Which gaming laptop is better, Lenovos Legion 5 or HPs Victus 16? Ive compared both to find out all of the differences! Both of my test laptops have similar specs, AMDs 8 core Ryzen 7 5800H processor, Nvidias RTX 3060 graphics, 16 gigs of memory, a 512 gig SSD, and a 1080p screen with high refresh rate, 15.6 inches for the Legion and 16.1 inches for the Victus.
Both laptops have decent build quality considering theyre both plastic. The only thing Id really fault the Victus for is that it has more screen wobble.
Legions stopped, Victus still going, still going, still going and stopped. It just goes for ages, though its not really a problem unless you bump the laptop or desk or move the laptop around. I never found the screen to actually wobble while just typing on it normally.
My Legion 5 has a dark blue finish, but its also available in white, while Ive got a white Victus, but its also available with darker blue or silver finishes. The Victus was a little wider, makes sense as its got a slightly larger 16 screen. The Legion was a little deeper, but its extremely close, and thickness was quite similar. The Legion weighs slightly less if were just comparing the laptops alone, but its larger and heavier 300 watt power brick makes the overall package heavier compared to the Victus. Now both of these laptops have 1080p screens, but the Legions is 165Hz while the Victus has a 144Hz screen.
However the Legion is also available with a slower 120Hz screen while the Victus has a 1440p upgrade path, or for $40 USD more it also seems like you can upgrade the Victus to a higher quality 1080p screen. Unfortunately the only Victus that I could buy had the worst possible screen option. Only the Legion has a MUX switch, so youve got the option of running it with either optimus enabled for best battery life, or with optimus disabled for better gaming performance. With the Victus youre stuck with optimus enabled. The lowest end Victus screen doesnt even have FreeSync, meanwhile the Legion 5 has FreeSync when optimus is enabled, but it also has G-Sync when optimus is disabled.
The Legion 5s screen, shown by the red bars, has a much higher color gamut compared to HPs Victus 16 in the purple bars, but this might be different if you get the screen upgrade on the Victus. The screen brightness of the Legion 5 was better at 90 and 100% brightness, otherwise at lower levels the Victus was a little brighter. The Victus still felt dim at full brightness for me, so paying $40 for that screen upgrade is probably worth it. The response times are also quite different. The Victus has one of the slower 144Hz panels that Ive tested with a 17ms response time, while the Legions was much faster at under 7ms, but again results will vary with different screen options.
Slower screen response time contributes to the total system latency, which is the amount of time between a mouse click and gun shot fire on the screen in CS:GO.
The Legion was definitely quicker, while the Victus was one of the slower results Ive recorded. Both had very minor backlight bleed, I never noticed it during normal use on either laptop, but results will vary between laptop and panels. Both laptops have a 720p camera above the screen in the middle. Neither have IR for Windows Hello face unlock, but the Legion has a switch on the right to physically disconnect the camera.
This is what the camera and microphone look and sound like on the Legion 5, and then this is how things look and sound like over on the HP Victus. Both laptops have backlit keys. My Legion has a 4 zone RGB keyboard, but theres also a white only version, while my Victus just has white keys, which were hard to see with the white finish due to a lack of contrast unless youre in a dark room, so for that reason alone Id recommend anything other than the white finish.
Personally I preferred typing on the Victus. The Legion still has an above average keyboard, I just liked the clicker feel of the Victus.
The Legion also has larger arrow keys which I personally prefer. The Victus has its power button right next to delete and backspace, but fortunately an accidental mispress doesnt do anything, you have to hold it to sleep. Both have precision touchpads, the one on the Victus is physically larger in both dimensions, but the click just felt nicer to me on the Legion and I never had an issue with its size. Both have their speakers on the left and right towards the front. I thought both sounded decent, but the Victus sounded better to me, the Legion was just a bit tinnier sounding comparatively.
The Latencymon results were fairly similar from either laptop, no big differences. Only the Legion has an air exhaust vent on the left side. They both have a USB Type-C port, though the Legions is faster Gen2 while the Victus is slower Gen1, otherwise both have a 3.5mm audio combo jack.
The Victus also has its power input, gigabit ethernet, HDMI 2.
