Meet LOQ, Lenovo’s new, aggressively priced PC gaming brand

LOQ, pronounced “lock,” is a weird name, yes, but it’s the name of a new brand in the world of PC gaming from Lenovo. You might wonder — don’t we already have Legion? Lenovo’s Legion brand has made a name for itself over a number of years, especially in the world of gaming laptops.

And that’s where LOQ is looking to make an impact as well. Lenovo is announcing a number of new gaming laptops — the LOQ 15, 15i, 16, and 16i — and the prices are aimed at a much more affordable demographic. These start at just $900, which puts them in competition with just a handful of new gaming laptops from budget brands like Asus’ TUF, Acer’s Nitro, Dell’s G-series, HP’s Victus, and MSI’s new Cyborg brand.

So, obviously, the idea of having an affordable subbrand for entry-level gaming laptops is hardly a new idea. But Lenovo is hoping its aggressive pricing and pedigree with gamers will make LOQ stand out.

As for the specs of these new laptops, you’ll find a variety of configuration options at launch, even beyond the two size options. The i” in the name stands for Intel models with up to a Core i7-13700H inside, where the others are powered by up to an AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS. Regardless of which CPU you choose, you’ll get GPU options ranging up to an RTX 4060. And yes, that means Lenovo is reserving the more powerful GPU options for its premium brand, Legion. We don’t have a complete set of configuration prices yet, but the entry-level options will start with an RTX 3050.

Of the two chassis to choose from, the 16-inch model is the more advanced option. It uses a more modern 16:10 aspect ratio display, meaning more screen real estate in a similar overall size and a smaller lower bezel. It also comes with a 1080p webcam standard in all configurations, whereas the LOQ 15/15i start at 720p in the entry-level configurations.

Regardless of which you choose, though, you can still configure all these systems with up to 16GB of DDR5 RAM, a QHD 165Hz screen, and a 1TB of SSD.

In terms of design, the LOQ laptops share a lot in common with Legion. The two color options are both shades of gray, much of the I/O is located in the rear, and it even uses the same exact keyboard. The layout still gives you a number pad off to the right, lit by four-zone backlighting (with an option for RGB). A large touchpad is included below.

Beyond specs, the primary difference between the LOQ 16 and Lenovo’s Legion laptops is size. At over an inch thick and well over 5 pounds, these are no doubt chunky gaming laptops. But they may end up being good options for those focused on getting as much performance per dollar as possible.

In addition to the LOQ gaming laptops, Lenovo also introduced a LOQ Tower gaming PC, a new 17-liter desktop that starts at just $980. These have the latest 13th-gen Intel processors and RTX 40-series GPUs, with room to expand memory up to 32GB. In terms of storage, it comes with a 1TB M.2 SSD, with expansion slots available to add up to one more SSD and two HDD.

The LOQ gaming laptops are expected to be available sometime in the second quarter of 2023, while the LOQ Tower is coming this fall.