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Lenovo 15.6" Gaming Laptop - i5 13450HX, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, RTX 5060 8GB (+ Bonus $250 GC) $1997 + Del./C&C @ Harvey Norman

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Probably the cheapest RTX 5060 laptop at the moment with a bonus $250 gift card.
Title and some of the description lists it as having a 512GB SSD but the bottom of the description and specifications lists it as having a 1TB SSD….

The Lenovo website has this model number listed with a 1TB SSD…probably worth confirming at Harvey Norman before you buy

Processor: Intel Core i5-13450HX
RAM: 16GB DDR5
Storage: 512GB SSD
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 with 8GB of VRAM
Display: 15.6-inch Full High Definition (FHD) 144Hz IPS

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Harvey Norman NZ
Harvey Norman NZ

Comments

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  • Meh. The specs are average for the price, not really bang for buck. And it's the LOQ series, not Legion, so it's even worse.

    Personally, I'd go with either of the 2 following options (this isn't limited to just laptops btw, but phones too, among other things).

    • Buy brand new from Taobao. Shipping (by sea) will take about 1.5~2 months, but is worth the wait and if you're not in a hurry, that shouldn't be a problem. You can find a much better spec for that price and the merchants usually throw in freebies (like a free mousepad, screen protector, free mouse, etc) with your purchase. As an example, I recently bought a Lenovo Legion 5i Pro with Intel Ultra 9 275HX, 32GB DDR5, RTX 5070 (there's also a 5070 TI model for slightly more), 1TB NVME, WXQGA 240Hz screen for around $3400. That's the total cost, including shipping, GST, import duty, etc. That's almost the highest end spec you can configure for the Legion series. An equivalent one sold in NZ would cost at least $4500+. Hell, I've seen people selling specs worse than mine for $5000~$6000+ and those are used. On Taobao, I've seen less beefy configurations for around $2000 NZD, but they still offer way better specs than the Harvey Norman one.

    • Buy used from FB Marketplace or Trademe. Believe it or not, I found a few Lenovo Legion models that were pretty decent for the price. They all have RTX 5060, 24GB RAM, but the CPU config is either a Intel 7 Ultra 255HX, or a AMD 8945HX. The listings I found sold at $1400, $1500 and $1800. I bought 2 of them at $1400 and $1800, missed out the $1500 one. Then I later flipped them for more. The people who sold these bought them off some Spark plan that they were on, didn't know how to value these laptops (coz they're uneducated I guess), hence the cheap price. They were in really good condition too. If you have scout/sniping tools for FB Marketplace or Trademe, you'd find these deals easily, otherwise just monitor for deals. And it's easy to write scripts to filter/hide scam related listings with 90% accuracy, but obviously buy with caution and do your due diligence of course. Also, I bought a HP Omen with RTX 4080, 32GB RAM and i9-13900HX for $1200. So you can definitely find really good deals. Although, I would recommend avoiding the i9-13900HX or similar, as they run hot and get throttled too easily.

    In either case, you'd be saving at least $500 or more, and get models with way better specs. And chassis and thermal throttling is important to consider too. If you're getting a gaming laptop, get one that actually has good chassis. The HP Omen laptops prior to I believe 2024 were crap, they all have issues (just check Reddit). They overheat easily and performance drops compared to other laptops with the same GPU.

    As a side note, 16GB RAM is pretty pathetic these days, so chances are you'd likely spend more to upgrade the RAM. Not to mention 512GB is so tiny these days (even my phone has more than that), so you'd be looking at a Gen4 NVME for over $400, unless you buy a used one from FB or Trademe.

    Also, there's far too many people who don't understand what is actually considered a "gaming laptop". The Lenovo LOQ is a budget series, they're limited to around 65W TGP, compared to say 115W TGP in a Lenovo Legion. A RTX 5060 in a laptop that can only draw so much power is going to be limited. Putting a RTX 5060 in a laptop that has a crap chassis or can't draw enough power is basically giving it a handicap. It's going to be less powerful, probably like 40~70% less GPU power or something. Just because you see RTX 5060 in a laptop, it doesn't mean much.

