So while NBA 2K27 is officially the first game to launch with Nvidia’s newly launched DLSS 5, you’ve probably already seen it pop up in hundreds of more games than that. And I’ll say it again just like I said it before — in photorealistic games, it’s fantastic. But If you venture out of that into anything more stylized, it’s going to look weird.

That’s why it makes the world of sense in 2K27, but during my hands-on testing with my Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (armed with an RTX 5070 Ti), I noticed something bizarre. The moment I entered a menu or triggered a replay, it suddenly felt like it was trudging through molasses.

I dug into the raw telemetry data to figure out what was going on, and what I found completely changed my understanding of Nvidia’s “3D-guided neural rendering.” That intensive new graphics pipeline of DLSS 5 may indeed be a graphical revolution — but on my humble laptop (and lower end desktops), I get the sense Frame Generation is a requirement to make it playable.

The laptop I’m playing on

I’m seeing a lot of people test it on massive desktop rigs. I’ll of course get round to doing this when I’m not on my honeymoon (my wife will kill me if I started benchmarking DLSS 5 in Cancun), but first I wanted to show you some numbers on something that isn’t really being covered here — my Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop.

Nvidia’s been talking about how the model running this mode of neural rendering has been made super efficient over the past few months. In fact, when it first debuted, it ran on a separate RTX 5090 desktop GPU; whereas now, it’s able to run on a single card with the game.

So let’s give it a go in a notebook with a lower power level running through those graphics.

By the numbers

To figure out why the game was suddenly stuttering, I ran the telemetry on three different game states with DLSS 5 turned on and off. And as you can see, while the gameplay numbers are very close matching, elsewhere, the difference is pretty significant.

In fact, this kind of lines up with PC Gamer’s report of a 50-60% drop in performance. So what’s going on here? Let’s talk about it.

The heavy cost of the transformer

So why does turning off the new tech triple frame rate in menus and replays? Because DLSS 5 is not just an upscale filter. It is a highly complex transformer model that interacts with the on-screen geometry and injects neural rendering.

Speaking to Nvidia, it’s clear that this AI pipeline is a heavy one, and the answer to why you don’t see that same impact in gameplay is a simple one: Frame Generation.

During live gameplay, I engaged the 6x Frame Generation multiplier to take that slower neurally rendered base and fill the gaps. However, developers typically disable frame gen during static menus, UI-heavy pause screens or camera-cut replays.

You can see how much this first iteration of DLSS 5 is sweating the system by looking at a couple of factors in the gameplay. Yes, the framerate is barely touched, but the 1% Lows takes a dip and the latency is upped quite drastically, as well as the GPU utilization spiking.

In a controller-centric game like NBA 2K27, that’s not necessarily a noticeable hit, but I can imagine that when this in its current form is moved to games that require faster inputs with a keyboard and mouse, it could become more apparent.

Take away the prop of frame generation in menus, and you see the DLSS 5 penalty more realistically on an RTX 5070 Ti laptop GPU.

But it looks incredible

Like I said in my first impressions, when faced with photorealistic graphics, DLSS 5 is undeniably impressive. There is one very specific takeaway when I looked at these “before and after” pairs of screen captures: the core game look is preserved impressively.

DLSS 5 does a flawless job of preserving the game’s visual integrity. The shots of Jalen Brunson and Victor Wembanyama show off the micro-details on the skin and the way the sweat catches the harsh stadium lighting. The upscaler isn’t adding any aggressive smoothing or plastic-looking artifacts — it’s remarkably lifelike.

Then there’s the fabric and material textures. Brunson’s Knicks jersey and the fabric of the couch in the cutscene get an upgrade to show off the stitching more with high-resolution clarity, and without any noticeable AI-induced blurring.

The lighting reacts to on-screen characters more realistically, there isn’t any noticeable AI “fizzing” or ghosting around finer textures like hair — something upscalers have had problems with in the past.

Is this a frame-generated future?

DLSS 5 integration proved to me that the uncanny valley is dead, but it also proves that native frame rates are on their way out with it.

Nvidia themselves keep saying that Moore’s law is dead, and getting crafty with AI is what will bridge that generational gap. That threshold has been crossed — photorealism is getting too heavy for high-end silicon to render natively.

And DLSS 5 proves that future of photorealism isn’t just about rendering better pixels; it’s about accepting that a good chunk of the frames you see on your screen aren’t technically going to be “real” at all.

We’ve been coming to this moment in the PC gaming space for a while now, and it’s also happening on consoles too.

And personally, I have no problem with it if it looks this good — provided it’s used the right way (such as in photorealistic games).

More from Tom's Guide

• Best of IFA 2026: We found the 26 top new gadgets
• I held the Asus ProArt P14 next to my MacBook Pro 14 — and Apple should be genuinely terrified of Nvidia’s RTX Spark
• I tested Acer's wild Project DualPlay Mini — and it's a gaming handheld and laptop in one gadget

The new Alienware 16 Area-51 gaming laptop is largely a refresh of last year’s model, but it includes the one feature I wanted: a glare-free OLED panel. Toss in the latest Intel and Nvidia components, along with the otherworldly design, and you have one of the best gaming laptops on the market.

As with 2025’s Alienware 16 Area-51, this gaming laptop has serious flair, thanks to the Liquid Teal finish on the anodized aluminum chassis, which gives it a dark, iridescent sheen that shifts colors under different lighting conditions. The Gorilla Glass window on the bottom lets you see the internal components, while the RGB lighting enhances the laptop’s otherworldly appearance.

You can configure the Alienware 16 Area-51 (from $2,529, $3829 as tested) with up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus Arrow Lake Refresh CPU, an Nvidia RTX 5090 GPU, 64GB of RAM, and 12TB of SSD storage. My review unit, with its RTX 5080, Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus, and 32GB of RAM, had no issue handling even the most demanding PC games.

The star of the show is the new OLED panel, which provides rich contrast between dark and light elements. The anti-glare does rob the display of some of its luster, but the bright HDR and vibrant colors make up for that. You won’t complain much given how beautiful games look on this 16-inch 240Hz display.

While this laptop is still too bulky for my liking and has worse battery life than the previous model, this is undeniably a powerful gaming laptop with a fetching design like no other. If you have the cash for this beast, you won’t be disappointed. Find out more in my full review of the Alienware 16 Area-51 (2026).

Alienware 16 Area-51 (2026) review: Cheat sheet

• What was it? The Alienware 16 Area-51 is a high-end gaming laptop.
• Who is it for? The Alienware 16 Area-51 is for hardcore gamers who want a machine that can easily play graphically demanding modern games and look good doing it.
• What does it cost? The Alienware 16 Area-51 starts at $2,529 on Dell’s website at the time of writing. This configuration has an Intel Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus CPU, an Nvidia RTX 5060 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage.
• What do we like? We like the futuristic design, killer performance, and stunning OLED panel.
• What don’t we like? We don’t like the laptop’s bulkiness and poor(er) battery life.

Alienware 16 Area-51 (2026) review: Specs

Alienware 16 Area-51 (2026) review: The ups

The Alienware 16 Area-51 finally features an OLED panel while retaining the best aspects of its predecessor, including the eye-catching design, monstrous performance, and mesmerizing RGB lighting.

Futuristic design

Alienware didn’t change the design here, which is good, since this is still one of the most distinctive gaming laptops on the market. The rounded corners, Liquid Teal finish and RGB lighting on the keyboard deck make you feel like you’re using a laptop from the future. The smooth, sturdy aluminum chassis also feels good to touch and hold.

The model I reviewed came with a Cherry MX ultra-low-profile mechanical keyboard. Thanks to that, I had a great experience typing, as the keys are clicky and have a short travel distance. The touchpad is still relatively small, but it didn’t ruin my flow. I also like that the spacious keyboard deck gave my hands plenty of room to move.

You’ll find the lion’s share of the laptop’s ports on the back, with the 3.5mm headphone jack and an SD card slot located on the left-hand side. There’s a good selection of ports, including three USB-A, two USB-C, and an HDMI port. It’s not always easy to connect and reconnect peripherals when the laptop’s lid is open, but if you always keep everything connected, then it shouldn’t be an issue.

Powerful gaming performance

The Alienware 16 Area-51 I reviewed is purpose-built for high-end gaming performance, thanks to powerful components such as its Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 laptop GPU, and 32GB of RAM. If you want to play games at native resolution with high graphics settings, you won’t be disappointed.

At native resolution and default graphics settings, with frame generation disabled and the laptop’s performance mode enabled, I got Cyberpunk 2077 to generally run at around 110 frames per second. This includes both walking and driving. Frame rates dipped into the low 90s in some of the denser downtown areas, but it’s hard to complain about a game running at 90 fps.

Using a game’s built-in benchmarking tool, we saw impressive results when we tested the laptop in our lab. At native resolution and maximum graphical settings, with the laptop’s performance mode disabled, Cyberpunk 2077 ran at 38 fps—certainly lower than when I ran it with performance mode on and at default graphics settings. Other titles, such as Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Doom: The Dark Ages, ran much better under these same conditions.

The Alienware 16 Area-51 also fared well against competing laptops with better specs. This includes the Razer Blade 16, which has a more powerful RTX 5090 GPU, and the Asus Zephyrus G16, which has the same CPU and GPU but double the RAM.

Even with frame-boosting DLSS disabled, you can still enjoy extremely high frame rates with performance mode enabled and medium-to-high graphics settings. You’ll get fantastic performance out of the box thanks to the Alienware 16’s powerful components.

Vivid OLED display

This is the big update for the Alienware 16 Area-51, and it’s a welcome one, as the lack of an OLED panel on last year’s model was one of its few setbacks. Now, games look as glorious as they perform, making the overall experience even better.

A game like Cyberpunk 2077 literally shines on this 16-inch OLED panel. The contrast between dark and light elements helps the colorful neon signs and holograms really pop out during the in-game night cycle. The scorching sun during the day is also impressive, with dark shadows contrasting nicely against the daylight.

The model I reviewed has an anti-glare screen that effectively reduces glare from light sources. While that’s a plus, it can also make the overall image look less vibrant than on a glossy screen. This is a minor setback, and one I can overlook since I’d rather have an anti-glare screen than not.

How did the Alienware 16’s display perform in our lab tests? As you can see above, it has strong color reproduction (sRGB and DCI-P3) and solid color accuracy (Delta-E). Hues are somewhat oversaturated, which benefits games like Cyberpunk 2077. SDR and HDR brightness are also good for an OLED panel.

Games run buttery smooth thanks to the fast 240Hz refresh rate. I didn’t encounter any stuttering or flickering during testing. The response time is now 0.2ms, which is much lower than last year’s model’s 3ms. Granted, you likely won’t notice a major difference unless you’re a competitive gamer, but the lower response time will benefit you regardless.

Fun RGB lighting

Like last year’s model, this Alienware 16 laptop has some seriously impressive RGB lighting. And I don’t say that lightly since I’m not typically an RGB fan. But the way it’s implemented here complements this laptop’s unique design.

The Gorilla Glass bottom allows the RGB lighting to cast an underglow. And this same lighting also spills out through the top of the keyboard deck. As before, I haven’t seen other gaming laptops match this effect.

Naturally, you can customize the lighting effects however you prefer via the Alienware Commander Center app. The app is easy to use if you just want to use presets, but it’s also very granular for more in-depth fine-tuning.

Alienware 16 Area-51 (2026) review: The downs

Though the Alienware 16 Area-51 has a lot going for it, it has some noticeable drawbacks.

Poor battery life

I never expect gaming laptops to have stellar battery life, as they’re usually lacking in that area. The Alienware 16 Area-51 is no different, except that it actually runs out of juice faster than last year’s model.

In our testing, Alienware’s gaming laptop lasted an hour and two minutes on the PCMark 10 gaming benchmark and three and a half hours while surfing the internet. That’s about an hour less on both tests than before, which is a bummer.

You’re likely going to keep the laptop plugged in for better performance, so battery life won’t be an issue in that instance. However, if you plan to use this laptop on the go, don’t expect it to last as long as you’d need it to.

Cumbersome to carry

There’s no denying that the Alienware 16 Area-51 is an attractive laptop thanks to its unique design. Unfortunately, the main downside is that at 14.37 x 11.41 x 1.12 inches and 7.92 pounds, it’s not exactly portable. Yes, you can take it with you, and it will fit in a standard backpack, but you’ll feel it.

I typically take the laptops I’m reviewing home, but because of this notebook’s weight, I kept it at the office throughout the entire testing process. I also kept it in one of our lab rooms because even carrying it around the office isn’t pleasant.

Granted, the laptop’s weight won’t be an issue if you’re not going to travel with it and mainly plan to have it as your primary at-home computer. But if you want to take it on the road, then I suggest you build some muscle first.

Alienware 16 Area-51 (2026) review: Verdict

While the Alienware 16 Area-51 is mostly a refresh of the previous model, the inclusion of an OLED panel is a significant addition that makes an already fantastic gaming laptop even better. Thanks to that, it’s hard not to recommend this laptop to anyone willing to spend top dollar for a high-end gaming experience.

