Video game lovers need notebooks that can meet the demands of gaming. There are dozens of them on the market, so choosing the best gaming notebook could be difficult. That’s why we decided to give some guidelines to make the right choice.
If you have “landed” on this page it means that you are looking for a gaming notebook but you do not know precisely which are the top models of the moment. Indeed, their market has literally exploded in the last 18 months, leading to a kind of general confusion. Precisely, for this reason, we have decided to illustrate what are for us the best gaming notebooks of the moment, classifying them in order of increasing price.
Also, please see the top tablets in the market based on Windows 10.
Before starting with the actual buying guide, we decided to illustrate our thinking by answering the question that is more frequently exposed to forums, social networks, or in real life. What is the point in buying gaming laptops when there are desktop PCs that cost much less to play?
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Notebook gaming: does it make sense to buy them?
There are two reasons that justify the purchase of a good laptop to play video games:
- Who buys a gaming laptop? If you want to buy one to always use it indoors, then it makes no sense at all to buy a laptop for gaming. But these products are designed exclusively for those who travel often, for work or for any other reason. I honestly see these products well for those who travel for work, and who may want to indulge in a few games on GTA or any other game in the hotel.
- The second reason is that thanks to the new video cards of the GTX 10xx series, the new Kaby Lake / Coffee Lake processors, and the new air-cooling technologies, it is possible to have very similar, if not equal, performances compared to the desktop counterpart without having to spend exorbitant figures like years ago. Small clarification to avoid misunderstandings: an assembled PC continues to take precedence and has a lower cost than a laptop to play.
Best Portable Gaming – top laptops that are best for gaming
In this article, we have classified the best gaming laptops that have distinguished themselves up to now for performance, but not only: we have not only focused on top models but also on notebooks to play in the entry-level range and the best quality/price. So whether you’re looking for a laptop that you can use both for work and play or if you want a giant born for gaming, we have what you’re looking for.
Also, please see the top 10 PC and laptop games that you should buy now.
HP OMEN 17-inch Gaming Laptop
HP OMEN is one of the best gaming notebooks made to be a powerful tool for the most demanding players, equipped with powerful hardware and an attractive design, it is a PC ready to face any kind of challenge.
VR-ready performance thanks to the Intel Core Quad-Core processor and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card, which will allow any player to face exciting challenges with high-power hardware.
The gaming experience is fluid, fast, and detailed, also thanks to the Nvidia -Sync technology, there are no slowdowns and there is an immediate response, this notebook was designed to be one of the best supports for the most avid gaming enthusiasts.
The backlit Dragon Red keyboard allows you to play even in low-light situations, finally, a ventilation system composed of several fans prevents overheating, ensuring a long-lasting gaming session.
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Also, please see the top mini PCs for games, work and entertainment.
MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15.6-inch
MSI GS65 is a high-performance gaming notebook. It has the convenience and portability of a productivity notebook. It is a laptop with a light and thin design that you can toss in your backpack, tote to meetings, and comfortably use on the couch. On the other hand, it is powerful enough to play the latest games at high or max settings once the workday is over.
The processor is a powerful Intel i7 8750 H Hexa-Core with 6 Cores that manages to go into Turbo mode up to 4.1 GHz; a 15.6-inch display with Full HD resolution.
Storage is 512 GB on NVMe M.2 support and 1 TB of HDD, the RAM is 16 GB of DDR4 type. As for the GPU support, as expected, it comes with the Nvidia GTX 1060 with 6 GB of GGDR5 RAM clogged at 7 GHz, one of the best around.
For connectivity, we have the WI-FI ac, Bluetooth 4.2, and LAN Gigabit.
There are other nice details, too: a keyboard from SteelSeries that’s solid and responsive, a responsive touchpad, and a webcam.
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ASUS VivoBook Pro Thin & Light Laptop
ASUS VivoBook Pro is a high-end gaming notebook excellent especially for professional use. It has an eighth-generation Intel i7 processor and a speed ranging between 1.8 and 4.0 GHz.
It is assembled with good quality components, we find an Intel Core i7- 8550U processor, 16 GB of RAM, expandable up to 32 GB thanks to the second empty slot available, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 video card, a model that is able to offer stable, solid and highly appreciated performance by gaming lovers and by the most demanding graphic users. We also find a large 1 TB mechanical HDD with 7200 RPM, finally supported by a 256 GB SSD, excellent for speeding up the operating system and the most used applications.
The screen is a 17.3-inch IPS panel with Full HD resolution, which offers sharp images and lends itself very well to watching HD movies or for the latest-generation games.
In addition, there are three USB ports. One of them is 2.0, another one is 3.0 standard and the other is USB-C.
