Gaming notebooks don't really do 'budget', as the price tag here can attest. Entry into the halls of PC gamers is possible with a single purchase, however, and you won't even have to install the GPU yourself (even if that's half the fun). Nothing stands out here, for good or ill, and that can be a positive thing. Just bear in mind the noise and the (slight) hardware limitations and you should be very happy with this machine.
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Lockdown… sucked. But there was a brief period, right at the beginning, when everyone was making bread and feeling generally optimistic (before the mental health damage started kicking in) when it was kinda awesome. Netflix and online gaming were the main staples. The Lenovo LOQ 16APH8, a sleek gaming notebook from the Chinese brand, offers you the opportunity to recapture some of those feelings, even if you have to do it in between trips to the office on the daily.
Now that we’re done contorting the Lenovo LOQ 16APH8’s name for the sake of a slightly catchy headline, this really is a gaming machine you should consider. It won’t snatch any crowns from the major gaming brands but it also won’t embarrass itself in their company. This AMD Ryzen 7 setup will cost between R27,000 and R33,000, depending on spec and where you’re shopping, and it justifies the cash you’ll spend on it.
We are Legion?
You might not be familiar with Lenovo’s LOQ notebooks. These are supposed to be budget gaming machines, allowing gamers entry into the hallowed halls of PC gamers (and their attendant nit-picking) without needing to auction off a kidney. Since serious portable gaming units can cost you upwards of R70,000, we suppose R30k and less could loosely be considered ‘budget’. As such, there are some concessions, especially in the 16APH8’s build.
There’s a generous helping of plastic in the LOQ 16APH8’s DNA, though you wouldn’t guess it from looking at the pictures. It’s a particularly dense material, helping this rig to tip the scales at around 2.6kg, so hopefully you’re not carrying it far. The keyboard has plenty of space for trigger-happy fingers and there’s a substantial trackpad to play with. Not that you’ll be using it, since you’ll connect a high-speed gaming mouse to one of the many ports.
There are ports on three sides of this bulky machine — there’s a USB-C and 3.5mm on the left, a USB-A on the right, and the bulk of the others are arrayed along the rear edge. That’s where you’ll find a pair of USB-As, an actual Ethernet input, a full-sized HDMI, and a proprietary power port. We just love to see those. /sarcasm.
Better on the inside
The LOQ 16APH8 doesn’t cheap out on the exterior but it hasn’t opted for premium materials either. The same can’t be said of the notebook’s internals. You could nit-pick about the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS and you’ll find folks on the internet who agree with you. You’ll all be wrong, of course, but that’s normal for online discussions. There’s plenty enough power under the hood here for new gamers to get up to speed with the rest of the community. 16GB of DDR5 RAM, a GeForce RTX 4060 from Nvidia, and at least a 512GB M.2 SSD may be considered ‘entry-level’ when it comes to gaming notebooks but it’ll also get the job done.
Lenovo hasn’t skimped on the screen either. Don’t expect OLED — that’s Asus’ thing — but the 16in 2,560 x 1,600 IPS display is speedy enough to keep up with most gamers, no matter what they’re playing. Just like the processor/GPU partnership here, expect support for both AMD’s FreeSync and Nvidia’s G-Sync. The LOQ 16APH8’s 350 nits of brightness won’t do you any favours in direct sunlight but we’re hardly expecting you to set this up on the pavement. You’re unlikely to be a homeless person who lives in California (and if you are, you probably can’t afford even this budget setup).
Speak up
What makes high-end gaming notebooks so expensive? It’s not just the internals, though that is a factor. It’s the cooling that’s the thing and here the tech isn’t as refined as it might be elsewhere. That’s all a technical way to say that the Lenovo LOQ 16APH8 is noisy when under load. That’s not unusual with portable gaming hardware but the fans will kick in during other tasks as well. You’ll be fine if you’re wearing a decent set of headphones but the other folks in your open-plan office will likely also have to take steps.
The Nvidia GPU and AMD processor work together well, no matter what their noise level is. Don’t expect miracles — the LOQ doesn’t perform them — but you’ll get your games running. If you’re precious about the number of frames per second your gaming notebook will render, this will provide enough. If you’ve got a minimum number (that starts with a ’60’), you can play older games or find more money for a beefier machine. We don’t say you’ll never have a 60fps experience from the LOQ 16APH8 but manage your expectations about which games are capable.
There’s just one feature missing to complete the gaming machine — RGB. There’s very little of it, as it happens. The keyboard has a handful of backlight zones that may be changed independently. No per-key customisation is possible but you can get creative with the four zones Lenovo has provided. There’s no RGB anywhere else. Turns out, R30k or so can’t really buy ‘flashy’ in 2024. It’s not like the lights make it any faster so it’s no big loss.
Lenovo LOQ 16APH8 verdict
Lenovo’s LOQ machines are supposed to be budget options but the R27,000(ish) starting price stretches the term. If this were one of the company’s Legion setups, the materials would be a little lighter (how is plastic this heavy?) and you’d probably encounter some Intel love on the inside. As it is, we’re fans of the extra weight but if we were lugging it further than to the car and back, we’d be swearing.
Still, the LOQ 16APH8 will get you gaming with a minimum of fuss and also a minimum of unneeded extras. You’ll have to contribute a few items of your very own — some gaming skills, a gaming mouse, and also a set of noise-cancelling gaming headphones. It’ll push the pixels you need it to but it’ll make a noise about doing it. That’s fine. Being parked in front of a computer with a set of headphones on, talking smack to other players online — that’s as close as we’d like to get to a return to lockdown.