PC gaming is a great hobby but doesn’t really give you many options in terms of portability. It’s difficult to take a gaming computer when you go on holiday or to a LAN party. Gaming laptops are a decent option if you know you’re going to be travelling a lot or will want the flexibility to be able to move. Not to say that gaming laptops are easy to move, the ones with the highest specs need the most cooling and therefore weigh a lot and are pretty bulky. You’ve got to make a choice as to how easily portable and how much gaming power you want.
Note: All prices are in US Dollars from Amazon US for new models offered by official sellers and are correct at the time of writing.
MSI GS66 Stealth
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The MSI GS66 Stealth costs between $1699 and $2999 with the cheapest offering an RTX 2060 and an i7-10750H and the most expensive offering an RTX 2080 Super and an i9-10980HK. The cheaper models come with a 240Hz 1080p display while the more expensive ones have a 300Hz 1080p one, all of which are 15.6-inches across.
All models have thin bezels of under 5mm, as well as a 99.9Wh battery, the largest allowed on airplanes. The RAM and SSD are both upgradable if you want to do so in the future. Ram capacities vary between 16 and 32 GB while SSDs use the M.2 NVMe connector and come in either 0.5 TB or 1TB capacities.
With its slim design and low weight of 2.1kg, the GS66 Stealth looks great and is nicely portable, but you may find it difficult to keep cool, especially for the more expensive models.
HP Omen 17
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There are many HP Omen 17-inch laptops with different specs ranges from the $900 range to $3000 if you use the configurator on HP’s website. The cb0080nr mid-tier model costs $1799.99 on Amazon. It comes with an i7-9750H, RTX 2070, 16GB RAM, and a 512 GB SSD. The monitor is 1080P at 144Hz.
The size and 2.9kg weight of the Omen helps to provide more capable cooling than a thinner laptop could provide. The bulk and weight do make it a little more difficult to transport though – beware if you want to travel with it.
Alienware M15 R3 (2020)
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You can choose your exact configuration options from Dell’s configurator with prices varying from $1400 to $3000. The $1839 model on amazon comes with a 15.6-inch 144Hz 1080p display, i7-10750H, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, RTX 2060.
At 2.1Kg the M15 R3 is surprisingly light, it also is relatively thin, but contains enough bulk for at least decent cooling.
Asus ROG Strix Scar
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The ROG Strix Scar has multiple versions ranging from $1549 to $3000. The $2094.99 model on amazon has a 17.3-inch 300Hz 1080p monitor, RTX 2070 Super, i7-10875H, 16GB RAM, and a 1TB m.2 PCIe SSD. The 66Wh battery isn’t as big as it could be, meaning you won’t get all that much battery life from it.
At 2.84Kg it’s not the lightest machine or the thinnest but that extra bulk and weight will help to provide better cooling compared to lighter models. If the battery isn’t a dealbreaker, this is a solid choice.
Asus ROG Mothership
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The Asus ROG Mothership is one of the most unusually designed gaming laptops out there. Rather than having all of the components under the keyboard, they’re located behind the monitor. This helps to provide much better airflow, enabling the overclocked high-end components to run as fast as possible.
At $6499.99 it’s not exactly cheap, but it comes with an overclocked RTX 2080 and an overclocked i9-9980HK using a liquid metal thermal interface material. The 17-inch 144Hz 1080p monitor includes G-sync to prevent any screen tearing. It also includes 64Gb of RAM and 3 0.5TB SSDs in a 1.5Tb RAID array.
All this performance does affect the portability, with the 4.8Kg weight and bulk making moving the mothership quite a hassle. That weight and bulk do provide a lot of cooling, however, along with the unique design.
