Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,500

While many of life’s staples are becoming more expensive due to inflation, poor sales in general make the gaming laptops more affordable. It is not impossible to find a system with high refresh rate display, a fast SSD and a great GPU for playing 1080p games under $1,500 or even a lot less. TechTrends narrowed down a list of the best gaming laptops under $1,500.

TechTrends considered many aspects when making the list of the best laptops under $1,500 for gaming, such as price, brands and configurations. We will help you find out what you should expect in a laptop with this price in terms of performance and functionality. You will find about those features at the end of the article. However, do not worry, as you can run games smoothly at 1080p with all the laptops listed here and get ultra settings. Keep in mind that for those which cost under $1,000, the resolution and setting might have to be turned down. When picking one of these laptops, not only should you pay attention to design, but also the quality of the keyboard, touchpad and screen. These features are going to be different in every model on the list of the best gaming laptops under $1,500.

Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,500

The laptops listed here have some of the best specifications, allowing you to play games online or offline very easily. It might seem difficult to pick the top gaming laptop under $1,500, but we have put up a list of the best ones in the market to help you make a better decision. Do not forget to read until the end of the article to find out what you have to expect from these laptops.

  1. Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition: Best gaming laptop under $1,500 overall
  2. Alienware m15 R7: A High-quality design with solid battery life
  3. MSI Sword 15: Subdued design, lots of ports
  4. Asus TUF Gaming F15: Best gaming laptop under $1,500 for esports gaming
  5. Acer Nitro 5: Best gaming laptop under $1,000
  6. HP Victus 15: No frills sub-$1,500 gaming laptop, starts cheap

1. Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition

Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,500
Source: Tom’s Hardware

Specifications:

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX
  • GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800M
  • Display: 6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 300 Hz
  • Weight: 61 pounds / 3 kg

One of the best gaming laptops under $1,500 you can find out there is the Asus ROG Strix G15, which has recently dropped a little but it has the same AMD Radeon RX 6800M, 512GB storage drive as well as 16GB of RAM it had before the price declined. Not only is this laptop great for playing games, but it is also incredible for productivity performance. It can go against laptops that use Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060 and RTX 3070. What really stands out in this laptop is the battery life. It can work for 10 hours and 14 minutes, proceeding all the competitors. It also remains cool during most usages. However, it would have been better if the display was a little brighter.

If you need a webcam, you should have your own since this laptop does not have one when you buy it. Do you want your laptop to scream “gaming”, this laptop has many RGB lighting that will work pretty well. You can buy it at around $1,600 at Amazon. It has a G15 Advantage Edition config with a 2560 x 1440, 165 Hz display and a speedier, Ryzen 9 5980HX CPU. Don’t miss this best gaming laptop in 2023.

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2. Alienware m15 R7

Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,500
Source: Tom’s Hardware

Specifications:

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 6800H
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060
  • Display: 6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 165 Hz
  • Weight: 53 pounds (2.5 kg)

Many assume that when a laptop is mid-range, it does not have great construction. It is not true as one of the greatest aspects of Alienware m15 R7 is that although it is made out of plastic, it is pretty solid. You can move this laptop to anywhere you want to game if the extra weight does not bother you. You can play any game you want on this laptop if you choose the right settings. Aside from gaming, you can use this laptop for other tasks. The battery life will survive for about 9 hours if you browse the web, stream video and do light graphic work. This battery life is not what you find in many gaming laptops nowadays. For those looking for a high refresh rate and a luxury feel, this is one of the best gaming laptops under $1,500 to buy.

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3. MSI Sword 15

Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,500
Source: Tom’s Hardware

Specifications:

  • CPU: Intel Core i7-12650H
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060
  • Display: 6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 144 Hz
  • Weight: 96 pounds (2.23 kg)

You can buy MSI Sword 15 for less than $1,400. This incredible laptop has a white design with a range of ports to plug in a lot of peripherals and external storage. Since it uses a combination of an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 and an Intel Core i7-12650H, it is great for gaming. However, the fans that MSI uses to keep it cool might sound a little loud for some people. In addition, you get the option to upgrade this device, including another M.2 PCIe SSD slot if you plan to have a better storage after a while. Although it is not the best when it comes to productivity, it is quite powerful for work if you are not playing games. MSI Sword 15 is the third one of the best gaming laptops under $1,500.

