If you want a gaming PC that's able to follow wherever you may roam, the best gaming laptops are where you want to look. While desktop parts are usually still higher performance, the best gaming laptops offer excellent performance in the latest games. Best of all, there are even models that are able to offer peak performance while still remaining thin and light, like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 – our number one pick.
TL;DR – These are the Best Gaming Laptops
When you're shopping for a gaming laptop, the first thing I always recommend people consider is what PC games they actually hope to play. The second is what settings they hope to play them at. These two questions can guide your purchase to higher or lower-end hardware and what trade-offs you're willing to make. Now more than ever, gaming laptops come in every shape in size, from thin and light devices like our number moderately heavy powerhouses like the Lenovo Legion 9i. These larger, performance-driven laptops achieve their enhanced performance with more powerful, and power-hungry, components, which means sacrificing on portability, battery life, and fan noise.
There are oodles to choose from a ton of different gaming laptop brands, and finding the best for you can be more than a little daunting. I've tested dozens over the years and have a deep understanding of what it takes for a gaming laptop to ascend to greatness. These are the best gaming laptops of 2024 so far.
Additional contributions by Georgie Peru, Jaqueline Thomas, and Danielle Abraham.
Looking for discounts on laptops like these? Check out our guide to the best gaming laptop deals.
1. Asus ROG Zephyrus G14
Best Overall Gaming Laptop
The best overall gaming laptop you can buy right now is the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (GA403, the 2024 edition). It’s not the hands-down most powerful laptop but its appeal lies in just how well it balances its different aspects. Between portability, performance, ease of use, and price, it’s the hands-down best bet for most laptop gamers. We reviewed the 2022 version of this gaming laptop and thought much the same thing back then.
This laptop has a lot to love about it. At only 3.31 pounds, it’s remarkably lightweight for a gaming laptop. When you boot up a game and realize how great its performance is, its svelte size becomes even more impressive. Though it’s only available with an RTX 4070 as of this writing, it provides plentiful power to run modern games at high settings and afford you access to performance-enhancing features like Nvidia DLSS.
It’s also a joy to look at. Its screen is incredibly sharp and offers a tremendous HDR experience thanks to its bright OLED panel and crisp 2560 x 1600 (3K) resolution. Its chassis exudes a classiness that reminds me of nothing more than Apple, so you can enjoy it for gaming or even an office or classroom. HDR gaming and movies are a treat, with vivid colors and exceptional smoothness thanks to its 120Hz display.
For most tasks – including video editing, content creation, and digital art – the G14 is able to offer snappy performance. Its Ryzen 9 8945HS processor is a beast, offering eight cores and 16 threads and a fast 5.2GHz clock speed. Plus, it has AI enhancements for things like background blur and AI noise removal in Nvidia Broadcast. It also comes with 32GB of memory and a 1TB SSD so you can download and run lots of different games without worrying about space. The biggest downside is that the memory isn’t upgradeable, but if you opt for 32GB, which is what we’re recommending here, it will be enough to last most multiple generations into the future.
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 will set you back around $2,200 but it’s well worth the investment for a gaming laptop as good as this.
2. MSI Thin A15 AI
Best Budget Gaming Laptop
The MSI Thin A15 AI offers great FHD gaming performance at a reasonable price. At less than $1,000, it offers an impressive array of specs that are more than up to the task of 1080p gaming and even open the door to streaming and content creation. Best of all, as you might have guessed from the name, it does this in a package that's comparatively thin and light for a gaming laptop.
Its portability might lead you to believe it wouldn't be able to keep up with the latest games, but in fact, the opposite is true. By going for a 1080p screen (that runs at a smooth 144Hz), its Nvidia RTX 4060 is perfectly suited to dialing up settings and enjoying the bells and whistles your games have to offer. It also comes with an AMD Ryzen 9 8845HS processor that includes eight cores and 16 threads and is able to hit a peak clock speed of 5.2GHz. The laptop also comes with 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1TB NVMe SSD, ensuring that you won't run short on memory or storage.
It's a killer machine that I recommend for anyone on a budget, but there are some trade-offs you make to bring home this kind of performance sub-$1,000. Foremost is cooling. More to the point, noise. Thin gaming laptops often have roaring fans to dissipate the heat and the A15 is no exception. It also has static backlighting for the keyboard, so your customization options are more limited. In my opinion, the hardware you're getting in exchange is more than worth the sacrifices it takes to get there. If you go for it, I recommend pairing it with one of the best laptop cooling pads.
