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I’ve reviewed over 300 gaming laptops, these are the best ones I would pick at every price range.

We’ll start at the bottom with cheaper entry level options,

then work our way up with budget increases of $100-$200.

I’m making this video just before Black Friday sales to try and help you decide which gaming

laptop to get, so prices are likely to go a bit lower than what I’m going to show in this video.

I’ll be using pricing data that I’ve collected from the gaminglaptop.deals website so far.

We update this site daily with the best gaming laptop sales so you can

save the most amount of money. So check it out with the link below and make sure

you bookmark it and check it regularly during the upcoming Black Friday sales.

Alright, let’s start out with new entry level gaming laptops with a $500 to $600 USD budget.

Unfortunately if you spend less than $500 on a brand new gaming laptop,

you’re probably going to have a bad time.

Now I know that is a lot of money for some of you, but trust me, any less than that and

you’re going to get a bad experience in games that you’ll likely regret. Unless

you’re getting a killer deal on a used laptop. But for a device that you’re probably going to

be using for years to come, it’s worth saving up the extra money, even if it takes longer.

The best option I’ve seen so far is HP’s Victus with RTX 4050 graphics for just $500,

which is insane value if you’re able to get it.

Because before Black Friday sales you would be hard pressed to find an RTX 4050 gaming laptop

for less than $600. So yeah, $500 is an absolute steal. Normally at this price point your best bet

is the RTX 3050 6 gig, and if that is your only option I’d be trying to get it in Lenovo’s LOQ.

The LOQ was my favorite budget gaming laptop last year, and that hasn’t changed this year.

It just has better build quality and features compared to its competitors at that price point.

Now let’s say you’ve got up to $700 to spend, that opens us up to more RTX 4050 options.

So far we’ve seen Acer’s Nitro go on sale for $649,

and Lenovo’s LOQ for $665, both with the RTX 4050.

That’s not too bad, but we can do better with the ASUS’s TUF A16,

which has gone on sale for $679 - again, prior to Black Friday sales.

This gaming laptop has AMD’s Radeon RX 7700S graphics, which competes with NVIDIA’s RTX 4060,

and in some games that favor AMD graphics, it can even compete with the 4070. And the

4070 is at minimum a couple of hundred dollars more expensive.

So the A16 is my pick at $700 because of the crazy price to performance ratio. So far we

haven’t seen any good 4060 gaming laptops that I would actually recommend below $700.

So then what if you’ve got up to $800 to spend?

Now we’re able to start considering RTX 4060 gaming laptops.

And the 4060 is around 20% faster compared to the RTX 4050 below it, and the RTX 4060 has

2 gigs of extra VRAM compared to the 4050, just making the 4060 a better solid mid-range option.

So far the cheapest 4060 laptop we’ve seen is Dell’s G15 for

$720. Again there have probably been cheaper options like the MSI GF63,

but that’s not a laptop I’d consider so it’s not relevant here.

Dell machines are usually a bit thicker, so if that’s not

your thing the second cheapest 4060 laptop we’ve seen is Lenovo’s LOQ.

But compared to the Dell, it’s got a lower tier Zen 3 7435HS processor that does not

have integrated graphics, so the battery life sucks and the cheaper Dell would have

both a run time and performance advantage while being cheaper - pretty tempting.

Most other decent 4060 laptops we’ve seen are at least $799, like Acer’s Nitro series,

and in my opinion both the LOQ and Dell G15 are better options while also being cheaper. And if

either of those two drop below $700 during Black Friday then I think it’s an easy buy.

Alright, let’s see what we can get with $900 next.

We’ve actually had a couple of RTX 4070 laptops go on sale for $899 prior to Black Friday,

which is crazy stuff. But to be fair, so far those have all been cheaper laptop designs,

that’s just the compromise. So at $900 you’re either looking at a lower end

laptop with 4070 graphics or a better built laptop but with lower tier 4060 graphics.

And based on my testing, the 4070 is around 20% faster than the 4060. The first 4070

laptop we’ve seen for $899 is HP’s Victus 16 with Zen 4 processor. And we’ve also had

Lenovo’s Legion Slim 5 but with Ryzen 7 7435HS, which has hit $899 at Microcenter in the past.

