Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro Gen 6 16" (AMD) review

Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro Gen 6 16 AMD: the $399 GTX machine

At $399 the 16-inch IdeaPad 5 Pro Gen 6 remains one of the more serious low-money machines in this batch: a six-core, twelve-thread Ryzen 5 5600H, a GTX 1650 Mobile with 4GB, and 32GB of RAM. The graphics score of 63.1 runs 131.6 percent above the general-class median of 27.24 in the high band, photo design reaches 88 top-band, value posts 86.05 top-band, and a 75Wh battery (large by class standards) backs the platform. The flagged cost is mobility: 37 against a class median of 50.

Where it holds up

Photo design at 88 is top-band work from a $399 listing, with the Photoshop minimum cleared. The GTX 1650 earns recommended-level passes for Overwatch, Grand Theft Auto V and Rainbow Six Siege, and the 66.78 performance index runs 55.1 percent above the class median in the high band — this is a machine that still works for a living. Value at 86.05 is the fourth-best figure in this batch, and the 75Wh battery means long unplugged stretches are on the menu. Visual Studio Code clears its minimum.

Where it falls short

Mobility at 37 is the flagged weakness, a 26 percent shortfall with portability of 39.7 confirming the desk-leaning geometry of the 16-inch format. Gaming's index of 59 sits mid-band: the 1650 is a five-year-old card comfortable at 1080p in older titles, not a modern-settings part. Modeling at 55 and CAD at 55 read mid-band, and office at 84.85 is high but standard. None of this is failure — it is the documented shape of cheap capability.

Price and depreciation

$399 anchors the batch's floor. No listing history exists for this unit, so the class rate of about 11.13 percent a year is the anchor. The machine has already surrendered most of its launch price; the residual is utility, and the value index says there is plenty of it.

Alternatives to consider

The 14-inch sibling (model 1826) at the same $399 keeps MX450-class graphics with a far better carry profile (71.9 portability against 39.7) but halves the memory to 16GB. The Gen 7 update (model 1828) at $470 moves to a 6800HS platform with a 1650 Ti and near-identical axes. For RTX money, the Pro 5 Gen 9 (model 1816) at $553 is the batch's value summit.

Bottom line

Fairly priced for the class. Top-band photo work, verified game clearances and a fourth-in-batch value figure at $399: the 16-inch 5 Pro is what cheap capability looked like in 2021, and it still reads that way.