Is Lenovo’s refreshed LOQ tower enough to compete? New OLED monitors raise the stakes at IFA 2025

It's IFA season, and that means a horde of announcements for fresh laptops, desktops, monitors, accessories, and much more. We're certain to see some exciting prototypes and futuristic concepts, too, but this article will be focused on what we'll actually be able to buy.

Lenovo is usually a big player at this event, and it's no different for IFA 2025. We're getting a lot of new Lenovo hardware, including a completely redesigned entry-level pre-built gaming desktop, properly premium OLED gaming monitors, and more.

Many of the most exciting products from Lenovo Legion this year have already arrived, but there's still plenty to look forward to in the coming months. My interest is definitely piqued, too, but my initial response was somewhat soured after diving into the new products.

Oh, Lenovo LOQ Tower that ALMOST looks amazing? ...Almost

When I reviewed the Lenovo LOQ Tower (Gen 9), it felt like the product was listlessly drifting into the new year, lacking both focus and the killer value that should've given it purpose in Lenovo's lineup.

I was hopeful that the next generation would see Lenovo make some big changes. The Lenovo LOQ Tower 26 (Gen 10) is here, and it seems like Lenovo (tentatively) responded to my wishes — with one potentially major caveat.

This is the first 26-liter pre-built tower from Lenovo LOQ (that's up from 17 liters), and it rocks an all-new design that will undoubtedly be polarizing to some. On one hand, the increased internal volume provides far more opportunities for upgrades and expansions (and should lead to improved thermal performance, too), and the new RGB-clad internals and transparent side panel are more in line with what gamers have come to expect of gaming desktops.

On the other hand, the cute and understated LOQ Tower of yesteryear seems to be no more — while you can always disable the RGB lighting, you'll always have a tower that screams "gamer." Personally, though, I think the positives far outweigh the negatives, at least when it comes to design.

Most of what you'll find inside the new LOQ Tower rings the right bells, too, including up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti desktop GPU, up to 64GB of dual-channel SODIMM RAM, up to 4GB of M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 SSD storage, and Wi-Fi 7/Bluetooth 5.4 wireless connectivity.

The potential killer of all this joy? The singular CPU choice that Lenovo listed in our briefing materials: the 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 8745HX. Look, it's a fine processor with plenty of power for modern games, but it's also designed with laptops in mind. Yes, this is a mobile CPU — even under the best of circumstances, this one component considerably restricts options for future upgrades.

I have to imagine costs made all the difference with this decision, but the LOQ Tower is entering the world with a morbidly dark cloud hovering over its head. Whether the new LOQ Tower will be even worth consideration with its expected $999.99 entry-level pricing will depend on that starting configuration's GPU, memory, and storage, and there will still be a lot of people understandably avoiding it.

The latest Legion monitors finally embrace the OLED craze

Lenovo Legion also joined the IFA party with three new gaming monitors, and none of these can be described as "budget." Lenovo doesn't often hit the market with ultra-premium monitors, but this trio undoubtedly fits the luxury bill with their crispy, buttery smooth OLED panels.

Lenovo has already begun to embrace the growing OLED craze with its flagship gaming laptops, but now we're finally getting some monitor love, too. Lenovo's naming scheme is still a bit weird, with the monitors coming in as the Legion Pro 27Q-10, 27UD-10, and 32UD-10, but they're thankfully easy to break down.

For one, I adore this two-tone white/black design language. These monitors look gorgeous with clean lines, a unique stand (complete with a built-in phone holder), and slim bezels. Each monitor is equipped with DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.1 ports (with full console support, of course), too, although you only get three downstream USB Type-A ports.

That's okay, though — it's all about the screens. All three rock Lenovo PureSight OLED panels, but with some differences. The most modest of the siblings is the 27Q-10, with a 26.5-inch, QHD (1440p), 280Hz panel. This is for those who don't mind sacrificing some sharpness for the best performance and want to save a little cash in the process, because this monitor is targeting a $699.99 price tag for its November launch.

Next is the 27UD-10, which bumps you up to a full UHD (2160p) resolution with a 240Hz refresh rate. That's a whole lot of pixels, coming your way with an expected starting price of $999.99 in November. Finally, there's the flagship 32UD-10, which seems mostly identical to the previous monitor, but with a larger 31.5-inch panel for an expected $1,099.99 in October.

Lenovo will be competing with some major players like Alienware, ASUS, and Samsung here, so I'm excited to see if these Legion monitors have what it takes to play in the big leagues of high-end gaming monitors.

A good look for Lenovo gaming, with some other things, too

The Lenovo LOQ Tower 26 (Gen 10) is admittedly bittersweet, given that the promising redesign is dragged down by the questionable CPU choice, but it could still be a great step forward for Lenovo's budget, pre-built gaming desktops.

I'm obviously more excited to get my hands (and eyes) on Lenovo's new flagship gaming monitors, though. I'm a sucker for OLED, and more competition in this space is always a good thing. Lenovo is coming out of the gate with some varied options across price points, too.

I'd be remiss if I left it at that, though. Lenovo also announced a new variant of the Legion Pro 7i (Gen 10), which I reviewed (and loved). The "i" apparently stands for "Intel" in this case, because it's essentially the same laptop but with up to an AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D under the hood. That laptop is coming in November with an expected price of $2,399.99.

In other news, Lenovo also finally gave us a deeper look at the upcoming Lenovo Legion Go (Gen 2), and a new update rolling out for the Lenovo Legion Glasses 2 could prove especially interesting for that upcoming gaming handheld.

Overall, the Lenovo gaming landscape is looking really good, even if there's some stiff competition on the horizon from companies like HP.