Serious gamers may laugh at the idea that they could get a competent gaming laptop under $600. It’s true that these budget-friendly computers may not be able to play the latest games on the highest setting, but they can’t deliver enough power for more casual gamers. If you enjoy older games or don’t care about the highest definition graphics, many laptops under $600 can be found.
Only a few years ago, the various console brands were competing against each other along the lines of exclusive features and technological performance. Dematerialized games and the internet have, to a certain extent, been responsible for modifying the habits of gamers and manufacturers alike. These days, manufacturers are attempting to set themselves apart by the services they offer, namely their online services. These online services make it possible to consult online catalogs before buying games, to purchase subscriptions, to take advantage of the benefits offered by online stores, and to participate in online communities. As far as gaming consoles are concerned (especially the living room variety), the main online services are those being offered by PlayStation, Microsoft, and Nintendo. While Nintendo has been rather reserved about its eShop, this is likely to change in 2018 with the arrival of Nintendo Switch Online.
Since the GS60 and GS70 were launched in early 2014, the GS lineup has been the perfect example of ultra thin gaming laptops.
With the GS65 Stealth Thin, MSI is exploring an idea that is quite overused in multimedia laptops, although it is actually quite new in gaming laptops because it reduces bezels as much as possible to get a smaller chassis. For example, this is what ASUS and Dell do with their ZenBook and XPS lineups, respectively.
The laptop is slightly different from the MSI GS63VR, which was the only 15.6-inch GS model so far. The MSI GS63VR also has an independent numeric keypad, which the GS65 lacks due to its small size.
Instead of the striking red details found on most gaming laptops, MSI has decided to go with a subtler design for the GS65. Although it has the typical black finish of the GS lineup, the GS55 also has elegant golden details on the exhaust vents, the hinges and the lid, which has a golden line around it and rocks the Gaming Series dragon logo in the same color.
Although MSI is using the word “thin” for the model’s name, it is actually not any thinner than the aforementioned GS63VR Stealth, which is 17.7 mm think (according to the manufacturer). Its weight is also very similar (both models weigh 1.8 kg, according to MSI).
The GS65’s biggest downside is that the chassis isnot sturdy enough. Despite being made entirely of aluminum, it somewhat tends to bend under focused pressure, which happens both on the lid and the keyboard area.
It is worth mentioning that the camera is above the display and not below like in a lot of models with thin bezels like this one.
The laptop’s hinge system is the only part made of plastic and allows us to fold back the display 180º. The design keeps the display in its place while using the laptop as usual, but it cannot prevent the display from moving if we use the laptop in unstable places like moving buses or trains.
The GS65 is one of the first laptops to feature the new 6-core 8th-gen Coffee Lake processors (or 9th-gen if we take into account the Kaby Lake R), which are much better in terms of performance than the 7th-gen Kaby Lake processors.
The laptop has a 6-core Intel Core i7-8750H at 2.2 GHz, which scored twice as much as the old Core i7-7700HQ in the multi-core Cinebench R15 benchmark (over 1000 points). Such score means the laptop is able to perform advanced tasks in the most demanding ways.
We are still talking about all the new MSI models, which is taking longer than I would like due to the amount of available information. Now it is time to talk about the MSI GP73 Leopard, a 17.3-inch gaming laptop that has a Coffee Lake processor and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti or GTX 1060 GPU, placing it between the popular MSI GL73 and the great MSI GE73 Raider.
This new laptop is clearly based on the MSI GE73 Raider. Its external design has a black surface with an elegant brushed finish on both the keyboard area and the lid, while the bottom case and the screen bezels have a smooth finish.
Just like the GE73 Raider, the GP73 Leopard’s lid has a striking wavy finish with two oblique lines that frame the backlit Gaming Series logo. In contrast, the red lines on the lid are shorter than those found on the GE73 Raider’s lid.
The GP73 is relatively bulky. It is 32 mm thick, but it does not seem to greatly affect the laptop’s weight, which is quite light (2.7 kg) for its size.
On the right side, we can see the power jack, two USB 3.1 (Gen 1) Type-A ports and the SD/MMC card reader. On the left side, we find a wide range of ports, including another USB 3.1 (Gen 1) Type-A port, an RJ45 port, an HDMI port, a mini DisplayPort output, a USB 3.1 (Gen 2) Type-C port, two independent audio and mic jacks, and a Kensington lock slot.
I am being told only the lid of the laptop would be made of aluminum, a material that does not seem to make the lid sturdier in this case because it will clearly bend under focused pressure. In contrast, the keyboard area feels more durable and sturdier despite being made of plastic.
The hinge design is so firm that it does not allow us to open the laptop with a single hand. The design keeps the display in its place while using the laptop as usual, but it cannot prevent the display from moving if we use the laptop in unstable places like moving buses or trains.
While in the last posts we reviewed some top of the class gaming laptops, now we will consider some affordable options for the ones who are thinking about a laptop with modest portable gaming experience, however you don’t expect the highest frame rate, or the extreme graphic settings.
