The Best Gaming Laptops under $1500

Gaming Laptops have come a long way since they started to show up in the early 2010s. What used to be a bulky gaming PC masquerading as a laptop with a few changes and restricted power is now a considerable niche with its nuances this decade. Much of the efficiency gains on many PC components, especially the CPU, GPU, and storage paved the way for the modern gaming laptop.

What Makes A Gaming Laptop Better Versus A PC?

These PCs are powerful, portable, and efficient while able to hold their own with mid-range desktop computers for gaming and productivity with a few power-centric caveats in tow. While the power and form factor restrictions do mean that a similarly priced gaming PC will still considerably outperform a gaming laptop, the gap is not as large as it used to be back in the day; This is primarily due to advances made by chipmakers such as Intel, AMD, and Nvidia that allow for lower power draw, less heat generation and better performance per watt for their respective CPUs and GPUs that power said portable PCs.

This results in a more refined, more powerful, and yet lightweight iteration of gaming laptops every generation with modern gaming laptops allowing for more than acceptable gaming performance thanks to both, higher efficiency and better pricing across the board for their internals making the term ‘gaming laptop’ more than a cliche since the last decade as it encompasses a range of hardware including both compact gaming laptops and full-fledged desktop replacements in 2024.

When choosing a Gaming Laptop Under $1500, One Should Consider The Following:

At the end of the day, picking a gaming laptop comes down to numbers and can be quantified based on user needs and hardware specs, making multiple choices much easier to compare. Users generally want to consider the following choices before they come to a decision:

Use Cases: Some gaming laptops also double as productivity machines for their users who often use them as a complete desktop replacement thanks to them offering beefier CPUs, fast storage, and a decent GPU that can also be used for productivity workloads thanks to modern applications leveraging GPU cores increasingly well, a practice that is expected to continue as part of an AI-centric push for the next generation of PCs.

Performance: Gaming laptops generally do need suitable hardware under the hood and their utility comes down to the raw performance potential – the sum of its various parts. Given that bottlenecks are a very real concern in desktop gaming and laptops due to their limited power draw and relatively more expensive and less upgrade-friendly design, performance is a fickle beast.

Therefore, users need to account for performance potential, as well as research potential bottlenecks which could be hardware choices, upgradeability, or even thermal restrictions in play. All of these do meaningfully contribute to a more consistent gaming experience making it important to prioritize performance.

Portability: Gaming Laptops tend to benefit from larger batteries, power draw, and better cooling. This is why they are mostly found in larger sizes, often pushing as much as an 18-inch screen size. This, coupled with the added weight in play for a larger screen size and internals makes gaming laptops in many cases blend the gap between a gaming desktop and a portable laptop. Defining limits earlier about a gaming laptop’s ideal weight, based on a user’s preferences, is essential to allow them to pick a suitable candidate.

Price: While gaming laptops generally are considered more premium than equivalent laptops without the added GPU and cooling hardware costs, there are still bargains to be had regularly. This makes researching the best gaming laptops for a set price point, including potential upgrade SKUs, historical pricing, and competitors’ offerings, a key factor when picking a gaming laptop. This allows users to get more mileage out of their investment in something that they expect to use for years while working, gaming, or even both simultaneously.

Finding a gaming laptop that meets one’s needs without costing an arm and a leg is another story altogether, with users having to sift through multiple options depending on their internals as well as aesthetic, form factor, and battery life considerations. The team at Game Rant takes a look at some of the best gaming laptops one can find under $1500 below.

The Best Gaming Laptops under $1500

The Dell G16 7630 Gaming Laptop is Game Rant’s candidate for the best overall gaming laptop under $1500 even as it pushes slightly above the $1500 mark currently for its Core i9 trim at retailers. This is due to the significantly better value for money it offers even as it delivers a full RTX 4070 under the hood for a price tag that would not have been possible a few months earlier. It is an indirect beneficiary of the ongoing shakeup in the desktop GPU market, with the RTX 4000 SUPER series launching with many users adapting a wait-and-see approach to their purchases in its larger-sized sibling’s domain.

The G16 however comes out firing on all cylinders, throwing its weight behind the powerful 24-core, 32-thread Intel Core i9 13900HX CPU with an excellent QHD+ display that offers a 165Hz refresh rate. Bundled with this is 16GB of fast DDR5 RAM and a plentiful 1TB NVMe SSD, making for an interesting offering that trades at a very competitive price tag for what it offers.

