8 tips to consider while buying a gaming laptop

Are you buying a gaming laptop? Do you know what to look for while buying a gaming laptop? There is already big buzz around with Asus ROG (Republic Of Gamers) series, Lenovo Y & Legion series, MSI laptops, Acer’s Predator, Dell’s Alienware and Razer is the grand-daddy in manufacturing gaming laptops & accessories.

(Image Source: Flickr.com)

On a personal note I like Razer gaming machines and accessories more than any other brand whereas Asus ROG is my second favorite when it comes to gaming laptops.

Many people have this question that why to have a separate series of laptops for gaming? Even though many games can be easily installed and played on personal or business laptop. Well the question is absolutely correct and there is no doubt with configurations now-a-days of business and personal laptops are providing good computing experiences for business & personal applications and could give the normal gaming experience, just for the fun time.

Whereas for professional gaming experience you need high performance laptop that should have boosted & dedicated GPU like NVIDIA GTX series, better resolution & graphics for real-time experience, spacious SSD/HDD, high speed CPUs and specialized RAMs to run each game sweetly like HyperX by Kingston, Dominator by Corasair. These are some of the key technologies that makes unique gaming experience and every professional gamer should emphasize more on these.

So here I am sharing some tips from my personal gaming experience that should be considered while buying a gaming laptop:

GPU vs CPU

(Image Source: Wikipedia.org)

It’s always better to invest in better GPU than CPU. There is nothing much to lose if choosing Intel Core i5 over Intel Core i7 whereas it matters a lot if you choose a lower GPU with a better CPU because GPU is the one that gives you better graphics for professional gaming.

For example: choose Core i5 with NVIDIA GTX 1050-Ti over Core i7 with NVIDIA GTX 1050 as Core i5 one has better GPU option.

Maximum RAM and SSD? Choose upgradability

(Image Source: HPC.by)

It’s hard to find the best combination for ample amount of RAM and speedy SSD. So I suggest to lookout for those machines that also give you options to upgradability. You choose that option now that is the need of the hour then later on upgrade to the needed one.

For example: Due to budget constraints buy a gaming laptop with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD and later upgrade your RAM and SSD to the ideal configuration you need that could be 16 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD.

Display and Resolution

(Image Source: CasaDigitale.WordPress.com)

Looking for IPS display and Full-HD resolution. That’s good to have even though there is a lot more to consider. Look for a display that has more brightness value. Focus on brightness value of 130 nits or more than that. Also a display with higher refresh rate with lowest possible response time gives you real-time gaming experience. You don’t want to have laggy action scenes while playing. So aim for at least 60Hz or more of refresh rate and 5 mili-seconds or lesser than that of response time.

Solid Keyboard

(Image Source: TechnoFAQ.org)

Keyboard on a gaming laptop should have more than just light-up and blinking like a Christmas tree. Keys should have sufficient travel and ample resistance. Recommended key travel is 1.5mm and keyboard must be free of flex so you should not feel uncomfortable while playing using WASD keys. Also look for anti-ghosting feature to use multiple keys at the same time without any interruptions.

Thermal Management

(Image Source: Wikipedia.org)

After a while you may want your laptop to drop the frame rate during some high action scene that’s the effect of thermal throttling, something that happens when CPU starts heating up. Majority of the gaming computers comes with efficient thermal management that composed with well-placed cooling fans and a software designed to keep a check on temperature of CPU. Also look for boost features in fan that will keep things cool in high action scenes.

Network Standards

(Image Source: Way2H.Blogspot.com)

For online gamers it’s very important to check all the latest Wifi Standards should be available. An ideal gaming laptop should support 802.11ac with a 2×2 MIMO antenna setup.

Avoid Touchscreen

(Image Source: DigitalTrends.com)

Touchscreen consumes more battery more than non-touchscreens. You may use that another half-an-hour of the battery in some other processing. Even though gaming laptops are not known for better battery life. So touchscreen should not be one of the priority.

Audio and Sound

(Image Source: Smwiki2014.Wikidot.com)

For gaming laptops it’s recommended to have decent audio output where have Dolby Atmos kind of setup isn’t really required. As most of the gamers play with headphones in most of the times so very high audio fidelity is not actually required. A clear sound on headphones or external speakers are more than enough.