Well, CES 2021 has come to an end,
and now it’s time to take a look at the best gaming laptops coming out this year.
Now this video is all based on information that was provided to me, as CES was an
all digital event thanks to human malware, so unlike normal, this means that I haven’t
actually had a change to test out any of these laptops in person yet. I will have
heaps more information coming though, so make sure you’re subscribed for the upcoming full reviews.
The biggest news was of course from Nvidia and AMD.
We’re going to have high end gaming laptops featuring AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series processors
with Nvidia RTX 3000 series graphics. Exactly what people were asking for most of last year.
Both companies are claiming some pretty good performance numbers, but as always,
wait for third party testing before buying anything, which should be in the next few weeks.
I’ll definitely be doing as many comparisons as I can between last gen and new gen.
Something else I noticed this year were plenty of new screen options coming,
which a lot of companies seem to be taking advantage of. We’ve now got up to 1080p 360Hz
panels for esports players, as well as 1440p 165Hz and even 240Hz options. I know some of
you are going to say “who needs refresh rates that high”, and look, 144Hz is perfectly fine for me,
but that said I have seen demos with 240Hz and 300Hz side by side and I could actually
tell the difference in CS:GO and Dota 2. Regardless, it’s nice just to have options.
In terms of gaming laptop with most innovation, I’ve got to give it to the ASUS ROG Flow X13.
This is the first 13” Ryzen based gaming laptop that I’ve ever seen,
and while that’s interesting enough, it doesn’t stop there.
ASUS are using a direct PCIe connection port so that you can connect a small external GPU
enclosure with up to RTX 3080 graphics for even more power. External GPUs, or eGPUs have
existed for quite a while, but the XG mobile is actually quite small and portable comparatively.
ASUS are also introducing the new TUF Dash F15 gaming laptop, a thinner machine using Intel’s
11th gen Tiger lake H35 quad core processors, though I suspect many people may be more
interested in the updates to the TUF A15. ASUS have added additional holes in the bottom panel
for airflow and expanded the heatpipes. Good news as thermals were a concern last generation.
The Zephyrus G15 has basically been redesigned to be a larger version of the G14,
going right up to 8 core Ryzen 9 5900HS processor and Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics.
It’s not too big for a 15” machine, has a fairly large 90Wh battery, and has impressive
screen options right up to 1440p 165Hz, I can’t wait to get this one in for testing.
ASUS in general also made some big changes to their higher end gaming laptops. Instead of
waiting for Intel 11th gen they’re now offering Ryzen 5000 paired with Nvidia graphics right up
to the top end RTX 3080 with 16gb of VRAM, and this was the case with the Scar 15, Scar 17,
and Zephyrus Duo 15, their dual screen model. Not only that, but all these ROG models also
get USB Type-C charging up to 100 watts and they now come with liquid metal by default,
and that move to higher end Ryzen gaming laptops is exactly what people have been asking for
ever since Ryzen 4000 last year, so it’s nice that someone has done it.
ASUS weren’t alone in this regard though, Lenovo also have some interesting Ryzen
based models coming. Last year, the Legion 7i was an Intel only model,
now it’s available with 8 core Ryzen 9 processors and also in a new 16 inch size.
The popular Legion 5, which I said was the best Ryzen gaming laptop of 2020,
also got some updates. Again latest Nvidia RTX 3000 graphics and Ryzen 5000 processors,
but also with some of the new screen options with faster refresh rates I mentioned earlier.
Moving over to Acer and they’ve refreshed both the Nitro 5 and popular Helios 300 with
RTX 3000 graphics. That was pretty much it for the Helios 300 though,
no further changes. The Helios was one of the best gaming laptops in 2019. In 2020 it didn’t
change too much and the competition caught up, so without other notable improvements it might
just end up being pretty average. I figured it was worth mentioning here just to keep you up to date.
The nitro 5 on the other hand receives CPU upgrades to either AMD Ryzen 5000,
or Intel H35 quad core processors. Interestingly, the Nitro 5 is also now available with faster
screens than the Helios 300, despite it traditionally being a lower tier product.
