Black Friday gaming laptop deals 2024: the best discounts this week on laptops at every power-level

Black Friday gaming laptop deals
Black Friday laptop deals

Asus Zephyrus G16 gaming laptop

(Image credit: Asus)

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You might as well call it Black Friday week because we're already seeing some excellent Black Friday gaming laptop deals from retailers. Whether you're in the market for something budget but brilliant, or prepared to put down some serious cash for the gaming laptop of your dreams, we're beavering away updating this page with the very best prices on some of the very best gaming laptops money can buy.

We spend our year pushing gaming laptops to the limit in testing, which means we've got a good bead on what's actually a great price for a given machine, and are able to spot the trends as they emerge. Some laptop deals appear better than they really are but we're using our many years' of experience to help you avoid that nonsense.

The most important spec for a gaming laptop is the choice of GPU, with CPU a secondary concern. You'll find mostly RTX 40-series laptops available today, most commonly the RTX 4060 or RTX 4070. There are higher-end models available in the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090, though we don't often recommend Nvidia's top mobile chip as it's usually not great value for money.

👉We're curating all the best pre-Black Friday PC gaming deals right now👈

It's also worth keeping an eye on the memory and storage included with a gaming laptop. Many companies look to save cash, or force you into a more expensive purchase, by limiting the amount of RAM or storage in a budget gaming laptop. Generally, we prefer laptops to come with at least 16 GB of dual-channel memory and a 1 TB SSD, but sometimes a really good deal on something with less cannot be ignored.

What does 'price watch' mean?

We've added a new "price watch" qualifier to all our individual deals, making it easy to see whether a price has gone up 🔼 or down 🔽 since we last checked it out. It's important to note that any deal in this guide (even if it's slightly risen in price) is still one of our top picks, as we only show you deals that are actually worth buying.

Black Friday gaming laptop deals — Quick links

Best laptop GPU

Black Friday gaming laptop deals under $1000

Price watch: ➖MSI Claw A1M | Intel Core Ultra 5 135H | 7-inch screen | 512 GB SSD | Windows 11 | 16 GB RAM | $699 $366.42 at Newegg (save $332.58)

Price watch: ➖
MSI Claw A1M | Intel Core Ultra 5 135H | 7-inch screen | 512 GB SSD | Windows 11 | 16 GB RAM |
$699 $366.42 at Newegg (save $332.58)
I have to admit the MSI Claw is not our favorite handheld gaming PC. Not even close. That would be the ROG Ally X, which hasn't recieved a tasty discount as of yet. However, below a certain price threshold, the MSI Claw 7 becomes worth a look, and I believe we're just about at that price threshold here. Powered by an Intel Core Ultra 5 'Meteor Lake' chip, this chip is the cheapest of those available, but it can deliver in games thanks to the same eight Xe-cores as the higher models. It's just not as reliable as AMD's options.

Price check: Amazon $407.80

Price watch:➖Steam Deck (LCD) | 512 GB SSD | SteamOS | $449 at Steam

Price watch:➖
Steam Deck (LCD) | 512 GB SSD | SteamOS |
$449 at Steam
Okay, the Steam Deck may have had an OLED refresh but the original version is still 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. It's the OG PC gaming handheld, and it still demands respect.

Price watch: ➖Lenovo Legion Go | Z1 Extreme | 8.8-inch screen | 16 GB RAM | 512 GB SSD | $699.99 $499 at Amazon (save $200.99)

Price watch: ➖
Lenovo Legion Go | Z1 Extreme | 8.8-inch screen | 16 GB RAM | 512 GB SSD |
$699.99 $499 at Amazon (save $200.99)
The Legion Go is one of the more polished handhelds on the market, with a sleek 8.8-inch screen and detachable controllers. That screen is a little overkill for the lil' AMD chip inside this machine, the Z1 Extreme also found in the ROG Ally, but it's great for playing indies on while relaxing. One of the controllers also becomes a mouse if you need it, which is a bit of a gimmick but works pretty well.

