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The world of gaming laptops is not limited to Alienware, Asus, Clevo/Sager and MSI. Most brands make gaming-capable laptops: while not being specifically designed for gaming, they are powerful enough to play most games at reduced detail and resolution.

• Acer: while Acer has gaming desktops such as the Predator G5900 and Predator G7750, they don’t have any laptops aimed specifically at gaming. The Aspire 8943 and 5943 (Ethos) have a gaming-class GPU, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850, but with DDR3 memory instead of the usual GDDR5, so they perform worse than other laptops with the same GPU (40% lower in 3DMark Vantage overall score).
• Apple: while there aren’t as many games for Mac OS X as for Microsoft Windows, current Apple laptops can run both operating systems, so you can play games in the OS they are available for. Apple Macbook Pro laptops of 15 and 17 inches are gaming-capable thanks to the Nvidia GeForce GT 330M, and the new 11.6-inch Apple Macbook Air has the most powerful graphics at around 1 kg, thanks to the Nvidia GeForce 320M.
• Hewlett-Packard: the Envy series are high-quality, high-performance laptops. The Envy 14 (14.5-inch screen, 5.6 lbs/2.5 kg) sports an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 and so qualifies as a light gaming-capable laptop, while the Envy 17 (17.3-inch screen, 3D option available) has an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 (but slightly underclocked).
• Sony: while aimed at professional users the Sony Vaio Z (3 lbs/1.4 kg), sporting an Nvidia GeForce GT 330M and Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, is the most powerful laptop under 2 kg . The Alienware M11x has a better graphics card (Nvidia GeForce GT 335M, and it’s not underclocked as the one in the Vaio), but it’s quite heavier (4.4 lbs/2.0 kg).
• Toshiba: Toshiba has a true gaming laptop, the Qosmio X500 (X505 in some countries), a 18.4-inch laptop with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M.