The G16 also offers excellent thermals thanks to its beefier heatsinks than many of its competitors even as it has its work cut out for it thanks to one of the demanding Intel CPUs available to users even in 2024. With an above-spec CPU for its price tag, a GPU that can hold its own in 2024 thanks to its DLSS advantage over the competition and a better-than-average display, the G16 is here to stay on for a considerable time as one of the best sub-$1500 recommendations that money can buy – provided it retains its current price tag.

The Acer Nitro 17 Gaming Laptop is an excellent choice for a powerful and efficient gaming laptop with a larger screen that won’t break the bank. It also packs a punch without weighing significantly more than its competition thanks to a massive overhaul of the Nitro’s cooling options that now also feature liquid metal as part of their offerings.

With a more efficient AMD Ryzen 7 7000 series processor in play and the newer Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU on offer, the Nitro is expected to be a more current and efficient offering versus many of its competitors, even with portability concerns at 17.3′ versus most of its 15.6′ competitors. It does throw in plenty of ports and an SD card reader as part of its larger chassis, and the QHD/2K/1440P screen with a 165Hz refresh rate is a welcome addition, making for a sharper display than most FHD screens it competes with in the under $1500 price bracket.

With Wi-Fi 6E built in and gigabit Ethernet if required onboard in addition to a decent memory and storage configuration, the Nitro 17 strikes the right balance for a gaming laptop made for FHD/QHD gaming – something it can handle well. It does seem to max out its GPU faster than its CPU in most titles, meaning higher resolution gaming might be challenging given the RTX 4060’s limitations as a mobile GPU. Despite this, the Nitro 17 is arguably one of, if not the best value gaming laptops on Game Rant’s list making it a contender for the best overall gaming laptop under $1500.

The ASUS VivoBook Pro 16 Laptop is a great gaming laptop one can pick up if they are planning to game on the go. Thanks to its powerful 14-core, 20-thread Intel Core i9 CPU, as well as some of the best performance-to-weight ratios of a gaming-capable work laptop. While it isn’t explicitly designed for gaming, it does a more than acceptable job when it comes to it.

This is despite having thermal restrictions in play even as it offers a relatively limited display option that comes in a 16:10 form factor with a sub-FHD resolution in tow that remains limited to a 60Hz refresh rate, making it a poor choice for most esports-centric users looking for a fast performer on the go.

The Vivobook does undeniably have its moments thanks to its unique value proposition. The fast DDR5 RAM and upgradeable SSD along with an excellent price tag for a productivity-centric laptop sporting an RTX 4060 GPU with a relatively recent Core i9 CPU is a hard combination to match, let alone beat for most of its competitors.

It is also one of its most lightweight entries with a gaming-capable GPU and an impressive 16-inch screen size. This, in addition to a dedicated MUX switch and decent battery life, makes the VivoBook Pro an impressive offering at a price tag one can’t argue with, given its target audience of high-end business customers. If used for gaming, however, the SSD might need an upgrade given its lower capacity potentially becoming an issue for most users, and users may not be a fan of the exceedingly high amount of preinstalled bloatware that comes with this particular model.

The ASUS Zephyrus G14 Gaming Laptop’s 2023 iteration has many different variants, but the most well-balanced Ryzen 9 and RTX 4060 combination turns heads right away. It packs just enough GPU power with a significantly powerful gaming-centric CPU that is also known for its efficiency to make it a competent, yet balanced offering for gamers looking to splurge on a gaming laptop north of $1000 but under $1500.

While it retails at an MSRP of $1600, it is often on sale at retailers such as Best Buy, which sees it routinely float at around the $1200-1300 mark, a viable position for an RTX 4060-based gaming laptop with the perks the G14 has to offer such as its extremely sharp and bright Nebula display that packs a pixel-dense 2K resolution on a 14-inch screen that can push up to 165Hz.

Users might however feel that the RTX 4060 variant is slightly underpowered and ASUS does offer a higher-end, but significantly more expensive RTX 4070-based G14 SKU that also packs in a larger SSD and a newer, better Mini LED display that exceeds the stated price range significantly, making it an unviable recommendation for what is otherwise a very good gaming laptop for users on the go.

The ASUS Zephyrus G14 Gaming Laptop currently retails for just a shade above $1000, making it both, one of the best budget gaming laptops on Game Rant’s list and also one of the most densely packed in terms of power within its price range, making it a much more appealing choice at the start of 2024 than it was the last year.

The MSI Katana 15 15.6″ 144Hz FHD Gaming Laptop happens to be a feature-packed gaming laptop that offers both a power current-gen Intel Core i7 CPU and an Nvidia RTX 4070 GPU in tow. It offers astounding value thanks to a series of price cuts across the board that see it trade for as low as $1200 a pop at multiple retailers. This is a much more aggressively priced SKU compared to most if not all of its alternatives that retail firmly in the $1500 to 2500 range for similar hardware.

