How to choose the perfect gaming laptop

Looking to game on the go? Choosing the right gaming laptop can be overwhelming. Here are our top tips for finding the ideal gaming system to take on the road.

While many of us gamers would love to sit at our desks all day, that’s not always a possibility—meaning we may need to pick up a gaming laptop for when we’re on the go.

But with so many models and makes out there, it can be overwhelming to find the right laptop.

We’ve got your back. Today, we’ll go over how to pick the right gaming laptop for your needs. The main points we’ll look at are:

• Portability
• Performance
• Price

When you’re searching for a laptop, it’s easy to focus only on specs and to miss crucial features that make a laptop worthwhile. Many buyers tend to overlook important aspects like portability and value for the money.

What makes a good laptop?

Portability

To get full performance from a gaming laptop, you’ll need to have it plugged in constantly. While battery time will vary, if you’re playing a demanding game, the battery won’t last very long.

With your battery is bound to run out eventually, charge time is an important factor for traveling, as you may not have a consistent power source. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are also huge selling points if you want to play online games. You may also want to look into a lightweight laptop, as a heavy laptop isn’t the most comfortable to carry.

With portability in mind, the Predator Helios 300 is the perfect pick for the road. For $1,199, the lightweight Helios 300 provides some of the best specs for its price point and has a six-hour battery life at full charge. Specs for the Predator Helios 300 include an i7-10750H, RTX 2060, 16GB’s of RAM and a 512GB SSD, exactly what you should expect for the price. 

Performance

Although many factors impact a laptop’s performance, two are the most important. The first is the CPU—the brain of the laptop. Intel’s 11 Generation processor lineup—one of their latest—includes the i7-11800H and the i9-11900H, both among the most popular processors in today’s high-end laptops. Intel’s 10 Gen i7-10750H processor is commonly seen in an entry-level or midrange laptop.

The second factor is the GPU. The majority of games are GPU-dependent, meaning your graphics card needs to be good enough for years to come. The best graphics card you can go for is part of the newly released NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3000 series. If you’re unable to purchase a laptop with an RTX 3000 series GPU, your next best choice is a card from the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2000 series.

Besides GPUs, you want to consider RAM. With games becoming more and more demanding, the recommended amount of RAM for 2021 is 16 GB. If you’re unable to get 16 GB right off the bat, you can consider upgrading at a later date.

Storage capabilities are also important. There’s nothing worse than having to uninstall a game you spent hours downloading to make room for another game. You also don’t want to wait for your game to load, so an SSD may be necessary. Our recommendation is a 512 GB SSD, and you can always consider purchasing an external hard drive.

With all this in mind, the Predator Triton 300 checks all the boxes for a performance laptop at the reasonable price of $1,399. With an 11th Gen Intel Core processor, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, 16 GB of RAM, and a 512 GB SSD, you won’t be let down. The sleek Triton 300 also provides the portability you need on the go, with an eight-hour battery at full charge.

Price

Many gamers don’t know if they’re getting the best-value laptop for their needs. When shopping for a gaming laptop, there are three reasonable price points to shoot for:

• Entry-level: $1,000–$1,400
• Midrange: $1,500–$1,900
• High-end: $2,000+

In entry-level laptops, you should expect to see a 10 Gen Intel Core processor, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card, 16 GB of RAM, a 512 GB SSD, and a 15-inch, 1080p, 144 Hz display.

At the midrange point of $1,500, you should see something similar to an entry-level laptop but with the next generation of components: an 11 Gen Intel Core processor, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, 16 GB of RAM, and a 1 TB SSD.

Once you start creeping up on $2,000 in the high-end laptop range, you’ll see huge improvements in other areas like display, cooling, and keyboard. For main components, you should see an 11 Gen Intel Core processor, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, 16 GB of RAM, and a 1 TB SSD. At this price, the display should be a minimum of 16 inches, 1440p, and 165 Hz.

If you’re planning to go all out on your laptop, the Predator Triton 500 SE is a great pick. Available for $1,999, it packs the most bang for your buck and is one of the best you can choose in the high-end tier. With the latest generation CPU, the i7-11800H, one of the newest GPU’s, the RTX 3070, 16GB’s of RAM and a 1TB SSD, you can’t go wrong with this laptop. 

Getting the best deals with Intel Gamer Days

If you’re on the lookout for a gaming laptop, you’ve picked the perfect time to shop.

Intel Gamer Days is returning in 2021, from August 27 to September 5, and there will be plenty of deals to help you save big on Predator laptops.

To make sure you don’t miss out on anything going down during Intel Gamer Days, check out our coverage hub with details on the best deals available.