Lenovo Legion 5 15" (2021, AMD) vs Apple MacBook Air 13 (M1, 2020)
42
out of 100
VS
55
out of 100
Please select specific configurations for the laptops to get a more accurate comparative review
Review
Performance
System and application performance
Gaming
Performance in popular 3D games
Display
Viewing angle, color accuracy, brightness
Battery Life
Potential battery life in light and average use
Connectivity
Ports, webcam and other interfaces
Portability
Design, materials, durability and usability
Pick the usage scenario that best matches your needs
Value for money (Beta)
Key Differences
Advantages of the Lenovo Legion 5 15" (2021, AMD)
- Includes an old-school USB-A port
- Features a bigger (~20%) battery – 60 against 49.9 watt-hours
- User-upgradable RAM (up to 32GB) and an SSD
Advantages of the Apple MacBook Air 13 (M1, 2020)
- Significantly easier to carry: weighs 1110 grams less (around 2.45 lbs)
- MacBook with the Apple M1 chip maintains its performance even when running on battery power.
- Thinner bezels and 12% higher screen-to-body ratio
- Around 7% better multi-core CPU performance in the Cinebench 2024 test
- 61% sharper screen – 227 versus 141 pixels per inch (PPI)
- Provides 60% higher max. screen brightness: 400 vs 250 nits
- Much smaller footprint: 31% more compact case (100.1 vs 146 square inches)
Tests and Specifications
Comparison table of test results and technical specsCase
| Weight | 2.4 kg (5.29 lbs) | 1.29 kg (2.84 lbs) |
| Dimensions | 363 x 259.6 x 23.5 mm 14.29 x 10.22 x 0.93 inches |
304.1 x 212.4 x 16.1 mm 11.97 x 8.36 x 0.63 inches |
| Area | 942 cm2 (146 inches2) | 646 cm2 (100.1 inches2) |
| Screen-to-body ratio | ~71.2% | ~79.4% |
| Side bezels | 8.8 mm | 8.8 mm |
| Colors | White, Gray, Blue | Silver, Gold, Gray |
| Material | Plastic | Aluminum |
| Transformer | No | No |
| Opening angle | 180° | 130° |
Size comparison
| Cooling system | Active | Passive |
| Vapor chamber | No | No |
| Liquid metal | No | No |
| Number of fans | 2 | - |
| Noise level (max. load) | 53.5 dB | - |
Display
| Size | 15.6 inches | 13.3 inches |
| Type | IPS LCD | IPS LCD |
| Refresh rate | 60 Hz | 60 Hz |
| Adaptive refresh rate | - | No |
| PPI | 141 ppi | 227 ppi |
| Aspect ratio | 16:9 | 16:10 |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels | 2560 x 1600 pixels |
| HDR support | No | Yes, HDR10 |
| Sync technology | G-Sync | No |
| Touchscreen | No | No |
| Coating | Matte | Glossy (Antireflective) |
| Ambient light sensor | No | Yes |
Screen space comparison
Legion 5 15" (2021, AMD)
15.6″ (16:9 ratio) = 104 in2
MacBook Air 13 (M1, 2020)
13.3″ (16:10 ratio) = 79.5 in2
~30% more screen space
| Contrast | 1200:1 | 1069:1 |
| sRGB color space | - | 99.8% |
| Adobe RGB profile | - | 85.9% |
| DCI-P3 color gamut | - | 98.6% |
| Response time | - | 35 ms |
Max. brightness
Battery
Capacity
| Voltage | - | 11.4 V |
| Full charging time | - | 2:23 hr |
| Battery type | Li-Po | Li-Po |
| Replaceable | No | No |
| Fast charging | Yes | Yes |
| Charging via USB (Power Delivery) | Yes | Yes, 65 W |
| Charging port position | Bottom | Left |
| Charge power | 230 / 300 W | 30 W |
| Cable length | - | 2 meters |
| Weight of AC adapter | 1074 grams | 172 grams |
CPU
CPU name
| Base frequency | 3.3 GHz | 3.2 GHz |
| Turbo frequency | 4.2 GHz | - |
| Cores | 6 | 8 (4P + 4E) |
| Threads | 12 | 8 |
| L3 Cache | 16 MB | - |
| Integrated GPU | Radeon RX Vega 7 | Apple M1 GPU |
| Fabrication process | 7 nm | 5 nm |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Cinebench 2024 (Single-Core)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi-Core)
Graphics Card
GPU name
| TGP | 95 W | 15 W |
| Nvidia Optimus | Yes | - |
| Type | Dedicated | Integrated |
| Fabrication process | 8 nm | 5 nm |
| GPU base clock | 1530 MHz | 450 MHz |
| GPU boost clock | 1740 MHz | 1278 MHz |
| FLOPS | 7.9 TFLOPS | 2.6 TFLOPS |
| Memory size | 4 GB | System Shared |
| Memory type | GDDR6 | LPDDR4X |
| Memory bus | 128 bit | 128 bit |
| Memory speed | 12 Gbps | 4.27 Gbps |
| Shading units (cores) | 2048 | 1024 |
| Texture mapping units (TMUs) | 64 | 64 |
| Raster operations pipelines (ROPs) | 40 | 32 |
| GPU performance | 7.9 TFLOPS | 2.6 TFLOPS |
GPU Benchmarks
Steel Nomad Lite Score
| Blender GPU | 1209 | 235 |
| Solar Bay | 22227 | 6004 |
Expected FPS based on average performance across 9 popular games. Details
RAM
RAM size
| Channels | 1x8 GB | 2x4 GB |
| Clock | 3200 MHz | 4266 MHz |
| Type | DDR4 | LPDDR4X |
| Upgradable | Yes | No |
| Total slots | 2 | - |
| Max. ram size | 32 GB | - |
Storage
Storage size
| Bus | PCI-E Gen 3.0 (4x) | Custom |
| Storage type | SSD (M2) | SSD (M2) |
| Channels | 1x256 GB | 2x128 GB |
| Upgradable | Yes | No |
| Total slots | 2 | - |
| NVMe | Yes | Yes |
Sound
| Audio chip | Realtek ALC3306 | - |
| Speakers | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Power | 2x2W | - |
| Dolby Atmos | No | Yes |
| Loudness | ~81 dB | ~79.6 dB |
| Microphones | 2 | 3 |
Connectivity
| Wi-Fi standard | v6 | v6 |
| Bluetooth | v5.1 | v5 |
| Fingerprint | No | Yes |
| Infrared sensor | No | No |
| Optical drive | No | No |
| Webcam | Above the display | Above the display |
| Webcam resolution | 1280 x 720 | 1280 x 720 |
| USB-A | 4x USB 3.2 | No |
| USB Type-C | 2x USB 3.2 | 2x USB 3.1 |
| Thunderbolt | No | Thunderbolt 3 |
| HDMI | 1x HDMI 2.1 | No |
| DisplayPort | No | No |
| VGA | No | No |
| Audio jack (3.5 mm) | Yes | Yes |
| Ethernet (RJ45) | Yes | No |
| SD card reader | No | No |
| Proprietary charging port | Yes | No |
Input
| Keyboard type | Island | Island |
| Numpad | Yes | No |
| Backlight | Yes | Yes |
| Key travel | 1.5 mm | 1 mm |
| Size | 10.4 x 6.9 cm | 12.1 x 8.1 cm |
| Surface | Plastic | Glass |
| Windows Precision | Yes | No |
*Disclaimer! Ports, speakers, display, and other specifications can vary depending on the laptop's specific configuration or region.
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