The ‘work hard, play hard’ manifesto has been the mantra of many of us seeking for work-life balance amidst the demands of modern-day work. In fact, there has been a study that showed that people who work hard really do play hard and that there is a link between accomplishment and leisure.
If you’re the type who works hard and plays hard, we’re here to help you find the best laptop for work and gaming in the Philippines for your inner weekend warrior.
Table of Contents
I. Best Laptop for Office Work and Web Browser Games + Retro Games
Most modern-day laptops are competent enough to run browser games and office apps such as the Microsoft Office Suite, email apps, and messenger apps.
On the other hand, retro games are the games that you likely played during your childhood (if you’re a millennial). These are mostly 4-bit to 32-bit games during the NES to the PS1 generations.
These kinds of games demand very little from a computer, only needing a Pentium class processor to be able to run them with ease. Simply put, almost any modern laptop will be able to handle web browser and retro games.
Pros:
- Low Price
- Excellent value for money
- Sufficiently powerful for browser games
- Expandable/Upgradeable RAM & Storage
Cons:
- Small storage space (128GB)
- Low amount of pre-installed RAM (4GB)
The Lenovo Ideapad is a very budget-oriented laptop that can get things done. Its best use case is likely for students and those who need the full functionality of a Windows-based laptop but does not want to spend much.
The CPU will not be able to play modern games at decent framerates but it should be enough for most retro games and web browser games.
The downside to this laptop is its low default RAM and storage capacity, only having 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. You can opt to add a RAM module which you can buy from the vendor and have them install it for you.
Price: ₱19,000 at Laptop Factory and ₱21,624 from Lenovo’s Official Shopee Store
Pros:
- Excellent business laptop for its price
- Dual storage configuration gives you speed and enough storage space for tons of retro games and ROMs
- Upgradeable RAM
Cons:
- Low screen resolution by 2022 standards (1366 X 768)
- Fairly dim display (200 Nits)
This is a great business laptop at its price range. The internals of this laptop will be able to handle most daily business-type workloads such as web browsing, data analysis on spreadsheets, and emailing.
On the downside, it has a fairly low resolution, especially considering its 15.6″ display. This can be somewhat limiting if you need a lot of screen real estate for browsing large data sets on Excel.
In terms of gaming, this laptop will easily handle almost any retro game and browser game you throw at it.
II. Best Laptop for Bluestacks and Other Android Machine Emulators
For the uninitiated, BlueStacks is an Android emulator that lets you run android based apps on your computer. It’s like having a clone of an Android cellphone or tablet on your laptop or PC. Aside from Bluestacks, there are some other popular emulators including NOX and Memu.
Using an android emulator on your laptop allows you to play most games that you’d normally run on your mobile device and enjoy using a keyboard and mouse to control the game. It also gives you the added advantage of potentially having more horsepower to play graphic-intensive Android games if your laptop has relatively better specs than your mobile device.
You can expect laptops that can run Bluestacks to be at least decent at multitasking for office and VA types of workloads since they have similar requirements of wanting a lot of RAM if you want to run more instances of BlueStacks or run a lot of apps all at the same time.
For this category of gaming, we recommend the following laptops or better:
a) Low End - ASUS M515 DA BR1326W
Pros:
- Excellent business laptop for its price
- Sufficient storage space for games and work files
Cons:
- Specs are fairly low for modern android games
Android games have evolved so much in the past few years in terms of both gameplay depth and graphics. Though there are still a lot of 2D games that only require low end-specs to run them smoothly, there are now a good number of high spec requirement games.
The Asus M515 is a good business laptop and a decent Android game emulator for low-mid range spec games. It will be able to run games such as Clash of Clans and Mobile Legends at decent framerates, but it will struggle on higher-end titles such as COD Mobile (Battle Royale) and Honkai Impact.
Regardless, this is a great device that offers a lot of flexibility because of its decent processor paired with its dual storage configuration. The option to upgrade the RAM also further extends its useability into the future.
b) High End - Asus Vivobook Pro 15 OLED M3500QC-L1080TS Quiet Blue
Pros:
- Sufficiently powerful for almost any kind of Android games
- Good for higher-end productivity work, including video editing and 3D rendering.
