Home > Best Gaming Laptops > Best Gaming Laptops under $2000
For a gaming enthusiast, there’s nothing more satisfying than having a good setup. If you’re one of them, then these best gaming laptops under 2000 dollars are for you!
Before, you needed to have a huge budget to get your dream setup. Not anymore. With the advancements in the industry, laptop companies are now able to provide a good combo of powerful CPU and efficient GPU at a reasonable price. Definitely not cheap, but still not as expensive as before.
Our Top 3
#1 – Asus ROG Zephyrus GX501 |
#2 – Asus Zenbook UX534FTC |
#3 – MSI GL75 |
15-inch Portable Powerhouse |
Ultra-portable gaming laptop with Unique Features |
Great Specs but Heavy |
15.6″ HD | 15.6″ HD | 17.3″ HD |
Intel i7 with 16 GB of RAM | Intel i7 with 16 GB of RAM | Intel i7 with 16 GB of RAM |
256 GB SSD + 1000 HDD (7200 rpm) | 1000 GB SSD | 512 GB SSD |
Expect 4 to 5 hours | Up to 6 hours | Up to 6 hours |
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Buy on |
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Jump to our Review | Jump to our Review | Jump to our Review |
Table of Contents
So here are the top 15 gaming laptops under 2000 dollars. But before we get into the list, here are some of the things that you might like to know before (click here to jump directly to the top 15)
Are the best gaming laptops under $2000 for you?
A 2000 dollars setup is definitely not just a laptop for watching movies. Only a specific group of people will need this kind of beast. If you’re someone from the list below, the top 12 gaming laptops under $2000 are for you:
- for the Gaming Enthusiast: these laptops are indeed dedicated towards those who need a high-end setup for the visually overwhelming games they need to play. With the powerful CPU and a dedicated GPU, these laptops are for tech-savvy gamers who like to show their skills on the battleground.
- for high-end CAD works: Some low spec Laptops might work smoothly when you are working in AutoCAD, but to get the best results, a powerful laptop like one of these ones in our list of top 12 laptops under 2000 dollars can really help. These laptops have powerful CPU and tons of memory that ensures a smooth and fast experience in 3D design.
- For Video/Audio editing: Post-production is always a lot of work and for that, you need a laptop that not only has a powerful CPU and a lot of memory, but also equipped with a visually appealing screen to give you accurate colors and details. And guess what, these laptops on our list are exactly what you need for this kind of heavy editing work.
What to expect from a gaming laptop under $2000?
You are spending a good chunk of money and it’s only legit that you get the best at that price. That’s why we have set the bar high for a good gaming laptop under 2000 dollars.
Efficient and Powerful CPU (Processor)
You wouldn’t want your laptop to be lagging every time you load your high-end games and that’s why a powerful CPU is that important. The latest Core i7 laptops are just the thing you’d want in your dream setup.
Dedicated GPU
GPU is the part that ensures your gaming experience goes smoothly by processing high-end visual effects. There are countless versions of GPU nowadays, mostly being manufactured by NVIDIA and AMD.
Here, we won’t settle for anything less than the top graphic processor on the market, equipped with a lot of memory.
RAM
RAM has always been the center of any digital equipment to run smoothly and lag-free. But they are quite pricey as well. For this type of setup, get 16 GB of RAM. 8 GB might work but that isn’t the first choice to go for.
Preferably SSD
A good hard-drive is important for any type of PC setup. The more SSD space you want, the pricier it gets. But getting a 256-512 GB SSD storage along with a 1 TB HDD is definitely worth the money and most laptops here will have that kind of setup.
Bigger Screen with better resolution
Gaming is a good way to feast your eyes. The graphics, accurate color rendering, and good brightness are definitely important when you are playing high-end games. Nowadays games have become so realistic, having less than a great screen will lessen your playing pleasure. That’s why it is important to get a gaming laptop under 2000 dollars that have an excellent display along with a powerful GPU.
