Update 10/08/24: With Prime Day starting today, we’ve gone out and added some more great gaming laptop deals and adjusted the prices to the most recent numbers. Be sure to snag anything you really like today, as we’re not sure if stock will last until tomorrow!
- MSI Thin A15 — $644 $700 8% off
- ASUS TUF Gaming F17 — $750 $850 12% off
- Acer Nitro V — $880 $1,130 22% off
- ASUS TUF 15 — $1,050 $1,100 5% off
- Lenovo Legion Pro 5i 16 — $1,400 $1,500 6% off
- ASUS ROG Strix G16 — $1,600 $1,700 5% off
- Lenovo Legion Slim 7i — $1,890 $2,100 10% off
- Alienware x16 R2 — $2,000 $2,700 25% off
- ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 — $2,300 $2,700 14% off
- Acer Predator Helios 18 — $2,249 $2,500 10% off
- How to Choose a Gaming Laptop on Prime Day
- How We Chose These Gaming Laptop Prime Day deals
With Prime Day starting today and lasting until tomorrow, October 9, there are many great Prime Day deals on gaming laptops that are worth checking out. With Prime Day being one of the best sales events of the year for electronics, it’s truly the perfect time to pick up a gaming laptop if you’ve been waiting for a great deal on one. To that end, we’ve gone out and collected some of our favorite Prime Day gaming laptop deals for you, although if you’re not looking for something specifically for gaming, be sure to check out these Prime Day laptop deals instead.
Also, you may want to check the more specific retailer pages for the Best Buy Prime Day laptop deals and Walmart Prime Day deals.
MSI Thin A15 — $644 $700 8% off
This MSI Thin A15 is an ultra-budget gaming laptop that has a rather old RTX 2050, so it’s mostly aimed at folks who like older and indie games since it will struggle with the latest stuff. Even so, it’s hard to argue with the discounted $644 price tag. it comes with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of RAM, which aren’t too bad for the price.
ASUS TUF Gaming F17 — $750 $850 12% off
It’s pretty rare to find a large 17-inch laptop at this price point, but Asus’ TUF F17 is going for just $750 instead of $850. Of course, you do get the slightly older RTX 3050 under the hood, which will still let you play some casual and indie games, and the 8GB might need an upgrade in the future, but overall, it’s a great starter gaming laptop.
Acer Nitro V — $880 $1,130 22% off
This configuration of the Acer Nitro V is what we would consider a modern and capable budget-gaming laptop, especially since it has an RTX 4060 and a WUXGA IPS display that can hit a 165Hz refresh rate. That means you should be able to play most modern games with a couple of compromises, while the 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage will give you an excellent day-to-day experience, and you can snag it with a solid 22% discount.
ASUS TUF 15 — $1,050 $1,100 5% off
Moving it up a step, this Asus TUF comes with an impressive RTX 4060 and a 15.6-inch screen that runs an FHD resolution and 144Hz refresh rate, which means fewer overall graphical compromises. The 5% discount is also substantial, especially since you also get 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and an Intel i7 processor.
Lenovo Legion Pro 5i 16 — $1,400 $1,500 6% off
The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i is a solid mid-range gaming laptop with an RTX 4060 and a 16-inch screen, so it’s a great middle-ground when it comes to screen size. You also get a very respectable 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, both of which are pretty good, and the $100 discount is a nice cherry on top.
ASUS ROG Strix G16 — $1,600 $1,700 5% off
Even though the ASUS ROG Strix G16 comes with a lower-end RTX 4060, it has a larger 16-inch screen, and it runs a 2560 x 1600 resolution. While that might make the RTX 4060 struggle, it does make it more versatile since you can pick and choose whether you want to prioritize resolution or refresh rate. It’s also really well price at the discounted $1,600 price tag.
Lenovo Legion Slim 7i — $1,890 $2,100 10% off
Lenovo is well-known for making some great laptops, and this Legion Slim 7i is a great example, as it comes fully loaded with an RTX 4070, 1TB of storage, 16GB of RAM and a large 16-inch screen. Even better, it has one of the latest Intel i9 processors and can even hit a 240Hz refresh rate, which is great even without the $210 discount.
Alienware x16 R2 — $2,000 $2,700 25% off
Alienware is quite a famous gaming brand, and for good reason. This Alienware X16 R2 has a lot going for it, such as the RTX 4070, the Intel i9 Processor, and a 1TB SSD for storage, but where it stands out is the whopping 32GB of RAM. You also get a very significant $700 discount for the whole thing, which is relatively rare.
ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 — $2,300 $2,700 14% off
When our reviewer Jacob Roach got his hands on the Zephyrus G16, he felt that “it’s highly portable and just powerful enough to play games without major drawbacks,” making it a great option for those who don’t want to give up any performance or value. A lot of that is due to the RTX 4080 under the hood, the 32GB of RAM, and the $400 discount this deal is going for.
Acer Predator Helios 18 — $2,249 $2,500 10% off
Besides having a massive screen, the Acer Predator Helios 18 also has the very powerful RTX 4080 under the hood, which means you’ll be able to play the latest games with the highest graphical settings. While that doesn’t come cheap, this $250 discount makes it worth considering if you want to get the best of the best.
How to Choose a Gaming Laptop on Prime Day
Some of the best gaming laptops on the market now are thin, light, and surprisingly powerful, but not everybody wants to spend several thousand dollars on one. So, the first thing to do is consider what GPU you want with our GPU buying guide since, that’s likely to have the biggest impact on cost. It’s important to know that mobile GPUs are one step down from desktop GPUs, so a laptop RTX 4080 is closer to the performance of a desktop RTX 4070, and if you want to go for the best, Lenovo and Alienware have some solid options at the higher-end.
Besides that, you’ll want to focus on a good amount of RAM. While you can check out our guide on how much RAM you need; ideally, you want to aim for a minimum of 16GB. As for CPUs, both Intel and AMD are on par, although Intel is having a couple of issues with gaming on its latest 13th and 14th-generation CPUs. Those issues are slowly getting fixed, so going for AMD might be the safer choice for the time being if you can find one. Finally, when it comes to space, 1TB is really the least you should go for, given game sizes these days.
How We Chose These Gaming Laptop Prime Day deals
Luckily, the overall quality of gaming laptops has become pretty excellent recently, so now we can more easily find and suggest good deals. Essentially, we can very quickly filter out and exclude the laptops that don’t meet our basic standards, such as having 16GB of RAM or at least 512GB of storage. The same goes for some laptops that have really older GPUs, such as the RTX 20-series, which is outdated at this point, and we’ll only suggest the RTX 20-series or RTX 30-series if the deal is particularly good, such as in the case of a couple of the HP gaming laptops that sometimes go for just $500-$600 on sale with an RTX 3050.
Beyond that, we do our best to suggest laptops that can run the best PC games without having to spend several thousands of dollars. That said, we do also try and include some of the most highly-specced configurations for those who want to be on the edge of the latest tech and are future-proofing for upcoming PC games.