Cons:
- Can be too costly if you’re only planning to play Android games
This hybrid laptop offers a great balance between gaming capability and business vibe. Its tech specs are more than enough to handle any kind of office work and good enough for almost any kind of Android game you’d want to run on BlueStacks.
Its high color accuracy OLED display is excellent for graphic designers but is also very much appreciated by those with lower requirements but consume a lot of media on their laptops.
One of the best features of this laptop is that it looks like a business laptop, but plays like a competent entry-level gaming device.
Price:₱58,465 on LazMall and ₱59,995 at Abenson.com
III. Best Laptop for Valorant, LOL, CS GO, DOTA 2, Fortnite (E-Sports & Competitive Games)
Valorant, League of Legends, and a number of other E-sports titles are fairly easy to run. You would be surprised that a lot of these games can be played on a laptop with only an integrated GPU vis-a-vis a discrete GPU typical of a gaming laptop.
The lowest requirements that you would need to play these games would be an Intel Core i3 or AMD Ryzen 3 and above CPU. These types of devices will likely give you a framerate of 30-40 FPS (frames per second) on low settings for games like Valorant.
Of course, if you want to get at least 60 FPS or more, we recommend looking for a laptop within the entry gaming laptop segment, or at least a laptop with a dedicated GPU.
In terms of productivity, these laptops will be able to handle the needs of most General VAs and businessmen. These laptops will be typically enough for MS Office programs, web browser programs, email apps, messengers apps, and multimedia players.
For the best experience using a laptop in this class, look for one with at least 8GB of RAM but 12GB or more would be better. Getting a unit with an SSD will also greatly improve your experience as things will load much faster.
a) Low End - MSI MODERN 14 B11MOU-1004PH
Pros:
- Good value for money with high-speed SSD, Upgradeable RAM, IPS-Level Display for less than ₱30k
Cons:
- Small storage space for multiple games, work files, and productivity apps.
- Low default RAM of 8GB can be limiting for multitasking
This is a great business laptop that will be sufficient for most of your office work. It has a decent Full HD IPS-level display and an 11th gen Core i3 processor that performs slightly better at gaming than the Ryzen 3 3250u found in the Asus M515, our second-best pick at this price range.
On the flip side, this laptop does not have the same storage capacity as the Asus M515, which can be limiting if you need more storage for more games or your work related files and apps. You can get around this by adding another SSD to your laptop or buying an external storage device for your mass storage requirements.
For a more in-depth look at what you can expect for gaming, you can check out the benchmarks by “Whytee Gaming”, “PC Support & Gaming Test”, and “IDDM Game3rz” of a few popular E-sports titles. To summarize their findings, you can expect to get an average of around 40 – 65 FPS on 720p on low to medium settings.
Price: ₱27,995 on Datablitz or Dynaquest, ₱28,995 on LazMall, and ₱29,999 from Shopee Mall
b) High End - MSI GF63 THIN 10UC-822PH
Pros:
- High refresh rate panel for 1080p E-sports gaming
- Good value for money
Cons:
- 8GB of RAM can bottleneck the system
The MSI GF63 THIN is our pick as the best laptop for e-sports titles. This entry-level gaming has a high refresh rate monitor and a decent discrete GPU at a fairly low price for a gaming laptop.
Many other gaming devices can output even higher FPS at higher settings, but this device can already give you a close approximation of that experience at a fraction of the price.
The RTX 3050 on this laptop will be able to output a steady 60 FPS or more on most competitive E-sports titles, sufficient for a smooth enough gaming experience so you can unleash the inner weekend warrior in you.
The downside to this laptop is that the 8GB of RAM can be stifling, especially if you also do a lot of work on the side. It’s advisable to have your RAM upgraded to 16GB or more to better maximize the other specs of this device.
IV. Best Laptop for Cyberpunk2077, Horizon Zero Dawn, Resident Evil Village, etc... (AAA Games)
We now enter the category of gaming laptops. This segment of devices spans a wide range of prices, from ₱40K+ on the low end and up to ₱140K+ on the high end.
