What are the disadvantages of gaming laptops? is a common question in every laptop gamers’ mind. there are many ways in which a gaming laptop is better than PC gaming and many ways where gaming laptops are at a disadvantage.
Gaming laptops are usually at an advantage because of PORTABILITY, but at the same time they don’t deliver as good of a performance as a desktop gaming pc.
But when it comes to multi tasking, i.e if you work and you’re a gamer then a gaming laptop would be a far better choice.
In Case You’re wondering, Do Gaming Laptops Last Long?
Of course they do, a gaming laptop can last as much as 10 years provided that it’s well maintained and kept with a lot of care, some of the ways to prolong the life of your gaming laptop are:
- Invest in a good cooling pad: investing in a good cooling pad is a must when it comes to gaming laptops, because it makes sure that the temperatures are normal and prevents your gaming laptop from overheating.
- Keep Your Laptop In A Well Ventilated Room: keeping your laptop in a well ventilated room is one of the easiest things you can do to keep your gaming laptop cool.
- Keep Your Laptop Dust-free: i cannot stress this enough, keeping your laptop dust free should be your top priority since dust is the main contributing factor to overheating laptops.
All of the ways above can help to prolong the life of your gaming laptop, and thus prove the point that gaming laptops can indeed last long.
So, What Are The Disadvantages Of Gaming Laptops?
1. Gaming Laptops Typically Have A Short Battery Life
This is a major disadvantage of gaming laptops, a typical gaming laptop will only last upto 8 hours maximum, and that too when you’re not gaming.
Gaming laptops have a shorter battery life mainly because of their heavy duty components, the laptops come with powerful processors, graphics cards and tons of features which drain battery life at a faster rate than a normal laptop. And a below average battery which basically cannot keep up with the accelerated hardware.
If you’re wondering “portability is still the number 1 advantage”, then let me tell you that gaming laptops only last 4 to 5 hours on battery when gaming.
In addition to that, they don’t even give you 100% performance when on battery, a single session with everything on max settings may even drain the battery in as little as 2 hours.
So if you’re investing in a gaming laptop then you have to be prepared to keeping your laptop plugged in
otherwise you won’t be getting maximum performance from your laptop and will likely get bored of your gaming session.
So what can you do to improve the battery life of your gaming laptop?
- Keep Your Laptop On Power Saving Mode: When you’re not using your laptop for gaming, use it on power saving mode to save as much battery as you can for your battery gaming sessions.
- Play Your Games On Medium Settings: This might come as a surprise but keeping your game settings low-medium can improve your battery time upto 2-3 hours, so make sure that you avoid playing games on max settings on the battery.
- Keep Your Laptop On Low Brightness: Brightness level is also a major contributing factor to fast laptop battery drainage, so make sure that your brightness levels are low.
2. Gaming Laptops Are Quite Expensive
Why are gaming laptops so expensive? Because of a single “Portability” advantage, gaming laptops are one of the most expensive devices.
The reason for that is because the laptops are giving you portability while ensuring that you’re able to play the latest games on highest settings.
Gaming Laptops are very expensive because of the amount of labor and hard work that goes into producing a single unit
They have to be very careful not to mess up even the slightest thing.
The batteries are another reason why gaming laptops are expensive, and integrating a powerful graphics is the most important concern when it comes to gaming laptops.
Since a graphics card and CPU are the two major components of a gaming laptop, they need to be installed such that they don’t generate heat and the laptop has to be installed with viable cooling options such as fans.
All the while keeping the laptop’s design sleek and stylish, to avoid overheating issues since it’s a major threat to laptop gamers.
3. Gaming Laptops Lack Upgradability
Although the majority of the gaming laptops come with an option to upgrade the harddrive/SSD or RAM, but you still can’t upgrade the graphics card and CPU.
Which are the two main things when it comes to gaming, if i was a PC gamer and if i had to upgrade the GPU, i’d simply buy another one and install it myself on my PC.
