Event Coverage

HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech Awards 2012: Editor's Choice - Part 2

By Team HardwareZone - 2 Mar 2012

Best 3D Gaming Notebook

Best 3D Gaming Notebook

Mobile GPUs are becoming more and more powerful, and with them, some gaming notebooks are starting to rival their desktop counterparts in performance and visuals. Throw in a full HD, 3D capable screen, improved audio and the ability to pack up your rig and take it with you and you can see why many gamers are foregoing the traditional gaming rig in favor of a gaming notebook. 

For this category of Best 3D Gaming Notebook, we assessed notebooks with a full HD 17-inch screen, 3D display, quad-core Intel Sandy Bridge Core i7 processor, and a performance oriented discrete GPU.

Nominees:

  • ASUS ROG G74SX
  • Dell Alienware M17X R3
  • HP Envy 17 3D
  • Toshiba Qosmio X770
  • Samsung Series 7 700G7A

And the Winner Is...

Affordable but powerful, Samsung's Series 7 700G7A offers just the right blend of everything to win us over.

While Dell's Alienware M17X R3 delivered the best benchmark scores, in terms of actual gaming experience, Samsung's Series 7 700G7A was more than up to the task. In our gaming tests, running at full HD resolution, with all settings maxed out, both machines easily hit the target 30 FPS average for the most demanding tests and showed only negligible differences in frame rates. When we turned 3D on, the M17X R3 slightly outperformed the 700G7A, but not by a large enough margin to justify the substantially higher price. We also liked the 700G7A’s sleeker design, superior audio, more comfortable 3D glasses, and lighter weight, all of which gave it a more complete package, and helped it triumph over the M17X R3 as our overall winner.

 

The following is our detailed score breakdown, but we would like to clarify some matters to better understand the ratings for the Toshiba Qosmio X770. Of all the compared notebooks here, Toshiba was the earliest last year to bring about a 3D gaming notebook with the latest Intel Core i7 Sandy Bridge mobile processor. At that point of time, its specs and capabilities were commendable.  However, most of its competitors only made their equivalent offerings available much later in the year. This discrepancy in the evaluation period meant that we had to re-look at Toshiba's offerings as they are in today's context when most of the other notebooks were evaluated in proper. That is why for the purpose of this category's shootout during the Tech Awards evaluation, we had to accord it more appropriate ratings to better match up with the competitors and their capabilities.

Scoring Breakdown
Criteria/Model ASUS ROG G74SX Dell Alienware M17X R3 HP Envy 17 3D Samsung Series 7 700G7A Toshiba Qosmio X770
Design 7.5 8.5 9.0 9.0 8.0
Features 7.0 8.5 8.5 9.0 8.5
Performance 7.5 9.5 7.5 9.0 7.5
(Adjusted down from 8.5 in original review)
Value 7.5 7.0 7.0 9.0 7.5
Mobility 6.5 6.0 7.5 7.5 7.5
Overall 7.5 8.0 8.0 9.0 7.5
(Adjusted down from 8.0 in original review)
Price S$2,998 S$4,877
(review config, though it starts from S$3,499)
S$3,499 S$2,899 S$3,799

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

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