Lenovo LOQ 16 & Lenovo LOQ 15 – budget-friendly gaming laptops

In this article we’re discussing the Lenovo LOQ series of gaming/performance laptops, a new addition to the Lenovo lineup as for mid-2023.

These slot as budget-friendly options underneath the popular Lenovo Legion models, as more affordable variants with low and mid-tier specs. As far as I can tell, they’re replacing the Ideapad Gaming series offered in the past (and possibly even the standard Legion 5 series), as part of Lenovo’s effort to unify the design of their performance/gaming lineups.

15 and 16-inch screen sizes are offered with these Lenovo LOQ models, in a variety of Intel/AMD platforms with Nvidia RTX 4000 graphics chips, alongside design lines and general features and ergonomics borrowed from the existing Legion models.

We’ll touch on the important features of these 2023 LOQ 15/16 models down below, and follow up with updates and detailed reviews in the weeks to come. These laptops are expected in stores around May/June 2023, starting at sub $1000.

2023 Lenovo LOQ 16 & LOQ 15 Specs

But first, here’s a full specs sheet of the 2023 Lenovo LOQ lineups.

Design, screens, and inputs

The design of these LOQ laptops is very similar to the one of the Lenovo Legion 5 models of the last years, with a dark-grey finish, a full-size keyboard with a NumPad Section, quad-vent cooling, and most of the IO placed on the back edge, behind the display.

The branding has been redesigned to incorporate the LOQ logo on the hood, instead of the LEGION brand on the other models. There are similarities between the two, though, with the same O shared between them.

Lenovo also put blue radiators on the back of these LOQs, with two blue accents as well – they’re not RGB in any way, just plain light blue (teal).

These LOQ laptops are not trying to be compact, portable, or premium-class in any way, though. As far as I can tell, the construction is entirely plastic, and the overall size and weight are standard for the class, even a little bigger than on the competitors.

Despite their size, though, the laptops should feel smaller than they are in real-life use, due to how the screen and hinges are positioned in order to leave extra space in the hump behind, for the IO and the cooling.

There is of course a slight difference in footprint and weight between the 16 and 15-inch models, with the 15-inch variant being more compact and lighter by .2 kilos. However, this also comes with a smaller battery (60Wh on LOQ 15, 80 Wh on LOQ 16 models), which accounts for some of that weight difference.

For now, I haven’t yet touched these Lenovo LOQ laptops, but I expect the build quality to be alright, on par with previous Legion 5 and IdeaPad models.

Ergonomics should be fine as well, with most of the IO on the rear edge, a spacious armrest, and good hinges that should lean back to 180 degrees. An FHD camera and an array of microphones are placed at the top of the display, with a physical eShutter button on the right edge, pretty much standard these days for Lenovo devices.

Lenovo implemented their standard keyboard layout on these models, with a NumPad section and full-size and properly spaced arrow keys. This keyboard is available in either a white-backlit or an RGB 4-zone backlit variant.

A spacious clickpad is positioned underneath, centered on the Space key towards the left of the chassis. Once more, it’s a standard Lenovo design, the larger plastic implementation most likely similar to the one previously offered in the Legion 5 Pro models.

Lenovo LOQ 16 (left) and Low 15 (right) – keyboard and main decks

As for the screens, you’re getting 15.6-inch 16:9 panels on the LOQ 15 models, and 16-inch 16:10 panels on the LOQ 16 variants. That means there’s extra screen real estate and a smaller bottom bezel on the 16-inch variants.

Both will be available with several panel options, either FHD/FHD+ or 2.5K variants. The top options are 2.5K 165Hz with 350-nits brightness and 100% sRGB color coverage on both, which are alright for this class, but not on par with the panels offered on some of the higher-tier Legion notebooks.

Lenovo LOQ 16 (left) and Low 15 (right) – screens

Hardware, performance, and cooling

As mentioned in the specs section, these LOQ notebooks are available with the latest lower-tier and mid-tier hardware specs from Intel, AMD, and Nvidia.

On one side, the Lenovo LOQ 15i 15IRH8 and LOQ 16i 16IRH8 can be specced up to an Intel Core i7-13700H processor with 6PC+8EC and 20 Threads, and up to an RTX 4060 Laptop 8GB dGPU at 115W TGP.

On the other, the Lenovo LOQ 15 15APH8 and LOQ 16 16APH8 can be specced up to AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS processor with 8 Cores and 16 Threads, and up to the same RTX 4060 Laptop 8GB dGPU at 115W TGP.

Exact details on the power designs haven’t been provided yet, but the Intel side should have an advantage in CPU single and multi-threaded performance, while the AMD platform should have an advantage in pricing and efficiency on battery power. We’ll know more once we get to review these.

Lenovo have shared that the top crossload power on these chips is 135W, with up to 115W allocated to the GPU with Dynamic Boost. The Lenovo LA AI Chip is implemented on these laptops as well, just like on the 2023 Legion models, which allows the Lenovo AI Engine+ to dynamically adjust the power settings between the components in order to get the best performance in workloads and the best framerates in games. We’ll have to test this feature in the reviews before drawing conclusions on its worth.

The specs are completed by support for up to DDR5-5200 memory (up to 32 GB, with 2x DIMMs – to be confirmed ??), 2TB of storage (2x gen4 drives – to be confirmed ?? ), and 60/80Wh batteries. There’s also a MUX and GSync support on the internal display on all variants, but Advanced Optimus is only supported by the Intel platforms.

As far as the cooling goes, Lenovo mentions a dual-fan quad-exhaust design with 85mm 12V fans and four heatpipes, as well as ample unobstructed air intakes on the bottom of the chassis. This thermal design should handle the 135W total power of these laptops well, given our experience with past Lenovo laptops.

— to be updated

Before we wrap up, I’ll also mention that both these Lenovo LOQ laptops offer stereo bottom-firing speakers, good connectivity with Wifi6E, Bluetooth, and Gigabit LAN, as well as mid-sized batteries.

Speaking of, the LOQ 16 can be specced with up to 80 Wh batteries, while the LOQ 15 models go up to 60 Wh batteries. Both are paired with up to 230W main chargers and both support USB-C charging up to 140W PD.

What to expect

These Lenovo LOQ lineups are expected in stores between April to June 2023 for the different configurations.

The 15-inch Lenovo LOQ 15 models should come a little earlier in April/May, and start at $899 for either the AMD or the Intel specs. The 16-inch LOQ 16 will follow a few months later around May/June and start at $959 for the AMD model and $1149 for the Intel model (most likely with different GPU options). Availability and prices will vary between regions, and we’ll know more about the exact configurations once these will be officially listed in stores.

At this point, I expect these Lenovo LOQ models to be popular in this segment of affordable performance/gaming notebooks at around $1000. In the past, the Legion 5s targeted this niche, but with the inflation and the way prices have gone up lately, Lenovo are offering this new sub-series in this space. However, Lenovo haven’t even announced an updated 2023 Legion 5 series, so perhaps these LOQs are replacing both the IdeaPad Gaming and the Legion 5 models of the previous years?

Their other 2023 performance series are the Legion Pro 5, the Legion Pro 7, and the Legion Slim 5 and Slim 7, covered in previous articles.

These LOQs are designed to compete against other popular models in the budget laptop space, such as the Dell Gaming G15/G16, the Acer Nitro 15/16, or the Asus TUF Gaming models.

Anyway, that’s about it for now, but look for our detailed reviews in the near future. And in the meantime, get in touch down below in the comments section and let me know what you think about these 2023 Lenovo LOQ 15/16 laptops.