Lenovo has been offering gaming laptops for many years, best known for the Legion brand. Designed for gamers, the emphasis has been on portable power, interesting design and hitting key specs – at a price, of course.

The idea behind LOQ is to address that latter point, to pull down the price and open up a line of gaming machines for tighter budgets. Lenovo LOQ launches as a new sub-brand, but as you’ll see, it plucks some elements from its Legion siblings, making for an attractive proposition. There will be 15 and 16-inch version of this laptop with minor differences to the specs, with Intel and AMD power options. We had a brief encounter with one of the launch models – to get some first impressions.

Design and display

• 359.6 x 264.8 x 22.1-25.2mm, <2.4kg
• 15.6in, 2560 x 1440, 165Hz display, Nvidia G-Sync support

With LOQ emblazoned on the lid, at first glance you might just think that this Lenovo machine is just a chunky laptop. There’s no RGB built into the lid, it’s almost like a slightly stealthy approach to gaming laptop design, but as soon as you glance at the rear, the LOQ screams “gaming laptop” with absolute certainty. But while this is a new gaming brand, you don’t have to look too far into the past to find the LOQ posing under a different name, as it’s basically the same design as the IdeaPad Gaming 3. Moving away from the IdeaPad brand makes perfect sense for Lenovo and gives this affordable powerhouse greater distinction.

The signature design elements are in the colour detail around the vents, most notably to the rear, but also with flashes of colour to the sides. This is just colour detail, there’s no RGB except on the keyboard, so it’s a little more subtle than some gaming devices. The base of the LOQ is also hugely ventilated, so help draw air through and keep things cool which you put it under pressure, all of which feeds the cooling system that offers dual fans and heatpipes – which Lenovo promises will be quiet when in operation.

Most of the connectivity ranges across the back, so if you’re connected to a number of peripherals, you won’t have those hanging out the sides, which just creates a cleaner space around your laptop – although it retains a single USB-C and USB-A port on the sides for easy ad hoc connections. The rear offers Ethernet, 2x USB 3.2 and HDMI 2.1.

There’s a full keyboard, backed with RGB and offering a numberpad. We didn’t get the chance to use it for a great length of time, but there was a great action to it, albeit with a little flex towards the centre. There’s a good-sized trackpad too.

There’s a 15.6-inch display sitting atop the deck, offering a 165Hz variable refresh rate and offering a brightness of 350 nit. It’s not hugely bright, but it does offer 100 per cent sRGB to boost the colour accuracy. It has a 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution and first impressions are of a good display – although we didn’t have time to explore it with any range of content.

Hardware and performance

• Up to 13 Gen Intel Core i7-13700H or AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS
• Up Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060, onboard AI
• Up to 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, with expansion slots
• 60Whr battery with fast charging

The thing that will likely appeal about the LOQ range is that there are options for powerful hardware so despite hitting a lower entry point. At this stage we haven’t seen the full range of choices that will be available or the prices that will be appended to the higher models.

But there are choices for 13 Gen Intel hardware and AMD Ryzen 7000 series paired with discrete graphics from Nvidia. You’ll have a multiplexer switch so you can bypass the integrated graphics, or conversely, return to it for basic tasks when you’d rather preserve battery life.

Naturally we haven’t had the chance to test the performance of the Lenovo LOQ to any degree, but gamers will be pleased to hear that the Lenovo LA AI Chip – as found in Legion laptops – has made its way to LOQ too, designed to tweak the performance and optimise frame rates as you’re gaming. It can also learn over time to boost efficiency for you.

There’s up to 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD, but there’s also an open M.2 slot and SSD slots for future expansion.

There’s a 60Whr battery with support for 170W charging, which will see it up to 70 per cent in about 30 minutes. This is via the dedicate charging port on the rear, although there’s also support for 140W USB-C charging too, meaning you can go mobile and just take one charger for all your devices.

First impressions

There’s a lot to like about the Lenovo LOQ on first glance. The feel of this laptop and the design doesn’t scream basic – in fact some might be taken by that slightly more subtle design than some other gaming laptops. We also love the rear IO and the colour detail to the vents around the chassis – it looks great.

We have high hopes for this laptop, but obviously haven’t had the opportunity to test it to any degree. But with plentiful hardware options and a wide range of features on offer, the Lenovo LOQ could be a great choice for someone looking for a powerful PC that doesn’t cost the earth.