Much of the conversation around PC gaming focuses on desktops, but they may not suit every budget or lifestyle. Many people will be comfortable with laptops, and the extra power that gaming laptops offer can make them useful for other tasks as well. Machines that call themselves “gaming laptops” can range from tiny machines that barely run Minecraft to powerful powerhouses that cost more than most desktop versions. A laptop that offers an optimal gaming experience.
The laptops we’ve chosen to list in this guide are all capable options, but certain options stand out more than others, either because of the price they come in or the extra features they provide to help deliver a superior gaming experience. Most of the options below come with RTX 2060 or RTX 2070 graphics cards and 1080P displays, allowing you to run any game at least on medium settings. If you’re buying a gaming laptop for other intensive workloads like image and video editing, gaming laptops under $1500 can handle that too.
We’ve got all sorts of options on our list, including ones that excel at gaming and can handle other high-performance tasks. We have a gaming laptop with a great 17-inch screen on our list if that’s what you’re looking for, or maybe you’re a college student looking for a thin and light gaming laptop with all-day battery backup to take it wherever you are To take college and play in your spare time, we also have suggestions to you.
Check out the list of the best gaming laptops under $1500
Acer Predator Helios 300
The Predator Helios 300 is average for a 15.6-inch gaming laptop. The HP Omen 15 is a trimmer (0.89 by 14.1 by 9.4 inches), as is the MSI Stealth 15M (0.6 by 14.1 by 9.7 inches). The Acer isn’t exactly light at 4.85 pounds, but it’s a decent weight for this size of screen. (The aforementioned Alien ware weighs in at 5.3 pounds.)
The four-zone RGB keyboard is just as colorful. Acer’s Predator Sense app allows true RGB control (EI, the ability to specify red, green and blue values) for each zone. A dedicated button on the number pad launches the app. Although it lacks the per-key backlight customization of the more expensive Omen 15 and Alien ware m15, its four zones and infinite colors should satisfy most buyers’ customization desires. Conveniently, the app allows you to save profiles.
Lenovo legion 5 15
The Legion 5 has a similar chassis to its predecessors, but it looks much sleeker thanks to the Phantom Blue hood combined with the prismatic Legion logo in the top left corner of the lid. The interior sports the same Phantom Blue platform and a four-zone RGB-lit keyboard that flows from left to right like an ocean of rainbows crashing against the shore.
The left side features a USB Type-C port and a headphone jack, while the right side has room for a USB Type-A port and a webcam kill button. The rear, meanwhile, has three additional USB Type-A ports, an HDMI port, a USB Type-C port, and an RJ45 Ethernet port. Unfortunately, the laptop doesn’t come with a Mini DisplayPort, so you can’t easily connect a VR headset.
MSI-GL66
The MSI Pulse GL66 lives up to its name with heavy sci-fi decor that seems to center around a central theme of elements radiating from each other. This is a bit busy as those elements start to overlap, most notably on the lid of the laptop, though at least it looks unique rather than generic.
The MSI Pulse GL66 comes with an Intel Core i7-11800H CPU and an RTX 3060 laptop GPU, putting it on the cheaper and thus slower end when it comes to current-gen mobile gaming hardware... The same general trend extends to weight, although we did come across an outlier in our gaming laptop comparisons.
Omen HP 15
The 15.6-inch screen is surrounded by thin bezels on both sides, with a slightly thicker border at the top to make room for the 720p camera. As is the case with most laptop webcams, the Omen’s camera is good enough to get the job done. In other words, you will not receive praise for the quality of your video calls.
There are plenty of ports that line both sides of the laptop deck. On the right side is a Thunderbolt 4 USB-C port, a mini Display Port 1.4, and two USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports. On the opposite side is a full-size SD card reader, along with a 3.5 mm headphone jack., an HDMI port, another USB 3.1 Gen 1 port, and finally a Gigabit Ethernet port.
Acer Predator Triton 500
If you can afford it, we see no reason to opt for anything else. Admittedly, the screen, albeit almost, is infinitesimally underwhelming, but what Acer has managed to squeeze into the slim form of the Predator Triton 500 is nothing short of remarkable.
A speedy laptop that doesn’t exactly skimp on power, the Acer Predator Triton 500 is a performance monster with a lot of going for it other than gaming prowess. If you’re looking for a high-end laptop for work, or (more likely) one of the best gaming laptops capable of kicking off even AAA titles, you’ve found it, but the price will likely make the Predator Triton 500 a bit out of reach for those on a budget.
Sager NP7879PQ
The Sager NP7879PQ is powered by 8-core 11th Gen Intel Core i7 11800H which in terms of performance goes hand in hand with AMD Ryzen 7 5800H and nearly 20 percent faster than its i7 10875H predecessor on the other side, Nvidia RTX 3060 Mobile is comparable to RTX. Super mobile 2070.
The Sager NP7879PQ is powered by 11th Gen Intel Core i7 11800H and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 6 GB VRAM and Intel UHD Graphics Xe 750 32EU. Other key specs include 16 GB of RAM and a 500 GB SSD. The display here is a 17.3-inch 144Hz (1920 x 1080) FHD panel.
MSI Stealth 15M
It’s that everyday functionality that really makes the Stealth 15M shine. Not only are you choosing an understated design that will fit in just as well in any office as it would in a gaming desktop setup, but using this machine for casual computing feels amazing too.
The MSI Stealth 15M manages to pack the punch of one of the best gaming PCs into a super portable and lightweight platform, although some sacrifices have to be made to achieve such a slim design. Nowhere is this more evident than in the hum of fans or bottom-end burn during even lighter gaming sessions.
Asus TUF-F15
The TURF F15 revolutionizes its design with a new style that leaves behind the more gamer-centric aesthetic that has plagued the entire gaming laptop landscape in recent years. The laptop is well-balanced, and its keyboard is comfortable to type on. The laptop’s 1080p display is well-matched to the internals that power it, with our panel’s 144Hz refresh rate making up for the lack of color depth.
That’s pretty impressive considering the CPU is attached to the laptop’s chassis, and cooling is relatively hampered compared to what you can get in a desktop setup. The Core i9-11900H has a maximum turbo frequency of 4.9 GHz, and in our single-core tests we saw it almost hit that number.
Acer Predator Triton 300
Jump-start your PC with 11th Gen Intel processors, now running up to 5.0GHz2 Turbo. With up to 8 cores and 16 threads, it decimates every challenge thrown its way. So go ahead and load up the tasks and see for yourself what this powerhouse is capable of.
These GPUs offer maximum performance for gamers and creators. They are powered by NVIDIA’s 2nd Gen RTX Ampere architecture, with new Ray Tracing cores, Tensor cores, and streaming multiprocessors for a huge leap in performance. The laptop also uses third-generation NVIDIA® Max-Q technologies for maximum performance and efficiency.
Lenovo IdeaPad 3
This budget laptop can run most modern games at a playable frame rate, and if you’re looking for something useful for work, it has a decent selection of ports, a responsive Windows Precision touchpad, and a full-size backlit keyboard. With satisfactory key travel.
The IdeaPad Gaming 3 didn’t stutter too much while running my workload of apps, which includes running Spotify, Affinity Photo, Slack, and 10 to 20 Google Chrome tabs in perpetuity. When this laptop is plugged in with the included 135W charger, it stays cool and relatively quiet.
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