Gaming laptops have treated the display like an afterthought for years, but in 2023, gaming laptops grew up in a big way.
Raw power. High refresh rates. RGB. These are some of the defining factors of the best gaming laptops, and they have been for years. But for as much portable power as you could buy, most gaming laptops have skipped a critical element of a great gaming experience: the screen.
In years past, you could find a high refresh rate or good image quality, but you generally couldn’t have both. In 2023, gaming laptops grew up, providing both the speed and quality gamers have come to expect, and that sets 2024 up to be an exciting year in the world of gaming laptops.Let’s look back
About a year-and-a-half ago, I looked at the 12th-gen MSI GT77 Titan. At the time it released, you would spend $5,000 for a high-end configuration packing a Core i9-12900HX and an RTX 3080 Ti. It’s a desktop replacement, a laptop so powerful that you might forget you’re even playing on a laptop. There was just one problem — the screen.
Even for a $5,000 laptop, you had the choice between a 1080p display at 360Hz or a 4K display at 120Hz, both of which used an IPS panel. I tested the 1080p model, which barely cracked 300 nits and couldn’t manage to hold a contrast ratio of 1,000:1. It’s like wearing a cheap hoodie over a Burberry button-up. You’re hiding all of the luxury.
It wasn’t just the GT77 Titan. The 2022 ROG Zephyrus G16 also used an IPS display with a 165Hz refresh rate, and the Alienware x17 R2 (a laptop you could easily spend over $3,000 on) managed a 480Hz refresh rate, but on a flat, disappointing IPS display.
