Lenovo has added three budget gaming PCs and two monitors to its range, aimed at people buying their first gaming machine. The new hardware sits at the bottom of the LOQ line, under the pricier Legion brand. The more interesting part of the launch is the specs, which raise a few questions about what “entry-level” means in 2026.
Start with the LOQ Essential 15IPH11. It has no separate graphics card. Instead, it pairs an Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processor with Intel Arc graphics built into the chip, and the two share one pool of system memory. That design means less power drawn and less heat, which is how Lenovo claims up to 21 hours of battery life. It also supports Intel’s XeSS upscaling, ray tracing in hardware, and an NPU, a dedicated chip for AI tasks. The laptop is aimed at students who want one machine for lectures and evening gaming. It has a 15.3-inch 16:10 screen at up to 165Hz, USB-C charging over Thunderbolt 4, and spare slots for adding memory and storage.
Its sibling, the LOQ Essential 15IRH11, takes the traditional route: an Intel Core 200 series processor with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 laptop GPU. The pricing is odd. In Europe and the Middle East, the integrated-graphics model starts at €1,599, while the RTX 3050 version starts at €1,299. The RTX 3050 is also an old chip now, first released in 2021, three generations ago. So shoppers are being asked whether Intel’s newer integrated graphics are really worth €300 more than an ageing NVIDIA card. Proper benchmarks will have to settle that.
The LOQ Tower 17IRH11 looks like the better value. It starts at €999 and offers up to an RTX 5060 Ti, up to 32GB of DDR5 memory, Wi-Fi 7, and a case you can open without tools to upgrade parts. It also has a hidden air duct to keep cooling noise down. For new players who don’t want to build a PC themselves, it’s an easier way into current NVIDIA graphics and DLSS 4.5 than either laptop.
The two 27-inch Legion monitors cover different priorities. The 27Q-20 runs at QHD and 320Hz for €269, with a Focus View mode that shrinks the picture to 24.5 inches, the screen size common in esports tournaments. The 27U-20 costs €369 and offers a Dual Mode that switches between 4K at 180Hz and Full HD at 360Hz. Both use Fast IPS panels and are certified for DisplayHDR 400.
