A great gamer deserves a great way to game, and if you’re looking to upgrade your gaming hardware, it’s always worth looking for a deal. If you prefer a stationary device you can always sort through the best gaming PCs, but if you want flexibility and portability in your next gaming setup, the best gaming laptops should fit the bill. Laptop deals are in no short supply, which can make tracking down the best combination of capability and pricing feel a little overwhelming. If you’re not very familiar with how to buy a gaming laptop, we’ve done a lot of the heavy lifting for you. Read onward for more details on the best gaming laptop deals you can find right now.
Today’s best gaming laptop deals
- HP Victus 15 —
- Dell G15 —
- Alienware m15 R7 —
- Dell G16 —
- ASUS ROG Zephyrus —
- HP Omen 16 —
- Lenovo Legion 5i Pro Gen 7 —
- Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 7 —
HP Victus 15 — $570, was $800
Dell G15 — $650, was $850
A Dell laptop is always a great option when you’re looking to game. The Dell G15 is a great gaming laptop option, as it features the power of a 12-core Intel processor, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card with 4GB of RAM, and 8GB of super fast system RAM. These all come together to create a gaming experience that’s at a whole new level, with rapid refresh rates keeping your gameplay image from breaking apart or lagging. An Alienware-inspired thermal design allows the Dell G15 play harder and for longer stretches without overheating, and a new, robust finish on the standard edition gives it a toughness you don’t find on many laptops. The Dell G15 is such a great value that you should even consider spending a little extra for it if you’re looking for the best gaming laptops under $500.
Alienware m15 R7 — $1,000, was $1,500
Alienware is one of the most popular names in gaming, and with the m15 R7 gaming laptop Alienware has put together a portable gaming force of nature. It comes with an 8-core AMD Risen 7 processor, the super powerful and super popular NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card, and 16GB of memory to create a snappy, responsive gaming experience. Fans of Alienware’s gaming laptops rave about their design and thermal cooling capabilities, as they work together to enable marathon-like gaming sessions with no overheating or hardware throttling. The Alienware m15 R7 also has an optional low-profile, immersive keyboard that’s more comfortable and more efficient for gaming, and the Full HD display combines with Surround Sound to create an ideal gaming environment wherever you may go.
Dell G16 — $1,100, was $1,400
Dell is consistently one of the best laptop brands, which is often important when a new laptop is released. With the new G16 Dell has put together a gaming laptop that can accommodate the needs of almost any gamer that likes the laptop form factor. This G16 has a 14-core Intel i7 processor and 16GB of RAM. It also has the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, which is a powerful and popular option for a gaming laptop. This laptop also comes with 1TB of internal storage, which is plenty for housing many of the best PC games, in addition to any other software you may like to boot up. The form factor of the Dell G16 is something else to be impressed with. It has a larger 16-inch display built into the body of a 15-inch laptop, getting you some extra screen real estate without making the G16 any less portable.
ASUS ROG Zephyrus — $1,500, was $1,900
Probably the most important thing about the ASUS ROG Zephyrus gaming laptop is that it can handle pretty much anything you throw at it. It does so with an AMD Risen 9 processor and an AMD Radeon RX 6800S graphics card, which ensure your gameplay doesn’t hit any snags or image breakup. It also has 16GB of RAM and an impressive 1TB solid state drive. This laptop also has a higher resolution display than most, delivering QHD resolution, which is halfway between Full HD and 4K. It comes with Windows 11, which makes this laptop as functional when it comes to all-purpose use as it is while gaming, and for more competitive games it also has a built-in MUX switch that allows you to go into GPU mode, which reduces latency and boosts gaming performance.
HP Omen 16 — $1,600, was $1,970
While it checks off everything a gamer might be looking for when it comes to internal specs — including an Intel i7 processor and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti graphics card — the HP Omen 16 should be of particular interest to gamers who are looking for a little more screen real estate. It has a 16-inch display, as opposed to the more typical 14 and 15-inch options, and the resolution comes in at QHD quality, which is a higher resolution than Full HD. This laptop also comes with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of solid state storage. The internal hardware of this laptop is about as up-to-date as it gets, making it more future-proof than a lot of gaming laptops currently on the market, and making it a great option if you’re planning to take on the best upcoming PC games.
