Amazon Prime Day 2019: Best deals on gaming laptops, Xbox, Switch you can get now – CNET

Dell G5 15

The Dell G5 15.


Sarah Tew/CNET

Amazon’s Prime Day 2019 has stretched from one day to two — July 15 and 16 — and it starts Monday at midnight local time. Until then, we’ve found some of the pre-Prime Day sales that are worth your while and put them right here. Though Prime Day isn’t traditionally a blowout day for gaming deals, Amazon’s ramping that up — it does own Twitch, after all. Keep in mind Amazon Prime Day has triggered competing deal days at other retailers like TargetWalmart and eBay, as well as manufacturer sales on their own sites. 

On Twitch, Amazon promises content freebies for Apex Legends and EA Sports titles. It’s also hosting the Twitch Prime Crown Cup, with tournament play for FIFA 19 and Apex Legends. And, of course, you can buy anything with a Twitch logo on it discounted now at the Twitch Store.

Amazon does promise “up to 50% off” gaming gear though it looks like the discounts on the best products mostly run in the 30 to 45% range. Below, check out some of the best discounts we’ve found on Amazon for products with gamer appeal. 

If you’re looking for more deals, our sister site GameSpot has its own lists specifically for the PS4, Nintendo Switch and more.

Things to keep in mind

  • We’ll collect all of the Prime Day laptop and PC deals here, once the sale date becomes official.
  • We’ll keep an eye on pricing and availability, and note when certain items sell out or when the sale prices expire.
  • In the meantime, we’ll be looking for the best pre-Prime Day gaming laptop, desktop and accessory deals right here — regardless of retailer.
  • Note that CNET may get a share of revenue from the sale of the products featured on this page.

Microsoft

This is the return of Walmart’s “build a bundle” deal from Black Friday. The base price of $299 isn’t great — you can often find Xbox One S bundles with games for closer to $249 — but Walmart 

(1) lets you choose which game bundle you want: NBA 2K19, Battlefield V, Fortnite, Forza Horizon 4 or Minecraft

(2) throws in an extra controller (choose from one of 1 designs), so you get a total of 2 controllers

(3) also includes your choice of a HyperX or (for an add’l $10) Turtle Beach headset

So, all in all, not too shabby if you’re coming to the Xbox for the first time.

Óscar Gutiérrez/CNET

As with the Xbox bundle, this is less about a deep discount, and more about getting a bunch of extras thrown in. For $30 over the usual price of a Switch, you get:

(1) A Switch console in your choice of colors.

(2) Your choice of 1 of 5 games: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Splatoon 2 or Super Mario Party (all of these usually cost $50 to $60)

(3) Your choice of a free accessory: A portable power bank, a carrying case/screen protector combo or a camo messenger bag.

Just remember that the aforementioned Switch Lite is coming in 2 months for $200, if you’d prefer to wait.

EVGA

Nvidia just replaced several of its GeForce RTX models with “Super” versions, but the old 2070’s performance is still in the same ballpark as the more expensive 2070 Super and close enough to the 2060 Super for 1080p or 1440p gaming for the right price. Which this is. Especially since the 2060 Supers are still only available for preorder and even then you’ll have to wait for the user complaints to start rolling in if you’re a cautious buyer. This one’s a known quantity with solid reviews.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The 15-inch G5 15 is one of our favorite budget gaming laptops, and Walmart’s sale model incorporates an Intel Core i5-8300H CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 4GB Nvidia GeForceGTX 1060 Ti GPU and 256GB SSD paired with a 1TB hard drive. That’s enough to deliver decent 1080p frame rates at a reasonable quality.

Corsair

Get ready for the big upcoming games by boosting your system memory. All of Corsair’s gaming gear is on sale, and its memory prices have hit some all-time lows, like this 2x16GB 3,200MHz set. Double check that the memory you’re buying matches your system’s specs and slot configurations, though, and you may need XMP support (or to enable it) for the overclocked sticks (faster than 2,666MHz).

Logitech

Logitech’s excellent wired gaming mouse isn’t on sale specifically for Prime Day, but it is at an all-time low price. In addition to all the essentials — 1,000Hz polling, a 16,000 dpi sensor, braided cable and so on — it’s got 11 programmable buttons that you can save within five profiles in the mouse and five 3.6-gram configurable weights. 

Sarah Tew/CNET

If you venture from Amazon, you have more configuration options to choose from. For instance, Newegg has a Hero II configuration (GL504GM-DS74) that’s only $1,130 ($570 off of a list of $1,700), but with the 144Hz display, GTX 1060 (it has more video memory than a 1050 Ti) and 256GB SSD, plus a 1TB hard drive. 

Sarah Tew/CNET

If you’ve got an old laptop, chances are you bought it when games didn’t take up 60GB of storage. If you’ve reached your limit, swapping game files to an external drive can give you some breathing room before you’re ready to buy a new laptop. While you can go with a cheap external hard disk, they can be pretty pokey. This drive is a roomy, reasonably priced 2TB SSD after its discount.

Corsair

Though I’m not a big fan of Corsair’s clunky iCue software, the keyboard itself is pretty nice — it’s got Cherry MX Speed switches with double-shot keycaps, a volume roller, an aluminum frame with a USB passthrough port and onboard memory for profile storage. While this isn’t a Prime Day-specific deal, it is an all-time low price — as long as you like white, because the black version is still about $10 more. Note this deal sold out and has come back at a higher price, but stock won’t be ready until Aug. 12.

Expired deals

Sarah Tew/CNET

Sorry, price went back up on July 14, 2019. This is a good price for the not-quite-top-of-the-line m17, configured with a six-core, eighth-gen Intel Core i7-8750H CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q graphics chip. Battery life isn’t great, but the m17 has future-proof brute force and makes fewer design sacrifices than comparably robust laptops. 

Sorry, the price went back up on July 14, 2019. If you’re looking for a cheaper option, you can get last year’s models of the ROG Strix Hero or Scar (GL503) for roughly $1,135 for a 15.6-inch 1080p display, Intel Core i7-8750H CPU and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics, 16GB of DDR4 RAM and 128GB SSD, plus a 1TB FireCuda SSHD. But for about $400 more, you can get the current generation (GL504) — it’s got a much better physical design — with some better components, including a 512GB SSD and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 2060. 


Now playing:
Watch this:

Amazon Prime Day 2019: Everything you need to know



1:43

$699

CNET may get a commission from retail offers.

source: cnet.com