3 Best Laptops for Chess Players in 2024
From this article, you will know what are, in our opinion, the best laptops for chess players you can buy and use in 2024.
Technology has changed many aspects in our lives including those in chess.
Nowadays, you don’t need to have a chessboard or even a playing partner to play chess. You just need a computer device and then you can download a chess game software program to play chess or you can just directly play chess online. If you don’t have a playing partner, you can find one online immediately or play with a chess engine. Currently, the capacity of a chess engine can even beat a grandmaster so you should be able to train yourself excellently by playing against it whenever you can.
To play chess digitally like this, you can use a laptop. Due to its portability and potential capabilities to run chess software and engines smoothly, a laptop is probably the most preferred device to use to play chess for many people.
If you want to use a laptop to play chess but don’t have a laptop yet for that purpose, you might be interested in buying a new laptop. However, it can be confusing to pick the right laptop for chess games from many laptop models and specification choices out there. This is why Compute Expert has come up with its list of the best laptops for chess players that you can use as your laptop-buying reference.
Want to know more about the laptops we recommend to play chess with? Let’s start digging into the list right away.
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Image | View on Amazon | Product |
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Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 | ||
HP Envy x360 | ||
LG Gram 16 |
Table of Contents:
What are the Best Laptops for Chess Players?
Now, let’s see more about the laptops that make it to our list of excellent laptops for a chess player to use. Using one of these laptops should give you the laptop support you need to play chess digitally more optimally.1. Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 is the first laptop we recommend for chess players. It is a 2-in-1 laptop that you can fold on its hinge to turn it into a tablet.
This 2-in-1 form can make it easier for you to enjoy a chess game whenever you want. You can use its tablet form, for example, to play chess on the go or use its tent form to watch the stream of a chess game online. The touchscreen feature that comes with the 2-in-1 form can also help you move your chess pieces easily by touching and dragging them across the digital chessboard.
As for the performance of this laptop to run the software you need for your chess games, you shouldn’t worry. It has an AMD Ryzen 7 7730U processor and 16GB RAM capacity in it which should do their tasks well. The RAM capacity, in particular, is quite large and can help this laptop multitask to support you and your chess-related activities optimally.
When you need to connect to external devices to enhance your chess-playing experience, there is a full range of ports on the sides of this laptop ready for you to use. All in all, this Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 can be just the laptop you need to make you enjoy chess games better.
Key Features
- Screen Size, Resolution: 16 inches, 1920 x 1080 pixels
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 7730U with speed up to 4.5 GHz
- RAM Capacity: 16GB
- Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD
- Battery Life (Estimation): up to 8.5 hours of usage capacity
Pros
- Excellent specifications to support chess-related activities
- A flexible laptop you can use in a tent or tablet mode too
- Quite sleek and lightweight
- A full range of ports
- Decent keyboard quality
Cons
- Average display quality
- Average webcam quality
2. HP Envy x360
HP Envy x360 is the next laptop that can be great to use for a chess player. It is a 2-in-1 laptop from HP that should be able to deliver the performance level you need to play chess games excellently.
To back up that performance level, this laptop uses an AMD Ryzen 5 7530U processor and 8GB RAM capacity. They should be adequate to handle tasks related to your chess-playing activities. When you need to store files related to your chess games internally on this laptop, there is 512GB SSD storage space you can use to accommodate those files.
This laptop has Wi-Fi 6E technology so you should be able to get an optimum internet connection speed from your Wi-Fi network when you play chess online or browse some chess reference materials. There is also a full range of ports available for your connectivity with the external devices you want to use.
The speakers on this laptop are great as well so you can watch your favorite chess-related channels more immersively. Overall, this HP Envy x360 can also be a good laptop choice to support the chess games that you want to play.
Key Features
- Screen Size, Resolution: 15.6 inches, 1920 x 1080 pixels
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 7530U with speed up to 4.5 GHz
- RAM Capacity: 8GB
- Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD
- Battery Life (Estimation): up to 8 hours of usage capacity
Pros
- Excellent specifications to support chess-related activities
- A flexible laptop you can use in a tent or tablet mode too
- Quite sleek
- A full range of ports
- Great speakers
Cons
- A bit heavy for a 2-in-1 laptop
3. LG Gram 16
LG Gram 16 is another laptop you might want to take a deeper look at during your laptop-buying process. It is foldable too and it has high-quality specifications to let you play chess smoothly with it.
For its main performance specifications, this laptop has a 13th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB RAM capacity. With these specifications in place, this laptop should be able to run the software you need for your chess-playing activities smoothly. When you need to use its battery, it can last a full day on a single charge so you can play chess for hours even without a power outlet nearby.
As the hinge of this laptop is flexible, you can position its screen to let you see your chess games more comfortably. This can help you to be more relaxed and have more enjoyment when you play. You can also connect to external displays to enjoy your games better through the two Thunderbolt 4 ports that this laptop has.
This laptop is quite sleek and lightweight so you should be able to bring this laptop around more easily to play chess anywhere you want. All in all, this LG Gram 16 is a laptop you might want to consider buying and using as it seems to have the right model and specification quality to help you play chess more optimally.
Key Features
- Screen Size, Resolution: 16 inches, 2560 x 1600 pixels
- Processor: 13th Gen Intel Core i7
- RAM Capacity: 16GB
- Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD
- Battery Life (Estimation): up to 10 hours of usage capacity
Pros
- Excellent specifications to support chess-related activities
- A flexible laptop you can use in a tent or tablet mode too
- Quite sleek and lightweight
- Two Thunderbolt 4 ports and one USB-A port
- Good display quality
Cons
- No HDMI ports
- Can get hot under an intense workload
What are the Things We Should Consider When We Want to Buy a Laptop for a Chess Player to Use?
Here are the things we think you should consider when you want to buy a laptop to play a lot of chess with.- Processor. The laptop you buy should have a good processor so it can run your chess game software smoothly. We recommend a laptop with at least a late-generation i5 or Ryzen 5 processor for this
- RAM capacity. The laptop you buy should have an adequate RAM capacity too so it can provide the memory space your chess-playing activities need. We recommend a laptop with at least 8GB RAM for this
- Screen size. The laptop you buy should also have a screen large enough to make you able to see your chessboard clearly so you can enjoy your chess games much better. We recommend a laptop with at least 15 inches in screen size for this
Wrap Up
When you want to buy a laptop, you may want one that can help you play chess smoothly. However, it can be confusing to pick the right laptop from many laptop choices out there. This is why Compute Expert has created a list of the best laptops for chess players to help you.To summarize, here are three laptops we recommend for chess players to use.
We hope our list can help you buy the best laptop to optimize your chess-playing experience with!
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