The best gaming laptops – The Verge

The early gaming laptops were largely desktop replacements: clunky chassis, multiple power bricks, and RGB lighting galore. But the top contenders now are different. Manufacturers are finally putting powerful specs into thin gaming machines: sleeker, more portable, and more professional builds. They have excellent, fast refreshing screens that are necessary for a great gaming experience. These laptops aren’t just great for gaming but for everyday work as well.

The best gaming laptop is the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. It can handle the most demanding games on the market today, it’s portable, and it also makes a great daily driver. Other good options are the Razer Blade 16 and the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro.

One more thing to keep in mind is the power you can expect. Not all chips with the same name are created equal — the RTX 4070 in one laptop may not deliver the same frame rates as the RTX 4070 in another laptop due to its wattage (as well as other factors like the processor and cooling). Nvidia now requires companies to disclose clock speeds and graphics power on each model’s product page, but plenty of manufacturers haven’t done that yet.

Out of the many gaming laptops we test each year, here are the ones that make the list. If you’re looking for a more multipurpose device, check out our best laptop page. If you’re an Android gamer, we’ve also got a list of the best Chromebooks you can buy.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 8945 HS / GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060, RTX 4070 / RAM: 16GB, 32GB / Storage: 1TB / Display: 14-inch OLED, 2880 x 1800, 120Hz, 400 nits / Dimensions: 12.24 x 8.66 x 0.63 inches / Weight: 3.31 pounds

There is no better-balanced gaming laptop than the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. It’s our new favorite for all the same reasons we loved the 2023 model: it’s a thin and lightweight 14-inch gaming laptop with reasonable compromises to power and price. It’s powerful enough to reach 60 frames per second on ultra graphics at its native resolution (with or without DLSS) in most games, but not so powerful that its chassis traps too much heat. Its max battery life is also reasonable — about 6.5 hours with a 73 Whr battery.

Asus gave the 2024 Zephyrus some quality-of-life touch-ups: the processor is now a current-gen Ryzen 9 8000-series chip; its display has been upgraded from an IPS to a higher-res OLED; you can configure it with 32GB of memory; and every configuration comes with a 1TB SSD. Asus even put lighting back on the lid — not a dot matrix, but a diagonal strip of LEDs.

If you want to save some money, the RTX 4060 Zephyrus G14 is up to $500 cheaper. It has the same great screen and build, though only half the RAM, and its frame rates are only about 10 percent lower than the 4070 Zephyrus at 1080p/ultra. The Razer Blade 14 is a little more powerful with a 240Hz screen, and you can upgrade the RAM — but its battery life barely hits four hours in general use, its IPS display doesn’t support G-Sync or HDR, and it is up to $700 more expensive. The RTX 4070 Zephyrus G14 nails the price-to-everything ratio — there’s nothing sweeter.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D / GPU: Nvidia Geforce RTX 4090 / RAM: 32GB / Storage: 1TB / Display: 17-inch IPS QHD, 240Hz display, 3ms, 300 nits, 100 percent DCI-P3 / Dimensions: 15.55 x 11.1 x 1.11 inches / Weight: 6.51 pounds

The ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D is big, it’s loud, it’s garish, and it’s flat-out the fastest gaming laptop we’ve tested. Thanks to its AMD Ryzen 9 79045HX3D processor, it leaves models with the same top-tier RTX 4090 graphics card and Intel’s fastest CPUs in the dust. It can run many of today’s AAA titles at 1440p with triple-digit frame rates.

The Scar 17 X3D has a 17-inch 2560 x 1440 240Hz screen with G-Sync, oodles of ports, a pleasant keyboard, and RGB galore. At over six and a half pounds and 17 inches on the diagonal, it’s your classic high-performance, barely portable gaming laptop.

Its webcam is potato, battery life is exactly as bad as you’d expect from everything we just listed, and it’s expensive, but for now this is the high-water mark for gaming laptops.

For more down-to-earth performance and price, you can also get the ROG Strix Scar 17 with an RTX 4070 for about $1,800 or with an RTX 4080 for about $2,900.

Read our Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D review.

Read our review of the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600H, Ryzen 7 5800H, Intel Core i5-13500H, Core i7-13700H, Core i7-12700H / GPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600H, Ryzen 7 5800H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050, RTX 3050 Ti, RTX 4050 / RAM: 8GB, 16GB / Storage: 512GB, 1TB / Display: 15.6-inch IPS, 1920 x 1080, 60Hz / 144Hz, no touch option / Dimensions: 14.09 x 10.04 x 0.93 / Weight: 5.05 pounds

If you’ve got a tighter shopping budget, the HP Victus 15 is worth considering. The model we tested has a 144Hz screen, which is hard to find below the $800 mark. We found the touchpad a bit stiff, but that was our only real issue with the chassis in our testing.