Regardless of which device you choose within this category, they will be more than powerful enough to handle a great majority of workloads across most industries.
Low-end gaming laptops will be good enough to play modern AAA games at medium to high settings at modest frame rates of 40-60 FPS. High-end devices will be able to run the same games at high to ultra settings at 60 FPS and above.
For productivity, even low-end gaming laptops are more than powerful enough for most kinds of workloads. They will also be sufficient for a lot of content creators.
Only a few kinds of professionals may want more power and would only settle on the more premium side of this segment. These would include graphic designers who need color-accurate panels, video editors, and those who do a good amount of 3D rendering.
Here are our picks of some of the best laptops in this segment:
a) Low End - Asus Vivobook Pro 15 OLED M3500QC-L1080TS Quiet Blue
Pros:
- Vibrant and color-accurate OLED display
- Decent AAA gaming laptop
- Excellent for business type multitasking
Cons:
- Cooling fan can get noisy when the laptop is running at full load
- Still lacks power for heavier workloads and for higher settings on AAA games
The Asus Vivobook Pro 15 once again is our pick for budget-oriented business and gaming laptops for AAA games and more compute-intensive workloads.
This business laptop by day and and gaming laptop by night is a well-balanced and powerful device for young professionals who love to play AAA games casually on weekends.
Its stunning OLED display makes it a joy to watch content and play AAA games that have a lot of stunning visuals. Its RTX 3050 is powerful enough to run most modern games at medium-high settings at 50+ FPS and at high-ultra settings at 20-40 FPS.
It’s also a decent laptop for content creators who do image editing because of its high color accuracy. It’s also serviceable for simple video editing and 3D rendering tasks, but working on more complex projects may be a stretch due to its 16GB of RAM.
This laptop is a good stopping point if you’re the type who works hard and plays hard but you’re not willing to spend too much for an overall decent AAA gaming and work experience.
You can watch NL Tech’s full review of a similar unit here (Ryzen 9 5900HX Model). He reviews a more powerful model but it has the same GPU, display, and RAM configuration like this one.
Price:₱58,465 on LazMall and ₱59,995 at Abenson.com
b) High End - Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 (2022) GU603ZW-K8029WS
Pros:
- Full-gaming laptop internals but aesthetics still fit a business setting
- Very powerful device for high-end content creation and gaming
Pros:
- Battery life is not as good as G15 variant (Ryzen)
The ROG Zephyrus M16 (Intel Core CPU), much like its cousin the ROG Zephyrus G15 (AMD Ryzen CPU), is a no-compromise gaming and productivity workhorse.
It’s fitted with the latest generation Intel® Core™i9-12900H paired with an NVIDIA RTX 3070 Ti 8GB GDDR6 that can even outperform the RTX 3080 due to the higher TDP on the 3070 Ti model. This lets you run the latest AAA games on the highest settings at 60 to 80+ FPS at 1080p or 40-60+ FPS at 1440p,
Needless to say, competitive games and older AAA games will run very smoothly on either device.
Depending on your use case, the M16 is better at general productivity than the G15 due to the more powerful CPU on the M16. It also gives you slightly better gaming performance than the G15 variant.
On the other hand, the G15 has significantly better battery life than the M16. So if portability is a bigger concern for you than performance, the G15 is also a very solid choice.
Overall, these 2 laptop models are some of the best that you can get on the market today. There is an RTX 3080ti model variant if you want even more performance, but it also comes at a hefty premium.
Check out this Dave2D video for a full review and comparison of these 2 models.
V. Best Laptop for Genshin Impact and Work (Bonus)
As a bonus, we’d like to give Genshin Impact a special mention due to its popularity. Because of its mobile gaming roots, Genshin Impact is fairly easy to run on laptops. Additionally, its stylized visuals and art design allow you to play the game at fairly low graphic settings without compromising the look and feel of the game.
So traveler, here are our recommendations for the best cheap laptop for Genshin impact, as well as a great option for those with a higher budget.
a) Best Budget Laptop for Genshin Impact and Work - ASUS M515 DA BR1326W
The Asus M515 DA is a really solid business laptop for light gaming and serious office-type work. Though the specs on this laptop aren’t the highest, its Ryzen 3 3250u CPU with integrated Vega 3 GPU will be capable of running Genshin Impact at low to medium settings at fairly decent 45 FPS.
