5 Gaming Laptops That Outperform The PS5 Pro

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For console gaming, it’s hard to go wrong with the PlayStation 5 Pro. It’s a shame that Microsoft has done a subpar job of competing with Sony on the hardware front — even with a lack of new first-party IPs, disastrous live-service launches, and the recent digital-only announcement that has caused gamers to pick up their pitchforks in unison. Despite all these issues cropping up during the ninth generation of gaming for Sony, all versions of the PlayStation 5 have comfortably outsold the Xbox Series X and S by a significant margin. Sure, the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 exist, but an argument can be made that both companies cater to different markets altogether, even if there’s an overlap in their target audience.

A great way to avoid the downsides of buying a PS5 is by getting a gaming PC instead. Admittedly, this isn’t an ideal time to get gaming components, with the much-derided AI boom causing RAM, SSD, and GPU prices to spike like never before. As a result, a desktop PC will be a significant expense as is, but gaming laptop enthusiasts will have to pay even more. Only people with the disposable funds to buy the equivalent of almost three PS5 Pros will be able to afford these compact gaming behemoths, powerful enough to outclass the PS5 Pro in pure performance.

Asus is a major gaming laptop brand with a strong lineup of gaming laptops to explore. The Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 OLED is one of their more flamboyant offerings and will cost you a pretty penny — $5,499.99, to be exact. As the name suggests, the highlight of this gaming beast is the two 16-inch OLED touchscreens, which project a 2,880×1,880 image, reach a refresh rate of 120Hz, and support HDR. Reviewers were quite impressed by these dual screens, and the sound system received similar praise as well. The six-speaker array includes two tweeters and four powerful woofers.

You can detach both screens from the keyboard, which has the RGB backlight that is present in most gaming laptops. Windows Central enjoyed the typing experience, praising the 1.7-millimeter key travel and well-designed spacing.

The Intel Core Ultra 9 386H processor works well, with Windows Central finding the CPU to be well-optimized during their tests. This laptop peaks with a 1TB SSD base configuration, which isn’t great. Some gamers may be disappointed that you can’t get anything higher than 32GB of RAM, but this does outclass the PS5 Pro and its 16GB RAM. Graphical power is another area where the Zephyrus Duo 16 outperforms the PS5 Pro. A high-end NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 with 24GB of VRAM is truly top-shelf power that leaves Sony’s upgraded console in the dust.

With an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080, and 32GB of RAM, the higher-tier configuration for the MSI Vector 16 HX AI performs better than the PS5 Pro. Expect this laptop to run very smoothly, given how reviewers were impressed enough as is with the performance of the Intel Ultra 7 255HX and the RTX 5070 Ti in the lower-tier configuration. PC Gamer enjoyed the privilege of using the higher-end tier, with their tests making it clear that the $2,779.99 you invest in this laptop will be redeemed in terms of pure CPU and GPU performance. If you have the budget to buy this highly-rated MSI laptop, you won’t be disappointed.

The 2TB SSD puts this laptop on par with the PS5 Pro in storage space, but an extra M.2 NVMe slot means upgrading this area shouldn’t be an issue. You should ideally wait a year to make these repairs — if you displace the sticker on top of one of the screws in the chassis, it will effectively void your warranty. Speaking of the chassis, the body of the MSI Vector 16 HX AI was a bit of a mixed bag for reviewers. Notebookcheck found it to be pretty sturdy, but PC Gamer wasn’t a huge fan of how bulky it looked. In fact, at almost six pounds, this is a very heavy laptop that can be a pain to lug around.

While the HyperX Omen 16 — a minor 2026 rebrand of the HP Omen lineup — may seem like a better choice, the eye-watering $4,499 price tag for its base configuration can make it a hard sell. Instead, you can opt for last year’s HP Omen Max 16, which has received great reviews and can be bought for $2,564.99 at the time of writing, saving you $285 on the list price. Reviewers from PC Mag, for example, were full of praise for the 16-inch OLED screen, with its 240Hz refresh rate making for a very smooth display. Reaching this FPS in modern AAA video games can be a challenge, but the Omen Max 16 does its very best. With 32GB of memory and an RTX 5080 with 16GB of VRAM, most games will run like butter on this laptop. As one would expect, these high-end specs and the performance they unlocked pleased many reviewers.