    And if you're one of those paranoid people who cares massively about warranty, then this isn't for you. Unless you're super unlucky, the fact of the matter is that these things don't just combust and blow up every other day, week, month or year. If that were the case, everybody would be up in arms about their electronic items, nobody would ever buy from overseas and nobody would ever sell globally. If you're so concerned about it, then you probably shouldn't buy from Ebay, Amazon, or any other store/website that's not based in NZ. I've never had this problem, and I'm sure the majority of the world don't have this problem.

      • Yeah, it's not the greatest website for sure, but it does work in English. Try the app on your phone, it might work better. I manage to navigate around it, it's not hard. Not sure what you mean, but Google Translate works fine on Taobao. For savings of $500+, I think it's worth knowing the site.

        Fun fact, Taobao is owned by Alibaba, which owns Aliexpress as well.

        • Another fun fact, Aliexpress isn't typically used in China. Most Chinese use Taoboa.

      • Taobao was owned by Alipress in China, it is legit and great…

      • It's also notorious for stacking different versions of things in the one listing, showing you the picture of the higher priced item and giving you the price for the cheaper one. It's built to try and catch you out.

        In saying that, I still use it too.

      • There are websites that are specifically agents for Taobao that you can use as a proxy to order from Taobao. Its a bit easier if you have issues as they act as a middle man between you and the store

        • Chinz Logistics is one of them. In fact, they're the only logistics company in NZ that deals with Taobao specifically. Chances are, anything that you purchased from Taobao would have been handled by them at some point. Their support is decent and pretty friendly and they offer packages to help you ship to NZ. Or, if you don't go through them, just do it on Taobao's site to have your item shipped directly to NZ. The process is more of a hassle but it's not too bad.

      • Taobao has been around since 2004-5. Chinese people in China don't use Aliexpress, literally everyone there under 50 has a Taobao account. Taobao is a lot cheaper platform to order from than Aliexpress or Temu etc even with shipping added.

    • I am from India my family from china , we shop a lot from taobao tmall and many other and yes its possible to get very good deal on them and it lot more expensive in nz we kind of also shop every month and send it over to nz via seaway takes 45 days to 3 months its ok

    • I trust everything you say solely based on your Omen commentary. We bought an Omen gaming laptop for our son pre 2024 and god damn that thing is a POS. It permanently sounds like a jet engine taking off no matter how many times my son has taken it apart and cleaned it. We've just replaced it with an MSI Katana for his birthday and he's stoked. He games but more in the realm of resource management than FPS so the Katana is more than enough for him!

      • They also don't like warranties, one of the stranger takes I've seen on here. Take that as you will.

      • Yea, that's why research and real user feedbacks and reviews are important.

        I've seen far too many complaints on Reddit about the HP Omen series, ranging from 2021~2023. Some even reported issues in the 2024 and 2025 models. I'd steer clear of HP Omen as a gaming laptop. The top brands (currently) are Asus and Lenovo Legion. Great chassis and great performance.

        I had to use Honeywell PTM and undervolt on my HP Omen to make it run reasonably cool, but I didn't need to do that on my Lenovo Legion. My Lenovo is still using the stock thermal paste and runs buttery smooth and cool at around 54C. Even when I intentionally set the CPU to 99% (to disable burst, so I could run it at a wattage/power consumption for just office related work), it still runs fine without lag.

    • How do you even create an account on Taobao? I tried with my NZ mobile number but never get a confirmation code.

      • LOL did this a few months back gave up.

        • Managed to use a Google account login in the end. Quite fun trying to solve the security Captcha though. Once logged in the app automatically switches to English, so it's a lot easier than the website.

      • Hmm, it's not bad. I think this is the HP Omen HyperX 2025 series model.

        The CPU is pretty good, I have a 8945HX in my Lenovo Legion and it's only a tiny bit better than the 8940HX. It's a good CPU, runs pretty well and low thermals. In general, I think the 8945HX runs cooler than the Intel Ultra 7 255HX. Either way, they're both great chips and so I think you'll do just fine with the 8940HX in terms of power, thermals, etc.

        The screen refresh on that laptop is decent as well. And for that price, I don't think you'd find a RTX 5070 easily.

