The best gaming laptop is determined by performance, portability, and price. So, whether you require a massive workstation or a sleek, good ultra-thin gaming notebook, your future gaming laptop should be able to integrate into your daily life seamlessly. As much as we’d all like to have the best gaming PC, the reality is that only some have the space for a full-size PC and monitor setup.
It’s the right kind of time to invest in a laptop because of the ongoing CPU battle between AMD and Intel. No, gaming laptops are currently among the most heavily discounted items, and the specs on most of them are pretty good.
AMD’s Ryzen 6000-series of processors and Intel’s 12th-Gen Alder Lake chips appear to be performance equals. On the GPU front, Intel Arc mobile GPUs are beginning to compete with Nvidia and AMD, at least for entry-level gaming laptops. Despite AMD’s best efforts, Nvidia’s RTX 30-series mobile GPUs have been difficult to beat if you’re searching for a gaming laptop with a bit more horsepower.
If your budget allows it, consider purchasing a gaming laptop with a fast NVMe SSD (at least 512GB). Even if you choose an entry-level GPU/CPU configuration, SSDs provide a fast and reliable storage solution that reduces game loading times. Some laptops even have high refresh rate displays, which may be appealing if you’re a competitive gamer looking to actively hone your skills from virtually anywhere.
People test dozens of gaming laptops every year. The ones on the list provide the most bang for your buck. They provide the best balance of performance, price, and portability for your budget.
The Razer Blade 15
The recent iteration of the Razer Blade 15 ameliorates one of the best gaming laptops ever created. It has the same stunning CNC-milled aluminum chassis as its predecessor, but it can accommodate one of Nvidia’s top latest RTX 30-series GPUs and reputed Intel 12th Gen Core i9 CPU this time.
The Blade 15 isn’t the lightest kind of gaming laptop on the market, but it’s still lighter than many traditional gaming laptops while offering comparable performance and specs. That heft also contributes to the feeling of solidity. It also means that the Blade 15 will fit comfortably in your backpack. It is an ideal alternative for mobile gamers.
One of the great attributes of the Blade 15 is the variety of configurations available from Razer. There’s something for everyone, from the RTX 3060 Base kind of Edition to the top RTX 3080 Ti advanced with a 144Hz 4K panel. It’s one of the most visually appealing gaming laptops available and one of the most powerful.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022)
The new Zephyrus G14 for 2022 continues to impress us with its well-balanced spec and excellent gaming performance. Seriously, this thing rips through frames at up to 120Hz refresh rate, and it’s useful for much more than just gaming.
The AMD Ryzen 6900HS processor is at its heart. That’s one of AMD’s top Ryzen 6000-series chips, but not its best and brightest—though you’re fighting over boost clocks and not much else at the top of the red team’s mobile processors. It has eight cores and 16 kinds of threads of the Zen 3+ architecture and can boost to 4.9GHz (which it occasionally does), which is more than enough for me.
One of the best features of the G14 is its name: it’s a 14-inch laptop. The combination of screen real estate and compact size is an excellent compromise between the bulkier 15- and 17-inch designs, and it is not as vital compromised as a 13-inch model can feel. The difference with the 2022 model is that the 14-inch screen has a higher 16:10 aspect ratio than the previous kind of models’ 16:9 panels.
One of the disadvantages of this machine is the battery life, which isn’t the top while gaming—less than an hour. You’ll get more when watching videos or doing something monotonous like working, but we expect a little more from a modern laptop. It’s not a deal breaker, but you should keep it in mind.
While everything is running smoothly, the G14’s high refresh rate and the high-resolution panel look fantastic. Because this model has such a bright and colorful IPS display, you can take in every detail.
Overall, the G14 experience is relatively straightforward. It hasn’t had any significant issues with it in the few weeks, and Asus has more than made up for the few flaws with the design.
Razer Blade 14
The Razer design is timeless, and it feels great in hand. And, with the excellent AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX finally making its way into a Blade notebook, you’re getting true processing power that fits in a messenger bag. And you can now get your hands on the reputed Blade 14 with the new brand Ryzen 9 6900HX chip at its top heart, though in practice, it hasn’t changed much other than offering some decent integrated graphics.
The PC is all about options, and Razer has finally allowed us to use an AMD CPU in its kind of machines, though it would be great if we had the chance elsewhere in its laptop lineup. We’ve heard very little about a Blade 14 with an AMD discrete Radeon GPU alongside the Ryzen CPU. So be it.
The Razer Blade 14 is a great gaming laptop and one of the most desirable gaming laptops I’ve held this year. The underutilized 14-inch form factor also deserves to be one of Razer’s best-selling laptop models. And if this notebook is a success, the company may be forced to make difficult decisions about what CPUs it presents and where.
The decision you must make is which graphics card to use. The RTX 3080 Ti is faster but has significantly more gaming performance. That’s why the less expensive RTX 3060, with its high frame rates, gets a vote every time.
Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (16″ AMD)
The RTX 3060 model is less expensive, but the RTX 3070 kind of model with a 2TB SSD better matches the high-refresh QHD panel. With the addition of the eight-core Ryzen 7 5800H, you have everything you need to handle a wide range of tasks while enjoying high-end gaming.
The Legion Pro 5 demonstrates that AMD is a serious competitor in the gaming laptop market. It combines the mobile Ryzen 7 5800H with the RTX 3070, resulting in a laptop that can handle modern games and more serious adventures.
The Legion Pro 5 is also a gaming beast, with that reputed high-powered RTX 3070 a peak delivery of 140W, faster than some 3080s) being an excellent match for that vibrant screen. You’ll be able to play the good majority of games at the reputed native 2560 x 1600 resolution on high settings without missing a beat. The fact that you can use DLSS and enjoy ray tracing extras for the price contributes to this highly appealing package. If the Legion 5 Pro has a flaw, it has to be its underwhelming speakers and microphone combo.
The Legion Pro 5 has everything you need in a gaming laptop, from the bright, colorful screen to the great-feeling full-sized keyboard, for a lot less than the competition.
GS66 Stealth MSI
The MSI GS66 is a beast: it’s sleek, slick, and powerful. However, Nvidia Ampere’s power is not without cost. MSI has had to be a little frugal with its power demands to fit something as powerful as an RTX 3080 into an 18mm thin chassis.
The best GPU is the 95W model, which only outperforms a fully unlocked RTX 3070 like the one found in the Gigabyte Aorus 15G XC. However, it remains an astonishingly powerful piece of reputed mobile kind of graphics silicon.
It can get a little loud, but you can access all of the Nvidia Max-Q 3.0 features. This includes Whisper Mode 2.0, which reduces gaming to barely audible levels for stealthy gameplay.
Regarding gaming, the GS66 also has an outstanding 240Hz 1440p panel that complements the powerful GPU perfectly. You’ll have to make sacrifices compared to an RTX 3080 in a hulking workstation, but the MSI GS66 Stealth is a genuine slimline gaming laptop.
The latest MSI GS66 has a lot to offer. The overall machine is lovely—seriously, it’s thin, especially for a gaming laptop, and comes with some seriously tasty internal specs, but there are a few places where it feels like it could have used a little more design time.
