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Lenovo sneakily released this new version of their popular LOQ gaming laptop.

It’s called the LOQ Essential, and as you can probably tell from its name,

they’ve cut out most of the good things that made the original LOQ a

great budget friendly gaming laptop and only kept the bare essentials.

And that’s a problem, because I’ve been recommending the original LOQ as one of the best

budget friendly gaming laptops for the last couple of years. And I’ve seen this new Essential version

listed on different stores without actually specifying that it’s the new Essential mode.

And the last thing that I want is for you to be

misled by Lenovo’s naming by making a mistake and buying the wrong LOQ,

so I bought this new Essential version as soon as I heard about it to get this review up ASAP.

The LOQ Essential has a grey plastic build all over. It feels

noticeably cheaper compared to the original LOQ.

There’s not too much flex to the keyboard,

but there’s more when it comes to the lid, particularly the exterior.

The lid wobbles a bit if you move or bump it, but it’s stable when typing,

and the hinge feels alright even when ripping the lid open fast.

The middle of the lid sticks out a bit to help with opening,

but you can’t open it easily with one hand unless you jiggle it a bit,

and that’s because it doesn’t have enough weight to support that.

This makes the LOQ Essential quite portable for a 15 inch gaming laptop, weighing in at

just over 4lb or 1.85kg, increasing to 5.1lb or 2.3kg with the small 135 watt charger included.

This puts it in the same weight class as MSI’s GF63. But there’s a bit of a

gap between the LOQ Essential and most of the other 15 or 16 inch options.

The original LOQ with the same RTX 3050 graphics weighs 30% more, for example.

It even ends up slightly lighter compared to the lightest 16 inch gaming laptop we’ve ever

tested once we include the chargers, and that’s because the LOQ Essential only has a small 135

watt power brick. It’s actually similar in weight to Lenovo’s smaller 14 inch Slim 5,

so yeah the LOQ Essential is fairly light weight for its size.

The size is pretty standard for a 15 inch gaming laptop, and it’s actually smaller

than the original LOQ. It’s not thin, but it’s not massively thick either.

My configuration has Intel’s Core i5-12450HX processor,

NVIDIA’s RTX 3050, 16 gigs of memory and a 144Hz screen. But you can customize it

with a cheaper RTX 2050 or more expensive RTX 4050 and more with the link below.

My keyboard does not have any backlighting, but in the US white backlighting is available

with an optional $20 upgrade. That’s not an option here in Australia though, so it varies by region.

Typing feels ok, but I don’t like this keyboard. It’s not as good as

the original LOQ. The keys have this weird grippy textured feel to them,

the presses feel flat with 1.3mm of key travel, and depending on where you’re pushing down,

there’s a little movement to the keyboard deck towards the middle.

I actually didn’t mind the plastic touchpad, yeah it doesn’t feel as nice as the original LOQ,

but I found it accurate to click with and nice enough to use.

Most of the ports are on the left. From the back we’ve got the power input,

gigabit ethernet, HDMI 2.1, USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A and Type-C ports, and a 3.5mm audio combo jack.

The right just has an SD card slot and a second USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port. There

aren’t any ports on the back, which is where most of them are found on the original LOQ.

Unfortunately the Type-C port is for data transfer only. It cannot be used to charge the laptop,

and it does not have DisplayPort support for connecting a monitor.

So I guess it really only does have the essentials,

because the original LOQ had a third USB Type-A port, and its Type-C port was faster,

it supported Type-C charging, and it supported DisplayPort for connecting a monitor.

HDMI always connects directly to the Nvidia graphics,

and we confirmed it could run our LG B9 TV at 4K 120Hz 12-Bit with G-Sync.

Getting inside requires taking out 9 TR5 screws, the ones down the front are

shorter than the rest, so keep track of them. It was easy enough to open,

but pry tools were required. I’ll leave a link to these ones I use below.

Inside we’ve got the battery down the front, single RAM slot on the right,

installed SSD in the middle with a spare M.2 slot

for a second SSD below the RAM, and the Wi-Fi 6 card next to the SSD.

The biggest downgrade here is that this new Essential version only has one memory

slot. I guess at least it’s not soldered memory so there’s still room for upgrades,

so best case you’re limited to a single 32 gig stick, or I guess one of those new 48

gig sticks would probably work too, which should be plenty for most budget gamers.

And although the laptop came to me with a DDR5-5600 stick,

it runs at DDR5-4800, as that’s the top speed Intel’s Core i5-12450HX supports.

