AMD made huge strides with its CPUs starting with the release of the Ryzen 4000 series in 2020, the first 7nm x86 chip. While we first saw the impact of that enhanced performance and efficiency in thin-and-light laptops, it wasn’t long before manufacturers leveraged it for gaming laptops and AMD has shown no sign of slowing down. AMD Advantage systems are the pinnacle of what AMD has to offer with AMD smart technologies delivering battery, graphics, memory, and performance enhancements that are exclusive to all-AMD laptops. However, it goes beyond that, an AMD Advantage system must also offer an AMD FreeSync-compatible display with a high refresh rate, virtually no input lag, and strong thermal performance. It’s easy to see how many of these laptops have landed at the top of our best gaming laptops overall. After hours of research and dozens of reviews, here are our picks for the best AMD Advantage gaming laptops of 2022. It should come as little surprise that the Alienware m17 R5 is the best AMD Advantage gaming laptop. We named it the “king of AMD gaming laptops” in our review and awarded a rare five out of five stars and an Editor’s Choice award. The AMD Ryzen 9 6900XT and Radeon RX 6850M XT GPU have no trouble competing with the best of Intel and Nvidia, while the AMD Advantage software suite ensures that every ounce of that hardware performance shows out on its gorgeous 17-inch 4K display with a 120Hz refresh rate. Add to this a standout Cherry MX keyboard, excellent speakers, and Alienware’s sleek Legend 2.0 design and it’s hard to imagine choosing anything else. The only thing that may stop you is the $2,799 price tag for our review model, although discounts and just a couple of feature sacrifices can bring that price much closer to $2,000 and there’s no question the Alienware m17 R5 is worth every penny. Read our full Alienware m17 R5 (AMD Advantage) review. We’ve touted a number of all-AMD systems from AMD in the past couple of years and the current champion is the Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition. It pairs an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU with an AMD Radeon RX6800M GPU for stellar overall and gaming performance along with almost unbelievable battery life at 10 hours and 32 minutes in our testing. That’s double to triple the battery life of some of its competitors. Topping out at under $1,700, you also get high-end performance without emptying your wallet, which is a nice change of pace from our top choice. There are some trade-offs made to hit that price with a relatively dim display and weak speakers, but a nice gaming headset solves that last problem. The display does make up for it in other ways with a blistering fast 300Hz refresh rate. As long as you aren’t trying to game outdoors or right by a window, this affordable AMD Advantage system is easy to recommend. Read our full Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition review. Lenovo’s Legion 7 (not to be confused with the Intel-based 7i) delivers outstanding performance in a reasonably portable package and an impressively bright 16-inch 1600p 240Hz display that hit an average of 483 nits of brightness and peaked at over 500 nits. So if you need to do some mid-day gaming next to the window at the coffee shop the Legion 7 has you covered. Battery life is strong at 8 hours and 31 minutes in our testing that involves web surfing with the brightness set to 150 nits, but gaming takes a much bigger bite at just 1 hour and 2 minutes so you’ll want an outlet nearby when spinning things up to full power. The Legion 7 is a bit more subtle about its gamer credentials than some of the other options here with a dark grey aluminum and magnesium aerospace-grade metal unibody build with an “environmental RGB system” that can be turned off if you need to drop into stealth gamer mode. You’ll run into no issues running modern games at 1080p at Ultra settings, but you if you want to hit the full 1600p resolution you’ll want to drop to medium settings to stay above 60fps. At 3.8 pounds the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) may not be an Ultrabook, but it’s thin and light for a gaming laptop and it still manages to deliver stellar performance and amazing battery life thanks to its AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU. At 10 hours and 38 minutes in our Laptop Mag battery test it is still one of the longest-lasting gaming laptops we’ve ever tested. Coming in at under $1,800 it also gives you solid audio, a comfortable keyboard and an eye-catching design, including the optional microdot mini LED lights in the magnesium-alloy lid that can display a message or emoji. That last bit isn’t exactly crucial to your gaming experience, but it is quite a bit of fun. The gaming performance does take a hit compared to our top picks, if you want Ultra Settings at 1600p you are going to come away disappointed, but drop to 1080p or Medium settings and it will churn most games out at 60fps or above. Brightness is once again a bit of a challenge at 232 nits, so if you are going to be out and about in sunlight you may want to look at one of the options above. See our full review of the Asus Zephyrus G14 (2022).
