Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5i Gen 8 (16″ 2023) review

The same $553 platform, stretched to sixteen inches

The IdeaPad Pro 5i Gen 8 (16", 2023) is the larger half of the most aggressively priced pair in this batch: identical $553, identical Core i5-13500H with twelve cores and sixteen threads, identical RTX 3050 Mobile 6GB and 32GB of RAM — with the matched graphics score actually reading slightly higher here, at 66 against the 14-inch's 63.1.

Where it holds up

That 66 puts the card 142.3 percent above the general-class median of 27.24 — high band, top quartile — and the flag sheet spends it well: Overwatch, Grand Theft Auto V and Rainbow Six Siege clear recommended levels, Photoshop and Visual Studio Code clear minimums. Overall performance at 61.78 is top-quartile, office at 87.4 and photo design at 89 are both top-band, and the 75Wh battery remains 56 percent above the class median.

On the bigger panel, this reads as a desk-flexible all-rounder: enough graphics for entry-level creation work, enough memory to keep dozens of tabs and a Lightroom catalog open at once.

Where it falls short

The price of sixteen inches is written plainly in the mobility index: 35, which sits 30 percent below the class median in the low band. Portability drops to 38.2 (mid) against the 14-inch twin's 71.9. This is the one axis where the machine genuinely underperforms its pool — everything else sits mid or better, with gaming at 58 and value at 63.35 both honest middles.

Price and depreciation

No launch anchor is recorded; the class-derived rate computes to 12.85 percent per year — moderate for a 2023 listing. At $553 the absolute exposure is modest, the same argument as its twin: the curve's steep part is behind this machine.

Alternatives to consider

The 14-inch twin (listing 1866) at the same $553 is the obvious pivot — portability 71.9 against 38.2 for the same money and nearly the same score sheet. The ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 (listing 1900) at $780 steps up to an RTX 3050 Ti with a matched 82.83 for $227 more. And the IdeaPad Pro 5i 16 Gen 10 (listing 1877) at $765 offers the RTX 5050 generation with a value index of 84.

Bottom line

Fairly priced for the class. Twelve cores, 32GB and a 6GB RTX 3050 at $553 in a 16-inch frame — the sheet has no low band besides mobility itself at 35, so the decision is purely whether the bigger screen justifies carrying a machine the pool scores as noticeably less portable.