For our cash, the perfect gaming laptops aren’t essentially simply people who wrap up the costliest, cutting-edge elements into the fanciest shell. Not for many of us, anyway.
The Lenovo Loq 15 represents what a mainstream gaming laptop computer ought to be all about. It dips into the extra cutting-edge areas of tech the place it may well, but stays within the shallow finish the remainder of the time to avoid wasting money. However you get the sense at each juncture the main target is on what really issues to the common laptop computer gamer.
Lenovo’s Loq 15 is due to this fact a category act. However did it deserve a complete new collection when the Lenovo Legion was doing all these things underneath a unique title simply final 12 months? Perhaps not. However that’s advertising.
Lenovo LOQ 15: Value & Availability
This collection begins at £849 within the UK, $899 within the USA. And whereas our overview spec may be had for round £1200 on the time of writing, that is nonetheless a really smart worth for a gaming laptop computer.
For different territories check out the real-time buying widget embedded above on this web page to get a really feel for the way a lot you may must pay. The Loq is an effective value-for-money proposition although.
Lenovo LOQ 15 overview: Design
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The Lenovo Loq 15 seems to be lots like the corporate’s Legion gaming laptops. It’s not slim and lightweight, however does have a few neat traits not at all times seen in reasonably priced fashions.
For instance, there are connections throughout three sides of the Loq 15. Placing a number of the essential bits, together with the ability connector, on the again makes clear cable administration a lot simpler.
The Lenovo Loq 15 additionally has a considerable cooling platform alongside the again, a type of boxy rump that’s residence to a larger-than-average coated heatsink.
There’s a little bit of Lenovo character to the design, and construct high quality feels stable. You don’t get any extra superficial extras, although. All of the panels listed here are plastic. No aluminium lid. And the LED mild present is stored to a minimal, We’ll get to the keyboard in additional later, however the Loq 15 physique lighting quantities to a strip alongside the again.
Eager on the important statistics? The Lenovo Loq 15 begins at round 2.4kg, with slight variances relying on the spec you choose, and it’s 25mm thick. We take into account that too chunky for routine transportable use however, hey, should you spend half of your free time within the health club, possibly you received’t.
Lenovo LOQ 15 overview: Show
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Lenovo makes 15-inch and 16-inch variations of the Loq. We now have the 15-inch mannequin on overview, which has a 2560 x 1440 pixel decision 165Hz LCD panel.
Or at the least it does in our overview spec. Right here’s the place the prospect of shopping for a Lenovo Loq 15 begins to get a bit sticky.
Lenovo makes the Loq 15 with a lower-end 1080p, 144Hz panel. We’ve no points with both of these specs, however even by its personal figures that model’s color saturation is unhealthy.
Our overview Lenovo Loq 15? Completely tremendous. It’s no super-rich wide-colour gamut display screen, and appears fairly low power subsequent to the OLED laptops we now overview on a regular basis. However for precise motion pictures and gaming? Completely good. Whereas we haven’t seen it in particular person, we anticipate the step-down show to be clearly undersaturated, once more, utilizing Lenovo’s specs as a information. You’ve been warned.
Brightness is stable and distinction is respectable for a lower-cost show. And 1440p is arguably the perfect decision for a laptop computer like this. It makes textual content look cleaner whilst you’re working, permits for sharper graphics when gaming, and shouldn’t drain energy as shortly as a 4K display screen.
A 4K decision can be too excessive for an reasonably priced gaming laptop computer to capitalise upon, in most superior titles anyway. As per most on this class, the Lenovo Loq 15 doesn’t have a touchscreen layer and does have a matte floor. That is traditional reasonably priced laptop computer fodder, however with the next decision and refresh fee.
Lenovo LOQ 15 overview: Keyboard & touchpad
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The Lenovo Loq 15 has a stable, reasonably deep motion keyboard that feels just like what we’ve examined in Lenovo’s step-up Legion laptops. You get a separate NUM pad, no foolish “gamer font” nonsense on the keys, and a reasonably satisfying typing really feel.
We ended up writing a bunch of articles on the Loq 15, spending at the least as a lot time working as we spent gaming. what? No main complaints.
It’s one other space the place what you get varies primarily based on how a lot you spend, although. The most affordable Lenovo Loq 15 fashions have a pure white key backlight. Our Loq 15 has a four-zone RGB key backlight.
Which means that whilst you can select nearly any color of the rainbow, you’ll be able to’t choose a unique color per key, however in 4 blocks of keys moderately than in columns throughout the keys. Color high quality is respectable for a lower-cost laptop computer although.
There’s extra of a transparent compromise within the Lenovo Loq 15 touchpad, however we anticipated there to be. Like each gaming laptop computer that doesn’t break the bank, the Loq 15 has a plastic touchpad.
Enjoying video games on a touchpad is rarely ideally suited however with certainly one of these pads you begin to really feel that traditional squeak of plastic once you transfer backwards and forwards quickly. Lenovo does texture the floor to cut back friction and clean out the finger glide a bit, however there’s no changing actual glass.
