The best gaming notebook 2018: T3’s top picks for playing games
We think the best gaming laptop is the current market on the ASUS ROG westerly market. This is surprisingly light and quiet, and the most important thing is to pack an exceptionally powerful casing thread of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 video card as fast as lightning.
It’s unashamedly expensive in terms of price point, but it is simply the best gaming laptop you can buy right now, and to get the best you have to pay for it.
If, however, you are shopping on a more modest budget then we’ve also got some awesome recommendations at lower price points too, including systems from Acer, Alienware, Aorus and more. Simply scroll down to begin.
How to choose a great gaming laptop for you
What you are looking for in a gaming laptop is the ability to enjoy today’s most demanding, graphically intensive games, without having to make loads of settings compromises.
Bad gaming laptops advertise themselves on their gaming credentials, however deliver vastly inferior performance to desktop counterparts. High resolution screens are a nice added bonus too, however keep in mind that high frame rates are far more important, so it is pretty pointless plumping for a laptop with a 4K screen if it doesn’t have the interior hardware to power games on it.
Other things to look out for when buying a gaming laptop include weight and portability – after all you are buying this to carry/transport round unlike a desktop – battery life, which tends to be a fundamental issue with many gaming laptops, and price.
Here at T3.com we think you should be spending a minimum of £800 ($1,000) on a gaming laptop to ensure a good level of performance, and more than £1,600 if you can stretch to it if you want something at the premium end of the scale.
Our pick of the best gaming laptops to buy today
1. ASUS ROG ZEPHYRUS GX501
The Asus ROG Zephyrus is simply an amazing piece of engineering. Despite being incredibly thin and light (2.2kg) it packs an insanely powerful Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card, something made possible thanks to Nvidia’s new Max-Q design tech. From that incredibly high starting point there’s no drop in specs either, with a rapid Intel Core i7-7700HQ partnering up with 16GB of 2,400MHz RAM. The Zephyrus’ screen isn’t 4K, however, it is a wide-view 1080p number with a 120Hz refresh rate, as well as anti-glare finish. The feel of the thing in the hand is pure unadulterated premium, as too under the eyes – the GX501 truly is a remarkable piece of technology.
The only down sides to the Zephyrus are its cramped keyboard and high cost. If you’ve got the money, though, then this is a no-brainer, best-in-class proposition.
2. RAZER BLADE STEALTH
An outrageous combination of sexy, streamlined mobility and serious gaming power, the Razer Blade Stealth ultrabook is unlike anything else on the market.
Despite weighing under 1.33kg (2.93 lbs), the system packs a 7th Gen Intel Core i7-7500U CPU, 16GB of dual-channel memory and a 1TB SSD, and is capable of running for 7 hours straight on battery with a 4K display. What’s more, the system is also compatible with the Razer Core, Razer’s plug-and-play external GPU enclosure, which means incredible desktop-grade graphical power is also delivered when the two are combined.
Throw in the fact that the build quality is also superb, with a super premium CNC milled body from aircraft-grade aluminium, and it quickly becomes obvious that this machine is not just incredibly fast but also insanely desirable.
3. RAZER BLADE PRO
The Razor Blade Pro does what many other gaming laptops don’t, and that is to genuinely deliver desktop-grade performance. The fact that it does this despite being only 0.88-inches thick, packing a gorgeous 17-inch, 4K, multi-touch display, as well as a superb Ultra-Low-Profile mechanical switch keyboard too is just scandalous really. Obviously, the price is sky high and the battery life when used for intense gaming action under 5 hours, however there is no doubting that you are getting one of the absolute best out there right now in gaming laptops, with the Razer Blade Pro’s crazy specs crushing even today’s most demanding AAA, graphically intensive games.
4. ASUS ROG STRIX GL502
Best gaming laptopsAnother entry from Asus makes our top list and, once more, it is easy to see why. That’s because the Asus ROG Strix GL502 comes packing a brilliant and vibrant 1,920 x 1,080 IPS screen and then pairs it with some superb, top-tier gaming hardware. An Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070, along with 16GB of DDR4 RAM makes short work of any title at that resolution (and often consistently surpass 60fps!) and makes playing games a totally stress-free experience in terms of performance. As you would expect, Asus a32-k52 laptop battery life isn’t stellar, however the rest of this very well priced gaming laptop make it a top contender.
5. ALIENWARE 13 R3
Alienware has such pedigree in the gaming laptop market that, unsurprisingly, its latest R3 refresh of the classic Alienware 13 is an absolute treat for gamers. Configurable with a gorgeous QHD 2,560 x 1,440 OLED screen, as well as some really tasty internal hardware (Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 and 16GB of DDR4 RAM anyone?), the Alienware 13 R3 delivers real gaming power in a super portable, compact-screen-size package. In addition, a new forward-hinge design allows the system to be thinner than past iterations too, with a 0.81-inch (0.22cm) chassis delivering Alienware’s typically cool off-world aesthetic with aplomb. As ever, battery life or weight isn’t the best, however these are minor issues to a really tasty, top-tier gaming laptop.
6. ACER PREDATOR 17 X
Incredibly heavy at 10.03 pounds (4.67kg), the Acer Predator 17 X is certainly not a gaming laptop that you would want to carry around all day, and that’s not even mentioning its bulky power supply either. However, if ultra portability isn’t a major requirement for you (i.e. you’re not going to have to walk round much with it, more commute with it in a car or on public transport), then the 17 X is a really competitive choice of gaming laptop. That’s because it comes packing a desktop-grade Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 (which is a little old now but very powerful), a 4K screen with G-Sync functionality at the top end of the configurator, as well as as much RAM as you can shake a stick at (a max of 32GB DDR4). The price is also very competitive compared to similarly specced rivals.
7. AORUS X5 V6
Aorus doesn’t have the name recognition or pedigree of some of its more established gaming laptop rivals, however, that doesn’t stop it delivering a really tasty system in the form of the X5 v6. This bad boy comes rocking a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 (that’s 8GB of GDDR5 people!), a 15-inch IPS 3K resolution display, and an Intel Core i7 CPU. The design, while unspectacular, is also very slim and easy to carry, and the price lower than other comparable systems. Caveats come in the form of B-grade build quality and rather noisy fans, which whir and hum with intensity when pixels are being pushed.
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