Lenovo LOQ review, the gamers choice on a budget

It’s known as the entry-level gamers laptop option and this week on the review desk we look at the meticulously coloured Lenovo LOQ.

It’s appealing at first glance with a storm grey matt finish coupled with light blue hues on its exhaust vents. See what we did there?

Back to the Lenovo LOQ

It’s definitely on the heavier side when it comes to its weight considering Lenovo went for a plastic finish when wrapping this bad boy.

As we know excitement clouds judgment and considering how much of a fan we are of Lenovo’s Legion series, due to their overall consistent growth since they entered the gaming sphere, it’s safe to say we looked forward to seeing how far we could stretch this mid-tier gamers laptop.

The review

We had two sets of eyes on this review, a result of two tech enthusiasts who both equally wanted to see what the Lenovo LOQ was dishing up for gamers, and the everyday user.

First to prod and probe the Lenovo LOQ, since I lost our coin toss was Bongani Mhlanga an avid tech-head with a solid IQ coupled with common sense.

Bongani and I’s approach was to see how Lenovo’s LOQ faired against other gaming machines.

Our approach was to put the LOQ to the test not only as a gamer laptop but also approach the review with a decent outline of experience as opposed to the normal text-heavy and numbers-heavy spec sheet.

Unboxing: What’s in the box

• Inside our box we found the Lenovo LOQ
• A 170W charger and RGB mouse

We looked at how the Lenovo LOQ specs faired against other industry heads and their industrious laptops.

Looking at some specs alone it seems the Lenovo LOQ had a few asses up its sleeve. This is how our trusted Lenovo LOQ stood on the spec scale against some competent contenders.

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So Jaynen Parasuraman – Senior C and Net Developer had a:

Intel (R) Core (TM)i7-10610U CPU@1.80GHz – 2.30 GHz |32GB RAM | 1 TB SSD

Evan – Senior Net Developer came with a:

13th Gn Intel (R) Core(TM)i7 – 1355U 1.70GHz – 32GB RAM | 512 GB SSD

DevOps Engineer Sibusiso

12th Gen Innel (R) Core(TM)i7 – 1255u 1.70GHz-16GB RAM | 512GB HDD SSD

Gamer Matthew

14th Gen Intel (R) Core (TM)i5-13500H – 2.60 GHz | 64GB RAM | 1 TB SSD

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The Lenovo LOQ comes impressively packed with – 13th Gen Intel (R) Core(TM) i7 – 13620h 2.40 GHz – 16GB RAM | 477GB SSD

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Impressed yet? 

We were determined to see the LOQs flaws especially when it came to gaming.

Lenovo’s Legion series is synonymous with higher-end pricing and spec sheets. It seems this Lenovo LOQ slightly follows that traditional pedigree. The Lenovo LOQ appears to be the in-betweener, a more price-savvy option that is likely less premium, dedicated towards the term more affordable.

Visuals 

It seems we had high expectations for the 1080p screen on the LOQs visuals as it comes with a 1920 x 1880 resolution for the 15-inch version @ 144Hz.

We see a Ryzen 7 7840HS CPU alongside 8GB DDR5-5600 of RAM meaning quick responses, but not enough sparkle to the slightly dim-looking display.

The display looks slightly dim but this may be purely because we use a certain brand device, and our eyes seek what we know or are used to.

Its 15.6-inch panel uses the more typical 16:9 aspect ratio and this translates to more bezel width as a result.

We do see a panel with a wide colour gamut with an anti-glare coating that makes for less glossy viewing.  This may translate to dim for some users.

There are visible accelerated refresh rates as the Lenovo LOQ delivers 60 fps on average on a game with an expected easy 100fps and beyond for more intense gaming.

 

The heat/performance.

The Lenovo LOQ is definitely more chunky, more rigid, and carries a lot more weight at about 2.4kg.

This is compensated by an AMD Ryzen 77840HS processor alongside an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics chip, 16GB of DDR5 memory, and a 1TB solid-state drive.

Bongani says it gets pretty toasty on the exhaust vents when intensely gaming and we picked this up as well. Those solid light blue exhaust vents appear to be effectively placed yet the hot air does at times make its way to the user.

This bad boy does breathe when under pressure, but that’s totally expected. You’re dealing with a pedigree that wants to perform, possibly to prove a point.

We noticed minimal pixelation on graphics, minimal lag during gameplay, and a keypad that looks massively spaced apart.

Battery

While the Lenovo LOQ breezed through Forza and HI-Fi Rush demands, we did pick up quick battery drainage when unplugged.

It’s when used for browsing alone that it seems less heavy on the battery. You could disable the Nvidia graphics card to increase battery life but where’s the fun in that?

Gaming on the laptop unplugged is risky, due to its high demands to function. We saw just over 45 minutes of gaming just before we had to plug in and charge.

We do spot a 1080p camera on the LOQ but wonder why facial recognition was left out.

Ports on the sides

We spotted 2x USB-A 3.2, ports, one USB-C 3.2 (GEN2), an HDMI 2.1 slot, and a 3.5mm audio slot plus another single USB 2.0 slot alongside a webcam shutter switch when looking around the LOQ’s edges for connectivity.

We appreciate the fact that the some ports like an HDMI 2.1 port and ethernet jack were placed on the back of the laptop.

The Lenovo LOQ comes with a 170W charger with a rapid charge option.

Keypad

 

 

The keyboard is functional and evenly spaced, with sufficient backlighting but Bongani says the battery will not appreciate the color-changing combination and we couldn’t agree more. It seems a little colour flare does come at a price, but nothing a little power cannot back up.

Speakers 

The Lenovo LOQs sound is decent good enough for presentations or listening to audio but we did wish it had a bit more depth.

The verdict

Looking at the pricing and what we could do with the Lenovo LOQ over time with a star screwdriver and a healthy budget, we see great potential for this mid-range bad boy, which is really impressive at a price of just over R 24 899.

When looking at its overall appeal we think the Lenovo LOQ may be mid-tier but it definitely has the personality to back it up.

This may just be the perfect gaming laptop on a budget. It does have respectable hardware and comes with an attractively aggressive design, but we think this gaming underdog deserves a place in the laptop gaming ranks as it does make a worthy attempt to carry its own weight.

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