Lenovo says gamers happy to pay more despite component crisis

Lenovo’s gaming category lead for APJ Clifford Chong isn’t too worried about higher prices souring the appetites of consumers looking to buy a new gaming laptop in 2026.

“Most consumers actually, if you’re going to be at that price point, are only going to see a little bit of difference," he said.

Speaking to Reviews.org Australia ahead of the local launch of the company’s new eleventh-generation Legion gaming laptops, Chong reiterated that performance remained one of the biggest factors for those looking to buy a gaming laptop. 

“They know their stuff and are willing to go up [in price] if it gives them the experience and value that they want,” he said.

Although he admitted that there is a degree of demand elasticity in play when it comes to pricing, Chong asserted that many of the consumers already looking to pay a premium price aren’t as likely to balk at any potential price hikes caused by the components crisis.

According to him, the in-market reality is that while some customers do pay thousands of dollars for a gaming laptop, many more pay for their purchase using in-retailer financing options or Buy Now, Pay Later services like Afterpay. Broken out over a period of time or a series of instalments will do a lot to make any price hike a little easier to live with. 

Gaming laptops, like most consumer tech, are being threatened by the recent steep price increases to components like memory and storage. According to IDC's estimates, global PC shipments are expected to fall 11.3% in 2026 compared to 2025.

Lenovo’s general manager of consumer, Maroun El Khoury, described the components crisis as unprecedented times for the company and the broader consumer electronics market. 

“We’re never seen this sort of CPU, memory, and storage price rise,” he said, before adding that video card costs are also a factor.

In the short term, Khoury acknowledged the reality that prices are going up but added that the company is waiting to see how the market reacts. 

“First and foremost, we will always endeavour to be competitive in the market. That is our first objective. Second of all, we know what the total available market is, and we know what shoppers are prepared to pay at certain price points,” he explained. 

Still, that’s not to say that Lenovo’s response is just to hike its prices and hope for the best. 

According to Khoury, Lenovo is investing more resources in communicating to customers and ensuring that they are aware of the upgrade pathways that exist for a given laptop. Where in the past, the company might have favoured more memory that’s soldered onto the motherboard, it’s now erring in the other direction. 

Asked how handhelds like the Legion Go have contributed to the company’s local bottom line, Chong said that he is very happy with the results. 

“It helped us reach a lot of the consumers we didn’t previously reach out to before, simply because they don’t associate themselves as PC gamers,” he said.

Asked whether the growth of the handheld PC category might cannibalise the lower-end of the laptop market, Khoury pushed back.

“We’ve not seen a cannibalisation of our gaming numbers. If anything, we’ve gone through a solid two years' worth of growth in the Australian market, and handheld has definitely complemented that,” he said.