Notebookcheck's Top 10 Slim & Light Gaming Laptops

While the Predator Triton 700 released back in 2017 was a mixed bag mostly due to its unusually placed input devices and its massive display bezels the Triton 500 looks much better. Its only real drawbacks are poor maintainability and suboptimal fan controls.

The wolf in sheep's clothing: This is a good description for the Gigabyte Aero 15 Classic-XAGigabyte Aero 15-Y9 (i9-8950HK, RTX 2080 Max-Q) Laptop ReviewGigabyte Aero 15-X9 (Core i7-8750H, RTX 2070 Max-Q) Laptop Review. While typical gaming notebooks are pretty bulky and/or heavy with playful designs, Gigabyte uses a slim, light, and sturdy case with an understated design for its 15-inch laptop. Only the RGB illumination of the keyboard hints at the gaming ambitions.

Under the hood, you get high-end hardware like the Intel Core i7-9750H Intel Core i9-8950HK SoCand Nvidia's GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q, which results in high temperatures under 3D load. You also get an accurate and bright 4K panel, but it only runs at 60 Hz. Gigabyte still ignores G-Sync and supports Optimus for longer battery runtimes instead. We think this is a good decision considering the mobility aspect.

Narrow bezels are not only particularly good looking but also the flavor of the month for gaming notebooks. Like many other competitors on this top 10 list the 2019 Razer Blade 15 offers an edge-to-edge screen. The stylish metal case is one of the most noble, most high-quality, and best made cases available right now. Keyboard, touchpad, and 144 Hz display are also respectable.

In order to get the most out of its internal hardware, Schenker’s XMG Fusion 15 was developed in close cooperation with Intel. As a result, the CPU is capable of utilizing its turbo boost much more efficiently than on most of its competitors. The device also performed very well in games. The combination of Core i7-9750H and GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q is capable of running even demanding games smoothly on the integrated 144 Hz FHD display.

Gigabyte updated its 15-inch Aero 15 with a new case, which is still fairly discreet and slim. One of the biggest updates is the bright high-contrast OLED display. Unfortunately, it suffered from visible glare due to its reflective coating. In addition, the device was also fairly load under load.

At the time of writing, MSI had a total of three notebooks in our mobile gaming top 10 list. N addition to the GS73 8RF and the GS75 8SG the GS65 9SG recently also made our top 10. The 15-inch notebook is ideal for gamers on the road thanks to its low weight of just 2 kg (4.4 lbs). G-Sync is not available in favor of Optimus, which boosts battery life quite significantly.

Schenker’s Key 16 is a multimedia-gaming hybrid that could easily pass as business notebook thanks to its discreet and slim case. However, there is more to this beast than the restrained outer shell seems to reveal: the 16-inch notebook is powered by a Core i7-8750H CPU and a GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q GPU.

If you prefer large displays you might be delighted by the fact that MSI offers its GS65 with a large 17-inch display. The flagship model reviewed by us, the GS75 9SG, is equipped with a Core i7-9750H, a GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q, 32 GB of DDR4 RAM, and an SSD RAID comprised of two 1 TB drives. Other benefits include its low weight, its slim chassis, its decent battery life, and last but not least its 144 Hz display with narrow bezels.

As we already noted in our review the Alienware m15 R2 is basically the miniature version of the much larger 51m. Instead of a desktop CPU it features a traditional mobile CPU paired with an energy-efficient Max-Q GPU (in our particular case an RTX 2080 Max-Q). Thanks to these measures Dell was able to reduce the device’s weight to just 2.2 kg (4.85 lbs) and its thickness to no more than 1.8 cm (0.7 inches), which qualifies the m15 for our slim & light top 10. Like almost all Alienware notebooks the slim-bezel m15 features great connectivity (including Thunderbolt 3), a one-of-a-kind design, and various lighting options. Battery life is decent thanks to support for Nvidia Optimus.

While the keyboard and the touchpad of the GX531 were located at the front halt of the laptop, the brand-new GX502 uses a classic layout and we prefer it this way. Despite the smaller dimensions, Asus still implements a full-fledged GeForce RTX 2070. Other advantages include the 144 Hz panel with accurate colors, the nice design as well as the RGB illumination. We also appreciate the choice between G-Sync and Optimus.

The device loses points for the soldered RAM, the loud fans and the meager sound. Thunderbolt 3 and a card reader would have been nice, too.