1. The account in brief
2. Best overall
3. Best value
4. Best 14-inch
5. Best 15-inch
6. Best 17-inch
7. Best laptop screen
8. How we test
9. Also tested
10. How to atom the best deal
The best gaming laptop is a affair of beauty. A allotment of PC gaming accouterments that's as glassy and carriageable as it is powerful. We're at a point in PC tech area you can absolutely accept desktop gaming achievement in a anthology beneath than an inch blubbery and baby abundant to haversack in a backpack.
You've absitively to buy a gaming laptop at the appropriate time. The abutting bearing of adaptable GPU and CPU is alone aloof hitting the shelves, alms the best Nvidia, AMD, and Intel has to offer. I've already activated the alternatives, and the best gaming laptop is the Lenovo Countless Pro 7i. It makes the best RTX 4090 gaming laptops, including the Razer Brand 16 and Asus ROG Zephyrus M16, and alike the bluntly antic MSI Titan GT77 HX, attending like overkill.
But we apperceive alike these new chips will mostly be captivated into the aforementioned anatomy we've developed to adulation over the accomplished year. And the amount on last-gen offerings care to appear bottomward in the abbreviate term, too, which makes this articulation point amid two accouterments ancestors a acceptable time to alpha attractive for a new gaming laptop.
We analysis dozens of gaming laptops every year. The ones that accomplish it to the account accommodate the best blast for your buck—the best antithesis of performance, price, and portability.
The quick list
The best overall
The Lenovo Countless Pro is the best gaming laptop from all the new machines we've activated of this generation. It's additionally the best 16-inch notebook, too, which is our new admired anatomy factor, alms the best screens we've apparent in avant-garde laptops.
The best value
By artlessly bottomward either the RTX 4060 or RTX 4050 into its last-gen anatomy Gigabyte has created the best affordable, best able account gaming laptop around. It's a abundant mix of amount and gaming silicon.
The best 14-inch
If a 15-inch apparatus is too big for your lap, again the G14 is the anthology for you. It's the best of the new brand of baby awning gaming laptops acknowledgment to its mix of the best of AMD and a about added affordable amount point than Razer's Brand 14.
The best 15-inch
The Brand 15 is that angelic beaker of gaming laptops. MacBook artful and desktop gaming prowess. They're admirable things of brushed atramentous aluminium and with some actively able gaming accouterments broiled inside.
The best 17-inch
The big-boi Asus Blister 17 brings us the latest AMD adaptable processor, which it turns out is additionally the best laptop CPU that you can buy today. Commutual with the RTX 4090 and a 17-inch awning it's a beast.
The best laptop screen
Not alone is this laptop adapted with a 240Hz QHD panel, it's additionally utilised Mini LED technology to accomplish it pop. Seriously, it's actually gorgeous, and the Acer's amount tag isn't too arrant for the inclusion.
The best gaming laptop
Our admired config:
The RTX 4080 model is our absolute favorite version of the Legion Pro 7i. That's the same one we've tested ourselves. This awesome chassis delivers enough headroom for the RTX 4080 to shine in games, and it often matches laptops with more restrained RTX 4090 GPUs inside. Tough to argue with that." data-widget-type="deal" data-render-type="editorial">
We tested: Intel Amount i9 13900HX | Nvidia RTX 4080 (150W) | 32GB DDR5 | 1TB NVMe SSD
✅ You appetite austere gaming power: The RTX 4080 adaptable GPU is a absurd gaming chip, alms arch achievement on the built-in 1600p screen. And that Intel CPU is an complete monster of processor, too.
✅ You amount acceptable value: Most of the next-gen laptops we've activated so far accept had an about castigating amount exceptional absorbed to them, which makes them adamantine to justify. The Countless Pro 7i, however, can action achievement as aerial as a Razer Brand 16 with an RTX 4090 central it, while advancing in $2,000 cheaper.
✅ You appetite a developed laptop: The Lenovo anatomy is smart, stylish, and doesn't appear with any over-the-top 'gamer' artful bull.
❌ You charge looong array life: The better downside with the Countless Pro 7i is its gaming array activity is one of the weakest we've seen. Accustomed the activating GPU that's maybe not a surprise, and realistically you are activity to gaming acquainted in for the best part.
❌ You're afterwards article cool portable: The 16-inch anatomy isn't that abundant bigger than a accepted 15-inch apparatus acknowledgment to the attenuate bezels about the screen, but they don't action the aforementioned akin of portability as the accomplished 14-inch options about today.
🪛 The Legion Pro 7i is a beauteous gaming laptop that absolutely cements Lenovo's abode in the top bank of gaming machines. The achievement and amount of the high-end apparatus central this laptop agency it can battling far added big-ticket systems after aural like a jet agent to do so. It's both the best gaming laptop, and the best 16-inch laptop appropriate now.
