I’m considering an Asus ROG Strix GL502 (AnandTech review).
Is anyone doing a better job with a well-made, reasonably light 15" gaming machine? USB-C is mandatory. I’d consider going with a 1060 on a thinner / lighter machine if there was a possibility of GPU expansion case, but I seriously hate fan noise at annoying frequencies, and Razer’s products seem to suffer in this department.
Display quality is also a big deal. And bezels measured in hectares make me sad.
I was looking at the Alienware 15, but posts like this gives me pause:
I’d even consider smaller (haven’t been able to find much about the noise on the Alienware 13, but OLED is nice).
I should have added a note on price: it’s not really a factor. I am not looking for a budget anything (my work machine is a current model MBP, and I’m spoiled by build quality).
I had both the AW 15 and the Alienware 13 recently; the fan noise thing is a pretty subjective experience. I expected the worst and it wasn’t near as bad and the aspies on Reddit said. Both laptops are not at all unlivable as far as noise goes but if your concern is noise uber alles a lower powered laptop is probably your best bet, something with the 1050 class GPUs. I find that Alienwares do well until the surface they are on overheats, and they are easily cooled by unplugging them and running on battery, and generally they like being elevated and/or actively cooled with a cooling pad.
The 15 has a g-sync compatible 60hz IPS and a 120hz TN panel; i tried the IPS variety. I felt that the speakers on the 15 were a bit weak without a subwoofer compared to Dell’s cheaper Inspiron models which do have a subwoofer, and the size of the laptop was not well used, while the 15 Inspiron, while having a crappy generic chicklet keyboard was still using the space better. And paradoxically though i don’t like the mousepad per se on the Inspiron i feel it’s more responsive than the Alienware style mousepad, which is smaller and less accurate, though they have physical buttons.
OTOH, the Alienware 13 is the only gaming laptop available with an OLED panel. And that was such an enormous jump in quality that it was worth the downgrade in size. And honestly i feel like the current Alienware body style feels most comfortable in 13 in sized laptops.
Did you keep the 13?
Yea, it’s pretty awesome. It’s also higher resolution than most 15 laptops, paradoxically enough. You can’t run the highest end games at 2560x1440, but most turn based strategy games work just fine at that resolution. You lose the side lights on the 15 but you literally can’t see the sidelights when using the 15 at all, it’s kind of a nonsense feature that only people next to you can enjoy. I’ve almost seriously thought of making it my primary computer though tbh 13 is a bit small for photo editing and text and i’m honestly not going to sell my iMac and move to PC for that stuff.
I should say that fan noise is a HUGE issue for me and one of the big pushes for me to use Apple products in general day to day computing. I literally dropped all home built PCs in no small part because of clutter and fan noise. I find the fan noise in the Alienware 13 completely acceptable when using speakers; it’s certainly noticeable but in no way that annoying hair dryer whine that so many previous computers had. Apple computers are, somewhat ironically, kind of bad at fan noise when using them for gaming, or at least, not near as good as they should be. When i had a decked out 15 Mabook Pro and then fans started whining playing Civ 5, back in the box the sob went. Not paying 1/4 of 10,000$ to hear fans in a simple 4X title, nope.
It seems like they could fit a 14" display in there. Does it bother you that they didn’t?
Been looking at laptops for my son. To me, the ideal matchups are 1050ti/1060 with 1080p, 1070 with 1440p, or 1080 with 4K. So many seem to be off one step from the ideal, maybe for battery life (though all seem to be pretty lousy at actual gaming of an intense sort without being plugged in).
Its not a size efficient thing, no. It’s heavy and bulky even if I’m told that it’s “small” for a gaming laptop. It’s certainly no precision machined thing like a MacBook 12. However I don’t notice the large bezel tbh; I think psychologically since I have svelt and power efficient Apple laptops I don’t mind the bulkiness of a gaming laptop that’s just primarily for gaming.
