Live
Looking for the best Prime Day gaming laptop deals? The sales are still ongoing even after the official event has ended
There are still serious discounts on gaming laptops right now, from Amazon and further afield.
1. Under $1,000
2. $1,000 - $1,500
3. $1,500+
4. UK deals
5. My recommendations (LIVE)
Prime Day is done and dusted and yet I'm still finding most of our favorite gaming laptop deals are still live. Yippee... ahem.
The big stores have been holding summer sales events for the past couple of weeks, so Amazon isn't the only one with deals fever. They're all at it—including Best Buy, Newegg, B&H, Walmart, Target and more—and many are awfully competitive on price, too. Maintaining a watchful eye across all of these retailers is a big job and there's some absolute trash out there—but that's what I'm here for.
We've been hunting around all of them for good deals on laptops. I've years of experience reviewing gaming laptops and a range of PC components and I'm convinced—as much as anyone can be without being big-headed—that I know a good laptop deal when I see one.
In the live section below you'll find my recommendations—the gaming laptop deals I feel offer the best blend of performance and price, at least for a few more days. After that, you're on your own. (Actually we keep a guide to the best cheap gaming laptop deals running all year long).
There's no need to go anywhere: this page will automatically update with my latest picks.
Quick links
- Amazon: Asus RTX 4060 laptops from $969
- Asus: TUF 15 RTX 4070 for $1,150 @ Best Buy
- MSI: RTX 4060 laptop for $980 @ Newegg
- Gigabyte: RTX 4070 Aorus 17 laptop for $1,530 @ Amazon
- Lenovo: Save $750 on a Legion Pro 7i RTX 4080 machine @ B&H Photo
- Walmart: RTX 4070 HP Victus for $1,199
- Target: Manufacturer refurbs from Acer from $700
- Razer: Up to $300 off RTX 40-series Blades
- Newegg: RTX 4080 Gigabyte laptop for $1,800
- Best Buy: RTX 4060 laptop from $850
- Dell: RTX 4070 Dell G16 for $1,300
- RTX 4050: HP Victus 15 | $599 @ Walmart
- RTX 4060: Acer Nitro V | $849.99 @ Best Buy
- RTX 4070: Acer Nitro 16 | $1,130 @ Newegg
- RTX 4080: Gigabyte Aorus 17H | $1,780 @ Newegg
The best Prime Day gaming laptop deals under $1,000
Steam Deck (LCD) | 512GB SSD | $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.
Asus ROG Ally | AMD Z1 Extreme | 7-inch 1080p | 120 Hz | 16GB RAM | 512GB SSD | $649.99 $549.99 at Best Buy (save $100)
The most powerful version of one of the best PC gaming handhelds is back at a discounted price. The Asus Ally surprised us at launch with its relatively low MSRP (for a premium Asus product), and now it's even cheaper. Has the time come for you to get in on some handheld gaming action?
Lenovo Legion Go | AMD Z1 Extreme | 8.8-inch 1080p | 144 Hz | 16GB RAM | 512GB SSD | $699.99 $599.99 at (save $100)
If detachable controllers are your thing, the Legion Go comes with a sweet, 8.8-inch, 2560 x 1600p panel so you can dock it and lean back a little. It's chunky and a little over the top, screen-wise, when it comes to games that require more high-fidelity, but it's a great little machine for storming through your indie game backlog on the go.
HP Victus 15 | RTX 4050 | Ryzen 5 8645HS | 15.6-inch | 1080p | 144 Hz | 8 GB DDR5 | 512 GB SSD | $979 $599 at Walmart (save $380)
Let's be upfront about this, nobody wants a laptop with just 8 GB of RAM in 2024. But when you're talking about a gaming notebook that costs just $600, 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 a job at 1080p, and for this money, that's all you can ask.