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MSI GL62M 7REX
MSI GL62M is an almost obvious choice for gaming enthusiasts. It is a high-performance gaming notebook in the game thanks to the powerful processor and a graphics card that offers excellent performance and a very realistic gaming experience.
The design is the classic one of the MSI notebooks, with a robust structure, resistant materials, strong lines, backlit keyboard to play even in low light or during the night.
The processor is a powerful I7-7700HQ supported by an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti 4G graphics card with 8 GB of dedicated memory. It is a very powerful gaming notebook to handle any video game or VR experience that uses high settings.
The display is an IPS 15.6 panel with a resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels, the images reproduced on the screen are very faithful to reality and well-defined in the colors. The ventilation system prevents the notebook from overheating and allows long gaming sessions without being affected by performance.
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ASUS ROG Strix Scar Edition
Asus ROG Strix is a gaming notebook suitable for gaming and for working with 3D graphics thanks to the powerful graphics cards it is equipped with and the other hardware features that we will get to know.
The screen is a 15.6-inch IPS with a resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels. The processor is an i7-7700HQ, one of the most used on gaming PCs thanks to its high performance, in fact, it is a high-performance seventh-generation CPU.
The dedicated video card is the GTX 1070 with a high number of graphics processors, a very fast memory bus, and a lot of graphic memory available.
The RAM is 16 GB of single-slot DDR4 type, but it is also possible to expand it thanks to the presence of another free slot in which you can add another mode of the same capacity and type in order to exploit the dual-channel technology. In addition to USB 3.0 ports, there is also a Thunderbolt port.
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Acer Aspire 7 Casual Gaming Laptop
If you are looking for the best notebook for gaming for under 1000 $, this is probably the right choice for you. This gaming laptop is compact and powerful, with perfectly blended features, to have a terminal ready for any use and context. The display is 15.6-inch IPS with an anti-reflective coating.
The processor is not missing the new Intel Core i7-8750H of the eighth generation, which can be pushed up to 4.10 GHz, but in this case, we have as a dedicated video card the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 with 4 GB of dedicated GDDR5 VRAM. It also has 8 GB of DDR4 RAM, allowing you to get powerful performance for heavier games or for productive multitasking like live streaming and video editing. This video card is also VR Ready, for experience in fluid virtual reality, without interruptions and latency. As for internal storage, we find a 1 TB HDD with 5400 RPM and a 128 GB SSD.
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MSI GE73 Raider RGB 8RF
The MSI gaming laptops are the absolute most expensive, you want the highest quality materials used, either for the study behind each device (especially in terms of ventilation). The MSI GE73 Raider RGB 8RF (212IT) presents the best gaming hardware technologies at the highest levels.
The display consists of a 17.3-inch panel (94% NTSC) with a 120Hz refresh rate and 3ms. It is then totally backlit RGB, both for the keyboard and for the body, and can be programmed by a single button (the backlight) via software. The keyboard was designed in collaboration with SteelSeries, a leading brand for gaming peripherals.
Speaking of hardware, this gaming notebook certainly could not miss the latest-generation Intel Coffee Lake processor, the i7-8750H, coupled with 16 GB of RAM (2666 MHz) in a dual channel. Speaking of storage, we find the coupled HDD / SSD of 1 TB / 256 GB. The video card used is the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB GDDR5, excellent for taking full advantage of the 120 Hz monitor, as well as for virtual reality.
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Acer Predator Helios 500
Among the various gaming laptops on the market, we have decided to conclude the guide to the best models with the Acer Predator Helios 500, which convinces with its quality/price and performance/price ratio, better than many other similar products in terms of build quality and reliability.
The display is a 17.3-inch matte, with a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, IPS at 144 Hz. In this case, the G-Sync display technology is not missing, which allows synchronizing the display update frequency with the GPU, thus obtaining a reduction in terms of lag and imperfections, for constantly fluid gameplay. The keyboard instead is of good size and with a numeric keypad, backlit.
By now these high-end gaming laptops all have the Intel® Core ™ i7-8750H processor and certainly could not miss in this configuration too. Alongside it, we have 32 GB of DDR4 RAM. As a video card instead, we find the high-end model Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB, ideal to support any title at the highest levels. The disk drive is complete and sees the presence of a 1 TB HDD and a 256 GB PCIe SSD in RAID (256 GB + 256 GB).
This Acer Predator Helios 500 is available in a second configuration, even more powerful, with Intel Core i9-8950HK.
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That’s all for now, friends. These are some of the top notebooks, suitable for all the games of the latest generation. All of these gaming laptops come with the latest technology and gain honor from video game players all over the world. Which one have you chosen? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below. Thank you.