OCTOBER 2019 • TECH ADVISOR 25REVIEWIt’sworthnotingatthispointthattheG715’s
144Hzdisplay is overkill when paired with an RTX
- Very few games will actually hit that frame
rateonanRTX2060,evenif youdipdowntoHigh
settings.ShadowofMordor’s five years old at this
point,andit stilldoesn’tcomeclose.Thatsaid,you’ll
stillgowellabove60fpsin certaingames,andI
personallylovehowsmooth144Hzlooksevenwhen
simplycheckingmyemailormovingwindowsaround.
It’soverkill(andaneedlessbatterydrain,perhaps),
butI’llstillgotobatfor it.
Speaking of battery life, that’s one area where Dell
does a decent job. Our battery rundown test consists of
setting the fully charged laptop to loop a 4K video with
the brightness set to 250 nits, until the machine shuts
off. The G7 15 lasted for nearly four hours, surprisingly
good for a gaming laptop with a 144Hz screen. In
fact that’s longer than the Alienware m15 lasted, with
a battery almost twice the size – though Alienware’s
OLED display and fondness for RGB LEDs didn’t help.
Verdict
The only question I can’t figure out: Why’s it so
expensive? £1,449 compares poorly to some of the
GTX 1070-equipped stock still floating around the
market. Price is only one aspect of a review, but when
a laptop feels out of step with the rest of the market I
think it’s worth noting. I imagine the Core i7-9750H has
something to do with it, which is a shame given it barely
improves upon its predecessor. Still, that’s the wild
world of laptop pricing for you. The G7 15 is a perfectly
serviceable mid-tier machine with an understated