The Best Gaming Laptops of 2026

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS (eight cores, 16 threads), max boost clock speed 5.1GHz
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 8GB (Discrete); AMD Radeon 780M (integrated)
• Memory: 32GB LPDDR5X at 6400MHz
• Storage: 512GB PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 NVMe SSD; 1 empty M.2 2280 slot
• Display: 14.5-inch, 2880 x 1800, 120Hz OLED DisplayHDR 500
• Battery life: 8+ hours

The 2024 Lenovo Legion Slim 5 14APH8 is a spicy little machine. Packed inside a compact chassis with a 14.5-inch screen is a potent CPU and GPU combo that can muscle through heavier workloads and games equally well.

It has plenty of ventilation and manages performance that often exceeds other thin-and-light laptops that pack the same hardware, like the aforementioned 2024 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. Despite being a potent gaming laptop, it weighs under 4 pounds and is only .82 inches thick. It even boasts respectable battery life, measuring about 8 and a half hours during our standard battery test.

Lenovo also includes a tasty treat in the form of the sharp OLED panel, which offers 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space for excellent visuals in content of all types. The display has a 120Hz refresh rate and fast pixel response times that make it a joy to play on.

Should you want to use the laptop with an external monitor in a desktop setup, it has plenty of ports to accommodate you, including a full-sized HDMI 2.1 port. As much as the 2023 Legion Slim 5 14APH8 offers, it’s all the more impressive considering the price, which hovers around $1,000.

Read our full review of the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 14APH8.

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS processor (eight cores, 16 threads), max boost clock speed 5.2GHz
• Graphics: Nvidia RTX 4090 16GB GDDR6 (discrete), AMD Radeon 780M (integrated)
• Memory: 32GB DDR5 at 4800MHz (16GB discrete, 16GB integrated)
• Storage: 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
• Display: 14-inch, 2560 x 1600, 165Hz Mini LED DisplayHDR 600
• Battery life: 6 hours

We were amazed by the 2023 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14’s performance output. Even with the amount of heat Nvidia’s top-shelf RTX 4090 mobile graphics card inside produces, this tiny machine managed to expel enough to keep up with or surpass most other high-performing gaming laptops on this list. Its small form factor does inhibit gaming performance a bit, but you can count those lost frames on one hand.

Another one of this gaming laptop’s strengths is its great audio-visual experience. The audio is loud, balanced, and clear, and a color-rich mini-LED display that maxes out at an eye-watering 600 nits of brightness in SDR while still maintaining its deep 1,400:1 contrast ratio.

Asus also left its keyboard and trackpad virtually unchanged from this laptop’s previous iterations. (Can’t fix what isn’t broken.) To top all that off with something even sweeter, the Zephyrus G14 can still run for about 6 hours on battery power even with all those high-end components inside.

Read our full review of the 2023 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14.

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS (eight cores, 16 threads), max boost clock speed 5.2GHz
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 8GB GDDR6 (discrete), AMD Radeon 780M (integrated)
• Memory: 16GB LPDDR5 at 5600MHz
• Storage: 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
• Display: 14-inch, 2560 x 1600 IPS, 240Hz, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro
• Battery life: 6.5+ hours

Razer’s Blade 14 combines a high-end CPU from AMD and GPU from Nvidia to deliver esports framerates up to 240 fps at 1080p, and it delivers frame rates near or over 100 fps in high-fidelity single-player games with the max graphics presets turned on—comparable performance to many 15- and 16-inch gaming laptops.

Razer’s attention to detail shines with the Blade 14. It’s as stylish and as high-performing as any gamer or content creator would want. Just know Razer is like the Apple of PC gaming: it charges a premium, so this laptop is much more expensive than many of its competitors.

Read our full review of the Razer Blade 14.

• Processor: Intel Core i9-13950HX 24 cores, 32 threads (eight performance cores, 16 efficient cores), max boost clock speed 5.5GHz
• Graphics: Nvidia RTX 4070 8GB GDDR6 (discrete), Intel UHD Graphics (integrated)
• Memory: 32GB LPDDR5 at 5600MHz
• Storage: 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
• Display: 16-inch IPS mini-LED dual-mode display: 3840 x 2400 at 120Hz or 1920 x 1200 at 240Hz
• Battery life: 6+ hours

The 2024 Razer Blade 16 is a beauty, but the 2023 version brings just as much performance to the table for about $1,000 less. The dual-mode mini LED display on the 2023 Razer Blade 16 is wicked bright at 1,000 nits peak brightness, and it’s as beautifully color accurate as they come. Razer’s displays put the MacBook to shame.

