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Best Laptops for Gaming 2018
Ultimate Buyers Guide
We provide an overview of the best gaming laptops available in 2018, if you're looking for a new gaming laptop we have everything you need to see before you make a purchase below along with our buyers guide.
Best Gaming Laptop 2018
Product | Image | Award | 3DMark | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1. ASUS ROG Zephyrus GX501 |
| 18421 | ||
2. Dell Inspiron 15 7000 |
| 5200 | ||
3. Razer Blade Pro |
| 14352 | ||
4. MSI GS65 Stealth |
| 10333 | ||
5. ASUS ROG Strix GL502 |
| 12514 | ||
6. Alienware AW17R4 |
| 13263 | ||
7. Razer Blade |
| 10508 | ||
8. Gigabyte Areo 15 |
| 9500 | ||
9. HP Omen 17 |
| 12994 | ||
10. Eluktronics P650HP6-G |
| 9000 |
1. Asus ROG Zephyrus GX501
Best Overall Gaming Laptop 2018
The best money can buy, the worlds thinnest gaming laptop out there equipped with a GTX 1080 and a 120Hz display! The only trade off is the cost. But, the good news is we have found you the cheapest price for the laptop here.
Due to hardware cooling restraints, typically when you have to choose a gaming notebook you have to pick between thin and less powerful or thick and more powerful. Until now, you’d never be able to have the best of both worlds. Asus have smashed this restriction with the Asus ROG Zephyrus GX501, a gaming notebook that is both thin and powerful, and boasts to be the worlds thinnest gaming laptop with a GTX 1080 GPU. Asus have managed to design a stunningly thin gaming notebook that has bags of power for the latest games, truly an amazing piece of hardware.
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2. Dell Inspiron 15 7000
Best Gaming Laptop Under $1000
We After hours of research we found the best gaming laptop under $1000 that we would personally buy. If you're smart with your money you can get a decent gaming laptop for under 1000 dollars, easily.
The Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming Laptop offers excellent value and AMAZING battery life, so amazing in fact, that it smokes a lot of the high end machines. If you are looking for a good value, well made budget machine that has awesome battery life then buy this machine from Dell, as an additional bonus we have found the best price possible here.
The laptop has a bright red appearance, the palm rest and keyboard deck is black with red color accents on the keyboard with a red keyboard back light. For those who don't fancy the red design, an all-black more subtle variant has also been released. The laptop is less than an inch thick, and weighs in at just shy of six pounds.
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3. Razer Blade Pro
Best Build Quality
The Razer Blade Pro is high end portable gaming laptop capable of replacing your gaming desktop. We highly recommend this machine If you're looking for a high end machine with a solid build quality. The price is high but the machine is rock solid, we found the best price for the Blade Pro in February 2018 for you.
Between traditional notebooks and gaming laptops, there has always been a stark distinction – some differences even casual gamers would easily be able to spot. But, thanks to the introduction of the Razer Blade Pro, we now have a true desktop replacement. All in a mobile light and thin package with a well made metal chassis. The laptop comes with an unlocked i7, allowing for overclocking. The i7 CPU coupled with the Nvidia GTX 1080 graphics card makes the Razer Blade a superior gaming machine, with enough power to replace a high end desktop PC.
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4. MSI GS65 Stealth
Best Thin Gaming Laptop
Rocking a6 core 8th generation Intel Coffee Lake i708750H processor, the MSI GS65 crams a stack of power into a thin powerful machine. On the graphics side the machine uses an Nvidia GeForce GTX Max-Q 1070 GPU, while this is slighly less power than the ASUS machine (see above) it's still enough power for most of todays AAA games. The GS65 is also the first laptop that boasts a 144hz screen, making it an excellent choise for FPS gamers. The machine is thin, sleak and well made, if you're looking for a subtle gaming laptop that is highly portable then this machine from MSI is an excellent choice.
