Gaming laptops tend to weigh several pounds more than ultraportables yet still provide immense power within a portable chassis. Lenovo offers this model featuring next-gen RTX 4060 graphics and powerful processors, all within an elegant, smartly designed package.
In 2024, Asus updated the Zephyrus with quality-of-life upgrades that made it even thinner and closer to the MacBook Pro competition than ever. Unfortunately, its lacklustre webcam and battery life disqualified it as our current pick.
Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition
TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition was designed for severe gaming with subtle style in mind, featuring up to an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU and AMD Radeon RX 7700S GPU that provide enough horsepower for high-resolution gameplay and stunning visuals. A new 16-inch panel with a 90% screen-to-body ratio offers an immersive experience that draws you into the action.
The keyboard was explicitly designed for gaming and features keystroke-smoothing mechanical switches with full numpad support and dedicated arrow keys; four special function keys provide access to the F1 button and volume control functions, while the trackpad features a large clicky surface which offers tactile responses and support for precise movements.
Up to 4800MHz DDR5 memory keeps games and programs feeling swift, while 2TB of PCIe Gen4 storage makes room for your ever-expanding game library. Furthermore, both RAM slots are easily accessible, so upgrades can be performed as needed down the line.
Dolby Atmos and Hi-Res audio come together in the TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition’s speakers to create rich, immersive sound for an engaging gaming experience. Two-way AI Noise Cancelation ensures your focus remains solely on gaming while blocking out distractions.
With a powerful 90Wh battery and USB-C power delivery, this laptop gives you the freedom to enjoy gaming wherever and whenever. Furthermore, its MIL-STD-810H drop tests for military-grade durability provide added assurance. You can be sure this laptop can withstand occasional knocks or bumps!
Gigabyte Aorus 16X
Gaming laptops have long taken advantage of 16-inch displays to balance performance with relatively compact dimensions, and the Gigabyte Aorus 16X follows this trend. But it stands out thanks to unique features that will appeal to fans of big, bold gaming designs.
The Aorus utilizes an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics chip for impressive gaming performance in our testing. In addition, its large, precise keyboard has satisfying keystrokes with minimal bounce, as well as an outstanding touchpad and excellent speakers; plus, its IR webcam supports Windows Hello facial recognition logins under most lighting conditions.
Gigabyte has added AI features to the Aorus, including the new Copilot key on the keyboard that activates Microsoft’s chatbot sidebar and an Nvidia GPU monitoring app that automatically switches between Nvidia and integrated graphics processors to extend battery life when not pushing polygons. Furthermore, there are plenty of fast ports on board, like full-size HDMI 2.1 connector for outputting VRR/HDR video and DisplayPort 1.4 output, as well as USB-C ports supporting up to 100W power delivery and DisplayPort 1.4 output as well as microSD card slots, combo audio jacks and Ethernet sockets – ideal for everyday computing!
The Aorus 16X stands out from less expensive gaming laptops with its “sports car-inspired design”, sporting an eye-catching light bar revolving through different colours on its backside and an ingenious projector which displays “Aorus” when you open it. Furthermore, its massive 99Wh battery provides enough juice for productivity tasks or light gaming for several hours unplugged before its fans start becoming audible.
Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra
Samsung’s Galaxy Book 3 Ultra laptop is the latest Windows laptop to take an aggressive stance against Apple’s MacBook Pro. More portable than its counterpart, it provides enough horsepower for heavy graphics tasks while boasting an exceptional 3K display with vibrant colours and provides enough firepower for heavy graphics tasks.
The base of this laptop is constructed entirely from aluminium, giving its chassis a solid yet premium feel. Furthermore, it remains slim and light at just 3.9lbs!
Internally, the laptop features a 13th-generation Intel Core i7 CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU, providing enough power for 1080p gaming at 60 frames per second or better. However, these models cannot compete with modern gaming laptops that offer 4K support at 60fps or greater.
As a laptop geared toward productivity, the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra offers a full-sized chiclet keyboard with a number pad on its right side – ideal for lefties but less so for lefties – which provides firm and near-silent vital presses. Furthermore, its touchpad supports Microsoft gesture support.
Samsung excelled at designing its Galaxy Book 3 Ultra with excellent hardware design. It feels premium in your hand, has excellent build quality, and is more compact than rival devices such as the Dell XPS 15.
As I ran my benchmark tests, the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra performed comparably to Apple’s M1 Pro-equipped MacBook in terms of processing performance. However, its graphics tests fell behind other high-end Windows laptops like ZenBook Pro 14 OLED and Vivobook Pro 16X OLED, both of which use an RTX 4070 GPU.
MacBook Pro 16-inch
Apple’s new MacBook Pro with M3 Max chip provides impressive performance gains over its predecessor and makes it worth a closer examination. No matter if you edit 8K content or need a portable gaming computer for casual games – this laptop was made for you.
Like its predecessor, the MacBook Pro is a powerful yet portable laptop featuring an outstanding keyboard and trackpad, an exceptional display with a peak brightness of 1,600 nits and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio that supports Dolby Atmos audio playback; all hallmarks of excellence for an excellent user experience.
Apple recently unveiled an improved thermal architecture for the MacBook Pro laptop. Apple’s custom fan design incorporates longer impeller blades and larger vents for increased airflow by 28 per cent; additionally, there is also a more oversized heat sink, which helps dissipate more heat for improved endurance during demanding workloads.
The MacBook Pro with M3 Max starts at $3,499. You can upgrade to a more powerful M3 chip offering up to 14 cores and 40-core GPUs; additionally, this top-spec version boasts over twice the RAM 96GB; 6TB SSD storage is also an option.
Though the MacBook Pro may be ideal for video editors and gamers, it may only be for some. With its steep starting price and dependence on the MagSafe 3 port, its accessibility may be reduced in comparison to some competitors. In order to truly maximize its capabilities, additional purchases, such as an external GPU dock, may also be necessary in order to unlock all its potential.
Razer Blade 14
This device is an impressive upgrade over last year’s model, boasting an exceptional GPU and improved battery life. Its impressively rigid CNC cut anodized aluminium body is Calman Verified for pro-grade colour accuracy, while competition readiness with its 240 Hz refresh rate adds another level.
This keyboard may appear flat at first glance, but its Razer Chroma RGB keys feel responsive and have no discernible light bleeding when at maximum brightness. Unfortunately, however, it lacks a numeric keypad, which may prove frustrating for gamers.
The Blade 14 boasts an RTX 4070 laptop graphics card, giving it enough power to push high framerates in eSports games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Our testing showed only about 10 FPS differences versus Asus’ Zephyrus G14 (smaller and lighter).
The Blade 14 excelled at both CPU and GPU performance in our PCMark benchmark tests, earning higher-than-average scores overall. It earned one of our highest CPU scores ever seen on any laptop (A12678), and its GPU score (10952) was near the top of our rankings for laptops featuring NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10-series graphics cards.
Razer Synapse 3 is the software behind the Blade 14. It provides you with plenty of ways to customize your gaming experience, from creating keyboard macros and switching gaming modes to optimizing GPU settings for optimal performance. Razer Synapse 3 is an ideal choice for gamers who wish to customize their experience without spending too much time in BIOS settings.