When I listened to AC/DC’s “Shoot to Thrill,’ the rock music easily filled my small New York apartment. It’s great to have a laptop that can easily fit in at the office and not draw sarcastic comments from your colleagues. Cool to the touch: Your laptop is equipped with a dual-fan cooling system to help spread out heat and keep your system responsive. At its Computex 2019 keynote in May, Dell unveiled the second generation of its affordable G3 15 series gaming laptop, and I was there to give it a try.

Dell G3 Series 17 Inch Gaming Laptop | Dell USA Dell G3 Series 17 Inch Gaming Laptop | Dell USA

It also stands alone among our comparison machines in offering such poor colors, except for Dell’s previous offering in this space, the Inspiron 15 7677 Gaming notebook. According to the YouTuber who made it, this 3D-printed mouse is one of the best gaming mice in the world -- but boy, does it look odd. Reinforced strength: Experience faster boot ups and more storage options with dual drives with SSD options including M. On our review unit, with 8GB of RAM, there was a free DIMM slot to allow you to upgrade to 16GB memory. Although I did get an early eyes-on with the panel at Dell’s Computex keynote, the lighting in the display room was appalling, which made it hard to judge.Its PCMark 10 test churned out a respectable score of 2145, while its Geekbench single-core and multi-core ratings came in at 3327 and 8497 respectively. While that’ll dip significantly while playing games, it’s nice to know you can take it away from the wall for more than few hours at a time. It elevates its game somewhat with a 120Hz full HD display, which its GeForce GTX 1650 Ti graphics chip can leverage in online multiplayer games, but it can’t quite push AAA titles to 60 frames per second (fps) at higher settings. I hope this year’s new 60Hz and 144Hz panels are a significant improvement on last year’s because, on a gaming laptop, the display is just as important as the components that power it all. Built for speed, finished with power Guaranteed power: With up to 9th Gen Intel® Core™ i5 processors, you can revel in powerful performance without interrupting your gaming, streaming or videos.

Dell G3 15 (2021) - Review 2021 - PCMag Australia Dell G3 15 (2021) - Review 2021 - PCMag Australia

It’s not quite the same as some of the gold-trimmed designs of some high-end gaming notebooks, but you’re not going to need to hide it away in shame, either. On the G3, the display’s dullness does impact the experience, making the grim game world feel flatter than it would on a better screen. It’s upgradeable with the removal of a few screws, and the gaming performance will let you play most current titles, albeit it not on the highest settings.Cutting corners can be a risky business, but our time with the G3 has shown that Dell knows what features matter to gamers on a budget. Across the board, these systems show moderate graphics capability, with the G5 15 (which is a touch more expensive than the rest) ahead of the pack. The layout is top-notch as well, fitting a full-sized keyboard without having to resort to any weird key placements. Not only can you tailor the hardware for each and every game you play, you can personalize the space and setup to make your software look and feel precisely the way you want it, without interfering with your gameplay or other activities.