Remember the time when we used to rush towards home after school, throw our bags on the couch, sit on the computer chair and turn on the PCs. Why? Because we just wanted to play games. Can you relate to it?
Our childhood was never about thinking about how powerful our computers are, how many tabs we can open simultaneously, or does it have a GPU? But today, we are blessed to have gaming laptops that come with 4K HD displays, powerful configurations, and much more.
If you are a hardcore gamer, wouldn’t you love to have a powerful beast, on which you can play any game you want without any hesitation? So, basically, this has landed you to make your call regarding what type of laptop you want, or maybe you can do a quick Google search for robust gaming laptops. But the high price tags are enough to keep you away from buying your desired gaming laptop.
All the lives we have heard about Dell laptops. Even their normal laptops offer decent internal hardware, come with sleek design, offer long-lasting battery life all that without compromising on performance and features.
So, if you are a gamer and looking for a budget-friendly laptop to satisfy your gaming needs, Dell has your back with its G3 15 – a powerful gaming laptop.
Things you must know about Dell G3 15
In this article, we will discuss the design, weight, performance, and overall experience of the Dell G3 15 gaming laptop. But certainly, the review would be incomplete if we don’t evaluate the battery life.
Design and size
Whether you are a gamer or just a regular person laptop user, you will always want to check out the design of the laptop you wish to buy. If you want to get your hands on Dell G3 15, it’s a good machine to try out – even for personal use. Putting aside the build quality, its simple and sleek design is enough to impress you. The black plastic lid features the logo that gives it an edge over other gaming devices. The 15-inch FHD display complements the design quite well.
It comes with a perfect keyboard that has a soft touchpad. And all gamers would know the importance of a soft touchpad.
Most of the ports like USB Type-C, a power jack, HDMI, USB 3.1 Type A, headphone jack, and Ethernet port are provided on the left side of the laptop. Meanwhile, the CD card slot, lock slot, and a pair of USB 2.0 Type-A ports are available on the right side of the laptop.
To give you an idea about its size, we can say that Dell G3 15 is smaller than Acer Nitro 5, but it’s quite similar in size to Lenovo Legion Y545.
Graphics and gaming
Nobody compromises on the graphics when it comes to a gaming laptop. Dell G3 15 laptop comes with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 – 4GB GDDR5 enabling you to play most of the games on low or medium resolution settings.
You would hardly come by a gamer who had not played or at least heard about Tomb Raider. We are taking it as a benchmark to compare Dell G3 15 with Acer Nitro 5 and Lenovo Legion Y545. Dell G3 runs this game at 30 FPS, which is greater than Acer Nitro 5, which runs it at 25 FPS while Lenovo Legion Y545 with the same GPU in Core i7 runs the game at 49 FPS.
Moreover, Dell G3 15 was tested for Metro Exodus on a loop for ten rooms at 1080p resolution with medium settings, and the results showed that it ran at 41.7 frames per second on average and was consistent across multiple runs. Isn’t it a great deal? What more somebody could ask for.
Performance
Let’s now talk about the performance of Dell G3 15. The good part is, G3 scored 16,650 on the Geekbench 4.3 cross-platform benchmark surpassing the average level of the gaming industry which is 13,285. Meanwhile, Acer Nitro 5 scored 14,432. On the Handbrake video-editing test, Dell G3 15 was further tested to convert a 4K video to run on 1080p resolution, it took 14 minutes and one second in total which is again better than the average 15 minutes and 52 seconds for Acer Nitro 5. To copy a file of 4.97 GB took 17 seconds, which is almost equal to 299.4 Mbps, hence exceeding the entry-level average that is 295.4 Mbps. However, in copying files, Acer Nitro 5 takes the lead.
Audio quality
One of the best things about Dell G3 15 is its audio quality. While playing Control, the sound of the gunshots from Jesse’s weapon, as she worked through the problems in her inner monologue was way too easy to play with due to the audio quality.
Upgradeability
You can upgrade your Dell G3 15 and can easily change the hard drive, SSD and RAM. All you need to do is take a Phillips screwdriver, there will be 10 screws out of which 6 will come out entirely while the remaining three need to be loosened through the screwdriver. This will help you remove the base cover and now you can change the RAM and SSD. For the hard drive, you need to take out a few more screws to get it out of the bracket. You can upgrade your 8 GB of RAM to 16 GB through a free DIMM slot.
Battery life
Well, when it comes to battery life, Dell never disappoints. Dell G3 15 has a strong battery life of five hours 30 minutes. Moreover, its 68 WHr capacity offers a more dependable performance by supplying power consistently. Most gaming laptops come with shorter battery life and Dell G3 15 is no exception.
Heat up test
As far as the heat-up test is concerned, the highest temperature recorded was 50 degrees Celsius from the bottom while 40.2 degrees from the center of the keyboard. The temperature of the touchpad was much lower, i.e. 28.3 degrees Celsius.
Webcam quality
Dell G3 15 comes with a 720p resolution webcam. It is good enough for video communication. It records images at a low 0.9 MP.
Warranty and software
The innovative software is specifically designed to enhance your gaming experience. You can easily control hardware and software environments. You can also personalize your space and make your software look the way you want it. Dell G3 15 stands out for its software because of its Alienware Command Center. It shows system performance and serves as a gaming library.
Dell provides a 1-year warranty for its G3 15 laptops.
Let’s discuss the downsides of Dell G3
There have been some concerns regarding the display of the laptop. The 13.3-inch FHD screen is not as good as it should be and the colors were bland; especially for a gaming laptop as it could be a major concern for the gamers. The reason behind this is, its screen covers 63% of the SRGB color gamut, thus falling behind the industry standard which is 76%.
Its screen is brighter, according to the industry standards but when compared with Acer Nitro 5 and Lenovo’s Legion Y545, it lags behind.
Conclusion
Buying a laptop is a tough decision. It’s not like you’re buying a dress. You have to do a lot of research before making a decision and it’s something that cannot be done overnight. So, it’s better to take time and identify your needs first, if you’re a gamer, then you might look for a nice display. You should also check out the size and resolution settings.
Dell G3 15 would be a good investment as it is a budget gaming laptop. It comes with a solid battery life and looks really good. The major drawback is its bland display.
The colors should be vivid and vibrant, otherwise it’s not worth buying. Acer Nitro 5 and Lenovo Legion Y545 give Dell a good run for the money in this regard.
As far as the display is concerned, you must go for Nitro 5 and Lenovo Legion Y545, but you have to trade off the battery life with display in either case. Meanwhile, Dell G3 15 will still have an edge over audio and keyboard as compared to Acer Nitro 5 and Lenovo Legion Y545.
Having said that, Dell G3 15 is a perfect fit if you are ready to give up on the display screen for other features. You can easily upgrade your laptop whenever you want and play AAA games with ease.
If you don’t feel like playing games on your laptop, you can plug it into your monitor, have your friends over, play it on a big screen and enjoy.