Best gaming laptops in Australia

Top Pick for

Customisable gaming laptop

Alienware Area 51 M17 R2

Top Pick for

Light gaming laptop

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14

Top Pick for

Sleek gaming laptop

Acer Predator Triton 500

Top Pick for

Affordable gaming laptop

Dell G5 15 SE

Best gaming laptops for 2021

1. Alienware Area 51 M17 R2
2. Asus ROG Zephyrus G14
3. Razer Blade 15
4. Acer Predator Triton 500
5. Dell G5 15 SE

Thanks to integration of basic GPUs on just about any laptop, it's possible to play games of some sort on most of them. However, if you're looking for good gaming performance, or a laptop that will enhance your eSports skills, you really can't just make do with a basic office machine. What you need is a laptop that's been built with gaming in mind, from its frame to its keyboard to its choice of both CPU and GPU.

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Alienware Area 51 M17 R2

A no-holds barred gaming monolith – if your wallet's weighty enough to take the strain

Finder Score:

★★★★★

Read Alienware Area 51 M17 R2 Review

Pros

• Amazing gaming performance
• Highly configurable
• Comfortable keyboard

Cons

• Heavy and very uncomfortable on the lap
• Requires two power points for maximum performance
• Poor battery life

Why we chose it

Alienware's Area 51 M17 R2 is a laptop with all the trimmings – and most of the weight too. It's a serious gaming machine at a very high price point, although like most of the laptops in this list there is some wriggle room depending on your configuration choices. Aside from its astonishingly good gaming performance, we also liked its full sized keyboard, which has great actuation without being notably noisy, giving the Area 51 M17 R2 plenty of scope for work outside gaming, too.

The downside of the Area 51 M17 R2, aside from the dent it'll leave in your wallet is that it's very bulky and heavy with a base riser that doesn't sit comfortably on your lap. Its power draw is so high that to get the most out of it, it needs two power adaptors, and if you do run it off battery, don't expect it to last all that long.

Read our full Alienware Area 51 M17 R2 review.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14

A thin and light gaming laptop with excellent battery life

Not yet rated

Pros

• Great gaming performance in a thin and light chassis
• Understated design

Cons

• No built-in webcam
• AniMe Matrix functionality limited to more expensive models

Why we chose it

Time was, gaming laptops had laptop form factors but little of the portability you'd expect from something called a "laptop". Asus' Republic Of Gamers (ROG) Zephyrus G14 is one of a newer breed of very portable, very powerful gaming laptops. Reviewers praised it for its 120Hz display, solid performance with a range of configuration options and above all, the fact that it was a thin and light laptop with great battery life, a feature not that common in the gaming laptop space.

Razer Blade 15 (2020)

A highly portable and powerful gaming machine

Finder Score:

★★★★★

Read Razer Blade 15 (2020) Review

Pros

• The updated Intel CPUs perform well
• Up to RTX 2070 GPUs available
• Great display

Cons

• Battery life is poor
• Gets VERY hot under heavy strain
• The best new features are on the Advanced Models

Why we chose it

Razer sells a lot of different models of the Razer Blade 15, with a range of screen types, refresh rates up to 300Hz and of course a wide array of CPU and GPU options as well. They're nicely cutting edge devices with performance to match, although as you go up the feature set range, the prices predictably jump up as well.

Razer's iconic black design mostly serves the Razer Blade line well – they're almost like the alternate universe MacBooks in a way, and I'll leave it to you to work out which is the "evil twin" – but that black finish isn't always the best in terms of heat dissipation, because they can get quite hot under heavy load. Like many gaming laptops, battery life also isn't spectacular.

Read our review of the Razer Blade 15 Base Model.

Acer Predator Triton 500

A sleek metallic beast of a gaming laptop

Finder Score:

★★★★★

Read Acer Predator Triton 500 Review

Pros

• Comfortable keyboard
• 300Hz-capable display
• Good performance

Cons

• Expensive
• Battery life is terrible

Why we chose it

Acer's premium gaming laptop impressed reviewers thanks to its understated – by gaming laptop standards – design, and the inclusion of a 300Hz capable display, along with the requisite graphics power to do that kind of refresh rate justice. As with most premium gaming laptops there's little issue with getting the Triton 500 to run AAA games titles at the best possible resolutions, and Acer's soft touch keyboard also had its fans. However, it was criticised for its high price, the size of its included touchpad and the fact that its battery life really isn't that great for a 15 inch laptop.