Alternatives like the Razer Blade 16 and Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 are solid choices if the Alienware’s design is too outlandish, though you’ll still pay a similar price for both. So given that, why not go for a gaming laptop with a truly unique design?

As with its predecessor, the Alienware 16 Area-51 comes with my highest recommendation. Forgive the cliché, but it truly is out of this world.

Alongside massive TVs, home robots, and all sorts of futuristic tech, PC makers came out in a big way for IFA 2026 — and for good reason. With Nvidia’s new RTX Spark chips on the horizon and local AI ramping up fast, we saw tons of fresh silicon and hardware in Berlin this year.

What we didn’t expect was for them to be so colorful, thin, and experimental. From budget-friendly laptops in every shade imaginable to designs so impossibly slim they’d make Steve Jobs jealous, and even the return of the netbook in a totally new form factor, this year’s show was an absolute blast for computing.

Here are our 7 favorite laptops from IFA 2026, including models landing before the holidays and wild concepts that show us where PCs are heading next.

Best laptops of IFA 2026: The ones you can buy soon

Lenovo Yoga Flip 9n 2-in-1

If you’re an artist who needs a powerful machine to work on, the Lenovo Yoga Flip 9n 2-in-1 is the convertible laptop to watch. Packing an Nvidia RTX Spark chip for handling AI workloads on-device, and the ability to draw on its OLED screen or haptic touchpad, this is one seriously versatile notebook for busy doodlers on the go. And for work, it even packs a full keyboard and plenty of ports.

We don’t yet have a price or release date, but the Yoga Flip 9n 2-in-1 could be the perfect fit for creatives.

Tony Polanco

Dell 14S

Dell’s adding another MacBook Neo competitor to its lineage after the stellar XPS 13, and this one's aimed more at the college student/those just entering the world of work. The Dell 14S has gone through a huge upgrade since the last time I heard that name last year!

Instead of a cheap plastic build, we’re now to an all-aluminum build in a selection of fresh colors. The keyboard feels great on it, you’ve got display options starting from a 2K resolution all the way to 2.8K OLED, and the pricing will be “complementary” to the XPS 13 — Dell’s words not mine.

Take from that what you will…but also…$699 is my prediction.

Jason England

Lenovo IdeaPad Vibe

The Lenovo IdeaPad Vibe aims to be the next MacBook Neo killer, and it certainly has a decent shot at dethroning Apple’s affordable laptop. Lenovo’s machine features a sturdy metal chassis available in seven unique colors to match your personality. It also packs a wide range of ports — more than the MacBook Neo and Dell XPS 13 — and even swappable keycaps.

Configurable with AMD, Snapdragon, and eventually Intel CPUs, the IdeaPad Vibe, with its expected $699 asking price, is hard to ignore.

Tony Polanco

Acer Swift Blade 14

Yes, I know there’s the Acer Vero 16, and it’s modularity/repairability chops. All great and nice. But I’m here for the laptops that blew my tiny mind, and the 799g Swift Blade did indeed blow my mind, because it’s insanely lightweight.

You get a full-blown OLED display, decent build quality Intel Core Series 3 chipsets and the RAM and storage you need in something that’s lighter than two cans of soup. It’s really quite the shocking piece of kit to hold in your hands.

Jason England

Best laptops of IFA 2026: The prototypes

Lenovo Project Aeroblade

Lenovo’s Project AeroBlade gives off serious MacBook Air vibes thanks to its ultraportable design. At under 10mm thick and just 1.83 pounds, it feels like a screen with a keyboard attached. It achieves this with a fanless design. Instead, four tiny Frore AirJet modules use silent ultrasonic vibrations to cool an Intel Lunar Lake chip without sacrificing sustained performance. You still get OLED, Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 7, and Lenovo’s excellent keyboard in a magnesium-aluminum shell.

It’s only a concept for now, but if this ships, it could be a game-changer for thin-and-light laptops.

Tony Polanco

Lenovo Project Swan

Lenovo didn’t want its Legion Pro Rollable gaming laptop to have all the fun when it comes to horizontally expanding screens, so this year at IFA, it unveiled a more business-friendly solution using upgraded tech.

Project Swan starts out as a small and compact 14-inch productivity laptop but with the push of a button, its screen extends out on either side to become a 17-inch display. That way, instead of bringing a portable monitor with you on your next business trip, you can just pack one device.

Just like Lenovo’s incredibly light laptop, Project Swan is only a concept for now but as we saw a few years ago with the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable, this design could find its way into a product you can actually buy sooner than you’d think.

Anthony Spadafora

Acer Project DualPlay Mini

Now I know the initial thoughts here. “This is a gaming handheld, wtf are you thinking!?” Well, actually, this is a netbook…you can’t see it yet but when you open the handheld like a clamshell and flip the display, you’ve got that QWERTY keyboard inside.

As someone who has missed using something like my Asus Eee PC in the mid 2000s, this was a serious trip back in time to a better time. And when you think about the versatility of it, not only does this mean “work by day, play by night,” but it also means wider gameplay accessibility. Have you ever played an RTS with a controller? …that’s what I thought!

Jason England

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• I wanted to hate Nvidia’s DLSS 5 ‘AI filter’ — but the real DLSS 5 is photorealistic black magic
• I just tried the world’s first AI espresso machine — I'm a coffee snob, and it was surprisingly... good?

For years, my ultimate computing friction point has been the two-device compromise: I buy a thin and light MacBook for productivity, and keep a massive gaming rig at home for play. But after going hands-on with six Nvidia RTX Spark laptops launching later this year, I can confidently say that era is over.

Put simply, this is shaping up to be a game-changer. Packing 6,144 CUDA cores into thin and light notebooks like these, it’s bridging the gap between serious productivity and high-end gaming. And crucially, game developers are already jumping on board to support it — ensuring vital anti-cheat software compatibility is ready to go.

But packing a powerful GPU into a sleek chassis doesn’t automatically make it a great gaming machine. Other factors are just as vital like how the keyboard feels, how loud the fans are and display quality.

I spent extensive time playing on six different models, and here’s my definitive RTX Spark gaming tier list, ranked from worst to best.

A dream for gamers

Before I get there, though, this isn’t my first rodeo with Spark. I did get to try the chip out at Computex this year (on my Birthday of all days). And since that was a much earlier version of what I saw here at Gamescom, here are some general updates:

• More laptops, more fun: At Computex, only the Surface Laptop Ultra was turned on and usable. However, this time around they were all active and usable.
• Backing up their claims: Nvidia is touting 1440p gaming at over 100 FPS. Of course, with no visible FPS counter, I can’t confirm that specifically, but to the eye, all the games were running significantly over 60 FPS — settings at a range of medium to high (depending on the title) and DLSS turned on.
• So many developers on board: Turns out if you’re Nvidia, you have a fair bit of influence to get publishers on board. Windows on Arm is getting a shot in the arm thanks to anti-cheat support and a massive number of studios jumping on board to work on Arm-native versions of their games.
• Emulation looks much better: The fact Pragmata was even running through the Windows Prism emulation layer to make it play nice on an Arm chip was quite the achievement at Computex. But there definitely was a little bit of fuzziness to the gameplay looking back. Now, with four games including 007 First Light all emulated, they’re all crystal clear and playing great with no discernible latency.

Put simply, things have definitely moved on since June, and anything with that RTX Spark sticker on the body is going to be a mighty tasty machine to get, come this fall. That being said, I’m here to talk about how some of these specific laptops fare for gaming on a build level — not a chip level.

RTX Spark laptop (for gaming) tier list: Specs

C-tier: A laptop wearing a suit

Now don’t get me wrong, the Dell XPS 16 is an undeniably good-looking laptop that will easily elicit an “oh that’s a cool thing” reaction when you pull it out in a meeting. The utilitarian body is sleek and that Tandem OLED display is super vivid.

But is this a safe space? Because that keyboard is problematic for gaming to put it mildly. It’s a flat chiclet board with zero gaps between the keys. Doom: The Dark Ages exposed the gaming flaws of a keyboard like this, as the lack of key definition had me panickedly looking down mid-battle to ensure I was on the WASD.

Like I said earlier this year, with a little time you can get used to this for productivity. But for gaming, it's not quite there.

B-Tier: Productivity first, gaming second

These two are quite a bit better for gaming on an ergonomic level, but aren’t all the way there compared to some superior tactility further up this list.

First up is the Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra: packing a delicious 15-inch mini-LED PixelSense Ultra touchscreen display with 3:2 aspect ratio. That taller screen may be more productivity-focused, but it’s gonna be great for RTS games too.

But again, the keyboard falters here slightly. Not that it’s bad, it’s a great-feeling tactile set of keys for productivity for sure. But for gaming, the dish of each key is far too subtle and the sharpness of those edges do cut into your wrists. So it firmly sits in the “it’s okay” category for gameplay.

Slightly better for play is my original personal favorite from Computex — the Asus ProArt P14. Basically, Asus understood the assignment and gave me a Windows equivalent of a MacBook Pro in its design and ergonomics. The keyboard’s better here for demanding gameplay too, and that 3K OLED display is mesmerizing.

But what do you get when you cram this much power into a small body? Loud fans to get all the heat out. To my ears at least, this was the loudest laptop in the testing room. It’s a great hybrid machine, but make sure you get a good gaming headset to drown out that fan noise.

A-Tier: Great all-rounders

Now we’re moving closer to the elite if gaming is a priority for your RTX Spark machine. The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9n boasts a great premium design with another vivid OLED display.

For gameplay, there are very few genuine downsides here — capped off by Lenovo’s trademark excellent keyboard ergonomics. The only reason it’s here in the A-tier is because one company has pulled a blinder with its board (more on that in a moment).

Then there’s the MSI Prestige N16 Flip AI+. Yes, the keyboard is a little too heavy on the RGB lighting for my personal taste, but it feels good to tap away on, the OLED screen is a lovely flash flood of color, and it’s a 2-in-1 form factor that allows for tent mode gaming with a controller. That’s something none of these other options can do.

S-Tier: The unexpected champion

Which leaves one: the HP OmniBook Ultra 16. When I first saw this laptop at Computex, it looked like a decidedly “just fine” device. I expected it to just be another laptop more suited to work over play. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

There’s of course a crispy and gorgeous OLED panel here that moves fluidly, but that’s not the real champion feature here. That belongs to the keyboard, which elevated this machine to the top of the list. It’s a chiclet board, but the well defined keys and travel make it feel almost mechanical-like. It feels fantastic during gameplay, and with slick stylings to the chassis, it’s the ultimate stealth gaming laptop.

Plenty to look forward to

The RTX Spark lineup proves that the days of compromising between a sleek daily driver and a capable gaming machine are finally coming to a close. These six distinct options will hit the market soon, and while I can scrutinize them from a gaming perspective, they’re meant for so much more.

As CEO Jensen Huang said himself when I got the chance to talk to him: “we’re focused on reinventing the PC.” There’s going to be something for everyone in this range. So I have to ask — if you’ve got the budget for one of these notebooks, which one would you spend your money on?

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Lenovo’s Legion laptops traditionally sit comfortably in the chunky, high-performance desktop replacement zone. They’re thick, with heavy power supplies, and abysmal battery life. However, this year’s Legion 5i changes that formula.

The Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 11 offers a more streamlined chassis and better battery life compared to previous models, but still offers the same robust gaming performance, a crisp OLED display, along with Lenovo’s industry-leading keyboard for an all-around powerhouse of a laptop. If not for a sub-par onboard audio experience and expensive upgrades, it would be perfect.

The real question is: are those downsides enough to keep the Legion 5i Gen 11 from becoming one of our best gaming laptops?

Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 11: Cheat sheet

• What is it?: The Legion 5i Gen 11 is a more toned-down version of Lenovo’s Legion Pro, offering a fantastic balance between powerful gaming performance and crisp visuals with more affordable pricing compared to the Pro model.
• Who is it for?: Gamers and STEM students who want a powerful RTX 50-series laptop with Lenovo’s sturdy build quality, while sticking to a more affordable price tag.
• What does it cost?: The starting price for the Legion 5i Gen 11 is $1,899 while our review spec costs a bit more, running the tab up to $2,825. However, Lenovo is running a special on an RTX 5060 configuration that brings the price down to just $1,899.
• What do we like?: The new, sleeker chassis makes the Legion 5i a bit more portable, and the improved battery life is fantastic for students or working professionals. The Legion 5i also sports one of Lenovo’s fantastic keyboards, a crisp OLED display, and a powerful Nvidia RTX 50-series GPU.
• What don’t we like?: Upgrading your RAM and storage, or switching to the RTX 5070 model come at steep premiums which make the affordable Legion 5i Gen 11 a much less attractive bargain.

Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 11: Specs

Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 11: The ups

The Legion 5i is Lenovo’s mid-tier gaming laptop, and it’s got plenty to recommend it as your next gaming laptop. Between the new sleek chassis, crisp OLED display, fantastic keyboard, useful battery life, and powerful NVIDIA RTX 50-series graphics the Legion 5i has some serious selling points.

