Dell G5 15 is now available in Intel 10th gen Comet Lake-H and AMD Ryzen 4000 Renoir flavors, but AMD as usual gets lesser oomph

Alongside the launch of the new XPS 15, XPS 17, and Alienware laptops, Dell also refreshed its Gaming series. While the G3 15 3500 was more of an incremental upgrade, Dell is offering even more choices with the G5 15 5500 with both Intel and AMD variants. Both seem to be good mainstream gaming laptops, but a look at the specifications seems to indicate that the AMD variant, the Dell G5 15 5505 SE, gets to lose out on some of the additional customization options available for its Intel-based counterpart.

The Dell G5 15 5500 comes with a choice of Intel Core i5-10300H and Core i7-10750H CPUs, GPU options up to the RTX 2070 Max-Q, up to 32 GB of DDR4-2933 RAM, up to a 300 Hz refresh rate display, and a choice of single and dual-storage options (refer specifications sheet below). SKUs featuring the GTX 1660 Ti and above GPU get to have a Thunderbolt 3 port, a mini-DisplayPort, and a Killer E2500 v2 2x2 Gigabit Ethernet port. Also on the anvil are optional 12-zone chassis lighting and an optional 4-zone RGB backlit keyboard.

Now, take a look at the AMD version and you will find that the laptop is gimped in several aspects. The Dell G5 15 5505 SE, first announced during CES 2020, offers a choice between the AMD Ryzen 5 4600H, Ryzen 7 4800H, and the Ryzen 9 4900H processors. All SKUs offer the AMD Radeon RX 5600M GPU as standard making this probably the first Ryzen 4000 + Navi 10 combination. MSI had the Alpha 15 with a Radeon RX 5500M but that was paired with the Ryzen 7 3750H. Both the Intel and AMD SKUs of the Dell G5 15 will be available from May 21 at prices starting from US$829.99.

While the basic specs of the G5 15 SE are just about right for FHD 60 fps gaming in most modern AAA titles, this model does stand to lose out on the 300 Hz display, some of the dual-storage options, chassis lighting, and Killer Ethernet.

Sure, the 300 Hz display is probably an overkill for the RX 5600M and the chassis lighting is more of an aesthetic than anything performance impeding but here's the thing. OEMs don't yet seem to be willing to outfit AMD models will all the pizzazz that their Intel variants stand to get. In all likelihood, OEMs are testing waters to gauge the sales of AMD laptops before giving them the same spotlight as the corresponding Intel SKUs.

That is not necessarily a bad thing. But just when you thought this is a golden opportunity for an enticing combination of an AMD Ryzen 4000 Renoir CPU and at least an upper mid-range NVIDIA GPU, the choices on offer seem to be rather bland.

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