When it comes to back to school gear, the best gaming laptops may not be the first thing that you think of. But if you like to play games, a gaming laptop is really a must have. Because it lets you do all of the work you need it for and play games. Now there are a lot of gaming laptops out there and many of them will work for school, but these are some of the best ones you can get.
And since you’re going to be using it for double duty, you might as well get one that excels. That doesn’t mean of course that you need to get the most expensive model or spring for the top tier machine. But it’s not a bad thing if you do.
Best gaming laptops for back to school – summary
| Gaming Laptop | Cost | Where To Buy |
| Razer Blade 14 (2023) | From $2,699 | Amazon |
| ASUS ROG Zephyrus 14 (2023) | $1,869.99 | Best Buy |
| MSI Cyborg | $899 | Best Buy |
| Lenovo Legion Slim 7i (2023) | $1,799.99 | Best Buy |
| Alienware X15 R2 | From $2,099.99 | Best Buy |
| Dell XPS 15 | $2,399.99 | Best Buy |
| Origin EVO15-S | From $2,082 | Origin |
| Dell G15 | From $949.99 | Best Buy |
| Acer Predator Triton 14 | From $1,449 | Amazon |
Best gaming laptops for school – list
You can view all of your selections above in the summary table. But if you want a little bit more information about each gaming laptop, you can view the list below which includes additional details. As well as price information and links on where to buy each laptop.
Razer Blade 14 (2023)
- Price: From $2,699
- Where To Buy: Amazon
We’re starting things off with what might be the best option on this list. The 2023 version of the Razer Blade 14. To be clear, this may not be the best option for everyone. Because everyone has different wants and needs when it comes to hardware like this. But, it is an amazing gaming laptop.
Why should you want this for school? For one, it offers a lightweight design that’s thin and portable, and powerful enough to run games at high settings and beyond.
You can get this laptop in multiple configurations, with this model featuring a QHD+ display. It also comes with the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU and an NVIDIA RTX 4070 GPU for graphics. For storage and memory, you’re looking at 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1TB SSD. Giving plenty of memory and storage for all your games and non-gaming needs.
All of that in a laptop that comes with a reasonable 14-inch display, and you’ve got a great laptop option for school. Tote it around to all of your classes and game when you have some free time. What’s not to love?
ASUS ROG Zephyrus 14
- Price: From $1,599.99
- Where To Buy: Best Buy
You can still snag a gaming laptop with the 40 series GPUs from NVIDIA and save a couple hundred bucks in the process. Simply go with the latest model of the ROG Zephyrus 14 laptop from ASUS.
Now ASUS sells quite a few different configurations of this laptop. Including models with the GeForce GTX 1650 Ti and RTX 20 and 30 series. Although the one we’re recommending here comes with the RTX 4060. The laptop also features a 14-inch screen size with various resolution options, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and a Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU. You can also bump up to the RTX 4090 model which comes with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, but the price also gets a hefty increase to $3,299.
It also features a 165Hz QHD display, and only weighs around 3.6 pounds so it’s fairly light as well.
MSI Cyborg
If you don’t need something as powerful as the above options, don’t overlook MSI’s excellent Cyborg laptop. This 15-inch gaming laptop is still a beast for gaming, albeit with some slightly lower performance. That said it’s still perfectly fine for gaming. It comes with an RTX 4060 GPU and an Intel Core i7 12650H CPU. Alongside 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. It’s got considerably less RAM than the first two laptops on this list, but 8GB should be plenty for most situations.
Simply adjust game graphics settings accordingly and you likely won’t run into issues with frame rate or overall performance. It’s got a Full HD screen and a 144Hz refresh rate too. Plus, with Windows 11 Home on board, multiple USB ports, and WiFi-6 support the Cyborg is more than ready for regular day-to-day tasks too. And best of all, it’s $899. Which is a pretty good price for what you’re getting. And the reason why we think this is an excellent pickup for students who can’t or don’t want to spend in the thousands for a laptop.
Lenovo Legion Slim 7i (2023)
- Price: From $1,799.99
- Where To Buy: Best Buy
Lenovo is jampacking the latest version of the Slim 7i with loads of performance power. Featuring an Intel Core i9-13900H CPU and an NVIDIA RTX 4070 GPU, there’s little this laptop won’t handle. Whether it’s games like the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty expansion or your day-to-day class sessions and lectures.
It also comes with a 1TB SSD and 16GB of RAM, Windows 11 Home, a 16-inch WQXGA display and a respectable portability at just 4.4 pounds. The nice thing about this new Slim 7i is that it doesn’t look too much like a gaming laptop. Sure, it has an RGB backlit keyboard. But there are no RGB lights or sleek design choices for the outside. Which means it won’t stand out in class or elsewhere if you just want something less loud in the looks department.
