

The lid comes with the same cacophony of dots across half of it – a simple touch that catches the eye without overdoing it. The design is best described as machine-like, with angular vents and blocky but slightly rounded edges – it feels purposeful. The latter may be right for many who don’t want to stand out but the G15 is a good-looking laptop that is also clearly made for getting stuff done – particularly on the gaming front of course. Asus has found a perfect middle ground between the traditional – and often garish – gamer aesthetic and the sleeker – but somewhat boring – designs of the Razer Blade 15 and MSI GS66 Stealth. The results are spectacular, offering top drawer gaming performance, impressive battery life and it's a dream for creative tasks too.īefore we get into the meat of what you can achieve with this laptop, let's talk about the design of this machine. The Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 (from £1,700) builds on the good work of the Zephyrus G14 – removing a hint of its smaller sibling's portability to go all-in on performance. But, the slim bezels mature and modernise the M16, feeling like you are truly getting your monies worth – like the Blade 15, this feels like an immensely high-quality machine. The G15 has the best gaming laptop keyboard around and a stylish angular design, all of which are present here. The ROG Zephyrus G15 was our previous top pick for the best gaming laptop around and, put simply, the M16 takes that device and enhances it with a larger 16in 16:10 display, enhanced capabilities – outside of gaming – and a handy webcam. What sets this gaming laptop apart from its key competition is versatility. Solid results all around, but no shocks when it comes to not matching up to the RTX 3080. With this top-spec, you’ll get just below 60fps at 1440p Ultra settings in Borderlands 3, 77fps at the same settings in Ghost Recon: Breakpoint and, to hit the 165Hz this machine’s display is capable of, you’ll have to go to very low settings at 1440p in Apex Legends or drop down to 1080p. However, it does fall slightly behind the G15 and Razer Blade 15 when you get to its meat and potatoes – actual gaming performance.

A special hat tip must go to the SSD speeds too, with astounding 7,098Mb/s read and 5177Mb/s write – many rivals sit around the 3,500Mb/s and 3,000Mb/s respectively – a stunning result for habitual big file transferrers. Even up against gaming laptops that do sport the RTX 3080, the M16 tops it across holistic, processor-based and creative benchmarks – it really isn’t all that held back. Nevertheless, the M16 still has high specs on offer with an RTX 3070 and Intel Core i9-11900H being its top options. The Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 doesn’t offer a model with Nvidia’s top mobile graphics card – the RTX 3080 – meaning you’ll have to opt for the, still great, AMD-powered ROG Zephyrus G15 (below) if you want the most gaming horsepower a laptop can offer. The M16 oozes power and purpose without screaming at you, it’s got a muted style that doesn’t bore but impresses.Ībout that singular exception, though. The Blade 15, meanwhile, makes compromises for its thin chassis and looks too much like an ultrabook. The G15 has less than slim bezels around its display and, despite this, there’s still no webcam. If you’ve looked at the top two gaming laptops on the market – the ROG Zephyrus G15 and Razer Blade 15 – then you’ll see both have hang-ups.
#Good budget gaming laptop 1080p#
Display: Look for laptops with at least a 1080p display and a high refresh rate for smoother gameplay.The ROG Zephyrus M16 is a true no compromises device – with one notable exception.However, if you need more storage, a hard disk drive (HDD) is a more affordable option.


Look for laptops with an Intel Core i5 or i7, or an AMD Ryzen 5 or 7.
