Black Friday 2022 gaming laptop deals: the best prices on Asus, Alienware, and more - The Verge

2 years ago 34

You’re not conscionable looking for a workhorse. You privation a laptop that’s got game. Maybe that means framework rates, possibly adjacent a high-refresh-rate surface for enhanced responsiveness successful little demanding games. But supra all, you privation bang for the buck. That’s wherefore you’re buying close now, during Black Friday week, erstwhile immoderate of the champion deals (and a clump of predatory fake ones) amusement up.

These are the deals that caught my oculus — the ones I mightiness see myself oregon urge to a friend, depending connected their needs and budget. Let’s commencement with the slightest costly and spell from there!

The champion Black Friday gaming laptop deals

$729

Black Friday bang for the subordinate doesn’t get overmuch amended than this — conscionable beryllium prepared for a spot of a vessel erstwhile it comes to the chassis.

The Gigabyte A5 K1 is $729 astatine Newegg ($470 off) oregon $749 astatine Best Buy, a slayer woody for midrange specs — an RTX 3060 (130W) and Ryzen 5 5600H powerfulness its 15.6-inch, 144Hz 1080p IPS screen, with 16GB of DDR4 and 512GB of PCIe Gen 3 storage. But it’s besides got a chunky, decidedly old-school 4.68-pound chassis. Read Notebookcheck’s review.
If you don’t request a webcam oregon the astir potent GPUs, look nary further than the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 for $899 astatine Best Buy (save $500). The G14 has been a contender for the champion bladed gaming laptop 3 years running, and portion we felt this 2021 exemplary was a small overpriced and ran blistery in our review, it was inactive 1 of the champion all-around machines you could buy, with fantabulous performance, design, and artillery life. This one’s got a 60W RTX 3060, Ryzen 7 5800HS, 14-inch 1080p 144Hz, Wi-Fi 6, and the emblematic 16GB / 512GB successful a 3.53-pound chassis. Want this year’s exemplary instead? Scroll down a bit.

$900

The 2021 mentation of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 doesn’t person a webcam and tin get a spot hot, but not galore laptops equilibrium gaming performance, design, and artillery beingness truthful well.

The Acer Predator Helios 300 is $999 astatine Best Buy ($500 off) and feels similar a Black Friday slam dunk connected paper. It pairs its 130W RTX 3060 graphics with a 165Hz G-Sync IPS show astatine 15.6 inches and 1080p resolution, an i7-12700H CPU, with Wi-Fi 6E, a Thunderbolt 4 port, among galore others, and a programmable RGB-backlit keyboard. Note that this version isn’t the aforesaid exemplary astir reviewers got to play with — but weaknesses are apt to see speakers and battery. It’s besides dense astatine astir six pounds.
The Asus ROG Flow X13 is $999 astatine Best Buy ($600 off), and portion it’s not the astir almighty gaming instrumentality with its 35W RTX 3050 Ti graphics, you should perfectly springiness it a look for portability’s sake. My workfellow Monica genuinely liked past year’s model, calling it 1 of the astir almighty 13-inchers and praising its keyboard and gangly 16:10 display. This one’s a spot lower-resolution astatine 1920 x 1200, but it runs astatine 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 successful a 0.62-inch thick, 2.87-pound frame.
The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro is $1,099 astatine Walmart ($200 off) RTX 3070 graphics, a Ryzen 7 5800H processor, and a 16-inch 165Hz 2560 x 1600 IPS screen, with the emblematic 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD. Cameron truly liked an earlier mentation in our review. For $200 more, you tin prime up an RTX 3070 Ti mentation with doubly the retention and DDR5 representation — scroll down for that one.
The Acer Predator Triton 500 SE is $1,099 astatine Best Buy ($650 off) with 105W RTX 3060 Max-Q graphics, and portion that’s connected the little extremity of GPU potency, I could perfectly spot it appealing to fans of larger screens. You get a large, bright, 16-inch 165Hz 2560 x 1600 high-refresh-rate IPS show with 500 nits of brightness and an fantabulous array of ports successful its hefty 5.29-pound aluminum frame. PCWorld gave this nonstop exemplary a precocious rating.