The dual-storage configuration and upgradable RAM gives this laptop additional flexibility and slightly better future-proofing so that you can extend the use of this device.
At ₱29,000, this laptop is a great pickup for students, general VAs with lighter loads, and Genshin Impact players. You can buy one now at Laptop Factory or from Dynaquest.
b) High End - Best Laptop for Genshin Impact and Work - Asus Vivobook Pro 15 OLED M3500QC-L1080TS Quiet Blue
One of the main draws of Genshin Impact is its stunning visuals and art design. Playing Genshin Impact is like controlling an adventure and exploration anime game with fun combat. It is because of these reasons that why we recommend the Vivobook Pro 15 with OLED.
The OLED display on this panel has very lush and vibrant colors that highlight the visuals of Genshin Impact. For maximum eye candy, this laptop can run Genshin Impact at the highest settings at a stable 45-50 FPS. For maximum performance in combat, you can tweak the settings a bit to get a stable 60 FPS.
Another great aspect of the Vivobook is that it’s still primarily a business laptop. It’s excellent for business productivity workloads like multitasking on browsers and spreadsheets while listening to music and watching media.
On the downside, its fan reportedly gets noisy when under heavy load.
Price:₱58,465 on LazMall and ₱59,995 at Abenson.com
Tips Before You Buy
i. There Is No One Best Laptop for Everyone
The above-recommended laptops should be used as a general guideline of what you would want to get as a baseline depending on your budget and desired gaming experience.
What is considered an acceptable gaming experience can vary wildly depending on a person’s personal preferences. More casual gamers will be happy with 40-60 FPS at medium settings. More hardcore gamers will not accept anything below 60 FPS for AAA games and 120 FPS for competitive first-person shooter games.
You should know which type of user you are so that you can get the best experience and value for your money.
You don’t always need what’s best, what you do need is what’s best for you.
ii. Test Out the Laptop In the Shop Before You Buy
Technical specifications are not everything. Many times, window shopping on the internet will not be enough to properly gauge if the laptop is a good fit for you.
There are many other aspects that you will only be able to appreciate once you see the actual product in front of you. As much as possible, go to the physical store and see and test out the product yourself.
Check if you’re ok with the ports, the keyboard layout, amount of key travel, overall build quality, the weight of the laptop, and especially how the display looks.
All of these and more should be considered before buying a device you’re likely going to use on a daily basis for the next few years.
FAQs
i. What Is the Best Laptop for Virtual Assistants?
Much like what was said earlier, there is no one best solution for all use cases, even within the same category. What’s best for you will depend a lot on what you use your device for and how you use it.
Check out the article “Best Laptops for Virtual Assistants Philippines for Every Budget” articles for a wider selection of recommendations based on various use cases and budgets.
ii. Why is RAM Important for Gaming?
Every time you load an app or a video game, your RAM is used as the temporary storage for faster loading times. Without sufficient RAM, you can experience major frame rate loss. In some cases, the game will not work properly.
iii. How Much RAM Do You Really Need for Gaming?
Older and lighter games will typically need only 8GB of RAM to run smoothly, but more modern AAA games recommend 16GB or more.
If you like to multitask, we recommend getting a device with at least 4-8GB or more RAM than the recommended amount to smoothen your experience. Also, check first if the RAM on your device is upgradeable.
iv. SSD or HDD for Gaming, Which is Better?
Getting an SSD won’t increase your FPS count but it can significantly improve your game loading times. This is why it’s recommended to install your games, Operating System, and other most commonly used large apps on your SSD. It will make boot and loading times much faster.
v. I Do Intensive Video Editing work. Can You Recommend Laptops for Me That's Good for Both Video Editing and Gaming?
Unlike games, video editing has no ceiling when it comes to technical specs. That’s why it’s usually recommended to use a desktop computer which is easier to upgrade.
However, if you prefer a laptop, please see “Best Laptops for Video Editing Under 60000 Pesos” for detailed recommendations.
