Best Gaming Laptops Under $600 – Reviews, FAQs, and Guide

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Laptops have nothing to do with your skills or expertise, but still, it plays a vital role in your gaming performance. You should know this fact

This article talks about the best gaming laptop under $600. It is right that Laptops have nothing to do with your skills or expertise, but still, it plays a vital role in your gaming performance. To be an outstanding gamer, there are no limits to having an optimum screen size, but the internal components of the laptop can affect your overall gaming experience.

Earlier, laptops were preferred only due to their portability as compared to PCs, but these days it’s a lot more than that. It has become an integral source of entertainment as it comes with a full HD display and immersive audio quality, which affects performance in every aspect. 

Moreover, if you are a game lover, a fast response is your thing, right! So, conclusively, either you play graphics-oriented games, or competitive games, these gaming laptops under $600 will surely offer you maximum performance.

1.
Best Under $600 Laptop

ASUS - FX505DD - Best Under $600 Laptop

The latest ASUS model having a 15.6-inch TUF FX505DD, a Ryzen 5 3550H CPU and GeForce GTX 1050 GPU comes for a reasonable $600 price.

The usual laptops with the equivalent Intel Core i5-8300H CPU, which were launched with the same GPU last year, were for $900 and up, and that’s what makes it unique, among others.

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It appeals to budget-restricted gamers. You won’t ever regret buying it for sure.

AMD Ryzen5 3550H Processor

The AMD Ryzen 5 3550H 4-Core 2.1 GHz is a mid-range processor based on AMD’s 12nm Zen+ microarchitecture. 

Not only this, but it has 4MB of L3 Cache. Level 3 cache is a static memory bank of a processor, and it is used to feed its instructions. It also has 2MB L2 Cache and 384KB L1 Cache. This processor also supports DDR4 based RAMs with maximum memory support of 32GB. Moreover, it has a maximum Thermal Power Design of 35W, making it a fairly power-efficient CPU that should extend laptop battery life.

Among its many features are AMD SenseMI Technology, Zen Core Architecture, Radeon FreeSync, and DirectX support.

IPS Display

This fantastic machine of 60 Hz display has a 15.6-inch LED-backlit screen. It has an FHD resolution with 1920 x 1080 pixels and offers a 60Hz refresh rate. And most importantly, one aspect which makes it entirely different from others is its Anti-glare IPS-level Panel.

Not only this, but it has a reasonable contrast ratio and above-average brightness, which will suffice for your daily needs. Due to budget factors, you get color space coverage of only 60% of sRGB, whereas expensive gaming laptops these days have around 90% sRGB coverage. So, don’t expect something very extraordinary in these terms. Viewing angles are commendable, though, due to the IPS panel.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 gaming laptops are built with the breakthrough graphics performance of the award-winning NVIDIA Turing™ architecture. With performance that’s up to 2X the GeForce GTX 950M and up to 70% faster than GTX 1050, it’s the supercharger for today’s most popular games, and even faster with modern titles.

So, the gamers on a strict budget can finally get a taste of the improvements found in Nvidia’s Turing GPU architecture. GTX 1650 will be available in some boards that consume a mere 75 watts of power, avoiding the need for a supplemental power connector from your power supply. That unique capability helped make its predecessors, the GTX 1050 and GTX 1050 Ti, such popular gaming options.

1TB HDD

If you are concerned about the storage capacity of a gaming laptop, then a laptop with 256GB Gaming SSD is at the top of the list. It offers hyper-efficient voltage regulation engineered to exceed Intel and NVIDIA reference design requirements for gaming and school.

When it comes to the overall lifespan, SSDs tend to last less than HDDs. So, that can be a drawback, but you have a free slot to put another HDD and go with it anytime.

8GB DDR4 (2666Mhz) RAM

DDR4 is the next evolution, bringing even higher performance and more robust control features while improving energy economy for enterprise, micro-server, tablet, and ultrathin client applications. So, this impeccable combination will give you robust performance in no time.

48Watt hour Polymer Battery & Portability

Now moving on to the battery, it has a 48Watt hour Polymer Battery. It’s not much commendable but for normal web browsing, you may get 3 hours of battery with brightness set to 50%. And while you watch videos, it instantly drops drastically to 1 and half hours. For gaming purposes, you would have to stay connected to the plug. The charging adaptor is slimmer in comparison with those of other gaming laptops. So it wouldn’t be a hassle to carry it along. Less intensive tasks such as surfing the web or working for office tasks will yield a longer battery life i.e., roughly 2 to 2 and a half hours.

