expired Posted by Dr.Wajahat • May 28, 2024
May 28, 2024 5:38 AM
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expired Posted by Dr.Wajahat • May 28, 2024
May 28, 2024 5:38 AM
Lenovo LOQ (2024): 15.6" FHD 144Hz, Ryzen 7 7435HS, RTX 4060, 16GB DDR5, 512GB SSD $799.99
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The specs sheet for this laptop can be found here: https://psref.lenovo.co
There are two primary downsides to this laptop.
The first is the r7 7435HS cpu. The 7435hs appears to be a slower clocked version of the r7 7735hs without the igpu (integrated gpu). It is not a current gen zen 4 cpu. Instead, it uses the last gen zen 3+ architecture, being similar in performance to the previous gen r7 6800h while supporting relatively few newer features such as ddr5 (only up to ddr5 4800). As a refreshed previous gen architecture, certain features such as higher speed ddr5 support, avx512 support, integrated npu, etc. are non-existent compared to zen 4 phoenix cpus. Power efficiency is also worse. Additionally, while the lack of an igpu typically isn't a major issue for dekstop cpus, in a laptop this can lead to meaningfully worse battery life. Even though this functionally last gen down-clocked cpu is somewhat disappointing, it is unlikely to hold back the rtx 4060 in gaming to a meaningful extent, and should be grudgingly sufficient for a gaming laptop of this price tier.
The second major downside of this laptop is it's 60whr battery. This is fairly low for a non-thin gaming laptop, and by itself means that this laptop will have relatively poor battery life even amongst gaming laptops, which are already notorious for having terrible battery life. The lack of an igpu only exacerbates this issue, since the dedicated gpu (the rtx 4060) will always be in use. Overall, I'd expect the battery life of this laptop to be quite poor.
The mobile rtx 4060 is the cheapest current gen nvidia mobile gpu that has 8gb of vram, which is a crucial threshold for 1080p gaming. Gpus with below 8gb of vram are relegated to solely budget tier gaming even at 1080p. The next step up, the mobile rtx 4070, is around 20% faster in gaming, while having the same amount of vram. In most respects the mobile rtx 4060 is the value sweetspot, since getting a laptop with a mobile 4070 would usually be ~$300 more. The mobile rtx 4080 is massively superior in terms of performance, but laptops with the 4080 tend to be at absolute minimum $1600. The rtx 4060 in this laptop only has a tgp of 105w, meaning it is not a full power variant. However, performance scaling in gaming for the mobile 4060 stops at 100w, so you don't actually lose any gaming performance with the 105w tgp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMMrh6P
The screen in this laptop is competent for the price point: 1080p, 144hz, 300nits, 100%srgb, g-sync tics all the right boxes. It should perform decently for every day use and midrange 1080p gaming (what this laptop is designed for), though I wouldn't recommend using it for any color sensitive work. If you'd mainly be using your laptop for productivity rather than gaming, you might be better served looking for laptops with a 1440p screen. The lack of an igpu means you don't need to be concerned about a mux switch or optimus.
This laptop has two user accessible ram slots (occupied by 2x 8gb ddr5 4800 SO-DIMM ram sticks), and officially supports up to 32gb ddr5 4800. It's possible (though not guaranteed) that this laptop could accept 64gb of ram, however the cpu means this laptop absolutely can not accept any ddr5 ram faster than 4800mt/s.
This laptop has two user accessible m.2 2280 pcie gen4 x4 storage slots (one occupied by the 512gb gen4 m.2 2242 ssd).
The 16gb of ram and 512gb ssd are acceptable capacities for this price range, though realistically you'd probably want to upgrade to a decent 2tb ssd.
I haven't heard of their being any major issues with the lenovo loq chassis, though it has a more plastic-ey construction and feels substantially cheaper compared to the higher end legion series. The array of ports are competent at least.
