Looking for a Gaming Laptop for College, Gaming, and Video Editing (Budget: $2500-$3000)
Hi everyone,
I’m in the market for a gaming laptop that I can use for college work, gaming, and video editing. I need something that:
Has a good balance of performance for gaming and editing.
Can last 4-5 hours on battery.
Will remain relevant and perform well for the next 2-3 years.
I’ve got a budget of around $2500 to $3000. A few of my friends recommended the following models:
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16" 2.5K OLED Gaming Laptop
Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX
32GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080
1TB SSD
Eclipse Black
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 16 16" 2.5K 240Hz Gaming Laptop
Intel Core Ultra 9 HX
32GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080
2TB SSD
Off Black
I’m wondering if these laptops would be good for my needs, or if there are better options within my budget. Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated!
Assuming they are about the same price, get the legion, both are pretty well rounded in terms of chassis/thermals, but the legion has an oled display which will give you a much better overall experience, however since u mentioned that battery life is a priority, ie 5 hours, both won’t be able to achieve it in realistic scenarios due to bad battery optimization and relatively inefficient cpus, u could maybe consider a laptop with a arrow lake cpu like a 255h or a 285h with a 5070ti that would overall serve ur needs better, not sure if im allowed to post links here, but zephyrus g16 2025 has such variant.
If you are gonna use it for college I think you would want the laptop to be portable , however if the laptop gonna stay at the dorm plugged in all the time then your suggestions are fine
I really liked the Asus Zephyrus series, but a friend mentioned that some of the newer models have internal system issues. I’m just a bit hesitant now because I don’t want to run into problems after spending around $2.5k on a laptop. Has anyone had any recent experience with them?
As a college student, my laptop won’t be plugged in most of the time, but I’d prefer a model with the latest processor and at least 1TB to 2TB of storage.
Thanks for suggesting the Zephyrus G16 with the 5070 Ti! I’ve seen some discussions recently about potential performance glitches with Asus models in 2025, though I’m not sure how widespread that issue is. Have you heard anything about that? If not then I would definitely buy this.
It would be a heavier laptop with more heat and less battery life, if you want the laptop to be portable and have better battery life for college pick the Zephyrus g16
I was initially planning to buy the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 – a 16" OLED 2.5K 240Hz Gaming Laptop with an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, 32GB RAM, NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti 12GB, and 1TB SSD in Eclipse Gray. However, my friend advised me to reconsider and go for the ASUS ROG Strix G16 instead. This model features a 16" FHD 165Hz display, an AMD Ryzen 9 HX processor, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, and also a 1TB SSD, in Eclipse Gray. He mentioned that the Ryzen processor is much better, but I’m not entirely sure about that. On top of that, I saw Josh recommend the Zephyrus G16 in one of his videos, saying it’s a great laptop. Now, I’m stuck trying to decide which one would be the better choice over all for me. I have seen one video of Josh also saying Strix 16 is good laptop.
I would probably go for one too as long as the GPU is the RTX 5070 Ti or above. AFAIK, the RTX 5070 model, apart from the vRAM limits, has only 16 GB of soldered RAM.
I’d personally go for the RTX 5070 Ti model. The 5080 model is only a recommendation if you need even more vRAM for certain workloads (like AI) because the GPU isn’t fed a lot of wattage compared to the Strix or the Strix Scar models.