Acer Nitro V | RTX 4060 | Core i7 13620H | 15.6-inch | 1080p | 144 Hz | 16 GB DDR5 | 512 GB SSD | $1,099.99 $849.99 at Best Buy (save $250)
This is the cheapest RTX 4060 gaming laptop we've found over Prime Day so far, and it looks like a pretty solid buy, too. Laptop GPUs can be tough to parse in terms of their power and therefore performance, but I'm pretty confident this is a 75 W RTX 4060, which is on par with the significantly more expensive Gigabyte G5 we've been recommending for an age. My only real concern here is the meager 512 GB SSD, when 1 TB feels like a modern minimum for gamers. But the chassis is easy to open and comes with a spare M.2 SSD slot making that a simple problem to fix, and a relatively cheap one, too.
Dell G15 | RTX 4060 | Ryzen 7 7840HS | 15.6-inch | 1080p | 165 Hz | 16 GB DDR5-4800 | 512 GB SSD | $999.97 $949.99 at Amazon (save $49.98)
Dell's angular chassis definitely feels like it's had some Alienware influence on it, but it is quite a bezel-happy thing. Still, you are getting a decent spec for a decent sub-$1,000 price. That includes an RTX 4060 that will certainly do a job with the 1080p display. But it's a slick 165 Hz panel, and you're getting a full 16GB of dual-channel DDR5, the mighty AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS CPU, though only a 512 GB SSD. Still, this is a lot of laptop for not a huge chunk of cash.
Gigabyte G5 | RTX 4060 | Core i7 12650H | 15.6-inch | 1080p | 144 Hz | 16GB DDR4 | 1TB SSD | $969 at Amazon
The ol' Gigabyte G5 has been a classic when it comes to budget gaming laptops for a long while now, and just when you thought it had disappeared it's back with better specs and a still sub-$1,000 price tag. As we discovered when we reviewed the Core i5 version of the G5, it's a great little gaming laptop, and with the extra storage and slightly better CPU this is a quality machine for the money. If you're happy with just a 512GB SSD (or have a bigger one ready to drop in) you could save a little more cash and go for the 512GB $922 version.
Price check: Newegg $1,124.99
Lenovo Legion Slim 5 | RTX 4060 | Ryzen 5 7640HS | 16-inch | 1200p | 144 Hz | 16GB DDR5 | 512GB SSD | $1,349.99 $969 at Amazon (save $380.99)
This is an amazing price for a 140W RTX 4060 gaming laptop. Sure the screen is a little large for a relatively small 1200p resolution in terms of pixel pitch, but in game you'll get a great level of performance out of the GPU. The SSD also isn't very large, but these are minor quibbles when the rest of the system is so good. It's a great price for a great laptop.
Price check: Newegg $1,234.99 | Best Buy $1,349.99
The best Prime Day gaming laptop deals from $1,000 to $1,500
Acer Nitro 16 | RTX 4070 | Ryzen 7 7735HS | 16-inch | 1600p | 165 Hz | 16 GB DDR5 | 512 GB SSD | $1,199.99 $1,129.99 at Newegg (save $70)
Forget an RTX 4060 laptop at this price point, you can secure yourself an RTX 4070 for the same money. Not only does this machine come with a bigger GPU than most for the money, the rest of this laptop is awesome, too. A fantastic Ryzen 7040-series CPU is paired with 16 GB of DDR5 and a 1600p screen. Only downside is that 512 GB SSD, though you could swap it out for something bigger.
Asus TUF F15 | RTX 4070 | Core i7 13620H | 15.6-inch | 1080p | 144 Hz | 16 GB DDR5-4800 | 1TB SSD | $1,399.99 $1,149.99 at Best Buy (save $250)
This is a gaming laptop deal that makes it tough to recommend RTX 4060 machines for anything near to a grand. With a genuine RTX 4070 GPU in a system for this much you're got a lot of gaming power for a great price. We did see a 12th Gen version for $980 around Black Friday last year, so there is precedent, but we've not seen a similarly specced system down around this price since.
