Finding the best performing machine at the lowest price is always a challenge. So what is the beast deal on a laptop this year?
The cheapest gaming laptop which offers the best gaming experience is the Dell G5 15 SE, the successor to Dell Inspiron Gaming Series (Pandora).
It is a very capable and pretty affordable gaming laptop that pretty much ticks many of the right boxes. The laptop comes with a combo of next-generation features, in-game frame rates, and game-changing battery life.
The Dell G5 15 SE is the cheapest high-performing gaming laptop this year for about $879.
The laptop runs an AMD CPU, which is the best way to get value and it also uses an AMD GPU. It is the first gaming laptop to combine both which is very impressive. However, the laptop build is not the best and this is not just about aesthetics but the material choice for the overall design.
Without much ado, let’s have a look at the features of the laptop which makes it worth every penny irrespective of its questionable design.
Pros
- Great battery life
- Awesome CPU performance
- Bright 144Hz display
- Powerful gaming performance
Cons
- Mediocre graphics
- Chunky design
- It is a bit heavy
Design
The G5 15 SE is a simple-looking laptop, with the least fancy design. The few design flourishes are on the lid. It’s a silver color with a metallic glow and carved by two vertical lines, with its Dell logo at the center.
The laptop is basic-looking, which might be appreciated as it blends in anywhere with its restrained look. However, if you are a freak for fancy designs, you may find this particular design too boring.
The size of the G5 SE is standard. Even though most laptops are now much lighter and thinner, the G5 doesn’t follow suit. It is a bit bulky at 0.85 by 14.4 by 10 inches at 5.5 pounds.
This does not come as a surprise because making a PC slim is costly, so the money is better spent elsewhere to prioritize better performance and features.
However, this doesn’t in any way mean that the overall build quality is horrific, the whole chassis is plastic but it is very firm and the keyboard is comfortable to type on with decent travel.
On the left is a mini DisplayPort, the power jack, a USB 3.1 port, an RJ45 Ethernet Port and also a USB Type-C port and on the right side, there are two USB 2.0 ports, one SD card slot, and headphone jack.
Display
The resolution is full HD, which compliments the more mainstream components in it. The 15.6-inch screen display is gorgeous, It also has a 144 Hz refresh rate which will make games look smoother. The picture quality is awesome.
Performance
The laptop is equipped with an AMD Ryzen R7 4800H processor with 16GB RAM which made it work perfectly well tested with 40 chrome tabs and four 1080p videos from YouTube while Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption ran at the background.
When tested on Geekbench 5.0, the G5 scored 29,253 beating two 9th Generation Intel-based laptops, the HP 15-inch Pavilion Gaming notebook, and the XPG Xenia 15.
Even though the plain plastic design is a bit awkward, it comes with some advantages, one of which is heat management. On casual test, the underside measured about 106 degrees Fahrenheit but the plastic only mad it feels warm.
The Dell G5 15 SE has one of the strongest battery life seen in a gaming laptop, all thanks to AMD. It lasts a staggering 7 hours and 14 minutes.
Final verdict
The Dell G5 15 SE is the cheapest laptop offering such awesome gaming performance. It is an incredible mainstream computer, all thanks to the exceptional CPU performance.
But to be sincere, the GPU could be stronger, however, you may choose to spend an extra $250 to get the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, this offers stronger GPU, longer battery life, and even brighter display.
Overall, the G5 15 SE’s successes outdo the mediocrities, so it is easily one of the best selling laptops you can get for the price.