I do mind that none of the speakers out of the box work to my satisfaction. With Dells I have to disable their proprietary audio software and jack up the equalizer to max or nearly max in Windows. Surprisingly this doesn’t cause much if any distortion except very very occasionally and makes using the speakers acceptable. Recent Apple laptops have raised a high bar in Audio quality that even gaming laptops have yet to match. In all honesty in most reviews I’m puzzled about the relatively pedestrian audio quality in most gaming laptops. Even that crazy 9,000$ 21" curved screen laptop only has ordinary audio quality, so clearly laptop manufactures don’t have access to high quality audio parts in their supply chain and also don’t want to invest in higher quality custom solutions.
I’ve had two ASUS ROGs and love them. Conversely I’ve had one Alienware and had mixed results with it, but they have changed a lot over time.
I’m a plugged power gamer when it comes to my gaming laptops. That video Enidigm linked is excellent in that it breaks things down so depending on what your purchase factor is, you can narrow down your choices.
Note above, I gave up on trying to find a mobile gaming rig that also had decent battery life. You’re sacrificing a lot when you do that. GPUs need power to run. Settle for a gaming rig you can take when you travel, but plug in somewhere else. Want to game on the couch? No problem. Want to game on your business trip? No problem. Want to game while you are camping or in the car? Possibly a problem.
@Enidigm for what it’s worth, I have the same issue with laptop sound. There just isn’t a decent sounding laptop to be had from my experience it seems. I’ve settled for headphone gaming, but it’s just another item you have to lug around with you, proving to be a pain. For me it’s not the fidelity of the sound, it is that I have to sometimes be a max volume to get decent listening during some game sessions. It’s poor performance at some frequencies. As an example, I can play Skyrim and hear the music and battle sounds perfectly. Then someone will talk and it sounds like they are distant from me with a pane of glass in between.
Yeah, that’s what I figured. He really likes the Razer Blade. I would never deal with the noise, but he usually has headphones on anyway. Wonder if there’s anywhere to actually see one in store… I want him to be happy with it, but it can be hard to look past my own hang ups sometimes.
I got my first ROG at Best Buy if I recall correctly. I’m unsure if they would have one now though. Maybe Fry’s might have a selection that would include these?
The ROG 502 is another contender, btw.shame they don’t have that one at Costco (they have the 752 I think).
Do any other fan allergics around here adjust/limit their gaming habits to avoid the noise and heat (and probably accelerated obscolescence) ?
Not on a laptop, no. Those things are far more sensitive to heat. Back when I kept a gaming rig up to date all the time, I used low noise panaflow fans and rheostat controller for them to cut the speed down when I wasn’t gaming.
My last two laptop rigs had rear facing fans, those help a lot with directing the noise away from what you normally hear while gaming.
Interestingly those laptops that charge via USB-C, such as the Macbook 12, can also be charged with external battery packs. I’m not sure the use case where gaming on a Macbook 12 makes sense as your target but it is definitely possible to charge the Macbook 12 via those 10,000mAh or whatever sized battery packs people get for phones and other USB electronics ( i think it takes something around 7000-9000mAh to fully charge a Macbook 12, i haven’t tested this deliberately though.) I’m sure by now there are Windows laptops that also charge by USB-C but i don’t know models offhand.
Like i said when i unplug the Alienware from the wall it drops from 60fps to 30fps and almost immediately starts cooling off the laptop, reducing fan noise to near zero in a couple of minutes. If for some reason i can hear the fans and they annoy me i just reach around and unplug it for 15 min or so. TBH this is fine because i have almost no use case for running the laptop on battery at all; it’s always going to be plugged into the wall, so may as well use up some of the battery capacity it has. Of course you need to be playing a game and in circumstances where this drop doesn’t bother you. And also, again, raising the laptop, pushing the laptop to the edge of the desk, just moving it away from a hot spot to another spot on the desk, using a cooling stand and/or active cooling pad; all help. Although, to date, i haven’t found an actively cooled laptop pad that isn’t louder than the laptop fans themselves, defeating the whole purpose.
I bought a 502 recently, and it’s a great machine. The display is vibrant and appears accurate. The fan is no joke, but it’s not annoying to me. Bought mine from newegg for a reasonable price.
I just found out about the Aero 15 yesterday and it looks perfect for what my son wants. Thinking of pulling the trigger on it. Little bit thicker and heavier than the blade, but better screen, better battery life, more port options, and less expensive. All the reviews I’ve found are quite positive.