Over the course of a year, the best Thin and Light Gaming Laptops have changed in amazing ways. In the beginning of mobile gaming, these laptops looked like desktop replacements because they had big frames, needed multiple power adapters, and had lots of flashy RGB lighting. But the landscape has changed a lot, and the top contenders have changed along with it. Manufacturers have embraced the idea of putting powerful specs into slim gaming machines, giving them a more professional look and making them easier to carry around.
Over the years, technological advancements have led to smaller, more power-efficient components while increasing performance and speed. This has led to gaming laptops becoming lighter, more portable, and more affordable. Some can even rival the best ultrabooks in terms of form factor and performance, while others are so energy efficient that they have long battery life, something that would not have been possible even with the best gaming laptops of yesteryear.
The model-specific appeal of these Thin & Light gaming laptops lies in the unique combination of very thin and light cases on the one hand and powerful hardware on the other, which makes the devices especially interesting for all users who want to use their gaming laptop on the go. Of course, everyday work is also a use case, but gaming is in the foreground here. Most gaming laptops are large, strikingly designed with huge vents and a fighter jet-like aesthetic – and they are heavy. They’re not meant to be taken everywhere, like regular laptops, but rather for gaming sessions from place to place.
Not everyone wants a massive laptop for their gaming needs, however, and that’s where a new breed of thin and light gaming laptops comes in. We take a variety of aspects into consideration when making our recommendations. First and foremost are performance, heat generation, and noise levels during gaming and other demanding tasks, but other details such as overall build and screen quality, typing feel, audio quality, and most importantly, potential weak points to watch out for also play a role.
10 Best Thin and Light Gaming Laptops
ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14
Specifications:
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 stays true to form, largely following the template that the model line has set in recent years. The slim chassis is impressively thin and light for a gaming device, and the lid shines with a sophisticated array of LED pinpoints (dubbed “AniMe Matrix” by Asus) that can display custom animations and satisfy the desire for flashing lights without overdoing it with RGB elements. The white color also looks nice and clean and sleek. The Zephyrus is a far cry from the stereotypical clunky gaming laptops of years past, yet it still offers serious gaming power.
With compact design that measures just 0.77 x 12.3 x 8.9 inches (HWD), the Zephyrus G14 is impressively slim and light, and that’s taking into account the extra thickness due to the inclusion of the AniMe Matrix feature that adds a fraction of an inch to the lid. This is one of many features that have been improved over last year. An array of 1,449 mini LEDs provides brighter lights for more vivid animations.
Pros
- Lots of ports and IO
- Portable design
- Good display
Cons
- Gets warm
- Display could be brighter
Razer Blade 15 Advanced
Specifications:
The keyboard deck is made of anodized aluminum and includes a keyboard with RGB lighting and a large trackpad, as well as speakers on both sides. The power button is hidden in the right speaker grille. There is no built-in fingerprint. If you want a biometric connection, you’ll have to use the IR camera.
Razer doesn’t skimp on ports. The left side has a power port, two USB Type-A ports, a Thunderbolt 4 port, and the headphone jack, while the right side has an SD card slot, more USB-A and Thunderbolt 4 ports, plus an HDMI 2.1 output and a Kensington lock slot. These ports are similar to the MacBook Pros recently released by Apple, but Razer has a newer HDMI standard and a faster SD card reader, while Apple doesn’t use USB Type-A.
Pros
- Thin and light for a gaming laptop
- Sturdy, all-aluminum build
- Easy-to-use Synapse software
Cons
- Expensive
- It gets hot
- Below-average battery life
MSI GS65 Stealth
Specifications:
MSI’s sleek GS65 Stealth Thin manages to straddle the two personalities of the adult, non-professional gamer. It delivers decent gaming performance for FPS and platformers, complemented by a sleek but acceptably business-like design with a relatively comfortable keyboard and usable (for a gaming notebook) touchpad. It’s not a cheap system, but at least it lives up to its price it looks the part, feels the part, and performs as well as you’d expect for the money.
