Dell G5 15: Perfect Gaming Laptop For Esports On A Budget

Gaming today is taking a really different approach. While there are people who love to game casually, either on their consoles or PC, with the emergence of esports tournaments, people have started to take a keen interest in competitive gaming -- games like Rocket League, Valorant, CS:GO and others.

In case you¡¯re someone who too is joining the world competitive gaming but don¡¯t have a lot of money to spend, there are some great budget options in the market right now, and one of them is Dell¡¯s G5 gaming laptop. I tested this out and here¡¯s what I liked and disliked about this gaming machine.

What I Liked

A good looker

Dell is known to make clean and fancy looking laptops, either for productivity (look at the XPS series) or for gaming (how can we forget Alienware), and the G5 is no exception. It¡¯s got an all matte-black body, however, the finish is smooth instead of coarse or rubbery which does make it feel nice. The lid gets this subtle glitter-effect that also adds some character to the design.

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It has adequate slits and spaces for ventilation at the back, but the design doesn¡¯t make them too edgy or prominent. Overall a good and premium-looking gaming laptop.

120Hz refresh rate panel

Dell G5 features a 15.6-inch 120Hz refresh rate panel sporting a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels with thin, but pretty evident bezels on the bottom and sides. Sure, it¡¯s not 144Hz, but at this price point, it's way better than just 60Hz.

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You notice the smoother animations and screen elements. Additionally, the panel is also fairly bright and vibrant, perfect for binge-watching shows or movies.

No compromise on I/O

Even though the laptop is aiming at a slightly thinner profile with its tapered edges, it has managed to retain a decent amount of ports. You get three USB 3.1 Type-A ports, one USB 3.1 Type-C, one HDMI 2.1 port, a gigabit ethernet jack and even an SD card reader.

Decent performance for the price

Competing in esports titles requires gaming hardware that¡¯s seamless and doesn¡¯t quit on you under immense pressure. Dell G5 is fairly loaded to take this load.

You¡¯re getting an Intel Core i5-10300H quad-core CPU with a base clock speed of 2.5GHz and a boost clock speed of 4.5GHz, paired with 8GB of DDR4 memory and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650Ti graphics card. Sure, it would have been nice to see a 16GB RAM loaded on the machine, but even with the 8GB, it ran just fine.

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It delivered a PCMark 10 score of 4356 points, Cinebench R20 score of 1912 points. Coming to gaming, Rocket League was able to offer 160fps on average with ease, on Full-HD and the highest settings. Valorant, on the other hand, delivered a solid 175-180fps on average. CS:Go ran at a good 190 fps. Coming at a few heavier titles, GTA V ran at a good 80-85fps. PUBG PC gave around 70-75fps on the highest possible settings.

On a single charge, the laptop is able to deliver around 3.5 to 4 hours of casual usage, which isn¡¯t much but is expected from a gaming machine. Overall, for the price, the machine performs exceptionally well.

What I disliked

No RGB

While it was great that the full-sized keyboard (which is a true joy to game on with its low-profile keys and ample key spacing) on the G5 15 is nicely lit with blue LEDs, it would have been cool to have RGB lighting instead of just blue.

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Odd trackpad placement

Even though this is one good looking machine, I would have loved to see the giant trackpad in the centre instead of the left orientation that Dell went with. Keeping my OCD aside,while typing I experienced a few unnecessary touches that were annoying.

Should you buy Dell G5 15?

Dell G5 15 is a budget gaming laptop from Dell, but they¡¯ve managed to offer quite a lot starting at a price tag of around Rs 83,000. It's built exceptionally well, plays competitive games without any hiccups and can even run a few heavy titles with settings pulled down a little. With a RAM upgrade this can become even better.

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Overall, if you¡¯re looking for a decent gaming laptop on a budget and don¡¯t want to compromise on quality, Dell G5 15 is definitely worth checking out.