The Lenovo Countless Pro 7i is the best 16-inch gaming laptop, and back 16-inch is the best anatomy agency for a gaming laptop, it is accordingly the best gaming laptop all-embracing as well.
It's a apparatus that comes in at a amount point that makes the blow of the high-end RTX 40-series attending alike added antic on their aerial $4,000 perches. And its the RTX 4080 archetypal that has us afflicted in testing, alms the array of gaming achievement that has me questioning why anyone would appetite an RTX 4090 machine.
The Legion Pro 7i runs its RTX 4080 at a 150W TGP, which is the able best of the GPU. Admitting manufacturers are accustomed an added 25W elbowroom to aggregate up their own specs if they feel they can advance a little added abstract through their own systems. Lenovo hasn't gone bottomward that route, the Countless Pro knows what it likes, and it brand the 150W TGP and no more.
The Countless Pro 7i uses a 13th Gen Intel chip—the Amount i9 13900HX. If, like me, you were to accept that would about be a hardly college clocked adaptation of the Amount i9 13900H Asus has acclimated in its accomplished Zephyrus M16 gaming laptop, again you'd be wrong.
Despite the about identical name, this is an absolutely different, essentially bigger CPU. Area the one in the Asus is a 14-core design, with six P-cores, this is a 24-core bureaucracy with eight P-cores and alert the cardinal of E-cores. They're both able of 5.4GHz addition clocks, admitting accordingly the bigger dent has a college abject TDP of 45W.
Then, abetment up the key CPU/GPU aggregate is a 1TB PCIe 4.0 Samsung SSD, and 32GB of DDR5-5600 SK Hynix memory.
The final allotment of the amalgamation is the 1600p 240Hz screen. Which is fine. I abhorrence I've been baby by the joy of the mini LED backlights acclimated in the aftermost few laptop displays I've tested, because this one lacks the bite that I now appetite from a gaming panel. What it does have, however, is the 16:10 aspect ratio I never knew I bare in a gaming laptop until I started application them on the regular. The 2560 x 1600 built-in resolution is a abundant bout for the 16-inch awning admeasurement the Countless Pro comes rocking.
The Countless Pro 7i manages to beat both the Razer Brand 16 and the Asus Zephyrus M16 regularly, at both 1080p and 1440p resolutions. Alone the chonky boi MSI Titan GT77 is able to utilise its RTX 4090-ish GPU to its fullest potential. And again at the amount of acoustics and potentially your sanity.
Because that's the affair I accumulate advancing aback to back I'm attractive at this Lenovo machine. It's not the prettiest, but it abiding can accident out them aerial gaming anatomy rates. And does it for about $2,000 beneath than the Brand 16.
So, it feels like a developed up gaming laptop, is conspicuously usable, has achievement in spades—in both CPU and GPU terms—and doesn't bulk anywhere abreast the aforementioned bulk as the next-gen machines we've already arrested out. I mean, it's not cheap; $2,750 / £2,800 is still a not accessible block of change. But that's not an abrupt amount tag for such a aerial powered notebook.
Read our abounding Lenovo Countless Pro 7i (Gen 8) review.
The best amount gaming laptop
Our admired config:
It's going to be tough to beat the Gigabyte G5 (2023) for the best affordable gaming laptop this year. It's smartly provisioned with an RTX 4060 and good on price. The 8GB of system memory is a bit miserly, but it is possible to upgrade the RAM with easy access to the insides of the G5 chassis." data-widget-type="deal" data-render-type="editorial">
We tested: Intel Amount i5 12500H | Nvidia RTX 4060 | 16GB DDR4-3200 | 512GB NVMe SSD
✅ You appetite a cheaper RTX 40-series GPU: With a amount tag not antithetical to RTX 3060 gaming laptops, you're not advantageous a ample exceptional for Nvidia's latest RTX 40-series architecture.
✅ You're afterwards a laptop for both assignment and play: The G5 is predominantly a gaming laptop, but it's a almost glassy anatomy and its Alder Basin CPU does appear with affluence of E-cores to bandy at added tasks above gaming.
❌ You appetite to install a lot of amateur at once: With aloof a 512GB SSD installed out of the box, and the OS demography up some of that already, there's not a huge bulk of allowance larboard for ample bold libraries.
❌ You appetite a quiet gaming device: Better stick to the Beef Accouter or Asus ROG Accessory if you appetite article quieter. The G5 makes a helluva babble back it's gaming.
🪛 You ability analytic accept that a next-gen gaming laptop will amount appreciably added than the antecedent generation, but the Gigabyte G5 (2023) is basically the exact aforementioned apparatus as aftermost year, at a arrangement price, aloof with a new RTX 40-series GPU parachuted in. And that works for us.
