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Don't compromise on power or portability with the best gaming laptops. High Performance
1. The list in brief 2. Best overall 3. Best value 4. Best 14-inch 5. Best 15-inch 6. Best 17-inch 7. Best laptop screen 8. How we test 9. Also tested 10. How to spot the best deal
The best gaming laptop is a thing of beauty. A piece of PC gaming hardware that's as sleek and portable as it is powerful. We're at a point in PC tech where you can genuinely have desktop gaming performance in a notebook less than an inch thick and small enough to pack in a backpack.
You've decided to buy a gaming laptop at the right time. The next generation of mobile GPU and CPU is now well established, offering the best Nvidia, AMD, and Intel has to offer. I've already tested the alternatives, and the best gaming laptop is the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i. It makes the best RTX 4090 gaming laptops, including the Razer Blade 16 and Asus ROG Zephyrus M16, and even the frankly ridiculous MSI Titan GT77 HX, look like overkill.
AMD has also now released its new 3D V-cache mobile chip, and it's absolutely the best mobile gaming chip you can buy, it's only available in that one Asus 17-inch machine, however. But we know even these new chips will mostly be wrapped into the same chassis we've grown to love over the past year. And the price on last-gen offerings has come down in the short term, too, which makes this inflection point between two hardware generations a good time to start looking for a new gaming laptop.
We test dozens of gaming laptops every year. The ones that make it to the list provide the best bang for your buck—the best balance of performance, price, and portability.
Dave has had his head in PCs and gaming laptops for a couple of decades now, and knows what makes them tick, and what makes the best gaming laptop for every budget. Whether it's about looking for the highest performance, the best value, best screen, or just the best build quality, Dave has spent time prodding and tweaking pretty much all the laptops on this list.
The Lenovo Legion Pro is the best gaming laptop from all the new machines we've tested of this generation. It's also the best 16-inch notebook, too, which is our new favorite form factor, offering the best screens we've seen in modern laptops.
By simply dropping either the RTX 4060 or RTX 4050 into its last-gen chassis Gigabyte has created the most affordable, most powerful budget gaming laptop around. It's a great mix of value and gaming silicon.
If a 15-inch machine is too big for your lap, then the G14 is the notebook for you. It's the best of the new breed of small screen gaming laptops thanks to its mix of the best of AMD and a generally more affordable price point than Razer's Blade 14.
panel mount monitor The Blade 15 is that holy grail of gaming laptops. MacBook aesthetic and desktop gaming prowess. They're lovely things of brushed black aluminium and with some seriously powerful gaming hardware baked inside.