It used to be desktop or bust when it came to PC gaming. That is unless you have deep pockets because gaming-oriented laptops used to cost a large chunk of the year’s income. If you wanted to have your games with you wherever you went in a laptop, you usually had to go into the wrong side of $1,000. The worst part about it is that you’ll know you’re carrying that much worth of hardware inside your backpack because of their slipped-disk inducing weight. This year, the boys at Round Rock Texas are taking aim directly at the budget portable (by gaming laptop standards) gaming system market with the freshly minted G Series laptop line. These are gaming laptops with the new and greatly improved 8th generation Intel Core chips and excellent graphics cards that can play your triple-A titles at great frame rates that don’t cost an arm and a leg.
These laptops come in three flavors – the G3 is the most budget-friendly, the G5 is moderately priced, while the G7 offers the most powerful and most expensive notebooks in the series. The middle of the ground G5 is probably the best place to start when looking at these products because it shouldn’t have too many cost-cutting compromises like the G3 while still trying to mimic some of the best features of the G7. Overall, the G5 should offer the best of both ends of the spectrum when it comes to the new Dell G series of gaming laptops.
8TH Generation Intel CPUs
It may have been a coincidence, or it may also just have been a stroke of genius that when Dell announced the G Series, the revolutionary 8th Generation chips from Intel just launched. They’re the first mainstream laptop processors that are equipped with more than two cores. This increase in core count from the last generation of chips give the systems roughly 91% more computing power than their predecessors. The G5 has options between the i5-8300H and the i7-8750H processors that packs plenty of power for processor-intensive open-world games like the bestselling Shadow of War.
NVIDIA GTX 1050 and 1060
The most important part of a gaming-oriented laptop is the graphics card and the G5 definitely doesn’t disappoint. All the G5 models have NVIDIA graphics cards. The cheapest one starts with the GTX 1050 and two mid-tier G5s with GTX 1050Ti. Both choices offer plenty of power for gaming on ultra-settings for even the most advanced video games currently in the market. The top dog, however, is a GTX 1060 Max-Q coupled with a six-core i7-8750H. The system can surely crush any modern game out there right now even at absolute maximum settings.
Upgrade-able Memory and Hard Drive
With the most important components out of the way, there are a few more performance-affecting features that you might want to know about. Only the top of the line G5 offers two DDR4 8GB RAM while the rest only comes with one. Only the lowest end offers just a single 1TB of hard drive space while the rest comes with an additional 128GB SSD. If you find these offerings lacking, there’s no need to panic because both of these components are user-upgradeable through a single screw bottom panel.
Strong Aluminum Build
The chassis of the G5 is carried over from yesteryear’s Inspiron 15 line of budget gaming laptops. It has a strong aluminum build that does not have a lot of give. While the keyboard doesn’t have a lot of flex even when pressed hard, the lid has a little bit of give to it. However, it’s not something that comes up as you’re using the device as it only manifests when purposely twisted with two hands.
Ports
It has all of the essential ports such as the following:
• 1x Headphone/Mic
• 3x SuperSpeed USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A including one with PowerShare
• 1x HDMI 2.0
• 1x Power/DC-in Jack
• 1x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45
• 1x 2-in-1 SD / MicroMedia Card
Thunderbolt 3
There’s also a Type-C™ Thunderbolt™ 3 with support for 40 Gbps Thunderbolt and DisplayPort. It’s a long-awaited addition that has a lot of gaming utility. It can, for example, connect with an external monitor. This is important because the built-in display of the G5 is also a carryover from the previous generation of the Inspiron that was and still is dreadful for gaming purposes. Or, if for some reason you feel the need to raise your frame rates even more, having the Thunderbolt 3 port can be plugged into an eGPU to beef up your rig.