Sleek redesign

Lenovo has been thinning out the Legion lineup a bit over the years, and the 11th Gen Legion ditches the clunky hub on the back for a more beveled edge across the entire laptop. While it doesn’t shave a ton off the Z-height of the laptop, the loss of the hub and the bevelling make the Legion 5i feel much slimmer despite being nearly equal in thickness.

The design overhaul also makes the Legion 5i a bit easier to carry, even with a slightly heavier weight than the 10th Gen Legion 5i which was 0.8 inches thick and weighed 4.1 pounds. The 11th Gen is 0.79 inches thick and weighs 4.25 pounds.

Overall, the new design still keeps some recognizable Legion touches from the smudge-magnet Eclipse Black colorway to the Legion logo on the top cover panel, and Lenovo’s camera and microphone hub at the top edge.

While this doesn’t drastically change the dimensions of the Legion, it does make it feel more like a modern gaming laptop than previous iterations (particularly the 9th Gen and earlier) which were starting to feel dated.

Industry-leading keyboard

Lenovo makes good keyboards. That’s just kind of a universal fact at this point. And the Legion 5i Gen 11 is no exception to that rule.

The typing experience is the perfect combination of crisp with deep keytravel to avoid bottoming out your fingers while frantically typing instructions to your party in the in-game text window. It’s both satisfying and comfortable, which is a hard sweet-spot to hit for a laptop keyboard.

The off-set arrow keys also make navigating games a little easier and the included num-pad is great for binding macros and additional skills for input heavy RPGs and MMOs.

The Legion’s keyboard features 1.6mm key travel with a 0.3mm dish on each key, with swappable keycaps and Lenovo’s Spectrum RGB software for controlling the 1-zone or 24-zone RGB depending on your keyboard upgrades.

And even with just 1-zone RGB, you still get the same 1.6mm key travel and 0.3mm dish, which means if you don’t go for the 24-zone RGB upgrade, you still get the same great typing experience.

Crisp display

OLED displays offer some serious gaming benefits, and they’re even better when you’re using your gaming laptop to binge a TV series over a weekend. Getting an OLED display on a mid-range gaming laptop isn’t always a guarantee, so it's incredible to see that as a standard panel option on the Legion 5i.

From crisper blacks and more vibrant colors, the Legion 5i’s display looks absolutely stunning when watching nature documentaries like The Loneliest Whale or when playing visually intense games like Avowed. Toggle on HDR, and you’ve got a gaming laptop that can actually display the final season of Game of Thrones.

While my eyes absolutely enjoyed my time with the Legion 5i, that experience is also backed up by our lab testing. The Legion 5i Gen 11 covered 137.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamut with an average brightness of 490 nits and a peak HDR brightness of 1,049 nits.

This is pretty great for an OLED, and absolutely fantastic when compared to other mid-range gaming laptops like the MSI Stealth 16 AI+ or HyperX Omen 16 Valorant Edition which both lack HDR support and manage just 85% and 81% coverage of the DCI-P3 spectrum respectively.

Solid RTX 5070 gaming chops

While the Legion 5i isn’t Lenovo’s flagship gaming laptop, it should still have solid gaming performance. Particularly our review model which features the powerful Intel Core Ultra 7 251HX and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 combination.

My current go-to games aren’t exactly strong benchmarks so I expected the Legion 5i to have no problems whatsoever running Baldur’s Gate III and Final Fantasy XIV on high graphics presets at the Legion’s max 1600p resolution. In Baldur’s Gate III, I had the Legion running on High graphics presets at 1600p and was easily getting over 90fps.

In Final Fantasy XIV, I had the Legion running High (Laptop) graphics presets at 1600p and could get frame-rate peaks of over 100fps though the game tended to settle around 90fps in most zones. Any frame drops I noticed were more due to pop-in rate and high player traffic than anything hardware wise with the Legion.

To make the Legion 5i work a bit harder, I also booted up Avowed which has a tendency to run at low frame-rates because of its intense graphics and poor optimization. The Legion did stumble here a bit, but then I’ve also seen RTX 5090 laptops struggle with Avowed.

However, while keeping my resolution set to 1600p (because Avowed sometimes gets awkward on lower resolutions) , opting for Medium graphics settings got me a perfectly playable game which held at about 59 to 61 FPS, and I didn’t lose too much graphic detail either.

In our lab tests, the Legion also performed well. Our review unit for the Legion 5i Gen 11 features the upgraded Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 (12GB) model, which outperformed the HyperX Omen 16 Valorant Edition which featured the 8GB version of the RTX 5070. The Legion also held the lead over the MSI Stealth 16 AI+ which featured the RTX 5060.

This meant the Legion 5i averaged 9 fps more than the HyperX and 21 FPS more than the Stealth on Black Myth Wukong at 1080p on Medium settings. The Legion’s lead died down a bit on Cinematic settings and 1600p resolution. The Legion also held a 9 FPS lead on the HyperX on Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p and a 6 FPS lead at 1600p. The Stealth lagged behind the Legion by 12 FPS at 1080p and 8 FPS at 1600p on Cyberpunk.

While the Legion can still struggle to surpass 60fps on intense titles at max resolution, it can easily clear the 60 FPS mark on High or Ultra settings at 1080p. Which is pretty impressive for an RTX 5070 laptop. It does help that Lenovo opted for the 12GB VRAM model which gives the Legion’s RTX 5070 just enough extra horsepower to clear the competition.

Respectable battery life

Legion laptops rarely win awards for having long battery life, and usually that’s expected. Legion laptops tend to sit in the desktop replacement sector, where you don’t really expect much in terms of unplugged performance for laptops that feature power-hungry CPUs and GPUs.

However, the Legion 5i Gen 11 does pack a pretty respectable punch when it comes to web surfing and gaming battery life. The Legion 5i lasted 7 hours and 3 minutes on our web surfing battery test and it survived an impressive 1 hour 27 minutes on the PCMark 10 Gaming battery life benchmark.

For context, the HyperX Omen 16 lasted just 2:41 on our web surfing battery test, while the MSI Stealth was one of our longer-lasting gaming laptops with a web surfing battery life of 10:49. For a Legion laptop to get over 7 hours of web surfing battery life? That’s a pretty damn impressive turnaround. The Legion 5i Gen 9 barely made it three and a half hours.

As for the PCMark 10 Gaming battery benchmark, the HyperX Omen 16 lasted 1:30 and the Stealth lasted 1:55. It’s pretty rare to see a gaming laptop hit 2 hours on the PCMark 10 test since any discrete GPU is going to put a major drain on the laptop’s internal battery. However, getting 1:27 is pretty solid. It’s not a great amount of game-time but it is enough that you don’t need to immediately worry if your cat unplugs your laptop mid-raid.

Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 11: The downs

The Legion’s downsides aren’t particularly plentiful, and there are ways to avoid these pitfalls. You can avoid the pricey upgrades by sticking with the pre-configured $1,899 model and you can use a quality headset or set of speakers to get better audio, they are problematic enough to be considered downsides.

RAMaggeddon Strikes Again

Gaming hardware has always been expensive, but budget gaming hardware is now almost non-existent.

Lenovo is currently offering a pre-configured version of the Legion 5i Gen 11 at $1,899. That model features the same Intel Core Ultra 7 251HX CPU, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, and 15-inch OLED display as our review configuration. However, it has the Nvidia RTX 5060 onboard instead. This is actually cheaper than the $2,355 starting configuration with just 512GB of SSD storage.

And really, that $1,899 price tag wouldn’t be considered budget just a year ago, but the RAM shortage has made any gaming laptop under $2,000 feel like a steal.

Unfortunately, the base configuration is more expensive, so if Lenovo ever stops running that sale, the Legion 5i goes from somewhat affordable to expensive. Especially if you need to upgrade the RAM, SSD storage, CPU, or GPU as those will come at steep premiums.

Upgrading to the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX processor costs an additional $110 while upgrading to the Nvidia RTX 5070 graphics card adds $300 to the total price. Upgrading your storage to 1TB will set you back $190, upgrading to 2TB will set you back an additional $430 on top of that, while increasing your memory from 16GB to 32GB will come with a $370 price-tag.

Which is how you get our RTX 5070 configuration at $2,825. And that’s the kind of prices we saw on RTX 5090 laptops just a year ago. So if you want the Legion 5i Gen 11, you better grab the pre-configured model while Lenovo still has that special running. Because otherwise its hard to justify the price.

Don’t rely on the built-in audio

Considering the Legion 5i’s status as Lenovo’s mid-range Intel gaming laptop, a certain level of quality is expected on all fronts. And audio is no exception.

While laptop audio setups often have to make sacrifices due to the form factor, some laptops offer more robust built-in sound systems than others. And while the Legion 5i’s audio is perfectly usable, it’s hardly enjoyable.

Lenovo packed a quad (2x2W) Harman speaker system with Nahimic Audio drivers into the Legion 5i chassis. Unfortunately, those speakers are bottom-firing which leads to some issues based on your gaming surface.

Downward-facing laptop speakers rely on audio engineering to bounce the audio to the user, so they can be less consistent in audio quality than top or side-firing audio systems.

While the Legion 5i’s speakers are perfectly fine at lower volume levels (40% and below), the bottom-firing speakers get muddied, and everything sounds overly-sharp with no bass when played at higher volumes.

So it’s not exactly ideal for a movie or TV show binge. And while you might be able to play a casual game with the Legion’s speaker system, I would opt for a quality studio headset for anything more intense than Runescape.

Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 11: Verdict

Traditionally, a Lenovo Legion laptop is a chunky, high-performance desktop replacement laptop that you’d rarely dream of carrying to school or to work.

Between the previous generation and this current gen, that’s starting to change. The Legion 5i offers a sleeker, more modern chassis that’s much easier to carry, and it’s got battery life that’s actually useful for getting some work done.

Combined with one of Lenovo’s industry leading keyboards, a crisp OLED display, and the same robust gaming performance you’d expect from a Legion laptop and the Legion 5i is a potent powerhouse.

It could be the perfect laptop, if only its onboard audio system was a bit more robust and its base price and upgrades weren’t so expensive.

If you are going to nab the Legion 5i Gen 11, I would absolutely recommend sticking with the discounted $1,899 preconfigured model as it's actually affordable and comes with nearly all the same features as our review model.

The gaming performance will be a bit weaker, but it’s not worth the nearly $1,000 increase in price just to upgrade to the RTX 5070 model.

There’s no shortage of the best gaming laptops out there, but you might have noticed a change in HP’s lineup. Newer gaming rigs carrying Omen branding now fall under the HyperX branding. One such machine is HP’s HyperX Omen 15 that I recently tested.

That might sound like a tongue-twister, but branding aside, this is one of HP’s flagship gaming laptops, and it’s a very good one. Though the RTX 5070 with 8GB VRAM might seem limiting, you get solid gaming performance if you aren’t looking for serious frame rates. This laptop also looks sleek, even if it’s not as flashy as some other options, and it packs a gorgeous OLED display.

I’m mainly a console gamer, but after a week of testing the HyperX Omen 15, I spent less time on my PS5 and more with this laptop. However, it has the usual gaming laptop tropes. It runs hot and loud, and it doesn't last too long on battery. That said, it's still one of the best gaming laptops for what it offers. Find out why in my full review.

HyperX Omen 15 review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A mid-range 15-inch gaming laptop
• Who is it for? Anyone looking for their first gaming laptop or seeking an upgrade.
• What does it cost? The HP HyperX Omen 15 starts at $1,499 on HP’s website. Right now, it's on sale for $1,099. As configured, our review unit is valued at $2,800, but is currently discounted to $2,099.
• What do we like? The gorgeous OLED screen, performance, and design.
• What don’t we like? The fan noise, battery life, and bloatware.

HyperX Omen 15 review: Specs

HyperX Omen 15 review: The ups

The HyperX Omen 15 gets three huge things right. It has a glorious OLED display, an appealing design, and smooth 1080p performance.

Vibrant OLED screen

The standout feature of the HyperX Omen 15 is its 2880x1800 OLED display. Not all configurations of the laptop come with this screen, but our higher-end review unit did. The screen delivers super vibrant visuals, both for office work and for gaming.

I have a Samsung S85F OLED TV at home, and movies like Spider-Man: Far From Home and games like Forza Horizon 6 looked incredible on the HyperX Omen 15’s panel. I spent more time watching videos on this laptop than I did watching my actual TV. It’s refreshing to have a really good OLED display in portable form.

When replaying one of my favorite classics, Grand Theft Auto 4, I noticed how much livelier Liberty City looked on this laptop’s OLED display. This game is famous for its dark and shaded environments, and the HyperX Omen 15 makes them all look spectacular.

When flying a helicopter high over Liberty City, every little detail dazzled me — from the lights shimmering in Star Junction to river water rippling beneath my helicopter's propellers. If this laptop could make a 17-year-old game look good, it should make the PC titles you play look even better than you imagine.

As our lab results show, this is a super-bright and vivid OLED panel. It hits 460.2 nits of brightness, which, compared to some of the other OLED gaming laptops we tested this year, is the second-brightest.