$1100

The Acer Predator Triton 500 SE mightiness beryllium a bully Black Friday prime if you attraction astir surface and physique much than GPU power.

The Gigabyte Aorus 5 SE4 is $1,149 astatine GameStop ($450 off) and offers superior framework complaint for the buck, with a 130W RTX 3070 driving a 360Hz ultra-high-refresh-rate show astatine 1080p, with an i7-12700H pulling CPU work and the modular 16GB / 512GB for RAM and storage. I similar the larboard enactment a batch connected paper, with Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1, a UHS-II paper reader, and 3 full-size USB-A ports. It’s a integrative machine, though, and 1 without a batch of reviews. Terrible webcam placement. Update: Sold out.
The Acer Nitro 5 is $1,179 astatine Newegg ($450 off), and akin to the Aorus 5 above, it gives maine flimsy intermission due to the fact that it’s an antithetic configuration without a batch of reviews — but possibly you’ll look past that for an RTX 3070 and i7-12700H astatine this price, positive a high-refresh-rate, 15.6-inch 165Hz 1080p IPS display. There are plentifulness of reviews of weaker models with 3050 Ti and 3060 graphics, but adjacent those panned the artillery beingness — hole for AC everywhere.
The MSI GS76 Stealth is $1,199 astatine B&H ($550 off) with a 95W RTX 3060 and i7-11800H, which mightiness dependable a small weak, but I’m including it due to the fact that it’s not lone got a large 17.3-inch surface (at 240Hz, with QHD resolution!), but it besides manages to beryllium portable astatine 5.4 pounds and 0.8 inches thick. Port enactment is besides bully for a thinnish laptop with a UHS-III SD paper reader, ethernet, Thunderbolt 4, USB-C, HDMI, and Wi-Fi 6E, positive an RGB keyboard. Monica liked the much almighty RTX 3070 model, though the webcam’s terrible.

$1199

For a large surface successful a bladed laptop, the Stealth mightiness beryllium your champion stake this Black Friday.

The Gigabyte Aero 5 XE4 is $1,249 astatine Newegg ($949 off) oregon $1299 astatine B&H, and I person to wonderment what the drawback is. Not lone does it person an RTX 3070 Ti and an i7-12700H chip, but you’re besides getting a 4K OLED screen astatine 15.6 inches, 1TB of PCIe Gen 4 storage, and the aforesaid fantabulous array of ports arsenic successful the Auros 5 above. Mind you, 4K connected a laptop isn’t going to beryllium the champion for gaming; I fishy the artillery beingness volition beryllium terrible, and the webcam placement is terrible.
The Gigabyte Aero 16 XE5 is $1,299 astatine Newegg ($1,150 off), and it’s precise likewise specced to the above, but the chassis is wholly different. Minimalist I/O (two Thunderbolt 4 connected the left, 1 USB-C connected the right), and it comes with a plug-in hub to adhd ethernet, HDMI, USB-A, and mini DisplayPort. Also, DDR5 alternatively of DDR4. The webcam is amended placed present but inactive mediocre. TrustedReviews says artillery beingness is poor. We reviewed a much almighty config of this one.
“The terms is nary longer right,” we wrote astir Asus’ flagship 2022 ROG Zephyrus G14, antecedently our champion bladed gaming laptop. But now, the terms is $1,399 astatine Best Buy (save $500) for the exemplary 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 1 of the astir well-rounded machines you tin get. It’s adjacent got a webcam this year.
The Alienware M15 R5 Ryzen Edition is $1,399 astatine Best Buy ($600 off) oregon $1,499 astatine Dell for possibly its astir framework rate-friendly configuration for competitory gamers: the 1 with a Ryzen 9 5900HX, RTX 3070 graphics, and a 360Hz ultra-high-refresh-rate G-Sync surface astatine 1080p and 15.6 inches — positive 1TB of storage, an RGB backlit keyboard, and an fantabulous array of ports. While I don’t spot a batch of reviews of this config, Cameron mostly liked the Ryzen Edition successful our review.

$1399

Alienware’s AMD-equipped laptop didn’t conflict to get precocious framework rates and bully artillery beingness successful our reappraisal — though this 1 has much potent components, including a 360Hz 1080p G-Sync panel.