Good Battery Life
Gaming on battery power is not recommended when playing a high-end game. That battery won’t last long. But if you’re often on the go, this is still an important feature.
Where most of the gaming laptops give about 4-5 hours of battery life, there are some gaming notebooks with exceptional battery life. For some, you can expect 8-9 hours of battery backup.
Aggressive looks
Although having an aggressive gaming look to your laptop is not as important as having a powerful CPU and a dedicated GPU, there’s no harm in spreading a gaming vibe around you.
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Specs for the Top 15 Best Gaming Laptops under $2000
Graphics 13 to 17-inch Processor Intel i7 RAM 8 to 16 GB Storage 128 to 1000 GB Battery life 3 to 11 hours OS Windows 10, Windows 10 Pro Thickness / Weight 0.6 to 1.4″ / 3.46 to 8.41 lbs Price Range $$$$, $$$$$
Top 15 Best Gaming Laptops under $2000
1 – Asus ROG Zephyrus GX501 – 15″ HD
“15-inch Portable Powerhouse”
The Zephyrus GX501 is a top contender both in terms of looks and performance. It features a premium high-performance GeForce GTX 1070 and an Intel i7 to complement it.
Additionally, it is VR ready making it a great choice for those who are looking to get into virtual reality games. It also comes with a feature that allows you to separately cluster your WASD and QWER keys with Asus’s Aura technology for the gamers who frequently switch between FPS and MOBA titles.
This is a serious contender as one of the best gaming laptops under 2000 dollars and one that will deliver all the performance you need to play any games.
Pros
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Cons
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Buy on online
Graphics | 15.6″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) with NVIDIA GTX 1070 |
Performance | Intel i7 with 16 GB of RAM |
Storage | 256 GB SSD + 1000 HDD (7200 rpm) |
Battery life | Expect 4 to 5 hours |
OS | Windows 10 |
Thickness / Weight | 0.7″ / 4.9 lbs |
2 – Asus Zenbook UX534FTC – 15″ HD
“Ultra-portable gaming laptop with Unique Features”
It is one of the most compact 15-inch laptops that you’ll come across. It has a cool & unique features like a built-in secondary display that also acts as a trackpad as well as a discreet graphics card.
This Zenbook has a fairly large screen and adequate performance to boost heavy tasks like gaming, video editing, photo editing, 3D work, or anything that would benefit from an additional discrete graphics card.
The royal blue metal finish along with the rose gold really makes this Zenbook stand out from the competition and that trend also continues on the inside as well. The build quality is superb and is made of aluminum. But Asus could have done better with its battery life.
Overall it is a very well-priced, good-looking laptop and is definitely one of the most portable, and best gaming laptops under $2000.
Pros
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Cons
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Buy on NewEgg
Graphics | 15.6″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) with NVIDIA GTX 1650 |
Performance | Intel i7 with 16 GB of RAM |
Storage | 1000 GB SSD |
Battery life | Up to 6 hours |
OS | Windows 10 Pro |
Thickness / Weight | 0.7″ / 3.64 lbs |
3 – MSI GL75 – 17″ HD
“Great Specs but Heavy”
The MSI GL75 is a 17-inch gaming laptop that offers excellent performance for the specs.
The 17-inch, 1080p, 144 Hz IPS-Level screen has a matte finish and feels quite sturdy along with fine viewing angles. The camera & the sound quality are average and, for network connectivity, it has got gigabyte ethernet, WiFi 5 & Bluetooth 5.
The dimensions of the MSI GL75 is similar to other gaming laptops, but it is on the heavier side. So if you are a gamer and want a laptop that you can carry around easily, then this is not the best option for you. But if you are looking for a great value, high-performing 17-inch gaming laptop under 2000 dollars, this is it!
