HP Omen 15 vs Lenovo Legion 5 (AMD): Comparison of Gaming Laptops

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In this comparison of HP Omen 15 and Lenovo Legion 5, we will see what are differences between these laptops and also which one is way better for gaming considering the features and price range.

For more comparisons like this: HP Omen 15 vs Asus ROG Zephyrus G14.

BUY NOW	BUY NOW
HP Omen 15 (AMD)	Lenovo Legion 5
PROS	PROS
Performs well for gamers and content creators. Great display with accurate color.	Stylish and firm design. 120Hz LCD panel is quite good.
CONS	CONS
The hinges seem unstable. Little heavier than other gaming laptops.	Display brightness could be better. Limited GPU.

SPECIFICATIONS

INTRODUCTION:

For the comparison, we have the HP Omen 15 and the variant we’re comparing is the most similar to the Lenovo Legion 5 variant. The configurations in both of the laptops are almost the same to give you a perfect comparison.

DESIGN:

The HP Omen 15 had a lid that kind of bends a lot but it’s not deal-breaking. The only real concern I have is just the overall chassis is kind of flimsy. You can kind of pop the bottom cover at certain points and it moves when you pick it up, it just doesn’t feel very solid. Whereas the Legion 5, it’s thicker but that thickness is used to make the laptop feel sturdy and it’s also utilized to make the hinges better, we have a really solid hinge design. The metal bracket along the sides that’s riveted into the plastic.

The Omen 15 has a metal keyboard deck but the rest of the laptop including underneath like the bottom panel and the lid and everything else that’s all plastic. The Legion 5 is got this rubberized plastic keyboard deck which is more of a matte rougher finish, the bottom and lid are plastic. So, keep that in mind this rubberized coating will get kind of grippy in hotter environments, might get kind of sticky if you’re sweating or anything like that. Legion 5 has a Thinkpad-like keyboard roughly 1.7 millimeters of travel, it’s got a separated power button and has a Numpad. It’s also got white backlighting, you have three states technically but you have low, high, and off. On Omen 15, you have a technically four-zone RGB keyboard although the fourth zone is just the washed keys, the rest is just three zones across the keyboard.

With the matter of touchpads, the Omen 15 has a larger touchpad than Legion 5, it’s also much more glassy and it feels a lot nicer. The Legion 5 has a smaller touchpad and it feels somewhat plasticky but it’s not grippy and annoying, it’s a perfectly respectable trackpad.

DISPLAY:

Both the laptops have 144-hertz screens but the HP Omen 15 screen is a bit slower response time-wise than the Legion 5’s 144-hertz screen. The Legion 5 screen responds way better in games even in everyday tasks on the laptop.

FEATURES:

The HP Omen 15 for about 1300 dollars versus the Legion 5 for just about 1000 dollars. We have 16 GB of Ram, both variants have two 8 GB sticks running at 3200 megahertz and they are CL22 sticks. The graphics cards are both GTX 1660Ti, they’re 80-watt variants, basically the same power and same performance there. For the specific variant, the Omen 15 has a one terabyte NVMe SSD whereas the Legion 5 has a 512 GB NVMe SSD.

The HP Omen 15 has two M.2 slots and a 70 watt-hour battery and the Legion 5 also has two M.2 slots but you can swap one of those M.2 slots out for a 2.5-inch slot on the 60 watt-hour models and use something like a hard drive or 2.5 inch SSD, whatever you might want to put there.

We have on the Omen 15 an SD card slot, the Legion 5 does not have an SD card slot which might be a bit of a deal-breaker for some of you that are photographers or work with video or just anything where you might want an SD card slot. Legion 5 doesn’t have that, so you’d have to carry around an external reader which is not a deal-breaker for everyone. Also, if you plan on using this laptop for work or you’re going to buy these for your business, Legion 5 has a Kensington lock slot on the back and the Omen 15 does not. So, if you need to secure your laptops, keep that in mind as well.

Ports-wise, on the Omen 15, we have three USB Type-A ports, two on the right and one on the left side. On Legion 5, there are four Type-A ports, two on the back and two on the sides. We have a dedicated mini display port on the Omen 15 as well as one HDMI port and the Legion 5 has one HDMI port and no display port or mini display port but I believe both laptops have USB-C. On Omen 15, the charger is positioned on the left of the laptop, and on Legion 5, the charger is on the back, so that keeps the charger out of the way.

