Are you looking for a gaming laptop that has all the specs you need but won’t tarnish your savings? Finding a gaming laptop that has all the qualities you want can be a bit challenging.
As someone who is a gaming enthusiast, you might want to look for a laptop that has the processor you need, with a pair of the best graphics chips, some quality SSD storage, and speedy dual-channel RAM, all under your budget.
Good gaming laptops under 1500 dollars can offer you specs such as 16+ GB fast RAM, a powerful processor like the Intel Core i7, a high end dedicated graphics card that gives stunning graphics like the NVIDIA RTX 2060, and a SSD for super-fast load times. These are exemplary for running the latest games at a fast and flawless 60+ fps.
Are you worried that you won’t be able to find them? Don’t worry, listed below are good gaming laptops under 1500 dollars. Moreover, you will also see hidden gems that other sites don’t suggest that come with very impressive hardware. Let’s take a look down below to see what our choices are.
First, take note…
- Get a good graphics card: You probably already know that most games are highly dependent on the GPU, and the simple fact is, the graphics card is unlikely to be upgradable on a laptop, so it’s a must to get it right the first time.
- Upgrade these later: Fortunately, there are some things that you can upgrade, such as the storage and RAM. Doing so will improve and smoothen the laptop’s performance.
- Pick between decent screen resolution and fast frame rates: Understand that the downside of 4K screens is that they don’t come with 144Hz refresh rates, which are currently only available on full HD displays.
- Invest in a nice keyboard: you’ll be smashing keys for hours on end, so for the sake of your fingers, make sure that your keyboard doesn’t feel stiff or mushy.
- Battery life will always suck: there really isn’t anything you can do about it. No matter how powerful the battery is, your games will just drain all that juice.
Top 8 Gaming Laptops Under $1500
Affording a gaming laptop with great specs doesn’t have to hurt your pocket so much. Regardless if you’re an amateur slowly upgrading your gaming set, or a pro looking for a great new deal, you can vouch for affordable gaming laptops that have all the qualities you need.
So, what is the best gaming laptop? Continue reading down below to sketch for answers that are under $1500.
Note: The following laptops are priced at or below 1500 dollars at the time of writing this review. Actual prices may change without prior notice.
Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop
Our first pick is the Acer Predator Helios 300 which is also one of the best laptops for data science and other related fields. Upgrading the specs of this model, it now comes with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics card.
Not, it’s not quite as powerful as the more recent RTX series, but it still does a pretty awesome job. Taking a look at both the GTX 1660 Ti and the RTX 2060, the latter has higher benchmarks up to 6%. Nonetheless, the GTX 1660 Ti can still run most games at 60+ fps on ultra settings.
It’s illuminated keyboard comes with concave-shaped keycaps that satisfies both gaming and typing scenarios. The case being made of plastic with aluminum details, and a weight of 6.39 pounds, it features an all-around high-quality design that’s also surprisingly lightweight for a 17.3” gaming laptop.
- 15.6” full HD display
- Intel Core i7-9750H CPU
- GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GPU
- 16GB DDR4 RAM, 512GB SSD
MSI GL65 Leopard 10SFK-062
Are gaming laptops worth it? The answer is definitely yes, especially with the MSI GL65 Leopard 10SFK-062. This is the top gaming laptop that comes with an RTX 2070, which provides fantastic gaming performance for under $1500. Checking out the game benchmarks, this runs almost every game at 60 fps on ultra settings.
Another bonus with this gaming laptop is its 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10750H processor, a minor improvement compared to the previous i7-9750H CPU. This guarantees a smooth process especially with applications that are quite demanding. As a matter of fact, this is one of the best laptops for Sims 4 as it can handle all those expansion packs and more.
The MSI GL65 has that classic MSI gaming computer look, with a weight of 5 pounds. It’s slightly heavier than the rest of the top gaming laptops here, but it guarantees you a sturdy and well made one. If you are also more on personalising your stuff, the SteelSeries keyboard offers you comfort plus a key with a light of your choice.