Now between those two, in my opinion Lenovo’s Legion is a better built laptop. But in this case

the compromise is it has an older Zen 3 processor and again without the integrated graphics,

which means worse battery life like that LOQ I mentioned earlier. But I did a whole video about

the 7435HS if you want the details. Long story short, battery life sucks but as long as you’ve

got the charger plugged in it’s fine. But yeah, if you can scrape RTX 4070 laptops under $900

you’re doing very nicely. If that’s not possible or you just want a better built gaming laptop with

nicer features then Lenovo’s Legion 5 is hard to pass up for $800 to $850 with the RTX 4060.

So then, what can we get if we increase our budget up to $1000?

Well again, we either get higher quality 4060 laptops, so think better screens, more RAM,

more SSD space, that kind of thing. Or otherwise more 4070 options in lower

to mid-range chassis designs. Potentially with older processors and maybe less RAM.

For example, we’ve had Acer’s Helios Neo 16 with RTX 4060 graphics on sale for $949,

and Acer’s Helios series tends to compete with Lenovo’s Legion series. But Acer usually just

costs more for some reason, which kind of makes it a bit harder to justify compared to a 4070 laptop.

I did a whole video comparing the Legion 5 and Helios Neo 16 if you want more details.

We’ve also seen HP’s Omen 16 with RTX 4060 graphics just hit the same record low of

$949. However the record low price we’ve seen on the Omen 16 but with 4070 graphics was $999, and

that extra $50 or 5% more money is easily worth it to get the 20% FPS boost going from 4060 to 4070.

And of course the Omen is a nice step up in build quality compared to HP’s lower tier Victus that I

mentioned in the previous category for $899 with the 4070. So yeah, $900 for a Victus with a 4070

or $1000 for an Omen 16 with a 4070. If you can afford it, I definitely think the Omen is a better

buy, and that’s what I would lean towards at the $1000 budget, as it’s just a more premium option.

But alternatively, if you’re someone that prefers portability it’s hard to pass up Lenovo’s Legion

Slim 5 with 14 inch OLED screen. Which we’ve seen drop to $979 with RTX 4060 graphics.

This is just a great option if you’re after something thinner and lighter. It

basically performs the same in games as the larger 16 inch Legion Slim 5,

so no performance loss despite being a smaller laptop. But compared to cheaper 4060 laptops,

you are still paying an extra for the thinner design and premium features like OLED screen.

Honestly anything under $1000 for that seems like a good deal to me.

Alright we’re going to start increasing the budget in $200 increments now,

because from here we start seeing less difference as we go up.

But again, at $1000 to $1200 we’re still looking

at higher end 4060 laptops or lower to mid-range 4070 laptops.

Some standouts with RTX 4060 graphics include Acer’s Helios

16 for $1049 and ASUS’s Strix G16 for $1100, both with RTX 4060 graphics.

These are both great gaming laptops with very little downsides. But in order to

get that they cost more compared to a lot of other 4060 options.

At the end of the day you can spend $400 less on that Dell G15 I mentioned and get

about the same FPS in games, because they both have full powered 4060s.

So at this price point you’re really paying more for more premium 4060 options. Think

things like better processor, better screen, better battery,

more RAM, more SSD space, maybe newer Wi-Fi 7, better build quality, that kind of thing.

ASUS’s Zephyrus G14 with RTX 4060 graphics and OLED screen has also dipped down to $1100,

and that’s an awesome option if you’re happy paying more for the increased portability and all

round great features. It’s got some of the best speakers I’ve ever heard from any gaming laptop,

the keyboard and touchpad feel nice to use, the OLED screen looks crisp,

battery life is amazing, and performance is great compared to other 14 inch laptops.

Between $1100 and $1200 we’ve had Lenovo’s Legion Slim 5 and Dell’s G16 both with RTX 4070 graphics,

which again perform about 20% faster than the 4060 in games. The Legion 5

and Dell G16 are both solid mid-range gaming laptops, so while for about the

same price you can get ASUS’s Strix G16 or Acer’s Helios Neo 16 with lower tier 4060s,

honestly I think for most people the Legion Slim 5 and Dell G16 are both good enough and you still

get the 4070. You don’t get all the extras but you also get a 4070 instead of a 4060. Yeah,

it really does come down to whether you want a lower quality 4070 laptop or a higher quality 4060

laptop. But I think finding some middleground is a good option, so a mid-range 4070.

Next up we’re looking at the $1200 to $1400 price range.

Again, we’re still looking at 4060 and 4070 laptops now,

just at the higher end of the spectrum.

Unfortunately there’s just a massive difference

in price between the RTX 4070 and the next step up, RTX 4080.

And that’s because the 4080 performs more than 50% better

in games at 1440p. It really does offer a nice improvement, but it’s not cheap.

