How to Choose a Gaming Laptop
Here at Gaming Laptop Reviews I usually make an effort to not stress the details and write drawn-out articles, as most likely gamers who are serious about specific details have already found their more ‘techy’ (is that right?) websites to get all their information. Gaming Laptop Reviews doesn’t stress the details, instead attempts a more practical approach to purchasing gaming laptops for a good price to performance ratio.
It is necessary however, in order for you to find us better to release more articles of traditional length, so to an extent we have to ‘play the game’ in the beginning in order to eventually adapt to our roots. This a common theme, fake it till you make it – if you will.
With that being said this article will cover ‘How to Choose a Gaming Laptop?’ That was the intro if you are catching on already. I will cover the price range and how to make sure you are getting the best deal. Another obvious question to discuss – What kind of games are you looking to play? Lastly, which brands and operating systems and other specifications are you looking for?
Price Range
The pricepoint is always an important factor when purchasing a gaming laptop, it’s always an important factor when purchasing anything hobby related, we need to be smart about spending on luxury, but giving up gaming is not really an option. And if you are traveling or living as an expat, laptop gaming is really a savior.
‘Mainstream’ prices are typically around the 500.00 USD range. You will usually be able to play games on mid to possible high settings depending on which games you are looking to play, of course we weill discuss this in a later paragraph. This is not the best option if you are looking to buy a lasting machine, but we could easily make the argument that buying a 500.00 laptop every 18 months or so is smarter than keeping one enthusiast setup for 36 months.
What Games Do You Want to Play
The ‘Gaming’ range is typically going to be around 750.00-1250.00 USD, you are going to get much better performance from current and past demanding games, usually much smoother playing but you are not getting the benefit of ‘the best’.
The ‘Enthusiast’ range describes the 1250.00 USD< and this price is sometimes exploited because people will buy into ‘paying for the best’ or having the best, it can be ego driven in a way and companies will take advantage of this. Although some people just have money to spend, and I won’t lie, I’ve been there before as a bachelor working full-time. I was really into gaming and had money to spare.
It should be mentioned that one practical way to determine what is a Mainstream, Gaming, or Enthusiast laptop, is the GPU (otherwise known as a graphics card) the makers label each GPU and it’s easy to determine which laptop model is which class by a little research, price alone does not always tell the whole story, research is the best choice, and it gets you a little hyped to buy.
Enthusiast laptop gaming in 2012 is looking more promising with always increasing specifications to match the desktop counter-part. However, playing games like the infamous “Metro 2033″ at max settings on a laptop is still a few years away. It’s never been a better time to game on a laptop while the consoles stagnate in hardware (not for long) you can play high quality, demanding games on the road – more than ever.
