Is a Gaming Laptop Worth the Investment in 2022?

Last Updated on July 21, 2022 by Team Yantra

Talking about gaming, a full-fledged gaming PC pops into the mind and you are not wrong to think that way. Gaming desktops are the staple of the gaming community, but gaming laptops have come a long way in the last couple of years in providing a better value. 

The cost of entering the world of gaming can be intimidating, especially if you’ve never purchased a high-end laptop before. However, there is a substantial advantage to taking the plunge, since the opportunity to play your favourite games from anywhere cannot be understated. 

Expensive gaming laptops, on the other hand, aren’t for everyone. Let’s go right to the point: is a gaming laptop worth the money?

We’ll quickly go over all the best pros and cons of buying a gaming laptop, so you can make an informed decision about what to purchase (or when to save your money for something else).

Reasons to Avoid Purchasing a Gaming Laptop

The Price Barrier

This is, undoubtedly, the most compelling case against purchasing a portable gaming system. Gaming laptops are unquestionably more expensive than desktops, keeping the performance/specifications the same.

You’re looking around ₹80000 – ₹1,00,000 ($1000 – 1200$) for a decent gaming laptop that can run anything new on high settings. That’s also going to be the starting point for any VR-ready product. The cost of a top-of-the-line experience can easily exceed ₹2,00,000.

Given that an Xbox Series S/X or PS5 can be purchased for less than ₹59,000 ($500), a laptop may not be the best option unless you require a complete desktop experience.

Reduced Power

While most laptop makers do not advertise this, it is crucial to realize that many gaming laptops really have worse performance compared to their desktop counterparts. For example, a desktop RTX 3060 will always trump in performance compared to the one used in laptops.

Because of their portability and limited cooling capabilities, the hardware inside usually has lower-powered GPUs and Max-Q designs than their full-size desktop equivalents.

Note: Different laptops will have the same GPU with varying power to cut costs. Want to read more on laptop GPUs, read more here.

Having said that, laptop GPUs are catching up really fast to their desktop counterparts, especially for entry-level, mid-range GPUs and processors.

Less Upgrade Potential

This is a vital point that should not be overlooked: while gaming laptops offer greater portability, they offer substantially fewer upgrade possibilities than a desktop.

To be fair, most models allow for easy access to the RAM and the SSD which may be swapped merely by unscrewing a few screws. This is useful for keeping up with technology and later adding additional memory or storage capacity.

However, for the vast majority of laptops, replacing the graphics card or upgrading the CPU is just not possible. What you obtain there is what you’ll have for the rest of your life, except for RAM and storage.

A laptop isn’t the way to go if you want to be able to replace your GPU in a few years. If you want to upgrade, you have to upgrade your laptop unit.

Heat Buildup

Finally, one factor that many laptop purchasers overlook is the amount of heat generated by a high-end graphics card.

Gaming computers get too hot to be held directly on your lap, and their exhaust ports must be kept away from cables that could melt. While this is not a huge problem in today’s laptops since their cooling is so much better now.

Although it can become really uncomfortable for you to play on a gaming laptop while keeping it on your lap. Having said that, this problem can be efficiently combated with low-cost cooling pads or simply not playing it on your lap.

Reasons to Buy a Gaming Laptop

Portability

Portability is the biggest advantage of a gaming laptop. The ability to carry around a powerful machine can be very helpful. For example, LAN parties with friends! You can just put your laptop in a bag and head over to your friend’s house for a gaming party!

If you own a gaming console or a computer, you are pretty much limited to your room. Unless you can carry your desktop in a briefcase, a gaming laptop is more suited if portability is a major factor.

Better than buying a Gaming Consoles

Gamers on consoles and PCs are always trying to outperform each other. Despite the fact that consoles give an exciting gaming experience, it is purely for the purposes of gaming. As a result, you’ll need to utilize a different computer for work purposes or to edit videos or prepare presentations.

Consoles have their own advantages but a gaming laptop is essentially a more expensive gaming console that is much smaller!

A powerful gaming laptop allows you to perform both jobs on the same machine. It gives you a more complete experience where you can complete your academic work, play games, and watch movies.

If your purpose is just pure gaming and you don’t care about other things, getting a console in 2022 might be better because of the huge library of excellent games on both PS5/PS4 and Xbox. But gaming laptops offer a complete experience.

Gaming laptops are all-rounders

A gaming laptop is inherently known for gaming and that is its biggest advantage. Since it will have powerful hardware, it can easily plough through any task. Getting a gaming laptop will make sure you are not lagging while working on presentations and you can easily use it for productivity tasks.

You can argue that gaming laptops are heavier and cumbersome to use as a daily laptop but there are laptops in smaller 14-inch sizes which perform the same while offering better ergonomics.

Better than standard, business or productivity laptops

Gaming laptops are built to handle both well-known games and others that have yet to be released. To do this, these devices are built with components that will stay relevant for a much longer period of time.

If you look at things from the perspective of an investment, this means you’re spending money on a laptop that will live much longer than a standard laptop.

Better Resale

Gaming laptops and consoles have a higher resale value than standard laptops and consoles. While you may intend to keep your new gaming laptop for a long time, if you want to sell it, you will get a better resale value compared to a standard laptop.

Conclusion

The value of gaming laptops depends on what you’re comparing with. If you are comparing it with a gaming desktop, the desktop is a better long-term investment. But, laptops do offer a compelling advantage in terms of portability.

If you compare it to a gaming console, gaming laptops can do so much more than game and offers portability too.

Even compared to standard laptops which are fairly expensive, a budget gaming laptop provides you with a better value.

The greatest strength of a gaming laptop is its ability to do virtually, everything. Gaming? Video editing? Opening up emails? Watching movies? It can do everything while giving you the advantage of carrying it anywhere you need.

A gaming laptop can be really good value if you want a machine that can game and do all other generic stuff that a standard laptop can do. If you need help with choosing the right laptop, check this Ultimate Laptop Buying Guide.