First Gaming Laptop - 15" or 17"?

Rezident · 20 Nov 2019 at 20:02

I want a high-end laptop for gaming but cannot decide on 15" for portability or 17" for that extra screen space. Budget £3k.

Some people complain that 17" is too big for carrying around but I'm worried that 15" would be too small a screen. I usually play on a 32" widescreen.

I would not have thought it would be 'too big' for using on trains etc. but I have never had a laptop before, any advice or recommendations?

Cheers!

Kohaashi · 20 Nov 2019 at 22:22

I’ve always gone 17”, however I treat mine as a mobile desktop replacement which rarely leaves the house.
If I were to carry it around with me often then I would probably go for a 15”.
It depends on how you intend to use it. You can always hook it up to a monitor.

You also need to bear in mind battery performance if you intend to use it out and about, and if that’s poor, how large the power bricks are. The Area-51m requires two power bricks, one 180w and one 330w for full performance, and they’re huge.

Rezident · 21 Nov 2019 at 11:19

Chadd said:
I’ve always gone 17”, however I treat mine as a mobile desktop replacement which rarely leaves the house.
If I were to carry it around with me often then I would probably go for a 15”.
It depends on how you intend to use it. You can always hook it up to a monitor.

You also need to bear in mind battery performance if you intend to use it out and about, and if that’s poor, how large the power bricks are. The Area-51m requires two power bricks, one 180w and one 330w for full performance, and they’re huge.

Ok good to know, thanks. Basically I will now have to regularly travel to the other side of the country by train since my wife left and kidnapped my child and seemingly Fathers have no rights!

The Razer Blade seems to last just over 5 hours which should be fine.

I won't be carrying it around with me all the time, it's just for gaming on the train and Rstudio. Leaning towards the 17"...

Kohaashi · 21 Nov 2019 at 13:27

Rezident said:
Ok good to know, thanks. Basically I will now have to regularly travel to the other side of the country by train since my wife left and kidnapped my child and seemingly Fathers have no rights!

The Razer Blade seems to last just over 5 hours which should be fine.

I won't be carrying it around with me all the time, it's just for gaming on the train and Rstudio. Leaning towards the 17"...

I can’t comment first hand, but apparently Razer support is a nightmare if you get one with issues .. or so I have read on notebookreview forum.

I tend to go for larger, thicker laptops that have better cooling. I game on my Area-51m in Quiet fan profile mode and my wife can still happily watch the telly in the same room. Were I to use an ultra thin style laptop (like most are now) I imagine I would be told to leave the room

Before I got the A51m I also looked at the HP Omen 17 and Lenovo Y740 which are good alternatives. MSI apparently makes a beast of a machine as well, but I don’t like the brand.

Brok · 21 Nov 2019 at 16:16

You are going to struggle with a 17inch gaming laptop on the train unless you can afford to travel first class. Or don't mind overhanging into the adjacent seat's space. Also forget using a mouse, it would have to be controller games only (or stuff you can use a touchpad for).

Would you not be better off with a Switch for the train?

MiSJAH · 22 Nov 2019 at 21:26

The Gigabyte AERO RTX.

The display on these is something else completely.

Top of your budget but outperforms the Razer in just about every way including battery life.

Angerer · 25 Nov 2019 at 17:30

Hi what's the response time on HP OMEN 15??

XeNoNF50 · 26 Nov 2019 at 10:03

If I were using it while on the go I'd probably go down the Gigabyte Aero route. And probably a 15 inch, though the 17 inch should be low profile on razer blade due to it's length and width. I have an alienware m15 (which is a bit longer as it's got a bit of a butt) which I bought mostly for travel but compromised on battery, it's the worst lasting in it's cohort vs razer blade and gigabyte aero, for the sake of graphical power (got it with a 2080 max-q for effectively £2400). Battery lasts 4 hours in real world non gaming usage. Got the one I got because I travel with it often (trains and planes), but I do not use it or need to use it when travelling. And that OLED screen is sublime, same OLED panel on the gigabyte aero and razer blade I believe.

Rezident · 26 Nov 2019 at 12:07

Brok said:
You are going to struggle with a 17inch gaming laptop on the train unless you can afford to travel first class. Or don't mind overhanging into the adjacent seat's space. Also forget using a mouse, it would have to be controller games only (or stuff you can use a touchpad for).

Would you not be better off with a Switch for the train?

Good point about the mouse! I will also have to get a controller. It needs to be a laptop for coding on the go too!

Rezident · 27 Nov 2019 at 08:13

MiSJAH said:
The Gigabyte AERO RTX.

The display on these is something else completely.

Top of your budget but outperforms the Razer in just about every way including battery life.

OK I had not even come across that one yet. I have had some great gigabyte boards down the years, I will check out the reviews.

Brok · 28 Nov 2019 at 15:12

I have the previous generation Aero. Great little machines, they do get hot and the fans are quite noisy so something to bear in mind on the train. Will be fine for you if you have headphones on but might be annoying for the other people nearby. I think the new models have an improved cooling design but are still suseptible to CPU throttling under high load.