Can I Use A Gaming Laptop To Perform General Office Tasks
Absolutely! Gaming laptops and PCs are among the most powerful consumer systems on the market today, and you dont need a dedicated system for play and one for work. Instead, get the most powerful system that your wallet can afford, and you can use it for a variety of tasks, including gaming, cloud and web applications, programming, creative edits, and general office tasks. Some systems, like Razers laptops, are generally well-built with subtle enough designs that wont look garish or out of place if you take it with you into the boardroom. Many laptops that are specifically designed for gaming will come with more aggressive styling that may not look too professional for use at work, but theyll still pack plenty of power to edit videos, apply creative touches to photos, and work in spreadsheets and Word documents.
The Best Gaming Laptop 2022
We’re rounding up all the best gaming laptops to suit any budget
The best gaming laptops do more than offering the latest and greatest components in a power-efficient chassis. Our favorite picks do all that while balancing affordability and value for money on top. Whether you’re on the hunt for the most powerful model on the market, or the best budget pick, you’ll find all our favorite portable PCs right here.
We’ve put a wide range of gaming laptops through their paces to find the best rigs in the business, testing performance relative to the specs on offer, efficiency in design and temperature, and overall value for money. We run each machine through a series of performance benchmarks, and live, play, and work with the models we review for an extended period of time – you can check out exactly how we test gaming laptops in our dedicated guide. You’ll find all our recommendations for the best gaming laptop on the market just below, and more information on choosing the right configuration for you and your budget as well.
The world of gaming laptops is changing rapidly, with Intel’s Alder Lake processors hitting some of the biggest models, and eyes on new GPU options as well. We’re keeping this page stocked with all the latest models to make sure you’re up to date with all the latest updates.
What Type Of Laptop Should I Get
The first question you should ask yourself is what kind of laptop youre looking for. Theres traditional clamshells, 2-in-1s, Chromebooks, and much more. The displays on convertible laptops , for example, can swing around 360 degrees. This allows you to use the laptop like a tablet. They can also be propped up like a tent for viewing movies or participating in video calls. Chromebooks, on the other hand, exclusively run Googles web-focused Chrome OS and are generally used for everyday tasks. All you need is a Gmail account and boom, youre in. There are pros and cons to each of them. Chromebooks are affordable and generally have good battery life whereas convertibles are normally lightweight and portable.
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More About This Story
Every product in this list has been tested in real-life situations, just as you would use it in your day-to-day life.
Laptops are key parts of our working routines, as is the case for so many people the world over, so we test them rigorously to make sure they hold up to constant use, and can bring enough power to bear to crunch through most common work tasks.
Of course, build quality and design are just as important as the specs under a laptop’s hood, and we’re also interested in how portable they are, and how easily they can connect to other devices like displays, cameras and accessories.
In all of our buyer’s guides, including this one, we tend to skip over the spec comparisons and marketing spiel we just want to provide an easy to understand review that gives you an idea of what it’s going to be like to use.
Our verdicts are concise, but this is in the interest of brevity – rest assured all the things on this list have been fully tested. You can also check out our reviews section for more in-depth coverage of all the top devices.
The Best Laptop For Business Travel
In many ways, the ThinkPad X1 Nano is a run-of-the-mill ThinkPad. Its got a solid sturdy chassis, discrete clickers, a physical privacy shutter, a red TrackPoint in the middle of the keyboard, and all kinds of business-specific security and management features.
But the Nano is special because its the lightest ThinkPad Lenovo has ever made. Its also one of the lightest laptops you can buy, at just 1.99 pounds. Youre not sacrificing performance to get that mindblowing weight: The Nano kept up with our heavy testing workloads without any fan noise or noticeable heat. If youre looking for a reliable business laptop that will feel like nothing in your briefcase, this is the one for you.
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Laptop Deals: Our Buying Advice
When you start looking for laptop deals it can be overwhelming if you’re not sure where to start. You may have an idea of how much you want to spend, what you need the device for or what key features you want included. But what else should you consider before hitting that buy button to be sure you’ve got the best deal possible?
Here’s a few words of advice from us based on our experience hunting down the best laptop deals.
I Need To Rent A Laptop In Ontario Ca
Purchasing or renting a laptop could be just what you need to reach your goals in your personal or professional growth. Is your current computer hindering your workflow? If you need flexibility to work anywhere, consider a new laptop. And before you waste hours searching for “laptops near me” on the internet, we’ll let you in on a little secret⦠Rent-A-Center is the best place to go when you need to rent a laptop in Ontario, especially if you want options for getting that laptop computer in your hands today.
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Asus Vivobook Pro 15 Oled Ultra Slim Laptop Best Budget Gaming Laptop
Pros
- Unreliable fingerprint scanner
- Poor port selection
Looking for a reliable budget gaming laptop? The ASUS VivoBook Pro 15 OLED is a fantastic option. According to our tester, this laptop is great for gaming, streaming, and day-to-day productivity. Thanks to the AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU, we were able to hit 60 frames-per-second at 1080p on high graphics during the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark. Plus, the OLED display is absolutely beautiful and battery life is surprisingly good. There are a few minor shortcomings, however.
