Tech
Laptops for college 2022: Four gaming notebooks in the test
- Laptops for college 2022: Four gaming notebooks in the test
- MSI GF63 Thin in review
- HP Victus 16 in review
- Acer Nitro 5 review
- MSI GF66 Katana in review
- Laptops for studying 2022: conclusion
Whether you are a freshman or just about to graduate: Powerful laptops can now be counted as part of the basic equipment for all students. Depending on the course of study, different requirements and the associated budgets for the notebook must be taken into account. In recent years, more and more devices have been able to come up with a dedicated graphics card in order to provide relaxation and variety in everyday life as a gaming notebook in addition to the university stress.
Shortly before the start of the fall semester 2022/23, we are testing four notebooks in different price ranges and checking how suitable the models are for studying, home use and playing PC games. In addition to the two MSI laptops GF63 Thin and GF66 Katana, the HP Victus 16 and the Acer Nitro 5 are also included in the comparison test.
In principle, all notebooks have the following minimum configuration in common: In addition to a processor with six or more cores, the laptops are all equipped with 16 gigabytes of RAM and at least 512 GB of SSD memory. Since the tested notebooks also promise to be convincing as mobile gaming devices, all models are also equipped with a dedicated NVIDIA RTX graphics card. In addition, the Full HD displays can boast a refresh rate of 144 Hertz.
With the exception of the HP Victus 16, all test devices without Windows operating system delivered. Installing the current version of Windows 11 on such a laptop can involve a lot of effort – for example, boot settings have to be made in the BIOS and drivers may have to be installed later before the Microsoft OS can run on the notebook as usual. If you don’t want to go to this trouble, you’ll have to dig a little deeper into your pocket: All of the tested notebooks are also available as variants with a pre-installed operating system. You can find out how and where to buy and install Windows 10 or Windows 11 in the linked article.
Checking out student laptops in 2022: the test procedure
Assuming that the selected laptop will be in continuous use both at university and at home, the feel and workmanship are among the first criteria in our comparison test. The battery performance is also important in this context – after all, the notebook should not run out of power in the first lecture.
Benchmarks are carried out in the PCMark, 3DMark and CineBench suites as performance-relevant data. These provide a good overview of the laptop’s performance in load scenarios such as image and video editing or rendering in high resolution and detail levels.
In addition to these benchmarks, the frame rates for current PC games are tested on the respective devices – after all, these also want to score as gaming notebooks away from the university. The games “Forza Horizon 5”, “Hitman 3” and “Total War: Warhammer 3” cover various genres with current representatives. The aim of the benchmarks are frame rates of 60 and 144 frames per second in order to get the maximum possible performance from the respective screens, either in terms of the level of detail or the smooth display.