3. Lenovo Legion 9i
Best High-End Gaming Laptop
The Lenovo Legion 9i is one of my all-time favorite laptops. In my review, I was absolutely smitten with its balance of performance and killer aesthetics. It's not exactly light, but it's a full-fledged desktop replacement that's more than up to the challenge of playing the latest games.
Given its somewhat staggering price that begins well above $3,000, it should come as no surprise that it features top-tier specs. It runs a high performance 14th-gen Intel processor that routinely tops performance charts in gaming benchmarks. It can also be outfitted with either an RTX 4080 or 4090 to push high settings even on the most demanding games (and the GPU is liquid-cooled to ensure peak performance). It supports up to 64GB of memory and comes with either 1TB or 2TB of storage to hold a large game library. Simply put, this laptop is absolutely beastly.
Its gaming prowess doesn't stop there. It features a mini-LED screen for next-level HDR and brightness that I found to be stunning for a gaming laptop. It features an extended keyboard with a numpad, perfect for games with lots of skills and abilities (I'm looking at you, World of Warcraft), and sports multiple sources of RGB lighting to illuminate your desk. The biggest downside, outside of price, is that it tends to get loud, so you might want to pick up one of the best gaming headsets to block out the noise.
4. HP OmniBook Ultra
Best for Work
Adulting is hard, but that doesn't mean that you have to give up on gaming once you're through with your day job. If you need one laptop that can see you through your work day and load up your favorite games in the evening, the HP OmniBook Ultra is the laptop for you.
The reason it's such a good pick lies with its excellent Ryzen 9 AI HX365 processor. It's more than capable for productivity applications and even demanding apps like Adobe Premiere or Photoshop. It also includes one of the highest performance integrated GPUs currently available. You won't be able to play the latest games on their highest settings, but thanks to AMD's intelligent upscaling and frame generation technologies, FidelityFX Super Resolution and AMD Fluid Motion Frames, you can enjoy playable frame rates on most games available today – just don't expect it to match a laptop with a dedicated graphics card. But since the display maxes out at 60Hz, you don't need to hit triple digit frame rates to max out its potential.
For productivity, you'll be able to enjoy a sleek, business-first exterior that exudes class and excellent portability. At only 3.47 pounds, you can carry it throughout your work day with getting home with sore shoulders. It also sports biometric login with an IR webcam and integrated fingerprint sensor for extra security on the job.
5. Asus TUF Gaming A14
Best for Students
If you're a student, the Asus TUF Gaming A14 is an excellent pick that I simply adored in my review. It's surprisingly thin, exceptionally quiet, and offers impressive battery life. If you need a notebook you can carry between classes, and that also lets you sneak away into the library to play your favorite games (shh!), look no further: this is the laptop for you.
While "thin and light" might be the watch words for productivity laptops, the design pays dividends for students that want to enjoy some games in their downtime. At only 3.2 pounds and 0.78-inches at its thickest point, it's compact enough to fit into any bag without weighing you down. When it's time for gaming its 8th-gen high-performance AMD Ryzen processor and Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU are well-matched to its 1600p display, though I'd recommend dropping the resolution to 1200p to push the frame rate even higher. The picture stays crisp on its 14-inch display and the higher FPS really make the most of its 165Hz screen.
The biggest nitpicks I made about this machine really had to do with its expandability and relatively high price for the level of hardware it features. While you can't expand the memory, the overall balance between performance, portability, and noise that Asus struck here is pitch perfect for on-the-go students.
How To Pick the Best Gaming Laptop
Gaming laptops have come a long way in relatively little time. Power, portability, and price have all seen dramatic improvements in just the last 5 years, and somehow gaming laptops are getting thinner and adding even more features.
Portability
Where will you be taking this gaming laptop? If you imagine yourself taking it out every day, you’ll want something portable, such as a 15-incher or something smaller. Users who just want a laptop to live at home as more of a desktop replacement should go for a 17-inch rig or bigger for the larger screen size and greater power.
Power
The newest gaming laptops come equipped with the latest Nvidia RTX or Radeon RX graphics chips. These mobile chips are nearly as capable as their desktop version, plus they support the latest ray tracing and DLSS technologies. Choosing the latest processor isn't quite as necessary, but it's nice to have.
When shopping for a gaming laptop be sure the Intel processor has a model number of Intel Core ix-14xxxH (i.e. Intel Core i7-14700HX or Intel Core i9-14900HX). This denotes it's one of Team Blue's Raptor Lake H-series processors. If the gaming laptop you're eying has an AMD processor, ensure its model number has a seven or eight at the start of it – such as AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS – as it lets you know it's one of AMD's latest 7000-series or 8000-series processors.
