First seen at CES 2023, Dell's updated G series gaming laptops caught our eyes for their bold color options and low starting price—just $729.99 for the G15 seen here. But while we're fans of affordable gaming rigs and like the Dell G15's style, the configuration reviewed here is well into midrange pricing at $1,659.99. That'd be fine if other models allowed a range of prices in between, but with Dell's locked or restricted component combinations, there are precious few stops between the base Intel Core i5 and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 and our unit's Core i7 and much newer, more capable RTX 4060. The RTX 3050 remains capable enough but is hard to recommend as a long-term purchase in the latter half of 2023, and pushing this heavy, otherwise unremarkable (apart from its fun color options) laptop above $1,500 significantly limits its appeal. If you've got a midrange budget, the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 Gen 8 is a better deal.
Bold, Colorful Design
When talking about the G15's design, the color scheme demands to be addressed first. Our review unit's Pop Purple with Neo Mint palette is certainly bold, but I love that it opens up more options than what we traditionally see. Its pale pink lid, light blue rear block, and purple bottom half stand out in the gaming space (or among laptops in general). Since the G15 at least begins as a budget gaming laptop, suitable for younger users, call it a new look for a new generation.
(Credit: Molly Flores)When we saw the G15 at CES, Dell's designer explained the thought that went into the colorways, hitting that vaguely '90s vaporwave aesthetic that's currently a trend. There are other options, not quite as bold as our unit—a much more traditional Dark Shadow Gray and a pleasing Quantum White with Deep Space Blue (an all-white chassis with blue thermal block).
The last is probably my favorite, but in any case I'm glad to see some different color options. While the purple may not be my personal pick, the hues feel particularly smart and welcome in the entry-level space, opening the G15 up to buyers who may not normally like the boring black and red of most affordable gaming rigs.
(Credit: Molly Flores)Like other budget laptops, the Dell is not particularly thin or sleek, measuring 1.06 by 14.1 by 10.8 inches (HWD) and weighing a hefty 6.19 pounds. That size and thickness are about average but the G15 is really on the heavy side for a 15.6-inch notebook, especially since it's accompanied by a shockingly big and heavy power brick. You should be able to take your gaming laptop with you, especially if it's your only system, but the G15's AC adapter is a match for that of the Alienware m18, a super-expensive jumbo we recently reviewed from Dell's flagship gaming brand.
On the positive side, the G15 is well-built and sturdy; it's all plastic, but between its unique style and build quality it stands up well in the budget space. The keyboard is a bit underwhelming—the keys don't have much travel or feedback—but serviceable and includes a full numeric keypad. The touchpad is similarly unremarkable, a tad small for the system size, but it too does the job.
(Credit: Molly Flores)As for the 15.6-inch display, even the base model combines full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate. Two optional upgrades keep the same 1080p resolution but speed up refresh: Our test unit combines a 165Hz refresh with Nvidia G-Sync, which is a nice combo for nearly any type of gamer, while the deluxe panel ramps up to a 360Hz refresh rate for esports enthusiasts. The screen won't set any records for brightness or quality, but it looks bright and colorful enough and is as sharp as I'd expect.
(Credit: Molly Flores)One upside to the thick chassis is a wide array of ports. The main benefit comes in the form of an Ethernet jack, which sits on the laptop's left side next to the headphone jack. On the right are two USB Type-A ports, and the others are around back: a third USB-A, a USB-C connector with DisplayPort support, an HDMI monitor port, and the power jack.
The laptop also supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth and has a 720p webcam. That low resolution for the base price isn't surprising, even if we wish all laptops had a 1080p or sharper camera for our remote-work world. Its image quality is okay but it doesn't handle shadows or differences in lighting particularly well and isn't especially sharp.
(Credit: Molly Flores)Configuration Woes: An Entry-Level Laptop, Technically
As I said, the Dell G15 starts at $729.99, downright cheap for a gaming laptop. That gets you a 13th Generation Intel Core i5-13450HX processor, 8GB of memory, a 256GB solid-state drive, and the 120Hz screen backed by an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU.
It's easy to understand the low price once you see those specs: 256GB of storage is woefully skimpy for today's games, and the graphics processor is not only entry-level silicon but previous-generation entry-level silicon at that. Still, having that accessible point of entry for cash-strapped shoppers is worthwhile, though for most I'd suggest stepping up one level to $799.99, which doubles the RAM and storage (to 16GB and 512GB respectively) and bumps the display to 165Hz. That model sounds like the sweet spot.
(Credit: Molly Flores)Frustratingly, there's no G15 model around the psychologically important $1,000 mark. If you want a current-generation GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, you must also spring for 16GB of memory, a 1TB SSD, and the 360Hz display. Granted, that's a much better system, but it'll cost you $1,549.99, which is well out of budget territory. If you could get the RTX 4060 (or a different GPU in between) but keep the base display or a 512GB SSD, it would keep the price saner. As it stands, opting for the RTX 4060 really makes the Dell no longer an entry-level laptop, which seems to defeat its purpose.
If you think a 360Hz display isn't necessary for a midrange machine, you're right, but oddly enough dropping down to the 165Hz panel also gets you Windows 11 Pro rather than Home, so the price actually goes up to $1,659.99. That's the model Dell sent us for review, with a Core i7-13650HX CPU (six Performance cores, eight Efficient cores, 20 threads).