Pros
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Cons
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Buy on NewEgg
Graphics | 17.3″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) with NVIDIA GTX 1660Ti |
Performance | Intel i7 with 16 GB of RAM |
Storage | 512 GB SSD |
Battery life | Up to 6 hours |
OS | Windows 10 |
Thickness / Weight | 1.1″ / 8.41 lbs |
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4 – Razer Blade RZ09 – 14″ HD
“Light and powerful 14-inch”
The Razer Blade lives up to its name is one of the thinnest laptops out there. And it makes no compromise in terms of hardware either, as it is powered by the GTX 1060 and a 7th generation core i7.
This laptop looks classy with its full black body and Razer Chroma keyboard. A perfect choice for those looking for a good balance between performance and looks. This is definitely one of the best gaming laptops for 2000 dollars!
Pros
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Cons
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Buy on online
Graphics | 14″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) with NVIDIA GTX 1060 |
Performance | Intel i7 with 16 GB of RAM |
Storage | 512 GB SSD |
Battery life | Expect 4 to 5 hours |
OS | Windows 10 |
Thickness / Weight | 0.7″ / 4.3 lbs |
5 – MSI GS65 – 15″ HD
“For Portability & Performance”
This is a powerful gaming laptop with a very thin & sleek design that weighs only 4.1 pounds. At first glance, it doesn’t even look like a gaming laptop as the other gaming laptops are usually bulky and this one is quite slim.
The MSI GS65 has an Intel 8 generation core i7 processor with 6 core, 16 gigs of RAM as well as an Nvidia GTX 1070. So this compact laptop has a lot of power and is one of the best $2000 gaming laptops for people who travel a lot.
If you like really thin bezels, then you are definitely gonna love what you get. So to get a powerful gaming laptop that can fit in your backpack easily, then this is the one for you.
Pros
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Cons
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Buy on NewEgg
Graphics | 15.6″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) with NVIDIA GTX 1070 |
Performance | Intel i7 with 16 GB of RAM |
Storage | 256 GB SSD |
Battery life | Up to 7 hours |
OS | Windows 10 |
Thickness / Weight | 0.69″ / 4.14 lbs |
6 – Alienware AW17R4 – 17″ HD
“Colorful 17-inch”
This 17-inch Alienware AW17R4 has a futuristic design with intelligently fitted LED lights to boost the aesthetics of this 17-inch laptop.
If you’re looking for portability, definitely look somewhere else because it’s not what you’re getting at 8.5 lbs. But otherwise, it has great ventilation and comes packed with a powerful GPU and CPU, loads of fast storage, and ample RAM.
Pros
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Cons
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Buy on online
Graphics | 17.3″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) with NVIDIA GTX 1070 |
Performance | Intel i7 with 16 GB of RAM |
Storage | 128 or 256 GB SSD + 1000 HDD (7200 rpm) |
Battery life | Up to 4.5 hours |
OS | Windows 10 |
Thickness / Weight | 1.4″ / 8.33 lbs |
7 – MSI Prestige A10SC – 14″ HD
“Simple looks but Amazing Specs”
From outside there’s nothing much striking about it but from inside it is packed with some pretty amazing specs.
The MSI Prestige A10SC comes with the latest Intel Core i7 processor and is surprisingly paired with GTX 1650 max q graphics, a combination that you don’t see often in such a compact laptop. You can enjoy your games on a color-accurate display.
So it is basically for those people who want good gaming performance but not necessarily on a big gaming laptop.
The lid has some flex in it but then you have to compromise a little with a laptop so thin.
Pros
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Cons
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Buy on NewEgg
Graphics | 14″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) with NVIDIA GTX 1650 |
Performance | Intel i7 with 16 GB of RAM |
Storage | 1000 GB SSD |
Battery life | Up to 6 hours |
OS | Windows 10 |
Thickness / Weight | 0.6″ / 3.46 lbs |
8 – Acer Predator Helios 300 – 15″ HD
“Fast 2000 dollars gaming laptop”
This laptop has a lot of bang for the buck.
