Dell G15 (2022) Laptop Review
The Dell G15 (2022) is a budget gaming laptop available with Intel 12th Gen CPUs and NVIDIA dedicated GPUs. It's the 5520 model, and it replaces the G15 5511 from 2021 with Intel 11th Gen processors. It looks almost identical to its predecessor, with the biggest change being Intel's 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs, which sport a new hybrid architecture with a mix of performance and efficiency cores. Other changes include the addition of a QHD 240Hz display and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070Ti GPU option, as well as Thunderbolt 4 support on models with an RTX 3060 and 3070Ti. There are also more color options, including an Obsidian Black Special Edition with an aluminum lid. There are variants with AMD Ryzen 6000-series CPUs, known as the G15 5525, and they replace the G15 5515 with AMD Ryzen 5000-series CPUs.
Our Dell G15 has an Intel Core i5-12500H CPU, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 GPU, 8GB of memory, and 256GB of storage. You can upgrade the CPU to an Intel Core i7-12700H, which has two additional performance cores. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 is the base GPU configuration. If you want better performance, you can upgrade to an RTX 3050TI, RTX 3060, or RTX 3070Ti. You can configure the laptop with up to 32GB of memory and 1TB of storage in the form of a PCIe NVMe SSD. There are also multiple display options, including a 1080p 120Hz, a 1080p 165Hz, and a 1440p 240Hz panel.
The Dell G15 is great for gaming. You can configure the laptop with powerful Intel 12th Gen CPUs and various NVIDIA dedicated GPUs, all of which deliver a smooth gaming experience at 1080p. There's also a QHD 240Hz display option if you want better visuals, though you'll have to pair it with the top-end NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070Ti to get good frame rates. It doesn't get overly hot or loud under load, and there's no noticeable throttling on the CPU or GPU. Unfortunately, the 120Hz panel has a slow response time, causing noticeable ghosting, and it doesn't support variable refresh rate.
- CPU and GPU can handle demanding workloads.
- No noticeable CPU or GPU thermal throttling.
- User-replaceable memory and storage drive.
- No MUX switch.
- Only one storage drive slot.