(Credit: Molly Flores)In short, Dell's options list is a bit of a mish-mosh and a head-scratcher, with no middle ground between the very low-priced starter and the deluxe option, and no way to upgrade the GPU without spending $820 (more than doubling the system price). That's unusual, and arguably makes the G15 an entry-level system in name only. Since we weren't sent an RTX 3050 configuration, we chose midrange models for our benchmark comparisons. Speaking of which...
Performance Testing: The G15 Meets Its Match(es)
The most direct competitor to the Dell G15 is the abovementioned Lenovo Legion Slim 5 Gen 8, priced at $1,549 as tested with a matching GeForce RTX 4060. The HP Victus 16 is also similar, as an affordable system that we reviewed in a higher configuration ($1,449.99 as tested).
For comparison's sake, the MSI Cyborg 15 is a true budget gamer, $999 as tested with a Core i7 CPU and GeForce RTX 4050. Finally, on the opposite side of the field, the Lenovo Legion Pro 5 Gen 8 combines an AMD processor with a potent GeForce RTX 4070, so it should be the top performer in the bunch at $1,767.99 as tested. This quartet will provide useful context and help map the G15's place in the field.
Productivity and Content Creation Tests
We run the same general productivity benchmarks across both mobile and desktop systems. Our first test is UL's PCMark 10, which simulates a variety of real-world productivity and office workflows to measure overall system performance and also includes a storage subtest for the primary drive.
Our other three benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon's Cinebench R23 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Geekbench 5.4 Pro from Primate Labs simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).
We've been impressed by Intel's 13th Gen processors across the board, and the Dell's Core i7-13650HX is no exception. With solid performance in every test, the G15 is more than capable of everyday multitasking without slowdown, as well as moderately demanding media tasks. Professional content creators, image or video editors, or streamers may want a more specialized machine, but others will find ample power.
Graphics and Gaming Tests
For gaming laptops and other mobile gaming hardware, we run both synthetic and real-world gaming benchmarks. The former includes two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark, Night Raid (more modest, suitable for systems with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). Also thrown into that gauntlet is the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which we use to gauge OpenGL performance. These GFXBench tests are rendered offscreen to accommodate different native display resolutions; more frames per second (fps) means higher performance.
Our real-world gaming testing comes from the in-game benchmarks of F1 2021, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and Rainbow Six Siege. These three games—all benchmarked at 1080p resolution—represent simulation, open-world action-adventure, and competitive/esports shooter games, respectively. Valhalla and Siege are run twice (Valhalla at Medium and Ultra quality, Siege at Low and Ultra quality), while F1 2021 is run once at Ultra quality settings and, for Nvidia GeForce RTX-based systems, a second time with Nvidia’s performance-boosting DLSS anti-aliasing turned on.
There was no real surprise here in terms of how the various GPUs shook out in comparison to one another. The GeForce RTX 4060 isn't going to set any records, but nor will it give you any cause for complaint. The RTX 4070 was predictably superior, while the Legion Slim 5's RTX 4060 outperformed the Dell's on average, and the GeForce RTX 4050 laptops clearly fell short.
Skipping head-to-head comparisons, the G15 achieved solid 1080p framerates in a variety of games—93fps in Valhalla at maximum settings is a fine result, helping to justify our test configuration's price as more of a midrange than entry-level gaming laptop. The Legion Pro 5 Gen 8's price of nearly $1,800 is obviously a leap not all shoppers are prepared to take, but those who can afford it will find the GeForce RTX 4070 clearly worth it. Most relevant to this review, the Lenovo Slim 5 performed almost as well as its sibling but costs less than our G15 while being lighter and thinner despite a bigger, sharper screen. The Dell's only advantage is a bigger SSD.
Battery and Display Tests
We test laptop battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100% until the system quits. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off.
Additionally, we use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and its Windows software to measure a laptop screen's color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the panel can show—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).
The G15 earned points for battery life, showing more stamina than most of its rivals; it missed the eight-hour mark, but you should be able to use this laptop on the road, in class, or just on your couch for hours without keeping an eye out for the nearest wall socket. The display's brightness and color coverage proved about average for the group.
Verdict: Pay Close Attention to the Pricing
The base model of the Dell G15 has immediate appeal for bargain hunters, and its specs may satisfy casual gamers, though again we'd urge the step up to the $799.99 configuration. Its GeForce RTX 3050 is still capable enough for 1080p gaming, though it's on the bottom rung of the last generation, which won't leave you in the best place long term.
(Credit: Molly Flores)For anyone looking for a more potent yet still budget-friendly option, however, this laptop is shockingly limited in its configuration options. The next CPU, GPU, and storage options are tied together, making the G15 leap from $800 to $1,500-plus if you want more power. The resulting performance is admirable, but you can find better options for less, led by the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 Gen 8.
Down the line, we'd love to see a sweet-spot G15 model at around $999 with a GeForce RTX 40 series graphics chip, adequate storage for today's space-hog games, and 16GB of memory. With this model's unique, perky styling, that model might be a category dominator.