Lenovo Legion 5a 15 and Legion 5i 15 Gen 11 gaming laptops debut at CES 2026 with new Intel and AMD CPUs

2025’s Lenovo Legion 5a Gen 10 or Legion 5 15 Gen 10 with the AMD Ryzen 200 APUs was one of the best affordable gaming laptops on the market. We called the Legion 5 15 Gen 10 “the best mainstream gamer in 2025” in our review of the RTX 5060-equipped version of the laptop. 

At CES 2026, Lenovo has now upgraded the Legion 5 gaming laptops with the newest Ryzen AI 400 processors from AMD and Core Ultra 300 Panther Lake chips from Intel. Based on the hardware alone, the Legion 5a and the Legion 5i Gen 11 gaming laptops have the potential to define mainstream gaming notebooks in 2026.

Lenovo Legion 5a (15, Gen 11) specifications

The Lenovo Legion 5a (15, 11) brings the same understated look that we’ve come to expect from Legion laptops. The overall design seems identical to the 2025 model, with the key changes all concentrated on the inside.

The Legion 5a 15 (AMD, Gen 11) is powered by the latest Ryzen AI 400 processors and can be equipped with up to a Ryzen AI 9 465 APU. For the GPU, the laptop can be had with up to an RTX 5060 laptop GPU. Max RAM and storage are capped at 32 GB DDR5 (2 x 16 GB) and 2 TB of PCIe Gen 4, respectively.

Other important internal specs include Wi-Fi 7/BT5.4, a large 80 Wh battery, and two 2 W Harmon speakers.

On the display front, the Lenovo Legion 5a 15 Gen 11 appears to carry the same 2,560 x 1600 15.3-inch OLED panel that was also used on the 2025 version. The display boasts 100% DCI-P3 coverage, 1 ms response time, and a 165 Hz refresh rate. Lenovo claims a max brightness of 500 nits, which the 2025 version exceeded in our testing.

For ports, the Lenovo Legion 5a Gen 11 brings:

• Two USB 4 ports
• Three Type-A connectors
• An HDMI 2.1 out
• An RJ45 ethernet port
• A 3.5 mm combo jack

Finally, the Legion 5a (15, 11) weighs 1.88 kg (4.1 lbs.), which is slightly lower than the 2025 Legion 5 15 (Available on Amazon).

Lenovo Legion 5i (15, Gen 11) specifications

In addition to the Legion 5a Gen 11 with the AMD Ryzen AI 400 APUs, the Legion 5 15 (2026) will also be available with Intel CPUs. Specifically, you can have the Legion 5 15 (Gen 11) with the latest Intel Panther Lake CPUs, with an Intel Core Ultra 9 386H in the top-end configuration.

Aside from the different CPU options, the Intel-based Legion 5i also carries one Thunderbolt 4 and one Type-C port with DisplayPort and Power Delivery. Everything else, including the 24-zone, full-sized RGB keyboard, is identical between the Intel and AMD-based Legion 5 15 (2026) gaming laptops.

Both the Intel Panther Lake-powered Legion 5i 15 and the Ryzen AI 400-powered Legion 5a 15 will be available in April 2026, starting at $1,549 and $1,499, respectively.