Gamers erring on the side of gaming notebooks are again treated to something special on the hardware front with the latest Intel and Nvidia architecture releases. With each new generation of processing and graphics technologies, gamers are getting better mobile experiences from a smaller footprint using less power than ever.
As a daily gaming notebook user, I find there is a delicate balance between performance-heavy notebooks that offer little portability and smaller gaming notebooks that underperform but are ultra-portable. Since the launch of Intel’s 12th gen CPUs in 2021, several gaming notebooks have caught my attention that offer great price versus performance benefits. Fast forward two years, and there are even more options on the market to choose from, including this tone LOQ.
With Intel’s 13th gen and Nvidia’s 40-series chipsets now readily available across all big-brand notebook manufacturers, there is much to be excited about, especially if you get a computer budget at work. I say this because many gaming notebook users are gamers who also use their computers for work; in some tech companies, you even have access to a budget to buy the notebook of your choice. A few years back, it was hard to justify a gaming notebook to the finance department, especially if the notebook looked like a gaming notebook, you know, with a flashy design and RGB all over.
Fortunately, the brands have caught on, and you can find some sassy business-looking gaming-grade notebooks for lunchtime frag sessions at the office.
Late last year, Lenovo introduced its newest LOQ gaming notebooks (pronounced: lock), designed to look a little more formal than a traditional gaming notebook. Of course, there is still some RGB to flaunt your colours, but it’s been neatly designed and won’t scare off your co-workers in the weekly meetings.
The Lenovo LOQ 16IRH8 is a 16-inch gaming notebook with mid-range specs that will get you far for business or pleasure. The Intel Core i7 13620H processor packs a punch, while the 16GB of RAM is plenty for business and gaming. Video editors and designers may want to up this to 32GB. There’s just enough storage space at 512GB, but I would also advise the addition of a second 1TB drive to store your game files.
So far, the specifications are pretty standard for a notebook of this calibre, but the addition of a 40-series Nvidia graphics chipset may have you take a second look. Although this is an entry-level 40-series chip, the GeForce RTX 4050 is based on Intel’s Ada Lovelace architecture, and this brings with it a number of cool features if you are a content creator.
For one thing, you can enable ray-tracing in games that support it, and for another, you have access to all of Nvidia’s cool AI tools in the Nvidia Studio Tools, like Nvidia Broadcast. DLSS 3 is also a biggie, allowing you to get higher frame rates from this graphics processor.
Looking at the form factor, the Lenovo LOQ 16IRH8 is business smart, but for those who know, there will be a sense of glee when looking at the exhaust ports at the back of this notebook. Not only do the grills look aggressive, but the subtle blue (non RGB) accent gives this notebook quite a bit of sex appeal. I was even happier to discover that the power adapter connects to the notebook’s rear I/O panel, a major win if you like to keep your cables neatly out of sight.
The 16-inch IPS display is vibrant and sports a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels. I also appreciate the addition of a 165Hz variable refresh rate. If you love shooter games, the fast refresh rate will come in very handy. Pew pew.
When it comes to connectivity, this Lenovo LOQ 16IRH8 has more than enough for any PC user; there are two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) ports, one USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) port, and one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps, DisplayPort 1.4, 140W power delivery). There’s also an RJ45 network port, HDM 2.1, and a headphone/mic combo. Adding a physical switch for the webcam e-shutter is also pretty handy. Speaking of which, this LOQ features a 1080p webcam that is good enough for content creation in a pinch.
Another handy feature of this notebook is the Super Rapid Charge Pro battery which charges from zero to 80% in 30 minutes. Impressive!
In case you did not know, gaming notebooks such as the Lenovo LOQ 16IRH8 have a built-in MUX switch. This is a software switch that will automatically switch between the discreet Geforce RTX 4050 graphics chip, and the low-power integrated UHD Graphics 770 chipset. Based on your load requirements, the computer will manage which graphics chip to use and when. For office work, the integrated graphics will ensure you get the most from your battery when unplugged. Similarly, the Nvidia RTX 4050 will kick in when graphically intensive applications need more juice. The fans on this notebook are noticeable at full speed but no more so than your average gaming notebook.
As far as discreet gaming notebooks go, the Lenovo LOQ 16IRH8 offers you a bit of both worlds, but if it’s gaming you are after, it will not disappoint. Running Geekbench, this notebook scored 2,212 in the single score benchmark and 11,972 in the Multi-core benchmark. Geekbench’s OpenCL benchmark delivered a score of 59,378.
Running a real-world benchmark, Cyberpunk 2077 ran at an average frame rate of 70fps in the game’s Ray Tracing: Low benchmark. Anything higher than that and the frame rates drop to below 50fps.
Cinebench produced a score of 8,150 pts on the notebook’s GPU performance, while the CPU’s Multi and Single core scores were 833 pts and 102 pts, respectively.
Looking at the ever-present 3DMark, the Lenovo LOQ 16IRH8 performed quite well, scoring 40,999 in Solar Bay and 4,981 in Port Royale.
The Lenovo LOQ 16IRH8 comes with built-in LOQ software that allows you to set various performance levels for your notebook, and you can even do some overclocking. Throughout our review period, we ran the LOQ in overclocked mode.
Weighing in at only 2.6 kg, I am still blown away by what a gaming notebook can do these days. The LOQ 16IRH8 is no different and I was impressed with what Lenovo produced here. As someone who works almost exclusively on a gaming notebook, the Lenovo LOQ 16IRH8 performs really well as an all-rounder, making this an excellent solution for gamers who need a portable work PC or content creators on the move.
