VIVID·REPAIRS/THE FIELD GUIDE/LAPTOPUpdated 27 September 2026Prices live from Amazon UK
Best of · UK · Field of 5
Best Laptops for gaming
Five gaming laptops in the UK for 2026, from RTX 5060 models to RTX 5080 and 5090 flagships, ranked by GPU, screen and value.
By the Vivid Repairs deskUpdated 27 September 20265 ranked picks662 owner ratings read
As an Amazon Associate we may earn from qualifying purchases. We have not handled these products. Everything below is judged on published specifications, the owner ratings on the UK listings and our own product reviews, and the ranking stays independent of what any of them pay.
As an Amazon Associate, we may earn from qualifying purchases. Our ranking is independent.
Amazon confirms the live price, seller, stock and delivery. Prices here are read from the live listing through the day; a pick Amazon cannot supply is marked as such, and where the list has one in stock it is offered.
vividrepairs.co.uk / best-laptops-for-gamingUpdated 27 September 2026 · Prices from the live Amazon UK listing
§ The field
Five picks, on one page
Ranked on fit for the job in the title, not on raw specification. Tap any one to jump to the argument for it. Prices are the live Amazon UK figure, read today; a pick with no figure is out of stock and says so in its entry.
RTX 5060 Laptop Blackwell GPU delivers strong 1080p and 1440p performance with DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation support
165Hz FHD+ 16:10 IPS panel offers wide viewing angles, good colour accuracy and smooth motion clarity
Keyboard has genuinely good key travel and tactile feel, comfortable for extended productivity sessions
Where it gives up
16GB DDR5 RAM is light for the enthusiast price tier in 2025, with some modern titles pushing past this limit. 720p webcam is behind the standard expected at this price point in 2025.
Rated 4.4 by 603 owners. Our review scores it 8.0.
The rules this ranking ran under, in plain sight: what we read, what we weighed and what no merchant can move.
How we picked
Our editors evaluated 5 Laptop options against the criteria readers actually weigh up: price, real-world performance, build quality, warranty, and UK availability. Picks lean toward what we'd recommend to a friend buying today, not specs-on-paper winners.
Editorial contextEditor notes from individual reviews, not press releases.
Live UK pricingRefreshed from Amazon UK twice daily.
No paid placementsAffiliate commission doesn't change what wins.
The full guideEverything behind the shortlist above: the spec sheet, the write-ups in full, our method and the verdict.
§ Editorial · The full guide · five proofs, nothing hidden
The Doubt Index.
The shortlist told you what we picked; this zone shows the working. Come in through whichever doubt you’re carrying, or read straight down; we’d rather you checked us than trusted us.
Here’s the sheet the desk works from, kept deliberately factual. Every row is written to be checked against the retailer’s current listing, and you should check. The table scrolls sideways inside its own frame; the page underneath stays still.
Scroll sideways →5 rows · 5 columns · Prices swap to the live figure at render
You can, and you should. What follows is the part a sheet can’t do: the working between what these products have and what your desk actually needs, kept word for word.
Picking from the Best Laptops for gaming in 2026 comes down to one question: how much GPU do you actually need, and how much are you willing to carry and pay for it? This lineup runs from a value-focused RTX 5060 machine right up to an RTX 5090 flagship, with three ExoBook models bridging the gap. Every laptop here uses NVIDIA's Blackwell generation, so DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation are on the table across the board. What separates them is raw GPU tier, panel quality, RAM headroom and port selection. We've ranked them on published specifications, verified owner ratings where they exist, and honest value at each price point, so you can match a machine to your games and your budget without overspending.
Buying Guide: What to Look For
The GPU is the single most important part of any gaming laptop, and it sets the price. All five machines here use NVIDIA's Blackwell generation, so DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation come as standard. The tier is what changes. An RTX 5060 (in the Strix G16 and V16) is aimed at 1080p and lighter 1440p gaming. The RTX 5070 Ti steps you into comfortable native 1440p at high refresh. The RTX 5080 and 5090 exist for maxed settings, heavy ray tracing and years of headroom, and they carry the price to match.
Match the panel to the GPU. A 165Hz or 240Hz screen only earns its keep if the GPU can push frames toward it. The RTX 5060 laptops pair sensibly with 144Hz and 165Hz 1080p-class panels; the ExoBooks run 240Hz at 1600p because their GPUs can feed it. Paying for a fast panel a weaker GPU can't fill is money wasted.
RAM headroom. 16GB still runs most games, but our review of the Strix G16 notes some modern titles now push past it. If you stream, keep dozens of tabs open, or dabble in creative apps alongside games, 32GB (as on all three ExoBooks) buys breathing room. Check whether the slots are user-upgradeable before you commit.