Meanwhile, its 1022-nit HDR brightness makes it the third-brightest laptop in our comparison group. The color accuracy is also top-notch, hitting 186.8% of the sRGB gamut and 132.2% of the DCI-P3 gamut, beating out all the other comparative gaming or productivity laptops with OLED panels.

Great gaming performance for most titles

The HyperX Omen 15 I reviewed packs an Intel Core Ultra 9 386H CPU, an Nvidia RTX 5070, and 32GB of dedicated RAM. You might be concerned about the 8GB of VRAM on that RTX 5070, but don’t let that fool you. This is an excellent upper-midrange gaming laptop.

I love racing games, and my go-to game on my PlayStation 5 is Forza Horizon 5. The latest entry in this series isn’t on PlayStation yet, so the HyperX Omen 15 was the go-to way to experience Forza Horizon 6. After five hours of racing on the Omen 15X, I never felt the laptop’s GPU was holding me back. It became hard to go back to my PS5 and Forza Horizon 5.

On the “Extreme” preset at full 2880x1800 resolution, I was getting a smooth 49 fps, and at 1080p, nearly double that, around 79 fps. Turning on DLSS and switching to the slightly more demanding “High with Ray Tracing” preset yielded better visuals and decent performance, with 39 fps at full resolution and 69 fps at 1080p. Combined with the laptop’s 120Hz display, I experienced no lag and had a pleasurable, winning experience in almost all my race entries.

Those results are indeed low, so it won’t really compete with RTX 5080-powered laptops, but it delivers enough performance for most modern games at 1080p with ray tracing enabled. You'll still need DLSS or lower settings to take full advantage of the laptop’s native 2880×1800 resolution.

The closest laptop to the HyperX Omen 15 is the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra, which has the same display resolution, RTX 5070, and 32GB of RAM. That means this system won’t seem as powerful as some other 16-inch gaming laptops we’re comparing it to — like a higher-end Alienware 16 Area-51. While the numbers trail RTX 5080-powered competitors, real-world gaming will be a great experience once you dial back a few settings.

Our lab maxes out game settings, including ray tracing, when benchmarking, and I found games like Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Assassin's Creed Shadows were playable, hovering just over 30 fps at 1080p. At this laptop’s full resolution, games hovered near 20 fps and were slightly laggy, but still playable. Again, if you lower your graphics settings to medium or rely on upscaling, you should not have issues enjoying gaming on the HyperX Omen 15.

Of note. The laptop has an Omen AI feature in HP’s Omen Gaming Hub. This can provide frame optimization with a one-click solution for each game. It’s a nifty feature if you’re not super technical like me. It can adjust operating system settings, hardware settings, and game settings on the fly.

When you’re not gaming, the HyperX Omen 15 is a solid productivity or video-editing laptop. Its Geekbench scores are strong, placing it third in our lab’s tests against competitors. For video editing and encoding, HandBrake encoding time lags a bit, but in this test, anything within the 3-minute range is pretty good for its class.

I put the HyperX Omen 15 through the paces of my workflow, and it handled a mix of 20+ Chrome tabs with ease, alongside Slack and YouTube music videos in Microsoft Edge running in the background.

Solid design

The HyperX Omen 15 is made of plastic, but it is done in a way that makes it appealing. The shadow black plastic finish is reminiscent of the color you see on Lenovo’s ThinkPads, making it blend right in with my office space. The laptop’s display also sits a few centimeters forward from the rear, making it seem like it is coming off a solid slab of plastic. Many of Lenovo’s gaming laptops have had this look recently, and it is a good one.

Ports and connectivity are great, too. There are two USB-A ports — one on each side, along with a USB-C port and an HDMI port on the rear. Other ports include an Ethernet jack and a headphone jack.

The laptop uses a 200W proprietary barrelled USB-C charger, but, interestingly enough, I found that a 65W USB-C charger can juice up the laptop just fine for basic productivity needs. I appreciated that when I didn’t want to take the heavy charger to work with me.

Two other great elements of the design are the RGB lighting effects and the keyboard. HP didn’t go over the top with the RGB. The laptop has a 4-Zone RGB keyboard, and you can customize each zone with its own lighting effect. Light Studio through Omen Gaming Hub makes this possible, but I found the default rainbow effect just fine.

The keyboard is a pleasure to use. While it does not use Cherry switches like Alienware’s flagship laptops do, the square keycaps still have a satisfying click into the chassis when typing. As a lab tester, I also appreciate the number pad on the side, as some gaming laptops ditch this for a centered keyboard.

HyperX Omen 15 review: The downs

No laptop is perfect, and the HyperX Omen 15 underperforms in several ways. Some of these might be deal-breakers if you’re hoping to buy this laptop.

Loud fans

One of the biggest issues I had with the HyperX Omen 15 is how loud it can get. During standard use, it is whisper-silent, but as soon as I start gaming, it sounds like a mini vacuum cleaner. I understand that gaming laptops need to pump up the fans to stay cool, but this HyperX Omen 15 is especially loud.

In fact, it got so loud that I preferred to wear headphones while gaming. I used a decibel meter to measure fan noise, and it hit as high as 74 decibels mid-race in Forza Horizon 6. For reference, that is as loud as a running vacuum cleaner or a noisy restaurant. My measurements came from the laptop being in the default “Performance” mode in the Omen gaming app and with my meter at the rear of the laptop.

Switching to “Balanced” in the app slightly reduced the fan noise to as low as 65 decibels, which is more equivalent to a normal office environment. This will come at a performance cost, though, as it impacts the Windows Power mode.

Part of my experience comes down to how HP is optimizing for gaming performance. This laptop features Omen Tempest Cooling. That means it has dual side fans with fewer rear ports, enlarged vents, and additional bottom vents to maximize airflow and heat dissipation. It works, too. Our lab measured a temperature of 89 degrees at the laptop’s hottest point. 15-inch gaming laptops might typically hit closer to 100 degrees in our Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition heat test, where we loop the benchmark 6 times and measure temperatures at 4 different points on the laptop.

Poor battery life

Gaming laptops aren’t known for their amazing battery life, and the HyperX Omen 15 is no different. In our Tom’s Guide laptop battery test, it lasted 8 hours and 30 minutes for web browsing and a short 1 hour and 13 minutes for gaming.

While both of our lab’s results are considered bad for the HyperX, it does tug ahead of the more powerful Alienware laptop in our comparisons. We've also seen other gaming laptops, like the Zephyrus G16, and a productivity laptop with an RTX 5070, like the Galaxy Book 6, go well beyond the numbers the HyperX put up in our battery test.

In my time with the laptop for work, it only lasted from 9 AM to 3:30 before Windows gave the low battery warnings at 10% with the screen around 32% brightness. For gaming, the laptop died after 45 minutes. OLED screens are power-hungry, and the 120Hz refresh rate with the beastly Nvidia GPU only makes things worse. It’s a trade-off you will have to live with if you choose an OLED gaming laptop like this one.

Too much bloat

This laptop, as we reviewed it, can cost well over $2,000, so it is very upsetting to see all the pre-installed bloatware on it. Right out of the box, the Start Menu was littered with pre-pinned shortcuts to various services like HP TV+, Booking.com, and a Dropbox Promotion. HP also throws in McAfee antivirus software with the laptop, which our lab always removes for our battery test.

That is in addition to seven HP apps: HP, HP Documentation, HP PC Diagnostics, HP Privacy Settings, HP Smart, Support Assist, Event Utility, and TV+. Otter.ai also makes it to the list. All of this can be easily uninstalled, but that takes extra work, and nobody should have to deal with this.

HyperX Omen 15 review: Verdict

The HyperX Omen 15 wins for its OLED display and RTX 5070 performance that handles most modern games well at 1080p. Its low-key design and comfortable keyboard also make it feel less like a gaming rig and more like an everyday laptop you'd be happy to take out in public and carry anywhere.

The trade-offs are a little painful, though: loud fans during gaming, weak battery life, and a Start Menu full of bloatware. But if a gorgeous OLED screen is high on your list and you're buying your first gaming laptop or upgrading an old one, the HyperX Omen 15 is worth the investment.

When HP offered me the chance to check out the HyperX Omen 16 Valorant Edition gaming laptop I leapt at the opportunity. Despite a reputation as a game for degenerates, Valorant is one of my favorite multiplayer shooters right now. I’m not good at the game — silver for life! — but I enjoy it all the same.

This machine is more or less an HP Omen Max with a Valorant skin, which is fun, and offers the same slick features you’ll find in the best gaming laptops. The Nvidia RTX 5070 GPU and 32GB of RAM in the laptop can run most graphically demanding games at a decent frame rate. And games look great too, thanks to the 16-inch 240Hz LCD display.

I’m focused on gaming here but if you need something a bit beefier for work, the Omen 16 won’t let you down. Despite a tight keyboard it has plenty of ports for connecting necessary peripherals like the best gaming keyboards and best gaming mice to bolster your productivity.

My HP HyperX Omen 16 Valorant Edition review will help you decide if this Valorant-themed gaming laptop will give you a tactical advantage on the digital battlefield.

HP HyperX Omen 16 Valorant Edition: Cheat Sheet

• What is it? The HP HyperX Omen 16 Valorant Edition is a high-end gaming laptop featuring Valorant designs and decent performance.
• Who is it for? It’s for those with deep pockets and a specific love of Valorant who want a 16-inch gaming laptop powerful enough to play the game.
• What does it cost? The HP HyperX Omen 16 Valorant Edition costs $3,049, which is expensive but comparable to similar offerings from competitors.
• What do we like? The sleek design, smooth gaming performance and Valorant easter eggs make for a fun laptop
• What don’t we like? This is a hefty, costly and surprisingly loud laptop.

HP HyperX Omen 16 Valorant Edition: Specs

HP HyperX Omen 16 Valorant Edition: The ups

The HP HyperX Omen 16 Valorant Edition is a fun celebration of Riot Games’ first-person tactical hero shooter. It comes with a slick design, decent gaming performance and a bright 16-inch LCD display.

Valorant easter eggs abound

The best way to think about this laptop is that it’s an expensive skin you can buy. Nicely, there are a lot of little details on the surface celebrating the game. It makes for a fun-looking gaming laptop with a little flavor compared to the usual black and gray monsters you see in the wild.

That said, if you've ever seen the HP Omen Max 16, the essential design is basically the same. This HyperX Valorant version is less heavy at 5.5 pounds, but measures about the same overall. Otherwise, it has an aluminum lid and bottom that help make it feel sturdy while opening smoothly.

The touchpad is pretty large and fairly responsive for when you’re not using a mouse. Likewise, the keyboard is fun with the highlighted WASD keys, but I’ll dig into that more below.

Like the Omen Max 16, this thing is a smudge machine that will soak up your body oils. So if you want a pristine device, you’ll want to have a cleaning cloth nearby.

Run and gun performance

Valorant doesn’t take much to run well; I’ve run Riot’s game on low-end laptops, the PS5 and high-end laptops like the Razer Blade 14. But you can feel the difference when you have a decent setup like the Omen 16’s RTX 5070 GPU, AMD Ryzen 9 CPU and 32GB of RAM.

I spent most of my time with the Valorant Edition playing Valorant and had a blast even when I bumped the settings as high as they could go.

To compare to other laptops, in our lab tests we use Cyberpunk 2077, Black Myth: Wukong and Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. At the highest settings, you may not walk away impressed, especially those who insist on 60+ FPS without frame generation.

I often commit the PC gamer sin of not really caring if the FPS is over 60 or at 60 or if my graphics are in 4K or even 2K. But in comparison to laptops running higher-tier RTX 5080 and 5090 GPUs, I think the RTX 5070 holds its own in the HyperX model.

If you’re willing to lower the settings to medium, you can hit up 78 FPS on Black Myth and 62 in Assassin’s Creed.

The included HP Omen Gaming Hub will let you optimize the laptop’s performance, customize the RGB lighting and organize your gaming library. Doing so will let you squeeze some more performance out of this machine if you’re a tinkerer.

Lovely 16-inch display

Once you go OLED, it’s hard to go back, but I’ve never made that leap. The 16-inch LCD display features a 240Hz refresh rate, 3ms response time and over 500 nits of brightness, which is higher than the OLED-paneled HP Omen Max 16.

The panel gets decently bright, and I found that colors popped off the screen without being uncomfortable over a long gaming session. It’s not beating laptops like the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, but I don’t think you’ll be disappointed; I wasn’t.

To my eyes, games ran smoothly, and I never noticed any hitching or lag with the 240Hz refresh rate and 3ms response time. It’s especially helpful with an FPS like Valorant where you want smoothness and no input lag.

HP HyperX Omen 16 Valorant Edition: The downs

I’ve had a lot of fun with the HyperX Omen 16 Valorant Edition, but there are some downsides that could make or break it for you. I won’t get into the heft at 5.5 pounds, because it’s a gaming laptop and I almost expect that kind of weight at this point.

Instead, the tight keyboard, short battery life and loud fan can be annoying. I’ll also note that at $3,049 this is not a cheap laptop. And it only comes in one configuration. However, that is comparable to similar configurations like the Razer Blade 16.

