The 20th annual Pocket-lint Awards is here, sponsored by new EE, and we’re celebrating the best devices and products of the year. There’s a total of 21 categories for 2023, including everything from smartphones to cameras.
Each of the categories has six nominations within it, all of which the Pocket-lint team has reviewed us during the last 12 months. The Best Gaming Laptop category is all about gaming performance, blisteringly fast displays, exceptional cooling and, of course, RGB lighting.
The shortlisted nominees for Best Gaming Laptop 2023 are:
You can click on each of the titles above to read our full reviews on each nomination, which will give you an idea as to why they have been nominated. We’ve also popped a short verdict for each below to provide you with a quick summary of what we loved about them.
Acer Predator Helios 16
The Acer Predator Helios 16 is a well-priced gaming laptop with a luscious 240Hz WQXGA Mini-LED display. We tested the most affordable variant, with an RTX 4060 on board, but it’s also available with up to an RTX 4080 if you want to crank up those graphics settings.
It should handle these beefier GPUs with ease, as we found the cooling to be very impressive on this model. The areas you touch always stay comfortably cool while all the heat dissipates behind the display.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 17
The Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 is an absolute powerhouse, sporting an AMD Ryzen 9 7945HZ processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090. It’s a sizable machine, but that means you get a spacious 240Hz WQHD panel to enjoy your games on. It’s solid on all fronts, with a robust build quality, a fantastic keyboard, and plenty of attractive RGB touches.
Simply put, this is one of the most powerful gaming laptops on the market today, and if uncompromising performance is what you seek, then this model should not be overlooked.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14
While the above laptops perform well, they’re also chunky and heavy machines that you won’t want to carry around all the time. However, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 brings that power to a more portable chassis.
It weighs in at just 1.8kg, is under 2cm thick and still packs an RTX 4090 and a Ryzen 9 7940HS. This laptop impressed on all fronts; it has a rock-solid build, a lovely 165Hz Mini LED display and a full-bodied speaker setup.
Lenovo LOQ 15
The Lenovo LOQ 15 stands out as an affordable model that makes the right sacrifices to keep costs down and performance and quality high. It feels like a more expensive machine, and a plays like one, too.
Our test unit was configured with an RTX 4060 and an Intel Core i7 13620H, and it packed a punch, able to play the latest AAA titles with ease. Elsewhere, the keyboard was great, the 165Hz 1440p IPS display impressed, and the cooling worked well if a little on the noisy side.
Razer Blade 14
The Razer Blade 14 is one of the slimmest high-end gaming laptops that we’ve ever tested, measuring in at just 18mm thick and weighing a mere 1.8kg. Despite that, it provides an excellent gaming experience with its RTX 4060 GPU and 240Hz 2560×1600 IPS display.
Battery life is respectable, offering around 7 hours of use with non-gaming workloads, and the cooling system impressed, too. Not only managing to keep temperatures reigned in but doing so without making as much of a racket as other laptops in this category.
HP Victus 16
The HP Victus 16 is positioned as HP’s mainstream gaming offering, frequently available for under $1000 but still packing plenty of power to play all of the latest games. The tested model came with an RTX 4050 and a Ryzen 5 7640HS processor.
The Victus 16 is not only impressed with its gaming performance, delivering 139fps in Rise of the Tomb Raider at max settings in 1080p but also with its battery life, providing almost 8 hours of use in non-gaming workloads.
How the EE Pocket-lint Awards judging works
The winner for the Best Gaming Laptop category is decided by the Pocket-lint team, along with a panel of expert judges from publications across the industry. Following a rigorous scoring process, the Best Gaming Laptop winner for 2023 will be announced at an in-person event on 9 November 2023, along with the winners from the other 20 categories.
A Product of the Year winner will also be announced, chosen from the winners of the 21 categories. On the night, we will be announcing the results on the Pocket-lint Twitter handle as they unfold, and there will also be a feature detailing the winners once the Awards are over.
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