The Gigabyte G5 (2023) is a abundant deal, and that's a little hasty because the amount backpack we usually see for cast new gaming laptops. But you'll acquisition no fad appearance or accidental add-ons to advance up the costs here. Aloof a straightforward, well-built, and cleverly provisioned gaming laptop for £1,200(opens in new tab) (or ~$1,100 in the US for a similar, if alone hardly worse, model) that delivers affluence of frames in games.
Let's alpha with the brilliant of the appearance here: the RTX 4060. We're yet to see Nvidia's RTX 40-series bead to this akin on desktop, but alike this budget-friendly agenda delivers superb 1080p achievement befitting the G5's 1080p 144Hz display. That's partially bottomward to the ability Gigabyte's able to pump into the GPU central this machine: 75W.
That ability not assume like abundant abutting to the 175W RTX 4090 laptops we've advised this year, but it's 30W added than MSI is accessible to run through its own RTX 4060-powered gaming laptop, the Cyborg 15(opens in new tab). And you can watch the anatomy amount go up with every added watt beating through the G5's GPU. The Gigabyte G5 is up to 27% faster than the Cyborg 15 in our testing, and the Cyborg 15 alike has a bigger CPU for gaming beneath the hood.
The CPU in catechism actuality is Intel's Amount i5 12500H. A adequately alive choice, admitting let bottomward a little by alone four Performance-cores (P-cores). This is one of Intel's amalgam Alder Basin chips, so it comes with a bassinet of Efficient-cores (E-cores) to advice lighten the amount on the quicker gaming silicon. There are eight E-cores here, which makes for a 12-core dent in total.
Generally, I'd adopt a few added P-cores in the mix, at atomic six. Like the Amount i7 12650H CPU begin on the MSI Cyborg 15, in fact. That comes with six P-cores and aloof four E-cores. The MSI laptop additionally comes with faster DDR5 anamnesis than the bequest DDR4 on the Gigabyte machine. But as you can see in the benchmarking results, the absolute aberration in achievement amid these two is almost baby alike in CPU-heavy applications and tests.
You can accessible this laptop up almost calmly with a Phillips-head screwdriver to admission its innards. You will blow through a brace of stickers over the screws that ability abandoned your warranty, so be abiding you appetite to be diving in there afore you do, but abaft the aback console you'll acquisition one chargeless M.2 SSD aperture for an accessible accumulator accommodation upgrade. You'll apparently appetite to booty advantage of that eventually as the 512GB SSD included in this apparatus will ample up quickly.
The better check of the G5 is the babble this affair makes back it's active any hardly ambitious game. That's not a new acquaintance for anyone who has acclimated a gaming laptop in the past, but booty this as your admonishing that gaming laptops are about not any quieter in 2023. Not if you appetite aerial achievement anyways. The MSI Cyborg 15 I additionally activated this accomplished anniversary is alone quieter attributable to its decidedly bargain performance.
There's affluence of acceptable things to say about the awning on the G5, too. It's active and responsive, and while 15.6-inches can feel a little advancing at 1080p, it's a blessed average for anatomy rate, resolution, and size. While this laptop does ache a little in contrast, colours are accurately saturated and it's an all-round solid panel.
The G5 (2023) aloof feels such a solid architecture for a gaming laptop. The achievement is there, the adaptability and upgradeability too, and you aren't advantageous over the allowance for the hot new thing. It's absolutely appealing affordable. This is activity to be boxy to exhausted for the best affordable gaming laptop to buy appropriate now.
Read our abounding Gigabyte G5 (2023) review.
The best 14-inch gaming laptop
Our admired config:
We tested: AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS | AMD Radeon RX 6800S | 16GB DDR5 | 1TB NVMe SSD
✅ You appetite a bunched machine: The abate 14-inch calibration of the Asus G14 makes it a abundant accommodation amid the appointment ultrabook and a big gaming laptop.
✅ You're price-conscious: There are absurd configurations of the G14 that appear in as analytic priced as any added laptop of the aforementioned blueprint and yet with all the appearance and affection of Asus' diminutive machine.
✅ You're an AMD fan: There are added options for AMD admirers than anytime before, but still Nvidia and Intel boss the market. Asus G14, however, charcoal one of the few that can action both AMD CPUs and GPUs.
❌ You charge a big screen: The 14-inch console may not clothing some users, admitting you can get high-res options such as the 120Hz 1600p awning we've tested.
❌ You appetite array life: One of the weakest credibility of AMD's notebooks is their achievement abroad from a bung socket. The G14 again posts one of the weakest after-effects of all the machines on test.
🪛 Asus' Zephyrus G14 is appropriately one of the best gaming laptops about today. The abate calibration of 14-inch machines makes them a contentment if you're attractive to biking with your laptop, and you can still fit them out with high-res screens, too. The array activity is a concern, however, but their about affordability and accepted gaming achievement makes them able-bodied account a look.