- 15.6” full HD IPS display
- Intel Core i7-10750H CPU
- NVIDIA RTX2070 GPU
- 16GB DDR4 RAM, 512GB SSD
Asus ROG Zephyrus S Ultra Slim Gaming Laptop
One of the most well-known gaming machines is the ASUS ROG Gaming Laptop, with the reason that ASUS produces some pretty mean gaming machines. This model boasts a processor of i7-8750H with a GTX 1070 graphics card from Nvidia.
Exterior wise, it’s very popular because of its stunning copper-silver color, and of the 1.56” bezel HD IPS display for the screen that also comes with a rocking 144hz refresh rate for fast-paced action and great overall viewing experience.
It’s keyboard also boasts a gaming-grade with anti-ghosting features plus a 2.55mm of key travel for whooping fast actions per minute. With no doubt, you’ll get the latest performance ports such as the Thunderbolt III and 3 USB 3.0 ports.
- 15.6” full HD IPS display
- Intel Core i7 CPU
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 GPU
- 16GB DDR4 RAM, 512GB SSD
Asus TUF (2019) Gaming Laptop
A state of the art ASUS gaming machine that should be considered in the discussion on the best gaming laptops under $1500. This comes with a whopping black and red aesthetic that boasts simplicity and elegance, giving the illusion of a high-end, expensive laptop.
That’s just the beginning of what the ASUS TUF offers. With a series of impressive specs like the 16 GB RAM, AMD Ryzen 7, and GTX 1660 Ti from Nvidia, this gaming laptop can definitely be your powerhouse for a long time. In fact, it’s also the best laptop for Minecraft today!
For an affordable price of under $1500 dollars, you can get a good deal with the ASUS TUF that provides a sleek feature, a good price to power ratio, and is built to last. This will definitely cater you in your gaming needs as it gives the same performance as those of the expensive models with the same Ryzen processor and Nvidia GeForce graphics card.
- 15.6” full HD IPS display
- AMD Ryzen 7 CPU
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GPU
- 16GB DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD
MSI GS65 Stealth-006 Gaming Laptop
Our fifth pick is one of the best gaming laptops that makes the list every year, specifically with its all-rounder specs and an epic design. The MSI GS65 Stealth Thin provides the versatility of a notebook with its lightweight and sturdiness that makes it effortless to carry around in your bag all day, making it the perfect laptop for animation students, competitive gamers, and so on.
This laptop boasts of a non-obnoxious gamer aesthetics and more of a luxurious one, with its sleek matte black aluminum body plus some gold accents. Aside from its 18mm thickness, its screen has 5mm thin bezels that’s about an inch smaller than most of the laptops in its range, but still providing the same screen real-estate.
Exterior wise, the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin comes with a SteelSeries keyboard that is solid and responsive, and is RGB-lit for those who love aesthetics. It also has a responsive touchpad, and a webcam that’s positioned at the top of the screen, contrary to most thin-bezel laptops like the Dell XPS 13.
- 15.6” full HD display
- Intel Core i7-8750H CPU
- NVIDIA RTX 2060 GPU
- 16GB DDR4 RAM, 512GB SSD
Asus TUF Gaming A15 Gaming Laptop
A strong candidate for versatility, with a battery life that is unrivalled with its price point, and is affordable, is the ASUS TUF A15 Gaming Laptop. This laptop comes with a tremendous AMD 8-core Ryzen 7 4800H APU, the flawlessly speedy 1YB NVMe SSD, and a RTX 2060 graphics, the ASUS TUF A15 is one for the books for a non-workstation gaming laptop.
What makes it a state of the art laptop for both work and play is its game performance, CPU power, and spectacular battery life. This is why it’s no surprise that it’s also easily one of the best laptops for computer science this year.
With its grand performance and capacity, the only drawback is its price, especially with a plenty competition of $999 RTX 2060 gaming computers out there. Nonetheless, it still outperforms most pricier mid-range gaming laptops with its affordability rate of under $1500.
