Select 275HX as it's 20-25% better than 225HX in this laptop
CPU:255HX vs. 275HX: 20-25% peformance incrase so select 275HX.
Single Core difference is almost same. 5% at max differnce.
Multi-core in safe temperatures is 20% higher in 275HX and 25% more when allowed to run hot.
OLED is great as long as you're not affected by OLED
I see that in some regions like India, you can't even select IPS so you have to get the OLED panel.
Just see cautions about OLED's reflective thing and the flickering thing and that you're not affected by it.
5070 15% better than 5060 in this laptop
5070 isn't that much more priced than 5060 in this laptop. Try to get 5070
RAM: Don't pay more to Lenovo
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
India Purchase Decision VideoRest of the World(English)
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, both the 275HX and the 255HX, although it's recommended to get the 275HX if the price difference is not much since you will be running them at much lower wattages than you see in reviews online.
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.
Keyboard gets hot to touch in long workloads.
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.
5060 or the 5070 both are performing well and are within temperature limits.
Great upgradibility
Cautions
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.)
If getting OLED displays
275HX only comes with OLED so make sure you're not affected by OLED displays as written below.
OLED's are 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.
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/255HX 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.
This review says the 255HX stabilizes at 84°C at 125W itself but since she didn't show the actual data in progress unlike other two reviews, I am disregarding it as it is more likely that she is also confused as other youtubers who look at the core temperatreus and draw their conclusions from them.
Pros/Cons
Pros
Color Accurate screen so great for professionals
Thunderbolt 40Gbps that also supports with Display Port 1.4
Build is solid, no wobbles.
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.
CPU: 255HX
Single Core scores are same as the older 14900HX and equal to AMD's flagship 9955HX
Multi-core performance is just behind the 8945HX CPU
Only 3% performance drop in continous CPU stress test(this is unlike Intel), although it will run hot.
GPU perfomrance for botht he 5060 and 5070 is pretty great and even temperatures are in check.
Great OLED Display with all the things one would look for from DisplayHDR True Black 1000 to Dobly Vision, to G-sync, Advanced Otpimus and 100% DCI-P3 display. It is fast also. It is also factory calibrated to be accurate.
Battery Liife: MobileMark: 4.7hrs. Still pretty good for a gaming laptop. Low power draw due to the CPUs being 3nm only.
Higher memory speed of 6400MT/s without resorting to soldered RAM however included RAM might be NOT be the fastest.
Stable metal body.
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.
Advanced Optimus 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.
Relatively portable for a 16" gaming laptop
Custom Extreme Mode isn't as loud
Good keyboard as always
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.
Neutral Bad:
Fans keep spinning up in idle although are not loud.
Maybe Bug: Dropped frames in youtube video playback.
Lenovo has started to add a lot of advertisment in crucial softwares.
No more clean setup due to no ports being at the back anymore.
Even though body is sturdy, when pushed to 180°C the hinge isn't tight and there is a slight creaking noise on the right hand side when the laptop is twisted.
Palmrest and touchpad area can get hot to touch during high workloads.
Cons
CPU: 275HX
When let run normally can't sustain higher wattages as once it hits 100°C the wattage drops to 60W at 2.3Ghz only for longer runs and has to stabilize around 60W where it loses 20% of it's performance. (This might be improved with overclocking/undervolting and extra stuff)
CPU: 255HX
CPU can pull a whopping 180W by itself peak and goes down to around 135W when on full CPU usage.
CPU easily crosses 100°C in long benchmarks, now the CPU can run upto 105°C this still means that other compnents besdie the CPU will also get heated and running at 100+°C isn't a good thing.
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.
Average speakers for such an expensive device. Not loud enough.
Sort of expected at high price: No Thunderbolt 5, Two USB ports are only 5Gbps, No SD Card reader.
Loud volume at high performance. You can switch to balanced mode for 13% drop in CPU and 22% drop in GPU performance if that bothers you.
Benchmarks
CPU
275HX
Cinebench R23: 2,248 | 39,751@125W | 37,507@?W
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)
Only 3% performance drop in continous CPU stress test(this is unlike Intel).
CPU can pull a whopping 180W by itself peak and goes down to around 135W when on full CPU usage.
Raw Chart Data R23 loop
GPU
5070
GPU stays under 80°C in both Custom Extreme and Performance Mode in combined CPU-GPU Stress test and pulls 113W.
TimeSpy Graphics→ 14,350
Time Spy CPU→ 17,189
Time Spy Overall→ 14,714
Fire Strike Physics→ 49,608
Fire Strike Graphics→ 30,920
Fire Strike Overall→ 28,698
Stell Nomad(Overall)→ 3,196
Port Royal(Ray Tracing)→ 9,136
105fps→ Cyberpunk 2077: 1080p No Upscaling, No Frame Genearation, No Ray Tracing → Ultra
58fps→ Cyberpunk 2077: 1440p Upscaled from 835p(Yuk!) Balanced, No Frame Generation→ RT Ultra
77fps→ Alan Wake 2: 1080p No Upscaling, No Frame Generation, No Tray Tracing → High
48fps→ Alan Wake 2: 1440p No Upscaling, No Frame Generation, No Tray Tracing → High
50fps→ Alan Wake 2: 1440p Upscaled from 835p(Yuk!) Balanced, No Frame Generation→ RT Low
73fps→ Black Myth Wukong: 1080p No Upscaling, No Frame Generation, No Tray Tracing → High
49fps→ Black Myth Wukong: 1440p No Upscaling, No Frame Generation, No Tray Tracing → High
73fps→ Black Myth Wukong: 1080p Upscaled from 720p(LOL) Quality, No Frame Generation→ RT Low
60fps→ Black Myth Wukong: 1440p Upscaled from 835p(Yuk!) Balanced, No Frame Generation→ RT & High
Miscellaneous:
Blender Open Data 4.4 Classrom Test: 1,112
Laptop Weight: 2.3kgs
Charger Weight: 0.7kg
Battery Life on wathcing YouTube: ~6hrs.
SPECviewperf 2020 v3.1 -
Beast Mode (Left, Red)
Maximum temperature: 48.5 °C
Average temperature: 40.2 °C
Minimum temperature: 33.5 °C
Full load noise at user position: 53.1 dB(A)
Ambient noise: 32.2 dB(A)
Super Performance Mode (Right, Blue)
Maximum temperature: 48.2 °C
Average temperature: 39.8 °C
Minimum temperature: 32.7 °C
Full load noise at user position: 57.1 dB(A)
Ambient noise: 32.2 dB(A)