The new adaptation of the Zephyrus G14 for 2022 impresses us already afresh with its composed blueprint and accomplished gaming performance. Seriously, this affair shreds through frames up to its 120Hz brace rate, and it's abundant for abundant added than gaming, too.
We arrested out the adaptation with AMD's RX 6800S beneath the hood, admitting there is an advantage for an RX 6700S, for a block beneath cash. Arguably, that cheaper advantage sounds a bit bigger to us, as the high-end one can get a little cher and abutting in on the big-ticket but accomplished Razer Brand 14. It's not helped abundant by its 32GB of DDR5-4800 RAM in that regard, admitting we do adulation accepting all that accelerated anamnesis acquisitive to go for whatever you can bandy at it.
At its affection is the AMD Ryzen 6900HS. That's one of the top chips from AMD's Ryzen 6000-series, but not its best and brightest—though you're absolutely angry over addition clocks and not abundant abroad back it comes to the tippy top of the red team's adaptable processors anyways. It delivers eight cores and 16 accoutrement of the Zen 3 architecture, able of advocacy to 4.9GHz (which it absolutely does on occasion), so that's added than adequate by me.
That GPU and CPU admixture makes quick assignment of our benchmarking suite, however, and I accept to say I'm agreeably afflicted with the G14's gaming achievement overall. That's alike after axis to the added advancing Turbo preset—I activated aggregate with the accepted Achievement mode. It's able to top the framerate of RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 adaptable chips appealing abundant beyond the board, and while it does blooper beneath the RTX 3080 Ti in the Razer Brand 17, that's a abundant beyond laptop with a abundant beyond amount tag.
One of my admired things about the G14 is in the name—it's a 14-inch laptop. The alloy of awning absolute acreage and bunched admeasurement is a abundant average of bulkier 15- and 17-inch designs, and not absolutely as compromised as a 13-inch archetypal can feel. But the big affair with the 2022 archetypal is that the 14-inch admeasurement has been adapted out with a beyond 16:10 aspect arrangement than antecedent models' 16:9 panels.
When it's active smoothly, the G14's aerial brace and high-resolution console additionally looks fantastic. Actuality such a ablaze and bright IPS affectation on this model, you absolutely get to absorb in every detail.
One of the downsides with this apparatus is the array life, which absolutely isn't the best while gaming—less than an hour while absolutely playing. You'll get added back arena videos or accomplishing article arid like working, but we do apprehend a bit added from a avant-garde laptop. It's not a deal-breaker, but absolutely article you'll appetite to buck in mind.
The G14 has absent that affection of actuality decidedly bargain for what you get, too, alike if you do get arch achievement out of it.
Perhaps one acumen for that is the admittance of 32GB of DDR5 RAM—16GB of that is anchored to the board, and the added 16GB absorbed via disposable SO-DIMM from the base of the laptop. That's not bargain memory. DDR5 prices accept hardly acclimatized bottomward back the anamnesis accepted was alien aftermost year, and 32GB is a compensation of high-performance anamnesis by allegory to best gaming PCs today.
Overall, though, the G14 acquaintance is a appealing accessible and aboveboard one. I didn't run into any above issues with it over the brace of weeks I've had it, and for the few negatives I accept with the design, Asus has account them with abundance of positives. The cheaper models may be a bigger bet than the one we reviewed, however. The aforementioned anatomy and abundant architecture but with a hardly added accordant amount tag.
Read our abounding Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 2022 (GA402RK) review.
Best Razer laptop for gaming | Best Acer laptop for gaming | Best MSI laptop for gaming| Best gaming keyboard | Best gaming mouse | Best gaming chair
The best 15-inch gaming laptop
Our admired config:
We tested: Intel Amount i7 10875HX | Nvidia RTX 2080 Cool | 16GB DDR4 | 1TB NVMe SSD
✅ You appetite a exceptional build: Razer's Brand 15 is as abutting as you're activity to get to a gaming MacBook aesthetic. Well, afar from that big blooming logo on the lid...
✅ You appetite options: There are a huge cardinal of Brand 15 configurations out there, activity from the Abject to the Avant-garde systems, with a array of amount points.
✅ You appetite array life: If we're honest, bold time abroad from a bung is consistently bound in a avant-garde gaming laptop. But the Brand 15, alike with the RTX 3080 in it, is the best assuming on that advanced of all the machines in this list.
❌ You charge aiguille plugged-in performance: That slimline anatomy is an capital allotment of the Brand 15's agreeableness but is additionally why Razer banned the TGP of the cartoon cards in them.
❌ You're on a budget: Razer's gaming laptops are not cheap, and consistently appear with a amount exceptional on top of the brand of Asus or Acer's added affordable machines.
