Looking for a the best gaming laptop under 1500 is both fun and challenging. You have a tight budget or simply don’t want to break the bank with this purchase because gaming laptops tend to be the most expensive in the market.
Choosing the Best Gaming Laptop under 1500 means you are willing to invest plenty, but not sell your kidneys in the process. You want a smooth gaming experience for your favorite games, but you need an affordable gaming laptop.
That’s why we’ve created this post where we go over the best gaming laptops under 1500 in our opinion, judging by their features, power, and price tag.
In this Post
The Best Gaming Laptop Under 1500
The process of picking the best in any category is thoughtful and extensive.
We analyzed everything on the market, all the options from all the brands. We got as many of them in our hands as we could and ran benchmarks with actual games that we own, either new games from this year or going down to some classic oldies that stood the test of time (we love you, Bioshock Infinite).
It’s not easy to get way below the 1500 mark when it comes to gaming laptops, so you’ll notice our list pretty much has things that almost hit the limit.
Now, without further ado, we present you with our top 5!
1. ASUS TUF Dash Gaming Laptop
Winner – BEST Gaming laptop under 1500
ASUS has kept delivering excellent gaming performance for many years now. For the under 1500 price point, specifically at just $1399,00 you can get the excellent ASUS TUF Dash in a mid-range configuration that works just AMAZING for most games.
For us, this is the Best Gaming Laptop Under 1500. Continue reading to know why.
SPECS
- Graphics Card: NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 6GB
- CPU: Intel i7-11370H Processor (4 Cores, 8 Threads, 12MB Cache, 3.30 GHz base frequency, up to 4.80 GHz max turbo frequency)
- Memory: 24GB DDR4 RAM
- Hard Drive: 512GB PCIe SSD + 1TB PCIe SSD
- Operating System: Windows 11 Home
- Display: 15.6″ FHD display with 144Hz refresh rate
- Ports:
- 1 x SuperSpeed USB Type-C
- 3 x SuperSpeed USB Type-A
- 1 x HDMI 1.4b
- 1 x Headphone/microphone combo
- 1 x RJ-45
- Battery: 200WHrs, 3-cell Li-ion
- Dimensions: 0.78 x 9.92 x 14.17 in
- Weight: 4.41 pounds
Performance
It did great in our benchmarks for most games from 2-3 years ago running at 60 FPS on medium to high graphics settings. The processing power of this laptop is really good for an immersive gaming experience and it even matches that of a seemingly more powerful gaming laptop.
This one is, all in all, a gaming machine designed to appeal to most gamers while still being a very affordable laptop.
We played both single and multiplayer games and it never felt underpowered for the task, though as you might expect some of the latest PC Games will not run at 60FPS in the highest settings.
About the battery life, well, you might end up using it in “always plugged” mode as the energy didn’t last for more than a 1.5 hours gaming session. Using it for web browsing or streaming, it can last up to 4 hours of continuous use which is pretty decent for a gaming laptop.
Screen
The screen is beautiful and has crisp, vibrant colors. Yes, it’s only a Full HD display but as we said before, it’s definitely one thing we can leave behind for now and, someday in the future, buy a better monitor and just hook it up through the HDMI Port.
RAM and Storage
24 GB DDR4 RAM is quite enough for most gaming enthusiasts, especially having a nice and high frequency. The combined, big SSD storage puts it on a higher tier and makes it a great gaming laptop for sure.
2. Sager NP7880P Gaming Laptop
Best Big Gaming Laptop
Earlier in this post, we said that you might need to look at some OEM options to secure the best performance for a reasonable price point, and we meant it.
At only $1449, The Sager NP7880P is a beast in terms of performance, featuring a 12th gen Intel Core i7 processor, 17.3-inch thin bezel screen at 144Hz, 32 GB of RAM, and an NVidia Geforce RTX 3060, you can’t squeeze more value out of your 1500 bucks.