- 15.6” full HD IPS display
- AMD Ryzen 5 CPU
- GeForce GTX 1650
- 8GB DDR4 RAM, 1512GB SSD
MSI GP65 Leopard 10SFK-047 Gaming Laptop
The MSI GP65 Leopard 10SFK-047 Gaming Laptop was the first gaming laptop to be under $1500 with the Nvidia RTX 2070. In comparison with the good gaming laptops in this list, the GP65 is a few steps behind because of its smaller storage and shorter battery life.
Weighing a total of 5 pounds (2.3kg), it is in line with the average weight for a 15.6” gaming laptop. Made from plastic and covered with a brushed aluminum surface, the MSI GP65 boasts a nice glossy finish, but it has a tendency to captivate fingerprints. Overall, it’s quality is notable.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. It also boasts of a high-speed 512GB solid state drive with 2000 MB/s write and 3000 MB/s read speeds. Now, 512GB may not be enough for tons of games, and you might risk running out of storage. Fortunately, popping it open and upgrading its hard drive should be easy, especially if you want to have more hard drive memory.
- 15.6” full HD IPS display
- Intel Core i7-10750H CPU
- NVIDIA RTX 2070 GPU
- 16GB DDR4 RAM, 512GB SSD
Asus ROG Strix G15 (2020) Gaming Laptop
Taking the last place into our list of gaming laptops under $1500 is the ASUS ROG Strix G15 Gaming Laptop. In terms of aesthetics, you definitely don’t want to miss this one because of its RGB led strip rounding the edge of its bottom case. The keyboard also is RGB with per-key backlighting.
The only thing that you’ll be missing from the ASUS ROG Strix G15 is a Thunderbolt 3 support, but it comes with all the latest ports, from the USB 3.2, a display port, to the HDMI 2.0b port that can handle an external 4k monitor. It definitely stands out and is great for gaming, and also comes with a comfortable palm rest.
In comparison to the above list of the top-rated gaming laptops under $1500, it also comes with a fast IPS display. Providing a first-class image quality for the latest games, the ROG Strix G15 has a whopping 3ms grey-to-grey response time plus a solid contrast ratio. The color coverage is also quite acceptable for gaming purposes.
- 15.6” full HD IPS display
- Intel Core i7-10750H CPU
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 GPU
- 16GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB SSD
Check out: the best laptops for SolidWorks in 2021
How To Find The Best Gaming Laptop Under $1500
Here are still a few things you need to consider before choosing a gaming laptop to splurge on.
Processor
Most CPUs aren’t upgradeable and thus, it is within importance that you find the latest and most powerful CPU that is well within your budget. Some recommendations are the Core i7 CPu that works perfectly for gaming purposes, or the Core i9 but has some heating issues, as well as the Core i5 which isn’t a bad option for entry-level gaming.
A common processor within the range of the best gaming laptops under the $1500 mark is the 10th generation Intel Core i7 10750H, which boasts of an impressive CPUmark score of 12696 and will give you flawlessly smooth operations even in the highest of demanding programs.
One alternative to the Intel Core i7 is the AMD Ryzen 7 processor, which are often just as credible and sometimes even more powerful than the latest Intel Core i7 CPUs.
Graphics Card
A factor that holds much more importance than the CPU is the GPU, considering that most of today’s games are GPU-bound. Picking within tons of GPU for your gaming laptop will either make or break your gaming moments, so it’s important that you lay out your options best.
As for different levels of gaming, laptops that have GTX 1650 or GTX 1660ti are best for introductory-level gaming. For mainstream gaming, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 is recommended. Lastly, if you are a gamer that likes your settings highest, don’t go for anything lower than RTX 2070 or RTX 2080.
Within the price range of $1500, you should definitely get a Nvidia GeForce 2060 graphics card or even better. This will guarantee you a laptop that can run most games with high frame rates or ultra graphic settings.
At the least of the possibilities, you can have a gaming laptop for 1500 dollars with the Nvidia GeForce 2070, but with the condition of sacrificing performance in a different part of the laptop to get a GPU as powerful as the Nvidia GeForce 2070.
