these are the top 5 best and top 5 worst
gaming laptops that i've tested this
year we'll start out with the 5 best
gaming laptops then go to the 5 worst
gaming laptops afterwards starting out
with number 5 and working our way up to
the best we've got the dell g15 this is
meant to be a more budget-friendly
option but honestly it surprised me
compared to what dell has offered in the
past i thought the build quality felt
fine despite the plastic design and it's
got some nice features including a mock
switch and a gpu that's near full power
so the gaming performance ends up being
pretty decent the battery life was also
the best i've ever recorded from any
gaming laptop so far unfortunately in
classic dell style though it can run hot
but i can kind of overlook that a bit
when the performance is this good for
the price plus honestly i think people
are a bit more paranoid about high
temperatures than they need to be the
only thing i didn't like with mine was
the 120 hertz screen wasn't great but
you can spend a little more money in
most regions to get a better screen than
this so if you can do that i'd
definitely suggest it the fourth best
gaming laptop i tested this year was the
asus zephyrus s17 as far as 17-inch
models go this is probably the best one
i've used the performance on offer from
the s17 was excellent but unfortunately
mine came with a 4k 120 hertz screen
which isn't the best for gaming if
you're doing a mixture of gaming and
content creation though it's not too bad
but unfortunately the 4k model does not
have a mock switch so for most people
just playing games i'd recommend the
1440p option that does have a mock
switch as this will boost gaming
performance plus the 1440p model also
gets you advanced optimus and g-sync
battery life wasn't amazing due to it
being intel based but generally intel
does better than amd in gaming plus you
get thunderbolt 4 and faster pcie gen 4
storage so it's a bit of a trade-off the
s17 takes full advantage of pcie gen 4
as well and offers some seriously
impressive storage speed i liked the
mechanical keyboard which lifts up when
you open the lid this both gives you a
nice angle for typing but also allows
air to get pulled in underneath
resulting in impressively low
temperatures considering the high
performance on offer unfortunately like
other zephyrus series laptops from asus
it has 16 gigs of memory soldered to the
motherboard nothing's perfect i guess
but that said i don't think this is that
big of a deal with 16 gigs solid to the
motherboard and a 16 gig stick installed
you still get 32 gigs in dual channel
which is honestly probably gonna be
enough for most people just playing
games for quite a while yet plus if
capacity really is the priority then you
can install a 32 gig stick for 48 gigs
in total but yeah i suppose if you do
want maximum upgrade ability then the
zephyrus series isn't for you so just
something to be aware of if you think
you might want a laptop with 64 gigs of
ram or something coming in at third
place we've got the lenovo legion 5 pro
the 5 pro has pretty much all the key
features you could want in a gaming
laptop including mock switch advanced
optimus full power gpu and g-sync plus
it uses a 16 by 10 screen with a
resolution that's higher than 1440p so
more screen real estate and just
generally some nice features for a
gaming laptop that doesn't break the
bank too much for the 3060 model if you
can find a decent sale now while i think
the 5 pro is a great gaming laptop for
most people i think the real star is
going to be the lenovo legion 5. and
it's that non-pro version of the legion
which i'm saying is the second best of
the year now you might be wondering why
the legion 5 pro wasn't ahead of the
cheaper legion 5. i mean it's basically
the same but professional
basically it just comes down to the fact
that the regular legion 5 is cheaper
while still offering the same core
features as the five pro including mux
switch full power gpu advanced optimus
and gsync all while generally being one
to two hundred dollars less money you do
get a regular 16x9 screen rather than
the tallest 16x10 so i guess it depends
how much you value that and it is worth
keeping in mind that that higher
resolution screen with the 5 pro will
require more gpu horsepower to run games
so yeah as far as just gaming goes for
most people i think that the regular
legion 5 is the way to go alright just
before we get into the 5 worst gaming
laptops of the year let's find out which
gaming laptop was the best this year the
best gaming laptop i tested all year was
the neo15 from xmg also known as the mac
15 g3 from electronics in the us market
now to be fair this is a more pricey
option compared to the legion 5 that we
just looked up but it does have some
excellent features on offer including
mock switch full powered rtx 3070 or
