You don’t necessarily have to wait until November 27 to bag yourself a Black Friday gaming laptop deal because there will be a bunch of bargains out there in the weeks and days leading up to the big day itself. You might be hoping that waiting until the main weekend you’ll have your pick of the best deals—and you may have a point—but there have been a offers already on the table.
Black Friday itself is going down on the final Friday of November, and that means this year you’re looking at November 27. Realistically though Thanksgiving sales will kick off at Midnight on Thursday 26, and the retail event will follow through all the way to Cyber Monday.
But with the current situation there are concerns about the volume of shipping that is going to be in demand because of the increase in online shopping and the fact that people are going to be desperate for their goodies before Christmas. Whether that’s purely because they want them, or because they’re vital presents for a loved one.
Which all means that the likes of Amazon are likely to be starting things a little earlier than usual, so expect the whole of November to be one giant pre-Christmas sales event.
That thought might make you wince, but it does mean there will be bargains to be had without necessarily having to fight the online crowds on those key shopping days at the end of November. And it also means there are some tasty Black Friday deals around already.
Black Friday deals: quick links
- Amazon – Black Friday deals on anything and everything
- Walmart – Deals on Games, Movies, Budget Laptops
- B&H Photo – Monitors, Laptops, and PCs
- Best Buy – PCs, Laptops, and Accessories
- Target – Games, Accessories, and Laptops
- Staples – Gaming Chairs and assorted office goodies
- Lenovo – Discounts on Legion Laptops and PCs
- Razer – Laptops and Gaming Accessories
- Newegg – Components and Hardware
- Microsoft – PCs, Laptops, and Games
- Dell – Alienware PCs and Laptops
Black Friday Gaming Laptop Deals
Dell G3 15 | Intel i5 | GTX 1650 | $809.99 $659.59 at Dell (save $150)
The GTX 1650 GPU is never going to set any gaming benchmark records, but will still deliver you decent 1080p gaming performance, and for just $660 that’s a great effort from this stylish Dell machine. The 4-core, 8-thread Core i5 is a decent CPU, you get 2x 4GB RAM for proper dual-channel support and a 256GB SSD.View Deal
Gateway Creator Series 15.6-Inch | i5 10300H | RTX 2060 | $999 $849 at Walmart
Don’t adjust your calendar, it’s still 2020. However, this Gateway (yes, GATEWAY) deal is really good. It’s tough to get an RTX 2060 at this price, paired with a Comet Lake CPU and a display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD may be a little miserly, but upgrades are reportedly straightforward.
View Deal
Acer Nitro 5 | Intel i3 | RTX 2060 | $999.99 $899 at B&H
Nvidia promised us sub-$1,000 RTX 2060 laptops, and now even those are getting discounted with new cards coming in 2021. This Acer machine sports a low-end 4-core/8-thread CPU, but the RTX 2060 is a great mainstream mobile chip. The 144Hz display, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD ain’t bad either.View Deal
MSI GL75 | 17.3-Inch |Intel i7 | RTX 2070 | 16GB RAM | 512GB SSD + 1TB HDD | $1,499 $1,199 after rebate
This is a strong configuration from top to bottom for playing games at high framerates. With a 6-core, 12-thread Intel CPU, a powerful mobile Nvidia GPU, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD paired with a 1TB HDD, this is a lot of laptop. Discounted price requires code 4STUDENT (save $100) and cashing in the $100 mail-in-rebate.View Deal
Alienware m15 | Intel i7 | RTX 2070 Super | $2,200 $1,749 at Amazon (save $451)
The best thing about new hardware is that last-gen goodies get discounts, and with the impressive gaming power of this 6-core, 12-thread CPU and ray tracing capable Nvidia graphics card, you’re still getting a great gaming laptop. You also get a 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM, and a 300Hz 1080p screen. Oof.View Deal
MSI GE66 Raider | Intel i7 | RTX 2080 Super | $2,799 $2499 at Amazon (save $300)
If you’re after the most powerful gaming laptop around today you’d do well to find something with more oomph than the GE66 Raider. The RTX 2080 Super is top of the line until Ampere GPUs go mobile sometime next year, and the rest of the spec is spectacular too. There’s 32GB RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, and a 300Hz screen to match the 8-core, 16-thread CPU.View Deal
Black Friday Office Laptop deals
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim | Intel i5 | Nvidia MX350 | $879.99 $649.99 at Staples
The MX350 is never going to win any awards as a gaming GPU, but it is still a discrete graphics card that’s going to deliver higher gaming performance than the integrated GPU of Intel’s 10th Gen chips. You can squeeze 720p gaming out of this office machine, with a 512GB SSD and 8GB RAM.View Deal
Acer Swift 3 | 14-inch | Ryzen 7 4700U | $679.99 at Amazon
If you’re just after a basic office laptop, that will deliver on battery life and general system performance, the Swift 3 is a great shout. It’s small, comes with a 512GB NVMe SSD, and 8GB or RAM. It’s no gaming machine, but the 8-core AMD APU is a quality bit of kit, and you could get some very light gaming going on it.View Deal
Microsoft Surface Pro 7 | Intel i3 | $959 $699 at Best Buy
The Pro 7 is a solid tablet with PC pretensions thanks to its connected keyboard and Intel Core i3 processor. The 4GB of RAM and 128GB SSD capacity would be a bit miserly on a fully fledged laptop, but in this 12.3-inch tablet form it will absolutely do the job you need of it.View Deal
What to look out for in a Black Friday gaming laptop
The best Black Friday gaming laptop deals will deliver high-performance hardware for a knockdown price. But it doesn’t automatically scan that just because something has a three-figure discount that it will be worth the money. You need to keep an eye on what parts are being used, what else you get for your cash, and whether it’s actually right for you.
We’re at a crossroads in PC gaming tech right now; at the end of one generation and the beginning of another. That’s mostly in the desktop PC space, however, with new laptop graphics cards, and mobile gaming CPUs not expected until early next year.
But companies are still aiming to shift stock so expect some discounts on current-gen kit. Don’t be fooled into parting with money for anything beyond the last generation of GPUs, however. It’s unlikely there’ll be a laptop with an Nvidia 10-series graphics card inside it that’s worth buying this Black Friday.
Keep an eye out for storage, and memory size too. That’s most true at the low end of the market, where manufacturers may aim to keep prices low by using single sticks of memory and therefore halving the potential memory bandwidth. That might not be a problem in the very cheapest of gaming laptops, however, where the GPU will make the most difference to your experience.