However, that is not the case with gaming laptops, plus when we do get them upgraded we have to be careful that the laptop is being handled by a professional, otherwise the slightest mistake could result in a void warranty.
In addition to that, if you can’t upgrade the GPU and CPU of a gaming laptop then what’s the use of getting one? that’s because they’ll simply become outdated in 4-5 years.
But many companies are aware of this and have addressed the issue by offering external plug and play graphics cards for laptops. But then again , if im buying such an expensive gaming laptop then why would i even think of buying an external graphics card?
4. Gaming Laptops Overheat
It’s been so many years since the first gaming laptops were made and yet the problem which is still prevalent to this date is overheating.
but let’s understand why they overheat, the simplest explanation is cramped up space, imagine 100s of components cramped up and squeezed inside a 3cm thick brick made of plastic and metal.
That’s what essentially, gaming laptops are, infact, overheating isn’t just a problem with gaming laptops, it’s a problem with all laptops in general, so if you’re investing in a gaming laptop then you should take care of it as well.
Otherwise severe overheating issues may cause the laptop components to damage themselves and in rare cases, may even cause the laptop to stop working.
In addition to that, while under pressure from heavy gaming sessions , your gaming laptop will literally transform into the jet engines of an airplane and it’ll seem like anytime the fan blades of your gaming laptop will come flying out of the laptop.
That’s how much noise gaming laptops produce.
5. Gaming Laptops Are A Bit Heavier Than Normal Laptops
Most of the gaming laptops are a little bit more heavier than normal laptops mainly because of the amount of hardware they have, typically more than an average laptop.
So carrying a gaming laptop might be a bit troublesome than carrying a normal laptop but it’s not such a big difference so you don’t have to worry about this much.
6. Gaming Laptops Have A Limited Screen Size
A typical gaming laptop will not have more than 15.6″ screen size, so that’s another problem, although a screen size of 15.6″ isn’t considered as a disadvantage of a gaming laptop, but it’s still small when compared to a standard monitor.
And the ones which come with a bigger screen are more expensive as well, but even if the screen size was bigger then it would compromise the portability of the laptop.
7. Gaming Laptops Are Very Delicate
Gaming Laptops, like any kind of laptop are extremely delicate and have to be taken care of properly, a slight slip of the hand could result in a dead gaming laptop.
So always use a laptop bag to store your laptop and put your laptop on a table while using it.
I’m Confused Now, Are Gaming Laptops A Waste Of Money?
Don’t worry, the advantages of gaming laptops far outweigh the disadvantages of gaming laptops, so gaming laptops arent entirely useless, infact they’re much better than normal laptops.
That’s because gaming laptops enable you to run all of your applications at a much faster speed than normal laptops and they never compromise on performance.
Let’s say you’re a video editor, so naturally you’d only be requiring a laptop with a powerful graphics architecture, and a powerful graphics card can only be found in gaming laptops, if you bought a normal laptop then it would be pretty much useless when it comes to rendering and video editing.
Almost all of the video editing laptops are also considered as gaming laptops.
So in short, gaming laptops are definitely not a waste of money, they’re actually pretty decent.
Is It Better To Get A Gaming Laptop Or A Regular Laptop?
if your purpose is gaming entirely, then a gaming laptop is a better choice, but if you’re not a gamer then a regular laptop would be a better choice.
If your main purpose is both gaming and work then you should get a gaming laptop.
Is It Okay To Use Gaming Laptop Everyday?
It’s perfectly fine to use your gaming laptop everyday, provided that you maintain it properly and take care of it.
Can Gaming Damage Your Laptop?
That depends upon what kind of laptop you’re using, if it’s a regular laptop then there’s a high chance that constant gaming will damage it.
However, if it’s a gaming laptop then gaming will not damage it in any kind of way, that’s because gaming laptops are made to withstand constant pressure.
Conclusion: What Are The Disadvantages Of Gaming Laptops?
The disadvantages of gaming laptops are nothing when compared to the advantages of gaming laptops, they are decent machines with plenty of potential and can be used for any kind of task.
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