Tight keyboard

My colleague Tony Polanco praised the keyboard on the HP Omen Max 16 laptop describing it as roomy with thick keys. I don’t have that laptop on hand to compare, but with this HyperX version, I found the keys way too close together, which made typing annoying even with the included number pad, something I’d usually praise.

To compare I do have a Lenovo ThinkPad 14s as my work laptop. I measured the distance between the W, A, S and D keys on both machines.

On the Valorant laptop I got about 3mm, while my Lenovo measured around 4mm. The Lenovo also has slightly curved corners on the bottom of the keys which adds a bit more space.

That extra millimeter, give or take, really makes a difference when you’re trying to type. I wouldn’t describe my fingers as particularly sausage-esque but it’s not a comfortable fit.

However, when I was playing Valorant I didn’t have any noticeable slips. So for gaming it might not be a problem. For everything else, it’s not great.

Short and hot battery

In 2026, there are laptops with more than 20 hours of battery life. The MacBook Pro 16-inch, one of the best laptops for battery life, tested at over 21 hours. Unfortunately, gaming laptops have yet to get the memo.

In our lab tests, we got exactly 90 minutes in our PCMark 10 Gaming test, but that figure did manage to bump up to 2 hours and 42 minutes in our web surfing test.

As you can see, the Valorant laptop is comparable to other laptops if you’re gaming, but much weaker for more general use. However, I expect to plug in gaming laptops so the flaw for me is the 280W power brick. I don’t have a thermometer gun but after some sessions the brick was so hot that I legitimately didn’t want to touch it. It’s also hefty, meaning I can’t really hang it up without some structure.

Playing games like Monster Train that don’t require much of the laptop didn’t pull on the power as much, but even Valorant was pushing it.

Loud fan depending on the game

Again, I mostly played Valorant to stick with the theme of the laptop. The laptop as a whole proved pretty cool over long sessions (power brick aside). For laptops we generally say that anything over 96 degrees is uncomfortably hot. The underside of the Valorant edition peaked at 87.5 degrees during a lab test running Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition.

However, I found the fans to be quite loud. The machine actually warns you that depending on what performance setting you utilize the fans will run loudly. During some of my tweaking, I noticed that I could get the noise down a bit by focusing on balance or eco modes. Anything higher brings the noise.

Maybe it won’t bother you, but it’s something to be aware of.

HP HyperX Omen 16 Valorant Edition: Verdict

While the HP HyperX Omen 16 Valorant Edition has some flaws, most of them from the price to the low battery life are things I consider par for the course when it comes to higher-end gaming laptops. The keyboard may be an annoyance, but it could be mitigated with a good peripheral. Past that, I think it’s a fine gaming laptop that I enjoyed my time with especially if you enjoy Valorant.

The Omen 16 Valorant Edition delivers a great gaming experience thanks to the RTX 5070 GPU and bright LCD display. Sometimes you want some flair that isn’t just RGB lighting, and I think the little easter eggs here are a delight.

Nvidia's ARM-based gaming laptops powered by the RTX Spark is around the corner and appear to be ready to launch thanks to new Geekbench listings.

The new ARM-based CPUs were first revealed at Computex in May by CEO Jensen Huang. "Our focus is to reinvent the PC. Windows is of course improving, but the basic architecture of a PC has largely been the same now for about 40 years, and we want to reinvent it," Huang told Tom's Guide.

How that looks is starting with an Arm-based design over the conventional x86 architecture, but Nvidia does have experience in that realm. The company already makes Arm gaming chips that power the Nintendo Switch 2.

The RTX Spark platform is starting out on a range of Windows gaming laptops and mini PCs with a focus on gaming and agentic AIs. It should have fairly low power consumption.

Geekbench scores revealed

Two different Geekbench listings reveal results for the RTX Spark N1X processor in 20-core and 18-core configurations.

If we focus on the 20-core configuration, it returned surprising scores with a single-core of 2,593 and a multi-core score of 23,424. The multicore is fairly impressive, comparing favorably with Intel's i9-14900KS, which managed a score of 23,785 in the same test.

View the full results here, though I will note that the final production scores might differ.

If you're unfamiliar, Geekbench measures how well the processor handles everyday tasks by running a bunch of simulated workloads from processing numbers to crunching numbers.

Single-core is all about how fast the CPU handles one task at a time, like editing a photo. Multi-core kicks in for multitasking like running several apps or rendering by using all the chip's "cores."

Here's how those numbers compare to Apple's M5, the newer Qualcomm Snapdragon X2, and Intel's Panther Lake chips.

Surprisingly, the RTX Spark performs well against the M5 and Intel X9 in multicore. Moving up to the M5 Pro and Max gets you higher scores. The same goes for the higher-end Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Extreme, which has recorded over 25,000.

Still, the RTX seems like it will compare favorably with most every chip on the market.

Where it seems to fail is in the single-core, where scores are significantly lower. It seems it might feel sluggish in those single tasks, but running multiple apps is where the RTX Spark might shine.

This is a pretty good indication of how the RTX Spark platform will handle CPU-heavy tasks. It doesn't tell us the whole picture, especially when it comes to gaming, but we do know the GPU will support DLSS 4.5.

RTX Spark laptops are supposed to arrive later this fall with Windows 11 out of the box. It should be compatible with most Windows games, and Nvidia is reportedly ensuring the chip will work with common anti-cheat and DRM software.

Nvidia has already confirmed that it will launch with laptops from Asus, MSI, Microsoft and more.

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A core reason you’d want one of the best gaming laptops is to play your favorite PC games on the go. However, your experience with AAA games won’t be great on battery power. Not only will you generally get less than two hours of gameplay, but you'll suffer severe drops in frames per second (FPS). This is why most users keep their gaming laptops plugged in during use.

But what if you’re itching to play a game and there’s no wall outlet in sight? Are you stuck playing for just a couple of hours at 30 frames per second or lower? Not necessarily, so long as you make various adjustments to the laptop and game. Though the results won't always match what you'd get when plugged in, you’ll have a smoother gaming experience.

If you want to squeeze as much performance as possible from a gaming laptop running on battery, I’ll show you how!

On battery vs plugged in

Generally, a battery provides around 40 to 90 watts of power, whereas a wall charger can provide 100 to 200+ watts. That extra power allows laptop components like the GPU and CPU to run more efficiently, delivering smoother gaming performance. However, on battery power, operating systems automatically switch to low-power or balanced profiles, which lowers frame rates and screen refresh rates.

There are also safety reasons. Drawing too much power too quickly from a battery can generate excessive heat and damage the cells. Laptops also slow the CPU and GPU on battery power to prevent overheating. When you connect a laptop to a wall outlet, your computer knows it has an endless energy supply and removes all the speed caps.

I ran Cyberpunk 2077 on the Alienware 16 (2026) on both battery power and while plugged in to show you the difference. At default graphical settings and native 2560x1600 resolution, the game ran at around 110-120 fps while I was on foot and around 90-100 fps when I drove through the city center. Unplugged, Cyberpunk 2077’s frame rate dropped to the 70s on foot and to around 55 on the highway.

To be clear, the Alienware 16 is an extremely powerful gaming laptop, which accounts for its high fps even when unplugged. Still, a 30 frames-per-second drop isn’t small and illustrates the difference between playing plugged in and unplugged.

How to get better performance on battery

I’ll now detail how to get battery gaming laptop performance while on battery. Keep in mind that the battery can’t output enough wattage for full gaming speeds, so performance will always be limited compared to when you’re plugged in. With that out of the way, let’s get into it.

On your laptop, click the battery icon on the taskbar and set the power mode to Best Performance. If your laptop has an Nvidia RTX GPU, you can disable BatteryBoost or raise the frame rate cap in the GeForce Experience app (or the Nvidia app).

Similarly, open your laptop manufacturer’s custom app (such as Asus Armoury Crate, Razer Synapse, or Lenovo Vantage) and switch the operating mode from Eco/Silent to a manual or performance profile. You can also set a custom frame limiter in the Nvidia Control Panel to limit CPU and GPU usage as needed.

To improve battery life, you can lower the refresh rate from a high rate like 144Hz to 60Hz. You can also reduce the display’s brightness to around 50% or lower and turn off RGB lighting if your laptop uses it. Unplugging unnecessary peripherals also helps improve battery life. And of course, shut down any apps you’re not currently using.

On the game side, you can do things like lower the game’s resolution, shadow quality, and graphical settings to reduce the workload on your laptop. Similarly, you can cap your maximum FPS in the game settings to keep stable performance.

Bottom line

I will always advise folks to keep their gaming laptops plugged in while playing for the best possible performance. However, if there’s nowhere to connect, the tips above should help you get better performance on battery life. It’s not as optimal as when you’re plugged in, but you’ll have a smoother overall experience.

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To be considered one of the best gaming laptops, a PC must do a few things: pack a high refresh rate for smooth gameplay; make colors look vibrant; and it shouldn’t overheat. The MSI Crosshair 16 HX E14W does all that and more. Boasting excellent color coverage and accuracy, as well as a 240Hz refresh rate, the Crosshair 16 HX packs performance in spades.

The Crosshair 16 HX also features an effective, albeit extremely loud, cooling system that ensures the laptop doesn’t get too hot during intensive games. All of these goodies are packed into a lovely, premium and practical design — but it also houses the laptop’s mediocre battery life, which puts a damper on things.

For the complete breakdown, read my full MSI Crosshair 16 HX E14W review.

MSI Crosshair 16 HX E14W review: Specs

MSI Crosshair 16 HX E14W review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A 16-inch gaming laptop boasting excellent performance across the board
• Who is it for? Gamers looking for a high-performing Windows laptop
• How much does it cost? At the time of writing, pricing hasn’t been confirmed
• What do we like? The great design, outstanding performance, 240Hz refresh rate for gaming, effective cooling system, and great color coverage and accuracy
• What don’t we like? The loud fans and mediocre battery life

MSI Crosshair 16 HX E14W review: The ups

From its premium design and excellent color coverage to its superb gaming performance and effective cooling system, the MSI Crosshair 16 HX E14W is a formidable laptop.

Gorgeous design with plenty of ports

If you took one look at the MSI Crosshair 16 HX E14W, you’d instantly know it’s a gaming laptop, through and through. MSI’s dragon shield emblem in teal with a subtle reflective finish graces the laptop’s matte lid, adding a pop of color to the black notebook. I love the aluminum chassis too, which feels and looks premium.

The Crosshair 16 HX E14W is fitted with a 16-inch (2560 x 1600) non-touch screen and the laptop itself measures 14.29 x 10.62 x 1.01 inches — ever-so slightly bigger than the Dell Alienware 16X Aurora ($2,499) and the Dell XPS 16 ($1,749). It fits easily into most regular-sized laptop backpacks, and I’ve had no issues carrying it to and from work. It weighs 5.07 pounds, so while it isn’t as light as the MacBook Pro M5 (3.4 pounds, $1,599), it isn’t as bulky as the 5.66lbs Alienware 16X Aurora.

I’ve tested many MSI monitors and I’ve come to expect great build quality from the Taiwanese company — this applies to the Crosshair 16 HX too, from the overall construction to its keyboard and trackpad. The low-profile keyboard is a sheer delight to type on, with each key’s total travel distance of 1.7mm making typing fatigue-free. It also features four-zone RGB which can be customized via pre-installed software — and it further reaffirms that this is a Gaming laptop, with a capital G. I found the trackpad responsive and comfortable in my testing too.

The Crosshair 16 HX doesn’t give you much to complain about in the I/O and ports department, either. The laptop’s left edge sports the power and two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (DisplayPort and 100W Power Delivery), while the right edge houses the 3.5mm audio jack as well as two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports. The RJ45 Ethernet, HDMI 2.1 (8K at 60Hz or 4K at 120Hz) and another USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port are located on the rear. That should be plenty for connecting keyboards, mice, monitors and headsets.

Stunning, bright display

The MSI Crosshair 16 HX E14W packs a beautiful QHD+ panel that’s truly a sight to behold. Having used the laptop for gaming, productivity, and even testing monitors, I can confidently say its screen won’t give you much to complain about. The 2.5K panel packs plenty of resolution to make games feel immersive, and it’s enough for enjoying movies and YouTube videos, too.

Speaking of gaming, the Crosshair 16 HX has a refresh rate of 240Hz — same as the Dell Alienware 16X Aurora — and this ensures silky smooth performance in a range of games, including but not limited to Forza Horizon 5 and Counter-Strike 2. I’ll discuss gaming performance in detail shortly, but let’s talk about colors and brightness first.

I’ve been extremely impressed with the Crosshair 16 HX’s bright and vivid display. The World Wildlife 4K YouTube video, which I always watch when testing laptops, looked nothing short of stunning. Vivid colors, rich blues and greens, inky blacks, and controlled highlights all contributed to a thoroughly enjoyable viewing experience.