Storage
Of course you can never go wrong with a state of the art drive that will keep your laptop flawlessly speedy. Having this kind of SSD will get your programs and games loading in an instant, plus it also lowers the starting time of your laptop.
Gaming laptops under $1500 still come with a regular hard drive (HDD) that can make you save a number of files. A fast SSD to load programs quickly, plus an HDD for saving files, are what the manufacturers mainly go for.
Storage can be easily upgraded, so go for a simple but a good option, both SSD and HDD on a single machine. You can opt for having at least 128GB and leave it to the HDD to have at least 1TB or more, and you’re good to go.
RAM
RAM is a very important factor, especially in the gaming category. This is mainly because games are demanding on RAM. For entry-level gaming, RAM with an amount of 8GB is necessary, but for those with GPUs like the Nvidia GTX 2060 or higher, you’ll need a RAM of 16GB.
If you need to expand your RAM later, you can easily do so with most of the expansion slots available on gaming laptops. Considering the $1500 budget mark, a gaming laptop with at least 16GB RAM is the best option possible. This assures you a smooth, lag-free process.
Display
Display comes after all of the specs mentioned above, especially if you are engrossed in having the best gaming laptop possible, but if you are intending on a non-workstation laptop then this surely gives an important role. Clearly, playing on a dim and unpleasant screen is a no-go.
Screen Size
This factor runs mostly with a personal preference basis. The standard gaming laptops come in 15” to 17” screens. Out of that category, there are 18” and 14” too. Evidently, you should go for the screen size that you want, but keep in mind that the bigger the screen, the heavier the laptop.
Resolution
Straightforwardly, go for a resolution that’s not lower than 1920 x 1080 pixels. If you opt for a better display, 4k resolutions are your best bet, but are definitely heavier for your pocket.
Refresh Rate
One great thing about gaming laptops is that they offer Full HD (1920 x 1080p) with 60Hz, which surely caters for all types of gamers. If you’re looking for faster displays, there are options such as 144Hz and 240Hz for smoother gameplay. In this case, you’re gonna need a better GPU to run that kind of refresh rate.
Touchscreen: Yes or No?
Touchscreen laptops aren’t really necessary for gaming, especially since they kill battery life and make your display excessively glossy.
Keyboard
For entry-level gaming keyboards, ones with the chiclet keys with LED backlighting are quite the standard, but if you want other options, there’s a few more you can consider:
Backlighting
Introductory-level gaming laptops provide backlighting that’s either just red or white, so if you’re opting for other options, the best keyboards are those that have RGB backlighting. Some let you change it by zone (or by section of the keyboard), while the others allow customization on a per-key basis. There are others that even let you change the lighting depending on the game.
Key Travel and Actuation
In a general preference, keys with over 1.5mm of key travel are good, and if you reach the 2mm mark, it’s even better. This is mainly because they keep you from “bottoming out”, or hitting the frame of the keyboard. For some really expensive laptops, they even provide mechanical keys.
Actuation indicates the force you need to apply in a key to press it down. It usually is preferred between 60 to 70 grams, which are capable of providing resistance without giving away the feeling of being soft.
N-key Rollover and Anti-ghosting
Collectively, these two features will have you performing your best during games. The anti-ghosting feature registers all your combos when you mash on several keys at a time while the n-key rollover guarantees the independency of each key and will be registered regardless of the other keys that are being pressed.
Battery Life
When it comes to gaming laptops, the batteries are always at a below-average level. Compromising your battery life for better gaming performance is normal, especially since a gaming laptop’s standard battery life is only for a few hours before it needs to be charged again.
Hence, if you opt for a powerful gaming laptop, running demanding games on battery for long hours is impossible. Additionally, it’s always recommended to keep your laptop plugged in for your GPU to work best, therefore, don’t expect your gaming laptop to be ultra-portable.
Design and Quality
The best bet in picking a non-workstation gaming laptop is to pick one that is lightweight but durable. This is for the reason that you can easily bring it anywhere with the guarantee of it not breaking.
