Lenovo LOQ 15APH8 Laptop Review: The Budget Legion?

Lenovo’s gaming laptops have been pretty good, and their Legion lineup gives good competition to the premium players. This is mainly due to the fact that Legion offers similar flagship specs at a very competitive price point. However, a Legion laptop in isolation is still an expensive machine. So what if you were shopping on a budget? Enter, the Lenovo LOQ.

While the company previously had the IdeaPad Gaming lineup, it’s changing things to the new LOQ lineup. In essence, the LOQ series retains the Legion’s simple design language, offers good performance, and caters to the budget gaming laptop segment. The LOQ 15APH8 that we have here, is powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS processor coupled with up to an Nvidia RTX 4060 graphics card.

But does the LOQ series offer the same value for money as the Legion lineup? Or are there too many budget cuts and compromises here? Let’s find out in our in-depth Lenovo LOQ 15APH8 (AMD) review.

Lenovo LOQ 15APH8 Review: Specifications

Before starting off with the full-on review, let’s just take a moment to glance at the specifications of the Lenovo LOQ 15APH8 gaming laptop.

Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 7640HS
	AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS
Display	15.6″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS,
	350 nits,144Hz refresh rate, 45% NTSC
RAM	Up to 16GB DDR5 5600MHz
Graphics	Nvidia RTX 3050
	Nvidia RTX 4050
	Nvidia RTX 4060
Storage	Up to 1TB PCIe SSD Gen4
WLAN	WiFi 6 802.11AX (2 x 2)
Bluetooth	Version 5.1
Weight	5.29 lbs
Dimensions	14.16 in x 10.43 in x 0.87 in

Design

Think of a Legion laptop, but imagine it using a plastic body instead of a sturdy aluminum one. And you’ll end up with the Lenovo LOQ. The LOQ 15APH8 looks almost like a mirror image of a Legion 15, complete with a minimalistic professional design. It is also accompanied by the signature blue accents all around the body.

However, there are a couple of changes here. First off, at 5.29 lbs, the laptop is relatively heavy, even for a budget gaming laptop, by modern standards. Secondly, there’s a decent amount of flex here, especially around the keyboard and palm rest. It’s not a deal breaker or anything, but definitely noticeable.

What is noticeable is the hinge that wobbles a lot while using the laptop on your lap. While you won’t be using a gaming laptop like that, the experience can be a bit annoying when you do.

In terms of connectivity, the laptop comes with a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port coupled with a 3.5mm headphone jack. This USB-C port can also be used for USB-PD charging up to 140W. Additionally, it also supports DisplayPort 1.4.

On the right side, there’s a single USB-A 2.0 port.

Finally, on the rear side, the laptop features a DC-in port, an RJ45 Ethernet port, dual USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, and a full-sized HDMI 2.1 port.

This is another aspect where the cost-cutting is quite apparent. For a gaming laptop in 2023, having a single USB-C port is definitely questionable. Add to that, the lack of USB-4 is also a bit surprising.

Further, the laptop only supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3, thus limiting the future-proofing of this machine. However, these are very slight factors, and may not make a massive difference to most users. Especially those shopping in this price segment.

Display and Audio

Moving along, the laptop comes with a 15.6-inch Full HD IPS display with a 144Hz refresh rate. While there are laptops that offer 165Hz in the same price segment, it’s not a big difference, and I’d any day pick quality over a couple of extra Hertz. The good part is that the Lenovo LOQ 15APH8 does have a good-quality panel.

The bezels here aren’t that thick, and the panel itself features a matte finish. This allows for easier visibility outdoors, despite the average 350 nits of peak brightness. Add to that, 45% NTSC coverage means while the panel isn’t going to aid you with any sort of content creation, it’s going to be more than enough for gaming.

Speaking of which, the 144Hz panel feels quite smooth and responsive in games. Apart from eSports titles, the laptop doesn’t have enough horsepower to run titles above 100 fps, so the downscaling to a 144Hz panel from 165Hz doesn’t make any difference.

