Lenovo line is solid. Lenovo Legion 5, Legion 5 Pro and 7 Pro. Avoid the 2025 Legion 7 UNLESS you can get it for under 1800. Paying over 2k for a 5070 is crazy.

The 2025 ASUS G18 with a 5080 is solid, if not a little pricy.

The HP Omen line is good this year if you can catch a good coupon like the LEVELUP20 deal.

What’s your budget and what country are you buying in?

5070Ti is probably the “sweet spot” of the current generation of Nvidia laptop GPUs in terms of what you get for the money.

There is a Really good deal going on for legion 5i's with the ultra 7 and 5070 ATM. Check their website.

The best card for a laptop is the most efficient at low wattages graphics cards which is currently the GOAT RTX 5060 which has the same power an its desktop counterparts. Don’t listen to plebs who will make you pay thousands of dollars for cut back graphics cards like the 5070ti or 5090 which have less vram and less power than their desktop and boils like a furnace making your laptop a fireball e-waste

Be advised that I'm biased due to my recent purchase, but I think the Lenovo Legion line has a lot to offer.

In terms of GPUs, and of course budget depending, I wouldn't go any lower than a 4080 or 5070Ti due to the VRAM. I would also suggest going with 32GB of RAM.

Another thing to think about is what generation of chips to go with. If possible, I would definitely suggest going with the newer generation(s) for both the CPU and GPU, Intel Core Ultra & Nvidia RTX 5k series, respectively. Both architectures, Intel's Arrow Lake and Nvidia's Blackwell, offer pretty solid advances over their predecessors IMO. However, the previous generations and plenty good and there are deals to be had.

Finally, after my recent search, and my purchase being my second gaming machine, I now put a lot of weight on thermals. Performance can vary quite a bit between models that have the same hardware. For example, one of the major reasons I went with the Legion Pro line, is that they are well engineered where you can push virtually full wattage with minimal throttling. I just don't see the point of having the capability on paper, where either the TDP is capped or otherwise ends up endlessly throttling at a sustained full load.

This is what I recommend for college in general -- https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Vivobook-Thunderbolt-Win11Home-Expander/dp/B0DPB6YWTS -- but add the Asurion 4 year warranty so you can sleep at night.

Find out of you need CAD software or will require a larger screen, I have no clue.

It depends on your budget and requirements. Do you want gaming performance or average performance with very good battery endurance?

In case your budget is up to 1000 usd and you mostly look for high performance, you can check out this Lenovo LOQ 15 for 930 usd. It has CPU AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS, GPU NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 8GB, 16GB DDR5 RAM, 1TB SSD, 15.6-inch 144Hz FHD IPS display (with 100% sRGB), backlit keyboard, and Windows 11 Home.

Without doubts Alienware Area 51 18. 280W and Best cooling in 2025 gaming laptops.

https://youtu.be/xuFQ4LN--II?si=a5bzCF2inK2TWIdT

For example in the same situation Alienware CPU have temps of 70-80, Legion 90 to 104. GPU is also much cooler

Lol. You guys are hilarious 😂  There's not a single good laptop in 2025? Fuck me.

legion 7

razer because it's actually a reasonable size. i guess zephyrus might also be an option but i think you take more of a performance hit with that so i would go razer

absolute best gaming laptop of 2025? it’s really subjective. Best value? Legion Pro 5i with the 5070Ti. Best portability? Zephyrus G14 5070Ti.

Te podría recomendar los MSI, HP Omen y Lenovo Legion. El MSI y HP Omen 17 los cambié por renovación, no fallaron nunca y los utilicé con ganas varios años. El Lenovo Legion lo tengo actualmente hace unos meses y va de maravilla.

EDIT: La batería en gaming siempre dura poco, yo juego siempre conectado a la corriente.

¿Buena batería? Imposible, maximo 2 horas jugando (a todo su poder claramente)

¿Que dure varios años? Eso depende si juegas a lo mas reciente, tarde o temprano te vas a quedar corto. Y eso sin hablar de tu target gráfico/fps, entre otras varias cosas.

Solo me queda recomendarte por calidad de materiales las Lenovo y Asus ROG (carisimas, por lo general con lo que cuesta un modelo ROG puedes subir un escalón de rendimiento con otra marca)

Evita Acer a toda costa y sus infames nitro 5.

Tengo una Hp omen de 2 tb SSD 1660 ti 16 gb de ram con una Intel i7 de 9na y anda SUPER bien!

te recomiendo comprarte una torre gaymer

Los Lenovo Legion y Asus ROG Strix son como los mejorcitos actualmente, aunque al final del dia siempre es mejor mirar modelos especificos mas que la marca.

