Is Dell behind in display quality for affordable gaming laptops?

Hello, brand new member here! I'm in the market for a new laptop and I have narrowed down my selections from amongst a few brands and models, in the price range of $800 - $1100, but I'm stuck on the issue of display quality.

For background, I've been a pretty loyal Dell customer over the years, and was able to make their desktops and even laptops work well for me as a college student and gamer (somewhere between casual and hardcore, ha ha).

Now I'm a mom of 2 young kids with little time for gaming, although I'd like to keep that option on the table. To the best of my knowledge, based on the research I've done, the Dell G5 and maybe an Outlet version of an Alienware are going to be the only options in my budget that still allow for some upgrades over an Inspiron.

However, I've been disappointed to discover that ALL of the Dell laptops I've checked out (at least at the lower price points) have only 60 hz refresh rates. The G series in particular has disappointing display quality based on reviews.

For even less than the price of the Alienware laptop, I can get an Asus or MSi laptop with similar specs but 120 or 144 hz. What then makes the Alienware worth the premium (assuming specs such as processor, RAM, and video card are comparable)?

On the other hand, seeing as how I play mostly RPG's and adventure games rather than FPS, does refresh rate even matter?

Basically, I guess I'm asking... if display quality is the most important feature to me... what laptop should I go with?

Thank you in advance for sharing all your thoughts and advice!

 

AlienWare? That's a over-self-speculated brand by Dell trying to promote themselves as the "Rolex" in world of computer.
I don't usually suggest folks to pay for brand, unless that brand reputation is really backed by years of positive feedbacks on aftersales maintenance and product support.
No matter what brand u buy, the biggest and common text u see while u flip over, is "Made in China". That says how much effort was made from folks from the country of the brand origin had gone into that product, and how much u're actually paid for that.

So, study further on hardware specs, study further on how much worth are u paying for the components, then the engineering, then the brand... which suppose to come last.

Back to ur next laptop of to meet ur requirement. RPGs more than FPS huh? Well... I would say both are demanding in graphics, with FPS little more stress on. Display panel refresh rate hv little impact in gaming, than GPU. GPU is the most hardworking one after CPU.

I recommend that u go thru some videos in this channel that demonstrating some of the games that can be played with certain GPUs of some different levels of budgets...
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV_FbbkkWz4KHNzMlmYO04A/videos
...find out what are the titles that u're familiar with, and how they performed when paired with that specific GPU.

 

I've used both a Dell G5 and a Maingear Vector in the past couple years, and the differences between them are night and day. The Vector is a much better machine both in terms of display quality and just overall build quality.

 

I don’t know what you checked , but Alienware and G5/G7 gaming laptops are using 144 Hz displays of good quality.

 

G5 I own has a 60 hz panel, it's "fine", but it's definitely inferior to the 144 hz LG display in my Vector. Build quality isn't comparable, at all. Cheap plastic chassis vs aluminum polycarbon chassis. It's night and day, the Vector is way more rigid. Also easily openable with one hand.

 

I don't know what a Maingear Vector is, but there is no cheap plastic on my G7, for instance. It is plastic, but well designed and assembled. And I can open it with one hand for sure.
regarding the display, I have a 144 Hz panel which is a good panel according to many reviews. If you own a base model G5 your experience could be different.
The only real complain I have is the (in)famous coil whine...

 

Here'e the thing you need to understand. Most PC manufacturers with the exclusion of a few and I do mean a few actually do any kind of custom designs. Most are using either Tonfangs, Pegatron, Foxconn off the shelf designs and this extends to their parts as well. Dell tends to use AUO Optronic panels where the better brands tend to use LG IGZO (ie Macbook) panels. So to answer the question you asked; no there is no difference. Most likely the Asus and MSI are identical in every way to the Alienware boards you see minus the shiny LED lighting and metal chassis.

High refresh panels tend to be VA or TN based which reduce viewing angles and color gamut. Lower refresh panels tend to be IPS or OLED which are higher in color fidelity and viewing angles. I personally prefer low refresh, high color panels for integrated displays as they look nicer and use less power (ie refresh). I also normally buy high refresh external gaming displays as power does not matter when docked.

 

Maingear Vector uses a aluminum polycarbon chassis made by Tongfang, it's also used by EVOO, Eluktroniks, and a few other brands, under names such as Mech-15.

I paid $999 for it in December, it's i7-9750H, 16 GB DDR4 @ 2666 mhz, GTX 1660 TI, 144 Hz LG Display, 512 GB SSD. Definitely higher build quality than the Dell I own. I'm not saying the Dell is rubbish or anything, but the Vector just feels like a much more premium product.

 

I'm not sure that's true. At least not anymore. Most high refresh rate panels I see are IPS, or "IPS-like" anyway because the term IPS is actually owned by one specific brand and other companies can't use it to label their products.