Anyway, at this price point laptops with larger 18 inch screens start becoming more available.

Like Acer’s Helios 18 for $1250. Still with RTX 4060 graphics, it’s just that bigger laptops with

those bigger 18 inch screens tend to cost more. Though we have also seen the higher tier 4070

version for $1299, and so far that seems like the best bet if you’re after a bigger screen.

Other higher end models like Alienware’s m16 with 4070 graphics have been available for $1299,

while Lenovo’s Legion Pro 5 with 4070 graphics have gone for $1350.

But for me personally, I would take ASUS’s Zephyrus G16 which

has dipped down to $1399 with RTX 4070 graphics.

Now again, this is a more premium gaming laptop. But that’s really all this kind of

price range is good for. Of course you can absolutely spend $500 less

getting a much cheaper 4070 laptop to get similar performance in games.

But with the Zephyrus G16 you’re paying more to get the thinnest and lightest 16 inch gaming

laptop available, an all metal build, OLED screen and amazing speakers. The downsides

are the soldered memory, and unfortunately in the US the 4070 version only comes with

16 gigs of RAM. Which is pretty stupid as it’s soldered and you can never upgrade it. But still,

this laptop is $2000 full price, and there is also a newer AMD version that does have

32 gigs of RAM with the RTX 4070. But it does cost a lot more too. Otherwise with

the Intel model you have to spend more to get the RTX 4080 graphics in order to

get 32 gigs of RAM. But yeah, for $1400 ASUS’s Zephyrus G16 is hard to pass up.

At $1400 to $1600 we’re now looking at the best of the best 4070 laptops,

or a bottom of the barrel 4080 laptop.

Yes that’s right, we’ve seen RTX 4080 gaming laptops go on sale for $1500 to

$1600. And as mentioned, the 4080 does actually offer a fairly big 50% plus

boost in gaming performance. Not to mention it’s got 50% more VRAM than the 4070 too.

But the problem is these cheap 4080s are in models like Gigabyte’s Aorus 17X or MSI’s GP68,

and while not terrible laptops, they usually have terrible 1080p screens,

which is kind of a waste when you consider what the 4080 is capable of.

Now if you’re planning on hooking up your laptop to a bigger and better monitor when gaming,

this can be a great way to get higher performance for less money, but that’s about the only way I

would recommend one of these cheaper 4080 laptops. If you see a good looking 4080 laptop on sale make

sure you check the screen and that it’s not 1080p with low brightness and low color gamut.

As for the higher end 4070 laptops, we’re looking at models like Lenovo’s Legion 7i,

which has gone on sale for less than $1450 - so just $50 more than the Zephyrus G16. Sure, unlike

the Zephyrus G16 the Legion 7i does not have an OLED screen, its speakers aren’t as good, and

it’s a bit thicker and heavier. But the slightly bigger size means that it gets upgradeable memory

and it has a more powerful HX processor. So it performs better in games and other tasks.

But I’ve already done a dedicated video comparing those in depth,

so check that out if you’re picking between them.

ASUS’s smaller Zephyrus G14 with RTX 4070 graphics has gone on sale for $1599. So

more expensive compared to its bigger brother, the G16, but it does also offer increased portability,

and is a solid 14” premium gaming laptop if that’s what you’re after.

Up next is the $1600 to $1800 price range.

This is where the better RTX 4080 gaming laptops finally start becoming

available - though hopefully we see even more during the upcoming Black Friday sales. Again,

check the gaminglaptop.deals website with the link below so you don’t miss any of the sales.

We’ve had laptops like HP’s Omen 17 with RTX 4080 graphics for $1750. But honestly, the best

deal that I’ve seen so far is Lenovo’s Legion Pro 7i for $1799 - which is honestly a steal.

It’s a solid gaming laptop. I put it in my top 5 best gaming laptops video last year,

and spoiler, it’s going to be in the top 5 this year.

But yeah, the Legion Pro 7i is just a solid all round gaming laptop. It’s been

more commonly available throughout the year for $2000-$2100. But hey,

if $1800 has happened before it’ll probably happen again during Black Friday. But even

if not, under $2000 for that gaming laptop with a 4080 is a great choice.

At the $1800 to $2000 range we’re still looking at RTX

4080 gaming laptops. 4090s are still out of reach.

