Thanks to their powerful graphics, gorgeous displays, and great audio, gaming laptops provide an immersive entertainment experience in a portable package. Many also offer stylish designs, desktop-quality keyboards, and the ability to use high-end VR headsets.
To help you pick the perfect rig, we've compiled a list of the best gaming laptops, including our top picks from Alienware, Acer, Lenovo, MSI, Razer, Dell and more.
Here are some of the best gaming systems you can buy right now.
Dell's cheapest gaming laptop is back and better than ever. The G3 15 offers strong performance with its 9th Gen Core i5 CPU and GTX 1650 GPU backed by the full power of the Alienware Command Center — all for a reasonable price. Combine that with great battery life, plenty of ports, and a relatively comfortable keyboard, and you have one badass gaming machine. However, the G3's affordable price does come at the cost of a relatively dull 15.6-inch display.
You've never seen a gaming laptop like this. Part laptop, part all-in-one PC, the Asus ROG Mothership features a convertible design that allows you to detach the magnetic keyboard for a more comfortable desktop experience. You can also fold the Mothership in a variety of configurations to better suit your lap or desk. Add that versatility to a truly out-of-this-world design — complete with customizable RGB lighting and an Intel Core i9 CPU — and you have one of the most intriguing (albeit expensive, depending on the configuration) gaming laptops yet.
The Asus ROG Strix Scar III is quite the impressive gaming laptop, offering strong performance, a 240-Hz panel, long battery life, a clicky keyboard and decent speakers. Overall, it's one of the best gaming laptops you could get your hands on.
The new Omen 17 is an improvement over its predecessor in many ways: The laptop was redesigned with a slimmer, more sophisticated (albeit plastic) chassis; its RTX graphics offer a serious performance boost; and its 1080p, 144-Hz display gets quite bright. Its battery life is lackluster, though.
The Acer Predator Triton 500 impresses with its slim and light chassis, and packs a serious punch with a slew of powerful components, including an 8th Gen Intel processor and one of Nvidia's new RTX 2080 Max-Q GPUs. It offers a great mix of graphics and overall power — something you can't get in every gaming laptop. And thanks to the Turbo option, you can squeeze even more power out of the GPU. If you want serious power in a portable design, the Acer Predator Triton should be at the top of your list.
The Razer Blade Pro 17 is the epitome of sleek with its 0.8-inch thick black aluminum chassis. But it's more than just a pretty face. It boasts an Intel 9th Gen processor and an RTX 2080 Max-Q GPU, making for a formidable gaming laptop and content creation system. A pair of lightning-fast SSDs and a surprisingly effective cooling system only sweeten the proposition. This laptop deftly straddles the line for gamers and creative professionals alike, delivering strong overall performance in a rock-solid package.
Say hello to my skinny friend. At a mere 4.1 pounds and 0.7 inches thick, MSI's GS65 Stealth Thin is one of the company's slimmest gaming laptops to date. The laptop features Intel's new 8th gen, six-core Coffee Lake processor, which promises 20 percent more performance than its predecessor. But since this is a gaming laptop at its core, MSI squeezed an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q GPU into that slim frame. It's a true jack-of-all-trades system that should be at the top of your list.
The Blade is one of the lightest gaming laptops around, delivering strong performance and over 6 hours of battery life. This is also the first system in the Blade line to offer dual storage. And if that's not enough, Razer's also offering the notebook in a stunning Mercury White aluminum chassis that's sure to have all eyes on you (when you make the winning play).
Ditching the tired black-and-red gamer aesthetic, the MSI GT76 Titan is decked out in all its silver-fox glory. The new look is nothing short of stunning, and the Titan is a force to be reckoned with, both performance-wise and financially. This laptop has just about everything, including an Intel desktop processor and Nvidia RTX 2080 GPU, which means it's plenty powerful for gaming and productivity.
The HP Omen 15 is a great mid-tier gaming laptop. You get a system that packs a punch on both the gaming side and with overall performance. Not only can the Nvidia GTX 1650 GPU play AAA titles, but it can play them well. (The display and audio ain't too shabby, either.) If you're looking for an affordable gaming laptop that doesn't cut too many corners, the HP Omen is for you.
