Indian Gadget Award 2022 Best Gaming Laptop winners in the Mainstream and Premium categories are here.
The world of gaming laptops is constantly evolving, with new models and features being released every year. In 2022, we've seen a wide range of options, from slim and portable systems to powerful and high-performance machines. Features such as a display with a 16:10 aspect ratio and 1080p webcams have been some notable upgrades this year. The following list includes some of the top gaming laptops of 2022 that stood out as nominees for the Indian Gadget Awards due to their remarkable functionality, aesthetics, and features.
Like all the other categories that are part of the Indian Gadget Awards, these too were judged by 18 jury members from the Indian tech media community. So, without any further ado, let's check out the winners:
Winners: Acer Nitro 5 AN515-45-R8CM Gaming Note (Ryzen 5600H + RTX 3060) (Mainstream) and ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 (2022) GA503 (Premium)
Here's a look at the laptops that were nominated for the Best Gaming Laptop of 2022 in the Mainstream and Premium categories:
The Lenovo Legion 5i is undoubtedly one of the first picks for this category. Primarily because Lenovo has basically stuck with almost the same design language since 2020, using the "if ain't broke, don't fix it approach". The Legion 5i has a metal lid on the top, and the keyboard deck is made out of plastic. Its Truestrike keyboard is undoubtedly one of the better options and feels really good when typing. It is backlit as well.
The Legion 5i comes with up to 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700H processor, which is a beast having a total of 14 cores for an uninterrupted gaming experience. The GPU can be configured up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 with 6GB of VRAM and a TDP of 130W giving you the full power of the RTX 3060.
You need an equally good display to enjoy gaming as well. For this, the company has two options, you can either configure the display up to a 1080p 60Hz IPS display with a brightness of 300 nits or go full turbo and upgrade to a WQHD+ display with a refresh rate of 165Hz and has a brightness of 300 nits. The latter is also Dolby Vision certified. Both screens come in a single size of 15.6 inches and can open fully up to 180 degrees for sharing.
The laptop can be configured with up to 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a storage of 512GB, which is user expandable. You will get an 80Wh battery pack inside the laptop, which should last you around 4-5 hours of medium use. One USP is that the webcam on the laptop is a 1080p webcam, giving you better clarity compared to other laptops.
The display is decent too. You will get a 15.6-inch 1080p Micro-Edge IPS display with a refresh rate of 144 Hz and 250 nits of brightness. The response is also fairly low at 9ms. You can configure this laptop with up to 16GB of DDR4 RAM and 512 GB of internal storage, which is user upgradeable. The keyboard is a single-zone keyboard with blue backlighting.
The laptop comes with a 70 Wh battery pack, and the company claims you can use it for up to 10 hours on video playback. All in all, this is a pretty solid choice if you are on a budget.
The display is pretty good for the price. You can configure it with a 15.6-inch FHD IPS display with a refresh rate of 165Hz and brightness of up to 300 nits. You can also configure the laptop with a 4-zone RGB keyboard for lighting up your gaming sessions.
The battery is slightly smaller in size with a capacity of 60Wh. This will last you around 4 hours of medium use.
In this variant, you will get up to 8GB of DDR4 RAM and 512GB of SSD which is user upgradeable. The battery capacity is around 50Wh but considering that this is a P-series chip, you can expect pretty good battery life.
On the keyboard, you get a single-zone backlit keyboard with a fingerprint scanner on the bottom of the trackpad. The top of the laptop has a metal lid, whereas the interior is made out of plastic. This laptop is ideally suited for professionals who like casual gaming at work.
The battery capacity of the Acer Nitro 5 stands at 57.5 Wh, and the company claims it is enough to last around 10 hours. One good addition is that you can add an internal HDD too with the given installation kit, in addition to two SSD slots, so you are pretty much covered in terms of storage. The keyboard is a single-zone red backlit keyboard.
In this variant, you can get up to 16GB of DDR5 RAM and up to 512 GB of SSD, both of which are user upgradeable. The keyboard is a chiclet keyboard with a single zone RGB backlighting. The top lid is made of metal, whereas the rest of the body is made out of plastic. The highlighting feature of this laptop is that you get a 90 Wh battery in this model, which should last you easily up to 6 hours on medium usage.
