The 10 Best G-SYNC Gaming Laptops
Special Honors
Asus ROG Mothership Most laptops can't perform on the level of similarly-equipped desktop computers, but that's not the case with this ultra-luxury model. Sure, it's large, heavy, and hot, but its detachable keyboard, premium display, and overclocked full-featured RTX 2080 GPU ensure it will run the most demanding games without issue. Unfortunately, it will cost you an arm and a leg. asus.com
Alienware Area 51M There's definitely a version of this powerful option that's right for you, as Dell's website allows you to customize your own gaming laptop with access to a wide variety of capable components as well as interesting features like integrated Tobii eye tracking. dell.com
Editor's Notes
July 30, 2020:
As a rule, gaming laptops are more expensive than those designed for general use, and that's even more true of those with G-Sync technology. Not only is powerful hardware required to maintain the kinds of frame rates where variable refresh rates are really beneficial, but there's also a meaningful amount of proprietary hardware as well as a licensing fee that goes into making many devices with purpose-built G-Sync compatibility.
With that in mind, the Sager NP8378F2 is an interesting choice from a performance-minded manufacturer that, in just the last few years, you may have seen around under the name Shenker, KMG, or Clevo. In this case, we've put the Sager at the top because of its impressive balance of price and performance. The Lenovo Legion Y740 is even less expensive, and performs nearly as well. If you really want to save some cash, consider last year's HP Omen 17t, which uses a last-generation GTX 1070 GPU, but still runs many titles at admirable frame rates. The HP Omen 15 is also moderately priced, and it's also a good choice if you're intent on a 15-inch laptop rather than one that measures 17 inches.
If you have the money to spend, though, there are some high-end options, many of which are based on a single enthusiast-level design. The Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701 is basically the mold for these, and it's quite the machine in and of itself. The Asus ROG Zephyrus S15 GX502 is an upgraded, 15-inch version of the same, and the Computer Upgrade King Zephyrus S is another slightly different yet still quite worthwhile mention.The Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15, meanwhile, takes things to a new level by incorporating an entirely separate second screen that tilts up to provide a surprisingly ergonomic and useful display. The Duo also comes with a 4K display that's one of the very few such high-resolution panels with G-Sync support.
December 14, 2018:
What a time to be a mobile gamer! The HP is a great choice, because it's a fantastic performer with a reasonable price tag. MSI makes a couple heavyweights, though they can cost quite a bit. You can't go wrong with pretty much anything from Asus, and Eluktronics is an interesting, upstart brand that appears to have great build quality. It costs an absurd amount for companies to license G-Sync technology, so you'll be hard-pressed to find anything much cheaper than the ones we've assembled. But it's worth it to dedicated gamers, partially because AMD's embedded, adaptive-sync-enabled chipsets may still be in our somewhat distant future.