The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro is $1,399 astatine eBay via Antonline, with an RTX 3070 Ti and Ryzen 7 6800H driving its 16-inch 165Hz 2560 x 1600 IPS screen, positive 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1TB SSD. Cameron truly liked an earlier mentation in our review, and this laptop mostly gets precocious marks, conscionable enactment that not everyone’s selling the aforesaid mentation this Black Friday week, with immoderate passing disconnected versions with lackluster screens. The lone different 1 I’d urge is the 1 astatine Walmart — scroll up!
$1400 for an RTX 3080? Yep — the MSI GP66 Leopard is connected merchantability for $1,399 astatine Walmart with that monster chip. I tin lone truly urge it to those who worth show supra all, due to the fact that we weren’t impressed by its chassis, screen, oregon touchpad in our review — and this exemplary has an adjacent weaker 1080p surface with conscionable 45 percent of the NTSC colour gamut, astatine lone 144Hz. With lone 512GB of retention astatine this price, I’d sooner constituent you astatine different systems connected this list.
The Gigabyte Aorus 17 is $1,449 astatine Best Buy ($950 off), a woody for those who privation frames and privation them big. Your 17.3-inch IPS surface runs astatine a specified 1080p solution but astatine up to 360Hz — powered by an RTX 3070 Ti and an i7-12700H that could really deed that framework complaint successful immoderate games. PCMag, PCGamer, and TechRadar were each pleasantly amazed by the combination. Wi-Fi 6E, a Thunderbolt 4 port, and a Windows Hello cam travel standard.
The Razer Blade 14 is $1,799 astatine Best Buy ($800 off) if you motion successful with a escaped My Best Buy account, or $1,999 astatine B&H, with an RTX 3070 Ti, AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, and Razer’s beloved 165Hz 2560 x 1440 show with 100 percent DCI-P3 colour coverage. It has 1 of the champion screens you tin get connected a gaming instrumentality and unthinkable powerfulness for a laptop this thin, positive Wi-Fi 6E, USB-C charging (and 3.2 Gen 2 speeds), a Windows Hello webcam, RGB-backlit keyboard, and 1TB of PCIe storage. Want a 3080 alternatively of the 3070 Ti? Scroll down.

$1799

The Asus ROG Strix Scar 15 is meant to beryllium a afloat featured beefy desktop replacement — without arsenic overmuch beef to haul around.

The Asus ROG Strix Scar 15 is $1,799 astatine Amazon ($200 off) with an RTX 3080 successful a laptop you’d really privation to touch. That spot is driving a 15.6-inch 300Hz ultra-high-refresh surface astatine a specified 1080p, truthful you’ll perfectly get chaotic framerates successful e-sports games, and we were pleased with its chassis and keyboard when we reviewed a mentation with earlier interior components. This one’s got a Ryzen 9 5900HX, 1TB PCIe 3.0 SSD, a fancy opti-mechanical RGB keyboard, and USB-C charging — but nary webcam, nary Thunderbolt, and lone Wi-Fi 6.
The MSI Creator 17 Professional is $1,899 astatine Amazon ($850 off) and portion it mightiness not beryllium a gaming instrumentality with its preloaded Nvidia Studio drivers and 4K display, determination shouldn’t beryllium overmuch keeping you from pointing its RTX 3070 and 17.3-inch 120Hz, 100% DCI-P3 surface astatine games instead. It’s got an i7-11800H CPU, 1TB of NVMe SSD storage, Wi-Fi 6E, and a 99.9Wh artillery you tin complaint astatine 100W implicit its Thunderbolt 4 larboard — with a 2nd USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, afloat size HDMI, Ethernet, and a UHS-III paper scholar contempt its 0.8-inch heavy frame. Just enactment this circumstantial model doesn’t look to person the mini-LED screen, contempt the Amazon listing.
The Razer Blade 14 with an RTX 3080 is $1,999 astatine Amazon ($800 off) oregon $2,099 astatine Best Buy for Nvidia’s RTX 3080 and AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900X, again with that aforesaid large QHD 165Hz show we picture supra and a large array of features. It’s not the champion terms we’ve ever seen but close. Just cognize Blades thin to tally hot, and this model’s much apt to be.