Ultimately, at $800 this laptop is a decent value, but it isn't a truly incredible deal. If you need a gaming laptop right now this wouldn't be a terrible purchase, but if you can I'd personally recommend waiting for another deal of similar caliber to the $800 g15 to reappear (the deal linked below was originally $800, but it got changed to $850 after a day): https://slickdeals.net/f/17396106-dell-g15-laptop-15-6-1080p-165hz-ryzen-7-7840hs-rtx-4060-16gb-ram-512gb-ssd-850-free-shipping
The specs sheet for this laptop can be found here: https://psref.lenovo.com/Detail/L...83JC0000US [lenovo.com]
There are two primary downsides to this laptop.
The first is the r7 7435HS cpu. The 7435hs appears to be a slower clocked version of the r7 7735hs without the igpu (integrated gpu). It is not a current gen zen 4 cpu. Instead, it uses the last gen zen 3+ architecture, being similar in performance to the previous gen r7 6800h while supporting relatively few newer features such as ddr5 (only up to ddr5 4800). As a refreshed previous gen architecture, certain features such as higher speed ddr5 support, avx512 support, integrated npu, etc. are non-existent compared to zen 4 phoenix cpus. Power efficiency is also worse. Additionally, while the lack of an igpu typically isn't a major issue for dekstop cpus, in a laptop this can lead to meaningfully worse battery life. Even though this functionally last gen down-clocked cpu is somewhat disappointing, it is unlikely to hold back the rtx 4060 in gaming to a meaningful extent, and should be grudgingly sufficient for a gaming laptop of this price tier.
The second major downside of this laptop is it's 60whr battery. This is fairly low for a non-thin gaming laptop, and by itself means that this laptop will have relatively poor battery life even amongst gaming laptops, which are already notorious for having terrible battery life. The lack of an igpu only exacerbates this issue, since the dedicated gpu (the rtx 4060) will always be in use. Overall, I'd expect the battery life of this laptop to be quite poor.
The mobile rtx 4060 is the cheapest current gen nvidia mobile gpu that has 8gb of vram, which is a crucial threshold for 1080p gaming. Gpus with below 8gb of vram are relegated to solely budget tier gaming even at 1080p. The next step up, the mobile rtx 4070, is around 20% faster in gaming, while having the same amount of vram. In most respects the mobile rtx 4060 is the value sweetspot, since getting a laptop with a mobile 4070 would usually be ~$300 more. The mobile rtx 4080 is massively superior in terms of performance, but laptops with the 4080 tend to be at absolute minimum $1600. The rtx 4060 in this laptop only has a tgp of 105w, meaning it is not a full power variant. However, performance scaling in gaming for the mobile 4060 stops at 100w, so you don't actually lose any gaming performance with the 105w tgp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMMrh6P
The screen in this laptop is competent for the price point: 1080p, 144hz, 300nits, 100%srgb, g-sync tics all the right boxes. It should perform decently for every day use and midrange 1080p gaming (what this laptop is designed for), though I wouldn't recommend using it for any color sensitive work. If you'd mainly be using your laptop for productivity rather than gaming, you might be better served looking for laptops with a 1440p screen. The lack of an igpu means you don't need to be concerned about a mux switch or optimus.
This laptop has two user accessible ram slots (occupied by 2x 8gb ddr5 4800 SO-DIMM ram sticks), and officially supports up to 32gb ddr5 4800. It's possible (though not guaranteed) that this laptop could accept 64gb of ram, however the cpu means this laptop absolutely can not accept any ddr5 ram faster than 4800mt/s.
This laptop has two user accessible m.2 2280 pcie gen4 x4 storage slots (one occupied by the 512gb gen4 m.2 2242 ssd).
The 16gb of ram and 512gb ssd are acceptable capacities for this price range, though realistically you'd probably want to upgrade to a decent 2tb ssd.
I haven't heard of their being any major issues with the lenovo loq chassis, though it has a more plastic-ey construction and feels substantially cheaper compared to the higher end legion series. The array of ports are competent at least.
