The best thin and light gaming laptop in 2024

One of the best thin and light gaming laptops on yellow background
(Image credit: Future / Asus)

Looking for a high-performance gaming laptop that delivers top tier in an ultra-sleek form fact? There are plenty to choose from and finding more competitively priced options in 2024 is now possible.

With the big day inching ever closer, there are more Black Friday gaming laptop deals now than ever happening, bringing down the price of these slim laptop to a much more affordable range. And thanks to these Black Friday deals, buyers will have more to choose from.

Gamers love the best gaming laptops running the best graphics cards and best processors, these machines tend to be the bulkiest and heaviest on the market. High performance can be great for overclocking and playing top tier AAA games at max settings, but not if it comes at the expense of portability. That’s where thin and light gaming laptops come in, balancing a lighter frame with solid to even exceptional performance.

The drawback is that this thinner form factor comes at the cost of thermal performance, since the hardware is encased in a much sleeker shell. That means you might want to consider one of the best laptop cooling pads to be on the safe side if you’re thinking of gaming for many hours on end.

We've curated a list of the best thin and light gaming laptops on the market in which you'll find options from Lenovo, Razer, Dell, Alienware, and more. Thanks to our 15 years of reviewing experience and thousands of tested products, we've distilled the best gaming laptops, best Asus gaming laptops, and best MSI gaming laptops for your viewing pleasure.

The quick list

Want to cut to the chase and find out what the best thin and light gaming laptops are? Below, you’ll find a roundup of our choices, and you can jump to a more detailed review of every pick, along with our price comparison tool to help you find the best deals.

The best thin and light gaming laptops in 2023

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Below you'll find full write-ups for each of the best Windows laptop in our list. We've tested each one extensively, so you can be sure that our recommendations can be trusted.

The best thin and light gaming laptop overall

black gaming laptop

(Image credit: Future)
The best thin and light gaming laptop overall

Specifications

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS - 9 7940HS
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 - 4060
RAM: Up to 32GB
Screen: 14-inch WQXGA+ 120Hz IPS (2880 x 1800)
Storage: 512GB / 1TB SSD

Reasons to buy

+
Excellent performance for the money
+
Strong aesthetic design compared to its competition
+
Lovely 14-inch display for a mid-range model
+
Support for leading AMD mobile CPUs
+
Great typing experience on the keyboard

Reasons to avoid

-
Far from the most powerful thin and light gaming laptop here
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The battery life is behind some of its competition 
Buy it if:

✅ You want an easy-to-carry laptop: At 14 inches and fairly lightweight, this is very easy to take on the go.

✅ You want great performance: You'll get fantastic gaming performance out of this machine, even at high settings, no question.

Don't buy it if:

You want a better webcam: The webcam on this laptop is fairly middling, so invest in a better webcam if you plan on livestreaming.

You want ray tracing: Though general performance is excellent, ray tracing will bog it down considerably.

The Lenovo Legion 5 Slim 14 stands out for its exceptional thinness and lightness, offering a comprehensive package of size, performance, price, and aesthetics. This laptop is exceptionally portable with its 14-inch display and feather-light build, effortlessly fitting into most bags without adding bulk or taking up significant space.

Powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 CPU, upgradable to Ryzen 9, and with a GPU option up to the RTX 4060, the Legion 5 Slim 14 excels in both productivity and 1080p gaming, even stretching into some 1440p gaming territory. It delivers impressive benchmark scores and framerates, handling maximum settings in AAA games with ease. The device is also capable in creative and editing tasks, backed by its stunning display that boasts excellent resolution, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, HDR support, up to 500 nits brightness, and a 120Hz refresh rate, catering well to both gaming and creative needs.

However, it's important to note a few limitations. Its ray tracing performance is underwhelming, with noticeable framerate drops when used. Battery life varies significantly based on usage as well. And, while remarkably slim and light, the laptop is slightly thicker than some competitors.

Read the full Lenovo Legion 5 Slim 14 review

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The best budget thin and light gaming laptop

MSI GF63 Thin gaming laptop open on a wooden desk, with a plant next to it.

(Image credit: Future)
The best budget thin and light gaming laptop

Specifications

CPU: Intel Core i5-10500H - i7-11800H
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 - RTX 3050 Ti
RAM: Up to 32GB DDR4 RAM
Screen: 15.6-inch 1920x1080 IPS-level, 144Hz
Storage: Up to 1TB PCIe SSD

Reasons to buy

+
The cheapest thin and light gaming laptop on our list
+
Excellent price-to-performance ratio
+
Solid thermal performance despite plastic chassis
+
Good Full HD screen at 144Hz for gaming 

Reasons to avoid

-
Poorest battery life compared to its competition 
-
Comes packed in with MSI’s bloatware 
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Most recent models are running outdated GPU and GPU combos
Buy it if:

✅ You want to game on a budget: Let’s face it: gaming laptops can be bloody expensive, but if you cheap out, you’ll likely be stuck with low frame rates or poor graphics. The MSI GF63 Thin walks the line between value and performance expertly.