At a price of $1,799.99 it isn’t cheap, but it’ll be a solid laptop you can use for years to come.
Alienware X15 R2
- Price: From $2,099.99
- Where To Buy: Best Buy
Alienware’s X15 R2 gaming laptop is from last year, but it’s still one of the best gaming laptops around, and it offers significant improvements over the previous model that are well worth a look. First, it comes with an RTX 3070 Ti GPU, and can have multiple configurations of storage. Including up to 4TB if you grab it from Dell. It also features an Intel 12th Gen Core i7-12700H or Core i9-12900H CPU.
Alienware has also improved the cooling so the laptop doesn’t get to as high of temperatures on the R1. So it’ll perform better for longer. You can get it with an FHD screen at either 165Hz or 360Hz, or you can up the resolution to QHD with a 240Hz display. All models are non-touch enabled. Which should be just fine since you don’t want fingerprints and smudges all over your display anyways.
For a 15-inch laptop it’s a bit weighty and slightly larger than your standard 15-inch laptop. But that’s more than worth the tradeoff for the power and performance you get here.
Dell XPS 15
This isn’t exclusively a gaming laptop, but because it comes with some really good specs you can definitely use it for gaming and expect decent performance to boot. The main thing here is that the XPS 15 is a pretty slim laptop that is also lightweight, in addition to being powerful.
Making it one of the best gaming laptops for back to school if you want something that is capable of gaming. When it comes to the actual specs, you’re looking at an NVIDIA RTX 4060 GPU, as well a 1TB SSD. Which means plenty of space for games and other stuff you need for class. And everything in between. For the CPU it’s using Intel’s 13th Gen Evo i9, and it has 32GB of RAM which is probably more than you’ll ever need.
For the display you’re looking at a 3.5K OLED panel with touch support too. Basically, it’s versatile and powerful enough to do what you need in class and out. Even if it does come at a steep price.
Origin EVO15-S
- Price: From $2,082
- Where To Buy: Origin
The Origin EVO 15-S is one to consider if you want a little more choice in your configuration of the components. You’ll have to buy direct from the Origin website but you get a lot of options in terms of how to customize your laptop. From the GPU to the CPU to the display resolution and RAM capacity.
You can even add other personalized touches to make it extra unique. If you like that kind of thing. You can get the Origin EVO15-S with the NVIDIA 30 Series GPUs.
You can also get up to 32GB of RAM, up to 4TB of internal storage (wow), and you’re looking at up to 6 hours of battery life. Though that will certainly vary based on how much of the RGB and other battery draining features you use.
All of these configurations do come at a cost. But if you want a really good gaming laptop that is also made personal so it’s not quite like anyone else’s, this is prob ably the best option.
Dell G15
- Price: From $949.99
- Where To Buy: Best Buy
When it comes down to it, for some it isn’t about having the best possible gaming laptop out there for your school needs. While that would be nice, school can be expensive. And if you need to save a few bucks, the Dell G15 is a good laptop to consider.
For starters, this model comes with an RTX 3050 GPU. Best Buy also sells a 3050 Ti model for $150 more. So you can spend under a grand and get a good laptop that will perform when you decide to kick back and take a load off with some gaming.
For $949.99, you’re getting the Dell G15 with an RTX 3050 GPU, a 15.6-inch FHD screen, an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 120Hz refresh rate, and 512GB of storage. All around this is a solid gaming laptop choice for back to school if you aren’t looking to spend as much.
Overall pretty decent. Having said that, while this is a good laptop option, the MSI Cyborg comes with more power and performance for about $50 less. It’s also more lightweight and a bit more stylish. And in the end should be a better value. If you’re looking for something under $1,000, that’s our suggestion.
Acer Predator Triton 14
- Price: From $1,449.99
- Where To Buy: Amazon
Rounding out this list is the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE. Acer’s Predator line used to be slept on but Acer clawed its way to the top and proved that it could produce a really good gaming laptop. The Triton 300 SE might be one of its best gaming laptops, especially for school thanks to the lightweight design for ease of portability.
This model comes with an 11th Gen Intel CPU as well as an NVIDIA RTX 3060 GPU. In addition, you get 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD inside. So there’s plenty of memory for running programs and plenty of storage for all of your games, thesis papers, and any other schoolwork you might need to save.
It also comes with a 144Hz refresh rate display so you get those fast frames. It may not be the lightest or thinnest laptop on here, but it is still both light and thin so it’s a great option for anyone who needs to bring their PC with them wherever they go.
2023-06-28 15:08:47