Gaming laptop: five good deals

Acer Aspire V5-561G (V5-561G-74508G1TMaik)

Acer laptop immediately nice stands out from competitors with relatively low cost. Especially considering that we are talking about a gaming model.

First of all, I would like to note the lightness of the device — 2.35 kg. Outwardly, the laptop looks modest, no frills, but the main part of the case is made of high-quality materials, among which matte plastic prevails.

A 15.6-inch screen with a resolution of 1366x768 is unlikely to allow you to fully enjoy the chic and realistic graphics of modern games. By the way, the display is touch-sensitive, which is not a mandatory feature in this kind of laptops, but it definitely won’t become the fifth wheel. The front camera can hardly surprise you with a 1.0 MP indicator. If you're planning on streaming, you'll most likely need to get an external camera.

Featuring an AMD Mobility Radeon R7 M265 graphics card with 2GB of memory and A 2-core Core i7 450 U processor with a clock speed of 1.8 GHz (in Turbo Boost mode accelerates to 3 GHz) should not have performance problems. A good balance of performance and resource consumption should play a role here. For those who like to realize the full potential of their devices, the ability to expand the RAM up to 16 GB (with the standard 8 GB available) will be useful.

Despite the above-mentioned balance, the capacities 2500 mAh battery is enough for 4 hours of active work. Separately, we note a nice large touchpad with a rough coating, which will help to avoid accidental scrolling, and a comfortable, and most importantly, quiet keyboard when typing. On the side faces, everything is standard: three USB ports, two of which are version 2.0 and one 3.0. There is an optical drive, which, in truth, is no longer a necessity and a mandatory attribute, which cannot be said about a card reader and an SD card slot.

One of the most affordable gaming laptops on the market. Relatively small, as for this type of device, the weight makes it a fairly portable solution. The weakest point is the screen resolution.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P (Y510P 59-407210)

The updated IdeaPad received a matte display with a resolution of 1920x1080, with a screen size of 15.6".

There are no complaints about the assembly of the body, it itself is made of matte plastic. The weight of the laptop is 2.7 kg, which is quite good for a representative of the gaming series. The side faces are equipped with a pair of USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port, VGA and HDMI inputs, a LAN port, a card reader and, of course, a retractable drive.

The model is notable for its acoustic solution, which is represented by an audio system from by the legendary American company JBL.

At the heart of the hardware is a 4-core processor Core i7 4700 MQ, capable of overclocking to a frequency of 3.4 GHz. The hard drive can be filled with a whole terabyte, but the SSD cannot boast of a special capacity — only 8 GB for small tasks. The amount of RAM is 8 GB, but the user can independently expand it up to 16 GB.

The graphics subsystem deserves special attention: under the “hood” there are two nVIDIA GeForce GT 755M 2 GB , which replaced the cards of the 6th series in previous modifications of this laptop

The rather demanding game Crysis 3, for example, works quietly on this model with medium performance settings, therefore a truly top-end "gaming" laptop IdeaPad can only be called a stretch. But its pleasant price can play a key role in choosing the best option for serious and time-consuming tasks. Moreover, the laptop battery will allow you to play a little longer — approximately 5 hours.

MSI GT70 2QD Dominator (GT70 2QD-2424)

The name of the laptop already speaks for itself — Dominator. This computer is designed to solve the most time-consuming tasks. Don't be surprised by its brutal appearance, solid weight and a case thickness of 5.5 cm. This is not an option that can easily be carried in a bag, but it is intended for something else.

Opening the laptop with one hand is not difficult, and the angle of the top cover will allow you to position the device as conveniently as possible. The webcam located on the top panel is hidden behind a stylish rhombus. The edging of the matte display visually smooths out its considerable size of 17.3". By the way, the resolution here is in full order — 1920x1080 pixels.

On the bottom of the case there is a bright computer power button, a number of touch buttons, multi-coloured zone backlighting of the keyboard and an interesting solution for the speaker grille from Dynaudio. Again, there will definitely be no problems with sound in the GT70. Speaking of controls, it is worth noting that the concept of the keyboard was developed by SteelSeries.

But the most delicious thing in this device lies under the cover: 4-core Intel Core i7 4710 processor with a maximum frequency of 3.5 GHz and 8 GB of RAM, expandable up to 32 GB, simply leaves no chance for even the most demanding games. The icing on the cake here is 3 GB of GDDR 5 memory in the most powerful GTX 970M graphics card, which is paired with an integrated Intel GMA HD 4600. Of course, no modern laptop can do without an SSD. In this version, the drive memory is 128 GB with 1 TB hard drive.

Based on the fact that the device is positioned as a "gaming laptop", it would be illogical to expect it to work without recharging for a long time — only 3 hours.

Asus ROG G750JS (G750JS-T4052H)

If the previous models got their place in our TOP mainly due to a pleasant price-quality ratio, then the last two representatives were included in the review solely for their “combat” merits and impressive performance.

Compared to the models of previous series, the aggressive design characteristic of the “G” line has remained virtually unchanged. The laptop is far from a feather — 4.8 kg of clean, tangible weight. The screen is 17.3" diagonally and has a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. The display, like the case, has a matte finish, which has a good effect on viewing angles and the absence of glare.

The maximum overclocking of the 4-core Core i7 4700 HQ processor will be 3.4 GHz. 16 GB of RAM, expandable up to 32 GB if desired, and a beautiful 3 GB GeForce GTX 870M graphics card will perfectly cope with any innovations in the gaming industry. And if we have already taken the game Crysis 3 as a litmus test, then on this laptop it runs almost perfectly at the highest graphics settings, but in order to remove the word “practically” and feel absolute smoothness, you will have to either lower the resolution, or reduce the list of included graphic effects.

Regarding drives: an interesting option has been implemented from 256 GB SSD and 1000 GB HDD, which will feel more than comfortable working in pairs.

Cooling worked well, but if you have not encountered a truly gaming laptop before, then the temperature of the case can cause some discomfort. The noise of the cooling system is almost imperceptible, especially against the sound of the excellent G750J S speaker system.

Dell Alienware 18 (A871610S2BDW-24)

Truly ethereal in its characteristics, the Alienware 18 supernotebook from Dell. And it is “super” in all respects: super powerful, heavy and, alas, super expensive.

Let's start with the fact that the display has the largest (of all those on the list) diagonal — as much as 18.4" and FullHD resolution. By the way, the laptop may seem familiar to fans of the series, because it is this sample that the self-proclaimed genius Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory has on his desk.

Returning to the review, the weight of the Alienware 18 is almost a record 5.6 kg. This is not surprising, because the body is made of aluminium and a special magnesium alloy. All the highlighted elements strive to remind us that we are dealing with the best representative of its class. A plus can also be called a comfortable, well-assembled keyboard with programmable macro keys and changing backlighting. Despite its impressive dimensions, Dell's product has a standard set of two pairs of USB 2.0 and 3.0, as well as three video outputs and a connector for recharging the battery.

The device is equipped with many large compartments for cooling and ventilation, which is quite reasonable, given the presence of iron prone to overheating. The modification that got into our review literally has the best possible graphic solutions: two GeForce GTX 880M, each with 8 GB of memory.

If we talked about the previous model as such, that calmly "pulls" all sorts of new items, then owners of Dell Alienware 18 can not even think about updates for a few more years. The processor is 4-core, namely the Core i7 4819 MQ with a frequency range from 2.8 GHz to 3.8 GHz. A 256 GB SSD drive complements its HDD with 1 TB or more (depending on the configuration of each specific model). Despite the exorbitant power consumption, the laptop is able to operate on battery power for more than 6 hours.