3080 graphics software to adjust power
limits and fan control large battery
good 1440p screen mechanical keyboard
2.5 gigabit ethernet sd card slot and
just a nice metal feeling chassis that
feels solid seriously the build quality
of this thing is excellent and it's what
i would personally pick if i was going
for a high-end gaming laptop though of
course that higher price point isn't for
everyone so in that case i'd refer you
to the second best laptop mentioned just
before which is the lenovo legion 5. as
shown in my big gpu comparison video
generally the nvidia rtx 3060 or amd rx
6600m offer the best bang for buck while
still giving great performance generally
paying more money for higher tier
graphics does result in diminishing
returns so going for something like this
above rtx 3060 graphics is only really
recommended if you've got the money to
burn some special mentions that didn't
quite make it into the top 5 include
lenovo's legion 7. technically the
legion 7 is better than both the 5 and 5
pro though it does also cost more money
but considering the battery drain issue
with their included corsair iq software
that's existed for years now basically
means it just doesn't make the car the
asus zephyrus g15 and m16 are quite nice
too though no mock switch with those
models and lacquer s17 you're also
subject to soldered memory alright now
let's get into the five worst gaming
laptops that i've tested this year now
i'm not necessarily saying that you
shouldn't buy any of these laptops it's
just that when you test out 34 laptops
in a whole year there's obviously going
to be some laptops that are better than
others it's just the way it is and these
are the ones that are on the bottom of
that list first up we've got alienware's
m15 r5 and r6 gaming laptops they're
basically both the same laptop chassis
it's just that the r5 is amd ryzen 5000
based while the r6 is intel 11th gen
based now both of these gaming laptops
generally perform quite well in games
with decent gpu power limits and a mock
switch but there are just some silly
problems that shouldn't exist with the
higher price tag the software takes a
full minute to load up after boot which
is just embarrassing literally no other
gaming laptop takes this long the r5
with rtx 3070 graphics originally
shipped missing 10 of its cuda cores but
that was patched in a bios update
likewise the r5 also didn't initially
come with a mock switch the underlying
hardware functionality was always there
and eventually they did put out a bios
update that let us use this but i'm
still going to argue that this shouldn't
have been the case in a more premium
laptop design it sounds like it just
wasn't finished and they sent it out
early so that people could beta test it
for them or something i don't know
surely they would have known that so why
did they send the laptop out to me and
others to review it in a state that's
not gonna represent what people actually
buy because now i've got my review and
game test video up and all of the
benchmarks are done with no mock switch
so it doesn't actually represent what
you would get today i don't know it's
clearly just a mistake from alienware's
side because this just makes my video
make it look worse than it actually is
basically it's just a whole thing that
isn't really a problem anymore i just
think it's something really silly that
happened for a laptop that costs more
than most others i guess if you really
want that rgb light bar on the back then
sure go ahead apart from that i also had
some issues with the display outputs not
working properly on the r6 i guess i
might have gone a bit far into the brand
there if you do want absolutely all the
details and problems on any of these
laptops mentioned the full review videos
will be linked in the description below
next up is aces nitro 5. now don't get
me wrong the 600 version of the nitro 5
with the gtx 1650 graphics does offer
pretty good value for low to medium
settings gaming and hey when you're
trying to sell a gaming laptop at such a
competitive price point it kind of makes
sense to not put one of the ram sticks
in extra ram costs more money i get it
but unfortunately this does mean that
the laptop ends up running in single
channel cool is what it is for a lower
price 1650 option whatever where i've
got a problem is when these sorts of
cost cuttings still take place in the
higher spec configurations like the 3060
model i reviewed by the time you're
looking at the rtx 3060 configuration
it's no longer a cheap laptop and
selling it with one stick of memory
instead of two makes the rtx 3060
graphics perform worse than a gtx 1660
ti from a couple of years ago kind of
embarrassing considering a 1660 ti is
available for less money in a better
designed laptop now of course you can
always go and upgrade the memory
yourself if you know what you're doing
but that is an extra cost that does need