We’d argue Lenovo spending extra finances on the pad would have been a foul thought right here, although. Each penny issues in a collection like this, and the clicker and pad dimension are all simply ok for normal productiveness work. Simply ensure you plug in a mouse earlier than any epic play classes.
Lenovo LOQ 15 overview: Efficiency
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The Lenovo Loq 15 comes with AMD or Intel processors, and graphics playing cards from the Nvidia RTX 4050 to the RTX 4060 households.
We aren’t digging into the furthest reaches of gaming {hardware} right here, however that doesn’t imply you’ll be able to’t play even super-demanding video games in fashion. Our overview mannequin is a step up from the bottom Loq 15. It has an Intel Core i7-13620H CPU, 16GB RAM, a 1TB SSD and the Nvidia RTX 4060 graphics card.
It’s near a perfect setup for avid gamers on a finances. And in contrast to the last-generation RTX 3060 gaming laptops, the Lenovo Loq 15 can have a stable stab on the more durable video games with ray tracing and superior mild and shadow-modelling tech.
It is because the most recent 40-series technology of Nvidia RTX playing cards has body technology, which might enhance body charges by as much as 3 times. It actually makes up further frames.
The method will not be fully dissimilar to the normally ugly TV body technology modes we flip off every time we go to household at Christmas. However right here it’s approach smarter, and is definitely knowledgeable by what’s occurring underneath the floor. So it kinda looks like magic.
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For instance, you’ll be able to max out the settings on Cyberpunk 2077 on the most 1440p decision, no drawback, with out this newest body technology mode. However if you wish to check out the sport’s actually unbelievable ray tracing, you want it. The RTX 4060 might not have the ability to drag these methods off “natively”, ending in an virtually slide-show-like expertise, body technology makes up for it massively.
Will we like the concept of those “made up frames” being thought-about actual efficiency producers going forwards? Probably not. Will we love what it means you’ll be able to tease out of a laptop computer just like the Lenovo Loq 15? Completely.
If you happen to’re seeking to do extra than simply recreation, we see no main hurdles there both. The Lenovo Loq has quick storage, an honest quantity of RAM and a very good CPU. Duties like video modifying will make the Loq 15 appear as if it’s on residence turf.
Nevertheless, we don’t just like the sound of the Lenovo Loq 15 as a lot as we did a number of the earlier Legion laptops. Whereas the format is nice, with exhausts on three sides of the laptop computer, the fan tone is considerably higher-pitch than the Legion laptops we’ve examined.
Probably the most admirably non-annoying laptops sound like a type of low hum, however the tone is increased pitch right here. This laptop computer doesn’t have killer audio system to assist drown it out too. Just like the traditional gaming laptop computer speaker character, the Loq 15’s are nothing greater than okay, missing the bass substance of a very good pair.
Lenovo LOQ 15 overview: Battery Life
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We not often see wonderful battery life from gaming laptops. The Lenovo Loq 15 doesn’t change any of that. However with a little bit of tweaking, you may make it at the least satisfactory.
Utilizing customary settings, we’d be fortunate to get way more than 4.5 hours out of a cost. Nevertheless, should you cease the laptop computer utilizing its devoted GPU, and change to at least one built-in into the CPU as a substitute, you’ll be able to enhance this to just a little underneath seven hours.
Are we going to recollect to try this typically? Completely not. And that is battery life with mild jobs moderately than the taxing stuff. Nonetheless, it’s not a foul consequence from a system that doesn’t put a lot of a deal with stamina.
Some high-end laptops max-out the capability of their battery cells, utilizing the 99Wh peak allowed on airplanes. The Lenovo Loq 15 has a extra odd 60Wh battery.
It additionally has what you may take into account an “updated” webcam. Till not too long ago, nearly all laptops had 720p webcams. Now they virtually all have 1080p cameras. The Lenovo Loq 15’s Full HD webcam is, no shock right here, not a star amongst them. However it’s nonetheless a lower above the element of the outdated 720p norm in cheap lighting.
Verdict
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The Lenovo Loq 15 is a top quality finances gaming laptop computer with no nasty surprises in its efficiency and a few nice ones in its design. Cable administration is simpler than it usually is, whereas construct high quality is stable with out being flashy.
Certain, you don’t get any flashy metallic panels, and RGB lighting parts are restricted. However do we actually care ? Not a lot. Particularly not for this value proposition.
Fan noise isn’t fairly as effectively dealt with as it’s in some Lenovo Legion laptops, however maybe that’s to be anticipated when this collection is supposed to sit down at the least one rung beneath these machines. Sit there it does, however the Loq 15 sits proudly as an honest entry-level gaming laptop computer.
Additionally take into account
There’s no scarcity of decent-value gaming laptops. Probably the most similarly-matched is the Dell G15. It affords related specs for maybe simply fractionally more cash. Nevertheless, Dell claims its 240Hz display screen delivers 99% of the DCI P3 color gamut. Which means deeper color than we get from the Lenovo. Tempting stuff.
Alternatively, you may try the Acer Nitro 5. It has a extra explicitly “gamer” design, with an edgy key font. It doesn’t fairly match the Lenovo for worth, although. Acer prices extra and, within the present mannequin, delivers a last-gen CPU and lower-resolution display screen.