It’s not ideal that both M.2 slots only fit smaller 2242 drives,

the more common and bigger 2280s don’t fit.

The upgradeability score isn’t great. I take off half a point for each M.2 slot that can’t fit a

full drive, a full point per memory slot, and half a point for the uncommon screw type. The

original LOQs could fit two full sized SSDs and two sticks of RAM no problem.

The speeds from the 512GB SSD are ok. The writes aren’t impressive,

but the read speeds confirm that it’s at least using a PCIe Gen 4 SSD, so that’s something. The

SD card speeds are super pathetic though, a good laptop would get 10 times what we’re seeing here.

Of course that said, I’m surprised there’s an SD card slot at all,

that feels like a bit of an extra bonus rather than sticking to the essentials for a gaming

laptop. The card does not click in and sticks out a fair bit, so be careful not to bump it.

Wi-Fi speed was the slowest I’ve recorded since upgrading to a new

Wi-Fi 7 router earlier in the year. Of course you could change the Wi-Fi card,

because it’s not even 6E, and that’s only a $20 upgrade.

The speakers are found on the left and right sides towards the front.

They sound ok, nothing impressive, but there was a tiny bit of bass.

The latencymon results weren’t great

The LOQ Essential is powered by a 3-Cell 57Wh battery,

so it’s smaller than the 4-Cell 60Wh battery in the original LOQ.

The vantage software also lets you enable adaptive refresh rate,

which lowers the screen’s refresh rate down to 60Hz when you unplug the charger to save

power. The screen flashes black as the refresh rate changes, and it automatically goes back up

when you plug back in. You can manually do this at any time with the function plus R shortcut.

You can also enable conservation mode in Vantage. This limits the maximum charge level between 75

and 80%, helping battery longevity. You can’t use it at the same time as rapid charge,

and you’ve also got the option to charge the battery slower overnight, again to help longevity.

Battery life wasn’t too bad, lasting for 5 hours and 47 minutes in my YouTube video playback test.

The bigger LOQ 16 with larger 80Wh battery only lasted 12% longer, despite having a 40% higher

battery capacity. It even lasted longer compared to the other three original LOQ 15s that have the

slightly bigger 60Wh battery. And of course it destroyed the LOQ with 7435HS processor,

because that one does not have integrated graphics, so battery life suffers as a result.

Let’s check out thermals next. The LOQ Essential only has one big 100mm fan inside, so hot air only

exhausts from one side out the back. There are two heatpipes shared between the CPU and GPU,

but otherwise there’s quite a bit of empty space. This explains why it’s lighter compared

to so many other laptops. There are plenty of vents on the bottom panel to allow air in.

Lenovo’s Vantage software allows us to change between different performance modes,

which from lowest to highest are quiet, balance,

performance and custom. Custom mode lets us set the fans to full speed or customize them,

and we’ve also got the option to tweak CPU and GPU power and temperature limits.

You can also hold the function key and press the letter Q to cycle between all performance modes.

It briefly shows you the mode on the screen as it changes, but unlike the original LOQ

which had a power button that changes color so you could quickly identify what mode you’re in,

the LOQ Essential only has a standard power button.

Honestly this is the quickest way that I’ve been able to tell whether a LOQ

is the Essential version or the original version. Unfortunately there are plenty

of stores I’ve seen that don’t specify whether the LOQ they’re selling is the

Essential version. So just look at the photos, if the power button is in the middle and looks

like the LOQ logo, so it’s the original and superior version. But if the power button is

on the right and it's only a power button, so no LOQ logo, then it’s the Essential version.

The internal temperatures were cool at idle. The rest of the results are from combined CPU and GPU

stress tests which aim to represent a worst case full load scenario. But temperatures are perfectly

fine even in the higher performance modes. These are seriously cool results in this workload,

so you don’t have to worry at all about there only being one fan inside. Setting the fan to

max speed in custom mode only lowered the temps a couple of degrees, so it’s probably not worth the

louder fan noise. Docking the laptop with the lid closed wasn’t much different to lid open,

so no issues there either, and the cooling pad I test with, linked below, only helped a little.

Although temperatures were similar in performance and custom modes, custom mode gets us higher

CPU clock speeds. The highest CPU speed was actually measured in the lowest quiet mode,

but that’s because it compromises by heavily limiting the GPU to just 14 watts.

The NVIDIA control panel says the RTX 3050 is allowed to run up to 65 watts with dynamic boost,

but with the CPU loaded up at the same time I found that it maxes out at around

57 watts. A full powered 3050 can run up to 95 watts, so it’s worth considering

that this lower GPU power limit on the LOQ Essential is probably what allows

it to weigh less compared to so many others. A lower power limit means a smaller charger,

and less power means less heat, so less materials needed for cooling.