Verdict
By no means is Dell’s G Series of laptops perfect. It obviously cut some corners in some features when compared to other gaming laptops. For one, it lacks the RGB keyboard backlighting which makes it difficult to use the keyboard in poorly lit rooms. However, that does not compare to the lack of a good display especially knowing that the graphics cards in them are capable of pushing so much more pixels than it can handle. Despite these flaws, the G5’s solid build quality, excellent internals, the future-proofing through the Thunderbolt 3 port, and most importantly, the reasonable pricing makes the G5 a solid buy.
These laptops come in three flavors – the G3 is the most budget-friendly, the G5 is moderately priced, while the G7 offers the most powerful and most expensive notebooks in the series. The middle of the ground G5 is probably the best place to start when looking at these products because it shouldn’t have too many cost-cutting compromises like the G3 while still trying to mimic some of the best features of the G7. Overall, the G5 should offer the best of both ends of the spectrum when it comes to the new Dell G series of gaming laptops.
8TH Generation Intel CPUs
It may have been a coincidence, or it may also just have been a stroke of genius that when Dell announced the G Series, the revolutionary 8th Generation chips from Intel just launched. They’re the first mainstream laptop processors that are equipped with more than two cores. This increase in core count from the last generation of chips give the systems roughly 91% more computing power than their predecessors. The G5 has options between the i5-8300H and the i7-8750H processors that packs plenty of power for processor-intensive open-world games like the bestselling Shadow of War.
NVIDIA GTX 1050 and 1060
The most important part of a gaming-oriented laptop is the graphics card and the G5 definitely doesn’t disappoint. All the G5 models have NVIDIA graphics cards. The cheapest one starts with the GTX 1050 and two mid-tier G5s with GTX 1050Ti. Both choices offer plenty of power for gaming on ultra-settings for even the most advanced video games currently in the market. The top dog, however, is a GTX 1060 Max-Q coupled with a six-core i7-8750H. The system can surely crush any modern game out there right now even at absolute maximum settings.
Upgrade-able Memory and Hard Drive
With the most important components out of the way, there are a few more performance-affecting features that you might want to know about. Only the top of the line G5 offers two DDR4 8GB RAM while the rest only comes with one. Only the lowest end offers just a single 1TB of hard drive space while the rest comes with an additional 128GB SSD. If you find these offerings lacking, there’s no need to panic because both of these components are user-upgradeable through a single screw bottom panel.
Strong Aluminum Build
The chassis of the G5 is carried over from yesteryear’s Inspiron 15 line of budget gaming laptops. It has a strong aluminum build that does not have a lot of give. While the keyboard doesn’t have a lot of flex even when pressed hard, the lid has a little bit of give to it. However, it’s not something that comes up as you’re using the device as it only manifests when purposely twisted with two hands.
Ports
It has all of the essential ports such as the following:
• 1x Headphone/Mic
• 3x SuperSpeed USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A including one with PowerShare
• 1x HDMI 2.0
• 1x Power/DC-in Jack
• 1x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45
• 1x 2-in-1 SD / MicroMedia Card
Thunderbolt 3
There’s also a Type-C™ Thunderbolt™ 3 with support for 40 Gbps Thunderbolt and DisplayPort. It’s a long-awaited addition that has a lot of gaming utility. It can, for example, connect with an external monitor. This is important because the built-in display of the G5 is also a carryover from the previous generation of the Inspiron that was and still is dreadful for gaming purposes. Or, if for some reason you feel the need to raise your frame rates even more, having the Thunderbolt 3 port can be plugged into an eGPU to beef up your rig.
Verdict
By no means is Dell’s G Series of laptops perfect. It obviously cut some corners in some features when compared to other gaming laptops. For one, it lacks the RGB keyboard backlighting which makes it difficult to use the keyboard in poorly lit rooms. However, that does not compare to the lack of a good display especially knowing that the graphics cards in them are capable of pushing so much more pixels than it can handle. Despite these flaws, the G5’s solid build quality, excellent internals, the future-proofing through the Thunderbolt 3 port, and most importantly, the reasonable pricing makes the G5 a solid buy.