Budget gaming laptop

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What are you looking for? Preferences Community Newsletters Log Out. Written by Sean Portnoy , Contributor. Full Bio. Dell G15 Gaming Laptop. Alienware inspired, Dell price. HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop. Low-priced inch system.

Acer Nitro 5. Best for battery life. Lenovo Legion 5. Ryzen 7 for the win. Large screen, low price. Light-weight and light on the wallet. Pros: How did we choose these budget gaming laptops?

Which budget gaming laptop is right for you? Which low-cost gaming laptops are also worth considering? When looking at SSDs for affordable gaming laptops, I'd steer clear of GB if you can afford to if you can't, don't worry, GB is manageable if you're not playing massive games. That's still a small amount when compared to 3TB, but it's more than enough to fit your top games on while leaving a good amount of space to keep things ticking. Not everyone can get on with a trackpad.

I don't have any issues with mine, and to be honest, the more you use it, the more accustomed you become.

Thankfully, this is an easy issue to solve. What the best mouse is for desktops is the same for laptops. Not only that, it's really ergonomic. You won't suffer from hand cramps with this thing. Plus with a battery life of up to 50 hours 90 if you turn off the lights , this is one wireless mouse that will last for days.

What's not to love? Disclaimer: Heavy Inc. By Wesley Copeland. Updated Jan 11, at am. Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop. Lenovo Ideapad L Gaming Laptop. MSI GF Acer Predator Helios Shop at Amazon. Pros: Mega affordable Does exactly what it claims to Again, that price is sure to turn heads. Cons: Not powerful enough to run games on medium or high SSD storage space is small The trade-off for the lower price is a hit to power.

Cons: Is the least powerful on this list Won't play most games on medium Almost certainly won't play games on high. Boots up really fast.

Cons: Screen can be a little dim Pricier but still cheaper than most The 32GB model costs a little more so I couldn't include it. Next to the other gaming laptops with these specs, our recommended configuration of the HP Omen 15 is on the expensive end—if you can find it in stock at all.

And alternative models tend to cost more, not less. Like our other picks, the Omen 15 has a vent on the right side of the laptop. But this vent is placed farther forward, and the Omen 15 produces more intense airflow, so during games I noticed the warm air blowing on my hand here more than I did with our other picks.

At this price, no laptop will play the latest games as well as our top picks. But the Nitro 5 is powerful enough for older games or less-demanding modern ones. The cooling system remains effective without running the fans full tilt. But compared with our top pick, the Nitro 5 has more downsides: a dimmer screen with a 60 Hz refresh rate, less storage for games, no support for VR, and too much bloatware. At its default fan settings, the Nitro 5 kept its most-touched surfaces and its internal components cool enough in our gaming tests.

It kept the WASD keys only a little cooler, though. We still appreciate the option to max them in the NitroSense software when the extra cooling is needed. Like all of our picks, the Nitro 5 has an empty M. Our budget pick has one USB-C 3. The Nitro 5 has the latest-generation Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5. Even so, the Nitro 5 offers unbeatable gaming performance for the price.

The Nitro 5 comes with so much bloatware, and we recommend removing it all. Like many cheap gaming laptops, the Nitro 5 suffers from mediocre build quality. At CES , Nvidia announced its next generation of mobile graphics. Manufacturers can also pick and choose which additional Nvidia series features to include on each machine. PCWorld and Dave2D both have more in-depth explanations of the situation. In addition, the model we tested, with a six-core Core i7 processor and 8 GB of RAM, posted weaker performance in our tests compared with our top picks, which had eight-core Ryzen 7 processors and 16 GB of memory.

The successor to our previous pick, the Acer Predator Helios PHXD posted by far the best performance for the price of all the models we tested this year. But its WASD keys also ran about 10 degrees hotter than those of our top picks, and its keyboard has a dealbreaking flaw: Unless you press firmly in the middle of each key, it may not register the keystroke.

We had issues typing and gaming on two different units, and we found numerous reports of the same problem in owner reviews.

The GTX was not at all limited by the Core i5 in our tests. Kimber Streams is a senior staff writer and has been covering laptops, gaming gear, keyboards, storage, and more for Wirecutter since A cheap desktop PC is a great option for family needs, distance learning, or working from home, and our straightforward advice will help you find the best one. Our pick. HP Omen 15 ennr Better cooling, but more expensive The Omen 15 is just as powerful as our top pick and has even more effective and controllable cooling.

Budget pick. Everything we recommend. Who this is for. How we picked. But a laptop must keep its high-contact areas, such as the WASD keys and the left palm rest, cool; the same goes for its internal components.