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Gaming laptops and regular laptops have differences that make them suitable for their desired actions.
For example, regular laptops are made for mundane daily tasks that could be work or study-related.
The gaming laptops, on the other hand, are made for playing graphically demanding games.
Both have different capacities for these tasks. The work or study-related processes don’t need a lot of power so the regular laptops are not as powerful as compared gaming laptops.
There’s more, however. Let’s explore that.
Gaming Laptop vs Regular Laptop – 8 Key Differences
1. Design
Gaming laptops are designed quite differently than regular laptops.
They are made to have edgy gaming looks that could take the user into a fantasy world effortlessly. Some of them even have outlandish looks with RGB strips in the chassis and so on.
On the other hand, regular laptops have designs that do not turn a lot of eyes. They are subtle and drab, to be honest. Mainly a box design is rampant in them.
Even the material could be different. The gaming laptops may have been made from brushed aluminum or any other expensive metal. The other type has plastic mainly.
2. CPU
Both the laptop types have different CPUs. There are two main producers of processors for Windows laptops and they are AMD and Intel.
These companies have released versions for either laptop type. The Intel has suffixes that tell whether its CPU is meant for gaming or not. The H, HK, L, K, and HQ are processors for gaming laptops, while the U, G, T, and Y are for regular ones.
Having the right CPU is important if you’re going to play high-end games or programs. Consider the example of Intel Core i7. If you buy a laptop that has Core i7 10510Y, playing games on it may not be a good idea.
It may play them to a certain extent but at the end of the day, the fps won’t be satisfying.
3. GPU
In gaming laptops, you’d find giants like NVIDIA GTX 3060 or 3060 Ti. These are dedicated graphics cards meant to render graphics at the right frames. By dedicated, I mean they are separate.
The integrated cards found in regular laptops are only meant to aid in small tasks such as playing a small game or supporting HDR content.
4. Components
The same goes for RAM and storage. Regular laptops may come with the standard HDD but gaming laptops always have SSD. This is relatively newer technology. It offers more speed and faster data transfer as a result.
To be exact, it offers 50 to 250 MB/s transfer speed as compared to 0.1 to 1.7 MB/s provided by HDD.
The SSD is suitable for gaming laptops because of the requirements of graphically intensive games. Nowadays games range from 100 GBs to 200 GBs.
Transferring this data at a faster rate is super convenient with SSDs. Also, it’s noteworthy that when you start playing a game, the SSD plays a greater role in making that possible in mere seconds.
Even in the SSD, nowadays the NVMe architecture is popular. The speed remains about the same but the make-up provides greater reliability.
In terms of RAM, the gaming laptops come with DDR4, which again, is a faster version of the usual RAMs available. Those usual ones are mostly available on regular laptops.
But even these days, the high-end regular laptops come with DDR4.
5. Display
The displays of gaming and regular laptops are quite different.
Gamers want higher refresh rates because of the constant competition they are in. If you’re one of them, you know the drill. Each frame counts.
To meet this requirement, laptop manufacturers have come up with 144 Hz, 240 Hz, and even 300 Hz refresh rate displays for gaming laptops.
These panels have other features as well that help you have the most extraordinary gaming experience. Anti-glare technology is one of them. Some laptops even have unbelievably thin bezels.
On the other hand, the regular laptops are normally HD or the higher ones are FHD. The bezels may or may not be thin but that entirely depends on how much you’re paying for a certain model. Here, the refresh rates don’t matter as the normal study or work-related tasks do well on 60 Hz panels.
6.Battery Life
For many people, this is the deciding factor for many models. The gaming laptops are meant to be portable. So, their batteries are not up to the mark. If you’re getting anywhere between 3 to 4 hours of battery juice, then you’re one of the luckiest.
The regular laptops, as compared to these, have greater battery lives. They have anywhere between 10 to 12 hours of juice.
Basically, this difference is mainly due to the tasks the laptops perform. You don’t play games 24/7 or for more than 10 hours, let’s say. The study and work may extend more than 10 hours. The fact that games are power-intensive and browsing Chrome isn’t is another factor to consider.
7. Keyboard Type
There’s a difference between RGB keyboards and backlit keyboards. The former has zones with red, green, or blue colors while the backlit keyboard may have only one color. Regular laptops don’t require RGB while the gaming ones do – maybe not need but at least they add the fantasy to them.
The other main difference to consider in keyboards is whether the keys are mechanical or not. Mechanical keys are not mushy and they produce stroke sounds that notify a gamer busy in killing virtual enemies. You know how the feeling goes when each key gives you the sound that indicates your right move.
8. Price
As you might have noticed by now, gaming laptops vs regular laptops all boil down to the price. The updated components, superior LCDs, and other things increase their prices by manifolds.
Wrap up: Gaming Laptop Vs Regular Laptop
If you buy a good regular laptop with the latest specs, you’d be able to perform many tasks at hand. For example, editing 4K videos on Macbook Air and its M1 chip is a breeze.
However, you won’t be able to play games at all.
On the other hand, if you buy a gaming laptop with the latest components, you’d not only be able to work but also play loads of futuristic games.
The downside will be low battery life and it may be heavy as well.
Therefore, buy any of them depending on your daily life and requirements.