Battery and portability. Gaming laptops are heavy and thirsty. Expect one to two hours under gaming load and a chunky power brick you'll want nearby. The V16 stretches further for light use at four to six hours. None of these will game unplugged for long, so factor in carrying the charger everywhere.
Ports. Thunderbolt 4 matters if you run docks, fast external drives or a single-cable desk. The three ExoBooks each have two; the ASUS pair don't. A built-in ethernet port, which the V16 has and the ExoBooks lack, is handy for lag-free online play. Common mistake: buying the biggest GPU your budget allows and ignoring whether the ports, RAM and cooling around it actually suit how you'll use the machine.
Five write-ups, none folded away. We don’t lab-test, so every line below sticks to what can be defended: the published sheet, the owner ratings on the UK listings and our own reviews.
The panel decides this one. A 16-inch FHD+ 16:10 IPS running at 165Hz gives you a taller working area than a standard 16:91080p screen, plus the refresh rate to actually use the frames an RTX 5060 produces. That combination is why this sits at the top. Our review scores it 8 out of 10, and Amazon UK owners rate it 4.4 stars from 575 ratings, the largest rating count in this lineup by a wide margin.
Under the lid sits Intel's Core i7-14650HX feeding the RTX 5060 Laptop GPU. That's a Blackwell-generation card with DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation, so our review lists strong 1080p and 1440p performance as a headline pro. For the resolution this panel runs, that pairing is well matched: the CPU has the cores to keep the GPU fed without becoming the bottleneck. Storage is a 1TB Gen 4 SSD, and there's a spare M.2 slot plus SO-DIMM RAM slots, so you can add a second drive or more memory down the line rather than being stuck with the shipping config.
Compared against the ASUS V16 lower in this list, the Strix G16 shares the same RTX 5060 GPU but adds a faster 165Hz refresh, the i7-14650HX in place of the Core 7 240H, and a confirmed thermal design our review credits with effective heat management. You pay more for the enthusiast build and the bigger owner following. Against the ExoBook i9 below it, the Strix stays at 1080p-class resolution while the ExoBook jumps to a 1600p 240Hz panel and a heftier RTX 5070 Ti, so if you want native 1440p at high refresh, that's the upgrade path, not this.
The honest limits are real. Our review notes 16GB DDR5 is light for the enthusiast tier in 2026, with some modern titles pushing past it, and the RGB backlit keyboard sits above a 720p webcam that's behind the standard at this price. Battery drops to one to two hours under gaming load, and total carry weight tops 3kg once you include the 240W brick. This is a machine that lives near a socket. There's also no Thunderbolt 4, which our review flags for anyone running high-bandwidth docks. For most buyers who want a fast, well-built 16:10 gaming laptop with a proven owner base, none of that outweighs the package. See our full ASUS ROG Strix G16 review for the complete breakdown.
Pros
HDMI 2.1 for external displays and TVs
Spare M.2 slot plus upgradeable SO-DIMM RAM for future expansion
Highest owner rating count here at 575 ratings, 4.4 stars
16:10 aspect ratio gives more vertical screen space than 16:9 rivals
Cons
No Thunderbolt 4 port, unlike all three ExoBook models
Step up from the two RTX 5060 laptops and this is where the resolution changes. A 2560x1600 panel at 240Hz, driven by an RTX 5070 Ti with 12GB of memory, is built for native high-refresh 1440p rather than the 1080p-class gaming the Strix G16 targets. That's the reason to spend more here.
The CPU is Intel's Core i9-14900HX, a step above the i7 in the Strix, paired with 32GB of DDR5-5600. That doubling of RAM directly answers the complaint our review makes about the Strix G16's 16GB being light for modern titles: you get room to game with a browser, Discord and a stream running without hitting the ceiling. Storage is a 2TB NVMe SSD, twice the Strix's 1TB, so a large library fits without a second drive. Connectivity is the other clear win: two Thunderbolt 4 ports plus two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, Wi-Fi 7, and a single HDMI out. The Strix has none of that Thunderbolt bandwidth.
At 2.25kg the ExoBook is lighter on paper than the Strix G16's sub-chassis-plus-brick total. There's no owner rating on record yet and we've not published a review score, so this ranks on specification rather than proven feedback, which is why it sits below the rated Strix despite the stronger GPU. Against the RTX 5080 model below it, you're trading the 5080's 16GB GDDR7 and Core Ultra 9 for a lower outlay while keeping the same 240Hz 1600p panel and 32GB RAM. For high-refresh 1440p gaming without paying flagship money, this is the sensible middle of the range.