The display is a 15.6-inch QHD display with a refresh rate of 240Hz and 400 nits of brightness. You get a 4-zone RGB keyboard with backlighting and a numeric keypad. On the battery front, you get an 86 Wh battery.
It is no slouch either. You can configure the laptop up to an AMD Ryzen 6900HS CPU and an RX 6700HS GPU with 8GB of VRAM and 100W of TDP. The laptop comes with up to 16GB of DDR5 RAM and 1TB of SSD, both of which are upgradeable. Another unique feature of this laptop is that you can charge the laptop with a USB Type-C charger with up to 100W of power.
The laptop itself is made of a magnesium alloy, and the lid has an Anime Matrix display which has thousands of LEDs that light up in white colour. The keyboard is a single zone RGB keyboard, and Asus has finally brought the webcam to the Zephyrus G14. It's nothing to write home about, except that it now supports Windows Hello login, and having a webcam is better than no webcam. The battery capacity is about 76Wh and should last you around 6-8 hours on light use.
The display isn't just bigger, it's faster too, with a refresh rate of 240Hz and a response time of 3ms. The rest of the specifications are similar to the Zephyrus G14. You get up to 32GB of DDR5 RAM and 1TB of Gen 4 SSD, which is upgradable.
A bigger chassis comes with a bigger battery. The Zephyrus G15 comes with a 90Wh battery, which should offer better battery life.
The display is a massive 17.3-inch IPS display with QHD resolution and 240Hz refresh rate, 3ms response time and Adaptive Sync. You can spec up to 32GB of DDR5 RAM and 2 TB of SSD, which can be even upgraded further.
There is a 1080p@60fps webcam on the top, along with per-key RGB lighting on the keyboard. The top lid has a unique design which is revealed by a UV light (supplied in the box). If you want some additional RGB, there is even a light bar below the keyboard deck for extra performance :p
You can get up to 64GB of DDR5 RAM and a 2TB SSD. There is a 1080p webcam, along with a per-key RGB backlit keyboard. This laptop also has the biggest battery in its segment, with a capacity of 99.9 Wh.
The CPU is an Intel Core i9 12900HX, with an RTX 3080 Ti GPU 16GB of VRAM and a TDP of 175W. The keyboard is a Per-Key RGB Gaming Keyboard by Steelseries. The display is a 17.3-inch 4K display with a refresh rate of 120Hz. In terms of battery capacity, you get a 99 Wh battery.
The Dell Alienware x15 R2 is one of the thinnest 15-inch gaming laptops on the market and is packing a lot of power. The laptop is powered by an Intel Core i9-12900H CPU and an RTX 3080 Ti GPU with 16GB of VRAM and 175W of TDP.
The display is one of the fastest you can get, with a 1080p 360 Hz display and a 1ms response time. There is G-Sync support too. You get a per-key RGB keyboard. You also get up to 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM and a 1TB NVMe SSD, both of which are upgradeable. The top of the laptop has a soft lunar finish which feels premium to the touch.
Regarding battery capacity, you get an 87Wh battery which should last you around 4-5 hours on a single charge.
The RAM can be upgraded up to 32GB DDR5 and the SSD can be configured up to 2 TB. The display is a 16-inch 2K display with up to 500 nits of brightness and a refresh of 165 Hz. The battery capacity is also the biggest at 99.9 Wh.
The webcam is an upgraded one with a 1080p sensor, along with Lenovo's Truestrike keyboard with RGB backlight.
You can configure the laptop with up to 64GB of DDR5 RAM and 2TB of SSD. The keyboard is a single zone RGB keyboard with chiclet keys. The battery capacity is fairly big at 90 Wh and supports 100W USB-PD in addition to regular wall-powered charging.
The display is a 17.3-inch 2K IPS display with a refresh rate of 165Hz and a response time of 3ms. You get up to 32GB of DDR5 RAM and 2TB of SSD storage, both of which are upgradeable. On the battery front, you get an 83 Wh battery, which should be enough, and a full-size keyboard with per-key RGB lighting.
These laptops really do stand out when it comes to providing the best user experience in their respective price points, be it gaming, productivity or battery life. Do check out the winners once they are revealed a few days later.