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5. Asus ROG Strix GL502
Best Budget Gaming Laptop
Fantastic budget laptop for 1080p gaming, fantastic vibrant display and a solid performer at a reasonable price. Asus appears to have been slowly edging away from their trademark all-black design with red graphics, a common design for most gaming laptops. The notebook has an orange trim around the all-black paint job, thus making the laptop look all the more eye-catching and unique. Even though this is not a major upgrade from the copper and titanium design, at least it’s a small step towards a change in design.
The chassis is now made from plastic, yes... plastic. While this might seem heart-breaking at first, Asus decided to go for plastic as it’s perfect for a gaming notebook which often runs hot when gaming. Thanks to the efficient cooling system the fan rarely becomes painfully loud and thanks to the plastic design the laptop is never too hot to handle.
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6. Alienware 17 R4
Best 17" Gaming Laptop
If you are on the lookout for a solid reliable, battle tested 17-inch gaming laptop, then the Alienware 17 R4 is definitely a recommended buy. The machine is more of a desktop replacement, that can also be picked up and taken else where with ease.
If you're after a great bang for buck well made 17" portable gaming machine we recommend the Alienware 17 R4. Coined as the “magnificent monster”, due to it's high performance and impressive looks with subtle but customizable LED lighting (has the option to disable). All this found at a highly affordable price, when you consider the build quality and technology packed into this machine.
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7. Razer Blade
Best 14" Gaming Laptop
The Razer Blade is a 14 inch highly portable gaming laptop that's built like a tank! If you're after something that resembles a gaming laptop version of the MacBook pro, then have just found it!
Even though the 2018 version of this notebook seems to be longer lasting and stronger than the previous year’s, it would be nice to see more original features being incorporated. If you want a metal laptop for gaming this laptop is a great choice, if you're on a tighter budget we would check out the Alienware 13 R13 instead.
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8. Gigabyte Aero 15
Best 15" Gaming Laptop
A gaming laptop that packs a 7th-generation Intel i7 processor and an Nvidia Pascal GPU. The machine manages to remain portable with a reasonable battery life.
There is no doubt Gigabyte have always managed to offered superb performance packed in a portable and thin package. And the Aero 15 is no different, resulting in a machine that has managed to stand above its counterparts with better numbers in benchmarks, all offered at an affordable price.
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9. HP Omen 17
Best HP Gaming Laptop
A VR Ready gaming laptop that has an impressive display, great keyboard and mouse. The perfect choice for a portable VR gaming notebook. The HP Omen 17 gaming notebook offers some fantastic features for the price. With G-Sync and 4K display, it's obviously not a budget machine. However, if you're a fan of HP machines and you want a well performing, well priced machine you should check out the HP Omen 17.
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10. Eluktronics P650HP6-G
Best Gaming Laptop Under $1500
Eluktronics is a fairly unknown gaming laptop manufacture, however they offer some serious power for amazing prices. And while the brand might be unfamiliar to you the components inside are from leading brands with a Clevo P670RP6 chassis, LG Philips LGD046E IPS display, Intel i7-6700HQ and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU. If you are willing to purchase a lesser known brand then we highly recommend the Eluktronics P650HP6-G and it wins our award for the best gaming laptop under $1500.
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Gaming Laptop Buyers Guide
When it's time for a new computer, it can be hard to pinpoint exactly what to look for in a gaming laptop. The following gaming laptop buyers guide will simplify and facilitate your shopping experience. Not all laptops are created equally and if gaming is your goal, there are certain things a computer must have in order to provide magnificent, easy, and quality visual display and performance.
Even though desktops deliver the best performance, laptops are preferred for their portability and space efficiency. However, the benefits of a laptop are nothing if it is not packed with the correct hardware that most games require in this modern age. Cost aside, the following parts below are what turn a normal laptop into a gaming laptop and you need to pay close attention to each component before you invest!
Battery Life
Do not expect too much from the laptop’s battery. The use of gaming hardware, from startup to finish, creates power-hungry components that will suck battery life quite quickly. Power saving mode and using the Intel graphics card when your not in a game will help you out massively.
