The Dell G5 15 Special Edition gaming notebook dives headfirst into the affordable gaming notebook market with an AMD-on-AMD model. This Ryzen/Radeon notebook features the new Ryzen 4000 series mobile processors and Radeon RX 5000 series graphics chips. It also features AMD's new SmartShift technology, which really makes a difference; let's see how the fancy new CPU/GPU combo in the G5 15 SE stacks up against the competition.

We tested a $1,199 sample with an AMD Ryzen R7 4800H, AMD Radeon RX 5600M, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, and 144Hz 1080p display For an additional $100, you can add a 1TB SSD to the system available. And if you want to build on a lower budget, there is a G5 15 SE base model for under $900 with a Ryzen 5 4600H processor, the same RX 5600M GPU, 8GB RAM, a 60Hz 1080p display, and a 256GB SSD.

The AMD Ryzen R7 4800H performed admirably in most CPU benchmarks with a Cinebench R15 multi-core index score of 1538, X264 video encoding up to 34 fps, and a Geekbench 4 score of 26601

Very powerful.

While not as powerful as the Asus Zephyrus G14 with the very powerful Ryzen 9 4900HS (only $250 more with RTX2060), the R7 4800H in the Dell G5 15 SE outperformed other Ryzen 7/RTX outperforming some of the 2060 laptops. This mobile chip should be good enough for serious multitaskers who work on zillions of tabs while editing photos and videos. [AMD SmartShift boosts laptop performance by having the Ryzen CPU and Radeon GPU work together to handle tasks. It adjusts GPU and CPU power consumption on the fly, depending on the task. If you are playing a graphics-intensive game, SmartShift will power the GPU, which should theoretically give you better performance.

On the gaming front, the Dell G5 15 SE with the Radeon RX5600M finished in the middle of the pack in most benchmark categories. If you don't mind losing Nvidia-specific features like ray tracing, it can log frames there in games like Gears V and Far Cry: over 70 frames per second in games like New Dawn. In Metro Exodus, a notoriously system-intensive game, the results were a modest 45 fps; thanks to SmartShift, the G5 SE is comparable to more expensive systems with RTX 2060s, but we did not see the 10% higher performance advertised by AMD.

Another key feature of the Dell G5 15 SE is its bright and speedy 1080p 144Hz VA display. As I am once again hooked on "Call of Duty: Warzone," intense firefights on a vivid, silky smooth screen are my favorite moments. The picture quality wasn't bad either, and when I loaded up all the Goku fights from "Dragon Ball FighterZ" and tested the colors and performance as usual, the Kamehameha was an accurate and colorful riot.

On the design front, we like how the G Series laptops subtly take design cues from Alienware's flashier cousins. The clamshell design and sleek lid look modern without being over-the-top. It strikes a nice aesthetic balance between professional and gaming. If you want RGB trimming and accents on the enclosure, you're out of luck. What I don't like so much is the abundant use of plastic in the system's chassis. It's great for thermal management, but it looks cheap. However, the understated design means that I am not embarrassed to pull this laptop out during a meeting or class.

For RGB fans, the G5 has four bright RGB lighting zones on the keyboard, which you will be happy to control via the FX tab in the Alienware Command Center. The keyboard feels great as I type this. Unlike the cramped keyboards of other gaming laptops, the keys are spaced just right, and the shift and control keys are a good size for gaming. Given that the keys themselves are fairly small, we had no major problems and, more importantly, were able to work comfortably.

The touchpad, on the other hand, was difficult to use and felt overly sensitive when trying to edit photos in Photoshop. If you get a good gaming mouse, it's not a problem. To be fair, this is true of any gaming laptop, but it is something to keep in mind for general use.

The impressive CPU performance of the Dell G5 15 SE shows that an all-AMD system can compete with any Intel product on the market while keeping costs relatively low. While we weren't necessarily blown away by the gaming performance, it did well enough to stand up to the big boys, and to match the RTX 2060 at this price is still quite a feat; at $1,200, the G5 15 SE's impressive work/play balance, coupled with its subtle design, is hard to ignore.