You are currently viewing the United Kingdom version of the site.
Would you like to switch to your local site?
3 MIN READ TIME

Lenovo LOQ 15IRX9

A well-specced gaming machine that’s just a little bit unexciting
Microsoft’s new Copilot button takes its place near the space bar.
© UNSPLASH

LOQ IS LENOVO’S new budget gaming brand, and it takes a lot of design cues from the older IdeaPad 3 Gaming machines, though gains an extra cooling vent on the side. It’s well-priced, though definitely worth paying the extra few hundred bucks for the uprated model we’re reviewing here. With an RTX 4060 and 13th-gen Core i7 CPU, it’s still not going to be competing for a place at the top of the pile when it comes to gaming framerates, but it does a good enough job considering the price point.

As a fairly standard 15-inch laptop, there’s one thing that stands out about the LOQ 15, and that’s the keyboard. Seriously. It’s extremely comfortable to type on, and Lenovo has resisted the urge to do anything silly like replace the WASD keys with see-through caps. There’s RGB lighting behind it, because that’s a law or something, but otherwise, it’s very comfortable to use, the round-edged keys sinking into their beds with enough resistance that you’re never left wondering if a keypress has connected. The trackpad isn’t bad, too, although an external gaming mouse will probably make it redundant.

Unlock this article and much more with
You can enjoy:
Enjoy this edition in full
Instant access to 600+ titles
Thousands of back issues
No contract or commitment
Try for 99p
SUBSCRIBE NOW
30 day trial, then just £9.99 / month. Cancel anytime. New subscribers only.


Learn more
Pocketmags Plus
Pocketmags Plus

This article is from...


View Issues
Maximum PC
August 2024
VIEW IN STORE

Other Articles in this Issue


editorial
SUMMER SALES
THIS ISSUE of Maximum PC is filled with
QUICKSTART
First Zen 5 Chips
New desktop and mobile chips put AMD back in charge
APPLE WORKING ON BUDGET VISION PRO
© COMPUTEX SHOW, FTC/WIKIPEDIA, APPLE CORP VISION PRO
FTC SUES ADOBE
THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION has its eyes on
Tech Triumphs and Tragedies
A monthly snapshot of what’s good and bad in tech
COMPUTEX 2024
Cool cases, wacky mods, and more
NVIDIA WORLD’S MOST VALUABLE COMPANY
AI has earned the green team a fortune
Microsoft cans Recall
PART OF MICROSOFT’S PLANS for the AI PC,
AMD gets hacked
A forum had a post from a group
Audio AI watermark
Meta has an AI watermarking system called AudioSeal
Intel Taps TSMC for its Lunar Lake CPUs
INTEL WAS THE LEADER in microprocessor manufacturing technology for decades, but the soon to be released Lunar Lake processors will primarily be produced using technology from TSMC. It’s not the first time Intel has used another company’s process technology, but it’s the latest CPU cores being produced elsewhere. And that’s only the start of the changes.
THE LIST
THE BEST STEAM DECK GAMES
The battle for next-gen laptops and handhelds
THE DUST has settled on the orgy of silicon, sweat-shop capitalism, and silly AI marketing straplines that was the 2024 Computex show in Taiwan. All that’s left bar the cocktail of air-travel contracted pathogens currently laying waste to the post-Computex attendees is to decide which was the best new laptop chip announced at the show. AMD’s or Intel’s?
LETTERS
DOCTOR
THIS MONTH THE DOCTOR TACKLES...
LETTERS WE TACKLE TOUGH READER QUESTIONS ON...
> Back to the future > Thermal issues > AI, AI, oh
THE BUILDS
THIS MONTH’S STREET PRICES
sub $1,000 gaming PC
The Best Sub-$1,000 Gaming PC pushing the envelope on value
With Ryzen 9000 right around the corner, is now the perfect time to buy? Zak Storey finds out
CPU vs GPU
THE UPGRADER’S DILEMMA
Jarred Walton investigates 16 combinations of graphics cards and processors
gaming keyboards
The Life & Times of Gaming Keyboards
Zak Storey takes a deep dive into the world of our favorite peripheral...
CENTERFOLD
CENTERFOLD PERFORMANCE GEAR LAID BARE
1 DREAM STREAMER The headphones support spatial audio with
rescue disc
BUILD THE ULTIMATE RESCUE DISC
Nick Peers on how to prepare for the worst
R&D
HOW TO
STEP-BY-STEP GUIDES TO IMPROVING YOUR PC
MAKE – USE – CREATE
60 Audacity 3.5 masterclass 64 Clean and optimize
SPINNING PLATES
ZAK STOREY CONTRIBUTOR Recently, I got massively distracted
Audacity 3.5 MasterClass
YOU’LL NEED THIS AUDACITY 3.5X www.audacityteam.org/ download 80
Clean and optimize your PC for free
YOU’LL NEED THIS WINTOYS (free from the Microsoft
Recover deleted files
YOU’LL NEED THIS EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE To store
IN THE LAB
LAB NOTES
AMD’s 9000 is coming
Editor’s Pick: WD Passport 6TB
A seriously chunky backup drive
Reviewed…
74 Samsung Odyssey G8 OLED G80SD 76 Netgear
Samsung Odyssey G8 OLED G80SD
Another monitor miss from Samsung
Netgear Orbi 970
Mega speed for a mega price
Philips Evnia 49M2C8900
Philips gets in on the uberwide OLED action
Flawless, purely flawless
Phanteks XT View The best budget case, period.
HP Spectre X360 14 (2024)
A sleek two-in-one that’s bright, fast... but uses integrated graphics
Bag a software bargin
Don’t pay full price for software when we can offer you huge reductions on everything from security software to Windows 11 Pro
Geometric Future Model 4 Caliburn
Challenging build, beautiful finish
Glorious Model D 2 Pro 4K/8KHz Edition
8,000Hz polling is wasted on me
Scuf Envision Pro
A high-end controller actually designed for PC gaming
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
Captivating battles meet impeccable storytelling
Cinebench R23/24 vs Geekbench 6.2.1
Battle of the benches
Chat
X
Pocketmags Support