As for the keyboard, plenty of gaming laptops under $1500 provide astounding illuminated keyboards that come with fast press time and proper key spacing. The trackpad is also usually pretty average, but you’re most likely to use an external mouse anyway.
Brand
The last crucial decision is choosing between brands. If you’re already engrossed in particular models or series, then you can skip this part, but it’s of high importance that you choose a brand that specifically tops on the gaming category. Brands like ASUS and MSI offer appreciable warranties against defects and can handle your complaints.
Acer
Acer is popular for providing affordable hardware, and it has amazed us with an innovation like the great Predator 21X which features a curved display and a mechanical keyboard. In addition, the PredatorSense app lets you keep track of your CPU and GPU usage and even customize your fan speeds.
Asus
ASUS is one of the brands with slick gaming machines ever made. The ROG Gaming Center software lets you see information such as temperature, storage, and even RAM usage, while the Armoury Crate program lets you customize the RGB backlighting. Additionally, this brand makes the Zephyrus G14, the best AMD laptop we have ever seen.
MSI
MSI’s trademark are the dragon logo, and often than not, their gaming laptops which are big, black and red, although the recent Stealth Thin series showed a new side of the brand. MSI’s Dragon Center software, which went through a redesign, provides system monitoring, multiple performance profiles, control of the fans, and keyboard backlight customization.
Other Factors
If you are quite meticulous, and desire all the perfect features for your gaming laptop, then you can view short information for these other factors:
Cooling Pad
One issue with gaming laptops is the excessive heating. Because all the hardware contained in a small chassis runs to perfectly cater to your games, it is with no doubt that it will most definitely overheat. This problem can be solved with just around 20 bucks, through either an external laptop fan for the sides, or a laptop cooling pad underneath.
Optical Drive
Most modern gaming laptops these days come without a CD/DVD drive. This is because most games are often played or installed from online services. Nonetheless, if you’re looking for laptops with an optical drive, you may opt to buy one or you can even install one yourself as it’s frequently easy and doesn’t cost much.
VR Ready
A few gaming laptops within the $1500 mark are VR ready. With a gaming laptop of this kind, you can play virtual reality games such as the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive. In order to run a VR, you’ll need at least a Nvidia 1060 GPU, an i5 processor or higher, with at least 8GB RAM.
Check out this list of the best VR games on PC in 2021.
FAQs
Why are gaming laptops expensive, and are they worth it?
In comparison to standard laptops, gaming laptops have additional specifications that a standard one doesn’t, hence the reason why it is pricier. If you’re a gaming geek, you should most probably go for a gaming laptop rather than a standard one. To conclude, are gaming laptops worth it? For a gamer geek, definitely.
Are gaming laptops better than gaming PCs?
With the impressive innovations today, the performances of both gaming laptops and gaming PCs are more or less the same. It just comes into difference with the portability of the gaming laptops because of the smaller components. Of course, with a laptop, you can play games while in the comforts of your bed.
To be completely fair for gaming desktops though, you can still get pretty comfortable even on gaming chairs under $100.
Can I use a gaming laptop for my day-to-day tasks?
Definitely. Gaming laptops can also be used for other purposes such as web surfing, video editing, and plenty other tasks like a standard normal laptop.
Is the Intel Core i7 CPU suitable for gaming?
The Core i7 processor is definitely a better processor than those of the Core i5 and Core i3 in many ways. Examples of these are faster performance, integrated graphics, and higher clock speeds, which solidly adds up to a better gameplay.
Overview
Finding the right gaming laptop that is up your alley can be very challenging especially since there are a lot of features to consider, whether it be the displays, screen size, graphic cards, processors, RAM and memory, aside from the fact that it all has to be within your budget range. Searching for a quality gaming laptop can consume your time, either days or weeks in time.
Fortunately, this article provides you with a list of top-rated gaming laptops under 1500 dollars, with the addition of what features to consider and what to look out for. Now you can find out which is the best gaming laptop for 2021.
Let us know what you pick by commenting below!
