How To Buy a Gaming Laptop

How to buy a gaming laptop requires answering several questions. Gaming laptops have been among the most intriguing computers for a few years. In the process, they have become lighter and thinner and significantly increased in power and efficiency, making them suitable for work and entertainment. They have incorporated some daring innovations, such as rotating hinges and almost desktop-like customization.

Choosing a gaming laptop over a workstation might make more sense if you’re a professional in the market for a powerful new computer and occasionally enjoy playing Horizon Zero Dawn. For 3D rendering and video encoding, your computer should still be able to handle the task with ease.

Should I buy a gaming Laptop?

When you travel frequently and want a laptop that can handle email, internet browsing, and intense gaming, a gaming laptop might be the right choice. The following are some reasons why a gaming laptop might be preferable.

Laptop-like performance

Despite its description as a “gaming laptop,” it can do more than that. It performs all of the other tasks that a typical laptop should. You can check your emails, browse the internet, and stream movies, among other things. Gaming laptops are powerful laptops designed to handle demanding tasks like video editing, gaming, 3D rendering, and VR simulation. The fact that they are distinguished from regular laptops by various specialized hardware, including a dedicated video card, VRAM, high-end processor, advanced cooling mechanism, and so on, doesn’t make them less of a laptop.

All-in-one Machine

The main benefit of a gaming laptop over a workstation is its portability. The laptop’s size, weight, and internal battery make it easy to move from one location to another. A separate monitor, keyboard, and mouse are not required. Besides saving money and time, it also makes life easier.

Game-on-the-go

Gaming laptops offer the convenience of taking your game wherever you go. With a gaming laptop, you can access the most recent releases through services like Steam and GOG and stay current on the action from any location.

What to Look for When Buying a Gaming Laptop

Besides their powerful configurations, gaming laptops have developed to keep up with the demands of even the most intense gamers, making them a serious alternative to workstations. Another plus is that battery life has increased significantly.

The best graphics card, the fastest processor, a ton of quick solid-state storage to hold your games, and fast memory can all feature in a gaming laptop you purchase to future-proof, but it may still fall short.

It’s unnecessary to go over your budget to buy a gaming laptop. But playing video games on a budget can be challenging if you don’t shop wisely. Since cloud gaming advances have made it possible to play more games on less expensive hardware than ever, consider streaming your favorite games.

Gaming Laptop Buying Guide

It can be challenging to figure out how to purchase a gaming laptop, mainly if you’ve never done so or used the same outdated gaming rig for years. Manufacturers aggressively market these laptops with carefully chosen advertisements that fail to provide the information you require, which is not helpful.

It’s important to know what specifications to look out for and whether you’re getting good value for your money, given how much you can potentially spend on a subpar gaming laptop. Those spec sheets can be confusing, and occasionally a laptop that appears to be fantastic conceals one or two unreliable components.

The best gaming laptops are portable enough to bring with you wherever you go and powerful enough to play the newest games almost as well as the best gaming PCs.

Choosing the right gaming laptop can be challenging. The process involved making trade-offs between performance and portability or buying a powerful laptop that pushed the limits of what qualifies as a laptop. Budget laptops are, by their very nature, trade-offs. High-end laptops with excellent specifications and displays cost much money. Therefore, budget and specification play a significant role in choosing a gaming laptop. As the cost of gaming laptops continues to rise, the best time to buy gaming laptop is now. Some important specifications to take into consideration include the following:

CPU: Your budget will determine whether you can afford a powerful Core i7 CPU or an overclocked one such as the Intel Core i9-12900HK. You can also find laptops with desktop CPUs. However, most games benefit more from a high-performance GPU than a CPU, so you can definitely get by with a Core i5. CPUs usually aren’t upgradeable, so you’re making this choice once.[3]

RAM: Games can use a lot of RAM, so 8GB is recommended even for typical productivity tasks. But that is just the minimum. For the best experience, you should go for 16GB on a gaming PC. It’s a good idea to upgrade your laptop shortly if you can’t get one with 16GB of RAM now. If you are handy with a screwdriver, you can upgrade your gaming laptop’s memory later or get an expert to do it for you.

Storage: Most gaming laptops come with a small SSD to serve as a boot drive, but some budget gaming laptops only include a hard drive (usually 1TB). You wouldn’t be surprised to see a 128GB SSD working alongside a 1TB HDD. It may be possible to reduce loading times if you upgrade to a larger SSD, but you’ll have to pay more for it. Often, gaming notebooks have upgradeable storage. You can add more storage if you need more space.

Displays: It is common for displays to go unnoticed, but they are crucial. Without a monitor, your games will display on the laptop’s built-in screen. Full HD (1920 x 1080), QHD (2560 x 1440), and 4K are the best screen resolutions (3840 x 2160). A screen’s image should appear sharper the more pixels it has. As a result, a 4K monitor will be able to display an image with greater clarity and detail than a Full HD monitor.

Size: Although there are a few enormous systems with 18-inch panels and a few 14-inch systems, most gaming laptops have 15 or 17-inch screens. Whatever size you prefer is a matter of personal preference, but keep in mind that a laptop’s size and weight increase with the size of its screen. Never purchase a display with a resolution lower than 1920 x 1080.

Refresh rate: Most laptops will have a 60Hz display and a 1080p resolution. And for many gamers, that is more than sufficient. Although more attractive, higher resolution displays (2560 x 1440, 3840 x 2160) frequently reach their 60Hz limit. Because of this, 1080p may be the best resolution for some gamers. Some vendors offer FHD displays with faster refresh rates of 144 Hz, 240 Hz, or even 360 Hz for smoother gaming. You need a powerful GPU to play with settings prioritizing frame rate over graphical dedication to benefit.

Final Thoughts

Although it may seem difficult at first, learning how to buy a gaming laptop only needs to be learned once, and it’s not as difficult as it might seem. Comparing one gaming laptop to another will be very simple because every product listing will have a spec sheet with the important details mentioned above. Choosing a gaming laptop will be much easier if you know which specifications are important, which specs to prioritize, and which configurations to avoid altogether. As always, budget plays a significant role in purchasing.

Reference

[1] Gaming Laptop is Worth it. “6 Reasons a Gaming Laptop is Worth it.” Hasty Reader, 2022

[2] Gaming Laptop. “Should You Buy a Gaming Laptop?” Review Geek, 2022

[3] Buy a Gaming Laptop. “How to Buy a Gaming Laptop: A Guide for 2022.” Tom’s Hardware, 2022