Lenovo LOQ 15 Ryzen 7 7840HS laptop review: Don’t call it a Legion

The LOQ family consists of Lenovo’s budget gaming laptops designed to replace the older IdeaPad Gaming 3 series . The new LOQ name helps to create distance between its budget gaming products and the more home office or student-oriented Ideapad series. It is also distinctly not a Legion product as Lenovo wants to position the Legion name as a “flagship” series with high-end gaming machines only.

Our unit in review is a midrange AMD version (15APH8) with the Zen 4 Ryzen 7 7840HS CPU, GeForce RTX 4050 GPU, and 1080p 144 Hz IPS display retailing for roughly $1000 USD. It only comes with 8 GB of RAM, but this is fortunately user-upgradeable. Cheaper and more expensive SKUs exist with the Ryzen 5 7640HS, RTX 3050 or 4060, and 1080p 60 Hz to 1440p 165 Hz display ranging from under $800 USD to over $1100 USD.

Intel versions of the LOQ 15 (15IRH8) are also available in both 15-inch and 16-inch (LOQ 16) screen sizes. Competitors include other budget 15-inch gaming laptops like the Dell G15 5530 , Asus TUF A15 FA507 , MSI Cyborg 15 , or HP Victus 15 . More Lenovo reviews: Just because it’s not a Legion product doesn’t mean it can’t be inspired by the Legion design.

The LOQ 15 chassis can be best described as a watered-down Legion 5 15 as all the metal skeleton materials of the Legion have been replaced with ABS plastic on both the top cover and bottom. It feels cheaper as a result of these changes, but that is par for the course when compared to other budget gaming laptops like the MSI Cyborg 15 or HP Victus 15 which are also predominantly plastic. Chassis rigidity is weakest on the palm rests and keyboard center.

Applying pressure on these areas would warp the surface slightly more than on most other gaming laptops including the inexpensive ones like the HP Victus 15. It’s thankfully not a cause for concern or anything and the rest of the laptop feels solid for the price. The LOQ 15 is slightly thicker and heavier than most other budget gaming laptops including the Asus TUF A15, HP Victus 15 , or MSI Cyborg 15 due in part to its large extended rear.

A notable exception is the bulky Dell G15 5530 which is even heavier and larger. Port options include everything from last year’s IdeaPad Gaming 3 15 plus an additional USB-A port. Most of the ports are along the rear, but the single USB-C port has been moved to the left edge this time for easier reach.

The Realtek RTL8852BE offers Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5. 1 connectivity with no Wi-Fi 6E or 6 GHz support likely to save on costs. Transfer rates are nonetheless steady and reliable when paired to our Asus AXE11000 test router.

The 2 MP webcam is an upgrade from the 1 MP webcams on the older Legion 5 15 or IdeaPad Gaming 15 series. A camera kill switch is included while IR is nowhere to be found. End-user upgrades take a bit more effort than on most other gaming laptops since the rear portion of the chassis must first be removed before the bottom panel can come off.

A total of 13 Phillips screws secure the bottom and rear portions. There are no extras in the box other than the AC adapter and paperwork. The standard one-year limited manufacturer warranty applies if purchased in the US.

The keyboard remains identical to the one on the IdeaPad Gaming 3 15 despite the name change. If you’ve typed on an IdeaPad or Yoga laptop in the past, then the keyboard on the LOQ 15 will feel instantly familiar. Subjectively, the keys on the LOQ 15 feel a bit firmer and clickier than usual for a better typing experience than a cheaper Asus VivoBook or HP Pavilion 15.

The clickpad is slightly smaller than the one on last year’s IdeaPad Gaming 3 15 (12 x 7. 5 cm vs. 12.

5 x 7. 5 cm). However, the clickpad on the LOQ 15 feels firmer and clickier than the clickpad on the IdeaPad to be more satisfying to use.

