JOIN USIt’s game on with these gaming laptops
As computer gaming gets bigger by the day, the demand for gamers to carry their machines around has been rising. Manufacturers have responded and the variety of gaming laptops available in the market is mind-blowing.
Any gaming laptop manufacturer’s website will have very vivid graphics on the product page. This indicates that gaming products are for the hardcore gaming geek who demands nothing but the best.
How different are gaming laptops from ordinary ones? Very different really.
Ordinary laptops are generally used for productivity, office work or browsing the internet. Manufacturers try to bring down the weight so that they can be carried around easily. These laptops also have good battery life so that work does not come to a standstill while on the go.
Gaming laptops are bulky. And this is due to the fact that they have the best and fastest hardware that is available in the market. Of course, gaming laptops are available at different price points but they will generally have hardware that is capable of higher processing power and speed. This also makes them bulky, firstly because of the powerful hardware and all the cooling that is required.
Gaming laptops will not have great battery life because they are meant for performance and not efficiency like ordinary laptops. There are models with resistance to shock, temperature, humidity, solar radiation and such others. Quite often they can be overclocked (making the processor run at the limit of its capabilities) with inbuilt programs and have latency (how fast the output is after an input is given).
Even looks-wise, gaming laptops will be instantly recognisable with their heady designs, bright colours, LED-backlit keyboards and generally chunky appearance. While normal laptops are generally not available with a screen size of more than 15.6 inch, gaming laptops can have screens of up to 17.3 inch.
There was very little to choose from not very long ago but gamers are spoilt for choice now with the list including Dell Alienware and Inspiron series, Hewlett-Packard OMEN, Acer Predator and Nitro series, Lenovo Legion, Razer Blade, MSI and Asus with their Republic of Gamers, Gaming and Tuf Gaming series.
Low end laptops can be bought for just over Rs 50,000 and high end ones can cost as much as Rs 4 lakh after discounts.
DH lists a few options that are available in the market:
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-42:
One of the cheapest gaming laptops available on e-commerce websites is the Acer Nitro 5 AN515-42.
This laptop is powered by the AMD Ryzen 5 processor that runs at 2.0 GHz and can be overclocked to 3.6 GHz. The Nitro 5 has a 15.6 inch screen with a full high-definition (HD) display panel, 8 GB DDR4 RAM (upgradable to 32 GB), AMD Radeon graphics card, 1 TB hard disk drive (HDD), backlit keyboard and a battery that can last up to 7 hours.
This weighs 2.7 Kg and is priced about Rs 54,000.
Asus TUF FX750:
The Asus TUF FX750 sports an Intel Core i5 8th generation processor that runs at 1.6 GHz and overlockable to 3.4 GHz. It has 8 GB of DDR4 RAM that can be upgraded to 16 GB. This has an HD 15.6 inch screen with the Nvidia GeForce graphics card, backlit keyboard, 1 TB hybrid drive (combination of an HDD and solid state drive) and the battery that could last up to 10 hours.
This laptop weighs 1.9 Kg and is priced at about Rs 56,000.
HP OMEN by HP 15-dc1007tx:
This laptop is powered by an Intel Core i7 8th generation processor with a base frequency of 2.2 GHz, but can go up to 4.1 GHz with overclocking. It has 16 GB of DDR4 RAM and an Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics card. It has a 15.6 inch HD screen with a 1 TB hybrid disk drive, multicolour backlit keyboard and Bang & Olufsen speakers.
The laptop weighs 2.3 Kg and is priced at about Rs 1,60,000.
Dell Alienware M15:
The M15 is based on the Intel Core i7 8th generation processor with a base frequency of 2.2 GHz and a maximum of 4.1 GHz. It has 8 GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics card. It sports a 512 GB SSD, 15.6 inch HD display and has programmable keyboard backlighting.
The M15 weighs 2.16 Kg and is priced at about Rs 1,51,000.
MSI GT75 Titan:
The GT75 is powered by an Intel Core i7 8th generation processor with a base frequency of 2.2 GHz. This high-end gaming machine has a 17.3 inch HD display that is powered by the Nvidia GeForce GTX graphics card, 1 TB hard drive, 32 GB DDR4 RAM and a mechanical keyboard with interactive multicolour keyboard backlighting.
The laptop weighs 4.5 Kg and is priced at Rs 2,85,000.