You must have decided on a budget to buy a new laptop. But you might be confused about buying a gaming or normal laptop on that budget.
Should you buy a gaming laptop or a normal laptop if both are available for the same price?
Here is the gaming laptop vs normal laptop comparison that will help you decide which is the best for you.
Gaming vs Normal Laptop: The Major Differences
Here are the primary differences between a gaming laptop and normal laptop.
- Build and Design
Most gaming laptops are made of plastic, whereas normal laptops are made of plastic, Aluminum, or both.
A normal budget laptop is made of plastic, but mid-range or expensive laptops do have a metal build.
Although the gaming laptop doesn’t feel cheap, normal laptops feel more sturdy, especially when they have metal construction.
Coming to the design, the gaming laptops have an aggressive looking design with cutouts, big air vents, and multi-light keyboards.
The normal laptops have a clean and sleek design, which is perfect for office or student use.
Normal laptops are significantly lighter than gaming laptops. It means normal laptops are easy to carry, but gaming laptops aren’t.
- CPU
The CPU on the gaming laptop is significantly more powerful than the one on a normal laptop.
Suppose the gaming and normal laptop both have an Intel i5 12th gen CPU. The chances are high that the normal one will have a U or P series CPU, and the gaming one will have an H series CPU.
The H series CPUs are made especially to handle high-performance tasks, and U or P series CPUs are made for everyday tasks.
But nowadays, we are noticing that normal laptops have started to come with H series CPUs. But still, the performance of this H series CPU will be better on the gaming laptop because of the better cooling system and higher TDP.
So no matter if both laptops have the same CPU, the gaming laptop will always have the upper hand.
- GPU
GPU is what separates a gaming laptop from a normal one. To be honest, there is no match in this department.
A dedicated GPU on a gaming laptop is way more powerful than any integrated GPU on a normal laptop.
Yes, integrated GPUs have become powerful enough to handle slightly heavy tasks, but still, a dedicated GPU is on another level.
- Gaming Performance
As said earlier, a normal laptop can also play games, but only at the lowest resolution. Medium to heavy games won’t even run if the hardware is old or entry level.
Because of the dedicated GPU, you can play all the games on a gaming laptop. So the gaming experience on a gaming laptop is much more immersive and enjoyable.
Furthermore, you can also edit FHD or 4K videos on a gaming laptop seamlessly.
We are not talking about the MacBook series because they are even better than gaming laptops when it comes to video editing.
- Battery Life
Because of the less powerful CPU and GPU, normal laptops last longer on a single charge.
Depending on the size of the battery, display resolution, and CPU, normal laptops can last 5 hours to 10 hours on a single charge.
High-end laptops can even last 10 hours to 15 hours, which is just impressive.
However, the average battery life on a gaming laptop is 2.5 hours or 3 hours at max while gaming.
When not gaming, you can stretch the battery life to 4.5 hours on a gaming laptop, which is still lower than the battery life on a normal laptop.
So no matter what, normal laptops have better battery life than gaming laptops.
- Portability
Here too, the normal laptops are way more portable than gaming laptops.
Because of the heavy components like bigger cooling systems, bigger battery, and bulky designs, gaming laptops become heavy.
And when you add the weight of the fast but thick charger, it gets even heavier.
A normal laptop has slim form factors and an elegant design, because of which it remains lightweight.
The maximum weight of a normal laptop is around 1.8 kg, and the minimum weight of a gaming laptop is around 2 kg.
So it’s evident that a normal laptop is way easier to carry than a gaming laptop.
- Other Features
Gaming laptops have high refresh rate displays, which could be either 120Hz, 144Hz, or 165Hz. Whereas a normal laptop has a 60Hz or a 90Hz display.
The speakers on gaming laptops are a little louder compared to normal laptops.
The charges you get with gaming laptops are significantly faster than the ones you get with normal laptops.
Normal laptops have a fingerprint scanner, whereas most gaming laptops don’t have a fingerprint scanner.
So these are the primary differences between a gaming and normal laptop.
Depending on your needs and priorities, you can pick anyone you want.
Gaming vs Normal laptop for students
We would suggest a normal laptop for students over a gaming laptop. The reasons are:
- Portability, as students have to carry the laptop most times.
- Better battery life, as it’s hard to find a charging socket everywhere you go.
- Good performance, as a normal laptop can handle everything a student does in daily life.
- Less prone to noise, as a normal laptop doesn’t make much noise, making it usable in a silent environment like a library.
These are the primary reasons why a normal laptop is a better option for students.
However, if you want to play heavy games when you get free time from studying, then you can consider a gaming laptop.
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Which one is best for office use?
For dedicated office use, a normal laptop is a much better option. The reasons are the same as the ones for students.
Yes, you can buy a gaming laptop if you are okay with heavyweight, more noise, and less battery. But a normal laptop offers more convenience.
If you occasionally play games but don’t want to compromise on convenience, then the best thing you can do is buy a normal laptop with powerful CPUs like the H series.
It can handle your everyday office work and casual gaming seasons easily without compromising on any features.
You might also like these best laptops for IT professionals.
Gaming vs Normal laptop for coding
Normal laptops are perfectly fine for coding. You don’t need a powerful CPU and GPU just to run codes.
The newer CPUs have become so powerful that they can even handle complex codes and programs.
To be on the safer side, you can buy a normal laptop with a powerful CPU. Or, you can check these laptops for coding and programming.
On the other hand, if gaming is your main priority, and you want to do coding side-wise, then buying a gaming laptop makes more sense.
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Gaming laptop vs Normal laptop lifespan
The life of a laptop doesn’t depend on the fact if it’s a normal laptop or a gaming one.
We have two normal laptops. One is eight years old, and one is five. Both are working well, even today. The latter one still feels like a new one.
So we can’t predict the lifespan of a laptop based on its nature.
However, if the CPU is powerful, then it will remain faster in the long run.
Going by this fact, gaming laptops have powerful CPUs. Hence, they will still act faster after a few years as compared to a normal laptop.
But that doesn’t mean a normal laptop will stop working entirely. It will still work, but not as fast as a gaming laptop.
So based on our experience, we can say that a normal and a gaming laptop both have almost the same lifespan, but the gaming laptops have slightly an upper hand.
You might also like these best gaming laptops under 65000.
Is a gaming laptop better than a regular laptop?
It depends on your priorities.
If you need a high-performance laptop that can handle all the games and edit videos, then a gaming laptop is much better than a normal laptop.
However, if you don’t play games and need more battery, better portability, and added features, then a normal laptop is much better than a gaming laptop.
So it all comes down to your preference. Both are good at their respective places.
You might also check these best laptops under 35000.
Final Verdict: Which one should you buy?
So, Should you buy a gaming laptop or a normal one?
For a lag-free gaming experience, you should definitely buy a gaming laptop. It can even handle everyday tasks seamlessly.
However, if you play games occasionally, that too at medium settings, then a normal laptop with a powerful CPU is the one you should buy.
Note that one laptop is not better than the other. It all depends on your needs.
So no matter if you buy a normal or gaming laptop, make sure it checks all the boxes you are looking for in a laptop.
So this is our honest gaming laptop vs normal laptop comparison. Do you agree or disagree with this comparison? Do let us know.
You might also check these Professional Looking Gaming laptops.
If you still have any doubts, feel free to ask us in the comment section. We would love to help you.