Combined with the fact that the Nitro can be specced right up to overclockable 8 core Ryzen
9 5900HX and Nvidia RTX 3080, it’s no longer just a budget friendly gaming laptop, though it will
of course still have a cheaper version, just an unexpected turn of events. Considering that the
chassis is, let’s say, on the cheaper side, this could result in one of the cheaper RTX 3080 gaming
laptops. Not to say a 3080 gaming laptop will be cheap, I just mean relative to the other models.
Acer also introduced their new all metal Triton 300 SE, a 14” gaming laptop with Intel 11th gen
H35 processors and Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics with a 1080p 144Hz screen. It’s on the thinner side,
and doesn’t look like your typical flashy gaming laptop, something that could also be
taken into a professional environment. I’m really interested to see how this one goes.
I guess between this, the TUF Dash F15 and ASUS ROG Flow X13,
you could say I’m pretty interested in testing those thinner and smaller
gaming laptops. Now everything wasn’t all wonderful at CES.
I was a little bit disappointed by Razer, and to a lesser extent MSI.
Razer’s Blade lineup has some nice updates to the screen and there were a few other improvements,
like the Blade now taking two M.2 SSDs instead of one, but realistically apart from the
refresh to Nvidia RTX 3000 graphics, they’re continuing with Intel 10th gen processors.
Now I can only assume they plan on refreshing them once higher end Intel 11th gen tiger lake
6 and 8 core processors are available, but for now, it just seems pretty hard
to suggest if they’re going to refresh it in a few months. I don’t know about you,
but if I knew something new was coming in a few months I would just hold on a little.
MSI followed a similar trend, no talk of AMD gaming laptops, and they’re sticking to Intel 10th
gen for now, again presumably until 11th gen is available. MSI do have their Alpha 15 and Bravo 15
gaming laptops, but these haven’t been announced to be refreshed with Ryzen 5000 yet. After doing
some more thinking, I remembered that both were Radeon graphics based, and in the recent AMD CES
keynote, Lisa Su did make a mention of RDNA 2 coming to laptops in the not too distant future,
so perhaps MSI might just be waiting for a new graphics option before refreshing those.
Regardless, MSI did at least launch a few new gaming laptops.
The GE76 is basically the larger 17 inch version of the GE66 that came out a year earlier,
and while I think it’s a nice edition, it seems a bit strange that it came out now,
why didn’t we just get this a year ago? As most of MSI’s models do have a 15 and 17
inch version already, and why didn’t we get a 17” version of the GS66? I guess it misses out.
The other two were the GP66 and GP76, which replace the dated design of the GP65 and GP75
respectively, giving it a similar design aesthetic to the GE66 and GE76, so completely blacked out.
Gigabyte were another where they’ve just done the Nvidia RTX 3000 refresh. Not too surprising
though as all the models I’ve tested by them are Intel based. I’d personally love to see a high
end Ryzen creator laptop like the Aero 15 with OLED, but for now I guess I’ll keep dreaming.
I didn’t hear much from HP with regards to Ryzen gaming laptops,
I saw some listings for Intel 10th gen models with RTX 3070 graphics. I’m assuming the Ryzen
models will get an upgrade too as the Omen 15 last year was quite a popular model, so it was
strange that there was no big news about that one. Maybe I just missed it though, let me know.
Out of all those models, personally I’m most interested in checking out
the new ASUS ROG Flow X13, because it’s just so different compared to alternatives out there.
The Lenovo legion 5 was extremely popular last year, and for good reason, so I can’t wait to
compare it with the new version. The Legion 7 moving to Ryzen was also an interesting move,
and with the newer 16” size it’s another that I really can’t wait to test.
I’m also interested to see how the new ASUS Zephyrus G15 does, and of course test out
those thermal upgrades to the popular TUF A15. Let me know which laptops you thought were the
best down in the comments, and make sure you get subscribed for all of my upcoming reviews on these
gaming laptops as they come in. For now though you can get more detailed information on all
of these 2021 models in my CES playlist over here, so I’ll see you over in another video.