Amazing as they are, even the most powerful gaming laptops have their limitations. We all noticed the high surface temperatures, the annoyingly noisy fans, and the low frame rates.
While I’m always advocating for improved gameplay, developers often focus too much on their system’s graphics processing unit (GPU) and not enough on what the player sees. Improving the display’s quality doesn’t increase the laptop’s temperature or volume, and it may lead to far more immersive gameplay, in my experience, than a few additional frames would.
OLED Capabilities
I just put the Razer Blade 15 through its paces and wrote a review, but not with just any old setup. In this case, the OLED display was one of the first to provide 240 hertz of refresh rate. Despite OLED laptops’ long history and recent appearance on certain so-called “gaming” laptops, the technology has never seemed like a good fit for gamers. Their frame rate was fixed at 60 hertz and they never went below 4k. What a terrible idea!
The RTX 3070 Ti inside is matched well by the 1600p resolution and 240Hz refresh rate of the new Razer Blade 15. As a result, you can rest assured that this is a gaming-specific OLED laptop. It’s also quite beautiful. Whether it’s the increased contrast or the broader color palette, the enhancements to the visual quality are evident. The OLED backlighting technology is responsible for this. As the lighting of each pixel is controlled independently, true darkness is possible. In addition, the panel’s glossiness amplifies the contrast.
All of these enhancements are welcome, although they are not as visible as one might want. It’s tough to justify spending hundreds extra on solar panels if there is no discernible advantage to doing so. From my preliminary tests, it seems that the buzz around OLED gaming laptops is somewhat warranted.
However, I then performed something that wasn’t mentioned in any of Razer’s ads: I turned on High Dynamic Range in Windows 11. A sudden, devastating impact. The advantage of OLED that I was seeking was right there. Amazing graphical improvements have made games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Rise of the Tomb Raider appear stunning, revealing previously unseen features and vastly increasing the game’s color pallet. HDR has the ability to accomplish far more in games than improved frame rates or even ray tracing, and it’s hard to express with words, but trust me: when supported in games and on a good monitor.
Plus, the greatest thing is… It won’t tax your GPU or heat sink in any way.
HDR gaming is still in short supply, but OLED isn’t your only option. After all, high dynamic range (HDR) is all about contrast, and you may achieve it through extreme highlights or dark shadow detail (or both, preferrably). Mini-LED displays outshine OLED in terms of brightness and offer enhanced black levels by strategically placing their LED backlights. These mini-LED screens have just as much promise as OLED for HDR gaming, and the more zones the better.
Inconveniently, mini-LED screens are only found in a small percentage of gaming laptops. Asus has made the most headway in this area by releasing their ROG Nebula HDR Displays, which are certified for DisplayHDR 1000 and have a peak brightness of 1,100 nits. Right now, the ROG Flow X16 and the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 are the only laptops that include these displays. Although I have not tried either, I believe those to be the peak of HDR gaming on laptops.
However, I have tried out some high dynamic range (HDR) gaming on the 16-inch MacBook Pro. Don’t mock me; I realize how ridiculous that is. However, I was pleased to see that Resident Evil Village has been transferred to MacOS, and I was able to try it out in HDR on my XDR display. The panel’s HDR performance was outstanding, and it can reach a peak brightness of 1,600 nits. In this regard, I was able to see how much better HDR gaming might be if the industry backed it.
The main point is that there is a very tiny selection of gaming laptops that provide HDR compatibility through OLED or mini-LED. It’s unfortunate that there are just a few number of them available.
Which brings us to the strangest thing… Many of these portable computers hide the fact that they support HDR. The best I can determine, Razer does not. There is no VESA Display HDR certification, and Windows 11 doesn’t enable HDR by default.
It’s unfortunate that high dynamic range (HDR) gaming isn’t getting more attention. Here’s hope 2019 sees a flood of high-quality gaming laptops that do High Dynamic Range (HDR) gaming right by improving display quality rather than merely increasing processing speed.
