Today we have a review of a new gaming monitor from Lenovo from the Legion series worth about $800 with a diagonal of 24.5 inches with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and an aspect ratio of 16:9. The trump card of the novelty is an increased “hertz”, a response time of up to 1 millisecond, as well as a strict frameless design. Let’s figure out how good the new Legion is and what it can do for its money.

Message from the editor: Our defenders from the 115th brigade, which is now fighting in the east, need a pickup truck . Details for transferring funds to a monobank card – Polyanskaya Karine Sergeevna, card number 5375414101372265. We ask you to take part in the fundraising.
Glory to Ukraine!

Equipment

The monitor comes with a 120 W power supply with the same connector as in Lenovo laptops of the latest generations. The PSU is not inferior in size to many power supplies from laptops; Luckily, you don’t have to carry it around with you.

Design

The appearance of the monitor is quite modest, especially for a gaming device – everything is black, except for the blue stand backing. On the back cover is a plastic block with perforation. The cover is decorated only with a metal Lenovo nameplate and the proud name of the line made of translucent plastic. The appearance can be called restrained, especially against the backdrop of the vast majority of gaming devices (I can’t say that this is bad).

On the front panel, right in the center, there is a small Legion inscription, which, however, is not striking. On the right on the bottom panel are all the settings adjustment keys, volume control, power button and LED.

The dimensions of the device are as follows: 509.8×557.3×230.6 mm. The weight is 6.1 kg together with the stand.

In the off state, the monitor looks completely frameless on three sides – although there is a small chin at the bottom, it does not spoil the overall impression of the device. In the on state, the frame is very narrow – about 5 millimeters thick, together with the body 7 millimeters. The matte anti-reflective coating perfectly protects against artificial light sources, but in bright sunny weather with the curtains up, the image becomes very faintly distinguishable.

The metal leg is attached to the base with a screw, which can be easily screwed in by hand. The leg itself is quite thick and weighty – the monitor stands securely and does not stagger (it is fastened with a rectangular block on the latch).

The height of the monitor is adjustable with a stroke of up to 13 cm, and the Lenovo Legion Y25g-30 mount makes it possible to rotate the display 90 degrees in both directions and translate it into a vertical orientation.

By the way, a special holder for the headphone wire is built into the left side of the monitor, into the ear of which you can thread the wire so that it does not take up space at the table.

Ports

The number of ports is the envy of most modern office laptops. Most of them are located in a recess on the underside of the back cover with the expectation of a horizontal orientation and are divided into two small blocks. The following inputs are available:

• 2x HDMI 2.0 with 240Hz support
• Display Port 1.4 with 360Hz support
• Charger socket
• Type-B USB 3.0
• USB Type-C

Also on the left side of the back cover is more:

• 3x USB Type-A
• and 3.5 mm headphone audio output

Specifications and functionality

The resolution of the monitor is not too impressive 1920×1080 pixels, which, by the way, is the norm for gaming devices, with an aspect ratio of 16:9 and a diagonal of 24.5”. It has a peak brightness of 400 nits, a contrast ratio of 1000:1, and an 8-bit IPS panel with LED backlighting.

The pixel density is only 90 dpi, which is very noticeable when working statically at arm’s length. It is not difficult to examine the pixels, so the image, although not grainy, is still not suitable for everyone for constant work.

The maximum screen refresh rate via Display Port is 360 Hz, while via HDMI only up to 240 Hz (although in practice, 120 Hz will be enough for anyone if he is not a professional e-sportsman).

In my case, paired with an updated Lenovo Legion 7 gaming laptop via HDMI, I managed to achieve only 144 Hz, which, in my opinion, as a person with a normal reaction, is more than enough even in competitive shooters. A refresh rate of 360 Hz could only be given out by a DisplayPort cable – USB-C, and even then not just any, but with support for 8K and Power Delivery; this once again confirms that the choice of cable must be approached with all responsibility if you want to get the highest possible quality.

Also, the monitor has two speakers with a power of 3W each. The sound quality is not at the highest level, but a small portable speaker can envy the volume. 5 buttons are responsible for navigating the menu, and the volume control of the speakers is placed on separate keys.

