I've been considering replacing the SSD in your Lenovo Legion 5 15IMH05H 81Y600STCK...
I've been considering replacing the SSD in your Lenovo Legion 5 15IMH05H 81Y600STCK...
I’ve had some hands-on work with the HP Omen laptop. Documentation and disassembly guides were very helpful, which made it easier to modify components. When my brother upgraded to a Lenovo Legion 5, I mentioned he could easily add an SSD because there was an empty slot. That wasn’t entirely accurate... He went ahead and installed an SSD on the Lenovo Legion 5 15IMH05H 81Y600STCK. We checked the specs together and they seemed confusing: one thing said it supports a 2.5" HDD and one M.2 slot, while another claimed dual M.2 slots with support for M.2 drives. There were also references to dual SSD configurations and varying capacities. Ultimately, I found the specs for Lenovo’s own models quite perplexing. After opening the laptop, it became clearer that the 2280 PCIe slots only accepted SATA drives, not NVMe. The M.2 slots were sized for SATA SSDs, not NVMe. So when I saw listings mentioning M.2 2242 SSDs up to 512GB, they were actually SATA-based products like the Kingston models, which wouldn’t fit physically. The empty slot description from the seller seemed misleading. TL;DR: only M.2 2242 slots that support NVMe would work, but the specs didn’t match what I expected. It seems the 2280 slots are strictly for SATA drives.
2242 and 2280 refer simply to the size measurements in millimeters (22mm x 42mm; 22mm x 80mm). If it's an NVMe drive and it fits, it should function. At least Sabrent provides a 2242 NVMe option, which is worth considering. It’s not an excellent SSD, but you’ll have to compromise on size.
Consult the official Lenovo documentation and maintenance guide. I own two Lenovo T-series laptops, and I’ve handled multiple Lenovo devices during my university years, providing on-campus support. The manual is the best reference. These machines feature two M.2 slots; one is reserved for the Wi-Fi module, which typically uses the smaller 2242 format. The mounting screw hole positions the M.2 board at a distance of 42 mm as specified. The second slot accommodates full-size 2280 SSDs.
Image2 includes both M.2 2242 and M.2 2280 connectors, indicating Image1 likely has the remaining slots. The absence of any reference to the M.2 2242 being filled suggests it remains empty.
Yes, the first image is an empty M.2 2280 slot. If you look at the Lenovo Maintenance Manual, you can see the M.2 2242 slot either uses a Wi-Fi module, or a SSD. In fact, both my Lenovo T450 and T480 are like that. And then you have the regular 2.5" HDD/SSD slot as well.
Lenovo created a M and A/E key M.2 slot by removing the traditional notch. This design change allowed for a more compact form factor while maintaining compatibility. It’s a clever solution that balances space efficiency with functionality.
For anyone else wondering and finding this thread. I've scoured the interwebs a lot lately to find these answers myself. Then I opened my Legion 5. After my research I think this applies to all Legion 5 models although the specific arrangement on the motherboards might differ: - They have 2x M.2 slots for NVMEs (M-key), both up to 2280 length - They have a separate M.2 slot for WiFi (A/E-key), 2230 or 2242 length Likely depending if you have a 60Wh battery you might be able to fit a 2,5" SATA III HDD/SSD next to the battery, in that case the 2nd (free upon purchase) M.2 NVME slot cannot be used. If you have a larger 80Wh battery, 2,5" is not possible but the 2nd M.2 NVME is. Look here: The Maintenance Manual and all Legion 5 guides really do not clarify this and are misleading at best. I have a Legion 5 15ACH6H and it came with a 500GB 2242 M.2 NVME (right side above the 80Wh battery), although a 2280 would also fit in the space (and possibly even a 2260). Above it you can see the M.2 for WiFi (which is a 2230 A/E key in this case) The second (free) M.2 NVME slot is on the left side above battery and can be 2280 and also a 2242. Legion 5 manuals and specs often say something like: 1x M.2 500GB 2242 + 1x M.2 1TB 2280 But this is only what they tested with at the time of/before product launch (and in my case shipped with the 500GB 2242). I've scoured reddit and forums and multiple people confirmed that both M.2 slots can hold and work with 2TB 2280 drives at the same time no problem. As an unrelated note: It seems that the stock RAM many Legion 5s come with is a Samsung 1Rx16, which seems to be significantly slower in some use cases than 1Rx8 (or 2Rx8) ram modules. 2Rx8 > 1Rx8 > 1Rx16. You can see in one of the pictures that my Legion 5 RAM also came as a 1Rx16. Hope this helps =)