Dell’s revamped G-series might be the best looking new budget gaming laptops at CES

Dell's Alienware division gets most of the attention for gaming notebooks. The new G15 and G16 show you don't need a lot of money to get a great looking system.

Dell's latest G-series gaming notebooks seem to draw inspiration from gadgets in 80s sci-fi movies. Simple lines with hard edges, and two-tone paint jobs with neon andpastel accents, are what you get. It's the kind of style that makes me want to play F- Zero. Dell is taking the time to paint small details like the radiator fins inside each laptop, which is appreciated.

Dell put ports on the G-series. The back of the wires for power and HDMI 2.1 that you probably won't need to adjust a lot is where you should put them. You can plug in peripherals like a headset, mouse or thumb drive with the 3.5mm audio jack on the side. Dell should swap the position of the side-mounted Ethernet jack and the loneusb-c port in back for better use.

Considering their prices, both systems are wellequipped. The G15 will come with a 13th-gen Intel Core i5-13450HX processor, 8 gigabytes of memory, and a 120Hz FHD display. You also have the option of a slightly faster 165Hz screen and up to 2 terabytes of storage on top of the RTX 40-series graphics cards.

The larger G16 will come with the same Intel Core i5-13450HX chip, a higher-resolution screen, 8 gigabytes of memory, and more storage than the smaller G14. You can upgrade components like the graphics card, memory, or the display to a faster panel. If the standard 56 Whr doesn't cut it, both systems can be configured with bigger batteries.

The G15 and G16 are a bit heavier than 5.84 and 6.01 pounds, but that's not a big deal. Dell went with 720p webcams on both models, which is disappointing. I have said it before and I will say it again, all new laptops should have a high definition camera.

The models Dell demoed were non-functional pre-production units, so I didn't have a chance to check them out. Dell has created a nice balance of style and performance for inexpensive systems.

The G15 and G16 are expected to go on sale in the first quarter of next year. The company says there will be versions of both systems later in the second quarter.