Best Gaming Laptop in 2023

The best gaming laptops are ever-evolving as we test new models every year. In the early days of mobile gaming, you’d pinpoint a single laptop and it would stay around for years as the best gaming laptop. They were largely desktop replacement behemoth – with chunky chassis, multiple power bricks, and RGB lighting galore. But the best gaming laptops are a whole different – in looks and performance.

Manufacturers are finally putting in incredibly powerful hardware in sleeker, super-portable, and more professional builds. Most of these laptops have crisp, fast refreshing displays that are necessary for a great gaming experience. These laptops are not only competing with the best gaming desktop PCs, but they are now more powerful than ever and not just for gaming, but everyday productivity as well.

The best gaming laptop of 2023 is the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15. Available in various configurations, this laptop can handle the most demanding AAA titles on the market today and it also makes for an excellent productivity workhorse.

The Best Gaming Laptop in 2023

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1. ASUS ROG ZEPHYRUS G15

The Best Gaming Laptop

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 was our Editors’ Choice for a gaming laptop for quite a long time. It had everything a gamer would need in a laptop, and for a moment, we were not sure if Asus could ever replicate such a machine. But somehow, the company managed to make the G14 a little bigger, and a heck of a lot better. That’s how they created the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15, the best 15-inch gaming rig you can buy today.

At just over four pounds, the Zephyrus G15 is not only the best rig to buy, it happens to be the lightest too. However, you’re not making any compromises on performance for that portability: it boasts some of the top mobile chips that AMD and Nvidia have to offer right now and includes a fast 165Hz QHD (1440p) display. Combined, those components can handle even the toughest titles at QHD resolution, and the panel has excellent color reproduction, so your games will look great.

Away from gaming, the Zephyrus G15 shines on pretty everything else, too. It has strong audio with solid percussion and bass, the keyboard and touchpad are comfortable, the port selection is top-notch and the battery can last a whole eight and a half hours.

However, the Zephyrus G15 may not be for everyone. It doesn’t come with a webcam, which is a significant oversight, and some would prefer something more affordable, or with a flashier aesthetic. But as a while, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 is not only the best laptop your money can buy, but it’s one of the best laptops in the market today, period.

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2. ASUS TUF DASH F15

The Best Value Gaming Laptop

The Asus TUF line is popular among affordable excellent performers. When we reviewed the Asus TUF A15, for instance, we loved it for its superb gaming performance while remaining accessible for budget-conscious gamers. In our opinion, the latest Asus TUF Dash F15 is the best gaming laptop you can buy if you’re shopping on a budget. While it costs fairly more than the MSI GF63, the Dash F15 packs more power, and more recent components, while still keeping the price sweetly low.

For the money, it brings in Intel Tiger Lake processors, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3000 mobile GPUs, and the 1080p screen refreshes up to 240Hz without costing an arm and a leg. We also like that the legendary chassis is back, keeping things light and thin, and you’re also getting military-grade durability.

At under an inch thick and weighing just under 5lb, this is a laptop you want. To carry along to wherever you need to go. That’s not all, battery life is excellent here, this time around you’re nearing 10 hours, that’s an entire workday and some more if you want to use it for work.

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3. RAZER BLADE 14 (2022)

The Best 14-inch Gaming Laptop

The Razer Blade 14 is the only gaming laptop with a 14-inch chassis that can keep up with the best 15-inch gaming laptops on the market. This laptop is thin and insanely portable, but it somehow includes Nvidia’s RTX 3070 and RTX 3080, Nvidia’s top-of-the-line mobile GPUs, and a powerful eight-core AMD chip. It’s a fantastic device, with a QHD 165Hz display option and a luxurious RGB keyboard. It adds a reasonable port selection, including HDMI 2.1 as well as two USB-C ports.

If all you need is a compact, powerful gaming laptop, the Razer Blade 14 will serve you well – just make sure to carry along the power adapter, as you’ll be in luck to get over 90 minutes of battery power when playing the latest games.

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4. Alienware m15 R6

The Slickest, Premium Gaming Laptop

Sometimes, substance is more appealing than style. But, if there’s one thing that the Alienware m15 continues to prove, it’s that you can have style and enormous (and not necessarily pay a lot for it). The Alienware m15 R6 is on the pricey side; however, it’s just as gorgeous as it is powerful, rocking a super-stylish chassis that lights up like a Christmas tree and delivers extremely fast gaming performance.  

Let the price not worry you so much. Sure, there are more affordable options out there; and, there are longer-lasting alternatives too. However, this power through the latest AAA games with no compromises, thanks to an Intel Core i7-11800H chip, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 (8GB GDDR6), alongside a QHD 240Hz display.

Plus, an Alienware gaming laptop is essentially top of the class and comes with lots of ports for your gaming peripherals. It can run the latest games at demanding settings, and thanks to its cutting-edge hardware, it’s sure going to last you for years to come. If you have the money, you’ll be glad with this purchase.

Read the full Dell Alienware M15 R6 Review

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5. ASUS ROG STRIX G15 ADVANTAGE EDITION

The Best AMD-powered Gaming Laptop

The Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition is easily one of the few gaming laptops you’ll find that pair both an AMD processor and an AMD GPU. It’s a successful swing at the high-end on AMD’s end, boasting Team Red’s high-end processor and GPU. We’re talking of the flagship AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX and AMD Radeon RX 6800M graphics card, alongside 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, and a 15.6-inch screen that refreshes at 300Hz.

It delivers some powerful gaming performance, just like you’d find on Intel/Nvidia-powered gaming laptops. Plus, it isn’t just its performance that makes it shine here. That battery life is simply astounding as well, lasting 11 hours 24 minutes. That’s impressive for a gaming laptop, but it’s, even more, considering those powerful specs. If you’re looking for a gaming laptop that lasts all day, this is the one to buy.

