Ranking: Best thin-and-light gaming laptops

The 2025 model of the ROG Zephyrus G16 goes one step further with the RTX 5090, Core Ultra 9 285H, Wi-Fi 7 and 64 GB RAM and is a slim high-end all-rounder competing for the crown with the Razer Blade 16.

The 2025 update of the ROG Zephyrus G16 offers several upgrades and overall performance has increased thanks to the Arrow Lake processor and the new GeForce RTX 5090 laptop GPU, as has the price.

The new ROG Zephyrus G16 can be ordered from online retailers such as Alternate for €4,799 in Germany.

Asus equips the new 2025 model of the ROG Zephyrus G14 with significantly faster GPU options, eliminating one of the issues of its predecessor, which was only available with the RTX 4070 laptop GPU. The new RTX 5080 offers a significant leap in performance. However, the cooling also had to be adapted, which is why the housing is 2 mm thicker at the rear than before.

Thanks to higher-end GPUs, Asus' ROG Zephyrus G14 offers a significant leap in performance compared to its predecessor and is therefore mostly unrivaled among 14-inch gamers.

Our high-end test configuration has an RRP of 3,899 euros. The less expensive variant with the RTX 5070 Ti (2 TB SSD, 32 GB RAM) costs 3,399 euros and can be ordered from Notebooksbilliger, among other options.

With the Fusion 16, XMG offers a slightly more powerful version of the familiar Core 16. The highlight here is the new OLED panel, which offers outstanding picture quality and even more vivid images compared to the IPS model.

Overall, the new XMG Fusion 16 is a very good system. The OLED screen is worth it if you want the best picture quality obtainable today.

The Fusion 16 can be ordered from XMG for 1,899 euros or more. Our test unit with its numerous upgrades, as compared to the base SKU, costs around 2,700 euros.

One of our editors has called it the "best mid-range gamer in 2025". The Lenovo Legion 5 15 gets a GeForce RTX 5060 laptop GPU and a 165 Hz OLED panel that offers outstanding image quality. An AMD Zen 4 chip is used as the processor. The case offers a sufficient connection set, a very comfortable keyboard as well as some very good maintenance/upgrade options. The Legion does not disappoint with its performance, either.

All in all, Lenovo is offering a very convincing product here with an excellent OLED panel and the new GeForce RTX 5060 laptop GPU, the latter in its fastest version.

The Legion 5 15 with an AMD Zen 5 processor is available from Lenovo starting from 1,689 euros. Our special test model is available to students and teachers at Campuspoint for 1,449 euros (with no operating system pre-installed).

With the new Blade 14, Razer has a high-quality and rather fast 14-inch all-rounder, which is now more compact and relies on an OLED panel displaying content at 120 Hz. Despite the improvements, the new model is more affordable than its predecessor. Like the latest Blade 16, the 2025 Blade 14 got slimmer and lighter but its casing is still extremely high-quality with a perfect finish, and ports are still plentiful, too. There is also a very comfortable keyboard here and an excellent clickpad.

If you are looking for a mobile all-rounder and have little desire to go higher than 1080p, this is a great option.

Our test configuration can be ordered from Razer Deutschland at an RRP of €2,399.

The Blade 16 RTX 5080 is available for $3,500, while the RTX 5090 configuration sells for $4,500, a savings of 22 percent. The cheaper option comes with a performance deficit of up to 13 percent on both the CPU and GPU, meaning the performance per dollar is roughly comparable between the two SKUs. Features such as battery life, power consumption and noise levels are almost identical despite the small performance differences between the two SKUs.

The Blade 16 2025 is very mobile with a height of just under 17 mm and a weight of around 2 kg, but the quality of the case is still very high.

The Razer Blade 16 in the RTX 5080 option is currently availablefor just under €3,500 from Amazon.de and Computeruniverse.neter, among others.

The Legion 7 16IAX10 is one of the lightest 16-inch gaming laptops on the market that comes with Arrow Lake HX processor options. Its performance is impressive for the weight, and enough for Notebookcheck to call it an impressive competitor to the Razer Blade 16.

For gamers or power users on the go, the Legion 7 16 Gen 10 is a lighter and cheaper alternative to the RTX 5060-powered Razer Blade 16.

Amazon.de has the Lenovo Legion 7 16 listed for €1,999. The model is also available directly from Lenovo for €1,956 with a 5% discount vs the original price.

The mid-2025 Core 16 is a mid-range gaming laptop that looks about as modest and unassuming as an office machine. Its 300-Hz display is driven by a GeForce RTX 5070 laptop GPU alongside a Zen 5-architecture CPU, and up to 128 GB of RAM.

The Core 16 is a good 16-inch gamer with an unobtrusive design. Those who plan on both gaming and doing some work might be in luck.

The Core is available straight from the laptop maker (Bestware) starting from 1,579 euros.

Similar to its predecessor, the XMG Core 15 (Mid-2025 model) combines an AMD processor with a strong dedicated Nvidia graphics card, making it a largely successful RTX 5060 gamer in our testing with a good to very good rating in most categories - be it the case, the interfaces, the input devices, the display, the battery life or the sound.

The Core 15 (M25) is a successful gaming laptop and performs almost like its Lenovo counterpart, the Legion 5.

Schenker/XMG's Core 15 M25 can be configured at bestware.com with our test model priced at just over 1,800 euros.

The Core 16 VE wants to compete with both budget gaming systems and more premium products such as the Lenovo Legion 7. Its elegant and structurally stable metal casing is one of the things it has going for it, and so are the good input devices and wide range of connectivity options. Its IPS display is fairly bright; maintenance and upgrade options are not bad, either.

The XMG Core 16 VE is an RTX 5060 gamer that can compete with some premium laptops thanks to its metal case, numerous connections and bright display.

The Core 16 VE Middle 2025 is available directly from the manufacturer starting from 1,699 euros.