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00:00Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here, and this is a comparison between the $1,000 gaming
00:10laptops in mid-2017. Now, choosing one of these things is not super easy. You have to
00:15make compromises of some sort. You're not going to have an $800 laptop that's super
00:19thin with a 12-hour battery life and amazing performance. It's just not going to happen.
00:24You have to figure out what you find most important in your decision and also what you
00:29don't care about as much, and then make a purchase decision based off of that. Okay,
00:33in no particular order, we have the Asus GL553. This is one of very few laptops with the black
00:40and orange color scheme. It has an RGB keyboard, and it has a metal top surface. We have the
00:46Dell Inspiron 7567. It's been redesigned for 2017. It comes in red or gray, and it feels
00:52very solid. This thing is dense. Next is the 2017 HP Omen. Now, I haven't done a video
00:58on this refreshed version. It's so similar to the 2016 model, and it's also very similar
01:04to the HP Pavilion this year. Then we have the MSI GE62. This is one of the very first
01:10Pascal-based laptops on the market. It also has a metal top lid with that MSI Dragon logo.
01:17Next up is the VX15 from Acer. This has a more traditional gaming laptop aesthetic.
01:22I don't love the color, but I do like the design language that they're going for. We
01:26also have the Sabre 15 from Gigabyte. This is their least expensive gaming laptop, and
01:32there's no red color accents at all. It's also based off of a Clevo bare-bones laptop.
01:37And then lastly, we have the Lenovo Y520. Not too much red on this one. The exterior
01:42is all black, and it's kind of low-key, but the inside has red accents. And the way that
01:47I do my comparison videos, if you haven't seen them before, I kind of go through several
01:50categories and then choose a winner in that category based on these laptops. Alright,
01:56let's do this. Alright, the first thing is build quality. And at this price point, you're
02:00not going to get top-tier build quality. I'd much rather have a well-engineered plastic
02:05chassis than a poorly-made metal one. My top pick is the Dell 7567. This thing's built
02:11like a tank. The chassis is rock-solid. It's actually weird how tough this thing feels
02:16for this price point. The Asus GL553, I'd say, comes in second place. It's got an aluminum
02:22top panel, plastic bottom, but it's well-built. The Lenovo Y520 and the Acer VX15 are also
02:28really good choices. Both of those are built well. Okay, the next thing I want to talk
02:32about is screen quality. The thing I need to mention, though, is that this laptop, the
02:36Dell 7567, this originally launched with a TN panel. It was pretty bad, and Dell realized
02:42that they made a huge mistake, and they now actually ship with IPS panels. So, I mean,
02:46it's still not the best of the bunch, but it's significantly better than what they used
02:50to have. The winner here is the MSI GE62. Close runner-up would be the GL553. They're
02:57more expensive, so you're paying a bit of a premium to get a better screen, but if you're
03:01looking for something that's brighter or more color-accurate in that $1,000 price range,
03:05these are my top two picks. The rest of them are actually pretty similar. I'd say that
03:09the Dell, with its new IPS panel, comes out a bit ahead for color accuracy, but they're
03:13noticeably not as good as the two leaders. The HP Omen and the Dell 7567 both have 4K
03:21panel options. The 4K Omen panel looks pretty good. It is a pentile display. The 4K Dell
03:26panel is better. Also, if you want, you can upgrade all of these panels, not just the
03:31ones on the table, but the ones that are off-frame right now, but you can take all of the panels
03:35out if you want, and then purchase them on eBay and replace them. Now, it's not an easy
03:39process, but it can be done, so if you're stuck with a laptop that doesn't have the
03:43best screen, you can pick up some really bright and really color-accurate panels on
03:47eBay and do it yourself.
03:50Okay, so here's a chart of what ports and drives these devices have. At this price point,
03:55none of them have Thunderbolt 3 support. They're all upgradable, like you can open them up
03:59and add memory and storage drives, but the one that's easiest to upgrade is the Dell
04:047567. There's a single screw to get inside, and it just straight-up feels like it was
04:09built for the user to open it up.
04:12The Sabre 15, or the Clevo, has the most number of ports, but some of those are located on
04:17the bottom right, so it can get a little cluttered. Also, the Asus and the MSI have optical drives
04:23if you need them. Now, in general, all of these have good connectivity and good port
04:27selection, but if I had to choose a winner, it would be the MSI GE62.
04:31In terms of the keyboard, all of them have a decent keyboard. None of them are bad, per
04:35My favorite keyboard would probably be the MSI. It's a solid keyboard with zoned RGB
04:40backlighting, and then second place, I'd say, would go to Lenovo Y520.