Dell G5 15 SE

A surprisingly affordable but still good gaming option

Not yet rated

Pros

• Good value for the price
• Thin design
• Good battery life

Cons

• Entry level models are a tad basic
• Ordinary display on many models
• Plain design

Why we chose it

Dell's not a brand you think of when it comes to gaming laptops – unless you're aware it's the owner of the Alienware brand – but it has been producing gaming laptops under its own brand for some years now. Reviewers praised the Dell G5 15 for providing more bang for your gaming buck than you'd expect while not attracting the high-end prices usually attributed to more "pure" gaming brands. It's a thin and mostly light laptop line with a good array of ports, and decent overall performance.

That being said, many reviewers pointed out that you have to configure carefully. Base line cheaper models lack many of the niceties that gaming laptop buyers might want, such as high refresh rate displays, better GPUs or higher resolution screens.

Methodology

43
Gaming Laptops considered

10
Brands compared

5
Best Gaming Laptops ranked

• We've compared reviews from everyday consumers and professional technology writers to compare the best gaming laptops
• Our editorial team has a combined 60+ years of experience writing about tech and reviewing the latest devices.
• The gaming laptops on this list are chosen by our editorial team and are not based on commercial relationships.

• Why you can trust our picks

  A gaming laptop isn't just a laptop that you use for gaming; it should be a machine that's been built and tailored with the needs of gamers in mind – although if you can convince your boss that a gaming laptop is also going to be your ideal work machine too, more power to you!

  One of the challenges with assessing the "best" gaming laptop is that it's a segment of the market with a lot of different variables at play. In coming up with our list of the best gaming laptops, we've considered a wide variety of factors that go into making the best options. Here's what we've considered – and what you should – when choosing the best gaming laptops:

  • What configurations are available – and at what price? One of the biggest complicating factors with gaming laptops is that iteration happens at a rapid pace, and that can make for a lot of variance depending on the precise configurations of CPU, GPU, RAM, Storage (and storage type), which can have a huge effect on the gaming performance of a laptop.
    · Thin and Light or Heavy and Feature Packed? Most folks tend to think of gaming laptops as behemoths that are more luggable than truly portable, and there's certainly a market segment that still works that way. However, a lot of gaming laptops are now also effectively ultraportables in their own right. There are often tradeofs at play there, however, with many of the best GPU and CPU options only available on the heavier gaming laptop types.
  • Thin and Light or Heavy and Feature Packed? Most folks tend to think of gaming laptops as behemoths that are more luggable than truly portable, and there's certainly a market segment that still works that way. However, a lot of gaming laptops are now also effectively ultraportables in their own right. There are often tradeofs at play there, however, with many of the best GPU and CPU options only available on the heavier gaming laptop types
  • Screen quality matters:At the cheaper end of the scale, there are still plenty of 1080p gaming laptops, but fancier models may sport 4K – for a price
  • Refresh rates are vital:Most standard laptops run with just 60Hz displays, but for silky smooth gameplay and minimal tearing, look for a model with a 120Hz+ display. Again, this may be an a more expensive option when you're buying the laptop, but outside hooking up an external display, it's not as though you can easily change out the screen.
  • Ports are a plus: The ports on a gaming laptop might not seem like a big thing – until you do want to connect to that external display, hook up your favourite gaming mouse or keyboard, or add an external GPU for even more power.
  • What'll it cost?As with any other laptop buying decision, pricing is important. Gaming Laptops – and especially those from the "gaming" sub-brands of major tech companies – often attract very high price points, so it's vital to ensure that you're getting value for money.

  We value our editorial independence, basing our comparison results, content and reviews on objective analysis without bias. However, Finder may receive compensation when you click some links on our site. Learn more about how we make money from our partners and why you can trust our guides.