Having a laptop is a must for people who love to have nice gaming experience. Pc gaming still has wide popularity among gamers in the presence of the mobile gaming world because of the big screen and high-end graphics that give you more precise moves. You can play the Clash of Clans well on your smartphone, or even games like NOVA but you can never play games like Grand Theft Auto Vice City on your smartphone. It would be hard to match this experience on your phone with a smaller screen, especially for pro games the laptop gaming is their highly preferred. For serious and avid gamers, there’s nothing better than a good laptop to enhance the best gaming experience and outcome as well.
If you’re a nub in the gaming world or have a great passion for the professional level enthusiasm for computer gaming and dreaming to become an igaming champion, below are the important factors you should consider when selecting a gaming laptop for you.
Brand: Top Gaming Laptops
Now that you have your budget figured out and a baseline idea of what you’re looking for, there’s one final question to consider.
What brand of a laptop are you going to buy? We’re not going to push you one way or the other, but here are a few things about some of our top brands to think about when conducting your research.
- Acer – Acer has a well-rounded lineup with a mix of budget notebooks like the Aspire VX 15 and purely aspirational machines like the Predator 21 X, as well as everything in between. The company backs its gaming laptops with a one-year limited warranty that requires you to pay for the cost of shipping it to the company for service.
- Asus: Branded under the company’s Republic of Gamers series, the company’s laptops have a sleek, stealth fighter design with an impressive set of specs. However, Asus doesn’t offer much in the way of customization. As far as the warranty, the Taiwanese tech giant typically offers a 1-year international with accidental damage coverage and 30-day zero-bright dot protection with 24/7 tech support.
- HP – You wouldn’t immediately associate HP with gaming laptops, but the company has been making steady strides in the industry with its Omen series. HP’s gaming laptops come standard with one-year limited warranties that include free shipping when your system needs service.
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- Alienware: Known for its distinctive spaceship design complete with out-of-this-world lighting, Alienware does a solid job of offering value while still delivering high-end specs. However, outside of its predetermined configurations, there isn’t much room for customization. The company typically offers a 1-year warranty with on-site service after remote diagnosis.
- Lenovo: Lenovo laptops are synonymous with an understated design. But beneath the plain-Jane looks lie surprisingly high-quality specs that won’t put a dent in your bank account. You can expect 4 to 5 configurations of each model and a 1-year warranty.
- OriginPC: OriginPC’s default design typically won’t turn heads, but they are the go-to-guys when it comes to customization. From custom paint jobs, thermal compounds to a TV Tuner, as long as you have the money, the sky’s the limit. OriginPC’s standard warranty offers lifetime 24/7 tech support and even offers a dead-pixel warranty in case of a defective display.
- MSI: One of the most innovative companies, MSI is known for its hulking, red-dragon-themed 17-inches as well as its svelte 15-inch notebooks. MSI isn’t afraid to slap four SSDs and a mechanical keyboard with a digital touchpad into a system. MSI gives its customers a 2-year limited warranty.
- Razer: Like MacBooks for gamers, Razer’s all-black laptops are some of the lightest and slimmest on the market. The only configuration options provided are for storage size and display resolution. The company has a 1-year limited warranty for all of its products.
- Gigabyte/Aorus – Gigabyte and its high-end subsidiary Aorus offer a diverse lineup of gaming systems. Where Aorus laptops are svelte, lightweight powerhouses with high-end specs while Gigabyte systems tend to be bulkier, more colorful, and less expensive. All Aorus laptops and selected Gigabyte systems have two-year limited warranties while the remaining systems only come with 1 year.
Check Your Budget While Selecting The Gaming Laptop
First come first the money you are going to spend will make a tentative idea about your next laptop purchase. Your budget will obviously be a huge factor in what type of laptop you can get. You would get a good and mid-range gaming laptops on the market will normally cost around $800 to $2,000. But if you want to experiment with VR gaming, nothing less than $3,000 or more for a great laptop, that will bring the perfect gameplay.
For example, one of the best gaming laptops for under $1,000 right now is the Lenovo Legian would cost you around $849. However, if you want to upgrade it, expect to pay as much as $1,800. The Razor Blade 15, though, is currently one of the best gaming laptops of all, and it starts at about $1,800.
Type of Gaming
Besides budget restrictions, the type of laptop that you’ll want to buy depends a lot on the type of gaming you want to do. For example, the system requirements for playing an online tournament on GameBattles are slightly different than the requirements for playing a multiplayer game like Gunfight.
With online poker, you can play on almost any operating system, but it’ll work best on Windows 7 or newer. You’ll also need at least 1GB to 2GB of RAM (but 4GB is preferable), 1GB of disk space, 512MB of memory, and a graphics card that supports at least Open GL 2.0. Dota 2, on the other hand, requires Windows 7 or newer as a minimum, a dual-core Intel processor, 4GB of RAM, 15GB of disk space, a DirectX Compatible sound card, and a graphics card like NVIDIA GeForce 8600/9600GT.
If you’re not totally sure what type of gaming you want to do, or if you want to mix it up now and then, keep it simple: Aim to get the nicest laptop possible within your budget, paying special attention to RAM and the graphics card. For VR gaming, look for a laptop with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card for the smoothest experience.
Everyday life and your gaming laptop
Does this really mean when choosing a gaming laptop for me? Yes, it does mean a lot and you should consider whether or not you plan to travel with it. First, you’ll want to think about how you understand the term “travel.” That is, traveling within your own city is a lot different than other cities or international travel. The laptop size and weight will affect your type of travel because it will make a big impact on your future travel and packing arrangements.
If you plan on doing a lot of domestic or international travel, stick with a 13.3-in laptop or smaller. Sure, it won’t be fun to compromise on the screen size, but when you’re lugging it around all the time, it just makes more sense. It’s easier to lift, transport, carry and fit into bags. With 15.4-in laptops and up, you’ll have a hard time fitting it in most backpacks.
Then there’s the weight to factor in. This isn’t much of an issue with modern laptops — which weigh next to nothing compared to the laptops of a decade ago — but it might be an issue if you choose to purchase an older model that’s refurbished. If you choose to get an older laptop model, don’t purchase one that’s more than a few years old. The newer the machine, the more likely it’ll support the latest software updates (not to mention games!).
Don’t plan to travel much, but the screen size is important to you? Go for the 15.4-in laptop. If you plan to only use your laptop at home, a 17-in laptop — yes, they still exist — is still an option to consider. Regardless, no matter the size or type of laptop you get, you can always purchase an external monitor, mouse, and keyboard to enhance your gaming experience for when you’re at home. That way, you’ve got a portable machine and a solid home machine all in one.
Bottom Tips
- Don’t buy a gaming laptop for low-end titles like World of Warcraft or Candy Crush. These games can easily be supported by an integrated graphics card.
- Avoid touch screens. They’re more expensive and drain the battery.
- 17- or 18-inch laptops are typically more powerful, but the least portable while 13-, 14- and 15-inches are easier to carry but often lack higher-end components.
- Make sure the keyboard is comfortable. If you can, take a trip to the store and try out the keyboard before you buy it.
- Ditch the M. Thanks to Nvidia’s 10-series GPUs, mobile chips are a thing of the past. These new GPUs are faster, more powerful and are VR-ready.
- Avoid laptops with a low-res display (less than 1920 x 1080).
- Get solid-state storage. Invest in an SSD for faster game installs and load times.
- Get a laptop with at least an Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU and an HDMI 1.3 port if you want to be able to enjoy virtual reality games with an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.
So, here are the top suggestions for your next gaming laptop that may help you to enroll in the next world gaming championship for sure. All the best!