It’s fast and can run all the games at their highest settings. The Predator sense app that it comes with is super useful as you can customize pretty much every aspect of the laptop using this app. You do get good customization from Acer, with things like RGB lighting and having that extra number pad. The 144Hz full HD panel offers good viewing angles and gets the job done when it comes to gaming.
The keyboard has a decent feel and the keys are sturdy enough. But adjusting from a mechanical keyboard might take some time to get used to this. The speakers have a mediocre sound quality and I would recommend you use headphones while gaming.
Pros
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Cons
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Buy on online
Graphics | 15.6″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) with NVIDIA GTX 1060 |
Performance | Intel i7 with 16 GB of RAM |
Storage | 256 GB SSD |
Battery life | Up to 7 hours |
OS | Windows 10 |
Thickness / Weight | 1.1″ / 5.95 lbs |
# 9 to 15 Best Gaming Laptops under $2000
9 – Lenovo Legion Y720 – 15″ HD
“Great for Virtual Reality”
The Lenovo Legion comes with an aggressive look, mostly credited to the red wonderfully designed red keyboard, and fierce performance to match. The laptop offers top-level gaming experience not only in traditional games, but also VR games as it comes with Dolby Atmos in addition to being Oculus certified, making it one of the best VR ready laptops at this price range.
But don’t expect portability. At 7 lbs for a 15-inch, it’s not its best feature…
Pros
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Cons
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Buy on online
Graphics | 15.6″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) with NVIDIA GTX 1060 |
Performance | Intel i7 with 16 GB of RAM |
Storage | 512 GB SSD |
Battery life | Up to 4 hours |
OS | Windows 10 |
Thickness / Weight | 1.14″ / 7.04 lbs |
10 – Alienware 13 AW13R3 – 13″ HD
“Good looking 13-inch but heavy”
With one of the smaller screens in this price range, it still packs a punch. It comes with the usual software from Alienware allowing you to customize it to your needs.
More importantly, it has a 7th generation core i7 that can be turbo boosted to achieve maximum performance and a GTX 1060 in addition to 8 gigabytes of RAM, all of which guarantee a smooth gaming experience for its users. But for a 13-inch, it’s a bit heavy.
Pros
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Cons
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Buy on online
Graphics | 13.3″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) with NVIDIA GTX 1060 |
Performance | Intel i7 with 8 GB of RAM |
Storage | 256 GB SSD |
Battery life | Expect 3 to 4 hours |
OS | Windows 10 |
Thickness / Weight | 1.1″ / 5.8 lbs |
11 – Lenovo Legion Y7000 – 15″ HD
“Great performance, Simple looks, & Amazing Graphics”
This is a performance laptop that can do both work and gaming at an affordable price.
It has smooth graphics for gaming as expected.
The Lenovo legion Y7000 is made for those gamers who like the simple look but want the best performance. With this laptop, Lenovo goes with “simple is the better” sort of approach, so you get a rethought and basic design and a clean look, without those hideous RGB lighting.
Its amazing sound quality comes as a surprise and its three-sided bezels make use of the maximum viewing area. However, the lid can only be bent up to 240 degrees.
This is not intended to be portable, so it has a very short battery life.
Pros
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Cons
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Buy on NewEgg
Graphics | 15.6″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) with NVIDIA GTX 1060 |
Performance | Intel i7 with 16 GB of RAM |
Storage | 1000 GB HDD ( rpm) |
Battery life | Up to 8 hours |
OS | Windows 10 |
Thickness / Weight | 1.06″ / 5.17 lbs |
12 – HP OMEN 15t – 15″ QHD
“Premium look, Amazing specs & Well-Priced”
It is one of the most configurable laptops on the market. Despite its more premium look, it’s a very competitively priced model. This has a more subtle black design, has quite an angular appearance and a sharp look.