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6. Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 G733

The best of AMD and Nvidia

One of the best big-screen gaming laptops that money can buy, the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 G733 barely has a competitor. That excellent performance is due to the impressive specs it’s kitted out with, and it combines the best of what AMD, on the processor side and Nvidia, on the GPU side, have to offer. Sadly, the price may be out of most people’s reach, but it’s a superb rig.

If you can afford it, however, there are a few other things you’ll love about the Strix Scar 17. The design is unapologetically gaming-esque, with breathing RGB lighting that allows it to light up like a Christmas tree, and its optical-mechanical keyboard is simply one of the best we’ve experienced 3on a laptop, gaming and otherwise. If you’re not on a limited budget, this is among the best of the best out there, and seriously a worthy consideration.

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7. LENOVO LEGION 5 PRO

Best Gaming Laptop With a 16:10 Screen

The Legion 5 Pro is hands down the best gaming laptop Lenovo has ever made. It will set you back well under $2,000, but for that, you get exceptional performance from AMD’s Ryzen 5000 processors baked into an attractive 16-inch chassis.

It comes with all the markings of a perfect portable gaming laptop, and its incredible performance is matched with that gorgeous QHD IPS screen with up to 500 nits of brightness, Dolby Vision, and up to a 165Hz refresh rate. It can easily go toe-to-toe with its better-known peers, including Razer’s and Alienware’s premium offerings.

Performance aside, the main highlight of the Legion 5 Pro is its 16:10 screen. A screen this tall is hard to find, we’ve only seen it on LG’s Gram line of laptops, but it’s not common in the gaming market, and it allows 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 1.5mm of travel and four-zone programmable backlighting.

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8. ASUS ROG ZEPHYRUS DUO 16

The Best Dual-screen Gaming Laptop

Looking to be different – or you’re a content creator who wants a gaming laptop too– the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 is an incredible (but expensive) choice. It has a 16:10 main screen that’s joined by a gorgeous ScreenPad Plus, a secondary touchscreen that elevates out of the chassis when you open the lid, creating a laptop that mimics a handheld console.

Handheld consoles aside, the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 is an absolute monster of a system thanks to its Ryzen 9 6900Hx processor and RTX 3080 Ti graphics card backed by a whopping 64GB of DDR5 RAM. It’s a great gaming machine and excellent for watching movies, in no small part due to a set of powerhouse speakers that provide good room-filling audio.

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Choosing the best gaming laptop to buy today

In choosing the best gaming laptop, we’re not only looking at the high-end, super-expensive laptops on the market. Unlike before, you now don’t have to spend huge amounts of money to score a great gaming machine. As internal mobile components get cheaper, it’s now possible for affordable and budgets laptops to deliver impressive performance on the most demanding and best PC games than ever before.

That’s especially good news coming in the aftermath of a global pandemic and most of us are facing a high cost of living with rising food, fuel, and utility price. So, getting a gaming laptop that delivers the power you need at the best value easily wins over the most expensive and kitted-out gaming rig.

We’ll be updating this page regularly as the best gaming laptops hit shelves towards the last quarter of the year. Meanwhile, we’ve curated our best gaming laptop list to include devices that fit a range of budgets. We still have our high-end favorites that we’ve reviewed across 2022, but we’ve also included budget and exceptional value picks.

As you shop around, don’t be too tied to cost. As always, you might want to think about the type of games you play. That will go a long way in determining which hardware you’ll want to focus on in your ideal gaming laptop. For instance, not all chips with the same name are created equal – the RTX 3080 GPU in one laptop may not deliver the same rages as the RTX 3080 in another rig due to its wattage (as well as other core factors like the processor and cooling).

What are the top features to look out for right now?

Keep in mind that the best laptop we recommend today, may not necessarily be at the top in the next few months. Some exciting designs and updates are already here, and some are on the way. AMD and Nvidia have already teased their next-gen series of mobile processors and mobile graphics – the Ryzen 7000 series and the GeForce RTX 4000 series, respectively – and we’ve already seen the best version of already released GPUs in premium gaming laptops across manufacturers.

Another feature to watch for in the best gaming laptop, especially in 2022, is the QHD screen. A growing number of manufacturers are releasing configurations that max out with 1440p displays, even in the gaming laptops under the $2,000 price range. These options can be a boon for many gamers: delivering a better gaming experience than 1080p but without the insane price premium or raw horsepower required for a 4K display. You can expect decently high refresh rates from these screens as well, but it also depends on the model.

All these features and performance/price implications can be confusing to newbies and even the most experienced gamer. Luckily, our best gaming laptops list is comprehensive enough and should give you several excellent options to consider for various budgets. No matter your gaming needs – narrative-drive or just love the thrill of fast-paced competitive games, we’ve got you covered.

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Ideally, you’ll want to settle on a laptop with a decent graphics card – it doesn’t have to be as advanced as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 which can play graphically intensive AAA games at the highest settings, but you need something that can play any and every game you might play.

RAM is crucial in the best gaming laptop – anything in the 16GB realm is more than ideal for most modern titles. Screen size should be a factor too – if you’re okay with a standard size, anything from 14 to 15.6 is fine, and if you need a bigger screen, ideally something from 16- to 17.3-inches is great.

Finally, if you travel a lot, you’re going to consider how the laptop of choice is, as well as any necessary accessories you’ll need to pack. Travelling often also means you’ll have to make sure your laptop has a decent battery life, and luckily, we’re seeing gaming laptops that last longer than ever on a single charge.

Last update on 2024-12-21 at 17:06 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API