Gaming laptops don’t always have the best reputation among PC enthusiasts, which is appropriate.
You pay more money for less power in a gaming laptop, and performance is often degraded because a small form factor has to be reconciled with the thermal performance of high-end graphics cards. Many gaming laptops look like Neo vomited in Michael Bay’s Transformers films. Size can also be a problem, making many feel like huge pieces of plastic filled with screaming fans desperately trying to protect everything from overheating. And they are difficult – and sometimes impossible – to update.
I get it. There are compromises and the disadvantages can be significant.
But I’m not sure I will ever go back to a tower, even if that means saving a bit more money for my next upgrade. A portable, powerful gaming PC spoiled me to a much greater extent than expected.
The power of portability
PC gaming is often a lonely affair, even if you play online with others. Sure, my friends and I have one or two LAN parties a year, but it can be annoying to break it all up, pack it up safely, put it back in a different place, and repeat the whole process later in reverse order evening or the next day. This is especially true if you have special cabling requirements in your play area.
But being in the same physical space with others is so much nicer no matter how much I love to play online in general. There were so many evenings in 2019 that I unplugged the laptop, plugged it into my backpack with a USB mouse and headset, and drove to a friend’s house to try a new game or play an old favorite after ordering some food and chatting face to face between games.
I had always known that this was one of the advantages of a gaming laptop, but it was academic. Before I had the option, I had no idea how much more sociable and fulfilling PC gaming could be when the friction of playing with others physically near others was almost completely eliminated.
Describing gaming laptops as “portable” could, however, stretch the term somewhat, especially with some of the huge plastic monstrosities that exist. But even semi-portability opens some helpful doors, especially in a house with lots of children. It feels luxurious to only be able to play PC in bed with a USB controller and headphones. So you play a game on the laptop in the living room while the children control the television.
It is much nicer to be in the same physical space with others
These are not new thoughts. It’s not like gaming laptops are a fresh idea. However, there have been a few companies that have been able to develop gaming laptops that look like a normal, non-embarrassing “work” laptop and yet offer enough power to comfortably run most games in recent years. There are now more options that are slimmer and lighter without the harsh colors and plastic structures that used to be common. It is even better that this does not always mean a reduction in performance or an enormous increase in prices.
VR-enabled laptops are often expensive, but they also offer the advantage of semi-portability, so you may not want to be tied to a single room in your home, especially if you like to take your VR headset out of the house to friends and acquaintances to show family. (Still, I recommend Oculus Quest for real VR portability.)
The real reason for the writing was just to give some praise for the things that gaming laptops can do well, as my enthusiasm for them is skeptical by some and downright hostile by others. Gaming laptops have many drawbacks and I don’t want to downplay these problems.
But at least it is worth taking the time to find out what they are good at and how much more comfortable and social they can make PC games. The opportunity to use a full version in 2019 changed my opinion about PC games in general, and I’m happy to add my voice to the very small and often-ignored chorus that praises them.