Clatter is noticeably louder as a result of the sharper feedback. Three display configurations are available all of which are IPS panels: Our configuration and measurements reflect only the bolded option above. Although 1080p is sufficient for an inexpensive gaming machine, the limited color coverage and relatively slow response times are immediately noticeable through shallower colors and ghosting, respectively.

If you like graphics editing or first-person shooters, then it’s recommended to connect an external monitor with better colors and faster response times or select the higher quality 1440p panel option. The competing Asus TUF A15 offers a 1080p panel with full sRGB coverage whereas our Lenovo does not. Average grayscale and color deltaE values actually aren’t terrible for a budget gaming laptop at just 2.

6 and 4. 19, respectively. We’re able to get these values down to just 0.

4 and 1. 66 after a proper calibration with our X-Rite colorimeter. However, keep in mind that colors still become increasingly inaccurate at higher saturation levels due to the narrow color gamut mentioned above.

Our calibrated ICM profile is available above for free. Most gaming laptops with IPS panels tend to fall in the 300-nit brightness range and the LOQ 15 is no exception. Thus, outdoor visibility is average for the category with nothing noteworthy.

Anything brighter than a shady spot will cause immense glare and wash out onscreen colors. We set our unit to Performance mode via both Windows and Lenovo Vantage prior to running the benchmarks below. We also made sure to set the system to dGPU mode as Advanced Optimus is supported.

It’s recommended that users become familiar with the Vantage software since it is the central hub for Lenovo BIOS updates, power settings, warranty info, and other model-specific features. The Ryzen 7 7840HS is a slight step down from the higher-end Ryzen 7 7745HX with a performance deficit of just 5 percent. Overall performance is therefore comparable to the 12th gen Core i7-12700H that powered most gaming laptops of 2022.

We’re relieved that the LOQ series is shipping with Zen 4 CPUs instead of rebranded Zen 3 options like the Ryzen 7 7735HS which is noticeably slower and much less impressive. Upgrading to the Intel version of the LOQ 15 with the Core i7-13700H is expected to boost CPU performance by roughly 20 percent based on our time with the recent Aorus 15X . PCMark 10 results are comparable to competing models like the Dell G15 5530 and even just shy of the older 2022 Lenovo Legion 5 15 .

However, AIDA64 memory tests are only half as fast on our LOQ 15 unit due to its limited 8 GB of single-channel RAM. We recommend adding a second RAM module for a total of 16 GB whenever possible. LatencyMon reveals minor DPC issues when opening multiple browser tabs of our homepage.

4K video playback at 60 FPS is nearly perfect with just 2 dropped frames during a one-minute timeframe. Our unit ships with a budget Micron 2450 PCIe4 x4 NVMe SSD able to sustain real-world read rates of up to 2600 MB/s without any throttling. Up to two internal SSDs are supported, but the second drive must be 42 mm in length as shown by the images below.

Graphics performance is very good with 3DMark scores that are roughly 10 percent higher than the average laptop in our database equipped with the same GeForce RTX 4050 GPU. Raw performance is on par with the mobile RTX 3060 as to be expected. Downgrading to the RTX 3050 configuration would reduce GPU performance by as much as 45 percent while upgrading to the RTX 4060 would boost performance by 15 to 20 percent.

For gamers on a budget, we recommend sticking to the RTX 4050 or RTX 4060 options. Running on battery power reduces performance. A Fire Strike test on batteries would return Physics and Graphics scores of 25672 and 16335 points, respectively, compared to 28136 and 23345 points when on mains.

Running the system on Balanced mode instead of Performance mode will impact performance just slightly as shown by our Fire Strike results in the table below. Surprisingly, the 8 GB of system RAM has little impact on the gaming performance of the system. In fact, frame rates are where we expect them to be in most cases when compared to other laptops with the same RTX 4050 GPU, if not slightly faster.

There are a few exceptions, however, where certain Ultra graphical settings would crash the game due to memory limitations including F1 22 and Returnal . Fan noise tends to settle at 25 dB(A) against a silent background of 23 dB(A) during light browsing or streaming which is essentially inaudible in a typical office or room setting. Running Witcher 3 on Performance mode can be as loud as 46 dB(A) whereas gaming on Balanced mode is just slightly quieter at 44 dB(A).