to be factored into the overall laptop
cost and i would also argue that most
people buying a budget-friendly gaming
laptop just aren't aware of the
performance differences between single
and dual channel memory fact is a lot of
people just sort from lowest price to
highest price and go with the lowest
option now all that said you can
absolutely get the 3016 nitro 5 with
single channel memory and still play
pretty much any game on it no problem at
all i'm sure you'll still have a great
time on it it's just that when you're
paying more for the 30 60 model when you
could pay less for a 1660 ti i don't
know at what point does it become
misleading marketing next up is msi's
stealth 15m this is a thinner quad core
laptop though with upside down
motherboard upgrades are a bit awkward
honestly the laptop wasn't all that bad
it's just for that price generally you
can get a slightly thicker gaming laptop
that will perform much better because it
can have higher power limits higher
power generally means higher
temperatures and you generally just
can't have as high temperatures or power
limits in thinner machines so it really
depends how much you value the thinner
and lighter design perhaps i can sum up
my main issue with the stealth 15m is
that friends don't let friends buy quad
cores the asus tough dash f15 is another
quad core gaming laptop and is next up
on the list i tested mine with rtx 3070
graphics but it ended up performing
worse than most cheaper 3060 laptops it
doesn't have a camera built in like most
other laptops and it's got memory
soldered to the motherboard which may
affect upgrade ability at least there
are options with 8 or 16 gigs of
soldered memory as i mentioned earlier
with the zephyr ss17 i think 32 gigs in
dual channel is gonna be plenty for
gaming and this laptop can support that
i had some comments in my recent laptop
ranking video that i wasn't properly
factoring in the lower price of the dash
f15 well i don't know what region
they're living in but i checked the
price of 30 60 models and generally most
other 360 laptops that perform better
cost less money so it really seems like
you're paying a premium for that thinner
and lighter design i mean that's just
the way tech works right if you want
more power in less space it costs more
money that's just the way it is so
ultimately it just depends on how much
you personally value things like thinner
and lighter i think most people watching
probably just want the best performance
per dollar and in that case the tough
dash f-15 just isn't it the most
disappointing gaming laptop i tested
this year was easily acer's helios 300.
now even i was saying that the helios
300 was one of the best gaming laptops
available just a couple of years ago but
they haven't really improved it since
and it seems like they've actively gone
out of their way to make it worse i
reviewed the rtx 3070 model and it had a
low gpu power limit a screen that was
worse than the nitro 5 and also like the
nitro 5 single channel memory look i get
trying to cut costs in the budget
friendly nitro 5. it's a budget-friendly
gaming laptop but in the helios 300 come
on even the last gen 2070 model
outperformed it in games kind of
embarrassing now it is important to note
that in many countries you can buy a
configuration of helios 300 that doesn't
suck there's a 3060 model that's
available for a decent price in the us
and i believe it has a better screen and
also dual channel memory so basically
none of the problems i had with mine and
in that case sure get the helios 300 it
wouldn't be as bad as i'm saying it is
here it would definitely perform pretty
well and you'll have a good time with it
but the configuration that acer sells
here and that they sent to me is just
bad seriously it just shouldn't be an
option please try not to get upset with
me if i put your laptop on the worst
list i'm not saying that any of these
are especially terrible just that there
might be better options out there for
people to consider you don't have to get
mad and try and justify your purchase
just because you bought one of these
laptops if you do want to get mad at
anyone then it should be these companies
making these decisions basically i'm
just trying to call them out not you the
fact is any of those five laptops i
mentioned in the worst list will do
pretty well for most people and hey
maybe that's saying something it's kind
of hard to buy a laptop that has super
serious flaws this year at least out of
all the models that i tested i've ranked
and sorted through all 34 gaming laptops
that i've tested this year in this video
so check that one out next if you want
way more details and explanation
compared to what i've gone through in
this video with more models it'll give
you a much better understanding of where
every laptop fits in so i'll see you in
that one next