The Best Gaming Laptops for Any Quest (2024)

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Eric Ravenscraft

Gear

We tested the latest and greatest gaming laptops—from portable machines to an 18-inch gargantuan—so you can level up your game anywhere.

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Featured in this article

The Best Gaming Laptops for Any Quest (3)

Best Overall

Razer Blade 14

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The Best Gaming Laptops for Any Quest (4)

Best Gaming Laptop for Portability

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14

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The Best Gaming Laptops for Any Quest (5)

Best Upgrade

Razer Blade 18 (2024)

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The Best Gaming Laptops for Any Quest (6)

Another Great 18-Inch Gaming Laptop

Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024)

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Choosing a gaming laptop is like putting together a well-balanced adventuring party. You need to look at what you plan to use it for and what kinds of quests you'll tackle, then try to match its capabilities to your needs—without emptying your coin purse. To that end, weary travelers, we took it upon ourselves to source the latest and greatest gaming laptops from forges large and small. We gathered them in our keep and ran them through several tests to sort the god-rolls from the vendor trash. Here they are, the best gaming laptops for every kind of player.

Be sure to check out our picks for the Best Laptops, Best Gaming Mice, Best Keyboards, Best Gaming Headsets, and our favorite PC Games (as well as how to build a game library for free).

Updated May 2024: We've added the Razer Blade 18, Alienware m16 R2, and Acer Nitro 17.

Special offer for Gear readers: Get WIRED for just $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com, full Gear coverage, and subscriber-only newsletters. Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.

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Eric Ravenscraft is a product writer and reviewer at WIRED, based in Austin, Texas. He's guided readers on how to use technology for nearly a decade for publications including Lifehacker, OneZero, and The New York Times. He also streams on Twitch for WIRED occasionally and can be found on YouTube... Read more

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The Best Gaming Laptops for Any Quest (2024)

FAQs

Which gaming laptop is most reliable? ›

  • Razer Blade 14. The Razer Blade 14 is the perfect example of where Razer excels: luxurious design. ...
  • ROG Strix SCAR 18 (2024) The Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 is an extremely powerful laptop, and it's gorgeous to boot. ...
  • Alienware m18 R2. ...
  • Legion Pro 7i. ...
  • MSI Stealth 18 AI Studio.
7 days ago

What's the most powerful gaming laptop? ›

The Scar 18 is the most powerful machine we've tested, but the cheaper configurations of the Alienware M18 make it the best 18-incher overall. The Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 has consistently hit the highest numbers in our in-game and industry benchmark tests.

How do I choose a laptop for gaming? ›

Highlights:
  1. Balance power and portability when choosing a system.
  2. Choose a CPU and GPU carefully, especially if you plan on gaming with higher resolutions or frame rates.
  3. Get faster load times with an NVMe SSD.
  4. Connect external peripherals to enhance your experience when gaming at home.

Is it worth getting a gaming laptop? ›

For those who need to game on the go, portability is a crucial factor that makes investing in gaming laptops worthwhile. Whether you're traveling for work or simply want to socialize with friends while playing at their place, having a portable gaming solution is invaluable.

Do gaming laptops last longer than PC? ›

One thing you should keep in mind, though, is that gaming laptops tend to have a longer lifespan than regular laptops. This is due to their high-quality components. A “regular” laptop means one with a lower-powered CPU, less RAM, storage, and no dedicated GPU. Those types of laptops will simply not last as long.

Are gaming laptops good for everyday use? ›

A gaming laptop can be used like other laptops which we use for the usual day-to-day tasks and entertainment purposes. These laptops have the same operating systems which we use on our normal laptops or PCs.

What is the king of gaming laptops? ›

The top 8 gaming laptops in India are:
  • Acer Nitro V Gaming Laptop.
  • ASUS TUF Gaming F17.
  • HP Victus Gaming Laptop.
  • Dell G15 5520 Gaming Laptop.
  • MSI GF63 Thin, Intel Core i5.
  • Acer Nitro 16 Gaming Laptop.
  • ASUS TUF Gaming F15.
  • Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3.

What is the best laptop for casual gaming and work? ›

  • Dell XPS 15. Our top choice. ...
  • Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. Long-lasting life on the go. ...
  • Acer Nitro 5. An affordable gaming and work laptop. ...
  • Acer Swift 3. Lightweight for when you're on the move. ...
  • Lenovo Legion Pro 5i. Gaming without breaking the bank. ...
  • Razer Blade Pro 17. Powerhouse performance for work and play. ...
  • Dell G15.
Feb 13, 2024

Which gaming laptops are most reliable? ›

The best gaming laptop we've tested is the Dell Alienware m18 R2 (2024). This large 18-inch model delivers a fantastic gaming experience with high, consistent frame rates. It's available with fast Intel 14th Gen CPUs and discrete NVIDIA GPUs, up to a Core i9-14900HX and an RTX 4090, respectively.

Is $1000 dollars enough for a gaming laptop? ›

That's where sub-$1,000 gaming laptops come in. They may not be able to crank the settings to the max on every title, but these budget gaming laptops can still play the latest games at decent settings and are affordable. The good news is that there are many options.

Which is the number one laptop in the world? ›

The MacBook Air 13-inch M3 is the laptop we recommend first to most people because it delivers unbeatable value. You get great performance from Apple's M3 chip, a bright display and more than 15 hours of battery life (according to our testing) in an ultraportable package.

How do I know if my laptop is suitable for gaming? ›

You typically want a Core i7/Ryzen 7 or better to play modern, resource-intensive titles. Slower processors (Core i3-i5/Ryzen 3-5) will suffice for simple games only. Lower-tier CPUs, like Intel Celeron and Pentium, aren't suitable for gaming.

How much RAM do I need for a gaming laptop? ›

The latest game releases are already starting to recommend a minimum 16GB of RAM. So, if you use your PC for more than just gaming or want to future-proof for upcoming releases, 32GB could be the right option for you.

Is 16GB RAM enough for gaming? ›

While some people might be able to use 8GB to play a few older games, 16GB will definitely improve your gaming experience if you like to play more modern games. But what about running tasks in the background, like Chrome or Discord? For that, you may need 32GB.

Is HP or Dell laptop better for gaming? ›

Gaming. Both HP and Dell provide a range of gaming PCs tailored to gaming-specific needs, like seamless performance and immersive graphics. While desktop PCs are the favorite choice for running high-demanding games, both brands offer great gaming laptops for on-the-go.

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