The 10 Worst Gaming Laptops To Save Your Money On & The 10 Best Ones To Buy
Let Us Help You Buy The High-Performance Laptop Of Your Dreams
Are you in the market for a new gaming laptop? There are so many options out there, but knowing where to put your money can be tricky. Some laptops have specs that are too good to be true, but their actual performance just doesn't match up. We looked at a combination of user and professional reviews to compile this list of the best and worst gaming laptops on the market so that you don't have to.
1. Dell G Series
While the Dell G Series has a low starting price, its base model is extremely limited, with an aging RTX 3050 GPU. It's also heavy with a restrictive configuration. The best thing about it is that it comes in fun colors.
RuinDig/Yuki Uchida on Wikimedia
2. HP Omen 15
The biggest grievance with the HP Omen 15 is the poor battery life which is only around four hours. It also lacks essential features like a MUX switch. For the price point of about $1,300, there are much better options.
3. Gigabyte Aorus 15G
Although it's a powerful machine, the Gigabyte Aorus 15G has a cramped keyboard and an awkward-to-use webcam. Users say it's good for gaming but not much else.
4. Acer Black V-17 Nitro Edition
While the Acer Black V-17 Nitro Edition checks many essential boxes, it misses on battery life and its hardware is annoyingly hard to upgrade. It's also an expensive machine, coming in at $1,700 for the higher-end configuration. For that price, you can find something more powerful.
5. MSI GT72 Dominator Pro
Although the MSI GT72 Dominator Pro succeeds in playing high-end games smoothly at full resolution, there are some downsides. For one, it's a big bulky laptop. It also has no touch screen, a higher price point, and it's not as high resolution as some of its competitors.
6. Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q890
Despite being marketed as a gaming laptop, users say the graphics on the Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q890 aren't good enough for high-end games. It also has poor battery life, gets hot, and is heavy.
7. Gateway Laptops
Gateway has become a Walmart-exclusive brand, licensed by Acer, and while they are cheap, unfortunately, you get what you pay for. Users complain it overheats, has bad audio, a poor touchpad, and doesn't have a good enough graphics card to run high-end games smoothly. That being said, if you're on a tight budget, you won't find a better gaming laptop for the price.
8. Acer Predator Helios 300
The Acer Predator Helios 300 is a sleek and lightweight machine for a gaming laptop. That being said, it lacks an SD or micro SD slot, has no fingerprint reader, and is noisy.
9. Dell Alienware 17 R5
Although the Dell Alienware 12 R5 can run high-end games, it's very expensive. What's more, it has a noisy fan and poor battery life: for this price point, we'd expect not to be hampered by those things.
10. Razer Blade 15
While the Razer Blade 15 is indeed a beast when it comes to gaming, it's very expensive, loud, and overheats. It also has poor video rendering performance, its screen picks up glare, and the black matte finish fingerprints easily.
Now that we've gone over some of the poorly-reviewed gaming laptops you shouldn't waste your money on, let's talk about some of the most praised.
1. Alienware X17
While it's not a standout in terms of portability, we love the sci-fi design of this laptop. Equipped with a Core i9 CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card, you won't have any problems running even the heaviest games on this powerhouse.
Alienware c/o: Nick Dillon on Wikimedia
2. Razer Blade 15 Advanced
The advanced version of the Razer Blade 15 was improved exactly where it was needed. One of the most premium gaming laptops you can buy, it has a sleek design, amazing performance, and doesn't overheat like its predecessor.
3. Lenovo Legion Slim 5 Gen 8
Gamers everywhere are raving about the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 Gen 8 gaming laptop. Users say it has a competitive price point, outstanding performance, sharp OLED screen, great battery life, and is slim and compact.
4. Lenovo Legion 5 Pro
Lenovo is doing something right when it comes to building powerful machines. The Legion 5 Pro, much like the Slim 5 Gen 8, delivers strong performance for a reasonable price. It's one of the best gaming laptops in its class, with an exceptional keyboard and a sturdy design.
5. Acer Predator Triton 300 SE
The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE is one of the best gaming laptops for the price. It's strong on all fronts, has a long battery life, includes a fingerprint reader, has a high-quality display, and a sleek design.
6. MSI Stealth 15M
If you're in the market for a sleek and powerful midrange laptop, the MSI Stealth 15M is an excellent option. With 32 gigabytes of memory, one terabyte of storage, and a GeForce RTX 3060 that enables high-frame-rate 1080p gaming, it's one of the best in its class.
7. ASUS TUF Gaming A15
The best budget machine on this list, the ASUS TUF Gaming A15 is a high performer for a fraction of the price. Although it doesn't use the most premium build materials, it performs as well as a laptop more than twice the price.
Harshit Suryawanshi on Unsplash
8. Acer Nitro 16
Looking for high performance under $1,000? Look no further than the Acer Nitro 16. It has a long battery life, excellent screen, and powerful performance for an entry-level machine.
9. MSI Thin 15
The MSI Thin 15 is an excellent choice as an affordable gaming laptop fit for competitive gamers. It's relatively slim and lightweight and comes equipped with an Intel 12th Gen Core i5-12450H processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2050 graphics card, and 16 gigabytes of storage.
PantheraLeo1359531 on Wikimedia
10. Razer Blade Stealth 13
The only true 13-inch gaming laptop available, the Razer Blade Stealth 13 is ultraportable and equipped with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti graphics chip and 120-hertz display. It's also a stylish and well-thought-out design with a sturdy, aluminum chassis and a long battery life built for portability.