        As for the storage, it's just using PCIe Gen4 NVME, which is fine and most gaming laptops around this price range are only offering Gen4. But if you want to put a Gen5 NVME in there and achieve ~15000Mb/s read/write, then you can't do that with this laptop. Still, getting half of that with a Gen4 is decent enough. Unless the work you're performing requires heavy I/O, it likely wouldn't matter much.

        The only thing I'm concerned about is that it's a HP Omen. Their chassis design sucks, so a lot of the time this would cause bottlenecks. Putting a good CPU/GPU in an HP Omen chassis is a waste. I couldn't find much on this model, so I'd suggest you do some research on Reddit (and other sites) and read the reviews from actual users.

        Having said that, HP Omen models have gotten better over the years, especially the 2025 models. The one I have (2023 model) is still decent, although the higher-than-ideal thermals are something I’m not particularly happy with.

        If you end up getting it, I'd recommend using the HP Omen app to undervolt it (which will help it run cooler) and apply some Honeywell PTM thermal pad. It's pretty damn quick and easy to do, especially the first one. You don't have to, but it's highly recommended.

        Anyway, I'd say go for it. I would buy it myself, but I've spent too much lately and don't need a 4th gaming laptop. It's a good price and you could probably claim warranty or get a refund if you do encounter issues. Probably even flip it to make some money. Put it this way, even though this laptop costs roughly $1200 more than the one that OP posted, it's still much more worthwhile and better to get this because somewhat on-par with overseas pricing. The price is fair for the specs that you're getting, not overpriced compared to other options with worse specs.

        • Ah screw it, I'll buy this for my partner. It's hard to find laptop configurations with a high-end AMD CPU and RTX 5070 these days. Most configs are Intel CPU based. Even though both are great chips, I prefer the AMD since it just runs a bit cooler and more efficient and this is based on my own experience, having owned and used several gaming laptops with either the 255HX or 275HX.

          • @Karens Hate Winners: I currently have a gaming desktop (13700KF, 4070 Ti, 32GB) that is a few years old, but since my son took my MacBook Pro, I find myself needing a more portable solution. I have never owned a Windows laptop, and I realize I will likely experience some friction regarding the weight, form factor, and the size of the charging brick.

            However, being able to play games natively is a significant advantage. Given the recent price hikes, a new MacBook Pro now costs $5,000, which is hard to justify since I don’t rely on it for my livelihood. I’ve decided to pick one up today—thank you very much for all your explanations and advice.

            • @rb3xu: Probably a bit too late now, but you could always consider buying used devices on Facebook Marketplace.

              In one of my comments on this post, I mentioned that I picked up a few laptops for $1,200, $1,400, and $1,800. They all had great specs and were significantly better value than the options I found on Taobao or the PB Tech deal you mentioned. The value-to-price ratio is really hard to beat.

              I’ve also seen quite a few MacBooks with the M4 chip selling for around $1,400–$1,700, which isn’t too bad and should comfortably meet your needs.

              The only exception would be if you really need to game on your device. Even then, your previous MacBook Pro probably wasn’t particularly strong for gaming either, so the difference would likely be minimal.

              Anyway, the way I see it, the price for laptops, storage, RAM, etc aren't gonna drop anytime soon. Not for another 2~3 years at least. The AI bubble is huge, but it's not big enough to burst just yet, so I doubt the prices will drop anytime soon. Good to buy whatever you need now. I've spent probably like $10K in the last 2 months just on electronics and if I were to sell them now, I would make a lot more than 10K, based on the current market price.

              • @Karens Hate Winners: Lucky, I haven't bought anything yet!
                Thanks for the tip! I'm still at work at the moment, but I think I'll hold off and see what I can find on Marketplace or TradeMe instead.

                • @rb3xu: Oh yeah, forgot to mention, don't forget to check for refurbished laptop deals. Some of them are pretty decent.

                • @rb3xu: Came across this today:
                  https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2599535057169860/

                  RTX 5070 with 32GB Ram and decent CPU and QHD for $2700 is pretty good. And 1TB storage instead of the neasely 512GB.