Price check: Newegg $499.99 | Best Buy $549.99

Price watch: 🔽HP Victus 15 | RTX 4050 | Ryzen 5 8645HS | 15.6-inch | 1080p | 144 Hz | 8 GB DDR5 | 512 GB SSD | $979 $651 at Walmart (save $328)

Price watch: 🔽
HP Victus 15 | RTX 4050 | Ryzen 5 8645HS | 15.6-inch | 1080p | 144 Hz | 8 GB DDR5 | 512 GB SSD |
$979 $651 at Walmart (save $328)
Let's be upfront about this—8 GB of RAM is not enough in 2024. But when you're talking about a gaming notebook that costs just $650, but with a decent RTX 40-series GPU inside it, I can swallow it. Especially when you can easily upgrade the RAM with just a wee screwdriver in-hand. And 16 GB of fast dual-channel DDR5 is just $50-odd right now. The RTX 4050 is just a 75 W variant, so not the outright fastest, but will still definitely do the job at 1080p. For this sorta money, that's all you can ask.

Price check: Newegg $699.95

Price watch: NEW DEAL!ROG Ally X | Z1 Extreme | 7-inch screen | 24 GB RAM |  1 TB SSD | $799.99 $699.99 at Best Buy (save $100)

Price watch: NEW DEAL!
ROG Ally X | Z1 Extreme | 7-inch screen | 24 GB RAM | 1 TB SSD |
$799.99 $699.99 at Best Buy (save $100)
The ROG Ally X is a little bit too new to receive a massive discount. However, as our pick as the best handheld gaming PC to buy right now, even a $100 off is worth mentioning. Combining a generous helping of RAM, which really matters with an APU, alongside a 1 TB SSD and awesome form factor, the ROG Ally X is top of the charts for a reason.

Price check: Asus $799.99

Price watch: ➖Asus TUF A16 | RX 7700S | Ryzen 7 7735HS | 16-inch | 1200p | 165 Hz | 16 GB DDR5-4800 | 512 GB SSD | $1,099.99 $699.99 at Best Buy (save $400)

Price watch: ➖
Asus TUF A16 | RX 7700S | Ryzen 7 7735HS | 16-inch | 1200p | 165 Hz | 16 GB DDR5-4800 | 512 GB SSD |
$1,099.99 $699.99 at Best Buy (save $400)
A gaming laptop with an AMD GPU is a rarity, rarer still to find one with a very tasty discount. Now, the RX 7700S isn't the most exciting GPU, but it will outperform the RTX 4050 in most games quite comfortably, making this $700 system a very tempting laptop deal. The screen is decent, the RAM is substantial enough and although we'd prefer more storage space, it's a quality budget gaming machine for a very good price.

Price watch: ➖Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 | RTX 4060 | Core i7 13650HX | 16-inch | 1200p | 165 Hz | 16 GB DDR5-4800 | 512 GB SSD | $1,149.99 $999.99 at Amazon (save $150)

Price watch: ➖
Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 | RTX 4060 | Core i7 13650HX | 16-inch | 1200p | 165 Hz | 16 GB DDR5-4800 | 512 GB SSD |
$1,149.99 $999.99 at Amazon (save $150)
Ok, so the SSD is small. Still, it's the easiest thing to upgrade on a laptop, and the rest of the specs are rather nice for the cash. The RTX 4060 handily beats the RTX 4050 by a considerable margin, the screen is a plenty fast 1200p 165 Hz panel, and it's got a nice dose of DDR5. Stick a bigger SSD in it, and it's a nicely-balanced machine.

$1,000–$1,500

Price watch: ➖MSI Katana 15 | RTX 4070 | Intel Core i7 13620H | 16-inch | 144 Hz | 1200p | 1 TB SSD | 16 GB DDR5 | $1,159 at Amazon

Price watch: ➖
MSI Katana 15 | RTX 4070 | Intel Core i7 13620H | 16-inch | 144 Hz | 1200p | 1 TB SSD | 16 GB DDR5 |
$1,159 at Amazon
You're only getting a 1080p screen here, which is a bit of a shame as the rest of the components are all excellent. Still, that RTX 4070 will have no problem pushing that 144 Hz panel to its limits in many games at that res, plus the 10-core (six P-core, four E-core) CPU has some decent DDR5 to play with. It's not perfect, but for this money it's an excellent deal.

Price check: Newegg $1,299

Price watch: ➖Alienware m16 R2 | RTX 4070 | Intel Core Ultra 7 155H | 16-inch | 1600p | 1 TB SSD | 16 GB DDR5 5600 | $1,899.99 $1,299.99 at Best Buy (save $600)

Price watch: ➖
Alienware m16 R2 | RTX 4070 | Intel Core Ultra 7 155H | 16-inch | 1600p | 1 TB SSD | 16 GB DDR5 5600 |
$1,899.99 $1,299.99 at Best Buy (save $600)
This Alienware gaming laptop not only offers what we'd expect to see in a $1,200 machine in 2024, but it comes with one somewhat unexpected item. That's the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, a low-power processor from the Meteor Lake generation. With 16 cores total, this chip makes a good pairing with an RTX 4070 for a power savvy gaming laptop.