Keyboard & Touchpad

ASUS has RGB backlighting which enhances a truly immersive experience. Moreover, it has impeccable Aura Sync technology which allows you to sync compatible games and music streaming software with the RGB keyboard. You can also customize the RGB colors using the integrated Armoury Crate software, which tweaks the overall performance, monitors system performance, and creates gaming profiles.

As far as the keyboard design is concerned, ASUS has gone with a fairly standard desktop configuration, meaning all function keys and shortcuts are exactly where you need them to be. It has a lifespan of 20 million presses, which is great. The trackpad might feel unintuitive to use due to its placement; while distinguishing between left and right is somewhat difficult.

I/O options in TUF FX505DD 

It has 2x USB 3.0 Gen 1 and 1x USB 2.0 ports; HDMI 2.0 port; RJ-45 jack; 3.5mm headphone and microphone combo jack; and 1x Kensington lock. You also get a sole combo audio jack, a Type-A USB 2.0, two Type-A USB 3.1 (gen1), an RJ45 LAN port, an HDMI port, and a charging port. And all these interface ports are located on the left-hand side.

I felt it was a convenient location to place all the ports as you don’t get confused about which sides have what ports. However, on the downside, having all the ports on the same side might lead to a few tangled wires.


2.
Editor's Choice

HP Pavilion 2020 - Editor's Choice

HP has been a giant with several years of experience in the Pavilion mid-range Gaming series.

Maybe some of them have display quality with low color coverage and the presence of the eye could be compromised but all these issues have been eliminated with the new model.

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The new chassis design also turns its head to the high-end range, thanks to its GTX 1060 Max-Q configurations.

Design & Look

The HP Pavilion Gaming 2020 looks completely different as compared to its predecessor and this is definitely good news in our case. The most appealing novelty in the Pavilion Gaming design is the removal of the thick bezels around the screen or replacing them with thinner ones to be more precise – just like Lenovo Legion Y530 and ASUS ROG GL504. It is an amazing trend we have been looking forward to in the past few years. 

Keyboard & Touchpad

The keyboard features big and comfortable keys – our only complaint is about the arrows and more precisely the Up and down ones located right next to each other, whereas their total area is equal to the standard one for the other buttons. There is a NumPad that is also comfortable to use. Additionally, the trackpad is quite wide (11.5 cm), making it very convenient to handle and use gestures. The notebook lid doesn’t attract fingerprints but such easily appears on the Palm rest area so you will have to clean it from time to time if you insist on cleanness.

Display Quality

HP Pavilion Gaming 15 has a Full HD panel with the model number AUO B156HAN08.2 (AUO82ED). Its diagonal is 15.6-inch (39.62 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080 p. Also, the screen ratio is 16:9, its pixel density – 142 PPI, and pixel pitch – 0.18 х 0.18 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at a distance equal to or greater than 24″.

The measured maximum brightness of 338 units in the middle of the screen and 330 units as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 5%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 7690 K – very close to the optimal for the sRGB standard of 6500K. The average color temperature through the greyscale before profiling is 7540K.

Performance

The HP Pavilion Gaming 15 showed up with an Intel Core i7-9750H CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD boot drive, and a 1TB, 7,200 rpm HDD. What can you say else more about its impeccable performance after this interesting set of configurations?

I/O options

HP Pavilion Gaming 15  is equipped with two USB 3.1 ports, Kensington NanoSaver lock slot, and memory card reader – on the left, plus mic/headphone jack, Ethernet LAN, HDMI 1.4, USB 3.1 Type-A (Sleep & Charge) and USB 3.1 Type-C with DisplayPort 1.2 and support for Sleep & Charge on the right side.


3.
Top Choice

Dell Inspiron 15 7000 - Top Choice

Dell unveiled its new G-series gaming laptops, which included an updated version of the Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming called the G7 15.

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The updated version gets a full-HD IPS matte screen with good off-angle viewing as well as improved touchpad performance, a Thunderbolt 3 USB-C port, 2×2 dual-band 802.11ac wireless, and even a fingerprint reader built into the power button for near-instant sign-ins with Windows Hello. 

Most importantly, Dell bumped up the graphics power from Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1050 or 1050Ti to a GeForce GTX 1060 card. It’s the Max-Q version of the card, so it’s a little less powerful than the regular 1060, but it also runs cooler allowing for a slimmer and more stylish laptop than budget systems from a year or two ago.