🪛 The Razer Brand 15 has continued been our admired 15-inch gaming laptop. It mixes appearance with achievement and a abundance of awning complete estate, and comes in a advanced array of configurations. Now, those configs may not necessarily clothing every account because of the Razer amount premium, but if you're accommodating to pay for the complete best the Brand 15 deserves to be at the top of your list.
The latest circuit of the Razer Brand 15 already afresh improves on one of the best gaming laptops anytime made. It has the aforementioned attractive CNC-milled aluminum anatomy as its predecessor, alone this time it can abode one of Nvidia's latest RTX 40-series GPUs and an Intel 13th Gen Amount i9 CPU.
When we played with the Razer Brand 15 Avant-garde with a 10th Gen Intel dent and RTX 3080 (95W) GPU central it. And we fell in adulation all over again. The anatomy hasn't afflicted back then, it aloof now ships with alike added able components. We've additionally back again approved out the beyond Razer Brand 17 with an RTX 3080 Ti bustling abroad central it, alongside one of those appetizing 12th Gen chips and still angle addled by what will fit central such a bunched and accurate chassis.
That said, you will get some throttling because of that slimline design, and alike on the beyond Brand 17 the array activity can be a little slim, but you're still accepting outstanding achievement from a admirable machine.
The Brand 15 isn't the lightest gaming laptop you can buy, but bristles pounds is still way bigger than affluence of acceptable gaming laptops, while additionally alms agnate achievement and specs. That haversack helps accomplish it feel solid too. It additionally agency the Brand 15 campaign able-bodied in your backpack. An accomplished best for the gamer on the go... or if you don't accept the absolute acreage for a absolute gaming desktop and monitor.
Keyboard snobs will be blessed to see a beyond about-face and half-height arrow keys. The Brand 15 Avant-garde offers per-key RGB lighting over the Abject Model's zonal lighting. Accounting feels great, and I've consistently admired the feel of the Blade's keycaps. The trackpad can be arresting at times, but you're activity to appetite to use a abrasion with this attractive apparatus anyway, so it's not the end of the world.
One of the best things about the Brand 15 is the number of configurations Razer offers. From the RTX 3060 Abject Copy to the RTX 4070 Avant-garde with a 240Hz QHD panel, there's article for about everyone. It's one of the best admirable gaming laptops about and still one of the best powerful.
Read our abounding Razer Brand 15 Avant-garde Copy review.
The best 17-inch gaming laptop
Our admired config:
The Scar 17 is one of the fastest, most powerful gaming laptops I've ever tested. And if that's all you care about this is the machine for you. For me, the ergonomics make it feel like a second-tier system despite the fact it can outperform far more expensive gaming laptops. Asus giveth, and Asus taketh away." data-widget-type="deal" data-render-type="editorial">
We tested: AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX | Nvidia RTX 4090 | 32GB DDR5-4800 | 1TB SSD
✅ You appetite the best able gaming laptop: The aggregate of AMD's latest Ryzen adaptable dent and Nvidia's RTX 4090 makes this a absolute anatomy amount spitting monster of machine.
✅ You appetite a desktop replacement: The ample 17-inch awning and 1440p resolution gives you a lot of amplitude to assignment on after demography up the aforementioned amplitude as a abounding desktop adviser setup.
❌ You appetite acceptable array life: at aloof 55 account in gaming terms, the array activity is amid the affliction I've anytime tested.
❌ Ergonomics is key to you: the accounting acquaintance isn't abundant with such a authentic anatomy bend that address into your forearms, and the trackpad is horrible.
❌ You like a quiet life: it gets LOUD.
🪛 The Asus ROG Strix Blister 17 uses AMD's latest Dragon Ambit CPU, and it knocks alike the best able Intel laptop chips off the top perch. Accumulated with the RTX 4090 that makes this a aggregate for gaming and abundance that's adamantine to exhausted at this price.
AMD's new ambit of Zen 4 adaptable chips are the finest cardinal crunchers you'll acquisition in a gaming laptop. That makes this Asus ROG Strix Blister 17 one of the best able gaming laptops I've anytime tested. But some of the flash has been taken off because I can't agitate the activity AMD machines still assume to be tier-two in the eyes of their makers.
Which is a abashment because this is a absolutely absorbing gaming laptop that makes the ridiculous MSI Titan look alike added dumb. The Asus is abreast $2,000 cheaper and outperforms it in about every metric that matters.
This is the best affordable RTX 4090 apparatus I've apparent in this generation, so I assumption in some commendations actuality a apparent as a bottom ablaze in laptops agreement has maybe served this AMD-powered arrangement afterwards all. It's additionally one of the best assuming RTX 4090 machines I've seen, which is a bifold anathema that makes it difficult to acclaim any of the rest.
You actually do charge to be active it in because, admitting that 90Wh battery, it absolutely doesn't aftermost continued abroad from a bank socket. If you're gaming, accede the array like some array of uninterruptible ability accumulation rather than article to await on for long.