The latter entails a small performance hit as noted above, however. If the CPU and GPU are stressed to 100 percent utilization, fan noise can be as loud as 52 dB(A) which would be almost as loud as the Cyborg 15 . Surface temperatures when under load can be very warm at up to 50 C compared to just 38 C on the HP Victus 15 .

Thankfully, the hot spots on the LOQ 15 are toward the rear where fingers are unlikely to touch. The WASD keys, numpad, and palm rests remain much cooler than the rear and keyboard center when gaming as shown by the temperature maps below. CPU clock rates, temperature, and board power draw would spike to 4.

8 GHz, 75 C, and 58 W, respectively, when initiating Prime95 stress. The clock rate and board power draw are sustainable over long periods with core temperature eventually plateauing at 80 C compared to 76 C on the Intel-powered Victus 15 . When running Witcher 3 on Performance mode, the Nvidia GPU would stabilize at 2685 MHz, 75 C, and 80 W.

There are no significant changes if running on Balanced mode which aligns with our observations in the GPU Performance section above. Instead, CPU board power draw would drop by as much as 15 W. Balanced mode would therefore impact CPU performance more so than GPU performance.

Power consumption when gaming is actually very close to last year’s IdeaPad Gaming 3 15 despite the significant 60 to 70 percent boost in graphics performance over the RTX 3050 Ti and 15 to 20 percent boost in processor performance over the Core i5-12500H. The gains in performance-per-watt are therefore excellent for a budget gaming machine. We’re able to record a maximum draw of 177 W from the medium-sized (~15 x 7.

8 x 2. 3 cm) 170 W AC adapter when both the CPU and GPU are at 100 percent utilization. The charging rate will therefore slow if running high loads like games simultaneously.

Our 60 Wh battery is relatively small as most other 15-inch gaming laptops typically come with 70 Wh batteries or larger. Nonetheless, runtimes are still respectable at almost 7. 5 hours of real-world WLAN browsing which is comparable to the Cyborg 15 .

Charging from empty to full capacity with the included AC adapter is very fast at about 45 minutes or roughly 2x faster than on most other gaming laptops. Lenovo Rapid Charge is enabled by default through the Vantage software. The system can be recharged via USB-C, but compatibility with most USB-C AC adapters is not guaranteed.

Lenovo sells its own 140 W USB-C AC adapter that should be compatible with most Lenovo laptops. For a budget gaming machine with just 8 GB of upgradeable system RAM, the Lenovo LOQ 15 performs better than expected and with excellent performance-per-watt when compared to gaming laptops running on 12th gen Core-H series CPUs like the IdeaPad Gaming 15 or HP Victus 15 . Its 1080p G-Sync panel pairs very well with the GeForce RTX 4050 for smooth 60 FPS gaming on modern titles which is a reasonable target for any inexpensive gaming laptop.

The plastic chassis and 8 GB of RAM are a turn off, but the easy upgradeability and fast performance for the price help to buoy the LOQ 15 above the rest in the $1000 USD and under category. The main drawback to the LOQ 15 is its limited color range and average black-white and gray-gray response times. The higher-end 1440p panel option addresses these concerns, but the subsequent price increase would then become awfully close to a Legion 5 model and the value proposition of the LOQ 15 would begin to decrease.

The $1000 USD or under price point is the sweet spot for the LOQ 15 especially since the Ryzen 7 7840HS and GeForce RTX 4050 are neck-to-neck with the Core i7-12700H and RTX 3060 that powered many gaming laptops of 2022 retailing for closer to $1500. Major competing makers like MSI, HP, or Asus have yet to offer affordable gaming laptops with the same Ryzen 7 7840HS options at the time of writing. Best Buy is currently shipping the Lenovo LOQ 15 in our exact configuration for $1100 USD.

Lenovo has additional configurations available directly from their website for cheaper prices. .