Some people say OEM Laptops (or desktops) are hard to trust in terms of build quality or even the factory behind them. However, I’ve had too many HP and ASUS laptops die on me less than 1 year after the purchase to say there’s any difference. In fact, I have a previous model from Sager and it’s been up and kicking since 2018 with no problem on a daily usage schedule.
On the weak part, the battery life of this laptop is nothing to be amazed of, nor is its backlit keyboard with a single zone that will not fulfill the colored dreams of any gamer.
SPECS
- Graphics Card: NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 6GB
- CPU: 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700H 14-Core Processor, up to 4.7GHz Turbo Boost
- Memory: 32GB DDR4 RAM 3200 MHz
- Hard Drive: 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD storage
- Operating System: Windows 11 Home
- Display: 17.3” Thin Bezel Full HD 144Hz, Wide View Angle, Matte Display
- Ports:
- Micro SD Card reader
- 1 Thunderbolt
- 4 Port (Type C)
- 1 HDMI output Port (with HDCP)
- 1 Mini DisplayPort 1.4 output Port
- 1 USB 2.0 Port (Type A)
- 1 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Port (Type A)
- 1 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Port (Type C)
- 1 2-in-1 Audio Jack (Headphone / Microphone)
- 1 Microphone Jack
- 1 RJ-45 LAN (10/100/1000Mbps)
- Battery: Built-in 4 cells Polymer battery pack 54WH, Full Range AC-in 100~240V, 50~60Hz, 180W AC Adapter, DC output 20V, 9A
- Dimensions: 15.63″ (w) x 10.32″ (d) x 0.98″ (h)
- Weight: 5.49 lbs. with Battery Pack
Performance
This New Gaming Laptop is awesome and plays awesome. It’s a great gaming laptop that offers much more than what you pay for.
Thanks to its huge processing power, made from a great Intel i7 processor, a very good Nvidia Graphics card, the generous 32 GB RAM, and the excellent NVMe drive. During our benchmarks, this one played awesome all games we threw at it and responded with ease even under the stress of very high quality graphics.
We noticed performance was a little bit lower than our Top 1 in this ranking (the ASUS TUF DASH), mostly due to the need to power a bigger screen at the same high refresh rate. But in all cases, it performed awesomely and can support games from 2022 with ease at solid frame rates.
The battery life is, yet again, lacking in its durability and you might end up using it
Screen
The screen is, without any doubt, a selling point of this gaming laptop. It’s big and shows a very high-quality image, with vibrant colors that remain clear under any situation, yet are not too bright and blinding thanks to its Matte nature.
Again, it’s only Full HD but it’s big and clear so you might not even need a better screen in the future.
RAM and Storage
With 32 GB DDR4 RAM at 3200 MHz, you can’t get more for the price. The 1TB PCIe NVMe drive is big, fast, and reliable. We would love to see a version of this with more space but it’s one of those things you can add later (at least externally) for a relatively low price.
3. Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-54-760S Gaming Laptop
Best Gaming Laptop for way under 1500
The Acer Predator Helios 300 has been a sure choice for gamers looking for the best budget gaming laptops and is probably the top 1 in any rank of the best budget gaming laptop across so many websites and blogs that it’s almost impossible not to include it in the under 1500 category as well.
In this case, we are looking at the $1190 configuration, featuring an 11th Generation Intel Core i7-11800H processor (8 cores, 16 threads), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (6GB dedicated GDDR6 VRAM), 15.6″ Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS LED-backlit display with 16:9 aspect ratio, 6GB DDR4 3200MHz memory and 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD.
This gaming laptop is so generous in its specs, outperforming most gaming laptops in even bigger categories and it’s definitely the best Acer gaming laptop. It’s the perfect laptop if you are looking to save money but still run some high end games.
The Acer Predator Helios 300 only gets to this competitive price only at the expense of a bit of RAM and Storage space. This might affect your ability to install too many games at the same time or run some graphics-intensive design tasks, but gaming performance overall is going to be superb, as expected of one of the best gaming laptops in the market.