Ultimately, at $800 this laptop is a decent value, but it isn't a truly incredible deal. If you need a gaming laptop right now this wouldn't be a terrible purchase, but if you can I'd personally recommend waiting for another deal of similar caliber to the $800 g15 to reappear (the deal linked below was originally $800, but it got changed to $850 after a day): https://slickdeals.net/f/17396106-dell-g15-laptop-15-6-1080p-165hz-ryzen-7-7840hs-rtx-4060-16gb-ram-512gb-ssd-850-free-shipping
ig for gaming.. 1080p would be better rather than downscaling. i see your points now.
The specs sheet for this laptop can be found here: https://psref.lenovo.co
There are two primary downsides to this laptop.
The first is the r7 7435HS cpu. The 7435hs appears to be a slower clocked version of the r7 7735hs without the igpu (integrated gpu). It is not a current gen zen 4 cpu. Instead, it uses the last gen zen 3+ architecture, being similar in performance to the previous gen r7 6800h while supporting relatively few newer features such as ddr5 (only up to ddr5 4800). As a refreshed previous gen architecture, certain features such as higher speed ddr5 support, avx512 support, integrated npu, etc. are non-existent compared to zen 4 phoenix cpus. Power efficiency is also worse. Additionally, while the lack of an igpu typically isn't a major issue for dekstop cpus, in a laptop this can lead to meaningfully worse battery life. Even though this functionally last gen down-clocked cpu is somewhat disappointing, it is unlikely to hold back the rtx 4060 in gaming to a meaningful extent, and should be grudgingly sufficient for a gaming laptop of this price tier.
The second major downside of this laptop is it's 60whr battery. This is fairly low for a non-thin gaming laptop, and by itself means that this laptop will have relatively poor battery life even amongst gaming laptops, which are already notorious for having terrible battery life. The lack of an igpu only exacerbates this issue, since the dedicated gpu (the rtx 4060) will always be in use. Overall, I'd expect the battery life of this laptop to be quite poor.
The mobile rtx 4060 is the cheapest current gen nvidia mobile gpu that has 8gb of vram, which is a crucial threshold for 1080p gaming. Gpus with below 8gb of vram are relegated to solely budget tier gaming even at 1080p. The next step up, the mobile rtx 4070, is around 20% faster in gaming, while having the same amount of vram. In most respects the mobile rtx 4060 is the value sweetspot, since getting a laptop with a mobile 4070 would usually be ~$300 more. The mobile rtx 4080 is massively superior in terms of performance, but laptops with the 4080 tend to be at absolute minimum $1600. The rtx 4060 in this laptop only has a tgp of 105w, meaning it is not a full power variant. However, performance scaling in gaming for the mobile 4060 stops at 100w, so you don't actually lose any gaming performance with the 105w tgp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMMrh6P
The screen in this laptop is competent for the price point: 1080p, 144hz, 300nits, 100%srgb, g-sync tics all the right boxes. It should perform decently for every day use and midrange 1080p gaming (what this laptop is designed for), though I wouldn't recommend using it for any color sensitive work. If you'd mainly be using your laptop for productivity rather than gaming, you might be better served looking for laptops with a 1440p screen. The lack of an igpu means you don't need to be concerned about a mux switch or optimus.
This laptop has two user accessible ram slots (occupied by 2x 8gb ddr5 4800 SO-DIMM ram sticks), and officially supports up to 32gb ddr5 4800. It's possible (though not guaranteed) that this laptop could accept 64gb of ram, however the cpu means this laptop absolutely can not accept any ddr5 ram faster than 4800mt/s.
This laptop has two user accessible m.2 2280 pcie gen4 x4 storage slots (one occupied by the 512gb gen4 m.2 2242 ssd).
The 16gb of ram and 512gb ssd are acceptable capacities for this price range, though realistically you'd probably want to upgrade to a decent 2tb ssd.
I haven't heard of their being any major issues with the lenovo loq chassis, though it has a more plastic-ey construction and feels substantially cheaper compared to the higher end legion series. The array of ports are competent at least.