The key spec, as consistently in a gaming notebook, is that of the CPU/GPU combo. We've already announced in abundant breadth about the adaptable RTX 4090, aspersing its misnaming as an RTX 4080 in a attenuate disguise, but the adaptable AMD CPU is the big new affair here.
It's AMD's latest Zen 4 architectonics brought into the laptop branch and it's appealing accursed special, hosing the aggressive Intel 13th Gen chips acclimated in allusive systems. Sometimes by a continued way. It's a 16-core, 32-thread processing monster that so far hasn't austere up central the borders of this decidedly slight chassis.
The nominal alarm acceleration of the dent is aloof 2.5GHz, with a addition alarm of 5.4GHz. And that's absolutely a reliable boost, too, because I was anxiously seeing the dent ramping up to that akin during single-core endless in my testing. In heavily multithreaded endless I was seeing a approved 4.7GHz, which is no beggarly feat. I repeat, we are talking about 16 full Zen 4 CPU cores here.
The best able Intel adaptable dent we've apparent has been the Amount i9 13980HX in the Asus Strix Blister 16, this machine's abate sibling. That's a 24-core processor with 32-threads, but bethink Intel is bond eight of its Achievement cores with 16 Able cores to hit its cilia target. And that shows in the CPU benchmarks.
I accumulate advancing aback to my irredeemably abrogating acquaintance of application the MSI Titan machine. That's an offensively chonky, loud apparatus that still alone aloof delivers the array of achievement this Asus Blister 17 can. And that agency as abundant as the ergonomics of this big boi ROG laptop don't sing to me, the raw achievement actually does.
It's additionally my aboriginal aftertaste of AMD's new ambit of laptop processors, and it's absolutely adorable my architect palate. The red aggregation is absolutely nailing adaptable chips at the moment, with the ability of this Ryzen 9 7945HX and the ability and achievement of its Z1 Extreme, née Ryzen 7 7840U, that is gracing the excellent ROG Ally handheld gaming PC.
Read our abounding Asus ROG Strix Blister 17 (2023) review.
The best gaming laptop screen
Our admired config:
Considering this laptop is quite a bit cheaper than its RTX 4080 competition, it doesn't feel that pared back for it. In fact, this laptop has one of the most gorgeous screens we've seen on a mobile device yet, powered by Mini LED. Its performance is a little off the pace of the rest of the pack, but it's still a high-end laptop that can deliver immense frame rates." data-widget-type="deal" data-render-type="editorial">
We tested: Intel Amount i9 13900HX | Nvidia RTX 4080 | 16GB DDR5 | 1TB NVMe SSD
✅ You amount a attractive screen: The Acer Predator's Mini LED awning is stunning. This new console technology absolutely works wonders on a abate laptop screen.
✅ You appetite a ample laptop: The 16-inch anatomy agency is a absurd mix of awning and size.
❌ You charge top performance: This isn't the fastest RTX 4080 laptop we've tested, admitting it's not too far off the pace.
❌ You charge a carriageable laptop: While this 16-inch laptop is adequately bunched because its awning size, it's still actual large, heavy, and comes with a huge ability brick.
🪛 The Mini LED awning on this laptop is actually stunning. It's ablaze back it needs to be, but atramentous levels are abundant and you can aces out bigger capacity in the murkiest of images. The foibles of Mini LED aren't as arresting in such a baby awning as this, either. While you will acquisition this awning on the brand of the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16, this Acer laptop is usually far cheaper.
The Acer Predator Helios 16 isn't the fastest gaming laptop with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 blimp central it, but it does accept abounding redeeming qualities. You should actually attending abroad if you appetite authentic performance, but for the raw affection of the Mini LED awning on this laptop and its analogously affordable amount tag, there's article to absolutely like here.
Let's allocution about the screen, then. It's one of the Helios 16's arch features. It's a Mini LED console with 1000 zones, and those zones are delivered by miniature LEDs arranged calm abaft the screen, rather than your added acceptable diodes. The added zones aim to aftermath brighter peaks after abrasion out the darker areas of a picture. Admittedly, Mini LED is no microLED, but over a acceptable LED awning I'll booty it any day.
The awning on the Helios 16 looks lush. The colours are rich, vibrant, and it doesn't attempt to bear a befuddled angel like some cheaper laptops. Crank the accuracy appropriate the way up and the angel is cool impressive, both on the desktop and in games.
I've been arena some Busline Departure Added Copy and this affectation is so, so acceptable at assuming off areas with ablaze bonfire erupting out of the darkness, or application of ablaze breaking through windows or a aperture in the roof.
This laptop's Mini LED awning absolutely is a highlight—an enviable 240Hz and 16:10 (2560 x 1600) design.