SPECS
- Graphics Card: NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 6GB
- CPU: 12th Gen Intel Core i7-11800H 8-Core Processor, up to 4.7GHz Turbo Boost
- Memory: 16GB DDR4 RAM 3200 MHz
- Hard Drive: 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD
- Operating System: Windows 11 Home
- Display: 15.6″ Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS LED-backlit @144Hz, 3ms response time
- Ports:
- USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (Thunderbolt 4 and USB Charging)
- 2 USB 3.2 Gen 1
- USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Power-off Charging)
- HDMI 2.1 with HDCP support
- Mini DisplayPort 1.4
- Headphone/Speaker/Line-out Jack
- Ethernet (RJ-45)
- DC-in for AC Adapter
- Battery: Li-Ion built in Battery up to 6 hours of average use.
- Dimensions: 14.31″ W x 10.04″ D x 0.90″ H
- Weight: 5.07 lbs.
Performance
The Acer Predator Helios gaming laptop excels other gaming laptops in its price range, and even some desktop gaming PCs at the same price.
Despite having less RAM than other options in this list, the Nvidia GeForce graphics card is at the same level and comes with great preset settings so benchmarks are almost identical to the rest.
Besides its attractive price tag, this one stands as a good gaming laptop for competitive gamers and online gaming in general thanks to a great integrated ethernet card.
Despite Acer highlights its cooling capabilities based on its 5th Generation AeroBlade Fan with 89 blades, we found it as good as any other, meaning you should not make your decision just based on that.
This one has a good battery life for most activities, lasting 6 hours on video playback mode. However, you’ll find the performance while gaming is quite lower (around 2 hours).
Screen
This gaming laptop’s screen is nothing to be ashamed of. It comes with a 15.6″ Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS LED-backlit display with 16:9 aspect ratio and features an incredibly fast 144Hz refresh rate and 3ms Overdrive response time for the gamers who demand the best visual experiences
RAM and Storage
It’s one of the laptop’s weakest points, with just 16 GB DDR4 RAM at 3200 MHz and 512 GB NVMe solid state drive. Having said that, it has room for adding more in the future if you wish and can afford it so you can say it’s a nice starting point that you can expand upon later.
4. Asus ROG Strix G17 VR Ready Gaming Laptop
Best ROG Gaming Laptop
The ASUS ROG Strix G17 is one of the best gaming laptops under 1500, costing exactly 1398,99, and is certainly the best one featuring an AMD Ryzen 7 Processor. It’s very rare to find a ROG product among the Mid Range Gaming Laptops so you should really pay attention to this one when searching for the Best Gaming Laptop Under 1500.
AMD has been delivering excellent processors with its Ryzen series but it took a long time before we saw them appear in gaming laptops. However, we believe the CPU is exactly the reason why you can find an ASUS ROG Strix product at this price tag that doesn’t compromise on GPU or processing power.
Equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6GB and a powerful and fast AMD Octa-Core Ryzen 7 4800H with a Base Clock of 2.9GHz, Max Boost Clock Up to 4.2GHz, 8MB L3 Cache and 16 Threads, it delivers huge performance at a low price.
Some may argue it doesn’t have a camera and that it looks like ASUS cut down costs on the hard drive but we believe that’s not such a big deal when talking about a ROG product with a 17.3 inch screen.
Following are the specs of this nice laptop
SPECS
- Graphics Card: NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 6GB
- CPU: AMD Octa-Core Ryzen 7 4800H (Base Clock 2.9GHz, Max Boost Clock Up to 4.2GHz, 8MB L3 Cache, 16 Threads)
- Memory: 16GB DDR4 SDRAM Memory
- Hard Drive: 1 TB PCIe Solid State Drive
- Operating System: Windows 11 Home
- Display: 17.3″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS 144Hz Display, 3ms response time
- Ports:
- 3 x USB-A 3.2
- 1 x USB-C 3.2 (DisplayPort / Power Delivery / G-SYNC)
- 1 x HDMI 2.0b
- 1 x RJ45 Ethernet
- 1 x Audio Jack
- Battery: 4-cell 90Wh.
