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With their powerful components, colorful design, and premium prices, gaming laptops look something completely transcendental for ordinary users who are far from games. But to play demanding games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Watch Dogs 2, explore virtual worlds using HTC Vive or Oculus Rift and enjoy the gameplay at high frame rates, you have to fork out. We present the ranking of the best gaming laptops in 2021, as well as a number of tips to help you choose the right device.
The Best Budget Gaming Laptop 2024
PROS
Unbeatable gaming performance for the price. Solid build. 144Hz display. Good port selection. Seamlessly integrated component monitoring and boosting.
CONS
Brief battery life.
The field for entry-level gaming laptops is a vicious battleground: Legions fighting Predators with Blades, while Stripes and Stealths circle overhead. Modern graphics chips provide more power to affordable machines than ever, and Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GPU, in particular, provides great bang for your buck. That's what powers Acer's Predator Helios 300. It's $1,199.99-as-tested price stretches the definition of a budget laptop, but the high frame rates and the features this laptop packs rival those of midrange models that cost hundreds more. In the end, gaming laptops are about gaming, and the budget tier is about value. The Helios 300 hits both of those marks better than any competitor on the market right now, earning our Editors' Choice for entry-level gaming laptops.
- Acer Predator Helios 300
Processor: Intel Core i7-7700HQ | GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB | RAM: 16 GB DDR4-2133 MHz | Screen: 15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080), 60 Hz | Memory: 256 GB M.2 SATA SSD | Battery: 48 Wh | Weight: 2.7 kg
- + Good Price
- + Good battery life
- The Acer Predator Helios 300 is an incredible offer. For his money, he offers a GTX 1060 6 GB graphics card, which in most games over the past few years can work at a speed of 60 frames per second at almost maximum settings. The system does not have any unusual screen features such as G-Sync, although you can get a model with a refresh rate of 144 Hz.
- All in all, the Acer Predator Helios 300 is the best budget gaming laptop you can buy without sacrificing the features you need from a portable gaming device.
Rival Gaming Laptops? Fear This Predator
To put it simply: The Acer Predator Helios 300 is a superb value. The build and design are solid enough, but the performance is the star. That's largely down to the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti itself, and Acer's pricing for this model makes it a standout. The only real downsides are the storage capacity (bumping up to the 512GB SSD takes the machine to $1,449.99) and the battery life, but both are manageable depending on how you use your machine. Acer Predator Helios 300 (2019) 06 The Helios 300 is the best bang for your buck in this price range right now, and it competes well with midrange machines closer to $2,000 than $1,000. Though it's at the outer edge of what we'd call budget pricing, this is today's best budget-gamer value if you can swing a little extra dough.