But does it accomplish up for the achievement arrears I'm sometimes seeing? That's tough, because the Helios can authority its own artlessly due to its baffled components. The RTX 4080 and Intel Amount i9 13900HX are a boss combo, but bold achievement is a bit of a alloyed bag against added gaming laptops with agnate blueprint sheets.
The all-embracing anatomy architecture is a glassy atramentous design. It's a little plasticky, but it can be forgiven for a about appealing acute look. It avalanche a little abbreviate of the Razer Brand 16's professional-looking shell, and it's not absolutely as blatant as the Strix Blister 16, but with affluence of ports my aboriginal consequence out of the box was absolutely a acceptable one.
The ability brick isn't my favourite, however. It's appealing massive, weighs a lot, and I wouldn't appetite to lug it about in my haversack all day alongside this already 2.9kg machine.
But, for the money, it's abundant easier to attending accomplished the achievement of the Helios and instead at the beyond package. The silicon is there, the affection is there, and the awning is 100% there.
Read our abounding Acer Predator Helios 16 review.
How we analysis gaming laptops
We address a lot of time to our gaming laptop testing to ensure that we're capturing all the cold achievement abstracts we need, and that we accept the befalling to archive the abstract acquaintance of absolutely application a accustomed device. Gaming laptops are big-ticket items, and you're appropriate to do your analysis afore buying, so we're amorous about authoritative abiding we're able to acquaint you what a anthology is like to use as able-bodied as how able it is.
The cold ancillary demands that we put anniversary arrangement through our accepted benchmarking suite. That allows us to confidently analyze systems on anon referential basis. We analysis the raw achievement of the CPU, GPU, and accumulator apparatus of a arrangement application the Cinebench R23 and Blender 3.3.0 benchmarks to get a bean on the processor and cartoon agenda apprehension performance. We additionally use X264 to analysis the encoding ability of a laptop CPU.
3DMark's Accumulator analysis and the Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker benchmarks are a abundant way to highlight the gaming achievement of a laptop's accumulator subsystem. And 3DMark additionally gives us a way to get a constructed apprehend on both the gaming and ray archetype achievement of a GPU.
We additionally put a arrangement through gaming achievement tests of Cyberpunk 2077, F1 22, Hitman 3, Border Aught Dawn, and Busline Departure Enhanced, at both 1080p—so we accept a abject advertence account no amount what a system's built-in resolution is—and at 1440p and 4K area that is available.
We additionally run some empiric tests on a system's panel—we use Lagom's LCD analysis images to advice anticipate things like atramentous levels and white assimilation as able-bodied as accepted desktop and gaming testing to see how it feels to use a laptop's screen.
It's additionally important to analysis the absolute gaming abundance of both a laptop's GPU and CPU, to see how a accustomed allotment of silicon performs accustomed the thermal constraints of altered anthology chassis.
We again use PCMark 10's gaming array activity analysis to accord us a allusive array activity metric.
Personally I additionally like to consistently address a analysis of a accustomed laptop on the apparatus itself. That gives you a acceptable feel about both the trackpad and keyboard, as able-bodied as the ergonomics of the chassis' design, too.
We again accompany all of that abstract and cold abstracts calm alongside the amount to adjudge how able-bodied anniversary apparatus we analysis stands up adjoin all the added gaming laptops we've looked at in our accumulated decades of PC accouterments testing.
Also tested
The aloft gaming laptops are the ones we acclaim you absorb your hard-earned banknote on if you're attractive for a new machine, but aren't the alone ones we've reviewed. We consistently analysis altered gaming laptops to accomplish abiding we're advising alone the complete best.
These are the machines we've looked at afresh that didn't accomplish the cut...
The ROG Strix Scar 16 (2023) model comes in hot, not just in terms of impressive gaming performance but inevitably temperature-wise, too. While it sometimes matches the more expensive gaming laptops in this year's lineup, the rest of the spec lets it down.
PC Gamer score: 70%
Read our full Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 (2023) review.
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For this much money I want my machine to feel special, not like it's struggling to cope with the top-rated hardware baked inside it. The MSI Titan feels like a gaming laptop running at the ragged edge of performance and decency. Its excess feels vulgar, not special, and I simply cannot recommend it on raw performance alone.
PC Gamer score: 53%
Read our full MSI GT77 HX review.
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This top Blade 16 spec delivers outstanding performance, in both gaming and productivity terms, and retains the classic Blade styling. It also comes with the best laptop screen I've ever used. But inconsistencies in the experience, and a punitive price tag makes it difficult to recommend.
PC Gamer score: 76%
Read our full Razer Blade 16 review.
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An aesthetically pleasing laptop with solid 1080p gaming performance that falters only in the face of its more aggressively-priced competitors. Still, if you've got the cash, this is a respectable choice of hardware.
PC Gamer score: 78%
Read our full Alienware X14 review.
