Top 8 Best Laptops for Gaming

Laptops can be the happy medium for PC gamers who want the comfort of playing on their couches. With the sheer power you can fit in an increasingly small computer, laptops offer gamers a chance to be mobile without sacrificing silky smooth visuals. 

If you’re looking to invest in a laptop for gaming, you’ll have to find your personal preference in balancing power with portability. More oomph often means less mobility, either because of weight or reduced battery life. Also, think about whether you want it to be strictly a gaming machine or if you’ll be using it for multiple activities. Your needs will influence which specs are most important.

Most gamers place the highest value on graphics cards, processors and screen quality in their laptops. These eight computers offer slightly different configurations of those three specs over a range of prices. Whether you need a powerhouse to run weekly World of Warcraft raids or a more flexible machine for both working and playing the latest indies, there’s a great gaming laptop out there for you.

1. Alienware 18

IMAGE: ALIENWARE

This is the crème de la crème from Alienware in terms of both performance and price. The 12-pound laptop has a flashy design and a beautiful screen, but the real excitement is under the hood. For starters, Alienware 18 is equipped with dual NVIDIA DeForce GTX video cards for excellent frame rates. There’s also more than a terabyte inside between the boot drive and storage drive.

This is a true gaming machine, with built-in features to help you optimize power use and create custom experiences for different programs. If you want the most power, expect to pay up: The most expensive version costs more than $5,000 from the company.

2. Alienware 17

IMAGE: ALIENWARE

For similar features with a slightly less ostentatious price tag, check out the Alienware 17. It also has a 1920 x 1080 pixel full HD screen, and can be loaded up with between 8 and 32 GB of memory. The 17 only has one video card compared with the 18’s two, but it can be one of several powerful NVIDIA GeForce models. It also has the same high-quality response in the keyboard and trackpad as its bigger sibling.

The fully customized version costs about $4,500, but you can still get serious quality in this model for between $2,000 and $2,300.

3. Razer Blade

IMAGE: RAZER

Razer is a gamer’s brand, and it sells the machines to go along with all of its gaming accessories. The Razer Blade is smaller than most dedicated gaming laptops, a 14-inch computer that’s just 0.66 inches thick. It has an Intel HD4600 and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M for graphics and video processing.

4. Razer Blade Pro

IMAGE: RAZER

If you think the Razer Blade is for amateurs, then the Razer Blade Pro might be more your style. The base graphics and video specs are the same, but the screen is 17.3 inches with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and a full HD 16:9 aspect ratio.

It also has the unique Razer Switchblade User Interface, which can function as a trackpad or as a smaller second display.

5. MacBook Pro With Retina Display

IMAGE: APPLE

This may seem like a counterintuitive option, since so many of the top games are Windows-only titles, but Apple’s Macbook Pro with Retina display is great for a user who wants flexibility. Games look lovely on the 15-inch model, and the processing side keeps pace with either Intel Core i5 or i7 and graphics cards from Iris and NVIDIA.

Thanks to programs such as Bootcamp, Mac owners can install a Windows operating system on their machines. The combination power, mobility and traditional Apple aesthetic doesn’t come cheap, though; expect to drop at least $2,500 and as much as $3,500 for a gaming-ready Mac.

6. Origin EON17-SLX

IMAGE: ORIGIN

This model from Origin is a great choice for the customizers. You can make several selections about the guts of the laptop, from whether you want single or dual graphics cards to particular specs for an Intel i7 processor. Pick out the amount of space you want for memory and a hard drive, and you’re set to game.

A fully tricked-out 17-inch laptop costs a pretty penny, but you can pick and choose the features that will best fit your budget and gaming style. You’ll also have the backing of Origin’s excellent tech support.

7. Samsung ATIV

IMAGE: SAMSUNG

This laptop from Samsung is a more compact gaming laptop than most others on the market. The display is 15.6 inches and it weighs 5.6 pounds. Graphics power comes from an AMD Radeon HD 8870M card, while processing power is done by an Intel Core i7 3635QM chip. Plus, the ATIV Book 8 model has a touch-enabled screen, adding a new dimension to the computer experience.

If you aren't a heavy-duty gamer, this is a great way to get solid power without breaking the bank; you can find it online for about $1,400.

8. Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p

IMAGE: LENOVO

For gamers who want an inexpensive laptop without sacrificing the specs, Lenovo’s IdeaPad Y510p is a contender. Backed by up to 1 TB of storage for all your titles and saves, this model has a 15.6-inch screen and can be outfitted with dual NVIDIA GeForce GT755M graphics cards.

Depending on how many bells and whistles you add, the Y510p costs as little as $789.

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Samsung ATIV Book 9 2014 Edition: A Sleek Laptop Gets Bigger and Better

Samsung's Book 9 is one of the better laptop designs you can buy, and it's (literally) getting a big upgrade for 2014. The ATIV Book 9 2014 Edition, introduced at CES, is a 15.6-inch model that sports the same curved wedge design that made the original Series 9 a pleasure to use.

Like last year's Book 9 Plus, the Book 9 2014 Edition has a full HD display and includes the SideSync software package that makes the Ultrabook your Galaxy phone's best friend: Notifications are shared, for example, and screen mirroring is effortless.

Although the screen is on the big side (most laptops this size have a 15.4-inch display), Samsung still emphasizes portability with its new ATIV model: It's just 0.63 inch at the thickest point, and 3.92 pounds. By comparison, the 15.4-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display is 4.46 pounds.

Samsung says it's made some improvements to the display, including a better coating for the screen that cuts down on reflectivity but doesn't compromise its touchscreen response. The viewing angle is 178 degrees, and the brightness gets a bump to 300 nits from 250 in last year's model. With the upgrade to Intel's Haswell chips, battery life jumps up, too: Samsung rates the laptop at 14 hours.

Audiophiles will have lots to celebrate about the ATIV Samsung Book 9 2014 Edition since it contains a Wolfson digital-to-analog converter for lossless audio. That means you'll get studio-quality sound from the device as long as the source is lossless, too. As it happens, Samsung is also introducing lossless audio from its Music Hub (both download and streaming) — the first online music service to do so.

Besides the Book 9, Samsung is debuting a new all-in-one PC at CES. The ATIV One 7 has a slim design with curved edges that's a conscious callback to the company's Galaxy Tab tablets, and it has many of the new upgrades of the Book 9 2014 Edition including full HD resolution, a 178-degree viewing angle and an anti-reflective screen.

On the audio side, the ATIV One 7 also supports lossless audio, but with a twist: It can also act as a Bluetooth speaker while in sleep mode, and it has the hardware — a pair of 7-watt speakers, with tweeters — to do it. The machine also supports aptX to help minimize the audio artifacts that can happen over Bluetooth connections.

In sleep mode, the ATIV One 7 can also still act as a remote server for your content for when you need to access it remotely.

Both the ATIV Book 9 2014 Edition and the One 7 will be available in the first half of the year. No pricing has been announced.

Images: Samsung

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Toshiba Unveils 13″ Chromebook For $279, Available February 16

Here at CES 2014, Toshiba has just unveiled a new Chromebook, running Google’s Chrome OS on a 13.3-inch display for the first time, and priced below the $300 mark.

This is the company’s first step into Chrome territory, while competitors like Dell, Lenovo, HP, and Acer have been pumping out the light-as-air notebooks for a while now.

The Toshiba Chromebook is powered by an Intel Haswell chip, with a promised battery life of nine hours.

Meanwhile, the laptop sports a 13.3-inch 1366 x 768 display, with a .8-inch profile at 3.3 pounds.

On the inside, alongside that Haswell processor, you’ll find 16GB of SSD storage, 2GB of RAM, as well as dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wifi. And once you have Wifi on a Chromebook, the magic really begins.

These devices run on a Chrome OS, which is essentially a beefed up Chrome browser. This means that access to various applications and programs is limited to web apps.

However, Google is working to make the browser experience as complete as possible with the help of Google Apps and Gchat + Hangouts.

Toshiba’s Chromebook is available for $279 starting on February 16.

Image: Toshiba

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Lenovo IdeaPad Y500

Dual-GPU system offers solid gaming performance. Modular UltraBay system lets you reconfigure your system as needed. Lenovo's AccuType keyboard is as good as ever, now with glowing red accents.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 is a solid choice for a gaming laptop, offering decent gaming performance and portability, with a modular upgrade system that lets you add and swap extras easily.