The overall design is a little plain and the port selection is limited, and youll need to drop down to Medium or High graphics in strenuous modern AAA games on the RTX 3050. Nitpicks aside, if youre looking for reliable performance on a gorgeous OLED screen, the VivoBook Pro 15 is where the partys at. If you dont mind giving up those luscious OLED visuals for a bit more graphics firepower, you should take a look at the Acer Swift X, which is our next entry.
Surface Laptop Studio Review: Audio
Microsoft knows great sound.
Listening to RÜFÜS DU SOL’s “Underwater” through the Surface Laptop Studio’s quad Omnisonic speakers evoked the same drama the Australian band created days before I wrote this review at the Austin City Limits music festival. Armed with two woofers firing out of the sides and a pair of tweeners pushing sound through the keyboard, the speakers produced thumping bass without ever obscuring the song’s soaring vocals and dream-like synths.
Next, I played Dayglow’s “Close to you” and found myself helplessly tapping my foot to the groovy beat. Vocals were front and center, each instrument had its place in the soundstage, and the depth of low-end oomph wasn’t what I’ve come to expect from a laptop.
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What Screen Size Is Right For You
Perhaps the biggest variable between different models of laptops, even from the same manufacturers, is how big they are. The size of a laptop’s display tends to dictate the size of its body overall, so it’s worth working out what size is going to be best for you.
13-inch models have become the standard size for many people, since they marry useability with real portability, but a bigger screen could be better if you’re planning to use it for work – letting you multitask and have multiple windows open more easily.
How Much Ram Does A Laptop Need
RAM is an important specification to look for in a laptop. Youâll want 4GB at the very least for a Windows laptop â though weâd actually recommend for many people to go for 8GB. That will ensure that the laptop runs well for years to come. Budget Chromebooks can get away with less RAM, such as 1GB or 2GB.
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I Need A Laptop For Travel What Should I Look For
There are many factors that go into making a laptop great. If youre looking for a mobile solution, find something with a screen size ranging from 12 to 14 inches. This will give you a compact enough system with a large enough display to multitask and stay productive. If you care about the screen, choosing one with an OLED display will give you better contrast and colors, but they tend to be more expensive. Another factor to test on a laptop is the keyboard most of your interactions will be through the keyboard and trackpad, so youll want to choose a model with deep key travel and a comfortable, ergonomic typing experience. A keyboard with shallow keys means that the keys will bottom out more quickly, leading to finger fatigue.
Acer Swift : Two Minute Review
It might be a budget machine, but the Acer Swift 3 outperforms other laptops in its price range.
Whereas most cheap laptops will provide a barely passable computing experience, the Swift line proves that just because a machine comes with a low price tag doesnt mean it cant be a solid computer as well.However, even the best budget laptops come with more limitations than their more expensive siblings, and the Acer Swift 3 is no exception.
Its inherited some of its predecessors flaws, such as weak-sounding, downward-facing speakers.
But, its improved on its predecessor as well, by updating the performance and battery life, without adjusting the price. The Swift 3 might not match what we saw in our Dell XPS 13 review, but it will get you fairly close for a fraction of the price.
Basically, if you want that Ultrabook form factor for a fantastic value, the Swift 3 is an excellent choice, particularly if youre on a limited budget. It’s held onto its place on our best laptop list for a reason, and while it’s still available at near its MSRP it will likely remain there for a while yet.
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How Do You Decide What’s A Good Laptop Deal
That comes down to what’s included in the price. As we’ve been tracking all the best laptop deals for a number of years now, we have a solid idea of what level of performance and components you can get for your money. Using that as a baseline, we can pick out the treasures from the trash.
We also take into consideration what you might need a laptop for based on the money you have to spend. So, if it’s just a basic device for some light work, general browsing and media streaming, there’s no point recommending a $1,000 laptop for that as it would be completely unnecessary. Instead, we look at devices between $100 – $300 that could handle those tasks and recommend some laptop deals accordingly.
However, if there’s a particularly good reason to spend a little extra money then we’ll mention that too for your consideration. Sometimes it’s worth that investment to better future-proof yourself and end up with a noticeably better device.
Microsoft Surface Laptop : Performance
- 11th-Gen intel processor perfect for getting work done
- Don’t even bother trying to game on this
- Consistent performance plugged in or on battery power
The Surface Laptop 4 we reviewed here is equipped with an Intel Core i7-1185G7 and 16GB of RAM, which means it has no problem with anything we threw at it. Even when we loaded this laptop up with literally dozens of Chrome tabs, while listening to music through YouTube and chatting on both Slack and Discord, the Surface Laptop 4 doesn’t show any sign of slowing down.