We decided to lower the price range from 1000 dollars down to 800 dollars, and find the best gaming laptop solution in this price range. Didn’t come as a shock finding that we have found there are tons of options in this price group, some even surprisingly good for the money you’ll spare.
In our manner, by dong a massive research and analysis, and limiting the playing range even more, we have managed to make a list of top five gaming laptops in the range of 800 dollars on the market momentarily. Although not looking as pretty as high end laptop, the performance of these laptops is surprisingly good, so they can freely be named “mid-high end”.
A few years ago, it was almost impossible to buy a laptop for 300 dollars with superior performance. Often, at this price point, they came with a time lag due to the smaller memory size and poor processor, which affected the user experience. As a result, purchasing a PC costing around $300 was not recommended.
With the development of technology, the laptops have become cheaper and cheaper, the 300-dollar laptops also have relatively good performance, they are generally equipped with Intel Pentium N3530, Intel Celeron 3205U and other processors, coupled with 4GB of memory, they are enough for us to do some light work.
With the evolution of technology, the laptops have become cheaper and cheaper. Even the 300-dollar laptops have made performance improvements. Coupled with 4GB of memory, they are equipped with Intel Pentium N3530, Intel Celeron 3205U, and other processors, which make them good enough for performing light work.
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For playing games, editing videos, and other heavy computing needs however, it is still unrealistic to select a laptop under 300 dollars. They are often equipped with an integrated graphics capability with display performance that comes short of meeting the gaming requirements. We recommend you to increase your budget to around 500 dollars. Of course, if you just enjoy playing some older games, there are still some models at this price point that will meet your requirements.
Nowadays, most of the existing smartphones are designed with a built-in capability to allow users to edit a simple video, exactly as they would do with most of the laptops. However, when more serious photo and video editing is needed, these devices require an upgrade. You probably observed that gaming, photo and video editing is an intensive task. Therefore, most laptops have become powerful and adaptable devices that are capable of handling this task. However, only a few laptops show good results for such job.
When you are trying to find such a laptop, there are a few things that you need to pay attention to, such as processing power, memory, hard drive space and graphics card. Parts such as the processor, storage, RAM and display have an important role in this equation. Generally, you should look for a laptop that contains a powerful processor, for example i5 or i7, high RAM, such as one of 8GB or 16GB, and a full HD screen resolution. Such a screen resolution offers a crystal-clear view that is required for media editing and for appealing movies.
When taking about laptops, we first look at its specifications. People never consider user experience which is possibly the most important factor for any mobile device.
If you are building a PC then this isn’t the case. Your setup’s ergonomics is independent of your internal components. This is not the case with laptops, even with all the i5s and i7s, working on them can still be inconvenient. The displays can have back light bleed or typing on them may make your fingers and wrists hurt.
One cannot help but think of Apple’s MacBook, when user-friendliness is at stake. The $800 price tag is, sadly, difficult to swallow. Especially, if you are about to begin school and are looking for a lot cheaper alternative.
We have investigated different options that might be available. Starting from Windows 10 laptops under $200 price, refurbished devices and of course Chromebooks.
Windows 10 Laptops under $200
The most important factors to look for in a laptop at this price are: User-experience, storage, display and battery-life. Windows 10 is a heavy operating system but developer have done a good job cramming it into a drive as tiny as 15GB.
The PC gaming market is flooded with newer and more efficient hardware which has the gaming community psyched since the Nvidia Pascal release in 2016. Given all of this, it is curious to see how many budget gaming laptops still use the older GPUs, mostly GTX 950M and 960M. We will see as we look closely at individual laptops, how good of a performance they pack for the aforementioned budget. The most crucial deciding factor other than the GPU, will be high speed storage, CPU and of course, the display.
In our previous article we reviewed four of the most loaded laptops around the $500 tag. We have lowered it further to $400 to see what the market segmentation is like at that price point. The point of high end laptops was to provide performance and we cared little about weight and battery life. Surely, at this budget if we are not asking for gaming, we can get good laptops for lightweight productivity and casual use. Can’t We?
Well the market is segmented differently from the perspective of a few manufacturers. Somehow, they want to convince consumers that at $400 they can provide everything just as well as those high end products. As a result, we end up with products that aren’t good for power users or the casual ones. These are the products which you would want to avoid. Also considering your personal needs is important while deciding what you might prefer. For example, if you are a blogger who likes to travel to different places and write about them then reliable battery performance is going to matter more than CPU performance or the RAM size. Similarly, a corporate executive can appreciate a faster SSD which would make boot time extremely small and programs like Microsoft Office would load quickly.
Notice that we are considering products that can be regarded as laptops and are not convertible tablets or Chromebooks. The main reason for doing this is not so much the form factor but the CPU inside it. Anything with an Intel Core M from any generation is something we are intentionally avoiding just to stick to laptop department alone. There is an entire range of Macbooks and Microsoft Surface Pro and Surface Book, but those things cost north of a $1000 price tag. Something a budget conscious person would avoid.