Price check: Dell $1,299.99 (with Core Ultra 9/RTX 4060)

Price watch: ➖Acer Predator Helios 18 | RTX 4070 | Intel Core i7 13700HX | 18-inch | 165 Hz | 1600p | 1 TB SSD | 16 GB DDR5 4800 | $1,499.99 $1,299.99 at Newegg (save $200)

Price watch: ➖
Acer Predator Helios 18 | RTX 4070 | Intel Core i7 13700HX | 18-inch | 165 Hz | 1600p | 1 TB SSD | 16 GB DDR5 4800 |
$1,499.99 $1,299.99 at Newegg (save $200)
We tend to like our gaming laptops on the small side, but this desktop-replacing behemoth is truly excellent value for what you get inside. There's a proper RTX 4070 handling the graphics duties, a nicely performant Core i7 13700HX and some decent DDR5 rounding off a powerful, if rather ginormous, gaming beast.

Price watch: ➖Asus TUF Gaming F17 | RTX 4070 | Intel Core i7 13620H | 17.3-inch | 240 Hz | 1440p | 1 TB SSD | 16 GB DDR5 | $1,699.99 $1,299.99 at Newegg (save $400)

Price watch: ➖
Asus TUF Gaming F17 | RTX 4070 | Intel Core i7 13620H | 17.3-inch | 240 Hz | 1440p | 1 TB SSD | 16 GB DDR5 |
$1,699.99 $1,299.99 at Newegg (save $400)
This is a big chonker of a laptop, with a honking great 17-inch 240 Hz display. Combine that with a proper mobile RTX 4070, 16 GB of DDR5 and a 1 TB SSD, and you've got a big lappy with plenty of horsepower and a super speedy screen for a good price.

Price watch: ➖Asus TUF A14 | RTX 4060 | Ryzen AI HX 370 | 16 GB RAM | 1 TB SSD | $1,499 $1,349 at Walmart (save $150)

Price watch: ➖
Asus TUF A14 | RTX 4060 | Ryzen AI HX 370 | 16 GB RAM | 1 TB SSD |
$1,499 $1,349 at Walmart (save $150)
The TUF A14 was a bit of a surprise package to arrive in the PCG office this year, and I ended up a big fan in my review of it. It's a big upgrade on the previous generation of 14-inch, taking many of the design notes from the premium Zephyrus range, but doing so in a more affordable form. It's still a little pricey for an RTX 4060 laptop, if that's all you're after, but for a compact, 14-inch version it's a bit of a bargain.

Price watch: ➖Acer Predator Helios Neo 18 | RTX 4070 | Core i7 14700HX | 18-inch | 165 Hz | 1600p | 16 GB DDR5 | 1 TB SSD | $1,749.99 $1,429.99 at Newegg (save $320)

Price watch: ➖
Acer Predator Helios Neo 18 | RTX 4070 | Core i7 14700HX | 18-inch | 165 Hz | 1600p | 16 GB DDR5 | 1 TB SSD |
$1,749.99 $1,429.99 at Newegg (save $320)
If you want to throw portability out the window and go large, how about this Acer? It's got a huge (for a laptop) 18-inch 165 Hz LED backlit IPS display, and a 140 W TGP RTX 4070 to keep all 1600p of it duly fed. It's not something you're likely to want to haul around too often, but if you're the sort of person that likes to keep your lappy at home for multi-room gaming, it's a great shout for the price.

Price check: Amazon $1,429.99

Price watch: 🔼Lenovo Legion 5i | RTX 4070 | Core i9 14900HX | 16-inch | 1600p | 240 Hz | 32 GB DDR5 5600 | 1 TB SSD | $1,849 $1,449 at B&H Photo (save $400)

Price watch: 🔼
Lenovo Legion 5i | RTX 4070 | Core i9 14900HX | 16-inch | 1600p | 240 Hz | 32 GB DDR5 5600 | 1 TB SSD |
$1,849 $1,449 at B&H Photo (save $400)
Lenovo Legion gaming laptops have been excellent performers for a while now, and this one has specs to impress. The CPU is a 24-core (8 P-cores/16 E-cores) powerhouse, plus you get a proper 32 GB of RAM to play with. Match that with a 140 W RTX 4070 and a 240 Hz screen and this laptop is virtually flawless for the money. 2 TB of storage would be nice if I was being picky, but 1 TB will do you fine.