04:45Trackpads are a different story. Both of those laptops I just mentioned with good keyboards
04:50have not-so-good trackpads. My favorite trackpad is the Dell 7567. Plastic surface, Windows
04:57Precision drivers, good button mechanism, I like this one. To be honest, I don't feel
05:01like any of the other ones are as good. Maybe the tracking on the Sabre 15 is similar, but
05:06I much prefer the click on the Dell over the dedicated buttons on the Sabre.
05:10Okay, so performance is dependent on two things. First are the components, so the faster components
05:15you have, the better performance, and then the second thing is how well those components
05:19are cooled. So, if you don't cool them properly, they just won't run as well. You need to have
05:23a mixture of the two to have, like, the quote-unquote best performance. So, all of these laptops
05:28come in, well, most of them come in two configurations, an i5 and an i7. If you're just playing games,
05:34the i5 is perfectly fine, but if you also edit videos, I would totally upgrade to an
05:38i7. So, all of these laptops are running a Kaby Lake i7, and the best thermal performance
05:43goes to the Dell 7567. I have a tough time getting this thing to throttle. It's cooled
05:47really well. I kind of rank them in order from best to worst in terms of how hot the
05:52CPU gets when it's running the 3DMark stress test, and then here's some scores from FireStrike.
05:58Now, keep in mind that these temperatures are from a benchmark, right? Regular gaming
06:02or video editing won't push the laptop as hard, but this gives us a rough idea. While
06:07we're here, I might as well talk about fan noise, and these are all running Kaby Lake
06:10processors, so for the most part, they're pretty efficient. The fans don't always need
06:14to run when the laptops are idling. These are the measurements I took, and I'd say
06:18it's a pretty close battle for first place. I'd say it's a toss-up between the Dell and
06:22the HP Omen.
06:23In terms of speakers, the two leaders are the Lenovo and the Dell. The Dell sounds better.
06:29It has a sub, so if you're watching videos or playing games, you can hear the lower frequencies
06:32better. It's not super heavy bass, but it is there. The Lenovo has a better location
06:37for the speakers. It's up on top, so it projects upward and to the sides, so the stereo effect
06:42is very pronounced. If you want positional audio for games, and you don't want headphones
06:47or you can't use headphones, these are very usable. The Asus also has nice speakers as
06:52well.
06:53Okay, let's talk battery life. Here's a chart, and the leader here is the Dell. It's a big
06:57battery. It's significantly bigger than some of the other models here. Now, all of these
07:00are measured on a 1080p screen. If you upgrade to a 4K panel, the battery life will be lower,
07:06and in case you're wondering, like, how I run my battery tests, I set my laptops to
07:10250 nits, if the laptop can even get to that brightness, but I set it to 250, and I run
07:15the script that does web browsing and text input in this loop.
07:19Okay, the last category is value, and I think the winner for just sheer value is the Lenovo
07:24Y520. For $850, you're able to get a 1050 Ti, which is a really powerful chip for games,
07:30and you're still getting your two-year Lenovo warranty and stuff. The Dell and the Acer
07:34are also really good, but every laptop here has some strengths and weaknesses, so you
07:38can't really go wrong choosing any of them. If you're wondering what my top choice is
07:42amongst these, it's the Dell 7567, and like I mentioned, everyone's choice is a little
07:46bit different, but my preference is for a bigger battery and really good build quality,
07:50and they kind of nailed that. This only applies, though, for the new IPS panel. If they didn't
07:54have that new panel, I would have gone for the Acer VX15. Now, if you're one of those
07:58people that have the TN panel, it's not that big of a deal. I mean, it is not as good as
08:03this new IPS panel, but you always have the option of going to eBay and doing that whole
08:07swap thing that I mentioned earlier. It's really not that expensive, and it's not too
08:11difficult on this particular model, and you can get some really good panels for, like,
08:16Now, the other thing I want to mention. Three laptops that I do not recommend purchasing.
08:20First is the Samsung Odyssey. I have a review unit. I will not be doing a review on it.
08:25It's $1500. It's way too expensive for what that product is. I think it's overpriced.
08:30I think it's... I mean, it's a fine laptop. It was $1000, not $1500. The other thing is
08:35that this laptop here, the MSI GE62, it has a younger sibling called the GL62, and you
08:42might be tempted to purchase the GL because it's cheaper than this one, but the fans on
08:46that thing are super loud. The screen is significantly worse. Save up for the GE62 if you want the
08:51MSI. The other thing is do not purchase a laptop with a GTX 960M right now, unless it's
08:58like a huge discount because the performance difference between the 1050, the 1050Ti, and
09:03a 960 is way too big to ignore. You do not want to purchase a 960M just to save a couple
09:08bucks. You will get longer, like, lifespan with this laptop if you pick up a 1050. It'll
09:13last you longer in terms of, like, gaming years. So, if you can, save up for a 1050
09:18or a 1050Ti. Hope you guys enjoyed this video. Thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved
09:22it. I'll see you guys next time.