Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9I Review: Bargain Basement Budget Gamer Keeps It Casual

7.2/ 10
SCORE

Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9I

Pros

• You won’t find a new laptop with discrete graphics for less
• Has enough muscle for casual games
• 1080p display is decently bright, fast and color accurate
• Plastic chassis is reasonably rigid

Cons

• Weak speakers
• Short battery life
• Grainy 720p webcam
• No RGB lighting

Lenovo bills the LOQ 15IAX9I as a gaming laptop, but that stretches the definition. More accurately, it’s a budget laptop that can handle a bit of casual gaming. Priced at just $550, however, engaging in even some light gaming is still a notable accomplishment.

The LOQ 15IAX9I has many of the trappings of a budget laptop, from its all-plastic design and outdated 15.6-inch, 16:9 display to the two-generations-old Intel Core i5-12450HX CPU and fuzzy 720p webcam. What lends it a modicum of gaming prowess is its Intel Arc A530M GPU. Not to be confused with Intel’s integrated Arc graphics chip, the Arc A530M is a member of Intel’s lineup of discrete GPUs and it supplies 4GB of dedicated video RAM. Its 3D performance resides somewhere between an entry-level RTX 4050 and an integrated Intel Arc GPU. 

Most gamers will want to expand their budget to closer to $1,000 for an RTX-equipped machine like the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 to run AAA titles, but the LOQ 15IAX9I makes sense if you want to spend roughly half of that for a roomy home laptop that can run lightweight games like Fortnite and Apex Legends smoothly at 1080p.

The full price of our test model is $750, but it’s been discounted by $200 at Best Buy for the entire time I’ve had the machine, dropping the price to $550. When it’s on sale — and it seems like it’s perennially $200 off — there’s enough of a price gap between it and RTX 4050-equipped laptops to make it worth considering. Most laptops have shifted to 14- or 16-inch displays with a roomier 16:10 aspect ratio, but the LOQ 15 still has a 15.6-inch, 16:9 display with a 1,920×1,080-pixel resolution and 144Hz refresh rate. 

Lenovo offers a customizable version of the LOQ 15IAX9I, but if you were hoping for a cheap GPU upgrade, you are out of luck. The only options are bumping the RAM up to 16GB and the SSD to 1TB. Lenovo sells higher-end versions of the LOQ 15, however, with previous- and current-generation Intel and AMD processors and previous- and current-generation RTX graphics. The next lowest-cost option after our test system, for example, is another Best Buy exclusive that’s on sale for $650 for an AMD Ryzen 5 7235HS, 12GB of RAM and RTX 3050 graphics. Looking for current-gen RTX graphics? A LOQ 15 with an Intel Core i5-13450HX, 12GB of RAM and an RTX 4050 is on sale at Lenovo for $885. So, you can creep up in pricing with the LOQ 15 line to hit the performance level to match your gaming demands.

The Intel Arc A530M-based Lenovo LOQ 15 starts at £666 in the UK and AU$1,699 in Australia. 

Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9I performance

What level of performance can you expect from a two-year-old Core i5 CPU and an Intel Arc A530M GPU? Not surprisingly, it falls between budget gaming laptops with RTX 4050 graphics and models with integrated Intel Arc graphics. Its framerates on our 3D graphics and gaming benchmarks were lackluster. But it should be noted that every other laptop in the performance charts at the end of this review costs hundreds more than the LOQ 15IAX9I. 

On our 3DMark WIld Life Extreme Unlimited and Fire Strike Ultra tests, it trailed a quintet of RTX 4050-based budget gaming laptops but was closer to the slowest RTX 4050 machine than the Lenovo Slim 7i, which relies on integrated Intel Arc graphics. The LOQ 15IAX9I fell further behind the RTX 4050 pack on our 3D gaming tests and failed to hit the 60-frames-per-second threshold on both our Guardians of the Galaxy and Shadow of the Tomb Raider tests, each of which is run at 1080p with quality settings at a high level.

Casual games are a better fit for the LOQ 15IAX9I. I played Fortnite and Apex Legends at 1080p with high-quality settings, and both games ran smoothly. I averaged roughly 60 fps on Fortnite and 75 fps on Apex Legends.

On CPU performance, the LOQ 15IAX9I also trailed the budget gaming models and Lenovo Slim 7i, each of which features a more modern processor. It did manage to edge the Core Ultra-based Slim 7i on Cinebench, which measures pure CPU performance for 3D rendering. That’s fairly impressive for a processor that was released more than two years ago. In my time with the LOQ 15IAX9I, general operation in Windows felt quick and responsive with no lag, even when I had multiple applications running at the same time, including my typical two dozen or so open tabs in Chrome. 

The LOQ 15IAX9I’s ample size and hefty weight make it a better choice for home use than something you’d want to commute with each day or take to school. And its short battery life underscores this point. It lasted for just over 5 hours on our online streaming battery drain test, which is a short runtime even among gaming laptops.

Boring but sturdy design

The LOQ 15IAX9I has a similarly unobtrusive design as the RTX 4050-based Lenovo LOQ 15APH8 model we reviewed earlier this year. It’s an all-plastic build that looks more like a corporate workhorse machine than a gaming laptop. The gray in this model is a shade lighter than the previous LOQ we reviewed, but it doesn’t look any more exciting. It lacks RGB lighting, but the power button glows a different color based on the thermal mode you select in the Lenovo Vantage utility: 

• Balance mode = white
• Performance mode = red
• Quiet mode = blue
• Custom mode = purple

The keyboard feels roomy, even with the inclusion of a number pad. The keys offer punchy feedback that’s aided by the firm keyboard deck. Many large budget models with an expansive plastic keyboard deck feel flimsy and flex under your fingertips when furiously mashing keys, but that is not the case here. It may not have the most eye-catching design for a gaming laptop, but at least it’s sturdy.

The LOQ 15IAX9I is slightly thinner and lighter than the previous RTX 4050-based model. Still, it’s big and bulky and weighs more than 5 pounds. This is a laptop you’ll lug from room to room but not to work or school on anything approaching a regular basis.

The LOQ 15IAX9I has a 15.6-inch IPS panel with a 1,920×1,080 resolution and 144Hz refresh rate that’s similar to that of the previous unit we reviewed, but this one boasts better color accuracy. In testing with a SpyderX Elite colorimeter, it covered 99% of the sRGB color gamut, up from a pitiful 68% sRGB of the previous LOQ 15 model. Most laptop displays, however, cover 100% of sRGB or close to it. It also did 80% coverage of the wider AdobeRGB gamut and 82% of P3, which places it between the Acer Nitro 16 and Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 in terms of those spaces.

The LOQ 15IAX9I’s display is slightly dimmer than the previous model, measuring 322 nits of peak brightness. That’s better than its 300-nit rating, which is better than the 250-nit panels found on many budget laptops at this price. The display’s matte finish also helps with its limited brightness, keeping glare and reflections under control.

The speakers and webcam are both budget class. The pair of two-watt stereo speakers produce weak audio that will have gamers reaching for gaming headphones or PC speakers, and the 720p webcam’s grainy picture will have streamers opting for an external webcam.

On the whole, it’s hard to be too critical of the Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9I at its sale price of $550. In nearly every other case at this price, you are looking at a laptop with low-end components, including an integrated GPU. So, while the discrete Intel Arc A530M graphics processor won’t be confused with an Nvidia RTX GPU, it does offer more gaming capability than an iGPU. If your gaming aspirations are modest and your tastes tend toward more casual titles, then the LOQ 15IAX9I can scratch that itch while also providing a roomy display and comfortable keyboard for general home use.