Price check: Newegg $1,269.99 | Amazon $1,271.96
HP Victus 16 | RTX 4070 | Core i7 13700H | 16-inch | 1080p | 144 Hz | 16 GB DDR5-5200 | 1 TB SSD | $1,199 at Walmart
The Victus range isn't the HP brand that comes to mind when you think gaming laptop, but it's the affordable side of the business which is still able to pack a decent punch for the price. This RTX 4070-powered machine is the cheapest we've found toting Nvidia's third-tier mobile GPU, but it is a 120 W version, not the full 140 W monty. That will still deliver at the 1080p res of this screen and will work comfortably under this relatively slim 16-inch chassis. The rest of the spec—16 GB DDR5 and 1 TB SSD—are exactly what you'd hope for at this end of the market, too. A really good price for a seriously solid machine.
Gigabyte Aorus 15 | RTX 4070 | Core i7 13700H | 16-inch | 1440p | 160 Hz | 16GB DDR5 | 1TB SSD | $1,399.99 $1,249.99 at Newegg (save $150)
Last year's Aorus 15 is still a very good mid-range gaming laptop. It's not as overtly gamer-aggressive in styling as previous Aorus machines, and yet it's still got all the gaming goods you would want from a 15-incher. The 165 Hz, 1440p panel comes with an impressively thin bezel and compliments the 140 W RTX 4070 that Gigabyte is packing inside it. The classic 16GB / 1TB memory/storage combo is plenty good enough to support the 14-core Core i7 chip at its heart, too.
Price check: Amazon $1,249.99
HP Omen Transcend 14 | RTX 4060 | Core Ultra 7 155H | 14-inch | 120 Hz | 2880 x 1800 | OLED | 512GB SSD | 16GB DDR5-7500 | $1,599.99 $1,199.99 at HP (save $400)
This lovely 14-incher is pretty expensive for an RTX 4060 but it's still the best compact gaming laptop around. You get an excellent OLED panel as standard and a 65W GPU that will still deliver a quality gaming experience. The 512GB SSD is a bit small, but you can configure the machine with a 1TB drive if you're willing to spend a bit more. Shame the battery life isn't so good, but that's small gaming laptops for you
The best Prime Day gaming laptop deals from $1,500+
Gigabyte Aorus 17H | RTX 4070 | Core i7 13700H | 17.3-inch | 1440p | 240 Hz | 16GB DDR5-4800 | 1TB SSD | $1,749 $1,529.99 at Amazon (save $219.01)
This is a big laptop that, for once, hasn't packed with the most power-hungry components. That Core i7 is easier to keep cool than an i9 and it's a more suitable match for the 140W RTX 4070 alongside. It is $200 more than the Asus TUF above but you're getting a much nicer display.
Gigabyte Aorus 17H | RTX 4080 | Core i7 13700H | 17.3-inch | 1080p | 360 Hz | 16GB DDR5-4800 | 1TB SSD | $1,849 $1,769.99 at Newegg (save $79.01)
$1,800 for a laptop with a 1080p screen? Ignore that for the moment and note that you're getting a decent CPU, a 150W RTX 4080, and a nice amount of storage. Then focus on the fact that the screen is enormous (for a laptop) and super-fast, and what you're looking at is something that's idle for e-sports and competitive shooter fans. Gigabyte's control app isn't the best, though.
Razer Blade 14 | RTX 4070 | Ryzen 9 7940HS | 14-inch | 2560 x 1600 | 240 Hz | 16 GB DDR5 | 1 TB SSD | $2,699.99 $1,699.99 at Best Buy (save $1.000)
14 inches and Razer's Blade engineering is a killer combo. But it's horribly expensive. Normally, that is. Thanks to Amazon Prime Day, Best Buy is getting in on the deal action and this RTX 4070 equipped model is actually cheaper than the RTX 4060 model we featured earlier. But you get the same AMD CPU, the same 1440p display, the same 16GB of memory and the same 1TB SSD. You get the idea, it's basically the same except for the superior Nvidia GPU and for less money. Boom.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i | RTX 4080 | Core i9 13900HX | 16-inch | 1600p | 240 Hz | 32GB DDR5-5600 | 1TB SSD | $2,799 $2,049 at B&H Photo (save $750)
Let's be honest, at this point, this isn't a deal on the best RTX 4080 laptop I've tested, this is just the price that it is. It's effectively been on offer at B&H at this level for a year now, but it's a fantastic notebook, offering performance that can often match and sometimes beat an RTX 4090-based system (see our review). There's a high-performance CPU to back it up, a decent, bright 1600p screen, and a fair amount of storage. All with a discount.
