What is a gaming laptop?

A gaming laptop computer is basically a small computer designed for playing computer games. Any laptop can be used for games, of course, but the best gaming laptops have the distinction of using high-end hardware. This high-end hardware is an aboslute necessity in gaming laptops to provide the performacne you need for the latest process-intensive games. Gaming laptop computers therefore often cost more than basic laptops used for more mundane tasks such as word processing. They can in fact they can cost two or three times more. Gaming laptops also are high on style and endeavour to be visually striking, more so than ordinary laptops. The gaming community are notoriously trivial and love metallic finishes, bright colors, or features such as ridges to give a hi-tech look.

There are 5 main requirements for gaming laptops

 processor
the operating system
screen size
RAM
processor

The processor is the most important feature. Games require a lot of processing power.

The OS is important for the simple reason that games are released for a variety of operating systems, so if your gaming laptop runs under the wrong operating system you may not be able to play certain games.

A large screen size is important so that you can see everything.

The amount of RAM is important as games require a lot of memory.

The graphics card should preferably be the best available if you want all the visual effects.

Other factors to consider are RAM speed, hard disk speed and battery life.

Gaming laptop computers also must accept a headset, a wireless mouse etc..., usually using USB ports and Bluetooth cards. It also needs to connect to the internet and to LANs, usually via WiFi and Ethernet.

Gaming laptops have their critics who point out that desktop gaming computers are better. Gaming laptop components are less advanced and more expensive than those used in desktop computers. Gaming laptops are however portable which is, after all, why people buy them.

One of the fastest gaming laptops available is the Alienware Area-51 m17x

Specifications
CPU: Intel® Core® 2 Extreme X9000 2.8GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB)
Hard Drive: Hard Drive: 1TB in a high-speed RAID 0 configuration
Memory: 4GB† Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz – 2 x 2048MB
OS: Windows Vista 64 bit,
Graphics: 512MB NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 3600M
Display: 17" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD (1200p) with
Clearview Technology
Weight: 10.5 lbs

In March 2009 NVIDIA, announced four new mobile GPUs at CeBIT.

The GeForce GTX 280M, is claimed to be "the fastest laptop GPU on the market, with up to 50% more performance than previous generation enthusiast laptop GPUs."