I can't decide which laptop

The Asus has a quad core i7 CPU and a nVdia GTX 860m GPU. That means it can outperform the other two laptops when it comes to games. The CPU will also perform CPU calculations much faster than dual core CPUs as long as the programs can take advantage of more than two cores. If the programs are also capable of using Hyper Threading, then calculations will be even faster. The laptop is rather heavy at around 6lbs and battery life will not be great; probably 4 or 5 hours when doing non-intensive tasks.

The Dell XPS 13 with the Infinity display is a pretty good laptop for mobile purposes since it is basically close to the size of a 11" laptop due to the thin bezel around the screen. It has very good battery life which varies depending on which review you read since they tend to do battery testing differently. I would say on normal use you can get 12 hours and some sites state that only the MacBook Air has longer battery life (based on their testing methodology). It has a dual Core i5 CPU and relies on the Intel HD 5500. It can be used to play some games on low settings or perhaps medium setting; it depends on how demanding the specific game is. For CPU intensive calculations, the dual core CPU should do alright. This laptop is pretty light at 2.6lbs and 2.8lbs if you get the touchscreen version.

There is no real technical information about the yet to be release Dell XPS 15 with Infinity display. I assuming it is about the size of a 14" laptop rather than a typical 15.6" laptop. If it is released after September then it will likely be using Intel's new Skylake generation CPU rather than the current Broadwell generation CPU.

The MacBook 13 / Retina display will perform a bit better than the Dell XP 13. It has a higher clocked Core i5 CPU and it has the Intel HD Iris 6100 graphics core which is a bit more powerful than the Intel HD 5500. So overall better performance than the Dell XPS 13. It is not a gaming laptop like the Asus. At about 3.5lbs it is not as light as the Dell XPS 13. It has good battery life, but not as good as the Dell XPS 13. If you want to use Windows programs, then you need to install Windows which adds to the cost and you will have less useable storage space since the SSD will have two OSes installed in it and you need to divide the SSD into at least two partitions; one for Mac OS and the other for Windows.


Which is best depends on your priorities. The Asus is good for gaming and real CPU intensive calculations, but it is heavy and it will have much lower battery performance compared to the other two latops. The Dell and MacBook are better for mobility due to light weight and good battery life; which the Dell wins in both of those cases.

For the Dell and Mackbook you are basically paying for portability and battery life. You are also paying for Apple's brand name monopoly because if you want a laptop that uses Mac OS X, then who else are you going to be buying the laptop from? The 13" Dell XPS 13 is actually about the size of a 11" laptop which means a lot of engineering went into designing such a laptop. Usually if you want something small and powerful, the price goes up.

As for the Asus's temps, I don't know. You will need to search for reviews to find out. All I can say is that a quad core CPU can generate a lot of heat and so does the GTX 860m. So it is thicker than the other two laptops. There are thin gaming laptops, but they need a lot of engineering to design it such a way that the gaming laptop is relatively thin, light and can dissipate heat very well. That makes them cost more than typical gaming laptops The Razor Blade 14 is an example and so is the HP Omen 15.

All computers will experience lag of some sort in certain game regardless of how powerful it is.

WoW and Dota 2 are online games and you are going to deal with lag sooner or later. It could be due to your internet provider, the game's internet provide, their serves or whatever.