Ultimately, at $800 this laptop is a decent value, but it isn't a truly incredible deal. If you need a gaming laptop right now this wouldn't be a terrible purchase, but if you can I'd personally recommend waiting for another deal of similar caliber to the $800 g15 to reappear (the deal linked below was originally $800, but it got changed to $850 after a day): https://slickdeals.net/f/17396106-dell-g15-laptop-15-6-1080p-165hz-ryzen-7-7840hs-rtx-4060-16gb-ram-512gb-ssd-850-free-shipping
The specs sheet for this laptop can be found here: https://psref.lenovo.com/Detail/L...83JC0000US [lenovo.com]
There are two primary downsides to this laptop.
The first is the r7 7435HS cpu. The 7435hs appears to be a slower clocked version of the r7 7735hs without the igpu (integrated gpu). It is not a current gen zen 4 cpu. Instead, it uses the last gen zen 3+ architecture, being similar in performance to the previous gen r7 6800h while supporting relatively few newer features such as ddr5 (only up to ddr5 4800). As a refreshed previous gen architecture, certain features such as higher speed ddr5 support, avx512 support, integrated npu, etc. are non-existent compared to zen 4 phoenix cpus. Power efficiency is also worse. Additionally, while the lack of an igpu typically isn't a major issue for dekstop cpus, in a laptop this can lead to meaningfully worse battery life. Even though this functionally last gen down-clocked cpu is somewhat disappointing, it is unlikely to hold back the rtx 4060 in gaming to a meaningful extent, and should be grudgingly sufficient for a gaming laptop of this price tier.
The second major downside of this laptop is it's 60whr battery. This is fairly low for a non-thin gaming laptop, and by itself means that this laptop will have relatively poor battery life even amongst gaming laptops, which are already notorious for having terrible battery life. The lack of an igpu only exacerbates this issue, since the dedicated gpu (the rtx 4060) will always be in use. Overall, I'd expect the battery life of this laptop to be quite poor.
The mobile rtx 4060 is the cheapest current gen nvidia mobile gpu that has 8gb of vram, which is a crucial threshold for 1080p gaming. Gpus with below 8gb of vram are relegated to solely budget tier gaming even at 1080p. The next step up, the mobile rtx 4070, is around 20% faster in gaming, while having the same amount of vram. In most respects the mobile rtx 4060 is the value sweetspot, since getting a laptop with a mobile 4070 would usually be ~$300 more. The mobile rtx 4080 is massively superior in terms of performance, but laptops with the 4080 tend to be at absolute minimum $1600. The rtx 4060 in this laptop only has a tgp of 105w, meaning it is not a full power variant. However, performance scaling in gaming for the mobile 4060 stops at 100w, so you don't actually lose any gaming performance with the 105w tgp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMMrh6P
The screen in this laptop is competent for the price point: 1080p, 144hz, 300nits, 100%srgb, g-sync tics all the right boxes. It should perform decently for every day use and midrange 1080p gaming (what this laptop is designed for), though I wouldn't recommend using it for any color sensitive work. If you'd mainly be using your laptop for productivity rather than gaming, you might be better served looking for laptops with a 1440p screen. The lack of an igpu means you don't need to be concerned about a mux switch or optimus.
This laptop has two user accessible ram slots (occupied by 2x 8gb ddr5 4800 SO-DIMM ram sticks), and officially supports up to 32gb ddr5 4800. It's possible (though not guaranteed) that this laptop could accept 64gb of ram, however the cpu means this laptop absolutely can not accept any ddr5 ram faster than 4800mt/s.
This laptop has two user accessible m.2 2280 pcie gen4 x4 storage slots (one occupied by the 512gb gen4 m.2 2242 ssd).
The 16gb of ram and 512gb ssd are acceptable capacities for this price range, though realistically you'd probably want to upgrade to a decent 2tb ssd.
I haven't heard of their being any major issues with the lenovo loq chassis, though it has a more plastic-ey construction and feels substantially cheaper compared to the higher end legion series. The array of ports are competent at least.
