The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
You’re not just looking for a workhorse. You want a laptop that’s got game. Maybe that means frame rates, maybe even a high-refresh-rate screen for enhanced responsiveness in less demanding games. But above all, you want bang for the buck. That’s why you’re buying right now, during Black Friday week, when some of the best deals (and a bunch of predatory fake ones) show up.
These are the deals that caught my eye — the ones I might consider myself or recommend to a friend, depending on their needs and budget. Let’s start with the least expensive and go from there!
The best Black Friday gaming laptop deals
The Gigabyte A5 K1 is $729 at Newegg ($470 off) or $749 at Best Buy, a killer deal for midrange specs — an RTX 3060 (130W) and Ryzen 5 5600H power its 15.6-inch, 144Hz 1080p IPS screen, with 16GB of DDR4 and 512GB of PCIe Gen 3 storage. But it’s also got a chunky, decidedly old-school 4.68-pound chassis. Read Notebookcheck’s review.
If you don’t need a webcam or the most potent GPUs, look no further than the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 for $899 at Best Buy (save $500). The G14 has been a contender for the best thin gaming laptop three years running, and while we felt this 2021 model was a little overpriced and ran hot in our review, it was still one of the best all-around machines you could buy, with excellent performance, design, and battery life. This one’s got a 60W RTX 3060, Ryzen 7 5800HS, 14-inch 1080p 144Hz, Wi-Fi 6, and the typical 16GB / 512GB in a 3.53-pound chassis. Want this year’s model instead? Scroll down a bit.
The Acer Predator Helios 300 is $999 at Best Buy ($500 off) and feels like a Black Friday slam dunk on paper. It pairs its 130W RTX 3060 graphics with a 165Hz G-Sync IPS display at 15.6 inches and 1080p resolution, an i7-12700H CPU, with Wi-Fi 6E, a Thunderbolt 4 port, among many others, and a programmable RGB-backlit keyboard. Note that this version isn’t the same model most reviewers got to play with — but weaknesses are likely to include speakers and battery. It’s also heavy at nearly six pounds.
The Asus ROG Flow X13 is $999 at Best Buy ($600 off), and while it’s not the most powerful gaming machine with its 35W RTX 3050 Ti graphics, you should absolutely give it a look for portability’s sake. My colleague Monica genuinely liked last year’s model, calling it one of the most powerful 13-inchers and praising its keyboard and tall 16:10 display. This one’s a bit lower-resolution at 1920 x 1200, but it runs at 120Hz, and it’s got the newer Ryzen 9 6900HS chip, 1TB of PCIe Gen 4 storage, Wi-Fi 6E, and 100W USB-C charging in a 0.62-inch thick, 2.87-pound frame.
The Acer Predator Triton 500 SE is $1,099 at Best Buy ($650 off) with 105W RTX 3060 Max-Q graphics, and while that’s on the lower end of GPU potency, I could absolutely see it appealing to fans of larger screens. You get a large, bright, 16-inch 165Hz 2560 x 1600 high-refresh-rate IPS display with 500 nits of brightness and an excellent array of ports in its hefty 5.29-pound aluminum frame. PCWorld gave this exact model a high rating.
The Gigabyte Aorus 5 SE4 is $1,149 at GameStop ($450 off) and offers serious frame rate for the buck, with a 130W RTX 3070 driving a 360Hz ultra-high-refresh-rate display at 1080p, with an i7-12700H pulling CPU duty and the standard 16GB / 512GB for RAM and storage. I like the port selection a lot on paper, with Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1, a UHS-II card reader, and three full-size USB-A ports. It’s a plastic machine, though, and one without a lot of reviews. Terrible webcam placement.
The Acer Nitro 5 is $1,179 at Newegg ($450 off), and similar to the Aorus 5 above, it gives me slight pause because it’s an unusual configuration without a lot of reviews — but maybe you’ll look past that for an RTX 3070 and i7-12700H at this price, plus a high-refresh-rate, 15.6-inch 165Hz 1080p IPS display. There are plenty of reviews of weaker models with 3050 Ti and 3060 graphics, but even those panned the battery life — prepare for AC everywhere.
