Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9E Review: Best Budget 144Hz Laptop

Lenovo LOQ 15 15IAX9E delivers excellent performance from the Intel Core i5-12450HX processor and RTX 3050 6GB graphics card at a highly affordable price in the under $700 segment. It will be the best laptop under low price. If your parents approve of you buying a computer but not a gaming laptop, this will be your reward. As a true LOQ fan like me, I will show you how to buy a LOQ gaming laptop still and pass the “test” of parents; let’s find out in this Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9E review with me whether it is suitable to buy for the 2025 season.

Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9E Review

Design

Lenovo LOQ usually has a design quite similar to the company’s Legion line, but this year’s LOQ 15 has many changes in design language. The device has a reasonably complete design with sturdy plastic material. The back is roughened with a glossy LOQ logo in the middle, giving it a neat and minimalist feel compared to being placed on the top edge like other LOQ devices.

Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9E Review: Best Budget 144Hz Laptop

The hinge is a significant change in this model. In the original Lenovo LOQ 15 laptop, the hinge was placed separately from the heat sink cluster on the lower body. This is also the most regrettable point for most Lenovo LOQ fans because it reduces the gaming quality of this machine line.

Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9E Review: Best Budget 144Hz Laptop

The laptop’s cooling system is more compact, using one cooling fan instead of two fans like the regular Lenovo LOQ. Although simplified, the system ensures reasonable cooling performance to meet daily usage needs. Tasks such as heavy gaming and graphics can significantly affect the laptop’s performance, but in return, the device will be lighter and cheaper than the regular LOQ line.

Keyboard and TrackPad

Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9E Review: Best Budget 144Hz Laptop

The laptop is still equipped with a full-size keyboard and a minimalist but equally powerful design language, suitable for general users and gamers. The key travel is deep, about 1.5mm, providing a smooth typing feeling and good feedback. The white LED backlight supports working and playing games in low-light conditions while creating a subtle highlight for the overall design. The TrackPad is large enough, with improved sensitivity and accuracy, allowing users to easily use the device without connecting to a separate mouse.

Connectivity

Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9E has various connection ports, fully meeting users’ needs. On the right side, the device has a 1x USB A port and 1x SD memory card slot for easy connection to peripheral devices such as a mouse or keyboard or for copying data from an SD memory card. The left side has various connection ports, such as USB A, USB C, RJ45, HDMI 2.1, and 3.5 Audio Jack. With this left-side placement, users do not have to worry about getting tangled up during use.

Display

Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9E has a relatively large screen of up to 15.6 inches, providing a spacious space. The bezel is designed to be relatively thin to create a comfortable feeling when using this screen. IPS screen technology and Full HD resolution help reproduce sharp images, with a brightness of about 300 nits, fully meeting the needs of practical work and study.

Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9E Review: Best Budget 144Hz Laptop

With a price range of about $700 – $800, in my opinion, Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9E is a “rare” budget 144Hz laptop in the gaming laptop segment when it has a screen that meets 100% sRGB color standards with delta E color deviation < 2. It brings a smooth, vivid visual experience suitable for gaming and basic graphics editing while ensuring sharp image quality and responsive performance. The 144Hz refresh rate helps reduce tearing and provides smoother movement in games or videos.

Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9E review test

One of the notable points about LOQ 15IAX9E is its performance. The laptop offers impressive parameters compared to its current genuine price range. An Intel Core i5-12450HX processor powers it, featuring 8 cores and 12 threads, delivering performance on par with the regular LOQ version. It also has 12GB DDR4 RAM to help you multitask smoothly.

Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9E Review: Best Budget 144Hz Laptop

The NVIDIA RTX 3050 6GB graphics card helps meet popular game titles well and effectively supports graphics processing and video rendering. With a robust configuration in its price range, this laptop is worth considering for those looking for a notebook that balances studying and light graphics work. The Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9E’s parameters are okay in the segment.

Note: This Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9E review unit will only have 1x RAM upgrade slot and 2x 2242 SSD slots, so please take note before upgrading.

Benchmark

CPU Performance (Cinebench R23, Cinebench R24, Geekbench 6)

The laptop maintains relatively moderate performance and a reasonably high-temperature level through the above test. The reason is that the device’s cooling system has only one fan. Heat transfers from the CPU to the GPU and then to the cooling fan, trapping heat during the transition from the GPU to the fan. Compared to laptops with similar configurations, we can see how significant the temperature impact is.

For example, a pure gaming laptop model like Acer Nitro 5 (AN515), with a cooling system with 2 separate fans, helps the device to load Intel Core i5 12500H more comfortably, so the score is quite high. Compared to Asus Gaming Vivobook 16X, because the laptop also carries the performance of a gaming laptop model (Asus TUF Gaming F15) into the body of an office laptop, the cooling efficiency will be similar to Lenovo, so the score is also lower than usual.

GPU Performance (3DMARK)

The laptop’s graphics processing performance, as indicated by the scores from 3D Mark Time Spy, Time Spy Extreme, and Speed Way, does not rank very high compared to other RTX 3050 graphics cards. However, its 6GB VRAM allows for more comfortable graphics rendering.

Based on the Time Spy score when comparing two devices in the same price range, we see that Lenovo’s RTX 3050 will have a score of about 4-5% lower, but in return, it will become lighter and thinner, helping users move comfortably with this laptop.

SSD Performance (CrystalDiskMark)

The SSD performs well, with a read speed of more than 3,500MB/s and a write speed of about 2,365MB/s, providing a reasonably fast file transfer experience in daily use. However, the SSD heat dissipation problem is also quite significant, up to 73 degrees. It was always high when I tried to copy games >50GB, and the device had a lag phenomenon. You should focus on limiting the size of files copied, which can affect the life of the SSD.

Gaming

Valorant is the first game placed on the scale. With max settings, the laptop performs well with more than 200FPS. The fan started at this time, but it is not too noisy and does not disturb the people nearby.

Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9E Review: Best Budget 144Hz Laptop

Finally, PUBG, a reasonably heavy game, will have the highest settings. The laptop showed signs of slowing down when the FPS dropped relatively evenly, and the fan started to make more noise. But it did not get too hot when I used it. The FPS still kept me above 30FPS, giving me a smooth enough experience to climb to the top 1 in this game.

Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9E Review: Best Budget 144Hz Laptop

After experiencing the games, I realized that the laptop performs well in the segment and gives me an experience that is not too uncomfortable. But if we look more closely, it will be pretty hot in the F key cluster area; the cooling fan blows directly onto the screen, and the temperature we recorded can reach up to 50℃. If you use it on your lap, you should use it for light tasks because when you do heavy graphics-related tasks, the bottom of the machine is also quite hot, causing discomfort.

Also see: Lenovo Legion 7 2024 Review

Final line

After the Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9E review, it is still a model worth buying in its price range, mainly because of the harmonious combination of design, performance, screen, and speakers. Although there are still limitations in heat dissipation, this is still the best laptop at a low price of $700. It is suitable for studying, working, and playing light esports games, especially for students who want to buy a device that will only be approved for purchasing a laptop in 2025.

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