I put the Crosshair 16 HX through its paces in my lab testing, and the results confirmed what I saw on screen. The laptop covers 157.5% of the sRGB color space and 111.6% of the wider DCI P3 gamut. 100% is the most accurate while anything above that has more saturation, and the Crosshair 16 HX goes above and beyond, delivering the entire color spectrum for your eyes to feast on. It blows its competitors out of the water, as you can see in the table above.

Alongside color coverage, the Crosshair 16 HX’s color accuracy is phenomenal, too. In my lab testing, it achieved a Delta-E score of 0.2, besting the Dell Alienware 16X Aurora and the Razer Blade 16 ($2,999), and being on level playing field with the MacBook Pro M5. The closer the Delta-E score to zero, the better, so 0.2 is great and what we usually see when testing the best laptops.

In terms of brightness, the Crosshair 16 HX achieved 447 nits in my testing, and it’s beaten by a hair's breadth only by the MacBook Pro M5. Other Windows laptops in the same price range or just over fail to upstage it, as you can see above. In real-world usage, I had no issues seeing the Crosshair 16 HX’s screen, regardless of the lighting conditions.

Great performance across the board

Regardless of the task I did, the MSI Crosshair 16 HX E14W performed formidably, and I was impressed with its performance across the board. You can get the laptop in a few configurations (full details here), and my review unit, also the top-line configuration, came fitted with the Intel Core i7 14650HX chip, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 graphics card.

I conducted my benchmark tests, as I do with every other laptop I test, and I was satisfied with the results. On Geekbench 6, which tests and measures overall CPU performance, the 16X Aurora pulled in a solid multi-core score of 15,982, outclassing the Alienware x16 R2 ($2,099). The MacBook Pro M5, the Dell Alienware 16X Aurora and the Razer Blade 16 perform better than the Crosshair 16 HX E14W, but not by much.

What impressed me most, though, was how the Crosshair 16 HX outperformed the MacBook Pro M5 and nearly every other laptop in our HandBrake video editing test (transcoding a 4K video to 1080p). The Crosshair 16 HX is outdone by the Razer Blade 16 but only by a narrow margin.

Last but not least, I measured the Crosshair 16 HX’s read and write speeds using the BlackMagic Disk Speed test, and the laptop performed well. As you can see from the table above, the Crosshair 16 HX achieved 4,575 write and 5,055 read speeds, trumping the Dell Alienware 16X Aurora.

Having used both the Crosshair 16 HX and Alienware 16X Aurora extensively for productivity-oriented tasks, like working in Google Docs, browsing the web, and even editing photos, I can confirm that both laptops perform well. The MacBook Pro M5 does better, though, but for everyday use, the Crosshair 16 HX is more than enough.

Excellent gaming performance

As I’ve said a few times now, the MSI Crosshair 16 HX E14W is first and foremost a gaming laptop — and a great one at that. My review unit came packed with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 graphics card, and the entry-level configuration features a 5060 card. At its native resolution of 2560 x 1600 and refresh rate of 240Hz, the Crosshair 16 HX performs formidably, running even intensive Steam games without breaking a sweat.

I ran in-game benchmark tests, and you can see the results in the table above. With Extreme graphics enabled, Forza Horizon 5 achieved an average frame rate of 102fps, which is excellent for a system-hungry game. With features like Ray-Traced Lighting set to Ultra in Cyberpunk 2077, the laptop achieved an average FPS of 55fps — about 8fps less than the Dell Alienware 16X Aurora. F1 25 was the standout, as even with graphics set to Ultra High, the game ran at a silky smooth 143fps. In Counter-Strike 2, a game not as intensive as the others, the maximum FPS achieved was a whopping 228.

So, the benchmark results are great, and the laptop sounds fantastic on paper, and the best part is, it’s even better in real-world use. The visuals are nothing short of sublime. The screen delivers rich, punchy colors without looking overly saturated, which I especially enjoyed when roaming the neon-laden streets of Cyberpunk 2077. For an IPS panel, the contrast is good too, though naturally, blacks don’t appear as deep as on an OLED display.

In Forza Horizon 5 and F1 25, I appreciated the smooth motion and how well the games ran, as I didn’t experience any ghosting or lag. The 240Hz panel shone in Counter-Strike 2. Tracking targets felt effortless as they remained clear throughout, and rapidly flicking between enemies felt controlled rather than blurry. Overall, the Crosshair 16 HX delivers a thoroughly enjoyable and immersive gaming experience. You shouldn’t have any qualms with its performance.

Powerful cooling system

Unlike the Dell Alienware 16X Aurora, which can get very hot, the MSI Crosshair 16 HX E14W remained cool throughout my testing. Whether I was playing games or had 40 tabs open at once, the laptop didn’t get too hot, and that’s thanks to its excellent cooling system. It utilizes MSI’s Cooler Boost technology, which optimizes airflow and heat transfer, and packs large cooling fans as well as four exhaust vents to quickly push heat out of the chassis.

MSI says that this generation features 51.1% more airflow compared to the previous, and its cooling system enables up to 17.6% higher performance “while maintaining the same noise level.” I’ll talk more about the noise in the following section, but for the time being, I can confirm that the Crosshair 16 HX stays as cool as a cucumber.

MSI Crosshair 16 HX E14W review: The downs

There isn’t much wrong with the MSI Crosshair 16 HX E14W, but its fans get really loud, and battery life is nothing to write home about.

Fans get very loud

One of the first things I noticed after powering on the MSI Crosshair 16 HX was just how ridiculously loud its fans were. As soon as I booted up Steam, it sounded like the laptop was about to take off. As I mentioned earlier, the Crosshair 16 HX’s cooling fans and system are extremely effective, but it’s still jarring just how loud the fans are. My colleague had a very concerned look on his face when he heard jet engine noises coming from my desk.

This isn’t a dealbreaker but just something to keep in mind. I’d recommend using one of the best gaming headsets — preferably one with active noise cancelation — to ensure the fans’ loudness doesn’t break your immersion.

Poor battery life

Unfortunately, the MSI Crosshair 16 HX E14W’s battery life seriously lets it down, and I wouldn’t recommend using the laptop for intensive gaming if you aren’t close to a plug socket.

I used UL Procyon’s battery benchmark test and calibrated the Crosshair 16 HX’s brightness to 150 nits, then turned off the keyboard’s RGB lighting. I then let it play videos on loop until it ran out of charge. It took two hours and 44 minutes for the Crosshair 16 HX to shut down… and that’s terrible.

When I benchmarked the Dell Alienware 16X Aurora, I thought three hours and one minute was awful, but this is even worse. And while the Razer Blade 16 and the Alienware x16 R2 also have poor battery lives, they aren’t this bad. The MacBook Pro M5, on the other hand, is a titan when it comes to battery life, and the others simply don’t compare. That comparison, however, is a little unfair as MacBooks are built for efficiency, whereas gaming laptops generally don’t prioritize battery life.

MSI Crosshair 16 HX E14W review: Verdict

If you want a gaming laptop that doesn’t skimp on performance, the MSI Crosshair 16 HX E14W is one of the best you can buy today. Covering more than 100% of both the sRGB and DCI P3 gamuts and boasting incredible color accuracy, it’s a fantastic choice for both gaming and work. Its 240Hz refresh rate and vivid display don’t give you much to complain about, and its cooling system is highly effective.

But the Crosshair 16 HX isn’t perfect. I love that, in my testing, I didn’t experience any overheating, but I hate how loud and jarring its fans are. They’re immersion-breaking, really. The laptop’s battery life of just under three hours isn’t great either, so it isn’t the best choice for gaming or working on the go.

As long as you don’t mind those compromises, I can’t think of any other reasons to not recommend the Crosshair 16 HX. It’s premium-looking. It’s powerful. Its screen is a joy to look at. While the fan noise may turn heads, everything else deserves your attention.

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 is often one of our favorite gaming laptops, though the 2025 model lost us with its expensive price tag, sub-par keyboard, and abysmal battery life.

While the 2026 model does have better battery life to go along with its powerful CPU and GPU performance, lightweight design, and vibrant display, it still suffers from a hefty price tag and disappointing legacy features like the same chiclet keyboard and heavy proprietary power brick.But can the new Zephyrus G16’s premium features make up for its high price tag to become one of our best gaming laptops?

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026): Cheat sheet

• What is it?: The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 is a premium, light and thin gaming laptop.
• Who is it for?: Gamers on the go, students, and professionals who need a laptop with a powerful GPU while still being able to commute to and from work or school.
• What does it cost?: Pricing for the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 starts at $3,699
• What do we like?: The Zephyrus G16 is a portable powerhouse with strong CPU and GPU performance, impressive battery life, a sleek design, and vibrant display.
• What don’t we like?: The Zephyrus G16, like all gaming hardware in 2026, has been hit with the same memory shortage price increase which makes it far less affordable for students and gamers. The power brick is also a bit heavy for a commuter laptop.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026): Specs

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026): The ups

The Zephyrus laptop line has always been premium with the build quality and features to match. The 2026 model is no different, with a sleek design, robust audio, vivid display, strong CPU and GPU performance, and good battery life.

A sleek gaming machine

Asus hasn’t changed much on the Zephyrus G16’s chassis this generation. So it’s still a slim, easily portable aluminum chassis with a shiny chrome stripe that runs on an angle across the top panel lid. The Asus Republic of Gamers logo is subtly embossed on the lower left-hand corner of the panel, leaving the rest of the design on the more understated side.

Combined with slim display bezels, a smooth keyboard deck, and an edge-to-edge touchpad that takes the entire vertical space between the keyboard and the edge of the palm rest, the inside deck of the laptop is as sleek as the outside panels, maintaining the Zephyrus’ modern aesthetic.

The top-firing quad-speaker audio system features Dolby Atmos tuning and achieves impressive volume with crisp clarity, so you can go without a pair of headphones. The built-in audio is loud enough to be heard over the Zephyrus’ cooling fans, so you don’t need to worry about losing audio entirely while gaming.

The 16-inch OLED display is also on the vibrant side, boasting Pantone validation for color accuracy. While our own testing validated an 80% accuracy for the display, we do expect some variation on OLED panels based on our testing methods compared to the methods used to measure display accuracy used by manufacturers like Asus.

The Zephyrus’s display is also bright, hitting an average SDR brightness of 469 nits, with a peak HDR brightness of 1,052 nits. Whether you’re using the Zephyrus G16 for a Netflix binge or for a visually immersive gaming session, it’s going to be an enjoyable experience.

Stronger CPU and GPU performance

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2025) wasn’t exactly a slouch when it came to performance, it just wasn’t quite powerful enough to justify its price tag.Compared to last year’s Zephyrus G16, the 2026 Zephyrus packs a more powerful punch in CPU multicore performance on Geekbench 6 and Handbrake, which is helpful since the 2025 Zephyrus was a bit underwhelming in terms of raw power.

The Zephyrus also gets stronger multicore performance than the MSI Stealth 16 AI+, despite having the same Intel chipset. Even when put against our best premium gaming laptop, the Razer Blade 16 (2026), the Zephyrus comes out with a slight edge on multithreaded performance.

As for the Zephyrus’ GPU performance, things get a bit more complicated. The 2026 Zephyrus scraped together a few more FPS on Cyberpunk 2077 at 1600p compared to the 2025 Zephyrus (which was running at 1440p resolution). The 2026 Zephyrus G16 also benchmarked well when compared to other RTX 5080 gaming laptops like the Razer and Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 10.

The Zephyrus G16 trailed only a few FPS behind the to the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i on games like Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Black Myth: Wukong and Cyberpunk at Ultra 1080p settings, though the Razer Blade 16 outperformed both the Legion and Zephyrus G16.

I was easily able to achieve framerates of 200fps or higher on games like Doom: The Dark Ages on Ultra settings at 1600p resolution with DLSS enabled, while native performance without DLSS was around 60fps.

Highly optimized titles like Baldur’s Gate III and Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail also performed well above 100fps even without super sampling. So you are getting proper gaming performance even if the Razer Blade 16 might be just a bit more powerful.

All-day battery life

Gaming laptops are rarely known for having great battery life, but there have been a few notable exceptions over the years. The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) is one of those rare gaming laptops that gets over 10 hours of web surfing battery life.

At 150-nits of brightness, the Zephyrus G16 lasted over 13 hours and 45 minutes. That’s an hour longer than the Razer Blade 16 (2026), about 3 hours more battery life than the MSI Stealth 16 AI+, and more than 3x the battery life of the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i.

Things do take a bit of a downturn when it comes to gaming battery life, however. The Zephyrus has just 55 minutes of gaming battery life on the PCMark 10 Gaming battery test, while the MSI Stealth and Razer Blade 16 both have nearly two hours of gaming battery time.

However, you’re unlikely to game on a laptop when running on battery power, so that’s less of a detriment than it could be otherwise. Just make sure to pack your charger, especially if you’re going to be doing a lot of GPU-heavy work.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026): The downs

While the ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) has plenty to recommend it, all those positives do come with a few downsides. The biggest one is the price-tag. But the new Zephyrus shares a chassis with the 2025 model, which means it has the same lackluster keyboard and hefty proprietary power brick.