The MSI GS76 Stealth is $1,199 at B&H ($550 off) with a 95W RTX 3060 and i7-11800H, which might sound a little weak, but I’m including it because it’s not only got a big 17.3-inch screen (at 240Hz, with QHD resolution!), but it also manages to be portable at 5.4 pounds and 0.8 inches thick. Port selection is also good for a thinnish laptop with a UHS-III SD card reader, ethernet, Thunderbolt 4, USB-C, HDMI, and Wi-Fi 6E, plus an RGB keyboard. Monica liked the more powerful RTX 3070 model, though the webcam’s terrible.
The Gigabyte Aero 5 XE4 is $1,249 at Newegg ($949 off) or $1299 at B&H, and I have to wonder what the catch is. Not only does it have an RTX 3070 Ti and an i7-12700H chip, but you’re also getting a 4K OLED screen at 15.6 inches, 1TB of PCIe Gen 4 storage, and the same excellent array of ports as in the Auros 5 above. Mind you, 4K on a laptop isn’t going to be the best for gaming; I suspect the battery life will be terrible, and the webcam placement is terrible.
The Gigabyte Aero 16 XE5 is $1,299 at Newegg ($1,150 off), and it’s very similarly specced to the above, except the chassis is totally different. Minimalist I/O (two Thunderbolt 4 on the left, one USB-C on the right), and it comes with a plug-in hub to add ethernet, HDMI, USB-A, and mini DisplayPort. Also, DDR5 instead of DDR4. The webcam is better placed here but still mediocre. TrustedReviews says battery life is poor. We reviewed a more powerful config of this one.
“The price is no longer right,” we wrote about Asus’ flagship 2022 ROG Zephyrus G14, previously our best thin gaming laptop. But now, the price is $1,399 at Best Buy (save $500) for the model with a Ryzen 9 6900HS, RX 6800S graphics, 16GB of DDR5, a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, and a 16:10 2560 x 1600 120Hz screen. It’s one of the most well-rounded machines you can get. It’s even got a webcam this year.
The Alienware M15 R5 Ryzen Edition is $1,399 at Best Buy ($600 off) or $1,499 at Dell for perhaps its most frame rate-friendly configuration for competitive gamers: the one with a Ryzen 9 5900HX, RTX 3070 graphics, and a 360Hz ultra-high-refresh-rate G-Sync screen at 1080p and 15.6 inches — plus 1TB of storage, an RGB backlit keyboard, and an excellent array of ports. While I don’t see a lot of reviews of this config, Cameron generally liked the Ryzen Edition in our review.
The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro is $1,399 at eBay via Antonline, with an RTX 3070 Ti and Ryzen 7 6800H driving its 16-inch 165Hz 2560 x 1600 IPS screen, plus 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1TB SSD. Cameron really liked an earlier version in our review, and this laptop generally gets high marks — but note that not everyone’s selling the same version this Black Friday week. Most retailers are trying to push one with a 1080p screen, whereas most reviewers tried and liked this higher-res version.
The Gigabyte Aorus 17 is $1,449 at Best Buy ($950 off), a deal for those who want frames and want them big. Your 17.3-inch IPS screen runs at a mere 1080p resolution but at up to 360Hz — powered by an RTX 3070 Ti and an i7-12700H that could actually hit that frame rate in some games. PCMag, PCGamer, and TechRadar were all pleasantly surprised by the combination. Wi-Fi 6E, a Thunderbolt 4 port, and a Windows Hello cam come standard.
The Razer Blade 14 is $1,999 at Amazon ($800 off) or $2,099 at Best Buy for Nvidia’s RTX 3080 and AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900X paired with Razer’s beloved 165Hz 2560 x 1440 display with 100 percent DCI-P3 color coverage. It has one of the best screens you can get on a gaming machine and incredible power for a laptop this thin, plus Wi-Fi 6E, USB-C charging (and 3.2 Gen 2 speeds), a Windows Hello webcam, RGB-backlit keyboard, and 1TB of PCIe storage. It’s not the best price we’ve ever seen but close. Just know Blades tend to run hot.
You can also find the Blade 14 with a 3070 Ti for $1,999 at B&H ($600 off).