The best and cheapest gaming laptop

Find the best cheap gaming laptops under £1000, £900, £800 and less.

Here you can find the best gaming laptop deals in April 2022 for both the UK and US, whatever your budget. This includes steep discounts on high-end gaming laptops, decently-priced mid-range units, and great savings on lower priced machines.

From Asus and MSI to Acer, Lenovo and more, we've rounded up discounts from some of the best gaming laptop brands and even some price reductions on the latest models. To help make your search a little easier, we've scoured through the best online retailers including Amazon, Currys, Scan and more to help you save money on your new investment, but also to ensure you get the best quality laptop within your budget.

This week there's a great gaming laptop deal on the Lenovo Legion 5. It has an NVIDIA RTX 3060 GPU and 8GB RAM for £899/$1,026.21. We've also spotted cheaper alternative offerings from just £699/$789. Plus, if you plan on making any purchases at CCL, you can save yourself an extra £30 on a £600 spend by entering our exclusive code 'GAMER30' at the checkout. Alternatively, you can get £15 off a £300 spend with our other exclusive code 'GAMER15'.

Check the list below for more of the best cheap gaming laptop deals in 2022. We've also answered some frequently asked questions, including who has the best prices for gaming laptops, when's the best time to look for gaming laptop deals, and what to look for in a cheap gaming laptop.

The MSI Katana G66 gaming laptop features an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 - one of the higher end GPUs on the market right now. Its 11th gen Intel Core i7-11800H processor has eight cores and can turbo up to 4.6Ghz. There's also 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 1080p IPS screen with a 144Hz refresh rate. This powerful machine is on sale at Amazon UK for just £999.99 - nearly a £400 saving off the RRP, making this a total bargain.

    MSI KAtana G66, RTX 3060 -£899 at Amazon UK (was £1,199)
The best and cheapest gaming laptop
The best and cheapest gaming laptop

The Zephyrus G14 from Asus features the ultra-fast AMD Ryzen 9 5000 processor, a GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card, 16GB of RAM. It has a fast 1TB hard drive instead of an SSD and the QHD screen is only 120Hz, but it still feels really fast when gaming. The G14's coolest feature is the AniMe Matrix display on the lid of the laptop, which consists of 1,215 individual mini-LEDs that can be used to display custom images and animations for you to show off to your friends. The G14 is a really lightweight and powerful laptop that performs in many areas for an affordable price.

    ASUS Zephyrus G14 - £1,289.99 at CCL with code 'GAMER30'(Was £1,683.98)
    ASUS Zephyrus G14 - $1,549 at Newegg (Was $1599)
The best and cheapest gaming laptop

The Asus TUF Dash 15 comes in a bit over £1000 and packs an NVIDIA 3070 graphics card. The Dash 15 has a 144Hz 15.6-inch display, an Intel i7 GPU, two 8GB sticks of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. The TUF branding is a bit more out-there than the Zephyrus but still looks sleek with nice blue accents. As the name suggests, it is built to withstand some wear and tear and has excellent cooling for those high-end components. At £1,050, this is an excellent price for a laptop with a 3070 graphics card.

    ASUS TUF Dash 15 - £1,049.99 at Scan (was £1,398.99)
    ASUS TUF Dash 15 - $1499.99 at Walmart
The best and cheapest gaming laptop

Now we're in to the under £900 range starting with the Legion 5 from Lenovo. This 15.6-inch laptop carries an AMD Ryzen 7 processor with an NVIDIA 3060 and a 512GB SSD. It has 8GB of RAM instead of 16, but that can be upgraded and is enough for most games anyway, but it only has a 120Hz screen instead of 144Hz. Even so, the performance it gives at this price point is very hard to match. The Legion 5 can put out 221 FPS when playing Fortnite at 1080p and has up to 7 hours of battery life when not under heavy load. It's hard to go wrong with a 3060 laptop at under £900.

    Lenovo Legion 5 - £899 at Currys (Was £1099)
    Lenovo Legion 5 - $1329 at Newegg
The best and cheapest gaming laptop

Acer's Nitro range of laptops have always been a great entry-point for gaming laptops and this Nitro 5 is no different. At £849 you're getting an Intel Core i7, an RTX 3060, and 8GB of ram. This version of the Nitro 5 has a 17-inch screen, so is less portable but makes for a better desktop replacement, but the panel is 165Hz and QHD, so your games will look sharp and smooth on the larger display. At the sub-£1000 price range you get a more basic looking design, but the cost for performance means you won't be dissapointed.

    Acer Nitro 5 17-inch - £999 at Very
    Acer Nitro 5 17-inch (3050Ti Model) - $1,049.99 at Amazon US

All of the same praise for the 17-inch Nitro 5 applies to the 15-inch version which is discounted to just £699 at Amazon, and you get a mouse and headset for free. For the £150 saving you downgrade from a 3060 to a 3050, and instead of an i7 you get an i5 processor, but again that is more than capable of running all your favourite titles. The screen is also smaller, 144Hz, and only FHD, but your games will still look good and the smaller size makes it easier to carry around without much difference in cooling efficiency. Under £700 is really good for a laptop with a modern GPU like this.

    Acer Nitro 5 15-inch - £786.77 at Amazon (Was £849)
    Acer Nitro 5 15-inch - $780 at Amazon US (Was $839.99 )
The best and cheapest gaming laptop

The GF63 Thin from MSI is the cheapest gaming laptop with a 30-series card we could find, which is just a pound under the Nitro 5, but is still a great deal. MSI consistently put powerful components in small chassis with good performance. The GF63 Thin does it again and is a really good-looking laptop with the red keyboard and MSI logo on the lid. It has the same components as the Nitro 5 but you can have up to 64GB of RAM if you wanted to upgrade. Small differences and only a pound cheaper, but it's good at this price point to be able to choose between two laptops with 3050 GPUs.