Pros
Two Thunderbolt 4 ports and Wi-Fi 7 for docks and fast networking
73Wh battery listed
4-zone RGB backlit keyboard
Cons
No owner ratings or published review score yet, ranked on specs alone
16GB of GDDR7 is the number that matters here. The RTX 5080 Mobile GPU carries a larger, faster memory pool than the RTX 5070 Ti above it, which is what lets you push maxed settings and higher ray-tracing loads at the 240Hz 1600p resolution this panel shares with the i9 model. If you routinely turn everything up, this is the tier that holds frame rates when the 5070 Ti starts to strain.
Intel's Core Ultra 9 275HX replaces the i9-14900HX of the model below, sitting on the newer Core Ultra platform, again with 32GB of DDR5-5600 and a 2TB Gen 4 NVMe SSD. Port selection matches the rest of the ExoBook range: two Thunderbolt 4, two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, one HDMI, Wi-Fi 7 and a 4-zone RGB backlit keyboard. Weight is the same listed 2.25kg.
The decision between this and the RTX 5090 flagship below it comes down to how much GPU headroom you actually use. The 5080 gives you maxed 1600p gaming today for less outlay than the 5090; the 5090 exists for those who want the absolute ceiling. Against the i9 RTX 5070 Ti above, you're paying for the bigger GPU and the Core Ultra chip while keeping the identical panel, RAM and storage. Like the other ExoBooks, there's no owner rating or published review score on record, so this ranks on its specification and its place in the GPU stack rather than verified feedback.
Pros
16GB GDDR7 gives more VRAM headroom than the RTX 5070 Ti model
Newer Core Ultra 9 275HX platform
Two Thunderbolt 4 ports and Wi-Fi 7
2TB SSD and 32GB RAM as standard
Cons
No owner ratings or review score on record yet
Single HDMI output limits multi-monitor wired setups
240Hz 1600p panel is the same as the cheaper 5070 Ti model, so the spend is all GPU
This is the ceiling. The RTX 5090 Laptop GPU is the fastest mobile card here, and it sits on the same Core Ultra 9 275HX, 32GB DDR5-5600 and 2TB NVMe SSD as the 5080 model above it. Same 240Hz 2560x1600 panel too. So what you're buying over the 5080 is pure GPU: more grunt for ray tracing and future titles at maxed settings.
Ports and connectivity carry over unchanged: two Thunderbolt 4, two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, one HDMI, Wi-Fi 7, and a 4-zone RGB backlit keyboard. Listed weight is 2.25kg. There's no owner rating or published review score on record for this one either, so it ranks on the strength of its GPU tier rather than feedback we can verify.
Who should skip it? Anyone whose games don't already saturate the RTX 5080. The panel doesn't change, the CPU doesn't change, only the GPU does, so unless you're chasing the highest possible frame rates or planning years of headroom, the 5080 gives you most of the experience for less. This is the pick when you want the best mobile GPU going and the price is secondary.
Pros
Fastest GPU in this lineup, RTX 5090 Laptop
Two Thunderbolt 4 ports and Wi-Fi 7
32GB RAM and 2TB SSD as standard
Cons
Same panel, CPU, RAM and storage as the 5080 model, so the premium is all GPU
No owner ratings or review score on record yet
Highest outlay for gains only the most demanding titles will show
Same GPU as our top pick, lower bracket. The V16 runs the identical RTX 5060 Blackwell Laptop GPU found in the Strix G16, so you get DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation and the same generational jump over the old RTX 4060, for less money. Our review scores it 8 out of 10, and Amazon UK owners rate it 3.8 stars from 57 ratings.
The panel is a 16-inch WUXGA (1920x1200) IPS at 144Hz, a step down from the Strix's 165Hz but still a taller 16:10-style ratio matched well to what the RTX 5060 outputs. The Core 7 240H handles gaming, content work and multitasking without bottlenecking the GPU, per our review, and the 1TB PCIe SSD keeps load times quick with room for a decent library. There's a built-in RJ45 ethernet port too, which the ExoBook range leaves off, so wired low-latency online play is on the table without a dongle.
Where it gives ground to the Strix G16: the chassis is plastic rather than the Strix's build, our review notes fan noise becomes clearly audible under load, and the GPU's TGP isn't publicly confirmed by ASUS, which makes peak performance harder to pin down. The seller lists an 80W combined CPU and GPU TDP, but that's not the same as a confirmed isolated GPU figure. RAM is 16GB DDR5 with upgradeability not officially confirmed, and battery runs four to six hours under light use, which is better than the Strix under gaming load but still short of a full unplugged day. For a first gaming laptop or a tighter budget that still wants a current Blackwell GPU, it earns its place. Read our full ASUS V16 V3607VM review for the detail.