Finding a gaming laptop that can last two to three hours on a single charge with the highest of settings will be the best you can get in most cases. Most gamers will leave their laptop charged while immersing in the game play and really only use it as a portable gaming device.
Portability
The level of portability depends entirely on bulk and weight, as well as how much you plan on moving around with the laptop in question.
- Minimal portability: If you seek minimal portability, meaning that your gaming laptop will most likely sit on your desk at home, you can look for a system with a 17 or 18 inch display. Bigger laptops usually mean better, faster, and more powerful gaming components also. On the other hands, it will also mean heaviness and short use of the laptop while unplugged. Finding a bag that fits 17-18 inch screens can be a hassle.
- Medium portability: This the perfect balance for those who will take their laptop places often but not every day of the year. A 15 inch notebook will weigh anywhere from 4.3 to 7.2 pounds and can last an average of 5 hours on a charge with light gaming. You will sacrifice a bit of performance for greater portability but it is a well-balanced choice for most.
- Best portability: Computers with 13 or 14 inch displays are built for constant movement. The size is perfect for all bags and they weigh less than all other laptops out there. However, they are not the most powerful gaming notebooks and the small displays do not provide visual greatness to most games. They have the highest average of battery life and are a good fit for less hardware-consuming games.
CPU & RAM
The CPU and RAM will handle everything that does not involve graphic management. This might seem like an unessential task but it is quite important for gaming laptops everywhere. CPU wise, the war rages between AMD and Intel. We are here to tell you that Intel is the best choice out of the two. The later the generation of Intel, the better.
As a general rule, do not choose below a Core i5 processor. The recommendation is 7thgeneration core and up. The latest available Intel generation is at 8 with their Coffee Lake series. Also, quad-core is going to help you out on games that make use of the CPU & GPU such as the Battlefield series.
RAM is an degradable component that most manufacturer´s will charge excessively to do the job themselves when you buy a computer from them. Keeping that in mind, it is important to buy a laptop with a minimum of 8GB. Later on, you may upgrade the RAM to 12 or more depending on mundane tasks.
GPU (Graphics Card)
You have arrived at the most important key feature in any gaming laptop and that is the graphics card. The choices here are between AMD and NVIDIA, with more information and higher preference going to NVIDIA. There is a wide range of cards to choose from with complex names. For mainstream gamers, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 is the bare minimum; better graphic cards will have increasing numbers (for example, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 offers more than the 1060 that was mentioned). Hardcore gamers should seek the 1080, which can also handle virtual reality.
Keyboard / Trackpad
Your laptop’s gaming keyboard should at the least be comfortable to use for an extended period of time. Any extras such as mechanical-styled pressing, programmable keys, and multi-colored RGB back lighting is a plus that is solely based on preferences.
Budget
You get what you pay for. Your budget will ultimately decide how much power, quality, and performance you will receive from your gaming laptop. A budget of just 1,000 dollars will deliver an average and minimalist system. If your budget range falls between 1,000-2,000 dollars you can find a smooth operating laptop that should fit most needs. Anything above three thousand dollars can give you the best hardware and a range of customizable features all compacted into a notebook.
Gaming Laptop vs Desktop
A constant thought on the mind of gamers, especially as they first delve into the world of online or computer gaming–is “Are gaming laptops worth it?” With such a diverse variety of products on the market and new ones popping up all the time, it’s tough to figure out if these often pricey computers are worthwhile. If you’re in doubt, here are a few key components to consider on your search for the perfect laptop.
While desktop gaming systems generally have stronger capabilities than their gaming laptop counterparts, there is much to be said about the high performance of gaming laptops. Desktop processors will always be faster, but it’s possible to find lighting fast modern generation chips. And even though the latest tech is usually released for desktop first, there are great options with incredible mobile CPUs, so you don’t have to settle for subpar graphics.