Lenovo LOQ 16 review: A capable laptop for casual gamers

Price When Reviewed

$1,014.99

Best Prices Today: Lenovo LOQ 16APH8

LOQ is a brand new model from Lenovo, which was launched within the spring. LOQ, pronounced “lock”, is primarily meant as a less expensive various for gaming than Lenovo’s Legion computer systems, in the identical method that, for instance, the Asus TUF collection of merchandise stands as an reasonably priced various to Asus ROG.

Are they an excellent purchase and do you get the best gaming options and different good laptop computer qualities for the cash? To discover out, I took considered one of them in for testing. This 16-inch laptop computer combines a recent AMD Ryzen 5 processor with Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics and a quick display screen in a strong construct. While it affords good efficiency, it’s a heavy machine with noisy followers and reasonable battery life. Read on to be taught extra.

Looking for extra choices? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops accessible proper now.

Note: Prior to translation, this assessment initially known as out the Lenovo LOQ’s excessive price ticket. However, for our US-based readers, we discovered a extra affordable configuration ($1,014.99) with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, an AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS CPU, and 1TB of SSD storage.

Lenovo LOQ 16: Design, keyboard

The Lenovo LOQ is a solidly constructed laptop computer with an outer shell in darkish gray or black plastic. It is something however skinny and lightweight, 2.6 cm thick and weighing 2.6 kg. Its angular design could make it uncomfortable to hold round an excessive amount of, however put it on a desk and also you’ll have a cushty and sensible laptop computer to work and play on. The display screen floor is raised by a few centimeters, which is at all times appreciated, even when it will increase the general measurement of the pc.

Some surfaces are clean just like the display screen lid and the within across the keyboard and others are rougher just like the underside, the body across the display screen, and a protruding again cowl. LOQ laptops additionally function turquoise accent shade in giant, tough heatsinks going through straight backwards. A barely quirky design selection, however one I don’t hate. There are not any LEDs within the chassis and the one RGB gentle within the pc is within the keyboard, which has 4 zones that may be individually shade managed.

The keyboard is fantastically well-built and offers instantaneous click on response except you favor the next keystroke peak, which is kind of a slim profile. The mouse pad beneath is very typical and small, however with a cushty contact and good precision. You’ll most likely join a daily mouse anyway should you play video games.

In the middle on the again, you’ll discover many of the pc’s exterior connections: twin USB-A, HDMI, community port, and a proprietary energy adapter port. You also can cost the battery by way of a USB-C port on the facet, however you’ll have to purchase an adapter for that. Finally, there’s an additional USB-A on the alternative facet. It’s an authorized set-up, however I might have preferred to see an additional USB-C. I related wirelessly with Wi-Fi 6 with wonderful reception and bandwidth.

Mattias Inghe

Lenovo LOQ 16: Mixing AMD and Nvidia

The processor within the Lenovo LOQ is an AMD Ryzen 5 7640HS. With six high-clocked cores and Zen4 structure, this pc offers full of life efficiency for every little thing from gaming to artistic work and heavy productiveness. However, it’s solely six cores, slightly underpowered as of late in a efficiency processor. Doing a number of demanding issues on the similar time like enjoying a difficult recreation, recording your gameplay as video, and working a stay stream and chat on a separate display screen is usually a problem. But like I stated, LOQ is meant to be for newbie players, so they could be content material to observe others stream or simply play video games.

For that, you additionally get a separate graphics card, however not an AMD Radeon, as you would possibly suppose with an AMD Ryzen pc, however an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060. The Ryzen processor has no drawback interacting with it and the result’s definitely not unhealthy. As lengthy as you don’t problem the pc with extremely settings and brutal ray tracing within the heaviest recreation titles, you’ll get good fluidity and a pleasant image in most conditions.

At least pretty much as good because the display screen permits. This is an IPS panel with a 1920×1200 pixel decision and a pleasantly matt floor that eliminates most reflections. But colours are noticeably mediocre, coming in at about half the srgb customary, which implies plenty of saturation and depth in colours are misplaced. With brightness at a middling 350 cd/m2 and no HDR assist, it’s neither colourful nor dynamic.

Mattias Inghe

Lenovo LOQ 16: More quick than fairly

The Lenovo LOQ’s show has excessive distinction, no less than for an IPS. You get quick response instances and the display screen can run at as much as 144 Hz frequency. G-sync assist can be considered one of its benefits. It’s merely an excellent display screen for fast-paced video games, however not as profitable for fancy ones. By default, the pc is about to 144Hz, however there’s additionally a 72Hz mode you’ll be able to choose to avoid wasting energy or one which mechanically switches between 72Hz and 144Hz. I run nearly completely in that mode with no issues by any means.

