Gaming laptops have always had a stigma around them. Traditionally, like the PCs, laptops also first evolved as business machines – computers for those on the go.
However, times have changed. Now there are laptops for every purpose, with everything from the specifications to the designs.
Gaming laptops have been among the most marketed laptop classes, especially in recent years. Although anybody that is a hardcore gamer will immediately recommend that you skip laptops entirely if gaming is your thing, but are they right?
The Dark Past of “Gaming” Laptops
Gaming laptops have had a bad history. Manufacturers have always resorted to using the gaming tag with laptops to try and boost sales but didn’t do much to justify it.
Back then, there wasn’t a lot you could say to justify a purchase.
The presence of an integrated GPU from Nvidia or ATI was enough, to some. The issue was that with solid-state technologies not as advanced at the time, space was an important deciding factor in performance.
For the same price of a gaming laptop, you could build a formidable gaming PC that could get you decent performance, much better than the laptop could.
Gaming laptops also had one giant flaw apart from the lackluster performance — the displays. Laptops generally carried inferior display panels, with remarkably bad contrast and colors.
Also, another issue was the bulk and weight of these machines, with battery life suffering a lot as well. There wasn’t a lot you could say to justify a purchase.
How Are Gaming Laptops now?
Better than ever!
In recent years, as the fabrication processes have kept knocking off nanometres, gaming laptops have gotten better and better. CPUs and GPUs have gotten a lot better, and additionally, SSDs have almost become a standard, so we are getting a lot more “oomph” for the money, now.
Display panels and resolutions have also improved, and so have the refresh rates. Battery life at peak load isn’t as much better as you would like, but at least there’s some improvement from a few years ago.
Laptops on the whole, and gaming laptops specifically, have never been this worthy of a purchase ever before.
A significant new driving factor has been the rise of AMD. With some unexpected competition, we have been getting better and better offerings, especially with regards to gaming laptops.
Ryzen powered gaming laptops are all the rage right now and are helping improve the value for money performance quotient. In the past, AMD might have hurt the evolution of Gaming laptops due to the whole APU situation, where APU-based laptops were marketed as budget gaming laptops.
With Ryzen, it has changed the game again. And even though no Ryzen-equipped laptop made our list of the best this year, we’re still considering adding one like the one here.
Jack Schofield, Can I buy a future-proof laptop to last 10 years?
If you need powerful graphics for playing games, gaming laptops offer high specs at fairly reasonable prices.
The Guardian
Not to forget, the gaming laptops of today aren’t unnaturally bulky or heavy, unless you’re spending a lot of money for nearly desktop-class machines.
You can get a decent gaming rig in a very business-like looking laptop at quite a normal price, and you will not be missing out as much, in comparison to building a gaming PC with the same budget.
So, Are Gaming Laptops Worth It?
As of now – definitely, yes. Laptops on the whole, and gaming laptops, specifically, have never been this worthy of a purchase ever before.
There are options available for every kind of user at every price point. So if you’ve been waiting for a time to get a gaming laptop, now is it.
Make sure to check out our buying guide for the best gaming laptops this year:
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