Razer Blade 16 | RTX 4080 | Core i9 13950HX | 16-inch | QHD+ | 240 Hz | 32 GB DDR5-5600 | 1 TB SSD | $3,599.99 $2,599.99 at Amazon (save $1,000)
There's no escaping Razer's premium pricing, though you can ease it a little with a deal like this. This is last year's model though you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference in many ways. It comes with an RTX 4080 mobile chip and the Core i9 13950HX—more or less the best spec you should reasonably want inside a gaming laptop today.
Price check: Walmart $2,599.99
The best Amazon Prime Day gaming laptop deals in the UK
- Amazon: 15% off the best OLED Razer Blade
- Laptops Direct: MSI RTX 4060 laptop for £750
- Overclockers: RTX 4070 laptop for £1,300
- Razer UK: Up to £1,000 off some RTX 4080 Blade laptops
- Scan: RTX 4070 laptop from £1,150
- PC Specialist: Configurable RTX 40-series laptops
- Cyberpower: Asus RTX 4060 for £850
- Currys: £1,099 RTX 4070 MSI machine
- RTX 4060: MSI Bravo 15 | £750 @ Laptops Direct
- RTX 4070: MSI Katana 15 | £1,099 @ Currys
- RTX 4080: MSI Vector 17 I £1,899 @ Ebuyer
MSI Bravo| RTX 4060 | Ryzen 7 7735HS | 15.6-inch | 1080p | 144 Hz | 16 GB DDR5 | 512GB SSD | £999.99 £749.97 at Laptops Direct (save £250)
With a 105 W TGP on its RTX 4060 GPU, this surprisingly affordable MSI machine puts it at the top of our list of gaming laptop deals. That's way beyond the awful 45 W Cyborg (which you should absolutely avoid) and speedier than the Gigabyte we love so well. The SSD is a bit sad, and the AMD chip isn't the full Zen 4 deal, so you don't get the battery sipping 780M integrated graphics (just the Zen 3+ 680M), but it's still a lot of laptop for £750.
Gigabyte G5 | RTX 4060 | Core i5 12500H | 15.6-inch | 1080p | 144 Hz | 16GB DDR4-3200 | 512GB SSD | £1,099 £799 at Currys (save £250)
We're big fans of this little budget gaming laptop, and our Jacob loved its great gaming performance (check out our review). With over £250 off the original price and some genuine 1080p gaming chops on offer, we reckon this makes quite a tidy deal. It's a bit more expensive than the above Medion P25 but the RTX 4060 is much better for gaming.
Price check: Amazon £799
Asus TUF | RTX 4060 | Ryzen 5 7735HS | 15.6-inch | 1080p | 144 Hz | 16 GB DDR5 | 512 GB SSD | £894.97 £849.60 at Cyberpower (save £45.07)
This isn't the cheapest RTX 4060-powered laptop around, but it's the one that will likely give you the most performance thanks to its 140 W TGP. The Gigabyte above makes do with 75 W, so this is pushing the silicon a whole lot further and that will show in the gaming benchmarks. The TUF laptops are quality budget machines, too. Not as sleek as the Asus ROG notebooks, but they've got it where it counts. Well, except for that miserly 512 GB SSD, that is.
Price check: Amazon £894.97
MSI Katana 15 | RTX 4070 | Core i9 13900H | 15.6-inch | 1080p | 144 Hz | 16GB DDR5 | 1TB SSD | £1,399 £1,099 at Currys (save £300)
Phew, those are some pretty impressive specs at a similarly impressive discount, from a trusted brand no less. Yes, it's only got a 1080p screen, and yes, 32GB of RAM instead of the included 16GB would be nice, but for just £1,149 you get a super-fast Core i9, an RTX 4070 and a 1TB SSD. That's a bit of a magic combo if you ask me, and at a bit of a magic price too. That GPU isn't running at peak performance, however, with just a 105 W TGP, but that still gives it enough juice to cope with that 1080p screen even if it's not the full 140 W deal.