1, a USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A port and an SD card slot on this side. Both laptops have an air exhaust on the right. The Victus has two USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports while the Legion has one, and the Legion also has the camera disconnect switch here.
The rest of the Legions I/O is on the back, which I personally prefer as bulky cables run out the back and stay out of the way. From left to right the Legion has gigabit ethernet, a second USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port, three more USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports, HDMI 2.1 and the power input on the right.
The Legion also has these icons above the rear ports which help with seeing where youre plugging cables into without turning the laptop around. So basically the main I/O differences are that the Legion has 4 USB Type-A ports while the Victus has 3.
The Legion has 2 USB Type-C ports while the Victus just has the 1, but the Legions are also faster Gen 2 while the Victus has slower Gen 1, and the one on the back of the Legion can also be used to charge the laptop. The Victus does not have Type-C charging, but the Victus does also have an SD card slot, something that the 15 inch legion 5 does not have, but the 17 inch Legion 5 does have that. Now all Type-C ports on both laptops offer DisplayPort 1.
4 support, and both that along with the HDMI ports connect directly to the Nvidia graphics bypassing optimus, so this does mean that we can attach an external screen to the Victus in order to boost its performance in games. The legion has an extrusion on the front in the middle which makes opening the lid easier, but that said I didnt really have any problems opening the Victus. The Legion also has flip to boot as an option you can enable through software or BIOS, and this powers the laptop on when you open the lid. Underneath both appear to have plenty of space for air ventilation towards the back, but we can see that both only really bring air in directly above the fans through circular cut outs.
The black rectangle that covers the vents on the Legion is a mesh dust filter, while the Victus is solid, so I suppose the Legion might have more air flow in that regard.
Heres how both look inside. The Legion 5 has some additional metal coverings, with those removed we can see that both laptops are quite similar. Theyve got their batteries down the front, two memory sticks in dual channel, 2 M.2 storage slots and Wi-Fi 6 cards, though it needs to be noted that the Wi-Fi in the Victus is underneath the cooler for some reason, so a Wi-Fi upgrade on the Victus would require you to remove this and repaste the CPU and GPU, far less convenient compared to the Legion, granted thats probably not a change youll make often. Despite both laptops having the exact same model of RealTek Wi-Fi card installed, the Victus was a little faster, though both were a fair bit behind many of the Intel options, but you could upgrade this yourself for like $20.
All testing in this video has been done with both laptops running their stock memory that they shipped with. I think this better represents a fair comparison at represents how both laptops would perform out of the box if you were to actually go and buy them, so this means that technically my Victus better x8 memory while the Legion has slower x16 memory, though we could of course go and upgrade that, it would just cost more money.
The battery in my Legion is around 14% larger than my Victus in terms of watt hour capacity, but you can also get the Legion with a smaller 60Wh option, so expect different results with that. Interestingly the Victus with smaller battery was lasting around 16% longer in the YouTube playback test, though the Legion was ahead in the game test. Both results are great and well above average.
The software experience on the Legion 5 is better compared to the Victus. Both give you the option to swap between different performance modes, but I had some weird bug on the Victus where it would undo my selections sometimes, hopefully that gets fixed in an update.
Lenovos Vantage software is just more centralized and you can do more, everything is done through here including getting updates, on the Victus thats managed through a different program. The Legion also lets you change the performance modes with the function plus Q shortcut, and this changes the color of the power button to reflect it. The Victus has no such shortcuts, you have to use the software only.
Lenovos Vantage software also lets us enable or disable hybrid mode aka optimus, something the Victus does not support at all. The Legion also lets us modify battery and power settings here, again something I didnt find on the Victus. Just before we get into the thermals, Ive got to say the BIOS on the Legion was much better. It looks more modern and there are just more options for you to customize compared to the Victus, though both laptops have TPM 2.0, a security feature which will be required to run the new Windows 11.
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Lets compare thermals next. Im only going to look at both laptops in their highest performance modes. If you want to also see thermal results of both laptops in every single performance mode available then refer to the full review videos linked in the description below. The blue bars represent the CPU while the green bars represent the GPU temperature.
The Victus was warmer on these components when just sitting there idle.
