Gaming laptops have gotten much better over the years. With newer, more powerful gaming laptops that are targeted at everyone from casual gamers to professionals, these machines are becoming more popular choices for those looking for performance in their next laptop.
While they’re not as powerful as their desktop counterparts when it comes to elements like sheer gaming performance and thermals, laptops provide a good mix of performance and the portability that desktops lack. However, all that makes gaming laptops good and be bettered with a few accessories. Check them out below.
Let’s face it, the trackpad on your new laptop is not meant for gaming, and its purpose should be limited to work and other basic tasks. For those split-second kills in games, nothing is better than a good gaming mouse.
There are a lot of options when it comes to gaming mice, and they differ across their symmetrical or asymmetrical design, DPI settings, extra buttons and other features, making them available across a range of price points.
Yes, your laptop does have speakers. Chances are they’re fairly decent ones as well. However, when you want to immerse yourself in a fast paced game, and use sound to your advantage and listen to enemies before they spot you, you’ll want a good gaming headset, preferably one that comes with 7.1 sound support, letting you know exactly where opponents and teammates are.
Headsets also generally offer better microphone quality than your laptop’s stock microphone, which is great for multiplayer gaming or streaming, when your voice clarity could be important to viewers or teammates.
Not all laptops may require an external keyboard as they will usually have a fairly nice one. However, this default keyboard may not have the key travel distance that you like, or perhaps you prefer a full keyboard layout that better suits your gaming needs. This calls for an external keyboard.
External keyboards are also great because they offer much more customisation and irrespective of which gaming laptop you have, you can choose a keyboard of your choice. Keyboards are also useful if you like your controls at an angle, without making the screen turn as well, something you will have to deal with on laptops’ stock keyboards.
The more powerful a laptop is, and the more resource-heavy games it runs, the hotter it is going to get. Unlike desktops, laptops can quickly reach crazy hot speeds since the internals are closer together and you don’t have desktop-level air or water cooling solutions. However, this can be partially solved with a decent cooling pad or cooling stand.
These stands have fans on the surface that align with the base of your laptop and help keep the ventilation in check. Further, they also double up as a stand for your laptop if you like your screen at an elevated angle.
One of the main reasons of you going for a gaming laptop over a desktop is likely the portability aspect. However, to carry your laptop and supporting accessories around, you also probably want a good laptop back that is spacious enough to accommodate the laptop itself, along with accessories like your headset, keyboard, mouse and anything else.
It is also a good idea to make sure your gaming laptop bag is made out of a water resistant outer material to keep the things inside safe from rain or any other accidental liquid spills.
For games that are not first/third person shooters, you will likely require a controller. Games like the Need for Speed series, or the FIFA series are best enjoyed by a controller. Also, two controllers will let you enjoy multiplayer gaming on the same device, especially handy if you love sports-based games like the FIFA series.
While controllers can be found in both wired and wireless avatars, make sure you get one that is compatible with PCs as well as consoles so you can simply use the same controller with multiple devices. Controllers are also easy to customise with skins and rubber thumb grips.