The pc’s built-in audio system ship highly effective, detailed, high-quality sound, thanks partially to Nahimic’s audio software program. At reasonable ranges, I get an excellent steadiness of bass, midrange, and treble, but when I push the amount up, the treble can get annoyingly sharp.

A 1080p webcam sits above the display screen and produces pictures which can be sharp, but in addition very pale in shade, with some noise in darkish areas. If you’re eager to look good in a video assembly, it could be value plugging in an exterior digicam. You additionally get an excellent built-in microphone that captures your voice with out issues.

Mattias Inghe

Lenovo LOQ 16: From quiet to heavy cooling

The Lenovo LOQ’d followers run now and again throughout regular on a regular basis browsing. There’s a light hiss within the background, nevertheless it doesn’t take an enormous processing load for them to heat up significantly. There could also be some noise that must be filtered out by the microphone or drowned out by the audio system. But for probably the most half, they’ll deal with it.

A beefy laptop computer with a robust processor and graphics often doesn’t have good battery life, and I wouldn’t name it good in LOQ 16, both. If you’re employed on much less demanding stuff, dim the display screen brightness, and run the body fee at 72 Hz or in dynamic mode, you’ll be able to work and surf on it for six to seven hours. I hoped for a greater end result.

Bringing the laptop computer with the heavy energy adapter to the workplace is a little bit of a chore, too. There are related computer systems which have accomplished a greater job.

Mattias Inghe

Lenovo LOQ 16: No bloatware, however a number of different stuff

You get a small assortment of additional packages pre-installed in your pc. Besides management software program for GeForce, AMD, and Nahimic, there are three packages specifically that that you must regulate. Firstly, Lenovo Vantage, which collects some additional settings that aren’t within the Windows settings menu. Things like fan modes, temperature monitoring, keyboard macros, community prioritization, and assist and upkeep options. An annoying element right here is that it has some premium upkeep and safety features that this system desires you to purchase for between $350 and $550 per 12 months.

Secondly, Legion Arena, a menu that brings collectively put in video games from completely different digital shops in a central and handy menu. But that’s all this system does. Finally, McAfee LiveSafe comes with a 30-day trial, so keep in mind to both uninstall it or get a full subscription.

Lenovo LOQ 16: Is it value it?

The Lenovo LOQ 16 is an effective choice for many players. It’s well-built and the processor, graphics, and display screen work effectively collectively for an excellent gaming expertise in addition to an excellent general expertise in between gaming classes. That stated, fan noise is loud below heavier masses and battery life is sub-par, however that’s not stunning as gaming laptops aren’t recognized for having nice battery life. If you’ll be able to stay with these compromises, then this can be a good choice for informal players.

Lenovo LOQ 16: Specifications

Product title: Lenovo LOQ 16APH8 (82XU004VMX)
Tested: December 2023
Manufacturer: Lenovo
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 7640HS, 6 cores as much as 5 GHz
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060, 8 GB
Memory: 16GB ddr5
Storage: 512GB SSD
Displays: 16 inch matte IPS, 1920×1200 pixels, 144 Hz
Webcam: 1080p
Connections: Usb 3 gen 2 sort c with ShowPort, 2 pcs USB 3 gen 2 sort a, USB-a 2.0, gigabit ethernet lan, hdmi, headset
Wireless: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1
Operating system: Windows 11 Home
Other: RGB keyboard
Noise stage: 0 – 41 dBa
Battery life: 1 hour 35 minutes (excessive load, full brightness), approx. 7 hours 20 minutes (low load, low brightness)
Size: 36 x 27.8 x 2.6 cm
Weight: 5.73 kilos
Recommended value: $1,014.99

Lenovo LOQ 16: Performance

Cinebench R23, CPU: 13,232 factors
Cinebench R23, CPU single core: 1,725 factors
Geekbench 6, CPU multi-core: 10,544 factors
Geekbench 6, CPU single core: 2,508 factors
Geekbench 6, GPU: 94,569 factors
3dmark Fire Strike (DirectX 11): 23,884 factors
3dmark Time Spy (DirectX 12): 10,258 factors
3dmark Port Royal (Ray Tracing): 5,944 factors
Disc, learn: as much as 4,331.29 MB/s
Disc, write: as much as 1,834.95 MB/s

This article was translated from Swedish to English and initially appeared on pcforalla.se.