La bateria yo no la consideraria un factor importante en un laptop gamer. Probablemente 99% de las veces lo vas a usar conectado.

People will get pissed off due to my 2nd place recommendation, but here it is.

1. Lenovo - Outside of one issue with a power button that I could rectify with a pinhole button on the side, every Lenovo laptop has been awesome to me. I've had several for work. All gaming spec.

2. Dell/Alienware - Only issues I ever had were the hard drives weren't set up correctly on two of them. All I had to do was clear it and reinstall my stuff. Alternatively I could have just done a restore using Dells services. One of the main reasons I recommend Dell/Alienware is their warranty service. I've yet to experience better.

I was between the same brands recently. Asus felt a bit too loud and hot, and Legion was solid but a bit bulky for me. Ended up with an MSI wasn’t flashy, runs cool, and handles everything I need. Pretty happy with it so far.

If you want something to last several years, focus on thermals and build quality more than raw specs. Lenovo Legion and MSI tend to strike the best balance in that regard.

Remember that for every rant regarding a bad laptop in here 10 000 of machines have been sold for without any issues. Yes, sometimes a bad example comes of the assembly line, but in the majority of it, the brands have the same performance with the same hardware

Legions are universally agreed on as amazing quality and good reliable performance. Asus is mostly reliable as well, especially more premium Strix/Zephyrus series.

Great break down, Thanks for this!

Am I reading correct that my best budget/bang for my buck is still around $750/800CAD?

Looking for clarity incase I missed one. Not hatin.

Great stuff! Thank you.

How is the best budget more expensive than the best overall?

Thanks for this

cfbr

and if u guys had to buy a laptop up to 2200€ what would u recommend?

If you just want a really powerful machine, you can't go wrong with the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 18. The only cons are that it's big and heavy and the battery life is modest at best, so not the best for gaming on the go. The MSI Titan 18HX is not quite on the same level, but the MSI Titan 18 HX AI is probably just as, or more powerful, and it also has the NVIDIA 5090 graphics card. It is, however, even larger and heavier than the Scar 18, so not a good option if you travel a lot.

If ultimate future-proofing and the absolute highest FPS are your goals, and you don't mind a little extra bulk, then go with the RTX 5090 options like the Scar 18 or Titan 18 HX AI.

But if being able to game on the go is just as or more important, the Lenovo Legion 9i should be the choice. It's lighter and still crushes AAA games on ultra settings.

If you want to choose between the 2 powerhouses, the Scar 18 should be the choice, as it should still be the more portable of the 2.

i’m currently looking to get a laptop to play modded sims 4, minecraft, etc. and play games like overwatch (i know that game fell off hard, but i still enjoy it). would the ASUS ROG Strix be my best bet, or should i look into getting something that can handle more intense gaming?

I got Acer Nitro 17 totally worth the money.

If anyone’s still hunting for a solid gaming laptop in 2025, I found this guide that actually compares the latest models with pros/cons instead of just throwing specs around. Helped me narrow things down a lot.
Here’s the link if you wanna check: Best Gaming Laptop 2025 – Top Picks

Legion 7 for OLED, Scar 16 for Mini-LED for max performance

Blade 16 for OLED if you want max portability and good performance, with budget not presenting an obstacle.

The Zephyrus G16 is solid from a build quality/portability/OLED standpoint, but has the lowest TDP GPU of the bunch so the worst gaming performance for the money.

I'm a noob myself, but based on my lengthy research so far:

Razer Blade 16 for portability and gaming performance. It has a 175w gpu if connected to their cooler. Also oled (if you like that, I'm afraid of burn in).

Scar 18 for performance and upgradability. Miniled screen. It's not really portable, almost full plastic build.

MSI Titan for gaming power and built. The chassis is metal, and the cpu is 95 watts. It has a serious off switch in silent mode. Then the cpu will run on 15 watts. Compared to the silent mode in Scar 18, it is 65 watts cpu. More watts is hotter and noisier.

Asus Zephyrus is very limited in GPU power, only 120 watts. It'll underperform to a full 175 watt rtx 4090. So it isn't worth the money to me.

I would say Legion Pro 7, but I just had to return a Legion 9 for overheating bsod, bad built quality, and other issues. Mine might have been a lemon, but I'm naturally not fond of Lenovo. Although they have very good service.

This is mostly based on my research, ymmv 🙏

zephyrus g16 is a pretty good all rounder for portability. performance is good but not as good as chunkier laptops

hp omen max/legion pro 7i too

if you want max performance, something like a gigabyte aorus 16/18 is your best bet

Lenovo and Asus have great options that are affordable. This post will help you