Lenovo LOQ 15 Review: Blah Budget Gaming Laptop With Reasonable Speed

6.8/ 10
SCORE

Lenovo LOQ 15APH8

$730 at Best Buy

Pros

• Competitive performance for the price
• Sufficiently bright display

Cons

• Uninspired design and no RGB lighting
• 15.6-inch display not as tall and has smaller color gamut than more modern 16-inch, 16:10 panels
• Only 8GB of RAM
• Weak audio output
• Slow USB ports

It may look like an oversized corporate laptop, but the Lenovo LOQ 15 is a capable budget gaming model priced at $1,100 that can frequently be found for hundreds less at Best Buy. If it were a bit lighter, it might be able to pull double duty as a work computer by day and gaming laptop by night. At nearly 5.5 pounds, however, it's too heavy for daily commutes and about a full pound heavier than the MSI Cyborg 15, a similar budget gaming laptop.

But the LOQ 15 still merits a modest recommendation because it provides competitive performance for the money. And about that price: Perhaps the best attribute of the LOQ 15 is the fact that it can be found on sale for as low as $700, making it one of the cheapest RTX 4050 laptops you'll find anywhere.

Our LOQ 15APH8 test system (model 82XT001NUS) is a fixed configuration available at Best Buy and direct from Lenovo (the latter is only for pickup at a local Best Buy). It has a list price of $1,100 and features an AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS processor, 8GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics and a 512GB SSD. The 15.6-inch display offers a 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution with a 16:9 aspect ratio and 144Hz refresh rate. A similar configuration with a previous-gen RTX 3050 GPU costs $950 and was discounted to $690 at the time this was published. Another fixed configuration available at Lenovo for $1,280 (discounted to $930 at the time of this review) doubles the RAM to 16GB and the SSD to 1TB.

The Lenovo LOQ 15 starts at £840 in the UK and AU$1,939 in Australia.

In testing, the LOQ 15 kept pace with the other RTX 4050-based budget gaming laptops we've reviewed recently. And given that it can be had for less than any of the others when it's on sale for a mere $700, it provides excellent value. Its performance falls in the middle of this RTX 4050 pack on most tests and produced playable frame rates on our 3D gaming tests at 1080p with quality settings dialed up.

The strength of its component lineup is its Ryzen 7 7840HS CPU, which is a step up from the midrange Ryzen 5 and Intel Core i5 processors that are found on other budget gaming models, but it's hobbled by the meager 8GB of RAM. The LOQ 15's RTX 4050 GPU is set to run at a maximum of 95 watts, which places it between the maximum 140-watt RTX 4050 GPUs of the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 and Acer Nitro 16 and the underpowered 45-watt RTX 4050 of the MSI Cyborg 15. 

Gaming laptop or corporate machine?

The LOQ 15 looks more like something your company's IT department would issue you than something you'd buy for fun and games. There is a pop of blue on the back vents, but otherwise this is a monochrome laptop with a dark gray top panel, dark gray bottom panel and dark gray keyboard deck with dark gray keys. Even on budget gaming laptops with staid designs, you usually get multizone RGB keyboard backlighting to spice up and customize the overall look. Not so with the LOQ 15, which supplies only basic white backlighting. 

The display's a basic 15.6-inch, 16:9 screen that feels undersized and looks dated when compared with more modern 16-inch, 16:10 panels, even though it's not actually that much smaller (by 0.8-inch vertically and the same size horizontally). 

The LOQ 15 weighs 5.4 pounds, which is nearly a full pound heavier than the 4.5-pound MSI Cyborg 15. The Acer Nitro 16 and Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 each have a 16-inch, 16:10 displays and weigh 5.7 pounds. I'd happily accept an extra few extra ounces of carrying weight for the taller screen.

The keyboard offers 1.5mm of key travel, and the keys offer snappy feedback and were responsive during games, though I still wish they offered more tactile feedback when mashing keys while gaming. I appreciate Lenovo making good use of the roomy chassis and providing four full-size arrow keys instead of making me get by with half-height arrow keys.

The four arrow keys do push the touchpad down a bit on the wrist rest and limit its size. It's big enough to navigate across the 15.6-inch display, however, while offering a matte finish for smooth gliding and a firm click response.

The LOQ 15 is based on a 15.6-inch IPS panel with a 1,920x1,080 resolution and a reasonable 144Hz refresh rate. That's also what you'll get from the MSI Cyborg 15, but the LOQ 15's screen is significantly brighter with more vibrant colors. Peak brightness measured 343 nits, which is right in line with its 350-nit rating (the MSI hit only 266 nits). 

But the LOQ 15 only measured 68% of the sRGB color gamut, which is pretty bad, especially for gaming. The newer 16-inch screens are generally better. For example, Acer's twin budget gaming offerings, the Predator Helios Neo 16 at 442 nits and the Nitro 16 at 424 nits, are brighter, and cover 100% of the sRGB gamut. (We test mainstream laptop screens with a SpyderX Elite colorimeter hardware and software.)

You do get a 1080p webcam with the LOQ 15, which produces a sharper picture than that of the 720p cameras that you still find on some competitors. The speakers, however, are strictly budget class. The pair of two-watt stereo speakers produced underpowered, tinny sound devoid of bass. 

The ports lack high-speed USB. There's a single USB Type-C port, but it's only USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 with a transfer speed of 10Gbps. That's just a fraction of the 40Gbps you'd get from Thunderbolt 4 or USB4. Most of the ports are located on the back panel where you'll find a pair of USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, an HDMI 2.1 connection and an Ethernet port.

On the right side, there's a USB-A 2.0 port for connecting a mouse, as well as a headphone jack. There's also a shutter switch for the webcam so you can protect your privacy when it's not in use.

With its uninspired design yet competitive performance, the Lenovo LOQ 15 makes sense when its price dips to $700 and makes it one of the cheapest ways to get an RTX 4050 gaming laptop. That said, the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 or Nitro 16 offer snappier designs, larger displays and superior performance -- and each can also be found frequently on sale. Either Acer is a better buy when it can be purchased at a discount for less than $1,000.

How we test computers  

The review process for laptops, desktops, tablets and other computerlike devices consists of two parts: Performance testing under controlled conditions in the CNET Labs and extensive hands-on use by our expert reviewers. This includes evaluating a device's aesthetics, ergonomics and features. A final review verdict is a combination of both objective and subjective judgments. 

The list of benchmarking software we use changes over time as the devices we test evolve. The most important core tests we're currently running on every compatible computer include Primate Labs Geekbench 6, Cinebench R23, PCMark 10 and 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra. 

A more detailed description of each benchmark and how we use it can be found on our How We Test Computers page.