- Dimensions: 15.55″ x 11.1″ x 1.11″
- Weight: 5.95 lbs.
Performance
Here comes the eternal fight between Intel and AMD and which of them can give you a better gaming experience. The truth is the difference is more based on specific tasks that a CPU might need to perform than what you might notice during gaming sessions.
What we can say is that Ryzen 7 gives you the same practical experience as, say an Intel Core I7 CPU, but for a lower price ($100 price drop or more).
Also, the gaming laptop market is full of products that differ very little from one another so the fact this ASUS ROG Strix G17 is within the Ryzen world is definitely a key differentiator from the competition.
This gaming laptop offers you a great gaming experience for all games on the market at very high settings, though some of the most demanding ones might need a little downgrade in visual tweaks to give you that smooth, 60FPS experience so many look for in PC Gaming.
Screen
This one is and feels like a big laptop, not so portable and that’s mostly thanks to its 17.3-inch FullHD screen. It’s a decent, high-frequency screen with 3ms refresh rate and great for gaming all day long.
On the downs, it won’t remain in history as one of the best Asus ROG Strix screen ever. It’s definitely not even the best on this list but still delivers what’s needed based on the price point so we can say it’s correct. Better options make the price jump about $1000 up so we better get this one.
The Nvidia geforce rtx graphics card seems to have no issues powering up your games and thanks to the integrated AMD GPU your daily life tasks such as browsing, writing, programming, etc., don’t dry your battery life as quickly as with other options
RAM and Storage
Same thing happened to the Acer Predator Helios 300 earlier in this article: It’s one of the laptop’s weakest points, with just 16 GB DDR4 RAM at 3200 MHz and 512 GB NVMe solid state drive. It also has room for adding more in the future if you wish and can afford it so you can say it’s a nice starting point that you can expand upon later.
5. Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (RTX 3070)
Best Gaming Laptop (almost) under 1500
Lenovo’s Legion series has crawled up its place among the best gaming laptops and they’ve gone a long way since the early days of business-looking-but-nice-graphics-card laptops you used to see.
Featuring the great Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070, an excellent AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor, 16 GB of DDR4 RAM and 1TB NVMe SSD, it’s the most powerful gaming laptop on this list.
Why is this not our top 1? Because it’s priced at $1529 and we wanted to stay true to the post’s premise. However, it almost felt like betraying you if we didn’t include this tremendous gaming laptop as part of the list.
It’s easily the best investment if you can allow yourself the extra 29 dollars. Even if it only has 16 GB of RAM, you can worry about purchasing extra later while you enjoy gaming in a very powerful RTX 3070 with 8 GB of memory.
If you can go just $29 dollars above 1500, this one should be your new laptop.
Best value for the best performance. Others will offer you the same for about $2300 and that’s if you’re lucky. Let’s review this laptop’s specs so you can convince yourself.
SPECS
- Graphics Card: NVidia Geforce RTX 3070 8GB
- CPU: AMD Octa-Core Ryzen 7 5800H (Base Clock 3.2GHz, Max Boost Clock Up to 4.5GHz, 8MB L3 Cache, 16 Threads)
- Memory: 16GB DDR4 SDRAM Memory
- Hard Drive: 1 TB PCIe Solid State Drive
- Operating System: Windows 11 Home
- Display: 16.0″ QHD IPS 165Hz Display, 2ms response time
- Ports:
- 3 x USB-A 3.2
- 1 x USB-C 3.2 (DisplayPort / Power Delivery / G-SYNC)
- 1 x HDMI 2.0b
- 1 x RJ45 Ethernet
- 1 x Audio Jack
- Battery: 4-cell 130Wh.
- Dimensions: N/A
- Weight: 5 lbs.