Pros
Built-in RJ45 ethernet for wired online play, absent on the ExoBooks
1080p webcam, sharper than the Strix G16's 720p unit
Ships with 3 months of Xbox Game Pass per the listing
HDMI 2.1 output and Bluetooth 5.3
Cons
GPU TGP not confirmed by ASUS, so peak performance is unclear
RAM upgradeability not officially confirmed
Plastic chassis and audible fans under sustained load
This page carries affiliate links; they never set the order. We don’t lab-test: rankings come from published specifications, the owner ratings on the UK listings and our own reviews.
How We Compared These
We ranked these five laptops on published manufacturer specifications, verified Amazon UK owner ratings where they exist, our own published review scores for the two ASUS models, and value at each price bracket. Nobody here handled the machines: our assessment is research-led, drawing on spec sheets, seller listings (flagged as such) and owner star ratings. The three ExoBook models carry no owner ratings or review scores on record yet, so they rank on their specifications and their place in the GPU stack rather than proven feedback. Prices shown are live and update daily.
A crown that can’t be argued with isn’t proof of quality; it’s proof nobody checked. So rather than restate the winner’s virtues, we defend the crown against the strongest cases to take it.
ASUS ROG Strix G16 (2025) Gaming Laptop
Cross-examination · Three challengers, taken seriously
The rank 02 argumentExoBook i9 RTX 5070Ti Gaming Laptop
It’s £1799.99 on the live listing today. The crown holds on the ranking rules: the order above was set before any link was attached, and its case is argued in full in the write-up above.
The rank 03 argumentExoBook 16 RTX 5080 Gaming Laptop
It’s £2499.99 on the live listing today. The crown holds on the ranking rules: the order above was set before any link was attached, and its case is argued in full in the write-up above.
The rank 04 argumentExoBook 16 RTX 5090 Gaming Laptop
It’s £2999.99 on the live listing today. The crown holds on the ranking rules: the order above was set before any link was attached, and its case is argued in full in the write-up above.
For most buyers, the ASUS ROG Strix G16 (2025) is the pick: a rated 8/10 RTX 5060 machine with a fast 165Hz 16:10 panel, effective cooling and the largest owner base here at 575 ratings. If your budget is tighter, the ASUS V16 V3607VM gives you the identical RTX 5060 GPU in a lower bracket, with the trade-off of a plastic chassis and an undisclosed TGP. And if you want native high-refresh 1440p or the outright ceiling, the ExoBook RTX 5070 Ti, 5080 and 5090 climb the GPU stack in turn, each sharing the same 240Hz 1600p panel and 32GB RAM. Buy the GPU tier your games need, not the biggest number you can afford.
Only if the graphics card can reach those frame rates in the games you play. The RTX 5070 Ti, 5080 and 5090 ExoBooks pair a 240Hz 2560x1600 panel with GPUs that can feed it in fast competitive titles. The RTX 5060 laptops here run 144Hz and 165Hz panels, which suits what that GPU delivers at their native resolution.
The RTX 5070 Ti has more graphics memory (12GB against 8GB) and considerably more processing power, which matters at higher resolutions and settings. The RTX 5060 suits 1080p and lighter 1440p gaming; the 5070 Ti is the step to comfortable native 1440p at high refresh rates, as on the ExoBook i9 here.
Modern AAA games frequently require between 50GB and 150GB of storage each, meaning a 512GB drive fills quickly once the operating system and a handful of titles are installed. A 1TB drive is a more practical starting point for most gamers. If your preferred laptop ships with 512GB, factor in the cost of an external SSD or plan to upgrade the internal drive.
For 1080p and most 1440p gaming, yes. The RTX 5060 uses NVIDIA's Blackwell architecture with DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation, so both the ASUS ROG Strix G16 and the ASUS V16 push high frame rates at their native resolutions. If you want maxed settings at 1600p or heavy ray tracing, step up to the RTX 5070 Ti or higher.
16GB still runs the vast majority of games, but some modern titles now push past it, which our review of the ASUS ROG Strix G16 notes as a limitation at its price tier. The ExoBook machines ship with 32GB, which gives you more headroom for gaming alongside streaming, browser tabs or creative apps. Check whether the RAM slots are user-upgradeable if you plan to add more later.
That’s the field: five laptops for gaming, ranked for the job in the title and nothing else. We read the published specifications, the owner ratings and our own reviews; we haven’t handled these products, and no maker moves the order. Figures checked against the live Amazon UK listings, page updated 27 September 2026.