Pros
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Cons
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Buy on online
Graphics | 15.6″ QHD screen (3840 x 2160) with NVIDIA GTX 1050 |
Performance | Intel i7 with 16 GB of RAM |
Storage | 128 GB SSD + 1000 HDD (7200 rpm) |
Battery life | Up to 6 hours |
OS | Windows 10 |
Thickness / Weight | 1″ / 5.2 lbs |
13 – Dell XPS 15 – 15″ HD
“Portable, Powerful & Premium”
For such a light & thin ultrabook, it gives an excellent performance, fantastic display quality (HDR 4K OLED and LCD), easy to upgrade storage and memory & good battery life.
It comes with new 10th gen Intel processors and faster GTX 1650 TI graphics. With Dell XPS 15, you get the biggest design overhaul to the XPS lineup. It has super thin bezels, a much bigger trackpad, a refined keyboard, good bass speakers, USB C charging, and overall a much sleeker chassis.
But I think this is the hottest XPS so far, so the thermal situation needs to be further improved and the removal of some unwanted bloatware is also required.
Pros
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Cons
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Buy on online
Graphics | 15.6″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) with NVIDIA GTX 1050 |
Performance | Intel i7 with 8 GB of RAM |
Storage | 256 GB SSD |
Battery life | Expect 11 hours |
OS | Windows 10 |
Thickness / Weight | 0.66″ / 4 lbs |
14 – Dell Inspiron i5577 – 15″ HD
“Balanced Looks”
The Dell Inspiron i5577 looks like it has been designed with the modern user in mind and seems to be overpowered for its price. Unlike other gaming laptops, Dell has opted for a more balanced look for this gaming device.
In the Dell Inspiron i5577, you get a faster refresh rate than IPS and it is also easy on the eyes. The video card does great on the high-end games at top settings, with no freezing problem. The charger is long and has a nice power light along with the sleek look of the keyboard and red backlights, which actually looks great. It doesn’t have a lot of bloatware and the TN screen is also not a big deal.
If you are a gamer and want to stream your gaming, then the problem you’ll face is that, with the standard 8gb of ram, it isn’t powerful enough to game and stream at the same time. But if you buy another stick of ram & upgrade it to 16gb, then it will work perfectly fine.
Pros
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Cons
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Buy on online
Graphics | 15.6″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) with NVIDIA GTX 1050 |
Performance | Intel i7 with 8 GB of RAM |
Storage | 128GB + 1TB GB Hybrid |
Battery life | Expect 5 to 7 hours |
OS | Windows 10 |
Thickness / Weight | 1″ / 5.45 lbs |
15 – Asus VivoBook Pro N705UD – 17″ HD
“Fine balance between Power, Price & Heat-Management”
A common problem that a lot of gamers face is that with more power, their laptop seems to heat up a lot as well.
So Asus has tried to solve this problem with their Asus Vivobook Pro N705UD. It gives a fine balance between power and thermals and provides a pleasant experience to the user, without their devices getting heat up. In addition to the processor, the GPU is in the exact same “sweet spot” of thermals vs power as the processor.
The screen is nice, with good viewing angles & decent color. There’s nothing special about the screen but nothing bad too. The audio is rich, bass-filled, and loud, not tinny or shallow like most other laptops.
Pros
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Cons
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Buy on NewEgg
Graphics | 17″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) with NVIDIA GTX 1050 |
Performance | Intel i7 with 16 GB of RAM |
Storage | 256 GB SSD + 1000 HDD (5400 rpm) |
Battery life | Expect 5 to 6 hours |
OS | Windows 10 |
Thickness / Weight | 0.8″ / 4.6 lbs |
Erik is the owner and main editor of lptps.com. He has been working in computers and information technology for more than 20 years. He’s a business analyst, developer, and avid traveler.
2 Comments
akhil singh
Hi Erik
Thank you so much for providing such a amazing blog with us . The whole blog is full of valuable knowledge about the laptop ,I was very much confused before reading the article . But after reading the article i am getting a good amount of the knowledge . I will share your blog with my friends and family .
Erik
Thanks for the kind words! 🙂