Beyond expensive

All tech hardware has become nigh unaffordable, but some laptops have gotten hit by the supply chain price hike worse than others. The ROG Zephyrus was always a pricey, premium gaming laptop that fit into the working professional to STEM student venn diagram. But with a starting price of $3,699 for the RTX 5070 Ti version, it’s hard to see how the 2026 Zephyrus G16 could ever function as a student laptop.

Last year’s Zephyrus G16 at least had a starting configuration that was priced at $2,799. That’s still steep for your average college student but it’s still more affordable than this year’s model which is at least $900 more expensive and comes with less storage capacity than last year’s entry level configuration.

While some of this price hike is due to supply chain issues, the Zephyrus G16 has been steadily increasing in price over the past few years which is beyond the realm of the AI Data Center memory shortage. And that makes the hefty price tag of the 2026 Zephyrus even harder to justify.

Portability stops at the power brick

I’ve always appreciated the svelte design of the Zephyrus G16 and G14 laptops. They’re slim, they’re lightweight, and yet they pack a powerful punch that’s more than enough to do some high-power gaming even when on the road. Thin, portable gaming laptops are among my personal favorites.

But there’s one aspect of the Zephyrus G16 that feels stuck in the past. Between the proprietary AC-port and the heavy 250W charge brick, the Zephyrus G16 is a bit less portable than it appears. While the laptop itself weighs just 4.3 pounds, the power supply itself weighs an additional 1.3 pounds. And that brings the total carry weight of the Zephyrus G16 to 5.6 pounds.

Sure, it gets 13 hours of web-surfing battery life. But if I’m doing anything that will turn on the discrete Nvidia GPU, that battery life expectancy drops through the floor. The gaming battery life of the G16 is only 55 minutes, so the power brick isn’t an optional accessory.

It’d be one thing if Asus used a Thunderbolt 4 port for the G16. But the RTX 5080 is too power hungry for that. And thus we’re still stuck in the dark ages with a hefty external power supply that makes this ultraportable laptop just a little less comfortable to carry on a long commute.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026): Verdict

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 is often one of our favorite gaming laptops, however we were rather disappointed by the 2025 model thanks to its high price tag, sub-par keyboard, and grim battery life.

The 2026 model does fix the battery life issue, but it still suffers from the same lackluster keyboard and heavy proprietary power brick as last year’s model. And it’s even more expensive.

But if you’re looking for a highly commutable, powerful gaming laptop or STEM machine, the Zephyrus G16 is still a solid choice. As long as you’ve got the cash.

Nvidia has stormed Computex 2026 with the official announcement we all knew was coming: the company's first all-in-one laptop silicon called the RTX Spark Super Chip family.

Analysts are calling this Nvidia's most disruptive move in a decade, and my colleague Jason England likens it to the moment Apple unveiled its own M1 chip back in 2020. By moving beyond GPUs into integrated processors, Nvidia is throwing the gauntlet down to Qualcomm, Intel and AMD.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed RTX Spark during his keynote in Taipei, and the first laptops powered by the new chip should arrive in the fall. Beyond that, we can expect to see the RTX Spark appearing in mini PCs and small form-factor desktops from the likes of Dell, HP, Lenovo, Asus, MSI, Acer and Gigabyte.

Huang noted that Nvidia and Microsoft have been working away on this for the last three years to "reinvent the PC for the first time in 40 years," aiming to move towards a responsive, proactive AI experience. Microsoft itself is coming out of the gate with an RTX Spark-powered Surface Laptop Ultra that could be a MacBook Pro killer.

Here's the list of the first eight RTX Spark-equipped laptops, along with a few details we know about them.

Microsoft Surface Ultra

Microsoft hasn't confirmed many details about its upcoming RTX Spark-powered Surface Laptop Ultra, but we know it'll have a 15-inch mini-LED touchscreen with 2,000 nits of peak brightness.

It will benefit from a large haptic touchpad and all the required ports: HDMI, USB-C, USB-A, SD card and a headphone jack.

Microsoft claims this will be “the most powerful Surface Laptop ever built” when it arrives later this year. Microsoft also claims it can run AI models locally and that the chip delivers power comparable to a mobile RTX 5070 GPU.

Asus ProArt

Asus is planning to launch two RTX Spark-powered ProArt laptops later this year: the ProArt P16 and the ProArt P14. Both laptops will feature 120Hz OLED touch panels in the 16:10 format (one will be 16-inch, one 14-inch) and be geared towards creative professionals.

Memory will be up to 128GB LPDDR5X 9400, while storage can be configured up to 2TB on the P16 and 1TB on the P14. Regardless of which model you choose, you'll get a full suite of ports: 3x USB-C, 1x USB-A, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x headphone jack and 1x standard SD.

MSI Prestige N16

MSI is set to launch the 2-in-1 Prestige N16 Flip AI Plus, which, it says, will represent "a new generation of premium thin-and-light PCs.”

Sadly, we've got no further information on the specs, dimensions, or — crucially — the price. All we can say is that this will be a 16-inch laptop with a 3,840 x 2,160 OLED panel and a peak brightness of over 1,000 nits.

Dell XPS 16

Dell will launch an RTX Spark-equipped version of the XPS 16, which likely won't deviate much from the current model in terms of outward design. We can expect an aluminum 16.3-inch workhorse with three USB-C ports, an HDMI port, an SD card slot, and a headphone jack.

Price and specifications haven't been revealed yet.

HP OmniBook and Ultra 16

HP has confirmed two forthcoming RTX Spark laptops, the OmniBook X 14 and Ultra 16, but stopped short of announcing any specific details. The company says it will create "the world’s thinnest RTX Spark, built for powerful performance" and has confirmed it will follow up on the laptops with a compact desktop in the future.

“Our expanded portfolio pairs compact, powerful hardware with pre-configured environments and open-source toolchains to eliminate setup friction and accelerate the path from idea to execution," said Samuel Chang, senior vice president and division president, Consumer Personal Systems at HP.

Lenovo Yoga Pro 9n

Lenovo's flagship 16-inch laptop will also be getting the RTX Spark treatment, but we haven't had any details about exactly what changes to expect. Like the other laptops on this list, Lenovo's creator-focused 16-inch machine boasts a durable aluminum chassis and configurable specs tailored to your needs.

One area ripe for improvement would be battery life, and we'd hope that the RTX Spark-equipped Yoga Pro 9n can surpass the 9.45-hour battery life we recorded on the Intel-powered Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i.

Bottom line

In addition to announcing that over 30 laptops will come with the RTX Spark chip, Nvidia also revealed that Adobe is rebuilding Photoshop and Premiere Pro from the ground up for compatibility.

Suffice it to say, the above laptops will kick off a silicon war in the fall that could be good news for consumers. Especially for gamers and creative video editors. The Spark's Blackwell-architecture GPU, with 6,144 CUDA cores, brings Windows-on-Arm compatibility with Nvidia's gaming suite, including DLSS 4.5. You're going to get thin, light laptops capable of running triple-A games at 100 FPS with real-time ray tracing.

Finally, these laptops will be positioned to move Windows into a truly agentic AI future, with RTX Spark delivering 1 Petaflop of local AI performance. In a nutshell, it'll have the power and efficiency to work on the user's behalf across various apps to achieve the desired outcome.

So we're potentially looking at laptops with a thin-and-light form factor, elite battery life, and the power to crush desktop-class AI development, heavy creative production, or cutting-edge gaming. The only question is: how much will these devices cost when they arrive?

More from Tom's Guide

• I just tested the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ — Intel Arc G3 is a breakthrough for handheld gaming, but at what cost?
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Alienware's notebooks are among the best gaming laptops available, but they can be pricey for most folks. This is especially true now, thanks to RAMageddon. Thankfully, the company isn’t ignoring the current reality and has just launched a more affordable gaming laptop for PC gamers. Meet the new Alienware 15 (2026) gaming laptop.

Starting at $1,299, this 15-inch laptop packs up to an AMD Ryzen 7 CPU and up to an Nvidia RTX 5060 GPU. Couple with 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of SSD storage, and you have the basics for playing the best PC games at 1080p resolution and medium to high graphics. While the asking price is still above $1,000, it’s not terrible given current conditions.

I tested a pre-production model of the Alienware 15 gaming laptop and found it delivers a solid experience for those who don’t want to break the bank. Given its price, you’re not getting a premium display or chassis, but if you just want to play your PC games on something reliable, you won’t go wrong here.

Alienware 15 (2026) hands-on: Specs

Alienware 15 (2026) hands-on: Design

At first glance, the Alienware 15 certainly has the iconic look of the company’s laptops, with its all-black shell and Alienware logo on the lid. However, picking it up instantly makes it clear this isn’t just any Alienware product.

The polycarbonate resin lid and bottom have a plastic-like feel that’s a departure from the aluminum casings of higher-end Alienware laptops. While that’s jarring at first, the smooth, contoured lines and overall sleek design help offset that.

Unlike the Alienware 16 Area-51, the Alienware 15 has a full keyboard, which should make number pad users very happy. I don’t fall into that camp, so having the keys I actually mostly located on the left-hand side made it tricky to find my stride when typing. That said, the thick keys and their satisfying travel distance do make this a good laptop for writing.

The lion’s share of the ports is on the left-hand side. This includes two USB-A ports, an Ethernet port, a USB-C port, and an HDMI port. On the left are a lone USB-C port and a headphone jack. Port placement is generally fine if that’s the side you prefer to connect peripherals to, but it could be burdensome if you would have preferred them on the right side or on the back.

Alienware 15 (2026) hands-on: Display

The 15-inch display isn’t terrible, but after testing so many laptops with OLED panels, it’s certainly a step down in both picture quality and overall brightness.

Since this was a pre-production model, we didn’t run our usual suite of display benchmarks. To my eyes, however, the screen is noticeably dimmer and less vibrant than a more premium display.

That’s not to say things don’t appear clearly defined, because they certainly do. The 1200p resolution lets you see everything on the screen in fine detail. However, the muted colors and low brightness make everything look duller than you’d like.

Again, things don’t look terrible on the Alienware 15, but don’t expect a top-end viewing experience when playing games or watching videos.

Alienware 15 (2026) hands-on: Performance and battery life

I tested a pre-production model with entry-level specs. It includes an AMD Ryzen 5 processor, an Nvidia RTX 4050 mobile GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage. These aren’t the latest and greatest components, but they’re good enough for playing even demanding games at smooth frame rates.

At default graphical settings and native resolution, Cyberpunk 2077 ran at around 45 to 50 frames per second during my testing. Mind you, that’s without the frame-boosting DLSS upscaler enabled. With this feature turned on, the fps jumped to the low 60s, so it’s definitely worth it for a system like this.

Given its prowess as a gaming machine, the Alienware 15 had no problems handling my average workflow, which usually consists of dozens of open Chrome tabs and the occasional YouTube video running in the background. If you need to get work done, this laptop won’t let you down.

Lastly, let’s talk about battery life. We didn’t run our usual battery test on this machine, but during my testing, I was able to play for close to 90 minutes before the battery life warning appeared. That’s typical for a gaming laptop, so I wasn’t surprised. Naturally, you’ll want to keep this laptop connected while gaming so it keeps running and maintains optimal performance.

Alienware 15 (2026) hands-on: Outlook

Given how expensive gaming devices are nowadays, I applaud Alienware for keeping the average gamer in mind. Both the Alienware 15 gaming laptop and the $349 Alienware AW2726DM gaming monitor exemplify this philosophy.

While I wouldn’t call a $1,299 starting price cheap, it’s still affordable given the current state of things. I’ll have a full review for you once I get to test a final model, but for now, I like what Alienware is cooking up.

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The Razer Blade 16 (2026) is a gaming laptop that makes no compromises. It has an ultraportable design, yet a monstrous gaming beast is packed inside. Though you’ll pay top dollar for Razer’s latest, you’ll get a superlative gaming experience.

Inside, it packs the latest Nvidia RTX 50-series GPU, along with either an AMD Ryzen 9 or an Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU. That, along with up to 64GB of RAM, means you’ll have little trouble running the best PC games with graphics and resolution cranked to the max. No matter what I threw at it, the Razer Blade ran buttery smooth.

Like last year’s model, the new Blade 16 has a gorgeous OLED panel that delivers deep contrast and vivid colors. It also delivers excellent HDR brightness for an OLED gaming laptop. Whether it’s your favorite game or a streaming show, everything on the display will look its best.

Design-wise, the Razer Blade 16 impresses with its sturdy, CNC-milled aluminum all-black chassis. Without the green Razer logo on the lid, you might not even recognize it as a gaming laptop. Though not exactly light at nearly five pounds, its thin profile makes it easy to slip into your backpack.

While the Razer Blade 16 (2026) demands a steep asking price and can run very hot during demanding games, it’s undeniably one of the best gaming laptops I’ve reviewed. If you’re in the market for a slim gaming laptop with power to spare, this is the machine to get. Find out why in my full review.

