Show Some Love for Lenovo, YouTubers!

I don't get it...

I see YouTube creators post video after video—showing love to every other manufacturer and brand under the sun. When it comes to Lenovo and its brands, they rarely review any products. And when they do, their enthusiasm almost always seems lacking.

Why???

Face-off

Lenovo's Legion 5i Pro (Gen 8) laptop vs Minisforum AR900i ITX (mobo+mobile CPU)

I've been postponing this for months. I watched Level1Techs video, Is MinisForum Taking Over The ITX Game? ft. MinisForum AR900i, when it was published (7 months ago).¹ Around 5:53 in the video, Wendell quickly scrolls through the Geekbench 6 (Pro) results for the AR900i. I paused it, because I noticed something strange.

You see... the AR900i comes with an Intel Core i9-13900HX. Pre-installed atop that 24-core/32-thread mobile CPU, is a massive heat sink. Wendell installed a Noctua 120mm (static-pressure) fan on it. Arguably, those combine into a cooling solution few laptops can match.

And matching the i9-13900HX's 8 p-cores (2×5.4GHz + 6×4.9GHz) and 16 e-cores (16×3.9GHz) with 16 GB of DDR5-5600 (5600 MT/s)—this should be no contest. The AR900i should beat my Legion 5i Pro (Gen 8) in Geekbench 6, both single-core and multi-core.

But, it doesn't

Why???

I can only guess.

You see... the Legion 5i Pro (Gen 8) laptop appears to be better designed than Wendell's beloved Minisforum ITX system. With only gaming laptop cooling—underneath its Intel Core i7-13700HX's 8 p-cores (2×5.0GHz + 6×4.8GHz) and 8 e-cores (8×3.7GHz), matched with 16 GB of DDR5-4800 (4800 MT/s)—it has multiple disadvantages. On paper.

Compared to the AR900i's CPU, the Legion 5i Pro's CPU has...

• 5.0GHz max. single-core boost (-400MHz)

• 4.8GHz max. multi-core boost (-100MHz)

• 3.7GHz max. e-core boost (-200MHz)

• 8 e-cores (8 fewer e-cores)

But, none of that seems to matter.

Results...

In Geekbench 6, my Legion 5i Pro (Gen 8) gets (up to) 2836 single-core and 15332 multi-core.

Lenovo 82WK - Geekbench²

In Geekbench 6 (Pro), Wendell's AR900i gets 2616 single-core and 15263 multi-core.

Conclusion...

Either Wendell poorly configured one of his favorite brand's devices. Or... Minisforum cannot make an ITX system outperform a Lenovo Legion laptop.

And we should be wary of the choices and opinions of our favorite YouTube creators. They often claim to be unbaised. Clearly, they are not.

(1) Level1Techs Is MinisForum Taking Over The ITX Game? ft. MinisForum AR900i

(2) Editor silently failed to embed page from geekbench.com. An error message would be useful. I created a text-based link as a last resort.