Best Intel 13th gen laptop

The ASUS ROG Strix G18 with RTX 4080 and Intel Core i9-13980HX is quite simply one of the best value gaming laptops we’ve ever seen. Both of these core components are hugely powerful, and will demolish any game on max settings at the native 1600p resolution, not to mention any demanding editing or graphical design workflow/rendering task. The chassis might be a bit on the plastic side compared to some of the more refined, partially-aluminium premium laptop options, however the build quality is still decent.

An 18-inch screen might be a bit much for a lot of consumers, and does limit its portability, however you won’t get a more immersive gaming experience on a laptop. The 240Hz refresh rate is ideal for competitive gaming as is the 5.5ms average grey-to-grey response time, and the 16:10 aspect ratio gives a lot of vertical headroom for viewing web pages and documents.

Although the internal temps on this laptop are relatively decent despite the core components, it can make quite a lot of fan noise when under heavy loads, though you can tweak the fan settings in the internal software.

If competitive gaming is your focus you likely favour 1080p resolution to maximise those FPS. The Gigabyte Aorus 17H (2023) is a larger 17-inch 1080p laptop with a stupidly fast 360Hz maximum refresh rate – more than enough to give you the edge in any shooter where fast-twitch reactions are paramount and the fastest on the market currently. The response time Gigabyte claim is 3ms, which is solid, though take this with a pinch of salt as we’ve not tested this ourselves. Color replication is definitely good enough for gaming, though creatives should probably look elsewhere. The peak brightness and contrast are both respectable, though neither will blow your socks off.

The core components we recommend you get with this mutha are the Intel Core i7-13700H processor paired with the RTX 4080 graphics card, which you can get for around $2,299 from some retailers. This is quite simply the cheapest RTX 4080 laptop you’ll find on the market, and the Intel 13th gen CPU is a great upper-mid range performer.

We would have liked to have seen the option for more RAM than the 16GB 4800MHz available, but this is still good enough for gaming on, and you can always upgrade it yourself if you fancy.

Unsurprisingly the build is entirely plastic and doesn’t have the premium feel of more expensive machines, but its still serviceable, with a decent keyboard and touchpad. The 7 hour battery life is also very good considering the SKU of the CPU and GPU.

The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 is 2-in-1 convertible touchscreen laptop (which switches between tablet and laptop form-factors) that comes with its own stylus – deal for drawing, other creative use, or business meetings. The 14-inch size makes it nice and portable,

The device sports an Intel Core i7-1360P CPU and an AMOLED screen with top notch contrast, that can reach 400 nits of brightness and hugely impressive color accuracy across sRGB, Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 spaces.

For general productivity purposes the keyboard is solid, as is the very large trackpad. Some may find the trackpad size a bit over the top, but this is ultimately down to personal preference. The speakers are decent for a Windows laptop, though they don’t match up to those of a MacBook. The aesthetic design is elegant and reserved, and the chassis is very light and slimline, making it easy to transport. The screen si a wit on the wobbly side but besides this the build quality is very good.

The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra is part of the same range as the Book3 Pro 360, but is a conventional clamshell laptop with access to high-powered CPU and GPU components.

You get the same 120Hz AMOLED display as the the above pick but can opt for either an Intel Core i7-13700H or i9-13900H processor and RTX 4050 or RTX 4070 graphics card. This means you can comfortably game on this device, though not quite as well as you’d be bale to on a dedicated gaming machine with the same core components.

Although a pricey device, it’s cheaper than the MacBook Pro range, which it aims to take on. Although the speakers and peak display brightness of 400 nits don’t compete with the industry leading MacBook in these areas, the Windows support plus dedicated GPUs mean gaming is much more feasible. Considering it comes with a dedicated graphics card, the laptop is also impressively light: it weighs 3.9lb/1.8kg, which is nearly 1lb lighter than theM2 Max variant of the MacBook Pro 16.