If you’re in the market for a new work laptop with gaming capability as a bonus, you’re living in a golden age. Who needs to fork out just under three grand for the new XPS 15 with integrated graphics, when you can buy an RTX 3050-boasting Dell for a fraction of that price? Sure, the XPS line is fancy and they’re definitely top-of-the-line productivity machines, but if you’re looking to game on one, you’re looking at around AU$3,500 for a model housing the 3050 Ti.
Alternatively, you could check out this deal on the new Dell G15, which boasts an i5-11400H, RTX 3050 and 8GB of DDR4 RAM. It’s usually AU$1,799, but Dell is currently flogging it for AU$1,439 (a AU$360 discount). That includes a 120Hz 1080p display with a 512GB SSD.
Meanwhile, the Ryzen Edition G15 isn’t discounted quite as much, but it does have better specs with 16GB RAM and of course, a Ryzen 5 5600H CPU. That’s currently AU$1,529, down from AU$1,799.
It’s worth mentioning that the 3050 isn’t a powerhouse: benchmarking has shown that it can be outdone by, for example, a GTX 1660 Ti. But GTX cards don’t support DLSS, so the RTX 3050 does have an advantage when it comes to upscaling. Just don’t go in expecting the same kind of performance you’d get from higher tiers of 30 series cards: we’d think of a 3050 laptop as a work machine that can also play games at modest settings.
If you do want something with more heft, the Dell G15 with RTX 3060 is also on sale, down from AU$2,599 to AU$2,079. That’s still cheaper than your average XPS, and boasts an i7-11800H, 16GB RAM, and a 1080p 120Hz display. For more options, check out our guide to the best gaming laptops.