Here’s how the LOQ Essential performs in an actual game with the different performance

modes. I’ve got the native results without upscaling shown in purple,

and a demonstration of the performance improvement that’s possible by setting DLSS

to balanced in red. Ultimately there’s not really a difference in terms of FPS between balance,

performance or custom modes, while quiet mode wasn’t useful for playing this game.

The CPU can use more power in a CPU only workload like Cinebench where the GPU is idle, though

there wasn’t a difference between performance and custom with all power sliders maxed out.

CPU performance was kind of pathetic compared to other laptops tested. The

exact same processor in the original LOQ had a 9% higher single core score and 8%

higher multi core score. That’s not a big difference, but it’s yet another example

of where this new Essential version of the LOQ falls short in comparison.

Performance lowers if we unplug the charger and instead run off of battery

power. But the original LOQ didn’t lose any single core performance like this,

so it’s now 31% ahead of the Essential version. Likewise multicore performance

suffers, and the OG LOQ is now 28% better than the Essential version.

Most laptops I test are in the low 30 degrees Celsius range on the keyboard at idle,

and the LOQ Essential was a little cooler than this. Temperatures increase with the stress

tests running, but the middle only feels a little warm, no problem at all in the lowest quiet mode.

Stepping up to balance mode doesn’t really change much. The keyboard is only a little warm while the

rest feels cold. Nothing changes in the higher performance mode. We can see the internal fan

is blowing some warm air onto the screen, but it’s not really hot either. Custom mode with

the fans maxed out wasn’t much different either, but it’s definitely louder, let’s have a listen.

The fan was only just audible when idling in quiet mode. It gets louder

with the stress tests running, with volume increasing in the higher modes,

as expected. Manually maxing the fans out was the loudest,

but there’s not really any point in doing this. It’s cool enough without it, so save your ears.

The cooling pad allowed the laptop’s fan to run a bit quieter too, while also still reducing

temperatures a couple of degrees. So same benefit as maxing the fan out, only quieter.

Don’t forget that even balance mode was basically performing the same as custom and performance

mode, so that offers a great sweet spot in terms of good performance to lower fan noise ratio.

The screen is one of the first places that a budget gaming laptop is going to

make cuts. But it’s not actually as bad as I thought it would be.

Color gamut isn’t terrible, near 100% sRGB is what I like to see as a minimum

for gaming laptops, but creators will probably want higher AdobeRGB or DCI-P3.

Brightness maxed out close to 300 nits, which again is the minimum that I want

to see from a gaming laptop, so not impressive, but it’ll do - barely.

It is on the dimmer side compared to most others, but it’s actually using

the same panel as the three original LOQs that I tested this year with RTX 3050, RTX 4060 and

Intel Arc A530M graphics. The differences we’re seeing are just luck based, there’s always some

variance even between panels that are the same model, but Lenovo advertises it with 300 nits.

Backlight bleed was only very minor, no problems here, but this varies between each laptop screen.

Screen response time wasn’t terrible, but it’s not great either. Slower than 20ms and even I,

a filthy casual, start noticing blurriness in fast paced games. Some transitions were slower

than this, but on average we’re looking at just under 14ms as there’s no panel overdrive option.

It’s very close to those other LOQ laptops that are using the same panel,

again what we’re seeing here is just small tolerances that exist within

the same panel model. To be fair it’s on the faster side compared to other budget

friendly gaming laptops with a 144Hz screen, so like I said, not terrible but not great.

The total system latency is the amount of time between a mouse click and when

a gunshot fire appears on the screen in Counter-Strike 2. The LOQ Essential was

a bit faster compared to the original LOQ with Arc A530M graphics, but that thing sucks and no

one should ever buy it. Otherwise all the original LOQs with real GPUs were faster,

including the one with the exact same GPU, but it has a higher GPU power limit and newer CPU.

Unlike the original LOQ, the LOQ Essential does not have a MUX switch, but that doesn’t matter as

much as it did a few years ago since Microsoft’s CASO update. I did a whole video about that,

but long story short, yeah performance isn’t quite as good compared to a laptop with a MUX

switch or advanced optimus, but the gap isn’t as big as it used to be.

This means G-Sync on the laptop’s panel is impossible,

but adaptive sync is enabled by default via the Intel integrated graphics.

There’s a 720p camera above the screen with a privacy shutter,

but there’s no IR for Windows Hello face unlock - I guess that’s not essential.

