Gaming

Maintenance-friendly.High-performance gaming laptops can be found a dime a dozen. However, many devices are disappointing when it comes to the cleaning and upgrading options under the hood. The XMG U507 by Schenker Technologies aims to do a better job in this respect and allows its customers to tinker in many aspects. We put the 15-inch laptop through our extensive test course.

Wooden effect. About five years after the last part of the Mass Effect trilogy, EA risks restarting its jam-packed narrative and extremely successful role-playing game series. As beautiful as the largest part of the graphics may be, the game unfortunately fails in one of the most important atmosphere-giving elements, namely body and face animations. Our benchmark-check primarily focuses on the performance with laptop and desktop GPUs.

Stealth gamer. The first generation GS60 was infamous for its loud fans and hot temperatures. Now that the second generation GS63VR has been made available with more power efficient Kaby Lake and Pascal options, the super-thin MSI series has been a lot easier to recommend.

Hot stuff! The Asus GL702VS is one of many options for gamers hunting power in a portable package. Equipped with high-end components in a relatively thin and light chassis, the notebook brings high details in modern titles without breaking backs. Can the device keep its cool, or will it melt under pressure?

Compact gamer. Schenker's 14-inch device runs all games smoothly on the matte IPS display. The features are good as well, with an NVMe SSD and HDD combination, 16 GB of RAM, and a good keyboard on-board. An LTE/UMTS modem can also be installed in the computer if needed.

Notebook gaming with desktop Kaby Lake. A notebook equipped with a standard LGA 1151 socket may sound super-powerful, but the benefits are minimal compared to the drawbacks that entail.

GTA meets Far Cry. Ubisoft launches the next action highlight right after For Honor. A group of special forces is fighting against a Bolivian drug cartel in Ghost Recon Wildlands. We test how different notebook GPUs can handle the open world title.

It's getting hot! The Acer Predator X is the extremely powerful "luxury edition" of the regular Predator 17. Are the components well-balanced and is the performance sufficient for a spot in our Top 10 ranking?

A tower PC dressed up as a notebook. While most manufacturers’ gaming laptops feature mobile processors and a soldered-on GPU, Schenker Technologies have taken a different route with their 17-inch XMG U727 and equipped the mammoth with a desktop CPU and an MXM graphics card. Whether this approach is successful or not is the subject of our review.

Pricey budget gamer. Budget gaming notebooks are becoming increasingly popular thanks to GPUs like the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050, and Asus has decided to throw their hat into the budget ring with the GL553VD. The notebook packs modest hardware into a well-built chassis with some nice extras, but are these factors worth the additional cost?

Inexpensive Titan. Nvidia’s GTX 1080 Ti is the most powerful consumer graphics card and replaces the similar but much more expensive Titan X. We review the Founders Edition with numerous benchmarks as well as noise and consumption measurements.

No-frills gaming. The FX502VM offers nearly everything that comes with the GL502VM without significantly impacting performance. The SKU with the lowest-end TN display, however, should be avoided due to its very poor contrast.

Quintessential v7. Gigabyte's new gaming machine is aimed at players who want as much power per Euro as possible and are willing to make compromises in the configuration for this. Compared with the predecessor, the P55W v7 can primarily boast with a slightly better total performance, and a somewhat quieter and cooler system.

Trimmed for performance. For extremely demanding gamers that find the performance of the 17-inch meteor G752 (GeForce GTX 1060 & GTX 1070) insufficient, Asus offers the G701, which is equipped with Nvidia's top-of-the-line model, the GeForce GTX 1080. We put the overclocked high-end notebook through its paces.

MOBA Heavyweight. With up to one million players online at any given time, Dota 2 is far and away the most popular game on Valve's Steam platform. This highly competitive game and eSport has come a long way since its origins as a mod for Blizzard's Warcraft III, and now runs as a stand-alone, free-to-play game on Valve's Source 2 Engine. The Source 2 Engine is well-optimized and very scalable, but has a reputation for being more CPU than GPU dependent. Do the resolutions and graphics options have a large impact on performance? What CPU and GPU you need for your notebook to keep framerates steady during even the most hectic late-game battles is the subject of this article.

Pascal Pavilion… HP has updated their Pavilion 17 with Kaby Lake and Pascal, which should provide better performance, longer battery life, and more thermal headroom. Is the Pavilion 17t-ab200 a budget gaming machine worth considering?

Trinity. After Rainbow Six Siege and The Division, Ubisoft releases their next Triple-A title, which focuses primarily on riveting multiplayer battlers. Knights, Samurai and Vikings - For Honor actually pits three different factions against each other. Our review focuses primarily on how different GPUs handle the various swinging swords, katanas and axes.

Compact gaming miracle. While our test model of the Alienware 15 R3 had some temperature problems, we are impressed by the 13-inch system. Besides the high performance in the small chassis, we are also convinced by the brilliant OLED screen.