Price check: Amazon £1,150
MSI Vector 17 | RTX 4080 | Core i9-13980HX | 17-inch | 1200p | 165 Hz | 16GB DDR5 | 1TB SSD | £2,097.90 £1,899 at Ebuyer (save £198.90)
When it comes to the hardware running under the bonnet, this 16-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 in quite a slim and svelte package, making this machine a lot of power for under the magic £2,000 marker.
LIVE: Latest Updates
Hey, Jacob here. I'm senior hardware editor here at PC Gamer. I'll be your guide for the next two days' festivities.
I'm scouring the web for the very best gaming laptop deals as you read this, so stay tuned here for my top recommendations.
Acer Nitro 16 | RTX 4070 | Ryzen 7 7735HS | 16-inch | 1600p | 165 Hz | 16 GB DDR5 | 512 GB SSD | $1,199.99 $1,129.99 at Newegg (save $70)
Forget an RTX 4060 laptop at this price point, you can secure yourself an RTX 4070 for the same money. Not only does this machine come with a bigger GPU than most for the money, the rest of this laptop is awesome, too. A fantastic Ryzen 7040-series CPU is paired with 16 GB of DDR5 and a 1600p screen. Only downside is that 512 GB SSD, though you could swap it out for something bigger.
Here's why I chose this laptop: Any gaming laptop with an RTX 4070 under $1,200 is going to get my attention, but since I've seen at least five of said laptops, here's why I'm suggesting this one.
For starters, this machine comes with the Ryzen 7 7735HS at its heart. An eight core, 16-thread CPU, it importantly shares many of the same attributes that make the desktop variants so popular, too. That includes the superb Zen 3 architecture, a power-savvy design when required, and a 680M iGPU. That last one is important as it means you don't necessarily have to stick with the power hungry RTX 4070 in this machine when you don't need it. That's good for battery.
The screen is a smart pairing here. A 2560 x 1600 resolution panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio leaves plenty of room for working and gaming. It is also rated to 165 Hz, which should more than suffice for most games.
The one downside to this laptop is the 512 GB SSD. That's miniscule for today's Steam libraries, especially once you factor in the size of the Windows 11 OS these days. Luckily, I've done some digging and found you should have a spare NVMe slot in the undercarriage for an easy upgrade with a bigger drive—and without removing the old one—though you'll need to be comfortable taking the bottom panel off.
What to look for in a gaming laptop: So, you're thinking about buying a gaming laptop. Here are three things to look out for:
1. Check for single-channel memory: We tend to avoid laptops with 8 GB of memory—only the most budget machines are worth considering with such little RAM available—though there's another, often more hidden specification to look out for. That's whether the RAM is dual-channel or single-channel.
Laptop CPUs are able to make use of two channels for RAM, the total available bandwidth split between them. If you have a laptop with a single stick of SO-DIMM memory within it, it will only be utilising a single channel. That's bad news for performance in any application, including games, that are memory limited. The good news is that even single-channel memory can still perform well most of the time, but when you're buying a new laptop in 2024, why run the risk of your favourite game falling foul?
While some laptops will say whether they come with two sticks of RAM, i.e. "2 x 8 GB", others will not. That information isn't always made available and you might have to dig around to be sure what you're getting. Otherwise, you can always upgrade your RAM to dual-channel memory.
2. Get the balance right between screen and GPU: Most laptop manufacturers are pretty good at getting this balance right, but if you're buying an RTX 4090 gaming laptop and your choice of laptop comes with a 1080p screen, you might not be getting the most out of it. You probably want a 16:10 2560 x 1600 resolution screen rated to 240 Hz or something similar. That's the sweet spot.
Similarly, a 4K screen on a tiny 14-inch gaming laptop with a chunky GPU inside it is not as awesome of a combination as it may seem. While potentially handy for accelerating Blender or AI workloads, for gaming, the tiny screen will crush many of the benefits of 4K while sapping performance, and generally the high-end GPUs consume enough wattage to send 14-inch laptops over the edge for thermals.