Here’s how the camera and microphones look and sound,

and this is what it sounds like while typing on the keyboard.

Now let’s find out how well Lenovo’s LOQ Essential performs in games. It’s

time to find out how much that lower GPU power limit affects performance.

Cyberpunk 2077 was tested with our own custom test run, and I’ve got my LOQ Essential shown by the

red highlight. At 1080p, the original LOQ with the exact same GPU, granted one generation newer CPU,

was reaching an 18% higher average frame rate. Most of this difference is simply due to the GPU

power limit. The original LOQ is able to use more power, and more power equals more performance,

it’s as simple as that. It’s kind of rough when even a more than 4 year old laptop

with RTX 2060 graphics is doing better, but hey, at least it’s beating the 4050 in Dell’s

XPS 14 - but that laptop really does suck for gaming as it’s heavily power limited.

Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with the game’s benchmark, and the original LOQ with higher

powered RTX 3050 graphics had a similar lead here too, with a 14% higher average frame rate. Don’t

get me wrong, the game runs ok before even making use of features like DLSS upscaling, just don’t

expect full performance from the 3050 like other laptops offer due to the power limit difference.

It can be a bit misleading when both laptops just say “3050” on the spec sheet and nothing else.

The GPU power difference mattered more in Control though, with the OG LOQ now 16% faster in terms of

average FPS. Again, you could use features like DLSS to boost performance on the LOQ Essential,

but my point is more that another laptop that has the same GPU on the spec sheet performs better.

Here are the 3DMark results.

The LOQ Essential is the lowest result I’ve got in the content creation tests,

but that’s to be expected when it’s also the lowest specced laptop that I’ve had in quite a

while. The original LOQ with higher powered 3050, but also a better processor was a bit better.

The BIOS has a few extra features compared to other laptop brands like Acer or ASUS,

but there’s not as much configuration compared to Lenovo’s higher end models. And

any laptop MSI makes has far more customisation.

Linux support was tested with an Ubuntu 24.10 live CD. By default the keyboard,

touchpad, ethernet, Wi-Fi, speakers and camera all worked. Keyboard

shortcuts for adjusting volume and screen brightness worked too - a perfect result.

Pricing and availability will change over time, so check the links below the video

for updates and current sales. And if the LOQ does have a good sale,

we’ll be sure to add it to our gaminglaptop.deals website. We

update that everyday to include all of the latest sales, so make sure that you check

it out regularly to save money on your next gaming laptop with that link below.

At the time of recording in early December, the LOQ Essential without sales starts at $700 USD for

RTX 2050 graphics, but right now the 3050 version I’ve tested is on sale. Which actually makes it

cheaper at $650, while the 4050 version is on sale too at $850, down from its full price of $950.

Honestly that’s kind of pathetic considering we’ve had the original LOQ

with higher tier RTX 4060 graphics listed on the gaminglaptop.deals site recently for $700 to $800.

Even with these first initial sales on the LOQ Essential,

it’s not looking too attractive. I think this things just going to have to come down

in price more. Because based on what we’re seen here, the original LOQ is better than

the Essential version in almost every way. So if the original LOQ is cheaper or even

the same price then obviously you would pick that one over the Essential model.

I think for me personally I’d be willing to spend somewhere between $50 and $100 extra

to get the original LOQ instead of the Essential version, because it’s just such a better laptop.

Now it’s not all bad, the Essential version is smaller and lighter compared to the original LOQ,

so it’s a bit more portable. And the Essential version does at least have the same screen

panel as the original LOQ. But otherwise, the Essential has worse build quality which just

feels cheap. There’s no keyboard backlighting, unless you pay for the optional upgrade,

but even that isn’t available in all countries. The keyboard just doesn’t feel as good to type

with. It only has one memory slot instead of two. It only supports smaller SSDs. It uses a

less common screw type to open up, making getting inside more difficult. It has a smaller battery,

however as noted the run time is actually longer compared to the original LOQs. CPU performance

is worse. GPU power limit is like 30% lower, which just means less FPS in games. There’s no

MUX switch, which also means no advanced optimus or G-Sync. There’s a lower quality 720p camera

instead of 1080p. And for all of those downsides, at the moment at least, it seems to cost more.

Look, you can absolutely buy the LOQ Essential and play games and have a fun

time. It’s just that the original LOQ is all round a much better laptop. So you might as

well just get the better option unless the price gap between them is too big.

You can find out all about the original LOQ in my full review video here. It’s

kinda sad how they massacred my boy… I’ll see you over in that one next.