Lenovo Legion 5i Pro Gen 7 — $1,950, was $2,600
Lenovo has been making laptops for a long time, and perhaps none more suited to the needs of a gamer than the Legion 5i gaming laptop. This is a 16-inch laptop and its display comes in at QHD resolution, which is twice the resolution of Full HD. This creates an immersive experience for taking on the best PC games, and the power of the Legion 5i’s Intel i7 processor can be felt no matter what sort of games you may be taking on. The extremely capable NVIDIA RTX 3070 Ti graphics card is also a part of the package, and brings 8GB of its own RAM to throw at a seamless, shutterless, and lag-free gaming experience. On-the-go gamers will like the slim profile and long-lasting battery, and gamers looking for something to build around will like the connectivity options of the Legion 5i gaming laptop.
Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 7 — $3,200, was $4,080
If you’re looking for a laptop that can not only game, but that can double as a content creation tool, the Legion 7i gaming laptop makes a great option. Like all of the best gaming laptops, it has all the power you’ll need, and pairs it with battery and thermal efficiency that will keep you gaming even through long binge sessions. It has anIntel i9 processor, the powerful RTX 3080 graphics card, and a whopping 32GB of RAM. There’s little this laptop won’t be able to work its way through. It even has 2TB of solid storage space, enough to house even the largest of gaming and media libraries. The Legion 7i’s display comes in at 16-inches, a large option by today’s laptop standards, and it has a refresh rate of 165Hz, nearly three times as fast as most gaming laptops.
How to Choose a Gaming Laptop
The two main considerations when choosing a good gaming laptop are naturally going to be what you’re willing to spend and which graphics card you want (considering the GPU is what actually makes a laptop a “gaming laptop”), and these two are closely linked as your budget is going to determine what graphical performance tier you can afford. However, don’t overlook some of the smaller things that you might personally want in a gaming laptop – convenience features such as programmable button macros, customizable RGB keyboard backlighting, and so on – so that you don’t jump on that great deal only to end up with something that doesn’t actually mSo for your needs. For more detailed hardware analysis, read on.
What makes a good gaming laptop?
A good gaming,g laptop should, first and foremost, be affordable, but you don’t want to go for the first deal you find that simply happens to meet your budget. You can expect to pay at least $600 (usually closer to $700) for a gaming laptop with a dedicated graphics card, although you can find a few that have AMD APUs with built-in Vega graphics for less than that. Also bear in mind that Nvidia recently released its new line of 16-series GPUs which have completely replaced the older 10-series graphics cards as the entry-level and midrange GeForce GPUs. In 2020, you’re better off avoiding older laptop models with these 10-series cards and sticking with the best modern GPUs ones, as the price is about the same and they will generally come with more up-to-date CPUs as well.
In the budget-friendly price brackets, the most powerful graphics card you’re likely to find in a gaming laptop right now is arguably the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 or AMD Radeon RX 5600M. However, you can expect to spend nearly your full budget for a laptop with this kind of graphical horsepower. If you’re going cheaper, though, then you’ll see cards in the GTX 16-series and RX 5000-series, pretty much all of which are still very capable of running modern titles at 1080p/60fps at good to high in-game settings.
For memory, 8GB of RAM should be the bare minimum (unless you’re going really cheap), and 16GB is a better mark to aim for in a modern gaming system. A higher refresh rate of 144Hz on the laptop display will also ensure a smoother experience when playing at higher framerates, but that’s something that you’ll typically find on gaming laptops sporting nicer GPUs like the GTX 1660 Ti or RTX 2060. That’s one of the sacrifices you’ll make with a gaming laptop, but if you know what to expect, you shouldn’t end up disappointed.
Should I get a gaming laptop or a gaming PC?
The primary difference between a gaming laptop and a gaming PC is portability. If you want a gaming computer to set up at a battle station, never to be moved again, then you should probably look at gaming PC deals instead. Since gaming PCs are bigger, they can hold more hardware, use bigger fans, and be easily customized. Laptops have the advantage of moving with you. To that end, a gaming laptop can be more than just a gaming laptop. You can take it to lecture classes for notes or use it as a work computer.
Are gaming laptops good for work?
A gaming laptop is still a laptop and can do everything that a laptop computer can do — that includes work. In fact, even a gaming laptop can offer some advantages: Faster processors and increased RAM will make all of your non-gaming software run noticeably faster, and graphical work such as video editing and rendering will go much more quickly with a dedicated graphics card. Even if you mostly use your PC for work first and only light gaming, it might be worth it to shell out a little more cash for a gaming laptop for the better hardware you’ll be getting.
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