3. All gaming laptops sound like a jet engine while gaming: We just haven't cracked the technology to keep our gaming laptops cool while actually gaming. There are some heartening moves to make solid-state cooling a thing, though hardly a shipping laptop to show for it today.
I'm not trying to put you off buying a gaming laptop—quite the opposite, I think they can be great—but I want to be upfront about what you can expect. Some gaming laptops choose to prioritise lower-wattage GPUs and power-savvy CPUs to reduce the need for chunky cooling, such as the compact Zephyrus G14, though even these need fast, loud fans to keep cool. In all my years of testing I've never found a gaming laptop that's significantly quieter than any other, only a bit less... annoying?
Razer Blade 15 | RTX 4070 | Core i7 13800H | 15-inch | 1440p | 240 Hz | 16 GB DDR5-5200 | 1 TB SSD | $2,799.99 $1,599.99 at Amazon (save $1,200)
This is the cheapest we've seen an RTX 4070 Blade 15 going for in... maybe ever? I can't find any evidence to suggest this modern spec has been any cheaper, anyways. You're still paying a premium for the Razer badge, but the company does make a mean laptop with an all-metal chassis and excellent performance.
Here's why I chose this laptop: You're probably thinking why, why oh why, am I recommending an RTX 4070 that's hundreds of dollars more expensive than many others on sale today?
The answer, whether you choose to accept it or not, is because it's made by Razer.
Razer has a certain knack for designing amazing gaming laptops, culminating in the delectable Razer Blade 15 before you here. This is the laptop design that may be Razer's best, despite the company actually ditching it in favour of 14- and 16-inch designs in 2024.
Yep, the 15-inch Blade is no more, replaced by chunkier models. This is the last vestige of a bygone era. Or something like that. The 15-inch chassis is thinner than the newer models and that's why it's limited to an RTX 4070, but that's honestly a trade-off we're completely fine making.
Don't fret that this is a slightly older model of laptop, either. The 13th Gen Intel CPU inside this Blade 15 is near enough the same as the newer 14th Gen models and the RTX 4070 is yet to be replaced by anything fresher. It's effectively all the same up-to-date silicon and it will perform like it, too.
Hey there deals shoppers, this is senior editor Wes Fenlon taking the reins from Jacob, who apparently has to eat to stay alive. 🙄 What do you mean you can't subsist on an all-SODIMM diet!?
The deals highlighted above cover the best prices for Prime Day right now, but there are a lot of them, so how about some more curated recommendations? I'm 100% with our hardware lead Dave James on 14-inch gaming laptops being the sweet spot. Check out his round-up here:
Of the three models highlighted in Dave's post, this is the one I'd go for myself:
Asus ROG Zephyrus 14 | Nvidia RTX 4060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS | 14-inch | OLED | 1440p | 120 Hz | 16GB LPDDR5X-6400| 1 TB SSD | $1,599.99 at Best Buy
The best 14-incher and one that can game without busting your bank balance or your shoulder when lugging it around. It's no-nonsense specs in a delightful package. This is the latest version with the sexy aluminum unibody chassis. It's a very smart package, though obviously not the most affordable RTX 4060 machine by any stretch.
Price check: Newegg $1,669.99
Logitech G305 Lightspeed | Wireless | 12,000 DPI | $49.99 $28.49 at Amazon (save $10.01)
The cheapest we've seen Logitech's most budget friendly gaming model—a darn good deal. This is a tried and tested design that incorporates an excellent sensor and a snappy wireless connection for an overall great gaming mouse.
Price check: Newegg $49.99
Hold on a second, that's not a laptop. I know it's not! But hear me out:
A gaming laptop deserves a gaming mouse as a companion. I can play weeks of Slay the Spire with a trackpad just fine (and some of the other entries in our list of the best laptop games, which I curate). But for most games—and especially doing any amount of work on an extended trip—I really want a mouse.
The Logitech G305 has been my trusty travel companion for years: it's cheap and very light, coming in at under 100 grams even with a AA battery inside. And that battery is rated for 250 hours, which is realistically good for months if you just use it in short doses while traveling. The G305 has the same 12,000 CPI Hero sensor on board as Logitech's more expensive gaming mice, so you're not sacrificing on performance.
