Best affordable gaming laptops of 2021
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Gaming laptops have become more affordable over time, enabling consumers to enjoy PC gaming without breaking the bank. Manufacturers do make some trade-offs to keep these machines within a budget, but new graphics hardware has brought the industry to the point where modern games can run well on lower-cost laptops. Avid gamers and students are poised to benefit the most from budget-tier gaming machines as they’re often on the move and cannot carry their high-end rigs along.
The most powerful gaming laptops still come with a hefty price tag, however, a new gaming market with laptops priced under $1,000 is flourishing. Most of these machines have middling graphics, but certain laptops offer more firepower — and it’s these same models that are suitable for the PC gaming lifestyle. Have a look at the best 15-inch options below.
Acer’s Nitro family has a range of impressive and effective options for gamers on a budget, including the Nitro 5 AN515-55, a new model in the midrange gaming laptop market. There’s no real change in this model’s aesthetics compared to its predecessors as it is made of the same matte black plastic, though its angular design is notable. The black and red accents are instantly recognizable on this laptop, which weighs 2.3kg, making it one of the heaviest on this list.
The 15.6-inch Acer Nitro 5 comes with a native display resolution of 1920×1080 and a 144Hz screen refresh rate, which is good enough for gaming. The laptop is powered by a mid-range Intel Core i5 CPU, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card, 16GB of DDR4 dual-channel RAM, and it sports a decent 512GB NVMe SSD. The selection of ports may not have you jumping with joy, but they’re good enough for the $950 price tag (around $800 on Amazon).
Considering it’s an entry-level gaming laptop, you’d be surprised what Lenovo has to offer with this plasticky but durable device. The Legion 5 deviates from the heavy and bulky design commonly found on middling gaming laptops to instead offer a thin and lightweight alternative, one that sports a decent combination of black and Lenovo’s Phantom Blue.
The model’s 15.6-inch 1920×1080 IPS display offers a 165Hz refresh rate and has reasonably small bezels. Like other 15-inch models, Lenovo offers this with a large trackpad and full-size keyboard, which should be good for gamers. The Legion 5 is powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 5600H 3.2GHz – 4.4GHz octa-core processor and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 graphics chip with 4GB of VRAM. Other features include 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, a bunch of ports alongside the side and rear edges, and a decent $800 price tag.
Dell has exceptional high-end gaming laptops in its repertoire, and though its G5 15 isn’t part of that category, it is a solid, well-rounded variant for the entry-level gaming laptop market. Like the other models in this list, the Dell G5 15 doesn’t boast high-end materials, instead utilizing plastic as a core part of its design. This model sports a 15.6-inch display with a 1920×1080 FHD resolution and 120Hz refresh rate.