While it does cut corners in terms of battery life, and one could disagree with its choice of display only offering Full HD (1920 x 1080) and 144Hz, its internals do allow it to behave both as a gaming laptop and a desktop replacement of sorts, especially given its battery limitations in play. With upgradeable memory and storage, the Katana can be up-spec’ed to match gaming laptops that easily push at around the $2,000 mark at a fraction of the cost.

The MSI Katana 15’s current iteration is a compromise, offering an excellent CPU and GPU but cutting corners on the battery and display. The overall compromise however seems to favor gamers thanks to the impressive value it offers, making it Game Rant’s candidate for the best overall Gaming Laptop under $1500 given that it punches well above its weight in terms of raw power for gaming and productivity.

This is even more acutely accurate given that most gaming laptops do not generally double as great performers on battery life when it comes to gaming, partially nullifying the Katana’s primary drawback, its somewhat limited battery life in 2024.

The Acer Predator Helios 16 Gaming Laptop is one of the most well-rounded gaming laptops users can purchase from the market. It offers a 16-core 13th generation Intel Core i7 CPU coupled with a well-balanced RTX 4060 in tow to allow it to run games smoothly at an FHD resolution with ease. On the other side of the equation, it also pairs a capable 16-inch 16:10 2K IPS display which might be a bit too much for the RTX 4060 to handle at high refresh rates.

Esports players might disagree with most modern esports titles easily running at the advertised 165Hz or higher refresh rates with ease even as it touts a large 1TB SSD to store a modern gaming library. With a secondary M2 slot on offer for upgrades in addition to Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports as well as Killer Wi-FI 6E to round off its Ethernet adapter with the same moniker, the Acer Predator Helios 16 delivers for users needing extra storage or connectivity with ease.

While users might not be thrilled about how closely it is priced to the Katana, which offers a faster RTX 4070 GPU, it does have its perks, centering around its significantly better display and a slightly better CPU on offer than MSI’s equally competitive offering, making this a worthy contender in the budget gaming laptop segment under $1500.

Looking for an inexpensive gaming laptop that will handle everything you throw at it with ease? The ASUS TUF gaming A17 machine will not disappoint. It is a powerful gaming laptop with robust performance and an effective cooling system. It features an indefatigable AMD Ryzen 7940HS processor that can power users through old and new games without a sweat. Thanks to the propensity to offer a reasonably threaded performance, the CPU is the best for gaming, as gamers can expect smooth gameplay and high frame rates.

On top of the AMD Ryzen 7940HS processor, the gaming laptop has 16GB DDR5 RAM at 4.8GHz. The RAM is good for gaming and other memory-heavy functions such as video streaming and graphic design. Plus, users do not have to limit the laptop to only one use; they can use it for multiple tasks like graphic design, coding and playing music. Though modest in size, the 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD should do the job for most gamers. They can easily store or transfer on-device games, videos, and files. Also, the SSD storage outweighs HDD when boosting the speed at which a laptop boots and loads files and other programs.

It features a 17.3-inch full-HD display that ensures users do not miss anything. The display syncs with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 GPU output to minimize stuttering, reduce lag, and eliminate visual tearing.

Most mid-tier gaming laptops today have most of the features found in high-end laptops but at slightly lower price tags. A good example is the MSI Katana, which features an Intel Core i7 13th generation processor capable of multitasking and immersive gameplay. Gamers who are also into graphic design or programming should find it very dependable.

It features 32GB DDR5 RAM, which is adequate for casual and professional gaming. Although not a deal-breaker, users will immediately notice the difference in performance when it comes to responsiveness and gameplay when multitasking and switching applications during gameplay. The gaming laptop has a large 17.3-inch full-HD display with a 144Hz refresh rate. It seamlessly synchronizes with the included NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GPU to deliver real-world pictures. Those who have used this GPU will attest to its great ray-tracing capabilities and ability to simulate the real-world behavior of light.

FAQ

Q: What is the fastest Laptop CPU for gaming currently?

The 24-core Intel Core i9-13980HX happens to be the fastest laptop CPU for gaming, but it might soon have tough competition as AMD prepares the AMD Ryzen™ 9 7945HX3D for release, a CPU it bills the ‘fastest mobile gaming processor’ for release on 22nd August 2023

Q: How much storage should a gaming laptop have?

Most entry-level gaming laptops tend to have at least 512GB of storage but given cheaper SSDs lately, gaming laptops and PCs are making the relatively inexpensive jump to a minimum of 1TB of storage for models that cost $1000 or more.