Crucially, it also has a little slot on the inside for storing the USB dongle so you won't lose it. Easily the best gaming travel mouse at this price, in my opinion.
Wondering if you should skip over all these AMD & Intel gaming laptops in favor of one of the new models running on Qualcomm's Snapdragon X ARM processor?
Pertinent question—the power efficiency of the Snapdragon X was hyped up at Computex just a few weeks back, and it really marks the first time Windows on ARM has been a thing, after some false starts in the past.
From what we've seen, performance and compatibility both have a ways to go with the Snapdragon X, especially for games. Give them another year, though, and they may be a strong threat to Chromebooks, offering better performance and 15+ hour battery life. For gaming, though? AMD and Intel probably aren't sweating too hard.
Asus TUF A16 | RX 7700S | Ryzen 7 7735HS | 16-inch | 1200p | 165 Hz | 16 GB DDR5-4800 | 512 GB SSD | $1,099.99 $679.99 at Best Buy (save $420)
This AMD GPU can outperform the budget RTX 4050 in most games quite comfortably, which gives this $700 gaming laptop a bit more oomph than usual. It's not the fastest RAM, brightest screen or most storage, but the price is right. And hey, it's more than 8GB of DDR.
Time for another deal highlight, and it's one of my favorite from all the laptop deals we've spotted this year. This one's from Best Buy rather than Amazon, is $420 off (😏) and less than $700 all told, which is... pretty dang cheap for a gaming laptop, especially in this era of inflation. This is a machine you could safely buy on a tight college budget and do some light gaming on while saving the rest of your money for more important things.
Book, of course. I mean books.
Budget laptops tend to skimp on memory, but thankfully you've got 16GB here, even if it's on the slower side for DDR5. But neither the memory or the SSD are soldered in this laptop, so you can absolutely open it up and pop in some faster sticks or another SSD (it even has two M.2 slots, so you can add to the base 512GB instead of replacing it!). That's a pretty flexible system for the price, as long as you keep your graphics expectations in check.
It's the morning, and this is a Dave inexpertly tapping words out on a blank-faced keyboard with an equally blank-faced stare on his face. Man, I need some more coffee. And cake. Anyways, I'm in here bright and early checking out the gaming laptop deals to see what's what on this second day of Prime Day: Prime Day - the Revengeance.
It's probably not a huge surprise that a lot of the same deals are still sticking around into this second day, and I wouldn't get too worried about anyone's calls for 'there's only xx hours left of Prime Day' because the big retailers are still going to be discounting into the rest of this week, too. So, even if Jeff's members deals on Amazon have ceased, there will still be discounts aplenty.
Like this one! Segue!
Razer Blade 14 | RTX 4070 | Ryzen 9 7940HS | 14-inch | 2560 x 1600 | 240 Hz | 16 GB DDR5 | 1 TB SSD | $2,699.99 $1,699.99 at Best Buy (save $1,000)
14 inches and Razer's Blade engineering is a killer combo. But it's horribly expensive. Normally, that is. Thanks to Amazon Prime Day, Best Buy is getting in on the deal action and this RTX 4070 equipped model is actually cheaper than the RTX 4060 model we featured earlier. But you get the same AMD CPU, the same 1440p display, the same 16GB of memory and the same 1TB SSD. You get the idea, it's basically the same except for the superior Nvidia GPU and for less money. Boom.
Best Buy hasn't been the absolute best place for gaming laptop deals this Prime Day—and I still haven't forgiven it for dangling an amazing Zephyrus G14 OLED deal in my face on Friday before rug-pulling it on Monday—but it has cut the price of what was already a decent Razer Blade 14 deal.
Another $200 has been lopped off the price, making it a massive $1,000 discount on the MSRP. That puts it even cheaper than the RTX 4060 version on Amazon.
