You are probably debating buying a brand-new and powerful gaming laptop, but are feeling a bit guilty about spending so much money just for gaming. If that is the case, you are probably also wondering if you can still use it for work or general usage — you know, to minimize that annoying guilt — and the answer is yes. Yes, you can. Keep reading to see why.
What Can a Gaming Laptop Do?
First things first, a gaming laptop can basically do everything an ordinary laptop can do. In fact, possibly even better as gaming laptops often have much better specs in order to handle the demand games can place on them. Gaming laptops often have much more RAM, better CPUs, and a decent amount of SSD storage.
SSD, RAM, and CPU
That said, SSD storage is not limited or exclusive to gaming laptops, all of which make them powerful and fast. The better CPUs and generally large amount of RAM mean that a gaming laptop will be able to handle, process, and execute a greater number of tasks while running multiple applications in the background.
This all boils down to a gaming laptop that will be able to easily handle casual and work-focused web browsing, working on a couple of word documents at the same time, or editing projects with applications like Adobe Illustrator.
While a gaming laptop might be able to do everything an ordinary work laptop can do — and possibly even better — that does not mean that they are as ideal in every situation. We realize that might sound a bit confusing with everything we have already said. Don’t worry, we will explain.
What Does This All Mean?
Because gaming laptops often have far better specs thanks to having more beefy CPUs, GPUs, and lots of RAM, that often means a few things.
Weight
First, gaming laptops are often much heavier, not only because they need more space to fit the cards and chips, but because they also need more powerful fans and cooling systems to prevent your laptop from overheating. The inner components of your laptop can run incredibly hot, which is why gaming laptops need better fans to keep everything cool. Generally, this makes gaming laptops heavier and consequently less portable, which can be a nuisance if you do not enjoy having to carry around a lot of weight.
Inner Components
Related to that, just as gaming laptops are heavier thanks to their better inner components, they also have less battery power. The more powerful the internal components, such as the CPU and GPU, are, the more power they will draw. The more RAM you have will do the same because they will constantly be activating, even if you are not using all of its RAM.
Cooling System
Their more robust cooling system will also place more strain on the battery to keep it going. That means that you will not be able to just peacefully work away from home for hours and hours as a gaming laptop’s battery simply won’t last as long. However, this does not mean that gaming laptops have completely horrendous batteries; it just means that you will have to cut your trips short or that you will have to carry your charging cable around with you. Which actually isn’t a horrible idea, really.
Aesthetics
The second thing that might make a gaming laptop less appropriate or ideal for some is the actual outer aesthetics of the laptop. What we mean by this is that gaming laptops often come with extreme retro designs with colorful stripes and patterns or glowing or neon keyboards.
This, of course, is no issue for you if you either don’t care what anyone thinks or if you work from home and don’t have to worry about attracting attention. But for others, you might feel uncomfortable having to pull out your glowing laptop at a café or if your boss might not approve of you working on a portable disco ball.
Price Point
The last thing to consider, if you’re planning on buying a new gaming laptop, is the price. At this point, you can probably guess that gaming laptops tend to cost a lot more than ordinary work laptops. If you plan on purchasing a gaming laptop because you want to play a couple of old good games from your childhood, if you don’t mind playing games on lower settings, then maybe you should consider looking for a cheaper laptop.
If gaming is not a priority for you, then we would not recommend paying the hefty price tag for all that extra power that you, in essence, won’t need. We know that we have already said that gaming laptops can outperform ordinary laptops, but that does not mean that you need one if you only plan on working on Word and keeping a few web browser tabs open. In such a scenario, a gaming laptop would simply be overkill, and it would mean that you spent more money for something you technically don’t need.
Final Thoughts
At this point, you are probably thinking that we are solely focused on telling you the negatives of gaming laptops or reasons not to buy them. But that is not the case; it’s just that we feel that you should at least be aware of its failings purely because they have no real failings or negatives of their own. At the end of the day, if you don’t mind the extra weight and higher price tag, then there really is no reason not to get a gaming laptop as they will be able to do close to everything you could possibly want to do.
A gaming laptop should easily be able to do everything an ordinary non-gaming or work-focused laptop can do, and probably better (provided you don’t mind the price tag). In fact, there are very few negatives if you almost exclusively work from home, which is largely the norm at this point. Hopefully, our breakdown and reasons were both useful and informative.