Pros: the graphics card is decent and can handle all current AAA titles. There is no stream or epic, Xbox, Amazon Luna or stadia game I could throw at this laptop and it couldn’t play in high or ultra. The screen is great looks good and I love watching 1080p video on it. It has an expansion slot for a M.2 drive I added a 2TB to mine. CONS: the battery life is not great. Gaming it’ll last about 3 hours and regular use about 5 hours. The keyboard is backlit but you can’t see the keys without the backlight. You can’t keep the backlight on or choose when it going out on the G3 you can on the G5 but not this one. All in all this is a good laptop, I’m having a ball with it. Emulation is great. There is no emulator it won’t run. For major gamers it might not fit the Bill. However for casual gamers it’ll be great. Anyone who just uses it for work or school and a little gaming it’ll be awesome. Read more
I've seen the complaints of excess heat. Hey-it has a graphics card and an I7, they're going to generate heat. After several hours intense game play I measured the case temperature at the bottom under the screen and found it's about 120 degrees F (49 C) . That's uncomfortable on my lap ( I sure wouldn't want to play while wearing shorts). No problem if it's on a lap desk or any type of board or table. That back edge on the bottom is where all the heat is (and the fans are.) The lap desk is my choice for lounging. When not gaming the computer winds down until the case is cool to the touch. In either mode the fans are quiet. Yes you can hear them in game mode but they're not intrusive. Speed is good for gaming, equal to a nice middle of the road desktop. On most first person type games I get a frame rate of about 60-90 FPS. Two examples: Conan Exiles; 58-60, Far Cry 5; 88-90, Subnautica 90 or so. Games with simpler graphics (Phasmophobia and the like 130FPS). If you like lounging around in an easy chair-or need a laptop so you can move your computer for work or school around this computer works just great. I added an extra 1 TB drive (I've got games that take 100Gb), be sure to buy a M.2 NVMe drive for the second bay. Check the Q&A for specifications. Dell provides installation instructions online. Read more
I read a bunch of negative reviews, so I wanted to add a positive one. We are an Apple Computer household and as Apple people know, a lot of games don’t run well on Apple computers, or run at all. After having multiple problems with my games, I decided to buy a Windows laptop strictly for gaming, and some business applications. This computer does everything I need it to do. I have never had any problems with it, starting from it showing up on my doorstep and the graphic resolution is great. The fans run quiet. My games run fine, I don’t have to turn down resolution settings, and games don’t crash on me anymore. Yes there is no DVD drive, but most computers, especially laptops, no longer include DVD drives. I’ve had the laptop for over 7 months now and am still satisfied with it. Read more
I'm impressed. I've never seen a computer so worthless that it overheats before you even use it. Update: 5 years later Can't believe I've had this thing for 5 years. It's been a long and stressful ride. There have been ups and downs. The Ups: It's a work horse. I rarely have crashing, even after 5 years of regular use. The computer can handle a lot for extended periods of time. I can game all day and as long as I'm keeping an eye on heat, we're good. I typically keep graphics settings on medium-high. I haven't tried pushing it to high graphics settings because I don't want my computer to melt. The Downs: We've had some functioning trouble. First of all, the battery will die while the computer is sleeping. I have to shut down when I'm not using it. This was a problem right out the gate. I sent the computer in to get fixed. Nope, that's just a problem with this model. The battery dies while it's sleeping. It gets very hot; so hot in fact, that I'm 75% sure my keyboard is bowing and the computer shell is warping. It's hard to see but I'm pretty sure it's happening. The computer has an issue with bluetooth. It sometimes has trouble connecting to headphones it's already paired with. I have to remove the device and pair it again. The computer has an issue with sound. Sometimes, switching between output devices and different apps can confuse the computer. I have to go to sound settings and switch the settings around a bit. Things you should just know: External cooling devices will save you thousands of dollars. I literally just have a small desk fan on this laptop while I'm gaming. The computer will still get warm but it won't overheat. If I'm not gaming, normally I don't need anything else cooling it. It's not as fast as a gaming desktop. I've noticed that my games take a few seconds longer to load than say a friend who has a gaming desktop. However, this computer is still way faster than most laptops. I only have a lagging issue when the battery is running low. Other than that, games run smoothly with 30-60fps on medium-high graphics settings. The computer's speakers actually aren't half bad. They're fairly high quality with decent volume. I mostly use headphones, though. On an average day I can be running spotify, a heavier game like Forza 5, a discord call, and sound settings for several ongoing hours. The computer might start to slow down if I have a browser like chrome open. Again, keep an eye on the temperature and the computer will be fine. I've only streamed a few times over the years, but I haven't noticed any difficulty. Overall, I actually don't hate this computer. It is a gaming laptop and has all the problems associated with that. It's also pretty reliable and has lasted much longer than most people expected. It's now 5 years old and going strong. I finally let the warranty expire a few months ago so we'll see what happens. Would I buy it again? Yeah, I trust it. I feel like I got my money's worth even though it has some quirks that might've stressed me out initially. Read more