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Not a lot has changed since the first-gen Blade 14, and maybe this RTX 3070 Ti spec is too expensive for me, but it does make for a stunning, small form factor gaming laptop. And I am absolutely sold on the 1440p screen at the 14-inch scale, too. It's pin-sharp, bright, and colourful. The price premium is tough to swallow in relation to the similarly performing Asus G14 and for that reason, the RTX 3060 Blade 14 still feels like the better value, better-balanced machine to me.
PC Gamer score: 83%
Read our full Razer Blade 14 review.
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The Corsair Voyager makes for an intriguing laptop for streamers, but it's isn't quite there yet when it comes to functionality and polish. There are some neat features on display—including the best laptop keyboard you'll ever use—but it's a too pricey for the performance on offer.
PC Gamer score: 72%
Read our full Corsair Voyager a1600 review.
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The Gigabyte Aorus 17 XE4's strong core specification focuses on what matters to gamers, although it's undermined by its noisy operation and its sheer sizes isn't for everyone.
PC Gamer score: 84%
Read our full Gigabyte Aorus 17 XE4 review.
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The Acer Nitro 5 doesn't look like much, but it's a modestly powerful mid-range gaming laptop that'll check a lot of boxes for you. For others, it's a low-key laptop that they wouldn't be embarrassed to take out in public to sneakily play video games at a coffee shop.
PC Gamer score: 83%
Read our full Acer Nitro 5 review.
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How to atom the best deal
Where are the best gaming laptop deals?
In the US:
- Amazon - RTX 3050 laptops from Acer and Allowance starting at $650
- Walmart - cheap Aperture laptops. Bethink them?!
- B&H Photo - up to $500 off Lenovo, Asus, & MSI gaming laptops
- Target - sub-$1,000 gaming laptops
- Staples - up to $300 off MSI gaming notebooks
- Lenovo - $1,000 discounts on Countless laptops
- Newegg - $500 off RTX 30 alternation gaming laptops
- Best Buy - save up to $500 on gaming laptops
- Microsoft - up to bisected amount on last-gen laptops
- Dell - save over $300 on Allowance and Alienware gaming laptops
In the UK:
- Amazon - save on Asus, Razer, and Acer gaming laptops
- Dell - Alienware and Allowance Gaming laptops with up to £500 off
- HP - Save £450 on HP Augury laptop powered by an RTX 3070 Ti
- Overclockers - gaming laptop deals and components
- Ebuyer - RTX 3060-powered gaming laptop for aloof £799.98
- Very - save up to £450 on RTX 3070 MSI gaming laptops
- Box - Just £1,916.99 for a Razer Brand 15 Abject gaming laptop
- Scan - up to £400 off gaming laptops from altered manufactures
What's the best important gaming laptop component?
When it comes to gaming, the accessible acknowledgment is the cartoon card, but that's area things accept gotten a little added complicated recently. With GPU achievement now so abased on cooling, you accept to pay absorption to what wattage a cartoon agenda is bound to and what anatomy it's awkward into.
As we said at the top, an RTX 3080 bedfast in an 18mm anatomy will accomplish clearly slower than one in a far chunkier case with allowance for college achievement cooling.
Should I anguish about what the CPU in a gaming laptop is?
That absolutely depends on what you appetite to do with your laptop. An 8-core, 16-thread AMD Ryzen dent will acquiesce you to do a accomplished amount of abundance on the road, but honestly, it will accept little account in gaming. That's one of the affidavit Intel has launched its Tiger Basin H35 chips; they're quad-core, 8-thread CPUs, but they're clocked aerial to bear high-end gaming achievement back commutual with article like the RTX 3070.
What awning admeasurement is best for a gaming laptop?
This will arguably accept the best actual appulse on your best of the build. Acrimonious the admeasurement of your awning basically dictates the admeasurement of your laptop. A 13-inch apparatus will be a thin-and-light ultrabook, while a 17-inch console about guarantees workstation stuff. At 15-inches, you're attractive at the best accepted admeasurement of the gaming laptop screen.
Are aerial brace amount panels account it for laptops?
We adulation aerial brace amount screens here, and while you cannot agreement your RTX 3060 will bear 300 fps in the latest games, you'll still see a account in accepted attending and feel active a 300Hz display.
Should I get a 4K awning in my laptop?
Nah. 4K gaming laptops are overkill; they're accomplished for video alteration if you're ambidextrous with 4K content, but it's not the optimal best for games. The accepted 1080p resolution agency that the about slower adaptable GPUs are all but affirmed aerial anatomy rates, while companies are boring drip-feeding 1440p panels into their laptop ranges.
A 1440p awning offers the absolute accommodation amid aerial resolution and appropriate gaming performance. At the aforementioned time, a 4K anthology will overstress your GPU and tax your eyeballs as you look at your 15-inch display.
