Walmart tried to get into making gaming computers
which was basically only good
That died and their second
even cheaper foray was even worse.
But today, that changes.
This is the Gateway 15.6 inch
performance notebook GWTN156-3BK.
And sure, it might not sound like much,
and it might not look like much,
but it also doesn't cost much.
It's currently on sale at Walmart
for 700 bucks while packing an RTX 2060.
That means, this could very well be
the cheapest gaming laptop
that's able to deliver a proper AAA
high frame rate gaming experience.
But does it also deliver a good laptop experience?
Well, it depends.
Just like I depend on reliable sponsor segues like this one.
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(upbeat music)
Rocking a core i5-10300H
and an Nvidia RTX 2060
this thing should on paper
be flippin capable as a gaming machine.
So then let's get right into it.
Can it run Cyberpunk 2077?
Here we are on medium settings
running at about 60 frames per second,
which for a game like this,
is about what you need to have a good time.
And it still looks really good.
Even if the sliders in the game
aren't all cranked to the right.
Now you might be concerned that the RTX 2060 we have in here
is gonna be last gen very soon.
But remember guys, this is a good thing.
This laptop is compelling because of the $700 promo price.
And with new hardware just around the corner,
we can expect this promo price to stick around,
well, not for that long,
probably until they're all sold out.
Back to games then.
It also delivered very reasonable frame rates
in Shadow of the Tomb Raider
and in Rainbow Six Siege,
we easily got over 120 frames per second on ultra,
which is good because yes, pleasant surprise.
It also has a high refresh rate display.
More on that later though.
Now we would have run some more benchmarks
but, this thing only comes with a 256 Gig SSD.
So after installing those three games, she was full.
So I think at this point,
we gotta open it up
and find out if the storage and RAM for that matter
are easily upgradeable.
'Cause if they aren't,
it's gonna be pretty hard to recommend it.
After just 10 Phillips screws,
good news everyone,
two easily accessible SO-DIMM slots
and two M.2 slots each only half full.
This means over the first year or so
with a little bit of saving,
it would be simple to turn this thing
into an even more capable machine.
Just like you'll be a capable machine
if you wear the LTT Beanie.
lttstore.com.
So performance wise then,
the performance notebook 15.6 inch
is checking all the boxes.
What was more of a concern for me
was all of the other things that make a laptop good,
like the keyboard,
the screen and the trackpad.
To compare then,
we brought in the HP Omen 15.
On paper, the specs here are the same,
but, when on sale, the Omen 15 is still $300 more
so, where did Gateway find $300 of cost cutting?
Well, in a few places.
First of all, build quality.
Both of these laptops do have plastic chassis,
but HP wrapped the top half in aluminum
leading to quite a bit more stiffness
and generally a more premium feel
everywhere your hands make contact with it.
With that said,
the Gateway isn't terrible in this regard either.
With a solid, acceptable C plus.
For IO, they're shockingly similar
even sharing the exact same Intel Wi-Fi 6 networking card.
That's an area that lots of other companies
have cheaped out on in the past with their budget offerings.
Though the HP does gain a couple of points
for including Thunderbolt 3.
Moving on to the display.
Previously, some cheap high refresh rate panels
would have either been TN
or only support 6-bit color.
And I'm happy to report
that the Gateway has a proper IPS type 120 Hz panel
with 8-bit color.
The high refresh rate display
simply means that you will be more competitive
in multiplayer games than someone with a 60 Hz screen.
And at 1080p resolution the RTX 2060
will be running just about everything above 120 FPS
to really take advantage of it.
In a vacuum then looks really good.
But then side by side with the HP,
it's just no competition.
The brightness and colors on The Omen
just blow the Gateway machine out of the water.
It's not gonna be a huge problem
if you only plan on gaming
or you sit in the dark a lot,
but if you're doing any photo or video editing,
I would save up for something with a better display.
Another area Gateway could have cheaped out is the cooling.
Good cooling means a lot of copper
and copper is very expensive.
And running FurMark for half an hour
confirmed that, sure the HP does have better cooling,
its GPU leveled out at just 67 degrees
while the Gateway was at 72.
But, given that both managed
basically the same clock speeds
and ended up being constrained by power, not thermals,
I was pretty happy.
Although the HP did end up with a two to three FPS lead.
Both of them are also similarly loud.
But the fans in the Gateway
had a bit more of that high pitched whine
that makes them more annoying.
Truthfully though, with either of them,
you'll probably wanna stay away
from open back headphones while you're gaming.
This general trend of this being good
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