There are many gaming laptops available, and the latest version of the Dell G3 is additionally. This is an improvement over the previously released Dell G3 series of laptops. And here in this review we are going to find out whether it just adds to the lineup in name or in value.
The laptop launched in September in India starts at Rs 70,990. We got the top version and used it for a while. Here is our review of the Dell G3 15 gaming laptop.
The design of the Dell G3 15 gaming laptop is simple and functional. We received the black variant of the laptop, which comes with a smooth velvet texture with light blue highlights.
The company goes for a minimalist look with the Dell G3 15, and it sure works for me. It does not feature any attractive lighting on the lid or back. The laptop has a very clean appearance, but features an RGB keyboard. It has small bezels around the 15-inch display, which has a slightly larger top due to the camera.
The base features an RBG lit keyboard, a fingerprint scanner that doubles as a power button and has light blue accents around the keyboard and touchpad. The legs of the laptop are made of the same light-blue rubber.
The sides of the laptop are in the side where the display portion of the laptop attaches to the base in a single hinge near the middle. This gives the impression that the display part of the laptop is separate from the body.
The panel to the left of most ports houses, including a power port, USB Type-C, HDMI out, USB 3.1 Type-A, Ethernet and 3.5mm headphone port. On the right panel, there is a full-size SD card slot, a pair of USB 2.0 Type-A ports, and a lock slot. The laptop weighs 2.4 kg which is quite standard for gaming laptops.
Performance and specifications
Coming to the next segment, the Dell G3 15 has a 15-inch fullHD display capable of a 144Hz refresh rate. The performance looks great on paper, and even seems to do a good job.
That said, it slightly mutes some fluorescent colors. However this software manages to keep up well with the bit which means there are no visible lines with changing FPS. Moving to the laptop inn, the variants we received are a 9th gen Intel i7-9750HQ hexa core processor and a new Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660ti, 6GB GDDR6 GPU.
Gambling
On the gaming performance of the laptop, it does well rather than handling most recent games. I tried out the new Gears 5, controls with some rise of Tomb Raider. Apart from these, there were regular games that I used to play including Rainbow Six Siege, Dota 2, PUBG and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The game played the rise of Tomb Raider at very high settings at 30–40 fps. Gears 5.
It was slightly better for Rainbow Six Siege and PUBG as both ran at around 80-90 FPS on Ultra settings. Whereas Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive exceeded 140FPS. Keep in mind that this number is all with the power plug. The laptop without power stops playing these games at high settings, which is typical of gaming laptops. This is because the GPU requires more power than the battery can provide to function at its peak.
For the heat produced by the laptop, it was quite low and the AAA game pushed the laptop to its limits to a great extent. While the laptop is under tension, it produces too much heat that is disposed of by the fans and pushed out of the vent. The keyboard does not handle a lot of heat so it is not very uncomfortable. But the heat coming out of the vents hits the bottom of the screen which becomes very hot. It can be harmful in the long run.
Storage, keyboard, audio and battery
The 512GB SSD which is available in the top variant actually helps a lot when playing multiplayer games like Rainbow Six Siege and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive as it actually reduces on load time. The Dell G3 15’s keyboard features membrane keys which are not exceptional.
These are almost regular keys, although they seem comfortable for typing. The major travel distance is not too deep. The touchpad seems fine for regular use on Windows, but if someone was missing a mouse and wanted to use the touchpad to pay for some games, it might cause some issues.
The speakers on the Dell G3 15 were loud, but lacked the cleverness of quality speakers. And by clever I mean directional quality and mids and lows of audio. But one area that the Dell G3 15 really shines on is the battery life which was excellent.
Given that gaming laptops are rarely used without electricity, it holds together very well. I tried to play the game on it with muted graphics and it easily lasted me for 5 hours. This time should be increased if the laptop is being operated without a GPU.