Read more: Best All-in-One Computers in 2022

4. Asus TUF Gaming F15

Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,500
Source: Tom’s Hardware

Specifications:

  • CPU: Intel Core i7-12700H
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060
  • Display: 6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 300 Hz
  • Weight: 41 pounds / 2 kg

It is really hard to get real power for $1,500 if there is not sale in the market. However, Asus TUF Gaming F15, as one of the best gaming laptops under $1,500, is available for $1,499.99 with a Core i7-12700H and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060. You can have a 300 Hz display if you are willing to pay more as it is perfect for esports gamers that are on the lookout  for the highest possible frame rates. Not only is this laptop great for gaming, but it is also decent for productivity performance despite the need for improvements. The webcam and speakers are not the best, on the other hand, but you can buy separate ones. Check out the following article.

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5. Acer Nitro 5

Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,500
Source: Tom’s Hardware

Specifications:

  • CPU: Intel Core i5-12500H
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti
  • Display: 6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 144 Hz
  • Weight: 51 pounds / 2.5 kg

For a long time, the Acer Nitro 5 has been considered one a standard for budget gaming laptops. It is still among the best ones. Acer decided to redesign its popular laptop in order to make it more subtle. Therefore, it got rid of red and black. However, it does still have RGB lighting. The angels, on the other hand, are less aggressive, meaning it can fit well if you are playing a game with a group of friends or are at a café. Since Acer does not have much bloatware on the Nitro 5, you might have to remove the extras that you do not need. It is also great to know that you can upgrade the Nitro 5 if you decide to do so down the line.

Moreover, it has a SATA cable, which means you can include a hard drive or SSD whenever you want, in order to make more room for playing games. This feature is not offered in many laptops out there. Acer Nitro 5 is indeed one of the best gaming laptops under $1,500.

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6. HP Victus 15

Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,500
Source: Tom’s Hardware

Specifications:

  • CPU: Intel Core i5-12450H
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650
  • Display: 6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 144 Hz
  • Weight: 04 pounds / 2.29 kg

The sixth one on the list of the best gaming laptops under $1,500 is HP Victus 15 and its price tag is quite reasonable. You can have the base model for $799 with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650, which might not be the newest GPU. However, when you pair it with an Intel Core i5-12450H and a 1920 x 1080, 144 Hz screen, you can change the setting on the games you want. However, the specs can indeed go up if you are willing to pay a little more. Notwithstanding all of that, it has earned a place on this list. Don’t forget that the rivals have more power graphics cards but they are more expensive, indeed.

The appearance of this laptop is also professional and comes in three colors. It might seem like a surprise that it is actually a gaming laptop, considering the looks at least. This is great for those who also need it for productivity as this laptop also proved great when it comes to that. One of the biggest problems is that a lot of software are preinstalled by HP.

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What to Expect from the Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,500

GPU

The graphics card of your laptop can have a lot of effect on how smoothly it delivers frame rates with many details. If you have found a laptop that has an RTX 3070 card on sale and costs under $1,500, do not hesitate to buy it. However, if there is no sale, the best graphics cards available at this price are the AMD Radeon RX 6800M or the Nvidia RTX 3060. Aside from these, there are other lower levels including the Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti or Radeon RX 6700M. For those buying a laptop under $1,000, you will get an RTX 3050 or even a GTX 1650.

The best one among all the cards above is the 6800M and the next best one is the RTX 3060. Both of these cards offer smooth 1080p gaming.

Screen

The size of laptop screen can be between 14 and 17 inches, but the most comment one is the 15 inches. The best gaming laptops under $1,500 have 1080p resolution and their refresh rate is between 120 and 165 Hz. These numbers are all fine as for higher resolution or frame rates, the system needs to be more powerful. There might also be subtle differences in the quality and brightness of colors in screen. It is a bonus if the laptop has a GHD, also known as 2K, display.

CPU

Do not worry so much about the CPU, because the GPU is more crucial for gaming when considering the best gaming laptops under $1,500. These laptops usually have Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7 6000 CPUs, but the best deals will be with the ones that have an older generation chip – Intel 11th Gen Core or Ryzen 5000 series. For the cheaper laptops, you can see some Core i5 and Ryzen 5 CPUs.

RAM

The RAM on these laptops can be 16GB of DDR4 or DDR5, which is more than enough for a lot of people that are considering buying one of the best gaming laptops under $1,500. If you are looking to buy the ones that are under $1,000, the RAM might even be 8GB.

Storage

These laptops on the list come with 500GB NVMe SSDs that deliver great performance, but this storage might not be enough for all games. Therefore, you might have to buy a 1TB drive. If you picked a laptop that costs under $1,000, then the storage might be around 256GB, which is not quite enough for running many games. Therefore, you may have to upgrade with another drive or a new SSD.

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