With a CPU plus GPU stress test running though, the Legion was warmer on the CPU and GPU. The cooling pad I test with, linked in the description below, was able to improve both laptops, however the Victus was still cooler. The CPUs were the same with a game running, but the GPU in the Legion was warmer, and then again both could be cooled further in the game with the cooling pad. These are the clock speeds for the same tests just shown.
During the stress test the Legion was reaching both higher CPU and GPU speeds, so its performing better with the same hardware which is probably why it was warmer too. They dont change much with the cooling pad as thermals werent much of a limit, and then in the game theyre much closer together, though the Legion still had the lead. We can see that during the stress test the Legion has both higher CPU and GPU power limits. More power equals more performance, but also more heat.
Basically the Victus has a 95 watt 3060 while the Legions is full powered at 115 watts, though it can boost to 130 watts with Nvidias dynamic boost, plus the Victus seems to cap the CPU to 35 watts while the Legion can go to 45, granted in this game the difference in CPU usage was small.
In Cinebench R23, a CPU only workload with the GPU now idle, the Legion 5 was performing better despite both technically having the same Ryzen 7 5800H processor. The Legion was scoring around 9% higher in multicore, granted single core was much the same as generally no laptops are subject to power or thermal constraints there. Things change when running on battery power.
The Legion was still ahead when it came to single core, but its margin of error stuff. The Victus however was ahead in multicore now, though only by 5%, so HP seems to perform better on battery.
The Legion was cooler to the touch when both were sitting there idle, but thats not to say the Victus was warm, low 30 degrees Celsius is normal in this test, the Legion was just below average.
Neither were hot to the touch while under heavy worst case stress test, the Victus was perhaps a little warmer, but its close, lets have a listen to the fan noise. The Legion was more audible when sitting there doing nothing at idle, and it also ends up being just a little louder with the stress tests going. Again at least the Victus has some basic level of fan control, you get nothing on the Legion. Now lets test out some games and find out how both laptops compare, and as mentioned earlier both laptops are tested with their stock memory here, and the Legion has optimus disabled as it does have the advantage of a MUX switch.
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested in little China with the street kid life path on all laptops. Ive got both the Legion and Victus laptops highlighted in red, and we can see that the Legion is reaching around 10% higher average FPS in this one.
This is in part due to the higher GPU power limit of the 3060 in the Legion, but also because it has a MUX switch, which lets us disable optimus and generally improve performance in games. Anyway its not as if the 3060 in the Victus was bad or anything, were still above 60 FPS at high settings. Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with the games benchmark, and this time both laptops were scoring essentially the same.
I think were seeing the different memory in action here. Both of these results are with both laptops tested with their stock memory, the Victus came with x8 sticks while my Legion came with x16 sticks. If I retest the Legion with x8 memory it ends up getting 82 FPS, so a nice speed boost, but yeah just stock out of the box theyre basically the same due to the memory differences.
Control on the other hand is fairly GPU heavy, and I dont generally find memory differences to matter as much in this game. This is likely why the Legion was now around 14% faster in terms of average FPS when compared to the Victus, putting it just a couple of FPS behind the lower wattage 3070 in the HP Omen 15 one spot above it as the Legion has the full powered 3060.
I have also tested the Legion 5 with faster x8 memory in this video over here, so check that one out next if you want to see what sort of a performance boost a memory upgrade will give it. Likewise though it is also possible to boost gaming performance on the Victus by connecting an external screen and bypassing the integrated graphics, and you can check those results in my Victus game test video which is linked in the description below. The Legion 5, shown here by the red bars, was always ahead of the Victus 16, shown by the purple bars in all of the 3DMark tests, again makes sense due to the higher wattage 3060. Now lets check out some content creator workloads. Adobe Premiere was tested with the Puget Systems benchmark, and both laptops are highlighted in red.
Theres no real difference here, technically the Victus was 3 points ahead but this is easily margin of error stuff in this test, and I suspect this is the memory difference at play again. The difference was a little larger in Adobe Photoshop, the Victus was scoring around 6% higher. This test is generally fairly processor intensive, so yeah Id expect the Legion to do better if it also had x8 memory like the Victus. The differences in DaVinci Resolve were also fairly small, but the Victus was still scoring about 5% higher due to the better memory that it shipped with. SPECviewperf tests out various professional 3D workloads, and the higher powered 3060 in the Legion 5, shown in the red bars here, was generally ahead, but that wasnt always the case, it depends on the specific workload.