    MSI GF63 Thin - £669 at CCL with our exclusive code 'GAMER30' (Was £920)
    MSI GF63 Thin - $949.99 at Newegg

Whether you're upgrading to a new model for improved specs, switching from a gaming PC for better portability, or it's your first time buying, we've spotted a whole range of gaming laptop offers to suit your needs. We've also separated them by price to help you find the best gaming laptop deal within your budget, ranging from as little as £600/$600 up to £1,000/ $1,000.

Some of the laptops above exceed the £1,000/ $1,000 price point, and for that money, you'll get the best stuff available. However, that doesn't mean you can't get most of those same specs at under £1,000/ $1,000 also. At this price point, you can find laptops with RTX 3060/3050Ti GPUs, Ryzen 7 and Intel Core i7 GPUs, with screens both 144hz and 120hz.
    DELL G15 - £919 at Currys/$849.99 at Best Buy
    Asus TUF Dash F15 - £879.99 at Argos
    Acer Nitro 5 - £899.98 at eBuyer
    ASUS ROG Strix G15 - £898.99 at Scan Computers
    Lenovo IdeaPad 16" - £998.99 at Scan/$869 at Amazon US

The £800 to £900 mark is an interesting one for gaming laptops, as you'll not see a lot of change from the under £1000 range. You can still expect to have a 3060 or 3050 GPU with an i7 or Ryzen 7, but you can also get i5s and Ryzen 5s to save a bit of money. This price range is usually filled with laptops that cost over £1000 that have gone on sale, so it's a great place to find some real value for money.

    HP Victus 16 - £849 at AO
    Gigabyte G5 KC,RTX 3060 - £842.95 at CCL with code 'GAMER30'
    Acer Nitro 5, RTX 3050 Ti - £843 at CCL with code 'GAMER30'

This is what we think the sweet spot is for most people looking to get a gaming laptop right now. You can still find products from big manufacturers like Dell and Asus, and still expect to get an RTX 3050 or 3050Ti. Instead of Ryzen 7s or Intel i7 you'll instead be getting a Ryzen 5 or i5 most of the time, but that isn't too much of a big deal. Companies will try and save cost with less RAM or a weaker Wi-Fi card, but you can upgrade them yourself down the line if you need to.

    MSI Katana - £769 at CCL with code 'GAMER30'
    GIGABYTE G5 15.6" Gaming Laptop

If you're dead set on getting a gaming laptop but don't want to spend loads of money you're going to have to compromise on something. Gaming laptops under £700 are still really good value but might have things missing that more expensive offers have. Don't expect 3050Tis or 3060s here, but also don't be put off by laptops with 1650 GPUs either as that card still performs really well. RAM will always be 8GB and won't be able to be changed out along with some other components, but these laptops will still last you a long time.

    ASUS TUF Gaming F15 - £699.98 at Scan
    MSI GF63 Thin - £699.99 at eBuyer
    Lenovo 15.6" Gaming Laptop - £655 at AO

In the UK, Amazon, Currys, Very, AO and Argos are some of the most popular online retail sites to find gaming laptop deals. But if you'd prefer to buy from dedicated computing and hardware suppliers you can usually find some real bargains over at CCL, Scan Computers, Laptops Direct and eBuyer.

In the US, Amazon, Best Buy, Target, Walmart and Sam's Club are the usual go-tos for gaming laptop deals. Those looking to buy from alternative tech and computing suppliers can also land some big savings over at Newegg, TigerDirect and Staples.

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US

It's safe to say that there's plenty of good opportunities throughout the year to bag a good gaming laptops deal. Some of the best times to consider are during big sales events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Amazon Prime Day. These goliath sales events happen around the same time every year with tons of products discounted to crazy cheap prices, including gaming laptops.

Other great times to look out for deals is around the Christmas and Boxing Day period, as well as the January sales in the new year. Manufacturers release their new Laptops around February time after the CES tech event, which means the models from the previous year go on sale soon after. The websites we've listed above also have different discounts every few weeks plus seasonal sales so it's always worth checking back every now and again to see what's changed.

Buying a cheap gaming laptop doesn't mean you have to sacrifice on quality. There are many affordable gaming laptops that offer great performance for less.

The key things to look at when buying a gaming laptop are its screen size, the refresh rate of the screen, what graphics card and processor it has, the battery life, and also if things like RAM and Wi-Fi card can be upgraded.

These things will all vary depending on what you need, if you're not trying to play the latest AAA games on Ultra settings, you won't need the best GPU available. If you're rarely going to move the laptop from your desk, then battery life isn't going to be as important to you.

Again, the answer here comes down to what you're personally looking for. If you're looking to play relatively basic games that don't need a lot of power to run, like Stardew Valley or CSGO, then you can get a good gaming laptop for less than £600/$600.

On average though, a good gaming laptop that will let you play new games at medium-to-high settings should cost you between £700/£700 and £900/$900. If you want to spend a bit less then you might compromise with a slightly less powerful GPU or a slower refresh rate screen, or you could spend a bit more and get something faster. Either way, there will be a laptop out there that is a good price for what you need.

If you decide to treat yourself to a new machine to game on then you might want to consider a gaming mouse, as built-in trackpads can slow you down. Take a look at Digital Foundry's best gaming mouse article to help you find the perfect one to pair with your new laptop. Also be sure to follow the Jelly Deals Twitter account where we're always tweeting out deals on laptops, mice, keyboards, headsets and more when we see them.