Ultimately, at $800 this laptop is a decent value, but it isn't a truly incredible deal. If you need a gaming laptop right now this wouldn't be a terrible purchase, but if you can I'd personally recommend waiting for another deal of similar caliber to the $800 g15 to reappear (the deal linked below was originally $800, but it got changed to $850 after a day): https://slickdeals.net/f/17396106-dell-g15-laptop-15-6-1080p-165hz-ryzen-7-7840hs-rtx-4060-16gb-ram-512gb-ssd-850-free-shipping
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Heat is the enemy of gaming laptops and having it thicker is better. It's a feature.
Personally, I like that it only has the one GPU. That means all apps are forced to used the big boy GPU, you only have one set/brand of graphics drivers installed, etc.
Given, of course, that this is meant as a gaming laptop that rarely moves and is always plugged in except for the briefest of general uses. The onboard battery is a high quality integrated UPS in this regard.
I'm surprised the nit-pickers aren't here complaining it's only 300 nits..
Heat is the enemy of gaming laptops and having it thicker is better. It's a feature.
Personally, I like that it only has the one GPU. That means all apps are forced to used the big boy GPU, you only have one set/brand of graphics drivers installed, etc.
Given, of course, that this is meant as a gaming laptop that rarely moves and is always plugged in except for the briefest of general uses. The onboard battery is a high quality integrated UPS in this regard.
First off, the $1000 price range is pretty awkward when it comes to gaming laptops. The current value sweetspot for gaming laptops is ~$800 on an excellent sale. For the record, the laptop deal this thread is in is only an acceptable deal, not a great one.
My general recommendations for minimum gaming laptop specs to be considered an exceptional deal at the upper-midrange are: a current gen upper-midrange or higher cpu (or, considering refresh generations, a cpu with a similar architecture and performance to current gen), >100w rtx 4060 or 4070, 16gb or greater of ddr5 ram (with two user accessible ram slots), 512gb or larger ssd (with at least one user accessible m.2 2280 slot, two slots greatly preferred), wifi 6 or 6e, a backlit keyboard, an 80whr or lager battery, and an ips screen with at bare minimum: 300+ nits brightness, 99% srgb (or 72% ntsc) coverage, 144+ hz, and a mux switch / advanced optimus).
There have been one or two sales for rtx 4060 laptops that meet the minimums of all those conditions at $800, hence my statement that $800 is the value sweetspot. Depending on your priorities it can be acceptable to forgo certain specs in exchange for a lower price or better specs elsewhere, but that really comes down to personal preferences and use cases.
The next step up in gaming performance over the 4060 is the mobile rtx 4070, which is about 20% faster than the mobile 4060 on average. However, the lowest I've seen >100w rtx 4070 laptops that meet all the base specifications I mentioned above is around ~$1100. This is a substantially worse value, particularly since the 8gb of vram in the 4070 relegates it to midrange 1080p gaming regardless, and it will likely age nearly as poorly as the 4060. Additionally, at that point, in terms of frames-per-dollar you'd actually get a substantially better value by spending ~$1600 on an excellent sale to purchase a laptop with a mobile rtx 4080. The mobile rtx 4080 is approximately 55.5% faster on average than the 4070 in gaming at 1440p, and has 12gb of vram instead of 8gb. So for 45.45% more money you get 55% better gaming performance, and 50% more vram which will drastically extend the lifespan of your laptop for gaming. Additionally, 4080 laptops will often have better specs in other areas as well. Therefore, unless you find a unicorn deal of a 4070 laptop with good all around specs at $1000, I recommend to either purchase a 4060 laptop at around $800 or skip straight to a 4080 laptop at ~$1600.
When it comes to the cpu, I'd personally recommend getting at least 8 cores in an amd cpu, or at minimum 6 p-cores + 4 e-cores for an intel cpu if you're spending more than $800. Since you can't upgrade the cpu in your laptop, a few years down the line 6 cores might start becoming a meaningful bottleneck.
