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00:00Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here. So this video is a guide, a guide for people that
00:08are interested in purchasing a gaming laptop going into 2018, and it's specifically for
00:13gaming laptops, so this isn't super comprehensive, and I'm just going to talk about some things
00:16that are important when it comes to the decision process for purchasing a laptop for gaming.
00:21So when it comes to the art of making a laptop, I think manufacturers go through that struggle
00:25where they're trying to find that perfect spot between price and performance and portability.
00:30It's basically pick two of three. If you want ultralight portability and really good performance,
00:35it exists. There's some really thin 1080 Max-Q laptops out there, but they're really expensive,
00:40so you've got to decide pretty early on in your process of how much money you want to
00:43spend and where you want to spend that money. So cheaper laptops tend to be a little bit
00:47thicker and heavier, and they usually have more plastic materials, which isn't necessarily
00:51bad, it's just not as premium feeling or premium looking. But when it comes to the thickness
00:55of a laptop, sometimes thicker laptops can have an advantage because when you have a
00:59big laptop to work with, you have bigger heat pipes, you have bigger fans, just everything
01:03can be a little bit bigger, and those things tend to do a better job at removing heat from
01:07a system. So let's take a look at some examples. This is an Alienware 17. This thing is a relatively
01:12thick 17-inch gaming laptop, and it's quite a bit thicker than the Razer Blade Pro. Now,
01:17when this thing first launched, this thing had a GTX 1080 in it. It's quite a hot GPU,
01:22and one of the issues this thing had was keeping up with the thermal output. Here's
01:25the thing, when this thing comes out of the factory, it's tuned just right. Everything's
01:29running fine, so the temperatures are acceptable. But the thing is, the moment this thing has
01:33any kind of dust buildup, or if you want to play with this thing on your blanket or on
01:38your lap, and you're covering up the vents on the bottom, the thermals rise, and it just
01:42doesn't do as well. The GTX 1080 on the Alienware still produces a lot of heat, but this laptop
01:47is thick. Like, thick with a double C. And this thing has just a lot more thermal headroom.
01:53This thing comes out of the factory running fine as well, but because there's more room
01:55in there, there's just more tolerance for dust to build up and stuff like that. So,
02:00a device like this, because it's thicker, isn't as elegant looking, but it'll get you
02:05further along when it comes to dust buildup and stuff. You definitely need to take care
02:08of a Razer Blade Pro, or basically any thin and light gaming laptop. Okay, I want to talk
02:13about build quality, I want to go back to build quality. So basically, when it comes
02:16to how well gaming laptops are made, in 2017, most laptops are made quite well. There's
02:21more emphasis from brands to build things that are thinner and lighter, because that's
02:24just what people seem to want right now, but there's still a really good market for bigger
02:28laptops. They're more durable, they tend to last longer, and quite frankly, thin and light
02:32gaming laptops aren't for everyone. You definitely need to take better care of them. I won't
02:36talk about ports too much, I just want to mention a couple things. Thunderbolt 3 support
02:40is something that's cool on paper, especially if you're into the whole idea of, like, external
02:43GPUs, but in reality, they're really expensive to set up, so it's not something that I think
02:48you should really gun for. Like, if your device that you're looking at doesn't have Thunderbolt
02:523 support, I don't think you should make or break the deal. The other thing is, if you're
02:55purchasing a device, make sure that the exhaust of the fans isn't on the mouse hand. So I've
03:01used some laptops that the fan exhausted literally right beside your mouse hand, and your hand's
03:05just getting baked while you play, and it's no good. So avoid that, but otherwise, ports
03:10are a pretty easy decision. Okay, let's talk about CPUs. The Intel U processors have just
03:15been refreshed, so the 8th gen U processors, or those Kaby Lake R chips, those are 15W
03:20CPUs, and despite what companies are trying to tell you, if you're really looking for
03:23a dedicated gaming laptop, don't get a U processor, get an H processor. So the 8th generation
03:29H processors are just about to come out, and these are 45W CPUs that are traditionally
03:34quad-core CPUs, but these new Coffee Lake ones are 6-core. And with the new Coffee Lake
03:39architecture, because of faster clock speeds, and the two extra cores, you're going to get
03:43some better performance. Now, things like multi-core applications are going to be significantly
03:47better, but well-optimized games should notice a nice boost in performance as well. Okay,
03:51let's talk about graphics cards. The Nvidia GTX 10 series GPUs were amazing for laptops.