There is no privacy shutter on the Omen 15 whereas the Legion has a privacy shutter on the top which looks like a red dot that is covering the camera physically.

PERFORMANCE:

I’ve done stress testing and thermal testing on both these laptops. The Omen 15 has slightly worse thermal performance than the Legion 5. In terms of fan noise and heat and the power levels, the chips can run at, the Omen runs slightly behind the Legion 5. Of course, the GPUs are running at the same power level but the CPUs are not going to run at the same power. If you’re buying an intel variant of either of these, you’re going to definitely get the Legion 5 because the Omen 15 has inferior cooling for the CPU. Legion 5 is going to be a winner in performance. Also, fans are quieter in general on the Legion 5 by a few decibels, that’s been my experience.

Regarding FreeSync, the Omen 15 has 45 hertz to 60hz FreeSync which means that when you have FreeSync on, you can only go between those specific frequencies on the display but it will try to prevent tearing and such at those frequencies. The Legion 5 has FreeSync from 60 hertz to 144 hertz, so you get that full range of frequencies with eliminated tearing instead of the Omen 15, you only get that 60 hertz without tearing. Using FreeSync which is a real shame, I wish the Omen 15 went up to 144hz with the FreeSync but really have respect for Lenovo for getting such an awesome screen in this laptop, especially given that it’s $300 cheaper than the Omen 15.

The Legion 5 has that the Omen 15 doesn’t, with the Omen 15 you can only use it with Optimus which means you compulsorily have the AMD graphics enabled at all times and you can’t switch just to the dedicated graphics if you want to improve your performance by a few percent. So, you lose some percent which’s not amazing but it’s good for battery life but the Legion 5, you can actually switch just to the discrete GPU if you want. You have to restart but you can switch just to the 1660Ti if you want to squeeze a little bit more performance of the machine or if you plan on doing some extended gaming. If you want battery life, you can just switch back to the Optimus mode.

BATTERY:

The HP Omen 15 in general has less power efficiency in general. The Legion 5 is very battery efficient because it’s 60 watt-hours against the Omen 15 at 70. You can buy the 80 watt-hour battery if you wish to install it yourself. I’ve experienced optimistically 6 hours on the Legion 5 but if you got the 80 watt-hours, I wouldn’t be surprised to see you hit eight hours in some tasks probably more like 6-7 hours. Even though the HP Omen 15 has 70 watt-hour battery, it only gives around 6 hours of battery life. 

WHICH TO BUY?

Both HP Omen 15 and Lenovo Legion are performing well for gaming purposes. In my opinion, I think the Legion 5 is better in performance than the Omen 15 and it’s also comparatively cheaper. 

Expert reviews of HP Omen 15 (AMD):

By Pcmag
Premium quality, long battery life, and an expert pairing of AMD and Nvidia components make HP’s Omen 15 a formidable…

By Tomshardware
The HP Omen 15 offers solid performance for the price in a newly refined chassis, but it can get a bit hot under load, and you’ll spend time uninstalling bloatware.

By Techadvisor
The HP Omen 15 (2020) is affordable, with a brilliant CPU, a decent graphics card and good looks. The screen, battery and build quality and mediocre, though, and the keyboard could be better. It’s good, but there are plenty of decent rivals.

Expert reviews of Lenovo Legion 5:

By Moneycontrol
If you are looking for a good entry-level gaming laptop, with solid hardware and thermals to match, then the Legion 5 is certainly worth considering. The Legion 5 strikes…

By Laptopmag
The Lenovo Legion 5 is a stylish gaming laptop for an affordable price, and if it can hold up on…

By Theindianexpress
The Legion 5 is clearly a budget gaming laptop, and Lenovo knows the audience who might want a machine like this. The good news is that the Legion 5 performs…

Arya

Hello! I'm Surendar Arya, a passionate tech writer from Uttar Pradesh, India. I'm a freelance contributor to the tech blog - The World's Best And Worst. My enthusiasm for technology drives me to explore the latest trends and innovations in the field. I take immense pleasure in guiding individuals on how to leverage technology for their benefit, making their lives easier and more efficient.