Any 12th gen or newer h or hx sku intel cpu with the requisite number of cores (6+ p-cores, 4+ e-cores) should be fine, the 13th gen was a relatively minor improvement and 14th gen / meteor lake (core ultra) aren't much of an improvement either. Intel's latest (core ultra) cpus carry a ridiculous price premium and are nowhere near worth it.
When it comes to amd, I highly recommend getting a zen 4 cpu, though if the rest of the specs are good for the money then a zen 3+ cpu should be grudgingly acceptable. The amd naming scheme is a bit complicated, this article should be helpful: https://www.xda-developers.com/am...explained/
Ultimately, the most important thing to look at is the third digit, which indicates the architecture. If the third digit is "3" then it's a last gen zen3(+) cpu, if it's "4" then it's a current gen zen 4 cpu. The current gen architecture phoenix 7840hs is the sweet spot for amd cpus, the 7940hs is only a minor upgrade over the 7840hs, and amd's dragon range cpus command a significant price premium and are only in much more expensive laptops. The 7640hs is also a current gen phoenix cpu, but with only 6 cores I wouldn't consider it to be much of an upgrade over the zen3+ 7735hs 8 core cpu you'll commonly find in cheaper laptops. The amd "8000" series refresh has barely any improvement besides a boost to the npu performance, so unless you're really into microsoft copilot they're not worth a premium.
The screen is the most common deal-breaker I see in laptop deals, for some reason manufacturers love cheaping out on panels and neutering their laptops. Tn panels are generally quite inferior, if you're spending more than $250 you should be looking to get a laptop with an ips panel. Many cheaper panels are 250 nits or lower, this will appear extremely dim. Unless you're planning to use your laptop exclusively indoors without any natural light, 300 nits is generally considered the baseline for acceptable brightness. The panels gamut coverage is also immensely important, and many people don't understand anything about it. While a proper explanation of color gamuts is outside the scope of this response, I will grossly oversimplify it by describing it as the capacity of the screen to display colors. The srgb color space is the most basic, limited, and widespread color space in existence, basically all content you'll see online is designed to be viewed in the srgb color space. Many cheaper panels have ~65% or lower srgb coverage, which means that colors will appear incredibly washed out. Manufacturers will often try to obscure this by listing the less well known ntsc color space instead of srgb in the specs. While not directly comparable, 45% ntsc is roughly similar to 62% srgb and 72% ntsc is roughly similar to 99% srgb. I personally consider a screen with 62% srgb coverage to be a massive detriment, absolutely everything appears incredibly washed out, dull, and flat out wrong. Having 99% srgb (72% ntsc) coverage should be good for standard use and gaming, and is the minimum you should accept in a laptop over $600 unless the other specs are absolutely incredible for the price. For color sensitive productivity work you'd want a screen that has good coverage of dci-p3 and adobe rgb gamuts, but if you're doing color sensitive work you already know that so there's no point on going into more detail here.
As a side note about resolutions, any laptop gpu below the 4080 will struggle with gaming at 1440p or higher resolution, so while a 1440p screen is nice I wouldn't consider it to be worth a truly massive premium. It's important to keep in mind that since laptop screens are so small compared to a monitor the ppi (pixels per inch) is much higher anyways. Likewise, I generally don't think the 16:10 aspect ratio laptop screens are worth much of a price premium.
Hopefully this is somewhat helpful, I kind of just rambled off the top of my head.
In terms of youtube channels the best one I've found for laptop information and reviews is Jarrod's tech: https://www.youtube.com/@JarrodsTech
Be aware though, jarrod's tech sometimes does sponsored advertisement "overviews" and it isn't always made entirely clear, so keep an eye out.
There's also the gaminglaptops subreddit, though I don't personally use it: https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLaptops/
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In terms of youtube channels the best one I've found for laptop information and reviews is Jarrod's tech: https://www.youtube.com/@JarrodsTech
Be aware though, jarrod's tech sometimes does sponsored "reviews" and it isn't always made entirely clear, so keep an eye out.
There's also the gaminglaptops subreddit, though I don't personally use it: https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLaptops/