Upgrading your gaming laptop can be an expensive proposition. With a gaming PC, you have save money by going the DIY route or you can just upgrade specific components instead of replacing the entire desktop. Also, since the monitor is not a part of the system, you can keep using it for future builds. You can't afford such luxuries with a laptop. You'd essentially have to buy an entirely new system every time. Fortunately, laptop prices have dropped tremendously over the years, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't save even more.
Fortunately, Black Friday is fast approaching and there is no better time to invest in a gaming laptop. We are still a few weeks out from November 29, but some retailers like Best Buy and Dell have already released their first set of early Black Friday, including some great deals on gaming laptops. As more stores reveal their Black Friday plans and hopefully push out their deals in advance, we'll be sure to update this article.
Best Buy Gaming Laptop Deals
Starting on November 8, Best Buy has been releasing a set number of early Black Friday deals every Friday leading up to Black Friday. This week's refresh includes several gaming laptop models ranging from budget to best. The Acer Nitro V 15" laptop boasts an RTX 4050 GPU for a budget price of $699.99. On the other end of the spectrum, the Acer Predator Helios with a massive 18" display, powerful i9-14900HX CPU, and best-in-class RTX 4090 GPU, is available for $2,399.99. That's the best price we've seen so far for an RTX 4090 gaming laptop for Black Friday.
Alienware Gaming Laptop Deals
The Alienware Early Black Friday Sale is already live and active, and there are plenty of discounts on both the m-series and x-series gaming laptops. The m-series is Alienware's best selling gaming laptop. However, the Alienware x-series is a more recent model that boasts a slimmer and lighter redesign. It's the thinnest Alienware laptop ever and compares in build quality and performance to other high-end ultra-thin laptops like the Razer Blade. Alienware deals generally update every Thursday at 8am CST so expect more deals to trickle in ahead of Black Friday.
Lenovo Legion Slim 16" RTX 4070 Laptop for $1121.99
Lenovo does have one very good laptop deal worth mentioning. You can get a Lenovo Legion Slim 5 Gen 9 16" Ryzen Edition RTX 4070 gaming laptop for only $1121.99 shipped. The Legion Slim model is thinner than your typical gaming laptop, and yet is still equipped with a GPU that has the same high-wattage TGP as the full-sized Legion Pro. It weighs in at only 4.63 pounds and measures 0.78" at its thinnest point. RTX 4070 mobile GPU performs on par with the RTX 3080 and you'll want this kind of power to run games comfortably on the laptop's beefed up 2560x1600 QHD+ display.
Not All Laptop GPUs Are the Same
There are two important tidbits that deserve mention concerning graphics cards found in laptops. First, mobile GPU variants are not as powerful as their desktop counterparts. For example, a mobile RTX 4060 doesn't perform as well as a desktop RTX 4060. The mobile versions are generally about one to two tiers lower in performance. Using the same example, the mobile RTX 4060 performs more similarly to a desktop RTX 4050.
Second, not all laptops feature the same performance out of the same GPU. Two laptops equipped with the same RTX 4060 GPU, for example, might perform very different in gaming. In order to roughly tell how good a GPU will be, you can look at the TGP rating. That's basically the amount of power supplied to the GPU. A higher TGP rating means more power will be delivered, equating to stronger performance, however the wattage consumption and heat generated will be higher. Here are the maximum TGP rates for the RTX 40 series graphics cards:
- Mobile RTX 4050: 115W
- Mobile RTX 4060: 115W
- Mobile RTX 4070: 115W
- Mobile RTX 4080: 150W
- Mobile RTX 4090: 150W
Should You Buy Now or Wait for Black Friday?
At this point, Black Friday is only a few weeks away and in most cases it's better to wait. There are some deals here that are probably as low as they will go, even on Black Friday. However, it's very likely that the same deals you see now will also be available on November 29, even if they go out of stock.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