It's a stunning little laptop, with a hell of a lot of power, and now missing the massive Razer price premium on top. I kinda want one.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i | RTX 4080 | Core i9 13900HX | 16-inch | 1600p | 240 Hz | 32GB DDR5-5600 | 1TB SSD | $2,799 $2,049 at B&H Photo (save $750)
Let's be honest, at this point, this isn't a deal on the best RTX 4080 laptop I've tested, this is just the price that it is. It's effectively been on offer at B&H at this level for a year now, but it's a fantastic notebook, offering performance that can often match and sometimes beat an RTX 4090-based system (see our review). There's a high-performance CPU to back it up, a decent, bright 1600p screen, and a fair amount of storage. All with a discount.
This isn't so much a new deal as much as the going price for the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, but I wanted to highlight it as we absolutely love this laptop. It's a tremendous mix of performance, screen and size. For gaming, you can expect RTX 4090 (mobile)-beating performance in some games, and the 32 GB of DDR5 RAM means it's a dab hand at more demanding jobs like editing lots of video.
Gigabyte G5 | RTX 4060 | Core i7 12650H | 15.6-inch | 1080p | 144 Hz | 16GB DDR4 | 1TB SSD | $969 at Amazon
The ol' Gigabyte G5 has been a classic when it comes to budget gaming laptops for a long while now, and just when you thought it had disappeared it's back with better specs and a still sub-$1,000 price tag. As we discovered when we reviewed the Core i5 version of the G5, it's a great little gaming laptop, and with the extra storage and slightly better CPU this is a quality machine for the money. If you're happy with just a 512GB SSD (or have a bigger one ready to drop in) you could save a little more cash and go for the 512GB $922 version.
Price check: Newegg $1,124.99
Dell G15 | RTX 4060 | Ryzen 7 7840HS | 15.6-inch | 1080p | 165 Hz | 16 GB DDR5-4800 | 512 GB SSD | $999.97 $949.99 at Amazon (save $49.98)
Dell's angular chassis definitely feels like it's had some Alienware influence on it, but it is quite a bezel-happy thing. Still, you are getting a decent spec for a decent sub-$1,000 price. That includes an RTX 4060 that will certainly do a job with the 1080p display. But it's a slick 165 Hz panel, and you're getting a full 16GB of dual-channel DDR5, the mighty AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS CPU, though only a 512 GB SSD. Still, this is a lot of laptop for not a huge chunk of cash.
Let's talk about the RTX 4060 (mobile).
With the recent price drops across heaps of RTX 4070 laptops, I've grown weary of the RTX 4060. It's a chip that's destined to age quicker than others in laptops, and yet for the right price I could still be swayed.
The one that catches my eye right now is the Gigabyte G5, and mostly because I reviewed the G5 personally and came away impressed by the overall experience. However, this laptop is a little dated today, and the Dell G15 (which I haven't tested personally) has a more modern specification for similar money. That'd be my bet from specs alone, though I don't think you'd put a foot wrong either way.
Kingston Fury Impact | 32 GB (2x 16 GB) | SO-DIMM DDR5-5600 | CL40 | $114.99 $97.99 at Newegg (save $15.11)
DDR5-5600 with CL40 latency is as fast as you can get laptop memory currently, and this is the cheapest option for securing that extra bit of speed. These two sticks will represent a nice upgrade for any laptop that shipped with only 16GB (or, gasp, 8GB) of memory, likely at a slower 4800 MT/s with higher latency.
Budget and midrange laptops often make compromises in two places: Memory and storage. If your laptop stuck you with too little RAM or cheap sticks with pokey CAS latency, an upgrade to some 5600 MT/s, low latency DDR5 can make a notable difference in gaming performance. The kit above is as fast as 32 gigabytes of laptop RAM comes right now, and is nicely discounted.
It's $115 on Amazon, but Newegg's running an extra promotion that drops the price even further. A smart buy as long as your laptop's memory is accessible!
Jacob checking in again for the morning shift. I'm back to check on these deals after the official Prime Day event at Amazon has drawn to a close. The good news is that many of the best gaming laptop deals are still live—the benefit of many being at other retailers besides Amazon.
I've even seen a few from Newegg's extended Fantastech sale that are cheaper now than they have been, albeit only by $10 or so.