Razer Blade 16 review (2026): Cheat sheet

• What is it? The Razer Blade 16 is a thin and powerful gaming laptop featuring the latest high-end components.
• Who is it for? For anyone who wants a premium gaming laptop and is willing to pay top dollar for it.
• What does it cost? The Razer Blade 16 (2026) starts at $2,399 on Razer’s website. As configured, our review unit is valued at $4,899.
• What do we like? We like the slim design, incredible gaming performance, and vivid OLED panel.
• What don’t we like? We don’t like the steep asking price, and that it runs too hot and loud under heavy load.

Razer Blade 16 review (2026): Specs

Razer Blade 16 review (2026): The ups

The Razer Blade 16 (2026) is an absolute powerhouse thanks to its beefy specs, but its elegant design and superb display also add to its allure.

Thin and light design

The Razer Blade 16 is one of the loveliest-looking gaming laptops I’ve ever reviewed. Its slim profile, rounded edges, and sturdy aluminum frame could make you mistake it for a high-end work notebook rather than a gaming machine. Not only does it look great, but its smooth surface also makes it a pleasure to hold.

Measuring 13.9 x 9.8 x 0.6 inches and weighing 4.7 pounds, the Razer Blade 16 makes for an unobtrusive travel partner. Sure, you’ll feel its weight in your backpack, but it won’t exactly break your back. It’s rare for a gaming laptop to be this thin and light, which is a major selling point.

Despite its thin profile, the Razer Blade 16 doesn’t skimp on ports. It packs nearly all the ports you need, including three USB-A, two USB-C, one HDMI, and a microSD reader. You don’t get an Ethernet port, which is a bit of a bummer, but you still get more than enough ports to make this your primary work PC at home.

The keyboard is another highlight, thanks to its thick, responsive keys. Travel distance isn’t shallow, which makes for a delightful typing experience. I’m also a fan of the touchpad, since its large size makes it easy to make gestures and swipes. While not as good as a proper mechanical keyboard, the board here is quite great for a gaming laptop.

Vivid OLED panel

The OLED panel on the Razer Blade 16 is one of its biggest selling points. Whether it was the neon-drenched streets of Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City or the vast open expanses of Red Dead Redemption 2, everything looked bright and colorful to my eyes. You want games to look as good as they run, and you certainly get that here.

As shown in the table above, the Razer Blade 16 delivers strong SDR and HDR brightness. It also features excellent color reproduction (sRGB and DCI-P3) and color accuracy (Delta-E). These values are comparable to those of other gaming laptops we recently tested, such as the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo and Alienware 16 Area-51.

The only minor downside is that the display is very glossy and easily picks up reflections and glare. You can mitigate this by playing in a darker room, but it’s something to keep in mind before you settle in to play games or watch videos.

Powerful gaming performance

The Razer Blade 16 I tested is a true gaming beast, thanks to its Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU, RTX 5090 GPU, and 32GB of RAM. Those specs also give it plenty of power for video and photo editing. Whether it's demanding tasks in everyday work, the Razer Blade is up to the job.

At 1080p with graphics set to max, Cyberpunk 2077 ran at around 60-70 frames per second during my testing. This is a very demanding game, so having it run so smoothly is impressive. With DLSS 4 enabled, I saw the fps climb to the mid-70s even when I bumped the resolution to 1440p.

In our lab tests, where we run a game’s benchmarking tool with the display set to native resolution and graphics maxed out, the Razer Blade 16 also performed well compared to its competitors. Sure, you’re not seeing the desired minimum 60 fps, but the laptop can still play titles at acceptable frame rates even with everything cranked up.

I should note that while the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo has the same specs as the Blade 16, it didn’t perform nearly as well because of different TDP and thermals—not to mention a different form factor. However, the Alienware 16, with its RTX 5080 GPU and a stronger Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU variant, was about on par with Razer’s beastly laptop.

Strong battery life

It’s usually not worth discussing a gaming laptop’s battery life, since most users keep these demanding machines plugged in for optimal performance. While you won’t get all-day gaming from the Razer Blade 16, it lasts surprisingly long for productivity.

In our battery life test, which involves continuous Wi-Fi web surfing with the display set to 150 nits, the Razer Blade 16 (2026) lasted nearly 13 hours. That’s almost as long as the Dell XPS 16 (13 hours 6 minutes), which is extremely impressive. However, its gaming battery life was just under two hours, which is typical for a gaming laptop.

Razer Blade 16 review (2026): The downs

The Razer Blade 16 is a phenomenal gaming laptop, but it has its shortcomings.

Very expensive

Let’s get the obvious one out of the way — the Razer Blade 16 ain’t cheap! While the starting price of $2,399 might not sound bad for a gaming laptop, you’re settling for a lower-end Nvidia RTX 5060 and less RAM. To get the most from this machine, you’ll want beefier components, which means paying a whole lot more.

If you want to upgrade to a configuration with an RTX 5080 GPU, an Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU, 1TB of storage, and 32GB of RAM, you’ll need to fork over a meaty $3,999. If you want to go all out with an RTX 5090, the same Intel processor, 2TB of storage, and 64GB of RAM, prepare your bank account for a $5,599 hit.

Though gaming laptops are notoriously expensive, the Razer Blade 16 demands a very steep price indeed.

Runs loud and hot

Thanks to the Razer Blade 16’s relatively lightweight design, it’s comfortable to keep on your lap while you work. However, if you plan to do anything intensive, like gaming or video editing, you won’t exactly have a “cool” experience.

On its underside, the Razer Blade reached 118 degrees Fahrenheit in our heat test. Since we consider anything above 95 degrees uncomfortable, that’s decidedly too hot.

This is par for the course with gaming laptops, but the Razer Blade 16 also gets very loud when you’re gaming. Because of that, you’ll want to wear a pair of the best headsets to cancel out the constant noise.

Razer Blade 16 review (2026): Verdict

The Razer Blade 16 (2026) is a fantastic gaming laptop that delivers a truly premium experience. Not only can it run even the most demanding games, but it does so in a sleek form factor that fits anywhere. I’ve tested many incredible gaming laptops over the years, and this one is now easily in my top 10. It’s that good.

Of course, the main drawback is the steep asking price. That’s likely due to RAMageddon, which is a shame. However, if money is no object and you need the best of the best, you won’t be disappointed with the Razer Blade 16 (2026). Right now, it’s my favorite gaming laptop of the year.

Thanks to the ongoing RAM crisis, finding a solid gaming laptop for a good price is becoming harder each day. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t fantastic deals out there. To that end, I’ve found an excellent mid-range laptop for a drastically reduced price.

Right now, the Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 10 with RTX 5070 is on sale at B&H Photo for $1,499. That’s $500 in savings on a gaming laptop that earned our editor’s choice badge. If you’re looking for a dependable mid-range laptop for gaming and work, this is one to check out. Here’s why.

As we said in our Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 10 review, this machine leads a double life as a gaming laptop and productivity powerhouse. The unit I’m spotlighting today actually has better specs than the unit we tested, as it features an RTX 5070 GPU over an RTX 5060 and 32GB of RAM instead of 16GB. Thanks to those specs, you get all-around great performance and zippy frame rates.

Besides the impressive specs, you also get a mesmerizing 15.1-inch OLED display that makes games and videos look their absolute best. The screen also gets bright, up to 500 nits, and the sharp 2560 x 1600 resolution and fast 165Hz refresh rate ensure everything is crystal clear and smooth.

You’re not sacrificing build quality, as this is a sleek system from every angle. Yes, it’s not exactly thin and light, but with an aluminum lid and a durable plastic chassis, it’s a refined, utilitarian design that doesn’t immediately scream “gaming laptop.” That last point matters if you want to use this laptop in public without drawing too many stares.

Of course, if you do use this notebook on the go, keep in mind that it is a gaming laptop and doesn’t have the best battery life. For gaming, you’ll be lucky if the Legion 5i lasts an hour. Thankfully, it does last a bit longer for general productivity. Still, make sure you don’t forget to bring its charger with you when you’re out and about.

This Lenovo Legion 5i deal is so good that I don’t expect it to last much longer. If you’re looking for your next gaming laptop, don’t hesitate to snatch up this beauty while you can.

The MSI Stealth has a whole new look for 2026. No longer is the Stealth an ultrathin shiny black box, but rather it features a more robust thermal system and a new modern design with subtle pinstriping and MSI branding on the charcoal aluminum cover.

I’ve been a fan of MSI’s Stealth line for years, since I love a good thin and light gaming laptop. Unfortunately, the Stealth models have had their ups and downs over the last decade, and the last few years have been the most volatile as MSI has pivoted from targeting hardcore gamers on the go to a more content creator-focused audience. The pricing on the Stealth has also vacillated from being a premium, ultraslim gaming laptop to a thicker, more reasonably priced option, though this year’s model is returning to that slim, premium aesthetic.While I can appreciate the subtle touches of the new Stealth and the increased thermal capacity, and thus better performance, I find myself a bit torn on the new design. The revamped Stealth may be more powerful and fit in better as a professional or student laptop, but it's lost some of its charm and portability in the bargain.

My MSI Stealth 16 AI+ (2026) review will help you decide if this is the best gaming laptop for you and whether or not the benefits of the new design are worth the sacrifice.

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ (2026): Cheat sheet

• What is it? The MSI Stealth 16 AI+ (2026) ditches the classic gaming aesthetic of previous years in favor of a new, sleek chassis with better thermals.
• Who is it for? Gamers or content creators who need a portable laptop with powerful Nvidia discrete graphics performance.
• What does it cost? The starting configuration costs $2,099 and is available at Best Buy.
• What do we like? The redesigned chassis has a more premium feel than prior models, the Intel Panther Lake CPU provides great general performance and solid battery life, with a vivid OLED display for fantastic visuals.
• What don’t we like: The Stealth lost some of its portability with the more powerful cooling system, and the RTX 5060 model is very expensive for a base configuration.

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ (2026): Specs

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ (2026): The Ups

The Stealth 16 AI+ gets plenty right as a premium, portable, 16-inch gaming laptop. It’s got a streamlined, understated modern design, powerful CPU and GPU performance, great general use battery life, and a stunning OLED display.

Slick, modern design

The Stealth has a sturdy, all-aluminum chassis. While the new aluminum coating still picks up fingerprints, it’s not quite as much of a fingerprint magnet as previous Stealth models. However, you will probably want to keep a cleaning cloth on hand for smudges.

Ultimately, the new chassis not only feels like a premium laptop, it also looks like one with rounded corners, subtle detailing, and an almost MacBook-like clean keyboard deck.

The Stealth’s keyboard is a 4-zone RGB keyboard that can be controlled in MSI center to fit your personal vibe. The typing experience on the Stealth is pretty fantastic for a slim gaming laptop, offering decent key travel without any mushy-membrane feel. Paired with the oversized in Enlarge Touchpad and plenty of IO ports, it's hard to find fault with the overall user experience of the Stealth.

Vivid display and powerful audio

The display has gotten a glossy OLED overhaul, offering vivid color and over 350-nits of brightness, which makes up for one of the main drawbacks of last year’s Stealth model which offered an underwhelming amount of vibrancy, particularly while gaming. This year’s Stealth 16 AI+ not only offers an OLED panel’s near-infinite contrast ratio, but features super-saturated color that makes gaming or streaming video on the Stealth a proper delight.

The sound system has also been upgraded to a 2x2W speaker and 2x2W woofer setup which offers crisp, clean audio that’s powerful enough to be heard even while gaming under heavy load.

Respectable CPU and GPU performance

The Stealth is also no slouch when it comes to performance, thanks to its Intel Core Ultra 9 386H Panther Lake CPU. The Stealth isn’t just great at multitasking but can handle some serious photo and video editing too thanks to its discrete Nvidia RTX 5060 GPU.

Not only does the Stealth hit a respectable 15,170 multicore average on Geekbench 6.7, it also encoded the 4K edition of Tears of Steel into a 1080p format in just 3 minutes and 31 seconds. While not breaking any records for performance, it does pack a solid punch even when compared to some of our favorite gaming laptops like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025).

As for gaming performance, the Stealth is pretty comparable to other RTX 5060 gaming laptops, offering fantastic performance at 1080p, while it can struggle at higher resolutions on more graphically intense games like Black Myth: Wukong or Cyberpunk 2077 where the Stealth struggles to scrape past 30fps. But for older or well-optimized titles like Borderlands 3 or Far Cry 6, the RTX 5060’s raw performance is more than sufficient without even accounting for all of Nvidia’s GPU software optimization tools.

And, as an Nvidia RTX 50-series laptop, the Stealth gets the benefits of Nvidia’s DLSS 4.5, meaning you can enable up to 6x frame generation for smoother performance at higher resolutions. And that means you can run Doom: The Dark Ages on High or even Nightmare level at 1600p without dropping frames or getting fragged by the hordes of darkness. As long as you’re willing to accept that some of your pixels are AI pixels.

Surprisingly good battery life

While the Stealth’s battery life wouldn’t hold a candle to your average consumer laptop, as far as gaming laptops go, getting 10 hours and 49 minutes of web surfing battery life on our battery benchmark is pretty impressive.