Price
If you're set on a gaming laptop and just need to decide which one to get under a certain price point, then your choices will be narrowed down based on your maximum budget. If that's you, you'll probably want to explore our full list of cheap gaming laptops we'd recommend instead, but here's our top budget pick right now:
Most gaming laptops are only as portable as the nearest electrical outlet. All that power comes at a price, though. After all, there are a few exceptions like our top choice, but the general rule of thumb in gaming laptops is their battery life stinks.
Another consideration when choosing a gaming laptop versus a gaming desktop is its price. It costs quite a bit more to stuff all those components (i.e. the built-in trackpad, keyboard, speakers, and display) into an easy-to-carry shell.
From our experience, it's always better to stick with the least amount of memory and storage on checkout, and then upgrade it yourself with higher capacity components that are much cheaper to buy on their own. A 1TB SSD might sound tempting as it'll help get your system boot instantly and store all your games, but a high-end upgrade like that can often cost half or a quarter as much as the whole machine.
However, upgrading leads directly to another consideration: how easy is it to swap out components? Whereas it's usually a snap to add or replace a component in your desktop rig, upgrading anything in your gaming laptop, other than RAM, will often mean having to buy a whole new computer.
Gaming Laptop FAQ
Should you buy a gaming laptop or a gaming PC?
When considering a gaming laptop over a gaming desktop, ask yourself: is the premium in price worth it for the luxury of portability?
Gaming desktops provide more bang for your buck, are less expensive to upgrade and repair, and last longer before they go obsolete. However, if you're looking for portability, then a gaming laptop is certainly your best bet. See our guide to gaming PCs vs. gaming laptops for more info.
When is the best time to buy a gaming laptop?
A gaming laptop is an expensives purchase, but there are a few times throughout the year where you can find some really good discounts on these devices. The most obvious times are Black Friday, Cyber Monday and in the summer for back-to-school sales. For more details, see our advice on the best time to buy a laptop.
Should you buy a Steam Deck or a gaming laptop?
One of the biggest advantages to a gaming laptop over a gaming PC is that it offers portability. Which is also the greatest advantage of the Steam Deck over a gaming laptop. Gaming handhelds are portable and have enough power to run just about any PC game you need to. Of course, they're also less useful as a computer, due to the smaller screen size and lack of keyboard. Check out our guide on the Steam Deck vs. gaming laptops for a deeper analysis or checkout some of the best handheld gaming PCs.
Are MacBooks good for gaming?
Don’t get us wrong, MacBooks are exceptional laptops that excel in many areas, but gaming isn’t one of them – at least not yet. Apple simply hasn’t designed its devices for this purpose, with many of its most powerful Pro models focused on professional and creative use. That being said, the Apple-developed silicon in these machines is mighty powerful and graphically capable of handling many gaming titles. However, you can’t easily make upgrades like PC gaming laptops allow for.
While you can play some games on a Mac, one of the biggest drawbacks to MacBook gaming is MacOS’ lack of support for many of the most popular games out there, which often run on the Windows platform. Apple has introduced a porting toolkit to bring more PC games to Mac, and a new “Game Mode” on MacOS Sonoma. It’s clear Apple is making strides in the gaming world, but at the present moment, there’s a ways to go before MacBooks become a go-to portable gaming option.
Do you need a laptop cooling pad?
Many modern gaming laptops come with ample cooling solutions baked into the chassis. But given their much smaller form factor than traditional desktop gaming PCs, thermal throttling can occasionally be an issue. If you are experiencing a downgrade in performance or your device seems a little too hot to the touch, a laptop cooling pad could be a simple, affordable solution. Laptop cooling pads often feature fans and ventilation slots or mesh for better airflow than when your laptop rests on a gaming desk or your lap, helping to ensure your device is working to its full potential and can even increase its longevity. If you're looking to keep your gaming laptop cool on the cheap, the Havit HV-2056 is an excellent option.
Christopher Coke has been a contributor to IGN since 2019 and has been covering games and technology for more than a decade. He has covered tech ranging from gaming controllers to graphics cards, gaming chairs to gaming monitors, headphones, IEMs, and more for sites such as MMORPG.com, Tom’s Hardware, Popular Science, USA Today’s Reviewed, and Popular Mechanics. Find Chris on Twitter @gamebynight.
Image Credit: Annalee Tsujino is a multi disciplinary designer and illustrator. Check them out on Instagram @antsu_illustrations.
