- MSI Thin GF63 | RTX 4050 |
$899$599 - Asus TUF A16 | RX 7600S |
$1,099.99$749.99 - Gigabyte G5 | RTX 4060 |
$1,099.99$799.99 - Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 4060 |
$999.99$869.99 - Lenovo Legion Slim 5 | RTX 4060 |
$1,349.99$899.99 - Asus TUF F15 | RTX 4070 |
$1,399.99$999.99
Money is tight, but maybe not so tight that you don’t want to treat yourself to a new toy. Because, let’s face it, that’s what gaming laptops are: toys. You can pretend to yourself, your partner, or your accountant that you really need a discrete graphics card for your ‘work’, but let’s be honest, you want a laptop that can play games.
But they are expensive things, which makes sales events, such as Black Friday, a great time to start shopping around. To me it’s actually pretty surprising that these deals are still live, because on Black Fridays past they would all have gone in an instant. But these are differeng times.
Still, if you don’t have a particular brand in mind—and aren’t expecting to bag a new Razer Blade—you will find some impressive sub-$1,000 Black Friday gaming laptop bargains still available long after the titular day has expired.
At the top of that budget is arguably one of the best Black Friday deals full-stop. The $999.99 Asus TUF F15 with an RTX 4070 is an absolutely outstanding machine for the money. That GPU is faster than anything else you’ll find at this price, and it’s a proper RTX 4070, too, with a 140W power limit. That’s the maximum allowed, btw.
- We’re curating all the best Black Friday PC gaming deals right here.
You’re getting a full 1TB SSD, a 12th Gen Core i7 CPU, and a high refresh rate 1080p panel. This thing may not have the most appealing, ultra-sleek chassis, but it’s got it where it counts, and she’ll make point five past lightspeed, too. Maybe.
Then there are a bunch of AMD and Nvidia-powered gaming laptops around the $750 and $800 mark that will offer excellent gaming performance at 1080p settings, and sometimes even higher. I’m a big fan of Lenovo’s recent laptop game, and there are two excellent Legion machines for under $1,000 right now.
At the other end of the budget is the MSI Thin GF63 for $599. With a 45W RTX 4050 inside it, it is very much a cheap gaming laptop, compromising both on storage and system RAM. But it will perform better in gaming terms than almost anything else around that price range.
But what else is in that price range for mobile PC gamers?
Steam Deck (original) | 64GB SSD | $349 at Steam
Okay, it’s not a laptop, and the Steam Deck may have had an OLED refresh but the original version is still pretty much the archetype of what a mobile PC gaming device should be. It’s just as powerful as the most recent model so all those Steam Deck compatible games should run well, and while the 64GB storage is rather small, SSD upgrades like the Sabrent 2230 512GB are at a great price for a straightforward upgrade. It’s the OG PC gaming handheld, and it demands respect.
Yeah, it’s at this price point that the Steam Deck actually becomes a bit more of a tempting proposition. In fact you can pick up the 64GB version for almost half the price of the cheapest of these gaming laptopds, jam a 512GB SSD in because you’ve got a screwdriver and some change left over, and be happily gaming as you roam.
If all you’re after is some gaming on the go, then the Steam Deck, or even the $620 ROG Ally, might well suit you better than a compromised cheap gaming laptop.
Something to consider, anyways…
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