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 512MB 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.
Comments
8 responses to “Thin And Powerful Gaming Laptops Are Big At Computex 2014”
“17-inch desktop replacement that weighed the size of a small moon” – but ‘size’ isn’t a measurement of mass nor weight?
unless we hypothesize by size hes talking about weight and mass where force is net external? w=f=m×g so that Asus is a respectable 26.460000000000004 newtons.
You know what aggravates me about laptops more than anything, it’s that the touchpad is almost always centered too far to the left and my palm inevitably winds up resting on the edge of it playing havoc with things. I am aware that I can switch it off but from time to time the touchpad is more convenient.
I’d quite like a gaming laptop except for 2 things – the huge cost if you want something decent, and the laptop keyboard. Hate them for typing, and I can’t imagine how much of a hassle it would be to use one for W-A-S-D.
Computer gaming, it’s been such a long time.
Are laptop gamers part of the master race or are they like servants to the overlords?
Imo nope.
get this, I own 2 recent gaming laptops yet I still rather lug my ATX case system + monitor around to lans as well as home gaming.
Problem I find with gaming laptops are
(typing from phone btw)
– so damn exspenive (lol I know i own 2 but perks of my current job)
– Not comfortable to game on over long gaming sessions
– They get real hot and loud eventually (even with proper fan accesories)
– Usually filled with bloatware
– If you are serious about gaming you would opt to actually use an external mouse, keyboard(mechanical even) and monitor which defeats the purpose of a ‘gaming laptop’
–
I just bought a Clevo Metabox W230SS and use it with a Logitech M850 mouse and game anywhere I want.
It works great on the couch when I want to be lazy or I can set it up on a desk plugged into a dedicated 24″ monitor for longer sessions. Pretty cheap for upper tier gpu, i7, 8Gb ram, SSD + mechanical and 14″ 1080p screen ($1600 with 3 year warranty). I do agree on the fan getting loud under load though, but unfortunately that’s the nature of the beast.
the worst bit about gaming on a laptop is that front edge, end up with all sorts of nasty marks on my wrist after an extended session
My only issue is these new laptops it they aren’t anywhere near powerful enough to run games at the screen resolution. Dual 780s in desktops struggle to do 4k… You will have to reduce the visuals so much that you would be pissed you paid 2k for this new laptop. Or play at non native resolution, which is bad, but not as bad. I think a solid 1080 laptop running games on Ultra at 60FPS is better than a 4k on medium at 30FPS.