Lenovo LOQ 15

The short version

Short answer: a well-built budget gaming laptop at around 4250 AED with a proper 144Hz sRGB panel and real cooling. The i5-13450HX is among the less powerful CPUs in the gaming picks here, and the GPU is entry-level. Solid rather than exciting, which is roughly what the LOQ line has always been.

Is it worth it in the UAE?

The LOQ is the budget-gaming entry point that does not feel like a compromise everywhere you touch it. A real, if modest, discrete GPU, a screen worth looking at, and a cooling system that was actually designed. It will not match the TUF, Nitro V or Legion 5 for sustained performance, but it is a genuine step up from the integrated-graphics laptops for anyone who wants to play current games at 1080p without going past three thousand dirhams by much.

Performance, realistically

The i5-13450HX is an 8-core chip and the honest weak point next to the pricier picks on this page. It is perfectly capable for 1080p gaming, where the GPU does the heavy lifting, but for anything CPU-bound it is behind the i7 in the Nitro V and well behind the Ryzen 7 in the LOQ variant.

The RTX 4050 GPU is entry-level. Current titles at 1080p medium, yes. Esports at high frame rates that use the 144Hz panel, comfortably. High settings with ray tracing, no. 16GB of DDR5 and a 512GB NVMe drive round it out sensibly, though 512GB disappears fast if you install more than three or four large games.

The screen

15.6-inch FHD IPS, 144Hz, around 300 nits, roughly 100% sRGB. That last figure is what separates this from the Victus, and it is worth the difference: colours look correct rather than faded, and 300 nits is bright enough for normal indoor use. For a laptop at this price, this is a genuinely good panel.

Cooling, and why it matters here

Dual fans with copper heatpipes is a real cooling system rather than a token one, and the LOQ line has a reputation for handling heat better than its price suggests. In the UAE that is not a minor detail. Ambient room temperature sets the floor for everything a cooling system has to do, and a laptop that runs warm in a temperate climate runs hot here.

It will still get loud under load. Every laptop in this class does. But it should hold its performance rather than throttling away from it, which is the thing that actually ruins a gaming session.

Build and daily use

At roughly 2.4kg with a 170W power brick, this is a desk machine that can travel, not a laptop you carry casually. The ~60Wh battery is among the largest of the gaming picks here, though gaming on battery remains a bad idea on any of them. White backlit keys, a full port selection including HDMI 2.1 and Ethernet, and a 720p webcam that is fine for calls and nothing more.

What you are giving up

CPU generation, mainly. No Thunderbolt or USB4, so the USB-C port is data and display only. The 720p webcam is dated. And the entry-level GPU sets a firm ceiling on settings.

Should you buy it?

Buy it if you want a dependable budget gaming laptop with a good screen and cooling you can trust in a warm room.

Do not buy it if the numbers matter more than the badge. At around 2,969 AED the TUF Gaming A15 is substantially cheaper with a comparable GPU, and at around 3,967 AED the Nitro V 15 gets you an i7 for less than the LOQ now costs. The LOQ's price has moved up this generation, and it is the build quality rather than the spec sheet that has to justify it now.