Of the features, it is worth highlighting the NVIDIA G-SYNC mode, which by default “twists” the brightness and contrast, and also sets the hertz to the maximum and minimizes the response time. NVIDIA also has a Reflex Latency Analyzer for measuring monitor performance by connecting a mouse directly to the display via USB, but the function does not work with all input devices – the monitor refused to work with my modest A4Tech V7M.

From the main parameters, you can change the white peak, contrast, brighten the shadows, as well as change the relative gamma. It is also possible to adjust the color temperature, enable SDR/HDR variable backlighting, enable blue light filtering, adjust the sRGB display, and fully customize the color palette display.

In the hertz parameters, it is possible to select one of the preset presets, on which the hertz, response time and brightness with contrast will depend, depending on the genre of the game. There is also an option to select 4 levels of response time:

• 4ms Level 1
• 3ms Level 2
• 2ms Level 3
• 1ms Level 4
• And 5ms in “Off” mode

There was no significant difference in response time in shooters – it becomes noticeable only if we compare the response of 1 millisecond with 5 milliseconds.

Image quality

The monitor’s coating is matte, so glare and reflections are not terrible for him, except that luminous areas from very bright objects will be visible. There is a slight graininess, which is especially noticeable in areas of images with a single color. Black reproduction leaves much to be desired – due to large areas of light, especially in the lower part of the display, a completely black image looks very uneven (however, this effect may be a feature of a particular test instance, so be sure to find an opportunity to test it not only on broken pixels, but also for light).

The results of measurements of backlight uniformity and brightness are as follows:

But as soon as a colored object appears on the Lenovo Legion Y25g-30 screen, even on a black background, you immediately get a contrast and rich picture. This does not justify the low-quality transmission of a black image, but still, cases when only black is needed on the screen are extremely rare in real life.

The viewing angles are at a very good level and even with a strong deviation to the side, the brightness and contrast practically do not change. Claimed viewing angles: 178 degrees horizontally and 178 degrees vertically, which is quite true.

Support for 99% sRGB and 16.7 million colors is also announced. The results of the colorimetric tests are as follows:

During the game, the impressions from the monitor are extremely positive. A colorful and juicy picture, instant response and increased hertz do their job – rushing through the arenas in Doom: Eternal is a real pleasure. In Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3, the increased performance is not so noticeable, but the smoothness of the picture leaves a purely positive impression.

During dynamic (and not so) scenes in games, you don’t pay any attention to low resolution at all, so the monitor copes with its main task.

Cost and comparison with competitors

The preliminary retail price of the Lenovo Legion Y25g-30 is UAH 22,999.
Among gaming monitors, the closest competitor in terms of cost with support for 360 Hz is the ASUS ROG Swift 360Hz PG259QN, which costs UAH 24,999. With the same display diagonal, resolution and aspect ratio, as well as a response time of up to 1 ms. It loses a little in peak brightness, but it has a more gaming design if you don’t like the strict Legion.

Next comes the popular BenQ XL2420G for 21.5 thousand UAH with the same physical characteristics, but with a smaller diagonal by 0.5 inches, support for refresh rates only up to 144 Hz (and this is about the same money) and a peak brightness of 350 nits , as well as clearly inferior in design to the frameless Legion Y25g-30.

Next, you can pay attention to the Dell Alienware AW2521H for 20,993 UAH with 360 Hz support, the same diagonal, resolution and pixel density as the reviewed device and the same viewing angle indicator. Peak brightness is slightly lower.

And the gaming LG 27GN880-B completes the list for 18.5 thousand UAH. This device seems to be the most competitive if you don’t necessarily need 360Hz support and are willing to stick with a 144Hz display. But on the other hand, it will have a 27-inch IPS matrix with a resolution of 2560×1440 pixels with an aspect ratio of 16:9 and a response time of 1 millisecond. Viewing angles are declared the same as those of the review Lenovo Legion Y25g-30, support for 98% DCI-P3, and in terms of design, this is the closest device. In my opinion, it looks like a more universal option, but in terms of hertz, of course, it loses dry.