Price check: Best Buy $1,499.99

$1,500+

Price watch: ➖Acer Predator Triton Neo 16 | RTX 4070 | Core Ultra 9 185H | 16-inch | 2000p | 165 Hz | 32 GB DDR5 | 1 TB SSD | $1,575 $1,499.99 at Amazon (save $75.01)

Price watch: ➖
Acer Predator Triton Neo 16 | RTX 4070 | Core Ultra 9 185H | 16-inch | 2000p | 165 Hz | 32 GB DDR5 | 1 TB SSD |
$1,575 $1,499.99 at Amazon (save $75.01)
Let's start with a caveat—the chassis here isn't exactly beautiful. But everything else about this laptop is great for the price, including a 140 W RTX 4070, a 16-core (six Performance, eight Efficient) Meteor Lake chip and a 16-inch 2000p LED backlit IPS display. That resolution might be a bit much for the RTX 4070 in demanding games, but there's always DLSS 3 to keep the frame rate smooth. 32 GB of DDR5 is great to see, too.

Price check: Newegg $1,499.99

Price watch: ➖Gigabyte Aorus 17H | RTX 4070 | Core i7 13700H | 17.3-inch | 1440p | 240 Hz | 16 GB DDR5-4800 | 1 TB SSD | $1,749 $1,542.24 at Amazon (save $206.76)

Price watch: ➖
Gigabyte Aorus 17H | RTX 4070 | Core i7 13700H | 17.3-inch | 1440p | 240 Hz | 16 GB DDR5-4800 | 1 TB SSD |
$1,749 $1,542.24 at Amazon (save $206.76)
This is a big laptop that, for once, hasn't been packed with the most power-hungry and heat producing components, which is refreshing. That Core i7 is easier to keep cool than an i9 and it's a more suitable match for the 140W RTX 4070 alongside, which should have no problem pushing 1440p res gaming to that screen. Speaking of which, that 240 Hz panel is very speedy indeed, especially for this price.

Price watch: ➖Lenovo Legion Pro 7i | RTX 4080 | Core i9 14900HX | 16-inch | 1600p | 240 Hz | 32 GB DDR5-5600 | 1 TB SSD | $2,649 $1,999 at B&H Photo (save $650)

Price watch: ➖
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i | RTX 4080 | Core i9 14900HX | 16-inch | 1600p | 240 Hz | 32 GB DDR5-5600 | 1 TB SSD |
$2,649 $1,999 at B&H Photo (save $650)
Lenovo make some brilliant gaming laptops, and this Legion Pro 7i is no exception. Featuring the mighty RTX 4080 in combination with Intel's top spec Core i9 mobile CPU, this high-end model should have no trouble tearing through any game you can throw at it. The screen is plenty speedy too with a 240 Hz refresh rate, and 32 GB of fast DDR5 is not to be sniffed at.

Price check: Newegg (2 TB SSD model) $2,499.99

RTX 4060 laptops

RTX 4070 laptops

RTX 4080 laptops

RTX 4090 laptops

AMD Strix Point laptops

Our magic Black Friday price bots are searching the web, constantly tracking down the best gaming laptop deals.

UK quick links

Black Friday gaming laptop deals in the UK

Price watch: ➖ROG Ally | Z1 Extreme | 7-inch screen | 16 GB RAM | 512 GB SSD | £499 £399 at Amazon (save £100)

Price watch: ➖
ROG Ally | Z1 Extreme | 7-inch screen | 16 GB RAM | 512 GB SSD |
£499 £399 at Amazon (save £100)
If you're eyeing up a handheld gaming PC for the holiday period, you can't go wrong with the ROG Ally. This is the version with the full-power chip inside it, the Z1 Extreme, which is absolutely the version to go for. It's a savvy handheld that's still worth a look even with the improved ROG Ally X on the market. Most importantly, it's now the price of a Steam Deck but more powerful and runs Windows 11, which is both a good and bad thing.