                  Keep in mind that storage and RAM are expensice these days.

                  You can haggle the price as well, maybe like $2500.

                  Also, I took delivery of the HP HyperX Omen 15 yesterday. Works well, doesn't get hot, which is good. I think the HyperX models are better than the previous HP Omen models (pre 2025). So if you still want to go for that, I'd say it's fine to do so.

                  • @Karens Hate Winners: Did you run the tests? I am still sitting on the fence.

                    • @rb3xu: yeah, ran a couple of benchmark tests to stress the CPU and GPU. All seems OK. The laptop is warm to the touch but it's not hot or anything concerning. It's not hitting the thermal ceiling either (which at the point gets throttled). I'm happy with it. I bought this for my partner, so she'll definitely has no problem using it.

                      It's definitely better than my spare HP Omen 16 2023, as that one runs an i9-13900HX and that chip is just terrible when it comes to thermal management. It runs hot easily even when the laptop is idling. And that's with Honeywell PTM thermal pad applied too (which did help quite a bit compared to using factory stock thermal pad, but it's still not good enough for me).

                      But I'd say the better buy is that MSI Katana one from Facebook. It's good value. I was chatting with the guy and he'll do $2550. It's rare to find laptops with 32GB RAM, 1TB storage, RTX 5070, QHD screen at that price these days. I've seen good deals for RTX 5060 and 24GB RAM for $1400 and $1800, but those are rare. I'm almost tempted to buy this and just flip it.

                      If you're gonna get it, I'd recommend get it quick. Go for a viewing and then you can decide. FB Marketplace is quite competitive, I've missed out a lot of good deals even though I was only 30mins ~ 1 hour late. I have sniping apps that catch good deals like this so I tend to be one of the first ones to act.

                      • @Karens Hate Winners: You go for it.
                        I’m from Chch, but hard for me to inspect it.

                        • @rb3xu: Check my new deal.
                          If you need a new Samsung phone

                          • @rb3xu: Oops, I missed your message, but I think I came across your deal anyway.

                            I had the chance to pick one up for around $1,800 after stacking all the discount codes, but I decided to pass. I still think that's a bit too expensive. I'm pretty happy with my Galaxy Fold 7 so far, especially since I only paid around $1,200 for it, so I'll be hanging onto it for a while.

                            Personally, I don't think phones should be anywhere near the $2,000 mark—they're just not worth that much to me. At the end of the day, they're still quite limited compared to a proper PC. The kind of work I do really requires a full desktop operating system and desktop-class performance, and no phone has quite reached that point yet. I'm well familiar with installing Linux and using emulation or whatever to turn a phone/tablet into a proper PC, but it's still not to my liking. I could also just remote into my cloud VM as well and manage everything from there, but there's just something about the phone experience that I really dislike. I tend to use a phone for the most basic of things, like taking photos/videos, maybe occasional light gaming for 2 mins while I'm in the toilet, and some apps that I use every now and then and a bit of socials, that's it.

                            Anyway, I recall you were looking at a Macbook. You might wanna check out these listings on Geekzone:
                            https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=77&topicid=325…
                            https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=77&topicid=325…

                            Also, I just picked up an MSI Claw 8 AI+ for $1,300. They're currently selling for $1,699 (discounted) at PB Tech. The nice thing is that you can use it in desktop mode with a full desktop OS, so it’s basically like having a laptop with much better portability. The CPU specs are actually better than one of my older non-gaming laptops from 2023, which is pretty impressive. I’m planning to use it mainly for doing some development work when I’m away for the weekend, rather than carrying around my gaming laptop around.

                      • @Karens Hate Winners: How is it after 1st week?

                        • @rb3xu: Well, I'm not the one using it, my partner is. That said, I did check with her every other day to see if she has any issues, especially with the loudness of the fan and the heat radiating from the laptop. Everything runs cool and she's happy with it.

                          However, I still think this deal is better:
                          https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2599535057169860/

                          You can get it down to $2550. I've asked the seller and that's the lowest he'll go. That's pretty good value.

                          • @Karens Hate Winners: Does your partner play games on it or just daily office use?