While the Victus 15 doesn’t have the powerful gaming chops to match some of the other devices in this category, it can certainly run a number of games at their maximum settings, particularly lighter titles. If you don’t want to compromise on more modern AAA titles, we recommend going for the RTX 3050 model.

Read our HP Victus 15 review.

CPU: Intel Core i5-13500HX, Core i7-13700HX / GPU: Nvidia Geforce RTX 4050, 4060, 4070 / RAM: 16GB / Storage: 512GB, 1TB / Display: 16-inch, 2560 x 1600 IPS, 165Hz / 240Hz, no touch option / Dimensions: 14.3 x 10.25 x 1.05 inches / Weight: 5.51 pounds

The Legion 5i Pro is a fast, well-built gaming laptop from Lenovo. For well under $2,000, you can get exceptional performance from Nvidia 40-series GPUs and Intel’s 13th Gen processors in an attractive 16-inch chassis. It delivered respectable results on every game we tried, even at its native 2560 x 1600 resolution. And with the 240Hz display, you’ll be able to fully take advantage of the Legion 5i Pro’s power.

Performance aside, the highlight of the Legion 5 Pro is its 16:10 screen. A screen this tall is hard to find on the gaming laptop market these days, and it allows you more room for multitasking if you want to use the Legion 5 Pro as a daily driver. The keyboard is also a delight to use, with four-zone programmable backlighting.

The Legion’s main downside is its battery life. We only got about five hours of continuous use in our testing. While that’s not the worst we’ve ever gotten from a gaming laptop, it’s nowhere near what you’ll see from Asus’ Zephyrus G14. However, it does charge very, very fast with the included 300W power brick. Overall, though, the G14 will be a better option for folks who often work on the go. But the Legion is still a solid choice — and we have to give Lenovo props for the 16:10 screen.

Read our Lenovo Legion 5i Pro review.

CPU: Intel Core i9-13980HX, Core i9-13950HX / GPU: Nvidia Geforce RTX 4060, RTX 4070, RTX 4080, RTX 4090 / RAM: 16GB, 32GB / Storage: 1TB, 2TB / Display: 16-inch Mini-LED, Dual UHD / FHD+, 120Hz / 240Hz / Dimensions: 13.98 x 9.61 x 0.87 inches / Weight: 5.4 pounds

If you want your games to look as gorgeous as they possibly can, the Razer Blade 16 is worth considering. The Blade comes with an optional Mini LED screen that can swap between native UDH Plus / 120Hz and FHD Plus / 240Hz modes with one click.

Inside, the Blade is equipped with top-end chips from Nvidia and Intel and can run most of today’s demanding games at their highest settings with all the effects you want. If the dual-mode display isn’t a priority for you, you can go for more affordable (but still pricey) models. The Blade 16 does run hot, as is traditional with the Razer Blade laptops, especially with an RTX 4090. Stepping down to the RTX 4080 saves about $700 bucks, doesn’t lose you much performance, and might save your fingers.

Read our Razer Blade 16 review.

CPU: Intel Core i9-13980HX, Core i9-13950HX / GPU: Nvidia Geforce RTX 4060, RTX 4070, RTX 4080, RTX 4090 / RAM: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB / Storage: 1TB, 2TB / Display: 18-inch, 2560 x 1600, 240Hz / Dimensions: 15.74 x 10.84 x 0.86 inches / Weight: 6.8 pounds

The Blade 18 delivers some of the best gaming performance you can find in a laptop — but that’s not even its superpower. What makes Razer’s flagship so impressive is its massive 18-inch screen that delivers a fully immersive gaming experience. And at 0.86 inches, it’s impressively thin for such a powerful device — thin enough to carry in a briefcase or backpack.

This year’s model comes with a QHD Plus 240Hz display. It also has a customizable per-key RGB keyboard, which adds a touch of color without being too intense for the office. It runs cooler than the Blade 16, not that that’s saying much. The Blade 18 certainly isn’t cheap, but it’s the laptop to buy if you want a really big screen in a relatively slim frame.

Read our Razer Blade 18 review.

If you’re looking for a super-portable gaming laptop that doubles as a tablet, the Flow Z13 is one of your only options. The model we tested is the Acronym Edition, which has a funky and unique design done in collaboration with the apparel brand Acronym. You don’t have to buy this particular model (and the plain one will certainly be more affordable, so that’s what’s linked here), but it’s covered in logos and typography, with a multicolored keyboard that looks like it belongs at a fashion show. We recommend going for the non-Acronym model if you’re looking for the best value.

Design aside, the Flow Z13 has the chops to run all kinds of demanding titles at its native QHD resolution. What’s more, it’s compatible with Asus’ XG Mobile external GPU. That means you can plug the Z13 in for heavy-duty performance while you’re at your desk at home. That setup should give you a better gaming experience than you can expect from most gaming laptops on their own.

Read our Asus ROG Flow Z13 review.

Update, May 10th, 2024: Updated best gaming laptop from the 2023 Rog Zephyrus G14 to the 2024 Rog Zephyrus G14.