The gaming laptop has always been a bit of a misnomer. Usually you’d end up with a 17-inch desktop replacement that weighed the size of a small moon with a power brick to match, and spent its life sitting on your desk. Laptop vendors at this year’s Computex conference want to make your gaming experience a little more portable this year. Here’s the best from the show floor.
ASUS Republic Of Gamers
ASUS’ ROG-brand had a strong showing at Computex, with the G550 set to land in Australia this month.
The G550 packs in a quad-core 2.4GHZ Intel Core i7 processor, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX850M with 4GB of VRAM, a 15.6-inch full-HD display, a 256GB or 1TB SATA hard drive, 8GB of DDR3 memory (in two 4GB slots), a Blu-ray reader/writer and a 5-hour battery life. All that weighs in at 2.7kg and measures just 27.7mm thick.
You’ll be able to pick up the ROG G550 from Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi starting at $1999, or you can get the beefier spec and pay $2699.
Also announced at Computex was the new GX500. It’s an ultra-slim model, measuring in at just 19mm thin, and packs in a 4K/UHD screen (3840×2160. It runs an Intel Core i7 processor and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX860M graphics card.
The ETA for that model is around the end of the year in Australia. We’ll bring you prices as we get them.
MSI
It was only recently that Gizmodo reviewed MSI’s popular GS70 gaming laptop to take Nvidia’s 800-series graphics for a spin. This week at Computex, however, MSI unveiled a completely redesigned GS70 – and we’re impressed. At 2.18cm/2.65kg, it may well be the thinnest and lightest 17.3-inch gaming laptop around.
It’s packing a 17.3-inch full-HD screen, the new NVIDIA GTX880M with 2GB of GDDR5 VRAM, 16GB of RAM and a new Super RAID 2 system which packs three 256GB SSD drives into a 768GB RAID 0 array for super-fast redundant drives, as well as a spinning 1TB drive. It also has four USB3.0 ports, an SD Card reader, Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and a 6-cell LiPo battery.
Of course, if you still want that gargantuan gaming laptop feeling, you can always go for the weaponised MSI GT60 Dominator 2PE Dominator Pro 3K Edition. It’s quite a mouthful, but it’s worth it, as it features an eye-popping 15.6-inch 3K (2880×1620) IPS display, Intel Core i7 processor, the new NVIDIA GTX880M with 2GB of GDDR5 VRAM, up to 32GB of RAM (across 4 slots), a Blu-ray reader/writer combo drive, three USB 3.0 slots (and one USB 2.0), SD XC/HC card slot and 2-channel Dynaudio sound with additional subwoofer. That sound system also supports 7.1 channel SPDIF output.
You’ve also got a SteelSeries keyboard and software companion for keyboard customisation, 15 per cent greater cooling ability with the Cooler Boost 2 system and MSI’s insane Super RAID 2 system which packs three 256GB SSD drives into a 768GB RAID 0 array for super-fast redundant drives.
The new model also supports Thunderbolt, allowing you to daisy-chain three displays together. All that comes in at under 3.5kg with the battery included.
Gigabyte
Gigabyte’s P35 performance laptop already has lots of fans, and the upcoming revamp is sure to attract new ones. The improved chassis design on the P35W also houses a new 4K/UHD display (3840 x 2160) – with 170 degree viewable angle, 72 per cent NTSC colour gamut and 300 nits brightness.
Aorus
Meanwhile, Gigabyte’s dedicated gaming brand, Aorus, unveiled its stylish X3 gaming laptop — a 13.3-incher that’s headed to Australia before the end of September. The 1.87kg/25mm thick design uses a quality Sharp IGZO panel – running at either 2560×1440 or 3200×1800 (QHD) on the X3 Plus edition. That’s driven by Nvidia GTX 870M graphics (with 6GB graphics memory), a Core i7 processor and two 512GB solid state hard drives in RAID 0 configuration.
Clevo
Clevo, which makes machines for Alienware amongst others, also showcased new gaming laptops. Specs to look for include more Nvidia GTX 880M or AMD Radeon R9 M290X graphics, Core i7 Extreme processors, rear-of-screen cameras, fingerprint scanners, and thinner overall designs.