That’s something that most laptops these days should be able to do, but what makes the Surface Laptop 4 so impressive is that it is able to do all of that without slowdown, while we are on battery power.
We’re able to just chill on our couch while working, without worrying about either the laptop locking up or tripping our roommates with the power cable.
Heres how the Surface Laptop 4 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
Cinebench R23 CPU: 4,998 points3DMark Time Spy: 1,807 Fire Strike: 5,151 Sky Diver: 17,559GeekBench 5: 1,356 4,918 PCMark 10 : 4,290 points PCMark 10 Battery Life: 13 hours 20 minutes Battery Life : 11 hours 2 minute
And, when plugged in, the laptops speak for the performance of this laptop. In Cinebench R23, the Surface Laptop 4 was able to get a solid 4,998 points, which is about what we would expect out of this processor.
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Best Gaming Laptops In 2022
The best gaming laptop doesn’t compromise on portability and performance.
The best gaming laptop serves up performance and portability in one perfectly proportioned package. Oh, and at a reasonable price too. That’s true whether you’re looking at a powerful desktop replacement or an ultra-thing gaming machine. Whatever you’re looking for, there’s a perfect machine for you. It’s a good time to be in the market for a gaming laptop right now too.
As the battle between AMD and Intel rages on the CPU front, anyone shopping for a new gaming laptop will have plenty of options to choose from. AMD’s Ryzen 6000-series processors have been giving Intel’s 12th Gen Alder Lake chips a run for their money. The same can be said about AMD’s new mobile GPUs slowly closing the gap to Nvidia’s RTX 30-series offerings. And soon, a new generation of components is likely to grace our portable machines.
The newest gaming laptops have improved portability, while still sporting all the fancy features of high-end gaming PCs. We’re talking multicore CPUs, high-end GPUs, and speedy NVMe SSDs. You can even find heaps of RAM and super-high refresh screens under the hood. Gaming laptops with mechanical keyboards even exist, in case you can’t live without that sweet clackity clack, like the Asus ROG Strix Scar 15 .
Asus Zenbook Duo Best For Multi
Pros
The innovative ZenBook Duo hinges, quite literally, around its second screen and makes for an interesting setup if you like the idea of having two screens without having to plug one in.
It makes for impressive multi-tasking for certain situations once you get used to it and performance is good for a wide range of tasks as well as decent battery life. Its also surprisingly light and portable for a machine with two displays.
That second screen does have downsides though, mainly the knock-on effect to the keyboard and trackpad, making them small and awkward.
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What Should You Look For When Buying A New Laptop
There are certain things you can look out for when buying a new laptop in 2021 that can ensure you get the best laptop for your money.
Make sure you take a look at the specifications of a laptop before buying. This is a good way of quickly seeing how powerful a laptop is, and what it is capable of â as long as you know what youâre looking for.
First of all is the processor. This is essentially the brain of the laptop, and a laptop will usually have a processor made by either Intel or AMD. Intel is by far the most popular CPU maker for laptops, though weâre seeing an increasing number of AMD-powered laptops as well.
As a general rule of thumb, Intel processors offer better performance, but AMD processors are better value.
To make things more simple, both Intel and AMD have numbered their processors to give you a rough idea of what sort of tasks a laptop with that processor can perform.
If youâre after a budget laptop for simple tasks like browsing the web or watching Netflix, then a laptop with an Intel Pentium, Intel Core i3 or AMD Ryzen 3, processor will do that job without making the laptop too expensive.
If youâre after something with a bit more oomph â perhaps to do more complex task like editing your home videos or playing games â then go for a laptop with an Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 processor as a minimum.
A newer processor performs better and is more power efficient â so battery life will last longer. They are more expensive, though.
Which Type Of Laptop Is Best For You
General laptops: Where the best cheap laptops are found, devices that focus more on practicality than style, portability or power. Thatâs not to say they canât be fast, but youâll typically find a non-Ultrabook clamshell laptop with an HD screen and spinning drive-based storage for less than $600 or £400.
Ultrabooks: Where youâll find thin-and-light notebooks sporting SSD storage and display resolutions that exceed 1080p. Paired with powerful, albeit mobile-centric components and especially long battery life, the best Ultrabooks will cost a pretty penny â $700 or £500 to $2,000 or £1,800.
2-in-1 laptops: Where notebooks that double as tablets are located. The Surface Book 2 might be a ways off , but many of the best 2-in-1 laptops are available right now. Outfitted with both detachable and 360-degree rotating hinges, these hybrids are the most versatile way to experience Windows 10 on a touchscreen.
Chromebooks: Where youâll find the best Chromebooks running Chrome OS. These do much of what Windows and macOS can in the browser, focused on cloud storage over local, while recently getting Android app support for touchscreen models. They generally cost less than $300 or £200 and some can even withstand a slight tussle.
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