Acer Predator 14 | RTX 4070 | Core i7 13700H | 14-inch | 250Hz | 1600p | 16GB DDR5 | 1TB SSD | $1,999.99$1,299.99 at Amazon (save $700)
It's not the prettiest gaming laptop you'll ever see but underneath the cheap-looking exterior is a pile of really nice hardware. That Intel CPU has 14 cores, 20 threads, and the GPU is a 140W RTX 4070. Backing them up are 16GB of DDR5 RAM and, unusually for this price, a full 1TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD. Even the 2560 x 1600 screen is good, with a 250Hz refresh rate and mini-LED backlighting. There's very little to dislike here and it'll be down to whether the lightweight nature or 14-inch panel just aren't right for you.
Price check: Newegg $1,299.99
There are things you don't expect to find in an affordable gaming laptop; there are after all, compromises you have to make to find a mobile machine that fits into a tight budget. But this Acer Predator Triton 14 with a $700 saving, for $1,300 at Amazon, has literally everything that I would want in a new gaming laptop.
For a start, I love 14-inch machines. They're absolutely my jam. I've got a desktop PC with a decently sized screen if I want to game at scale, so if I'm going mobile then I want a small gaming laptop, and I find the 14-inch form factor the ideal size for me. You get enough space in the chassis to deliver enough cooling to pretty powerful components, and a frame that will house a proper screen, too.
That's important because I'm also a little bit of a screen snob. The latest mini-LED panels I've seen in the latest notebooks have been outstanding and the Triton 14 comes with a 1600p version. Now, with a peak luminance of 600cd/m² it's not going to be on par with the 1,000cd/m² panels we've seen in the latest Predator Helios 16, Lenovo Legion 9i, or Asus ROG Strix Scar 18, but that is still plenty bright enough for a good HDR experience.
I also like a high refresh rate, and the panel is rated at a slick 250Hz, which is going to feel really zippy on the desktop and smooth in
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