Everything about the Razer Blade 16 looks, feels, and performs as you’d expect of a premium $3,000 laptop. The durable all-metal body is sleek and slender, the keyboard is easy to type on, and the trackpad is smooth and lovely. Its battery life is a bit short at just over 6 hours, but it’s long enough to get through most of a workday of content creation.

Compared to the 2024 Asus ROG Zephyrus G16, the 2023 Razer Blade 16 costs the same for the max configuration ($3,000). However, the Blade 16’s body is slightly more refined and rigid than the Zephyrus G16’s. Otherwise, which laptop wins out depends completely on preference and taste, since performance, ergonomics, battery life and display are all about the same. It’s like comparing top-shelf Whiskey to top-shelf Brandy.

Read our full review of the Razer Blade 16.

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS (8-cores, 16-threads, max boost clock speed 5.1GHz)
• Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 7700S (discrete, 8GB 18Gbps GDDR6, 100W), AMD Radeon 780M (integrated)
• Memory: 32GB DDR5 at 5600MHz (discrete)
• Storage: 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
• Display: 16-inch, 2560 x 1600, IPS, 500 nits max (rated), 510 nits (measured), 165Hz, 100% sRGB
• Battery life: 6+ hours

The Framework Laptop 16 is a machine built to last a decade. Almost every part of the Framework 16 is modular and replaceable, including the graphics card, the only AMD option on this list. Rather than pack ports on the side of the chassis, the Framework Laptop 16 spaces out six port docks that accommodate Framework’s swappable ports so you can choose the combination that suits your needs. Much of the laptop’s hardware and firmware are open-source and mod-friendly if you like to tinker with your PCs.

Unfortunately, the Framework Laptop 16’s flexibility comes at a cost (literally). Neither the CPU nor GPU are top performers among gaming laptops, and you can nab a much more powerful gaming laptop for hundreds of dollars less. However, those cheaper gaming laptops tend to have soldered-on memory modules, inaccessible storage bays and batteries, and a complicated design that’ll brick the whole laptop if something like the display or motherboard breaks.

Meanwhile, a Framework Laptop 16 display kit costs $250 and an afternoon of your time to install. You can upgrade your CPU every generation without having to buy a new laptop. It’s a computer nerd’s dream machine, and anyone who’s a fan of Framework’s right-to-repair approach will appreciate all the unique features of this infinitely customizable laptop.

Read our full review of the Framework Laptop 16.

• Processor: Intel Core i9-12900H 14 cores, 20 threads (six performance cores, eight efficient cores), max boost clock speed 5GHz
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 16GB GDDR6 (discrete), Intel UHD Graphics (integrated)
• Memory: 32GB DDR5 RAM
• Storage Size: 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
• Display: 16-inch, 2560 x 1600p, 240Hz, 100% DCI-P3 LCD
• Battery Life: 5+ hours

This Acer Predator Triton 500 SE is still one of the most powerful gaming laptops available despite its aging hardware. It won’t be as powerful or as power efficient as some newer machines with higher-end Nvidia 40-series graphics cards, but this Predator Triton is no slouch—and you’ll save some money by going with a last-generation gaming laptop.

At native display resolution with graphics cranked up to the max (ray tracing disabled), the Predator Triton consistently delivers high-frame rates and super smooth visuals. In Total War: Warhammer III, a game that stresses both the processor and graphics card, this gaming laptop topped out at an average of 109 frames per second. In older but still demanding titles like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, it outputs 116 fps.

Read our full review of the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE.

• Processor: Intel Core i7-13620H 10 cores, 16 threads (six performance cores, four efficient cores), max boost clock speed 4.9GHz
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 8GB GDDR6 (discrete), Intel UHD Graphics (integrated)
• Memory: 16GB at 4000MHz
• Storage: 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
• Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 144Hz, IPS
• Battery life: About 2.5 hours (MUX on), about 4 hours (MUX off)

The MSI Katana 15 is aimed at anyone who wants the highest frame rates possible without spending over $1,500. Other new and similarly configured gaming laptops can cost anywhere between $200 to $500 more, making this device an excellent value.

It has a perfect configuration for 1080p gaming, delivering over 100 fps on all but one of the games we test as part of our benchmarking suite. (Cyberpunk 2077 averaged 84 fps on High graphics, no ray tracing.) It weighs less than five pounds, so it’s not too big to carry around but it’s also powerful enough to replace your desktop PC.

Read our full review of the MSI Katana 15