Consider A Gaming Laptop For Your Home Office
Is your home office all about meetings, Excel sheets, tiresome video editing, or any other 9-to-5 routine? Why not transform it into something that allows you to get the job done…while being an outstanding battle station for gaming?
Gaming laptops are ideal for graphics and audio-intensive work such as video editing, 3D design, architecture, and music production. They bring numerous advantages to the home office, too, including reducing cable management table clutter and — most importantly — providing a performance powerhouse.
Laptops were all business when they first hit the shelves. Over time, they became slim and lightweight, ensuring convenience. However, portability with performance started when Razer launched the Razer Blade in 2011. Since then, the race for top-performing gaming laptops expanded to manufacturers like ASUS, MSI, Alienware, and Acer.
Let’s explore why a gaming laptop is a better option economically and aesthetically for your home office.
Gaming Laptops: The Perfect Home Office Device
The modern laptops we’re going to look at include high-end gaming hardware that can go head-to-head with a desktop PC. Bulky devices with low battery life, large chargers, thick bodies, and heavy weights are a thing of the past.
So, why is a gaming laptop the perfect home office device?
Versatility And Mobility For The Modern Worker
Whether you are a content creator or an engineer processing complex equations, a gaming laptop can perform all your work. Its versatility with high-performance hardware allows users to enjoy AAA gaming titles and work on their video/audio editing software.
Portability is the primary factor that compels users to buy a gaming laptop. Gaming laptops are lightweight, so you can take them to client meetings, coffee shops, coworking spaces, or even LAN parties.
These machines are often quite attractive, too — manufacturers keep aesthetics like the shape of the case and its lighting configuration in mind while designing a gaming laptop. Your gaming computer can quickly become the centerpiece of your home office.
Power And Value For Work And Play
Modern gaming laptops can handle anything you throw at them. The astonishingly high core count and dedicated graphics can process video editing load and CAD programs. At the same time, their high-end displays provide crisp pixels and the high refresh rate ensures smooth movements in gaming and editing.
Gaming laptops offer excellent value for money, especially compared to desktop PCs. You can get a gaming laptop with powerful specs for a fraction of the cost of a desktop PC with similar specs. In addition, the keyboard, mouse, display, and PC components are all integrated into a single case, making it ideal for a home office setup.
Quick Gaming Laptop Buying Guide
Here are some features to keep in mind when buying a laptop for work and play:
Central Processing Unit (CPU)
The CPU is the brain of your computer, handling all the core data processing for any software. It impacts video editing decoding time, drastically affecting engineering problem-solving load. Games utilize the CPU for in-game physics, AI, and logic processing.
Tip: The CPU should have higher cores, threads, and operating frequency. Aim for the latest generation of CPU. It will provide better performance and consume less power.
Graphics Card
The primary purpose of graphics cards is to simulate graphics. Applying filters/effects and editing 4K videos requires a dedicated graphics card. Gaming laptops have dedicated graphics cards that allow users to play AAA game titles and have smooth interfaces for office work.
Tip: There are three main competitors in graphics cards: Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA. Aim for a GPU with higher benchmark scores. Generally, it should have higher cores, VRAM frequency, and GPU frequency.
Display
Whether gaming or working on a serious project, a crisp display with high frequency can enhance user experience. It will provide fluid cursor movements and accurate colors that are equally important for building presentations or playing your favorite games.
Tip: The gaming laptop display should have a high operating frequency (Hz) and a wide color gamut. It is preferred to have a 144Hz or higher display and a color gamut of 99% sRGB or DCI-P3.
Storage Drive
Laptops are not highly adaptable, and only a few provide the option of storage expansion. Even if you don’t need a huge hard drive right now, you might require more storage in the future. The modern gaming laptops feature high-speed NVMe M.2 storage drives; anything near or above 1TB is critical for notebooks.
Tip: Subscribe to a cloud storage service to keep your data safe and reliable.
The Best Gaming Laptops For Home Office Use
Gaming laptops may be designed for gamers, but they’re equally beneficial for home office work. We have compiled a list of top-performing gaming laptops that are portable, lightweight, powerful, and aesthetically pleasing.
ASUS ROG Strix Scar 18
Tech Specs
CPU: 13th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-13980HX
GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4090
Display: 18” QHD+ 240Hz DCI-P3
Storage: 2TB + 2TB PCIe® 4.0 NVMe™ M.2
Key Highlights
- Cinema-grade 240Hz display
- 24-Core 13th Gen Intel CPU
- Latest wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi 6E + BT 5.3)
- Charges zero to 50% in 30 minutes
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 18 includes a 13th-generation Intel processor that supports PCIe 5.0, being a perfect match for the latest NVIDIA® RTX™ 4090 graphics card. The processor features 24 cores that operate at a 5.6GHz frequency. The CPU consumes a mere 157W power at its full performance.
If you are recording video/audio or require peripheral connectivity, the laptop offers two USB-A ports, one USB Type-C port, and a Thunderbolt 4 port for high-speed connectivity. The Strix Scar 18 also features an 18” 240Hz cinema-grade color gamut display. Whether you are building your League of Legends account or editing a video for work, this laptop is a perfect addition to the home office.
Razer Blade 18
Tech Specs
CPU: 13th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-13950HX
GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4080
Display: 18” QHD+ 240Hz
Storage: 1TB + 1TB PCIe® 4.0 NVMe™ M.2
Key Highlights
- Premium T6 CNC-anodized aluminum body
- Slim 0.86” thickness
- NKRO keyboard
- Glass touchpad
The Razer Blade 18’s elegant aluminum body looks quite professional, but it contains top hardware for the gaming enthusiast. Its powerful ray-tracing capable RTX™ 4080 will power all your games and professional software.
The glass touchpad adds to its good looks. The computer comes pre-installed with NVIDIA STUDIO, which boosts performance for 3D creators through AI. In a hardware-intensive game like Shadow of Tomb Raider, this laptop can achieve a whopping 179 FPS at 1080p. This option is an excellent combo for all of your work and entertainment needs.
HP Victus 16
Tech Specs
CPU: AMD Ryzen™ 7 7840HS
GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4060
Display: 16” QHD 240Hz
Storage: 1TB SSD
Key Features
- Excellent price/performance ratio
- 5gbps USB speed
- 32GB DDR5 RAM
- Lightweight 2.33 kg design
The HP Victus 16 may look like a budget gaming laptop, but it packs enough horsepower to handle almost any task. The entry-level RTX™ 4060 can play all the AAA titles, and if you are playing GTA V, it can run at 100+ FPS with NVIDIA® DLSS 3. Its AMD Ryzen™ 7 7840HS can handle intense computational loads for video editing or CAD modeling.
This laptop also provides high-speed USB connectivity of 5gbps and Wi-Fi 6E (2×2)+Bluetooth 5.3 wireless connectivity that makes the product future-proof. It’s an ideal device for professionals on a budget.
A Powerful PC Is Essential
Amongst all the categories of PCs, gaming laptops provide the best value by combining performance, aesthetics, features, and portability in a singular machine. By now, you must know that gaming laptops can perform alongside gaming consoles and professional video-editing desktop PCs.
They can shoulder the burdens of video editing, gaming, programming, 3D modeling, and engineering, among other things. You just need to find the right specs to do the job!
| This article is part of Buildremote’s contributor series. Occasionally, we’ll share other people’s ideas about running a remote company. If you have a topic you’d like to pitch for Buildremote, send us an idea here. |
