Lenovo LOQ 15i (Gen 9) Review: The New Budget Champion for Gamers

Name: Lenovo LOQ 15i
Brand: Lenovo

LaptopMedia.com Reviews and Analysis Lenovo LOQ 15i (Gen 9) Review: The New Budget Champion for Gamers Page 10

From: Nikolay Palaozov 16 February 2024 / 19:14 | 0

10. Verdict

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Verdict

The Lenovo LOQ 15i (Gen 9) is a great budget gaming laptop. The CPU can maintain high clocks even in prolonged periods of max stress and that’s possible because of the sizable cooling solution. The optional GeForce RTX 4050 (Laptop) can offer a 2580MHz core clock after 30 minutes of gaming. That’s the highest frequency we’ve seen among all RTX 4050 that we have tested up to date.

The 16:9 IPS display (AUO B156HAN15.K (AUO7EAD)) has good viewing angles and contrast ratio. The unit is also PWM-free and boasts 96% sRGB coverage. The designers who are looking to buy a machine at a decent price should be happy – the color accuracy reaches an average dE value of 1.2 with our “Design and Gaming” profile which is a great improvement compared to the 3.9 out-of-the-box result.

The comfort during load depends on the power preset. In “Performance” mode the fans are audible even in idle and the video card power limit is around 86W. The “Balance” preset should be the way to go for most users since it offers a GPU TGP of 80W and much lower noise. If you don’t want to switch between the modes frequently, just enable the “Legion AI Engine+” option and the LA1 AI chip will bump the clocks and the power limits of the CPU and the GPU if it detects gameplay. We tried this feature and actually, it works pretty well.

You get two SODIMMs and two M.2 Gen 4 slots for future upgrades which is very good given the price tag of the notebook. The I/O is decent but there is just one Type-C port. At least it supports DisplayPort 1.4 and PowerDelivery (140W). The short battery life looks like the main con of this machine. Just like the Lenovo Legion 5i (16, Gen 9), the LOQ 15i (Gen 9) provides a “CPU Overclock” function, a MUX switch, and NVIDIA G-SYNC + Advanced Optimus.

If you want to buy a new gaming laptop but your budget is limited, the Lenovo LOQ 15i (Gen 9) offers a lot of bang for its money like capable cooling, good performance, and a color-accurate display.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-loq-15i-15-irx9-iax9-gen-9/

Pros

Pleasant price
Very good performance for the class
The build rigidness is fine
Good cooling
Decent I/O
No PWM (AUO B156HAN15.K (AUO7EAD))
96% sRGB coverage and accurate color representation with our “Design and Gaming” profile (AUO B156HAN15.K (AUO7EAD))
144Hz refresh rate and a decent max brightness of 305 nits (AUO B156HAN15.K (AUO7EAD))
The Lenovo Vantage app has plenty of customizations
The “Balance” mode offers almost the same GPU TGP as the “Performance” preset but the noise is lower
Web camera with an E-shutter
The CPU and the GPU can sustain high frequencies under any kind of load
Comfortable input devices
Supports NVIDIA G-SYNC and Advanced Optimus
Has a MUX switch