✅ You need a multi-purpose laptop: Decent performance in just about every area and a reserved design means that the GF63 Thin can happily double as a laptop for work or study, as well as be a solid PC gaming device.

Don't buy it if:

You want ray tracing: While it’s technically capable, the RTX 3050 Ti just isn’t really able to run games with ray-tracing settings turned on.

❌ You need good battery life: The battery life on offer here is far from dismal, but it’s not what we’d call impressive, if you want to keep the brightness at maximum, you’ll need to plug in.

Budget gaming laptops that still deliver on performance are hard to find, which makes the MSI GF63 Thin (2022) an excellent choice for those wanting to save without having to sacrifice too much in specs in return. The starting price is one that most gaming laptops can’t hope to match in this generation of performance behemoths, especially one that’s also so thin and lightweight. Its battery life is average, but that’s what you’d expect from a gaming laptop in the first place.

Its specs include up to an Intel Core i7-11800H CPU, though the Core i5 version is more prominent, and up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU. For the latter, you can also get the GeForce GTX 1650 GPU version for a cheaper price point, which still can handle most games just fine, but we found after testing that it’s best to pay a bit more for the 3050 Ti, as the gaming performance is more than worth it.

The display is also 1080p HD and we found that when combined with its 144Hz refresh made for a smooth gameplay experience and a clear vibrant picture quality. However, it’s not well-suited for high demand tasks, like 4K video editing and running number-crunching scientific programs. The port selection is excellent as well, with every type you need. In fact, in comparison to many other current-gen gaming laptops we’ve tested, it surpasses them all. It does have issues with bloatware, and sometimes the charging cable can block those many ports too.

Read the full MSI GF63 Thin (2022) review

The best premium thin and light gaming laptop

black gaming laptop

(Image credit: Future)
The best premium thin and light gaming laptop

Specifications

CPU: Intel Core i9-13900H
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070
RAM: Up to 64GB
Screen: 16-inch 240Hz QHD+ IPS (2560 x 1600)
Storage: Up to 8TB SSD

Reasons to buy

+
Aggressive pricing for the hardware inside 
+
Features a powerful CPU and GPU combo 
+
Leading 16-inch 240Hz QHD+ display 
+
Weighs in at only 4.18 lbs for RTX 4070 model

Reasons to avoid

-
It gets hotter than some other laptops on the list 
-
The integrated webcam is of poor quality 
-
Ventilation leaves a lot to be desired 
Buy it if:

✅ You want a thin and light gaming laptop: It weighs surprisingly little for its specs and can easily carry around.

✅ You want great performance: Performance scores high on every benchmark with high frame rates at highest settings.

Don't buy it if:

You want a better webcam: The webcam is pretty average, so not great for livestreaming.

❌ You want a better ventilation system: It mostly warm, but it will run hot under stress.

The Origin EON 16SL is a true dark horse of gaming laptops, as it’s able to balance performance with one of the thinnest and lightest form factors of any of 2023’s offerings. Origin has truly knocked it out of the park with its aesthetic, allowing buyers to customize their laptop exactly how they want it. Even better is the pricing, which is much more reasonable compared to other competing gaming laptops.

Despite having a 16-inch display, it fits well in most medium-sized bags and its lightness keeps it from weighing down your bag while the thin chassis ensures it doesn’t take up much space. Thanks to its robust spec options, including the RTX 4000-series GPU and the 13th-Gen Intel Core i9 CPU, this device delivers outstanding performance, enabling Cyberpunk 2077 to achieve over 90fps on high settings and even surpass 60fps with 'Ray Tracing Overdrive' enabled. Additionally, the 16-inch QHD+ display boasts an impressive 240Hz refresh rate, guaranteeing smooth, stutter-free gameplay.

Even with the impressive performance of the Origin EON 16SL, it is not without its drawbacks. One notable issue is its mediocre webcam, which demands good lighting conditions to produce acceptable image quality. Additionally, while the cooling system is adequate for standard gaming use, it falls short of perfection. This becomes evident as the laptop's underside tends to overheat during prolonged and heavy gaming sessions.

Read the full Origin EON 16SL review

Allisa James
Computing Staff Writer

Named by the CTA as a CES 2023 Media Trailblazer, Allisa is a Computing Staff Writer who covers breaking news and rumors in the computing industry, as well as reviews, hands-on previews, featured articles, and the latest deals and trends. In her spare time you can find her chatting it up on her two podcasts, Megaten Marathon and Combo Chain, as well as playing any JRPGs she can get her hands on.

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