Best gaming laptops July 2024

When you tell your friends that you plan to buy a laptop for gaming, you will likely encounter their expert opinions. Some will tell you to forget about a gaming laptop and buy a gaming console instead; others, who consider themselves ‘PC gamers,’ will present you with a long list of the disadvantages of gaming laptops and suggest that buying a gaming desktop is the right choice.

In the end, none of their opinions matter because you’ve made your decision and have your own reasons for buying a gaming laptop. The important question is, how much are you willing to spend? Gaming laptops can be considered the most expensive category of laptops

For a ‘PC gamer,’ meaning someone who chooses a computer for gaming, only one thing matters: the graphics card! Ultimately, it’s the graphics card that determines which games you can play and at what quality. Therefore, when buying a gaming laptop, you should first and foremost pay attention to the device’s graphics processor or GPU. Never go for laptops that don’t have a dedicated graphics card and use an integrated GPU with the CPU, as you will only be able to run older games at the lowest graphics settings.

So, as a general rule, the best gaming laptop is the one that has the most powerful graphics processor. After that, look for a better display quality, more RAM, and a more powerful central processor

 

An important thing to know about gaming laptops, especially powerful and expensive models, is that they are designed to replace desktop computers and are referred to as “Desktop Replacements.” Such laptops are heavy and have poor battery life. You will most likely need to use their power adapter all the time, so don’t count on them being very “portable

Here are the main features of gaming laptops:

• Equipped with powerful processors
• Featuring the most capable graphics processors
• High-resolution and high-refresh-rate displays, though not necessarily with accurate color representation
• Bulky design (due to the inclusion of strong cooling systems)
• Unique and futuristic design language with RGB lighting
• Very short battery life
• Heavy weight and low portability

The best gaming laptop up to $800

The Gaming A15 FA506NC laptop from the popular and best-selling TUF gaming series is one of the most affordable gaming laptops on the market. It features an RTX 3050 graphics card with a power consumption of 75 watts (60 watts + 15 watts Dynamic Boost). This graphics card is capable of running heavy games at medium graphics settings with a frame rate of around 40 to 50 frames per second.

For computational processing, it uses the Ryzen 5-7535HS chip, which is a good complement to the aforementioned graphics card for tasks that require a combination of CPU and GPU processing power. Another strength of this laptop is its use of DDR5 RAM with a transfer rate of 5600 MT/s, which is rarely seen in budget laptops

The chassis and body of this laptop are made of plastic and it weighs 2.3 kg. It features a 15.6-inch IPS display with FHD resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate, covering about 60% of the sRGB color space. A USB-C 3.2 port is also included. The TUF Gaming A15 is powered by a 48Wh battery, which, given its gaming nature, should not be relied upon for long battery life

 

The best gaming laptop up to $1,000

Lenovo’s LOQ series laptops are among the products that quickly gained popularity and recognition among gaming laptop buyers shortly after their introduction. They have managed to secure a good position and sales in this market in the shortest possible time, which can be attributed to their affordable prices. The LOQ laptop is produced and offered in a wide variety of configurations and models, and you are currently looking at one of the highly valuable versions that features a 16-inch display and uses an RTX 4050 graphics card.

The maximum power measured for this graphics card, with the help of Dynamic Boost 2.0 technology, reaches 95 watts. Additionally, the NVIDIA 4000 series graphics bring various processing improvements and important technologies, with DLSS 3.0 being one of the most notable. This technology allows for an increase in frame rates in games by generating additional frames using artificial intelligence. The LOQ laptop also supports the MUX Switch feature

The Lenovo LOQ also features a highly efficient cooling system that allows the CPU and GPU to continue operating at maximum performance during extended processing tasks, which is crucial for gaming laptops. Additionally, the Core i5-13500H processor makes this laptop an ideal choice for engineering uses and tasks that require a combination of CPU and GPU power.

However, such powerful components come at the cost of increased weight, with the device weighing 2.6 kg and having a considerable thickness, which might make it a bit challenging to carry around. It is worth mentioning that the device is entirely made of plastic but has good build quality. The laptop’s display has a WUXGA resolution, covers 60% of the sRGB color space, and has a 144Hz refresh rate. The Type-C port supports Thunderbolt 4. DDR5-5200 RAM is also standard in this version

The best gaming laptop up to $1,200

 

Lenovo’s LOQ gaming laptops come in a wide variety of configurations, allowing them to cover a broad range of price points and giving users more choices based on their priorities. Another configuration of the 2024 LOQ comes with an RTX 4060 graphics card, which, with the new Ada Lovelace architecture based on TSMC’s 4N manufacturing process and advanced technologies such as DLSS 3.0 and improved ray tracing, has seen significant improvements over the previous generation, the RTX 3060. This enables it to handle any heavy game with high resolution and frame rates, meeting all the expectations gamers have from a gaming laptop.

The LOQ model 15IRX9 uses the same Core i7-13650HX for computational processing, and its intelligent and powerful cooling system prevents performance drops in processing tasks, including graphics, which has a power of up to 115 watts. The MUX-Switch technology is also present to eliminate the bottleneck between the CPU and dGPU to reduce latency and frame drops in light usage. The 15.6-inch display with FHD resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate also covers 100% of the sRGB color space, which greatly enhances the visual experience of games

The standard features of this laptop include 16GB of DDR5-5200 RAM, a 1TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD, a USB-C 3.2 port, and a four-zone RGB backlit keyboard. The LOQ has a high-quality all-plastic body and chassis, with a more modern and popular design. A 60Wh battery powers the laptop for a limited number of hours when unplugged

 

The best gaming laptop up to $1,500 

 

The Legion Slim 5 laptop is considered one of Lenovo’s high-end gaming laptops, thanks to features such as a better display, more premium design and build quality, and some more up-to-date hardware capabilities and technologies, making it superior to the LOQ series. For example, this model uses a 16-inch IPS panel with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, which is much higher than FHD panels and displays details more accurately. This panel offers a 165Hz refresh rate and covers the entire sRGB color space.

The mentioned laptop, in the 16IRH8 model, uses an RTX 4060 graphics card with a power consumption of 125 watts and a Core i7-13700H processor. Lenovo uses the Legion Coldfront 5.0 technology to keep the processing unit cool and maintain performance stability, which is considered one of the most advanced and optimized cooling systems. Gamers can play heavy games for many hours without any disruption to their gaming experience with this laptop

The Legion Slim 5 has a plastic body with an aluminum lid and weighs 2.3 kilograms. Other specifications of this attractive gaming product from Lenovo include 16GB of DDR5-5200 RAM, a 1TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD, two Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports, and an 80Wh battery