It’s more energy-efficient, too, helping give this Dell a long battery life though it’s shorter than its predecessor’s due to a smaller battery. Despite the power differences, though, graphics performance is excellent even with video settings. 


Recommended Peripherals to Buy with the Gaming Laptop

1. Gaming Mouse

The first gaming mouse on our list is the SteelSeries Rival 700, and for those who don’t know, the company’s Rival series is perhaps one of the most popular series that is currently under Steelseries, as for Steel Series itself, the company is the favorite among pretty much every single professional esports gamer, and has earned itself a lot of reputation among the most passionate gamers there are.

Before we begin looking at just how good the Steelseries Rival 700, there are some obvious things you should know about this mouse; the Rival 700 is unique in the sense that it carries an OLED display that can display a variety of different things including settings, as well as some GIFs that are specifically made for this display and can be downloaded from several series.

2. Gaming Mousepad

Existing solely as a budget mousepad, the SteelSeries QcK does exactly what you want out of a mousepad and nothing more. The QcK’s surface material has a high thread count for extremely precise mouse control and a smooth glide. At the same time, its rubber base helps prevent it from sliding around your desk while you’re gaming. It comes in a variety of shapes and sizes and there’s even a higher-end version with RGB lighting – the SteelSeries QcK Prism.

3. Gaming Headset

The Sennheiser GSP 670 has everything you wish for. It’s a little expensive but there are numerous reasons for it. For example, it offers unparalleled sound quality, it’s extremely comfortable to wear all day, and has multiple adjustments to fit that can be made. For instance, you can extend or shorten the height of the headband.

On top of that though, it also offers adjustable sliders on the top of the headband. These are there to regulate the distribution of pressure so it’s as comfortable as possible. The list goes on for why this is the best headset you can buy for gaming. It’s wireless, you have separate volume adjustments for chat volume and regular volume, and you can use it with PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

4. Gaming Keypad

If you’ve never played your PC games with a macro pad or gaming keypad like this before, you’re missing out. It adds a whole other level of precision and capabilities to your games thanks to the large collection of macro keys. If you’re unfamiliar with macro keys, they’re basically just customizable keys that allow for one or a series of actions in a game with a single keypress.

Thanks to Razer Tartarus Pro highly customizable options through its peripheral software, you can set up plenty of stuff and have specific profiles for each game. The Tartarus Pro is Razer’s latest gaming keypad, featuring 32 programmable keys, which means endless possibilities when you pair it with a mouse that has programmable buttons as well.

5. Gaming Keyboard

One of the best things about it is that it’s made from anodized aluminum. Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 also took into account the cleanliness of keyboards over time. Depending on the design it can be hard to keep keyboards clean, and a big reason for this is the casing or plate that surrounds each key. This will never be an issue with the K70 RGB MK.2 because each key is out in the open.

This makes it very, very easy to pop the keys off and wipe everything down, which is definitely something you want to do every so often if you’re using it a lot.

This is a keyboard that was designed and built to last first and foremost. Beyond that, Corsair loaded it up with all kinds of useful features, like a volume dial for easily adjusting the volume of your games or media. RGB lighting, and USB pass-through.

6. Laptop Cooling Pad

Cooler Master NotePal X-Slim Ultra-Slim Laptop Cooling Pad has 160 mm sound which may be overkill but wait till you see it in action. The way it shifts the air really is something unique. The blades look perfectly balanced and create a unique airflow profile. With a 15-inch upper limit, you run the risk of not being able to accommodate those latest gaming laptops. But when you push things up all the way to 17-inches like these guys have then the sky’s the limit!

Verdict

Now you know all the pros, you always wanted to know about gaming laptops. There are some more options, you may need to explore more. Just have some confidence within you that everyone goes through the first-time buying phase.

Many experts argue over this, some say that your first best laptop for gaming should be the ultimate beast, you only should use it with care and then stick to it for years to come. This way you are future-proof and won’t have to buy another one soon.

Others argue over this and they recommend going for an average-level gaming laptop for now and once you are good to go, then you should invest a real good amount for buying a high-end gaming laptop. Personally, the second option is better. Because you can always change your mind and have a second chance to go for another brand or some other form factor. Happy shopping and gaming!

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Luqman Khan

Luqman is the founder of cliffyB.com and an obsessed gamer! Overseeing the site's coverage of gaming hardware and software. He is also the founder of a Computer Gaming Lounge. He has been into gaming and PC Building since 2009. He is also obsessed with DOTA 2 and Rainbow Six Siege.