Although the thin metal that makes up the case makes it seem a bit fragile, it’s quite sturdy, with little give to the display and keyboard. The hinges are only on the sides, but there’s a good amount of tension to hold it at any angle you prefer. The brown and copper all-metal case is a nice change from other gaming notebooks. Although it’s ventilated all over, the ventilation grilles look interesting rather than obtrusive. A small cutout that houses the webcam also provides a slight lip that makes it easy to open the lid with one hand.
Pros
- Excellent audio quality
- Slim bezels
- Excellent battery life
Cons
- Too much chassis flex for the price
- Gets hot while gaming
- Forthcoming biometric login
Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED XD
Specifications:
The Gigabyte Aero series focuses on multimedia as well as content creation and, as such, strives to meet the high demands of graphic and media designers. There is also room for gaming in the Aero series, because since Nvidia gives manufacturers the freedom to influence the performance (TDP) of RTX 30XX graphics cards, powerful GPUs, such as the RTX 3070 in our test unit, have also found their place.
Since the case hasn’t changed much compared to its predecessor, we’re referring here to the Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED XC. Only the surface pattern of the display lid has changed. It is also worth mentioning that the lid closes automatically at an opening height of about 10 cm or lower. In addition, the top panel of the screen lid has a recessed frame, which makes it easier to lift the lid.
Pros
- Fantastic OLED screen
- Good port selection
- Decent battery life
Cons
- Expensive
- Glowing keyboard could put you off
Acer Nitro 5
Specifications:
Acer didn’t try to reinvent the gaming notebook with the Nitro 5. It’s a simple design with a bit of gaming flair thanks to a backlit RGB keyboard with four different zones, the red Nitro text and a pinstripe effect on the lid. The Nitro 5 is thick and a little bulky. It measures 14.19 x 10.67 x 1.06 inches and weighs 5.51 pounds; you’ll definitely notice it when it’s in your backpack.
Three of its four edges have ports. On the right side are two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, one of which provides power to charge a device (like your smartphone) even when the Nitro 5 is off. The charging port is on the back of the Nitro, as is a Thunderbolt 4/USB-C port and an HDMI is 2.1 cable port. On the left side there’s a 3.5mm audio jack, a traditional USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, and an RJ45 Ethernet cable port.
Pros
- Great Graphics Performance
- Reasonable Price for the Specs
- Decent battery life
Cons
- Dull Display
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3
Specifications:
The Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 features an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 dedicated GPU, 8GB of RAM and 1256GB of storage in the form of a 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD and a 1TB 5400rpm internal hard drive. You can also configure the laptop with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H, which isn’t as fast as the Ryzen 7 5800H, but is still powerful enough to allow for smooth gameplay. As for the GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is the entry-level option and achieves around 60 fps at 1080p, though you’ll need to play at low settings for most games.
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 and RTX 3050Ti are a decent step up from the GTX 1650 and have fairly similar performance, with the RTX 3050Ti being only slightly better than the 3050, with both GPUs achieving around 60 fps or a little more at high settings. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is the high-end configuration and offers the best performance with an average frame rate of 80 to 100 fps at 1080p.
Pros
- Snappy CPU performance
- 120 Hz panel
- NVMe SSD
Cons
- Only 8GB of memory
- No Thunderbolt 3
Asus TUF Gaming FX504
Specifications:
In fact, all ports are on the left side: power, Ethernet, one USB-A 2.0, two USB-A 3.0, a combined headphone/microphone jack, and the aforementioned HDMI. This makes it easier to connect peripherals and ensures that all cables are on one side, far away from your mouse (assuming you’re working with your right hand). There is nothing on the right side except a slot for the lock. This begs the question, with all that space, why not add an optical drive, SD card reader, or USB-C port?
