By I had back then, I would have needed a second laptop if I wanted to use one for public use. That laptop was meant for gaming, not a desk.
All of that has altered recently. The market for gaming laptops is very different. Yes, enormous, pricey 17-inch monsters with top-tier performance and power consumption—like the MSI Titan 18 HX—are still available.
However, gaming laptops can also be affordable, lightweight, and tiny. You can acquire good gaming laptops for $1,000 or less; check out our list of the finest gaming laptops for more examples. They’re frequently competitive with ultrabook prices.
A gaming laptop can be your only laptop, the device you bring with you to meetings, coffee shops, classes, and other locations, all while offering exceptional gaming performance.
Over the past ten years, gaming laptops have changed.
I still have my original gaming laptop from more than ten years ago. In my opinion, it was more accurately described as a “portable desktop” than a laptop. You were never going to use it on your lap, but it could slip into a bag and travel with you. It didn’t have a very long battery life, and you shouldn’t use it in a meeting space or coffee shop because the loud fans would annoy other customers. Additionally, it had such an aggressive gaming machine-like appearance that, even in a meeting room or classroom, people would anticipate you to start playing a game as soon as you brought it out. Back then, I would have needed a second laptop if I wanted to use one for public use. That laptop was meant for gaming, not a desk.
All of that has altered recently. The market for gaming laptops is very different. Yes, enormous, pricey 17-inch monsters with top-tier performance and power consumption—like the MSI Titan 18 HX—are still available.
However, gaming laptops can also be affordable, lightweight, and tiny. You can acquire good gaming laptops for $1,000 or less; check out our list of the finest gaming laptops for more examples. They’re frequently competitive with ultrabook prices.
Gaming computers could weigh less than the laptop you have now.
Right now, I’m reviewing the HP Omen Transcend 14 laptop. The review model has a contemporary Intel Core Ultra 7 CPU, a gorgeous OLED screen, and Nvidia GeForce 4060 graphics. Thanks to a current sale, a model with those specifications costs roughly $1,270 on HP’s webshop — in line with the price of a decent midrange laptop or ultrabook.
Aside from the stylish keyboard LEDs, which you can turn off, nothing about this 14-inch laptop that weighs only 3.6 pounds shouts “gaming laptop.” There is no loud fan noise if you are not performing any strenuous tasks. The fans don’t get very loud, even while you’re working hard. Indeed, some laptops weigh less, but not by much. Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which is among the lightest laptops available, has to make certain sacrifices to come in at 2.42 pounds.
However, let’s face it: a 3.6-pound laptop is quite decent; you can carry it around in a bag, use it on your lap, and it’s easy to toss in a bag. I don’t want to bring up Macs because this is a PC website, but allow me to for a second: It appears that everyone thinks Apple’s MacBook Pros are a perfectly acceptable weight. A MacBook Pro 14-inch weighs 3.4 pounds. It is possible to get a gaming laptop that is nearly identical in weight to a MacBook Pro and is fully functional for playing PC games. That is a fairly sensible weight for a portable laptop, everyone should be able to agree!
