Mobile Computing Buyer’s Guide: Gaming Notebooks

Gaming Notebook, Price Category: Rp. 8.000.000 – 9.999.000 (US$ 900-1.100) –

Our Recommendation

Acer TimelineX 4820TG

Acer’s Timeline series is well known for its remarkably long battery life, and the TimelineX 4820TG is no exception. With an Intel Core i5 460 processor and 4 GB DDR3 memory, the notebook has enough muscle to handle most everyday scenarios. Its 640 GB hard drive is spacious, at least for today’s standard. Additionally, the battery can sustain the TimelineX 4820TG for as long as eight hours. Pretty impressive for this class of notebook.

Graphics processing is entrusted to the Radeon HD5650M chip, switchable with the on-board Intel IGP for added power efficiency. As with the Aspire 4745G, the other type of notebook from Acer that happens to rely on the same graphics chip, under certain settings, the TimelineX 4820TG is able to render your games with relatively fluid frame rates on its 14 inch, 1366×768 monitor.

In our opinion, its Rp 9.000.000 (US$ 1.000) price tag makes the TimelineX 4820TG a sensible choice for a notebook of this category. That much money will bring you a long-lasting notebook which can also be used to play your games on-the-go.

Runner Up

MSI GE603: With or Without OS

For the runner up position, our vote goes to the MSI GE603, a notebook that is actually classified as a mobile gaming platform in MSI’s product lineups. It combines an Intel Core i5 450 processor with 2 GB DDR3 memory and 500 GB hard drive. A low-end mobile version of the venerable GeForce GTX 400 series, the GeForce GT425M, handles the graphics processing. While it can’t keep up with the mainstream Radeon on the TimelineX, the GPU is still good enough to run games under medium settings and resolutions on MSI GE603’s 16 inch screen.

The MSI GE603 currently sells for Rp 8.800.000 (US$ 970) without OS or Rp 9.350.000 (US$ 1.030) with Operating System. Both price points are relatively attractive for a notebook of this category. If you prefer larger screen over long battery life, MSI GE603 might just be the better choice.