The hybrid hard drive, which is a 1 TB hard drive with 5,400 rpm and 8 GB of cache memory, is faster than a hard drive with 5,400 rpm alone. An Internal Solid State Drives will help with overall system performance and game launching, as well as cooling and battery life. You can add your own M.2 SSD on the bottom and expand the memory up to 32 GB.
Pros
- Good 1080p gaming pep for the price.
- Crisp IPS display.
- Abundant storage.
Cons
- Poor battery life.
- Touchy touchpad.
Acer Predator Triton 500
Specifications:
To help you get the most out of its graphical capabilities, Acer has combined the graphics card with a 300Hz panel that enables a 3ms response time and supports G-Sync. That’s pretty much the best dual-pack you could ask for at the moment. The panel itself isn’t without a few minor drawbacks, as we’ll note, but it’s certainly an impressive combination. That’s not a huge surprise. G-Sync generally helps things feel smooth, and the FHD resolution is low enough that the 2080 SUPER isn’t too taxed.
Not that it doesn’t work hard – the fans rev up significantly when things get complex – but frame drops and throttling didn’t occur during gaming tests or benchmarking activities. This is a true desktop replacement. The upgrade path may not be as good as a desktop PC, and it may not be a magical panacea that can get outrageous FPS numbers out of a game like Cyberpunk 2077 on Ultra with RTX enabled (that’s not much at this point), but it’s a brilliant experience. Turn on Nvidia’s DLSS, and the 2080 SUPER can carve through just about anything.
Pros
- High-refresh-rate 16:10 display
- Ports galore including Thunderbolt, HDMI, and SD card slot
- Wi-Fi 6E
Cons
- Ho-hum keyboard
- Noisy cooling fans
Lenovo Legion 5 15.6
Specifications:
The screen is a bit bendy, which causes the Legion 5 to lose some points in build quality, but the display itself is the brightest highlight of the notebook. It’s a 15.6-inch 1920 x 1080 IPS panel that provides extra gaming performance in two ways: a fast 165 Hz refresh rate and AMD FreeSync support in the 60 to 165 Hz range.
Not every game is suitable for the maximum settings, as Metro Exodus showed. With the Ultra preset, the benchmark tool achieved an average of 51 fps: This is good enough for gaming, but not enough to reach the 60 fps threshold where FreeSync kicks in. By adding ray tracing effects in Ultra quality, it could just stay afloat with 31 fps. Only when you turn the quality down to High (without RT effects) do you reach an average of 64fps.
Pros
- Plenty of wired and wireless connectivity
- Excellent game performance
- Competitive pricing
Cons
- Display is bright, but lacking in color performance
- Speakers can sound muddy
MSI Stealth 15m
Specifications:
The thin and light design of the MSI Stealth 15M, along with the comfortable keyboard and decent port selection, is an excellent start. And if gaming notebooks were only judged by these criteria, we would happily recommend it, especially because it does a good job when playing on medium settings.
If you think of the MSI Stealth 15M as a device for gaming and work, you’ll also appreciate the keyboard and trackpad. The keyboard is extremely comfortable and pleasant to use, not to mention responsive. And while you’re still better off using a dedicated mouse for gaming, the trackpad feels comfortable and is great for productivity tasks.
Pros
- Sophisticated aesthetics
- Pleasant keyboard
Cons
- Middling performance
- Muddy display
FAQs
What is the best thin 144Hz laptop?
Even though it’s on the more expensive side, the Razer Blade 15 is praised for being one of the best thin gaming laptops with a 144Hz rate and being one of the most powerful laptops. It comes with a base configuration for an Intel Core i7 processor, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, and a 256GB SSD.
What are very thin and lightweight laptops called?
An ultrabook is a type of laptop computer that is thin and light. It was made to fill the market gap between tablets and high-end notebook PCs. Ultrabooks have more features that are useful for business than tablets and are easier to carry around than enterprise-class notebooks.