Price check: Argos £399.99

Price watch: ➖Lenovo Legion Go | Z1 Extreme | 8.8-inch screen | 16 GB RAM | 512 GB SSD | £699.99 £479.99 at Amazon (save £220)

Price watch: ➖
Lenovo Legion Go | Z1 Extreme | 8.8-inch screen | 16 GB RAM | 512 GB SSD |
£699.99 £479.99 at Amazon (save £220)
The Legion Go is a lot like the ROG Ally crossed with a Nintendo Switch, and much bigger than both. It has detachable controllers, one of which can turn into a mouse, and which make for a simple relaxed set-up. The big screen runs at 1600p, which is great for browsing Windows 11, but not really in the ballpark of the Z1 Extreme chip in terms of playable performance. Still, you can run it at 1080p just fine, and this is one of the more polished gaming handhelds on the market.

Price check: Ebuyer £698.99

Price watch: ➖Gigabyte G5 | RTX 4060 | Core i5 13500H | 15.6-inch | 1080p | 144 Hz | 16 GB DDR5-4800 | 512 GB SSD | £849.99 £716.53 at Amazon (save £133.46)

Price watch: ➖
Gigabyte G5 | RTX 4060 | Core i5 13500H | 15.6-inch | 1080p | 144 Hz | 16 GB DDR5-4800 | 512 GB SSD |
£849.99 £716.53 at Amazon (save £133.46)
We're big fans of this little budget gaming laptop, and our Jacob loved its great gaming performance (check out our review). With some genuine 1080p gaming chops on offer for a substantially lower price than we've seen previously, this makes for a tidy little gaming laptop for not much cash at all.

Price check: Currys £749

Price watch: ➖Gigabyte Aorus 7 | RTX 4060 | Core i5 12500H | 17.3-inch | 1080p | 360 Hz | 16 GB DDR5-3200 | 512 GB SSD | £999.95 £899.99 at Overclockers UK (save £99.96)

Price watch: ➖
Gigabyte Aorus 7 | RTX 4060 | Core i5 12500H | 17.3-inch | 1080p | 360 Hz | 16 GB DDR5-3200 | 512 GB SSD |
£999.95 £899.99 at Overclockers UK (save £99.96)
A slightly odd set of components here, but if you're looking for a large screen laptop with decent gaming performance at a budget price point, this is a darn good shout. That large screen might be only 1080p, but it's super speedy, and it's well matched with an RTX 4060 and a 12th Gen (but still performant) Intel mobile chip.

Price watch: ➖Asus TUF F15 | RTX 4070 | Core i7 12700H | 15.6-inch | 1080p | 144 Hz | 16 GB DDR4 3200 | 1 TB SSD | £1,199.99 £949.99 at Amazon (save £250)

Price watch: ➖
Asus TUF F15 | RTX 4070 | Core i7 12700H | 15.6-inch | 1080p | 144 Hz | 16 GB DDR4 3200 | 1 TB SSD |
£1,199.99 £949.99 at Amazon (save £250)
For just a smidge under a grand, this laptop has a properly excellent spec sheet for the cash. The screen might be 1080p, but that just means that RTX 4070 will have no problems cranking frames towards that 144 Hz panel. The CPU is still a bit of a mobile barnstormer too, and you get a proper 1 TB SSD for storage.

Price watch: Acer Predator Helios Neo 18 | RTX 4070 | Core i7 14700H | 18-inch | 1600p | 165 Hz | 16 GB DDR5 | 1 TB SSD | £2,317 £1,499 at Laptops Direct (save £818)

Price watch:
Acer Predator Helios Neo 18 | RTX 4070 | Core i7 14700H | 18-inch | 1600p | 165 Hz | 16 GB DDR5 | 1 TB SSD |
£2,317 £1,499 at Laptops Direct (save £818)
It's a seriously large laptop this, but if you're looking for a huge screen and some mega components to match, this is a superb pick for the money. That RTX 4070 should be able to keep that big IPS panel fed with pixels thanks to DLSS 3, and the Core i7 processor here will have no problems keeping up. Big, beastly, and surprisingly good value.

Price check: Amazon £1,700

Price watch: 🔽Acer Predator Triton Neo | RTX 4070 | Core Ultra 9 185H | 16-inch | 2000p | 165 Hz | 32 GB DDR5 | 1 TB SSD | £1,599 £1,499 at Amazon (save £100)

Price watch: 🔽
Acer Predator Triton Neo | RTX 4070 | Core Ultra 9 185H | 16-inch | 2000p | 165 Hz | 32 GB DDR5 | 1 TB SSD |
£1,599 £1,499 at Amazon (save £100)
This might not technically be on discount, but it's still a lot of laptop for the cash. Here you get a 2000p speedy panel in combination with an efficient yet very gaming capable CPU, paired with 32 GB of RAM and a decent 1 TB SSD. It's not the prettiest machine, but it's a very portable, very powerful gaming powerhouse in a slim chassis.