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Samsung Series 7

Adjustable power settings via Mode Dial. Gorgeous display. WiDi. Blu-ray. Great keyboard/touchpad combination. Reasonably priced for its class. Solid battery life.
Different modes are of questionable value. Minor amount of flexing on the lid. Some bloatware.





The Samsung Series 7 Gamer delivers on most fronts, making for a powerful gaming laptop that's equipped with some great features. Its minor shortcomings are tempered by its reasonable price tag.

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Razer Edge Pro

Fantastic, innovative design offers a better gaming experience. Powerful components with an Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia mobile graphics. Flexible tablet and dock design lets you play anywhere.Expensive when all the accessories are taken into account. Can't match standard gaming laptops for performance.



 
The Razer Edge Pro gaming tablet is the rare device that reimagines what the PC experience should be and delivers something that's not just different, but better. That it's made to let you game anywhere just makes it a lot more fun.

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Origin EON17-SLX

Overclocked quad-core processor. SLI graphics. Giant, fast storage. Customizable keyboard lighting. Windows 8.

The Origin EON17-SLX high-end gaming laptop has the latest and best of everything, from an overclocked quad-core processor to SLI graphics. It's a mean machine, but it costs serious green.

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MSI GX60 1AC-021US

Can play 3D games at 1080p native resolution. HDMI, VGA, and mini-DisplayPort. Two year warranty. Multi-monitor Eyefinity support. Killer-branded network card.
Start key on right side of keyboard. Busy keyboard layout. Could use an SSD at this price point. No touch screen. Trackpad less than optimal for Windows 8 gestures. No 5GHz Wi-Fi.
When you're faced with a choice of overall performance vs. gaming performance on a budget, the MSI GX60 1AC-021US is a great entry-level system for the gamer on a budget.

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CyberPower FangBook X7-200

Great performance from Intel Core i7-3630QM processor and Nvidia GeForce GTX 675MX graphics processor. Fast and capacious storage. Looks and sounds good with 1080p display and THX sound.
Short battery life. Too heavy for portability. No Blu-ray. Goofy design.
The CyberPower FangBook X7-200 gaming laptop delivers strong performance and a healthy feature set for less than two grand.

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ALIENWARE BEST GAMING LAPTOP EVER

If you unbox as many machines as we do, you start to develop a weird fascination with product packaging. Typically, a box is just a box, but once in a while, a product's container actually adds something to the experience. Dell's Alienware laptops come wrapped in heavy foam eggshell padding cut to the machine's form. It's not as visually appealing as the premium cardboard that ships with Razer's Blade laptops, but it makes for a secure briefcase. It's reusable too: Alienware's packing material could make for a nice carrier the next time you take your rig to a LAN party.
Unpacking the laptops, we find a brand-new generation of Alienware notebooks, built from the ground up with better materials and a fresh design. Both the 14 and 17 feel incredibly solid, thanks no doubt to a sturdy magnesium alloy chassis. The metal overhaul extends to the keyboard support brackets, screen hinges and LCD assembly too, although it isn't readily apparent under the soft rubber coating that stretches across the machine's face. This matte surface dulls the laptop's angled edges, which are decorated by a plethora of LED lights. In a nod to past Alienware designs, the laptop features 10 distinct lighting zones that can each be customized with one of 19 colors
Those diodes are everywhere, by the way -- multiple places on the lid, underneath the keyboard and along the edges, with a thin, glowing line ringing the front and sides of the chassis. The light stretches across the entire surface of the trackpad too, a bold departure from last year's model, which only had lights around the perimeter of the touchpad. Overall, it's a subtler design than we saw last time, but it certainly isn't boring or modest. It's also surprisingly uniform, not just in aesthetics, but also in port selection. With the exception of an additional USB port on the 17-inch model and some slight changes in location, the 14- and 17-inch Alienware laptops offer identical connectivity. The left side of both machines houses two USB 3.0 SuperSpeed ports (not colored blue this time), HDMI and a Mini DisplayPort. There are also audio jacks for line-out (with headset support) and line-in for microphones. On the right edge lies a slot-loading optical drive, a multi-format memory card reader, an Ethernet jack and one or two more USB ports, depending on the model.

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