one power and one thunderbolt is more than enough.
Lacking Ports: No Thunderbolt 5, only one thunderbolt 4, Two USB ports are only 5Gbps, No SD Card reader.
Lenovo uses it's software to advertise stuff
Benchmarks
CPU
275HX
185W PL2 (Short Burst)/ 125W PL1 (Sustained)
Cinebench R23: 2,248 | 37,507@125W
CPU Average temperatures stays at 84°C in CPU-GPU Stress Test in Performance mode(65W) and 90°C in Custom Extreme(88W) Modes.
(Since this is Intel, we can't make a decision based only on average temperatures so ignore this completely).
Cinebench 2024: 138 | 2,121 (Long run - highest perforamnce mode, no overclock)
Geekbench 6: 3090 | 19,645
Energy profile
CPU TDP
CB 15 Multi
CP 2077 FHD Ultra
Assassin's Creed: Shadows FHD Ultra
max. fan volume
Quiet
65/35 watts
4,076 points
90,6 fps
43fps
40.68 dB(A)
Balanced
130/70 watts
5,141 points
103fps
47fps
46.37 dB(A)
Performance
185/125 watts
5,885 points
132fps
53fps
56.72 dB(A)
Extreme (user-defined)
202/135 watts
5,867 points
142fps
50fps
58.48 dB(A)
Battery (balanced)
55/45 watts
3,563 points
30fps
30fps
29 dB(A)
Raw Chart Data
GPU
5070Ti
Time Spy: Graphics: 17,966 | CPU Score: 16,405
3D Mark 11 Performance: P47,299
Fire Strike: Graphics: 46,018 | Physics: 51,514 | Combined: 13,794
Cloud Gate: 76,961 | Graphics: 155,373 | Physics: 27,821
Steel Noma: 4,153 | Graphics Test: 41.54FPS