                            • @rb3xu: It’s mostly for her daily office use. The games she plays are mainly on her Nintendo Switch, like Stardew Valley, which you can even play on a phone nowadays.

                              I think the laptop is probably a bit overkill for her needs, but since I bought it as a gift, it's fine. I’m generally OK with making larger purchases as long as I feel they provide good value for the money.

  • Looked alright to me but hard to know in this market what's ok.

    I think for a local retailer this price seemed pretty good.

    • Yeah for a local market product it's a decent deal. Some people just want the protection of local purchasing and convenience.

      • Indeed. Yes useful if you don't want to rely on global warranty and expensive shipping/return costs.

        I think if you want protection of Consumer Guarantees Act then such local market options, while not the cheapest, still provide a greater level of assurance than other markets.

  • I would say this isnt bad, but would prefer a desktop instead.

  • The specs are incorrect on the website, confirmed by staff just now.

    LOQ Essentlal 15IRX11
    Mfg Date: 2025/09/23
    Input 20V-6.75A

    The display model has 1tb ssd.
    Micron MTFDKCD1T0QGN-1BN1AABLA

    16gb ddr5 single stick. 4800mt/s

    Its in the normal non essential case so the build quality is better but just with one fan/exhaust.

    Does anyone confirm if its power limited?.
    20x6.7 =134watts for both cpu and gpu.

    laptop cannot sustain maximum CPU + maximum GPU power simultaneously from the adapter alone.

    RTX 5060 Laptop GPU: up to 115W
    i5-13450HX CPU: can draw over 50W under heavy load

    • The LOQ Essential is a budget series designed to draw at most 135W, or around there. Using a stronger power adapter won't really help here. There's a reason why Lenovo has a budget gaming model, a mid-tier and a flagship tier. The same is true for other brands.

      The power draw is going to be weak and so the CPU and mainly the GPU are wasted on this laptop. That's why I said MEH to the specs. If you could get a cheap budget laptop with flagship level performance without being throttled, etc, then this would be a hack that everybody would have called this out by now. These are budget for a reason.

      • Yeah i came to that conclusion when i went there. i wanted to check the chassis, the exhaust and if a single stick of ram and factor having to open it and put a pair in.

        Then people complain this overheats during long sessions so its intentionally gimped.

    • It's pretty hard to run GPU and CPU flat out even when gaming since one will always be waiting for the other to some extent. There's also a battery that helps ride out the peaks. That said, My Legion 5 Pro has a massive 300w PSU but it never really needs it since I don't game for hours on end.

      RAM and SSD are crazy price currently - 1Tb 7000Mb/s Gen4 is $300-400 and 16Gb DDR5 SODIMM is around $400-500, so it's not a bad price for a reasonably good spec. Laptop.

      • You can get a 2TB Gen4 for less than $400 used. Just a few weeks ago, I got a WD Black SN7100 2TB for around $320 and a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB for $380. One is at 99% and the other at 100% health. And last week, I picked up a HP FX900 Plus 2TB for $300. This one isn't as good as the other 2, but still decent read/write speeds. Just gotta know where to look and have a bit of luck.

        • Just gotta know where to look and have a bit of luck

          Where? Marketplace? Taobao?

          • @felixfurtak: I'm not gonna list all of them, otherwise I'm gonna lose the advantage to get cheap stuff for myself. But generally, FB Marketplace, Trademe, Ebay, Amazon (they sell used items too and some of the used SSDs could be cheap), cash converters, and certain retail sites that sell specifically HDDs/SSDs etc.

            I tend to look for keywords like:
            - open box
            - 90~99% health
            - enterprise SSD

            This gives me quite a lot of options and room to negotiate as well. I'd usually be able to take off $50 from the original price.

  • i5 vs i7 processor better?

    • Maybe do some research…? ChatGPT is so accessible even my grandma knows how to use it.

      Short answer, it depends. Best thing to do is to just compare the CPU benchmark scores between models. And look at reviews.

  • pbtech is having a laptop sale, for $600 more you can get a 5070 ( deal not worth it)
    https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/NBKASU6080041/ASUS-TUF-Gami…

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