Both of my laptops came with 512gb NVMe M.2 SSDs. In general the one in the Legion was a little faster, though it depends on the specific test, both were performing well in any case. The Victus also has an SD card slot, which the 15 Legion does not have, but the larger 17 model does though.
Linux support was tested with an Ubuntu 21 live CD.
Both worked fine, though the RealTek Wi-Fi wasnt recognized on either out of the box as it probably needs additional drivers. Ill give the edge to the Legion though because you can still use the function plus Q shortcut to change performance modes as theyre baked into firmware, the Victus requires software support. Alright lets discuss pricing and availability next. This will of course change over time as both of these companies are known to run regular sales, so refer to current prices with the links down in the description. At the time of recording, the Victus with Ryzen 7 5800H, RTX 3060 graphics and 16 gigs of memory with the screen upgrade is about $1360 USD.
The Legion is more than $400 more expensive, at least in the configuration Ive tested right now, it used to be less but I guess supply issues continue to get worse. You could of course get a better price depending on the customizations you make with the links in the description.
All things considered, personally I think the Legion 5 is the better gaming laptop, which I guess isnt too surprising as it does cost quite a bit more money. Theres definitely a place for the cheaper more budget friendly Victus. So lets recap both the good and the bad to find out if you should pay more money for the Legion.
Id say the build quality of both is pretty similar as theyre both plastic, but Id say the Legion has an edge simply due to it having less noticeable screen wobble. The Victus is a little larger due to its slightly bigger 16 inch screen, but despite this the Legion was lighter, though once you include the power bricks and cables the Legion ends up weighing more. Personally, I liked typing more on the Victus. The clicky keys just felt nicer, but I prefer the touchpad on the Legion despite its smaller size. The power button changing color to show you the performance mode youre in is a nice extra on the Legion, but I thought the speakers were better on the Victus.
The I/O was better on the Legion as you get more USB ports, faster USB speeds, and Type-C charging, though the Victus has an SD card slot, but the larger 17 Legion also has that too if youre after it. Both have the same Wi-Fi 6 card inside. The Victus was a little faster, but its also harder to get to should you want to upgrade it to a better Intel card. The battery lasts longer on the Victus outside of gaming despite it having a smaller watt hour rating. The Victus also has an edge when running on battery power, as it performs better on Cinebench there.
On wall power though, the Legion was ahead as it has both higher CPU and GPU power limits, and this is generally why the Legion ended up being warmer, at least on the internals.
As far as the exterior goes where youll actually be touching, neither was hot to the touch at all. The legion was generally louder when it came to fan noise though, just sitting here right now with both laptops idling and doing completely nothing I cant hear the Victus but the fan on the Legion has been going the whole time and is audible to me even in the lowest performance mode. The Victus has better fan control, though I suppose the Legion isnt hard to beat as it doesnt have any fan control, unless you go to third party software. The software is better on the Legion, but the Victus was generally performing better in creator workloads due to the faster x8 memory.
The Legion would of course win with a memory upgrade, but thats a further additional cost and it already costs more. Likewise in games, generally the Legion was ahead, but due to the memory difference the Victus could still do well despite the Legion having a MUX switch. My Legion happened to have a better screen, but if you were going for the Victus Id definitely recommend paying that $40 extra to get the 1080p screen upgrade.
This one is just too dim and sometimes the whites look a bit yellow, not to mention the response time is just way lower compared to the Legion. So yeah, all things considered I think the Legion does better than the Victus, but despite that the Victus does still do quite well, and in some tests it does come out the winner, its just that in most of the things I care about the Legion is ahead.
At the end of the day though, if youre just after the best value gaming performance, the Victus is clearly the winner. In many of the games tested it wasnt actually that far behind the Legion, especially considering right now the Legion is like $400 more. Honestly its kind of starting to approach rip off territory for a 3060 gaming laptop, given Ive seen them on sale for $1400. If both laptops are essentially the same price though Id probably just go for the Legion unless you really care about something that the Victus offered, like maybe the better keyboard or better speakers. Anyway let me know which of these two gaming laptops you would prefer down in those comments below.
If you need any further information on either of these two laptops then refer to the full review videos over here, as I go into even more depth in those.
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