New affordable AMD Ryzen gaming laptop with Nvidia RTX graphics: Lenovo releases LOQ Essential 15ARP10

Once, there were only Lenovo IdeaPads. All Lenovo laptops for consumers carried this name at some point, but Lenovo decided to branch out - first, with the Lenovo Yoga brand and then with Lenovo Legion, which came to be the new gaming laptop brand from Lenovo, replacing the Lenovo IdeaPad Y series. Then, Lenovo decided to differentiate even further, creating the LOQ brand, gaming laptops that were to be a step below the Lenovo Legion, like the Lenovo LOQ 15AHP9. Formerly, such models were known as the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming laptops. The most affordable gaming options from Lenovo now ship under the Lenovo LOQ Essential label.

The newest entry to that line was released with the most recent update to Lenovo's product database PSREF. It is called the Lenovo LOQ Essential 15ARP10. As the clunky name already tells, this is a 15-inch laptop, featuring the old 15.6-inch format with a 16:9 aspect ratio. It also tells about the processors used here: They are supplied by AMD, and specifically, Lenovo uses the Rembrandt Refresh CPUs of the Ryzen 7035HS series.

These CPUs first came out in 2022 as Ryzen 6000. What did not come out in 2022 were the Nvidia RTX 4000 GPUs for laptops. Lenovo combines these two older generations of chips to keep the price low. The top option for the Lenovo LOQ laptop is the AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop (65 W TDP, 15 W Dynamic Boost), but an even older Nvidia RTX 3050 Laptop will also be available.

Being a budget laptop, buyers have to take on a few compromises: The battery capacity is small for such a big laptop with just 57.5 W, making it more of a stationary PC, and the screen resolution tops out at Full-HD (1,920 x 1,200). On the other hand, the Lenovo LOQ Essential 15ARP10 is upgradeable (2x M.2 SSD, 2x SO-DIMM), it has an SD card slot and RJ45-Ethernet and the screen does support a refresh rate of 144 Hz, making this a potentially great everyday PC with some gaming capabilities.

Since the Lenovo LOQ Essential 15ARP10 just appeared on the Lenovo PSREF site, we expect available in the coming weeks.