Lenovo LOQ 15 Ryzen 7 7840HS laptop review: Don't call it a Legion

[Redaktion]

If an IdeaPad sounds too cheap and the Legion sounds too expensive, then the LOQ might tickle your fancy. The GeForce RTX 4050 is proving to be very capable for users who are satisfied with a solid 1080p gaming experience at 60 FPS.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-LOQ-15-Ryzen-7-7840HS-laptop-review-Don-t-call-it-a-Legion.735495.0.html

[K. Aditya]

I have been looking at the AMD customizable LOQ variant. There are 2 M.2 PCIe Gen 4 slots (AMD doesn't have Gen 5 yet), and says 4 lanes each. But are these 2 slots connected to the CPU (R7840HS) separately, taking up a total of 8 lanes?  Or they are fused such that they as a whole only connect to 4 lanes on the CPU? Ryzen 7840HS has 20 lanes in total for everything like I/O, GPU, etc.

I am asking this because I want the option to set up RAID 0 down the line. But I have seen a few videos online of other laptops where people tried to setup RAID 0 and later realised it was pointless as the PCIe lanes were fused, and hence not getting any change in Read/Write speed. I am not able to find anyone else online who has tried to set up RAID 0 on LOQ 15, so it would be greatly helpful if you can shed some light on this. Please let me know about it if you can test it with your unit.

[Gencho Simeonov]

Greetings, do you happen to know which GPU (iGPU/dGPU) is connected to which port (HDMI/USB-C)?

For example I have a Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 15ARH7 where the USB-C connects to the iGPU and the HDMI connects straighed to the dGPU (bypassing Optimus (the laptop does not have MUX / Advanced Optimus)).
I use my secoond monitor for office tasks so I seek an option to connect it to the iGPU, for example another laptop of mine (Asus ROG STRIX G713PV) also has 2 ports for external monitors (HDMI and USB-C) but both are connected to the dGPU.

[Neenyah]

Gencho, MUX switch is available with all dGPU options so you can use iGPU-only just fine: https://psref.lenovo.com/Product/LOQ/LOQ_15APH8

Not sure if it's possible to use iGPU for one screen and dGPU for another though.

[Gencho Simeonov]

I see, I will test it when I received the unit.
My Asus ROG Strix G713PV, when connected to second monitor, is forced to turn on dGPU always (because the external monitor ports (both HDMI and USB-C) are hard wired to the dGPU), hence I loose Advanced Optimus and the dGPU always works, even on battery. That is why I look for at least one monitor port that is wired to the iGPU.

[Gencho Simeonov]

May be not important for most but sadly all ports (HDMI and USB-C) for this model are wired to the dGPU, meaning when I use second monitor the dGPU is always on. For instance Lenovo Legion Slim 5 (same 7840hs and 4060) have HDMI and USB-C wired to the dGPU but it has another USB-C that is wired to the iGPU.

[NikoB]

Greedy Lenov did not even bring out 1 USB40 port, although the SoC has 2 such ports and 2 x USB-C 10Gbps built-in. Thus, deliberately depriving buyers of built-in USB40, for which they ALREADY were forced to pay AMD, but cannot use them due to Lenovo's fault.

Just like the shameful RJ45 1Gbps from 25 years ago, although 2.5Gbps is built into the SoC.

There is not even any evidence that Lenovo marketers actually allowed HDMI 2.1 output in the full version - with support for FRL6 mode, judging by the contradictory data in the series description - there may well be a shameful outdated HDMI 2.0b under the 2.1 nameplate (at the suggestion of scammers in the HDMI consortium) .

Some are trying to advance progress for the masses, while others, due to monstrous greed, are slowing it down with all their might. Do we need this kind of "capitalism"?