Price watch: ➖MSI Vector 17  | RTX 4080 | Core i9 13980HX | 17-inch | 1200p | 165 Hz | 16 GB DDR5 | 1 TB SSD | £1,698.99 at Amazon

Price watch: ➖
MSI Vector 17 | RTX 4080 | Core i9 13980HX | 17-inch | 1200p | 165 Hz | 16 GB DDR5 | 1 TB SSD |
£1,698.99 at Amazon
When it comes to the hardware running under the bonnet, this 17-inch MSI Vector certainly has the goods, what with that Intel Core i9 processor and an RTX 4080 making a very tempting package indeed. Bit of a shame about the 1200p display and 16GB of RAM, but at least the screen's a good 'un with a 144Hz refresh rate and nice and bright panel. There's a huge amount of performance here, making this machine a sizeable chunk of power for just under £1,700.

Price check: Laptops Direct £1,699

Our magic Black Friday price bots are searching the web, constantly tracking down the best gaming laptop deals.

When is Black Friday 2024?

Black Friday is officially kicking off on Friday November 29, 2024. But in real terms the big end of year sales event will be going long before that date and long after it, too. We're already seeing lots of Black Friday deals throughout the week leading up to the main day, so it very much feels like the festivities have already started.

So, buckle up for some great Black Friday gaming laptop deals, as we're starting to see a bunch of the best gaming laptops from 2024 go on sale.

Will prices drop any lower?

There are always reasons to hold off on making a new purchase whenever you are thinking about making one. Whether it's the potential for a new generation of techie goodness on the horizon—either cutting prices on existing models or delivering tangible higher performance—or because there might be an imminent sale like Black Friday looming.

When picking out Black Friday gaming laptop deals we take all of this into consideration, and where we think prices on something might significantly drop on the big day itself we simply won't recommend it. But all of the products here we either believe won't significantly drop much further in terms of their pricing, even over Cyber Monday or Cyber Week, or are just good deals that we wouldn't hesitate recommending if you wanted to make a purchase today.

It's worth stating, too, that many retailers have already dropped prices as low as they're going to go in the Black Friday sales, and the likes of Newegg and Best Buy are offering their own kinds of price guarantees to give you some confidence in their current discounts.

What should I look out for in a Black Friday gaming laptop deal?

The best Black Friday gaming laptop deals should deliver high-performance hardware for a knockdown price, or at the very least not come with an overly inflated price tag.

But it doesn't automatically scan that just because something has a three-figure discount that it will be worth the money. You need to keep an eye on what parts are being used, what else you get for your cash, and whether it's actually right for you.

We've put together a guide on what we look for in a gaming laptop over Black Friday, which should be able to give you some helpful pointers in your own search. I'd also recommend using a price comparison website, such as CamelCamelCamel to compare current and historical prices, as sometimes deals are not as good as they seem.

As top-line advice, don't be fooled into parting with money for anything beyond the last generation of GPUs. It's unlikely there'll be a laptop with an Nvidia 30-series graphics card inside it that's worth buying this Black Friday, unless you can find a wonderfully cheap deal.

Keep an eye out for storage and memory size too. That's most true at the low end of the market, where manufacturers may aim to keep prices low by using single sticks of memory and therefore halving the potential memory bandwidth. That might not be a problem in the very cheapest of gaming laptops, however, where the GPU will make the most difference to your experience.

TOPICS
Dave James
Editor-in-Chief, Hardware

Dave has been gaming since the days of Zaxxon and Lady Bug on the Colecovision, and code books for the Commodore Vic 20 (Death Race 2000!). He built his first gaming PC at the tender age of 16, and finally finished bug-fixing the Cyrix-based system around a year later. When he dropped it out of the window. He first started writing for Official PlayStation Magazine and Xbox World many decades ago, then moved onto PC Format full-time, then PC Gamer, TechRadar, and T3 among others. Now he's back, writing about the nightmarish graphics card market, CPUs with more cores than sense, gaming laptops hotter than the sun, and SSDs more capacious than a Cybertruck.

With contributions from