03:57They basically brought, they basically changed the entire industry. This whole thing about
04:02gaming laptops was basically a joke three years ago. Gaming laptops were just, they
04:07were stupid. You would pay huge amounts of money and not really get the performance that
04:10you would need to be able to play the current titles. Nowadays, you can spend like $800-$900
04:15on an entry-level gaming laptop, and it depends on the game, but you can float at that 60
04:19frames per second target on ultra graphics for a lot of games. It's pretty crazy, like
04:24look at these games. These are AAA titles from Blizzard, Activision, EA, basically the
04:28most graphically intensive games are able to run at really good frame rates on an entry-level
04:33gaming laptop. That's awesome. Now, as for what's next, it's Nvidia Volta. That should
04:37probably launch like late spring, early summer of 2018. So, we got some time, but ask yourself,
04:43do you really think you're going to need that extra GPU performance? Like look at that chart.
04:46Those are the games that you're able to play at 60 frames per second or more with a $900
04:52gaming laptop. So, yes, Volta's going to be better, obviously, but I don't know if we'll
04:56really need that extra performance because I feel like we've already hit that sweet spot
04:59where inexpensive hardware can play the best titles. Okay, I want to talk about the screen,
05:04and I feel like the screen is one of the most important decisions when it comes to making a
05:08laptop decision because when you purchase a GPU, like when you've decided on a GPU and a CPU
05:13combination, it doesn't matter which brand you go with, the performance is going to be relatively
05:17similar, but the screens differ a lot. So, my first piece of advice is don't get a 4K screen
05:22unless you really need it for content creation or something because when it comes to gaming,
05:26you're going to get better value and just get a better gaming experience if you spend that money
05:30on a higher quality 1080p screen. A 120Hz screen is so much better than a 60Hz screen for gaming.
05:36You'll need to be able to push out those 120 frames per second to really appreciate it,
05:40but when you do, the gaming experience is just so much smoother. You can react faster,
05:44things just look better on screen. It's night and day. Unfortunately, it's one of the things I can't
05:48show on this video because you're watching this at 24 frames per second. If you see these things
05:52in person, you'll love them. The other thing is don't be afraid of a high quality TN panel.
05:57Now, I know traditionally TN panels are freaking terrible. They're bad for everything, let alone
06:01gaming, but the new ones are really good. Like Acer, MSI, they use some panels on their laptops
06:06that just look gorgeous. I would consider those high quality TN panels significantly better than
06:11most IPS panels on gaming laptops. So, check them out and just the direction of the whole industry,
06:16I think, is going to be moving towards high refresh rate screens. 120Hz panels look so much
06:21better. Look at this thing, the Razer Blade Pro. This thing launched originally with a GTX 1080
06:26and a 4K 60Hz screen. So, games looked really pretty, really color accurate, but they were
06:31only capped at 60Hz. You could only see 60 frames per second. This new variant has a GTX 1060 and a
06:37120Hz screen, and I much prefer playing games on this thing than the old one. It's just a gorgeous
06:42120 frames per second screen. It's so much nicer to look at, so much more enjoyable to play games
06:47on. So, if you're looking for screens and your budget can allow for it, check out 120Hz screens.
06:52They're going to be the hot stuff for 2018. And one other thing, if you do buy a cheaper laptop,
06:56like an inexpensive laptop, if you really want to, a lot of them have the ability to replace
07:01the screens. It's not easy and it's probably not covered under warranty. In fact, it's definitely
07:05not a warranty covered operation, but it can be done. You can buy some really inexpensive screens
07:10for like $100 that are 120Hz and look pretty good. So, I'll leave a link. Should I do it?
07:16Do it at your own discretion. I'll leave a link. Okay, last thing I want to talk about is customer
07:20support, and this is something that I think gets overlooked in a lot of laptop videos. The whole
07:26industry, in my opinion, does not have good customer support. If you look at every single
07:30brand, everyone has like horror stories of customer support that they had with basically
07:35every single brand, except for Apple. They have like these million-dollar laptops that cost a lot
07:40of money, but when you go to the store, there's a really good chance that if you have a busted
07:44device in the first year, you're going to walk out of the Apple store with it repaired or replaced.
07:48You don't get that option with basically every other gaming laptop company. My honest opinion
07:53is that the big companies like Dell, HP, Lenovo, any company that has a lot of big like business
07:59accounts and stuff like that, they have great customer support available just for their business
08:03customers, and they kind of extend that to the consumer level. If you're looking for good customer
08:07support, check out Dell, HP, Lenovo, Alienware. They all have that next day support thing where
08:12they try to send someone to your door to try to fix it or repair it, and I've had mixed experience
08:17with that, some good, some bad, but at least that option is available. Smaller companies like Razer,
08:22they don't have that kind of stuff. You have to send it back to the factory to get it fixed, so
08:25if you're looking for really good customer support, well, don't get any gaming laptops, but if you're
08:30looking for better customer support, go for the bigger companies. Okay, hope you guys enjoyed
08:34this video. Thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it. See you guys next time.