For entertainment needs, the panel is complemented by the dual 2W speakers at the bottom. They are decent enough, offering good clarity even at high volumes, but they don’t get that loud.

Keyboard, Touchpad, and Webcam

One of my favorite things about a Lenovo Legion laptop has always been its keyboard. Essentially, it’s the same keyboard on a ThinkPad lineup, with gaming accents. With the Lenovo LOQ, they’ve removed the gaming accents, thus making it identical to a ThinkPad keyboard.

What that means, is that you get a full-sized keyboard to type upon with extremely comfortable keys. The 1.5mm key travel feels great, and there’s a slight spring feedback on offer too. What you miss out on is RGB lighting. Instead, the LOQ 15APH8 only offers a white backlight here, with two brightness levels.

Below the keyboard is the matte trackpad. It’s adequately sized, and works very well, with zero complaints. Yes, the click sound is a bit rattley, to be honest with you, but it’s not an issue at all, and I’ve grown to like the stronger feedback.

Lenovo also bundles a 1080P Webcam up top. The quality isn’t anything to boast about, but it should suffice for basic office calls.

And when you’re not using it, there’s a privacy e-shutter on the right side to disable the webcam.

Performance

Moving on to the performance, our unit here comes equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS processor coupled with 16GB DDR5 RAM clocked at 5600MHz. There’s a 512GB PCIe SSD on board and for graphics there’s the Nvidia RTX 4050 laptop GPU. A pretty good package for a budget gaming laptop, at least on paper. So how does it perform in the real world?

In synthetic benchmarks, the LOQ 15APH8 outputs decent numbers. For the most part, the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS performs quite similar to an Intel i7-12700H processor. Which is pretty good for the price tag, since most brands only offer an i5 in this segment.

As for gaming, we ran a couple of games on the laptop, all at Medium settings, and the numbers were pretty good. You can easily enjoy AAA titles on this laptop at over 60fps, without having to tone down the settings a lot. Add to that, with support for DLSS, the performance is even better, especially when gaming at 1080p.

It’s worth noting that while benchmarking, everything was set to Performance mode. If you don’t want to delve into multiple settings inside the Lenovo Vantage app, simply press the Fn+Q keys shortcut to switch profiles, and you’re good to go.

Thermals and Upgradability

Lenovo has equipped the LOQ 15APH8 with its advanced thermal design. It features a combination of four heat pipes coupled with dual 85mm 12V high-speed fans, and large air intake and outlet vents. While that sounds good on paper, I’m happy to say that real-world performance is no different.

Sure, the laptop does get loud, but it’s still a lot quieter than most budget gaming laptops. Add to that, the temps were always in check, allowing you to game for extended sessions without any issues.

Digging inside, you can see that the cooling system takes up most of the space. As for upgradability, the dual SODIMM slots are protected under the aluminum shielding. You can upgrade the RAM as well as swap out the included SSD. Or better yet, there’s an additional M.2 slot for adding more storage if you wish to.

Battery Life and Charging

Lastly, there’s the battery life. Thanks to its 60WHr battery, the laptop manages to last up to 3 hours in a normal use case scenario. While that may not be the best backup time, what makes the LOQ 15APH8 so good is the charging time.

The laptop can go from 0 to 100% in just 45 minutes, with the included 170W power adapter. Or, you can opt for convenience, by charging it using a 140W USB-C adapter. Just make sure to enable the Lenovo Rapid Charge feature through the Vantage software.

Lenovo LOQ 15APH8 Review: Worth It?

So, the big question. Does the Lenovo LOQ 15APH8 come out as a worthy budget gaming laptop in our review? The LOQ 15 starts retail at a starting price of $689, while our review unit retails for a little under $999. At that price, the 15APH8 has a lot going for it.

The focus has been on performance, and the laptop delivers on that front. The keyboard and touchpad are nice, and the display works very well too. Sure, the build quality could have been better, but it’s far from worse.

The battery life could have been improved if you prefer to use it for your college or work during the day, but the fast charging more than makes up for it. All in all, the Lenovo LOQ 15APH8 manages to check the major boxes, offering a good overall package with the right compromises.