Our Experts Written by Lori Grunin Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Reviews ethics statement Why You Can Trust CNET 16171819202122232425+ Years of Experience 14151617181920212223 Hands-on Product Reviewers 6,0007,0008,0009,00010,00011,00012,00013,00014,00015,000 Sq. Feet of Lab Space How we test CNETs expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise. What to consider Price The sweet spot -- for mainstream 1440p gaming and an RTX 4070 GPU that will last you longer without sacrificing AAA play -- sits roughly between $1,200 and $2,000, depending upon what you're willing to sacrifice. Operating system Microsoft Windows is the most popular choice for gaming laptops, but if you've got an M3 Pro or better or an M4 MacBook, Apple's been working with developers to increase the prominent games for MacOS. Screen Most gaming laptops feature large displays between 14 and 18 inches; the older and cheaper models generally have 15.6- or 17-inch models. OLED delivers the highest contrast, most colorful and fastest displays, but you might want to look for HDR support, which they don't always have. Processor Intel and AMD are the main CPU makers for gaming laptops; most games depend on the GPU for their graphics performance, but sims and other games that populate worlds based on player or environmental interactions use the CPU quite a bit, so look for at least a Core i7 HX and better or AMD 8040HS-series CPUs or faster. Graphics All gaming laptops will feature a dedicated GPU from either Nvidia or AMD (and to a far lesser extent, Intel). Nvidia is the most popular and generally the best performing for the money. Look for an RTX 40xx or Radeon 7000-series discrete GPU or later. Memory For memory, we highly recommend at least 16GB of RAM; 8GB will hamper performance in a lot of cases. Storage 1TB is good; more is usually better, depending upon how much extra it costs. Table of Contents Our Picks Best overall gaming laptop Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2024) View details $2,700 at Best Buy View details Best budget gaming laptop Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 View details $1,000 at Amazon View details Best performing gaming laptop Alienware m18 R2 View details $1,900 at Alienware View details Best MacBook for gamers Apple MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro View details $2,499 at Apple View details Best 14-inch for gamers and creators Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 View details $1,650 at Best Buy View details Best general-purpose laptop for gaming HP Omen Transcend 14 View details $1,600 at Best Buy View details Best budget gaming laptop for 1440p Alienware m16 R2 View details $1,750 at Amazon View details LAPTOP DEALS OF THE WEEK Dell Inspiron 15 3520 Intel i7 512GB SSD 16GB RAM 15.6-inch Laptop: $450 (save $150) Dell Inspiron 16 5640 Intel 7 1TB SSD 32GB RAM 16-inch Laptop: $800 (save $250) Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 6 Ryzen 7 1TB SSD 16GB RAM 14-inch Laptop: $894 (save $826) Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and may be unrelated to this article. Table of Contents What is the best laptop overall?My favorite model that has a good balance of price, weight, performance, screen and design at the moment is the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16. The model we tested is relatively pricey at $2,700 for an upscale configuration with a 16-inch OLED screen, RTX 4080, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD and an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H. Solid configurations start at $2,000. I consider it the best general choice for gaming, but its little sibling -- the G14 -- is a little more highly rated because of its more general-use advantages, like size, weight and lower price.The best of the budget gaming models is the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16. Acer knows how to wring performance out of every component, and this one is fast for its low-end RTX 4050 graphics, which is sufficient for 1080p gaming and a bright display.Note that we're coming up on CES 2025 when all the laptop manufacturers traditionally refresh or reinvent their lines based on new chips from AMD, Intel and Nvidia. The new models don't usually ship until between March and June, so you may want to hit pause on your buying until after we know what's coming -- or until the 2024 models drop in price if you want to save some money.My recommendations for the best laptops are based on our benchmark-based and hands-on testing (we play games, too). We continually test laptops, so we'll be updating our recommendations as we review the latest models.Read more:Best gaming laptops