Most gaming laptops struggle with cooling and overheating. Others sacrifice silence by cranking their fans to the max. It’s a pleasant surprise to see critics praise this machine for its effective yet quiet thermal management. A good keyboard with adequate feedback is also important for your gaming experience, and the Omen Max 16 is pretty decent on this front. The keyboard’s clicky feedback, unlocked via its tactile switches, felt great according to most reviewers, although T3 did find the design to be slightly unappealing.

It’s a tough ask to recommend a slim gaming laptop, especially since most people who engage in this hobby don’t mind a thicker laptop that prioritizes thermal management. As a result, seeing the Razer Blade 16 with an ultra-thin chassis — so much so that the form factor is similar to the MacBook Pro — can make it hard to appreciate its thin build. This clearly wasn’t holding back reviewers, who raved about its sleek build. There’s a reason why Razer brags about this machine being their thinnest laptop, but some compromises have been made to prioritize this design. The trackpad lacks any haptic feedback and feels very cheap to use according to reviewers, and there’s no Ethernet port to speak of if you want a fast, uninterrupted internet connection. Gizmodo wasn’t a huge fan of its mediocre sound output, and Stuff noticed that this laptop could get very loud in their tests.

However, all of these caveats pale in comparison to the absolutely gigantic elephant in the room: the Razer Blade 16 will set you back a whopping $4,899.99. Opt for a model with 64GB RAM instead of the 32GB variant, and this price will increase to $5,599.99. To put this into context, you can buy six PlayStation 5 Pros and still have some cash left over. While 32GB of RAM and an RTX 5090 with 24GB VRAM will be more than enough to outperform the PS5 Pro, you can find laptops with similar hardware for less. Just remember, you’re paying the big bucks for the aesthetic design.

As appealing as the Zephyrus Duo 16 may be, it’s also a ridiculously expensive package that not everyone can afford. For less than half this price, the $2,469.99 Asus ROG Strix G16 seems far more practical. Despite being marketed as a mid-range gaming laptop, an AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D, 32GB RAM, and an RTX 5070 with 12 gigs of VRAM all combine to unlock a level of performance that exceeds what the PS5 Pro is capable of. Reviewers were full of praise for both the CPU and GPU performance, with the 16-inch QHD+ IPS display and its 240Hz refresh rate also receiving positive comments. Thermal management is also handled very well by this laptop, as per critics.

Laptop Mag enjoyed the keyboard’s responsive feedback, and UltrabookReview.com praised the overall design of this laptop. At this point, it may seem like the Asus ROG Strix G16 is the right gaming laptop for you, but not everything is great about this device. Battery life had more of a mixed reception among critics — Laptop Media was impressed that this device ran for almost six hours in their tests, but Laptop Mag felt that the Strix G16 could do better. Tom’s Hardware wasn’t a huge fan of the speakers, although a separate pair of headphones should take care of that. What might really sting about this laptop is the numerous cutbacks it makes to prioritize gaming alone. While the selection of ports is great, the lack of an SD card reader stings. It also lacks a fingerprint reader or infrared camera for a fast, secure login.

The PlayStation 5 Pro’s specs include a 2TB SSD, an 8-core, 16-thread AMD Zen 2 CPU, an AMD Radeon RDNA-based graphics engine, and 16GB of RAM. Most gaming laptops don’t exceed a 2TB SSD — you’ll need upgrades for more storage space — and trying to compare CPU performance can be a tad bit technical. After all, both the SSD and CPU of the PlayStation 5 Pro are designed to work optimally for gaming. Even if a laptop has a better processor, it may still lose out when it comes to optimizations.

What makes for a more objective metric is to compare RAM and GPU performance. The former is pretty simple — any laptop with more than 16GB can be safely assumed to be snappier than the PS5 Pro in this department. The GPU conversation is more complicated, although BGR states that an RTX 5060 Ti is equal to or better than Sony’s upgraded console. To stay on the safe side — especially since mobile GPUs are weaker than their desktop counterpart — we’re sticking to laptops with an RTX 5070 GPU and 12GB of VRAM at the very least.

Keep in mind that games are optimized specifically for consoles, while PC configurations vary so much that this level of refinement is harder to achieve on your gaming laptop. While these laptops’ specs beat the PS5 Pro on paper, some games might still run better on Sony’s console because of those optimizations.