Not all gaming laptop deals are built the same - and you can easily cheapen your way out of a playable system by shopping in the budget category and not paying attention to your spec sheet. While this most frequently happens with older RTX 3050 systems these days, it's more often the RAM that you need to watch out for.
Best Buy has just listed a $350 discount on an already cheap HP Victus 15 gaming laptop, dropping the $799.99 MSRP down to $449.99, but there's a pretty tough catch here. This entry level spec only comes with 8GB RAM. Ask me a few years ago and I would have said that's fine for a sub-$500 gaming laptop, but these days I wouldn't bother. While few games list 16GB RAM as their minimum recommended amount, titles these days are going to need more than 8GB to run smoothly.
There aren't too many gaming laptop deals still sticking with 8GB RAM these days - in fact, this is the first one I've seen in a little while. However, they're alive and well in this super-budget price range and they regularly come to the forefront during Prime Day gaming laptop deals, especially at Amazon itself.
The retailer doesn't have a massive selection of the best gaming laptops, so it's often budget models that get pushed to the top of the pile during these more hectic sales events. It's important not to get sucked into the trap of that particularly cheap rate. Not only is that $450 investment going to need to be replaced fairly soon to keep up with modern releases, but it can actually already go towards a more sophisticated system without too much extra on top.
At $450 you're not that far away from an Asus ROG Ally Z1 model, a handheld system that manages to pack 16GB RAM into a similar $499.99 MSRP (though it's currently $399.99 at Newegg). I use my Ally every day, even plugged into a monitor as I would a regular gaming laptop and while performance will be lower compared to the full Z1E version, it's still more than playable for lighter games. There's less of a chance of being out-specced by future games and you've got the additional portability benefits of the best gaming handhelds. This is also one we regularly see taking part in Prime Day PC deals, so it's not unreasonable to assume that $499.99 MSRP could be moving down the scale next week. In fact, even the Z1E model can sometimes be found at these kinds of prices when Black Friday gaming deals really kick off.
Of course, you don't have to go down the portable route to find a gaming laptop that pairs value with performance. Best Buy itself has other options that represent much better value for money than the HP Victus above, all while only coming in a little more expensive. The MSI Thin 15, for example, keeps things conservative with an RTX 4050 GPU and 13th generation Intel i5 processor, but is more than capable of running the lighter games you might be interested in if considering a budget option. It's also stacked a 16GB RAM stick under the chassis as well. This model comes in at $699.99 right now ($200 off the $899.99 MSRP) - an excellent price for a current-generation GPU and enough power to last a good few years.
If you're shopping in the budget gaming laptop category this Prime Day (or in upcoming Black Friday gaming laptop deals), it's well worth double checking your specs. That HP Victus might be alright for less demanding indie games now, but things are moving quickly and even casual players will likely need 16GB RAM as a minimum within the next year. Yes, those sub-$500 offers can be tempting, but they can also double themselves if you need to replace your whole system in a short amount of time. It's much better to wait until you can either move slightly beyond this price range or until you find a 16GB RAM device at a similar position. That can happen during later Fall sales, I've seen it, but you'll need to move fast to close in on it.
We're also rounding up all the best Alienware laptops and the best Asus gaming laptops if you prefer to shop a specific brand - or check out the best Razer laptops for a little more luxury.