Performance
This is the best gaming laptop on this list in terms of performance, mostly thanks to the NVidia GeForce RTX 3070 and a very decent Ryzen 7 processor, the 5800H.
It’s very easy to say our benchmarks for this one were awesome, featuring 60FPS on high settings for almost all the games we tested, except of course when using RayTracing for complicated scenes but hey, it’s still pretty impressive for the price.
This one has the price of a modest gaming laptop and the power of a high end gaming PC, superior to many gaming laptops that cost at least 30% more. Your favorite games will run like a breeze and even if you’re into more demanding tasks, such as 3D Graphics Design and Architecture design, this one will not fall short to any task.
Screen
Best screen on this list, period. A 16″ QHD display at 165Hz… and at this price range? Shut up and take my money. If you’re looking for an immersive gaming experience without going broke on an MSI Stealth Gaming Laptop, a massive ASUS ROG Strix or an Alienware, offering you the best gaming performance for your gaming sessions, both offline and online, look no further than this Lenovo Legion 5.
RAM and Storage
It comes pre-packaged with 16 GB of RAM at 3200 MHz, not the next wonder but also not too shabby. 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD is quite good taking everything into account and runs very fast so it’s a pretty amazing package overall.
Is it worth buying a laptop under 1500 for gaming?
We all know the latest, biggest and baddest games in the market require a lot of firepower. This usually translates to a very high price tag. However, you can still get a very decent Laptop under 1500 that can play some of the latest games out there, albeit the most demanding games might still require another kind of solution.
So, bottom line, if you’re in the under-1500 mark, you can still find a gaming laptop that gives you excellent gaming performance for a lot of games.
What to look for in a Gaming Laptop?
The 1500 limit makes us think of a compromise between performance and features, and we want to optimize for the first one. Choosing the right PC hardware is as important for a laptop as for a desktop. You want to focus on squeezing as much power as you can from your investment leaving behind some nice, flashy stuff so that you can play all your games, even those graphics intensive games.
the 3 things we definitely want to maximize are
- The GPU – You can’t really replace the GPU in a gaming laptop so we want to get the best graphics card as possible within our budget and this should be the Main factor to consider.
- The CPU – Second is the CPU power. Again, you can’t really replace the CPU of your laptop in the long run so you want to get a powerful Intel Core I7 or more, or an amazing AMD Ryzen.
- RAM and Hard Drive – Third is the storage units, temporary (RAM) and permanent (Hard Drive). For both of them, we want to make sure they are as big AND fast as possible from the start. That means you don’t want to get a 1 TB Magnetic Hard Drive because it has a decent capacity but its speed is horrible. The same goes for the RAM.
The 3 Things you can leave behind
- The Screen – As weird as it sounds, the screen is not the most important part of gaming laptops. You can always hook it to a wonderful monitor in the future so, right now, you can leave behind hiper-fast refresh rates and 8K displays.
- The Long Battery life – Sorry to break it to you but this is actually something that is very likely to be a weak point in any laptop for gaming under 1500. Especially for gaming, you are usually bound to poor battery life.
- The Brand – Some laptops are just more expensive because of the brand behind them. An Alienware laptop with certain specs is usually way more expensive than, say, an Acer Predator Helios laptop. You might even want to consider some OEM options and that’s totally fine.
Conclusion
There are plenty of options out there for a very decent gaming laptop under 1500 that can run most of your games. It’s hard to decide and that’s why we put up this list but you should consider yourself lucky because right now it’s an amazing time to buy a new laptop for gaming.
As you saw, you should not accept anything less than an RTX 3060 and a nice octa-core CPU (either Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7).
16GB to 32GB of RAM are the norm so don’t fall on anything less than that, nor should you expect to get more for your money.
Screens might vary in size between 15,6″ and 17,3″ and the decision comes pretty much to how big and heavy you want your laptop to be (screen usually relates to size and weight).
That’s all! We hope this article helped you choose the right product for you! See you next time.