Lenovo Legion Y730 vs. Dell G3 Gaming Laptop: Which Is Better?

Unless you are opting for a truly high-end gaming laptop, you should at least consider the most popular hardware configuration for mid-range solutions. An eighth-generation Intel CPU paired up with a GTX 1050 Ti graphics chip.

It's not going to play AAA games at 4K, but it will be enough for you. Lenovo and Dell both make some great laptops that use just that hardware, so we pitted the Lenovo Legion Y730 versus the Dell G3 Gaming Laptop to find out which is best.

Design

Mid-range laptops around this price point can look fantastic, like our favorite laptop of current years, the Dell XPS 13. But it's rare to get something with this premium . That's something that's certainly the case with the Dell G3 Gaming Laptop. It has a dull color scheme and thick bezels, which do play a part in its overall solid, and durable feel, but it's not a business that's going to turn any heads.

In comparison, the Lenovo Legion does look better than $ 1,550. It has an understated look, which you might call drab, but we love the Legion logo on its lid, and its thin bezels and chassis make it feel sleek. At almost a pound lighter than the alternative Dell, it's a whole lot easier to carry around too.

Although we usually have a decent gaming mouse when playing on any kind of PC, it is a doubly so for the G3, which has a touchpad that feels underwhelming and inaccurate. Its keyboard is a little better, but the fixed-color back-lighting is far from our favorite shade of blue. The Legion has a good touchpad and a pretty great keyboard. Its layout is a little odd and takes us to the world, but it looks great thanks to the fantastic key-back that is fully customizable using Corsair's iCUE app.

Performance

Considering their pricing disparity, you might be surprised to learn that these hardware configurations are quite comparable. The entry-level Dell G3 is priced at $ 750 and comes with a 15-inch 1080p display, an eighth-generation Intel Core i5-8300H paired up with 8GB of RAM, a GTX 1050 graphics chip, and a terabyte of HDD storage space that's augmented with an 8GB caching drive. $ 1,000 gets you a Core i7-8750H CPU, a GTX 1050 Ti, and a 128GB SSD, and there are options for a 17-inch screen model up to $ 1,150, which has a GTX 1060 Max Q design.

Our review configuration with its i5-8300H and GTX 1050 Certified for the Gaming Tests, managing a solid FPS at 1080P, Ultra settings in Battlefield 1, and over 50 FPS in Civilization VI's benchmark at 1080P Ultra too. It only really fell down in the famously-taxing, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, but it still managed 34 FPS at 1080P on High settings.

Configuration options for the Legion Y730 are much more restrictive and expensive. The entry-level version costs $ 1,200, but the difference between it and our $ 1,550 review system was the size of the hard drive and the amount of RAM. Our system came with a 256GB SSD and a 2TB mechanical hard drive, with 16GB of RAM. Whichever configuration you opt for though, you get a 15-inch 1080P display, an eighth-generation Intel Core i7-8750H CPU, and a GTX 1050 Ti graphics chip.

Despite its processor, the Y730 actually falls behind the Dell laptop in our gaming tests. It managed just 51 FPS in Battlefield 1 at 1080P Ultra settings, and 45 FPS in Civilization VI at the same settings. It fared much the same in Deus Ex. Its visuals were better, though, due to its far superior display. The Dell G3 looks dull and its colors inaccurate, with woeful support of the sRGB and Adobe RGB color gamuts.

The cost difference between the two systems is impossible to ignore too. With comparable hardware and better frame rate results, the Dell G3 is less expensive.

Portability

As gaming laptops, neither the Dell or Lenovo solutions are super portable, but they're not going to put you back out either. The G3 Gaming Laptop weighs 5.57 pounds for the 15-inch version 14.96 x 10.16 x 0.89-inches. The Legion Y730 is a little lighter at 4.9 pounds and a little trimmer, measuring 14.25 x 10.52 x 0.79-inches.

While size and shape are close to each other though, battery life is not. The G3 managed almost six hours in our video loop test and just shy of three hours in our basemark test. The Legion Y730 on the other hand, did not run in the video loop test, nor made it in Basemark.

Even for a gaming laptop, that's exceedingly poor, and surprising considering the hardware is not that intense. It's not a system you can use a power socket for any real length of time.

Better battery for much, much less

Although these laptops are very similar, there are some significant differences. Where the Lenovo Legion Y730 looks better – it's more boring – it's more memory and storage, and it's lighter and leaner, it's worth it. At almost double the price of the Dell G3 Gaming Laptop, it does not matter which one is worse than the other.

The Dell laptop is not a fantastic gaming machine. It looks dated, its display is poor, its hardware is not class leading. You can get its best configuration for under $ 1.00, and its battery lasts for hours longer than the Legion alternative.

At this price point there are not better alternatives. Sub- $ 1,500 gaming laptops make sacrifices. In this case, the G3 sacrifices less and delivers more for your money.