Lenovo LOQ15 hands-on: Reasonably priced however not low-cost

Just some months in the past Lenovo announced updates to its high-end Legion gaming PCs. However now the corporate is again to introduce some contemporary budget-friendly fare as a part of its new “value-oriented” LOQ line. Although they aren’t fairly as highly effective as their dearer siblings, after checking them out, I like how these new gadgets don’t really feel low-cost regardless of their decrease costs.

At launch, the LOQ household (pronounced “lock”) will include both a 15 or 16-inch laptop computer and a 17L desktop PC. The LOQ 15 and 15i would be the least costly of the bunch beginning at $900 for both an AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS or Intel Core i7-13700 chip, whereas the LOQ 16 and 16i (the “i” denotes an Intel-based config) will go for only a bit extra at $960 and $1,150, respectively. Lastly, for individuals who don’t want to maneuver their gaming rig round, the LOQ tower might be priced at an inexpensive $980.

However extra importantly, whereas Lenovo is attempting to maintain prices down, it doesn’t really feel prefer it minimize too many corners with its new machines. Not solely have they got comparable styling to the Legion line, in addition they have strong specs with the laptops providing assist for as much as NVIDIA RTX 4060 GPUs. And just like the premium Legion line, you additionally get rear IO to assist maintain wires from getting too cluttered.

The principle variations between Lenovo’s LOQ and Legion gaming notebooks are that as a substitute of an aluminum chassis, the LOQ line includes a plastic physique, with both a white or a four-zone RGB backlit keyboard (as a substitute of per-key). The brand new machines additionally carry barely smaller batteries (both 60 or 80Whr relying on the mannequin). And whereas the LOQ line doesn’t assist tremendous quick 240Hz refresh charges, you’ll be able to nonetheless get 165Hz shows going as much as 2,560 x 1,600 with variable refresh price assist (each G-Sync and FreeSync), in addition to 350 nits of brightness. All instructed that’s not too shabby, particularly when you think about that Lenovo’s most cost-effective Legion Professional laptop computer presently begins at simply over $1,600.

Now, in individual, the smaller LOQ 15 got here off a bit chunky, and I swear it felt heavier than Lenovo’s 5.3-pound listed weight, whereas the LOQ 16 is even heftier at 5.7 kilos. Nonetheless, I recognize that even on Lenovo’s price range gaming laptops, the corporate nonetheless included a full HD webcam and an digital shutter change to disable it.

Alternatively, if you happen to’re searching for one thing a bit extra highly effective that’s nonetheless straightforward to hold round, right now Lenovo additionally introduced two additions to the Legion household within the Slim 7/7i and the Slim 5/5i.

At simply 0.78 inches thick and weighing 4.4 kilos, the Legion Slim 7 and 7i are the extra transportable of the 2. It additionally packs Intel Core i9-13900H or Ryzen 9 79040HS chips, as much as NVIDIA RTX 4070 graphics and as much as a 3.2K 165Hz show or a 2,560 x 1,600 240Hz display. You can too get non-obligatory per-key RGB lighting and an enormous 99.9 WHr battery, together with an aluminum body in both storm grey or glacier white. So whereas I like the worth of the brand new LOQ line, the Legion 7 Slim laptops would make me assume lengthy and exhausting about shelling out some additional money for the sleeker design.

In the meantime, the Legion 5 Slim fashions nonetheless characteristic strong specs, together with the identical CPUs and a barely wider vary of graphics choices (RTX 4050 as much as RTX 4070 relying on the precise config). And in contrast to the 7 Slim which is just obtainable as a 16-inch mannequin, the 5 Slim will are available in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes.

The brand new LOQ 15i is slated to go on sale first someday in April, adopted by LOQ 15 and the bigger LOQ 16i in Might. The AMD-based LOQ 16 will arrive in June. In the meantime, the Legion Slim 5i and 7i are anticipated to go on sale in April beginning at $1,350 and $1,770, with the Slim 5 and Slim 7 arriving later in Might beginning at $1,200 and $1,770, respectively.

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