So far in this price range we’ve seen Acer’s Helios 16 go for $1840,

and that is a solid gaming laptop. But honestly, if it’s similar money to the

Legion Pro 7i I would get the Legion. We’ve also had Alienware’s m16 R1 on sale for $1899.

But that is an older 2023 model with either the 12 core or 16 core AMD Ryzen processor. So it’s

hard to say how much longer stock is going to last for that older model. But yeah the price really

isn’t that bad considering Alienware laptops usually cost an arm and a leg. But with that

$1900 sale we’ve seen, it puts it in line with some of the best 4080 options we’ve ever seen.

More recently, HP’s Omen 16 just dipped below $1900 with RTX 4080 graphics. Again, I’d still

prefer the Legion Pro 7 if cheaper, but this isn’t bad if it’s what’s available in your budget.

At $2000 to $2200 we start seeing larger 18 inch 4080 models,

which again just tend to cost more for the bigger screen.

We’re talking about Alienware’s m18 R2 for $2050, Acer’s Helios 18 for $2099,

and ASUS’s Strix G18 for $2200. So it seems like it’s only worth spending this sort of money on

an RTX 4080 laptop if you want a bigger 18 inch model. And I mean playing games on a

bigger screen is objectively a better experience. But of course the tradeoff is a bigger laptop,

and these things are meant to be portable afterall. So I get that not everyone wants

a bigger 18 inch machine. But out of those options, I’d go for the Alienware m18,

as so far it’s just been the cheapest, which again is completely surprising

from Alienware - the brand that’s known for being one of the most expensive like Razer.

At $2200 to $2500 we’re finally starting to see some RTX 4090 gaming laptops.

Based on my testing, the 4090 laptop GPU is around

11% faster than the 4080 in a 25 game average at 1440p, or 15% faster at 4K,

which is a realistic resolution you can game at with this level of hardware.

So far the best RTX 4090 deals we’ve seen so far are from Lenovo’s Legion

Pro 7i and Lenovo’s Legion Pro 7 - so that’s the Intel 14th gen and 13th

gen versions and the AMD version with last year’s AMD CPU respectively. And again,

as I mentioned the Pro 7 is one of my favorite gaming laptops as

its just got a lot to offer compared to most alternatives while usually being a bit cheaper.

Again if you’re after a larger 18 inch model then expect to pay more. So far we’ve seen

Alienware’s m18 R2 with RTX 4090 graphics for $2450, and Acer’s Helios 18 for $2500

p, we’ve seen Alienware’s m18 R2 with 4090 graphics available for $2450,

and Acer’s Helios 18 for $2500. But again, I’d go the cheaper m18. Though that said,

the m18 is the heaviest gaming laptop I’ve tested in the last couple of years. But at the same time

if you’re picking an 18 inch gaming laptop maybe you care a bit less about portability anyway.

Alright, beyond $2500 you’re looking at some seriously crazy

stuff with diminishing returns well in effect.

Which basically means that you start spending more money and get less

benefit in return. It’s just not really worth it for most people. And honestly,

it’s not very often that we actually link to deals on the deals website at prices above

this. Because it just gets to the point where it’s kind of hard to justify them as deals.

We rarely link to Razer sales for example, because even with a sale price we’re still

talking about $4000 for a laptop, which is kind of insane - is it really even a deal

when it ends up performing worse compared to other 4090 laptops?

Then there are others like MSI’s Titan 18, which only recently dropped below $5000 - again crazy

stuff. But it’s also the only option if you’re after up to 192 gigs of memory,

because it’s one of the few gaming laptops with 4 memory slots. It’s one

of those you know you need it if you need it kind of things and not for most people

But with basically unlimited budget, personally I would just get Lenovo’s Legion 9.

Yeah, I know the whole “liquid cooling” thing is a gimmick and worth ignoring,

but that aside I think it’s a great machine with a unique design. It’s got nice build quality,

and nice extra features over the Legion Pro 7i below it. Like changeable keycaps,

memory overclocking, higher power Type-C charging, a fingerprint scanner, glass touchpad,

more RGB lighting and faster 2.5 gigabit ethernet - so all the extra bells and whistles.

And for around $3000 USD for the RTX 4090 model when on sale - I’d hope so.

And I haven’t even seen that sale in many months. But yeah the Legion 9 would be my

personal pick at $2500+. But that’s because I still like having a laptop that’s still

portable that I can take places. That’s pretty important to me, I don’t want one

of those big 18 inch chonkers. But that’s because I prefer a mixture of performance

and portability. You might be different which is why I gave some different options.

But those are just what I’d pick.