The best Cyber Monday gaming laptop deals for under $1000
Cyber Monday gaming laptop deals this year are ripe for the taking. Compared to the scarcity of graphics cards, laptops are in ample supply. You won't find next-gen GPUs or CPUs available in laptops just yet, but that means there are plenty of current-gen gaming laptops on offer for cheap as retailers try to make room for next year's more powerful models.
Cyber Monday deals
Cyber Monday 2020 deals: the place to go for the all the best Cyber Monday bargains.
There are a number of Cyber Monday cheap laptop deals you can grab while spending under $1000. We have a longer article dedicated to all the Cyber Monday gaming laptops deals we've found, including high-end models outfitted with RTX 2070 GPUs. But those laptops can easily cost north of $1500, which is a lot of money. Spending that much makes sense if it's your only system, but if you're on a budget or looking for a gaming laptop to pair with a top-of-the-line desktop, it makes sense to save some cash.
That's what we've collected for you here: the best gaming laptops on sale for less than a grand. We've also sprinkled in a few non-gaming options under $1,000, in case you're still shopping for a friend or family member that isn't as much into gaming as you.
No, you won't find a laptop with an RTX 3070 hiding under the hood, but there are still plenty of current-gen gaming laptops packing impressive hardware that will give you great performance on demanding games.
Gaming laptops
Dell G5 15 SE | AMD Ryzen 5 | RX 5600M | $929.99 $767.33 at Dell.com (save $162.66)
We've made a lot of noise about the RTX 2060 machines for less than $1,000 being good value, but the RX 5600M delivers similar performance making it an outstanding gaming laptop. With a 6-core, 12-thread Ryzen CPU, 8GB of 3,200MHz RAM and a 256GB NVMe SSD, the overall package is pretty sweet too. Use code 'WEEKEND10' to get the full discount.View Deal
Acer Nitro 5 | 15.6-inch | Core i5-9300H | RTX 2060 | 16GB RAM | 256GB SSD | $1,099 $799 at Walmart (save $300)
Having the opportunity to bag a very decent GPU in a portable package for well under $1,000 is certainly worth considering. With it you'll be able to handle most recent games well with that 1080p screen with ray tracing. A touch more SSD storage would've been nice, though.View Deal
Dell G5 15 | AMD Ryzen 7 | RX 5600M | $1,049.99 $849.99 at Best Buy (save $200)
The G5 has almost been an ever-present deal in different guises over the past week, and now it's back with another great offer. The 8-core, 16-thread 4800H CPU is more than a match for any computing task and the RX 5600M delivers RTX 2060-level gaming performance. Match that with a 512GB SSD and a 144Hz screen and you've got a great system where only the 8GB RAM seems stingy.View Deal
HP Pavilion | Intel i5 | GTX 1650 Ti | $899.99 $729.99 at Newegg (save $170)
This is another welcome return for a great gaming laptop deal. The GTX 1650 Ti isn't the mightiest GPU around, but it's a great fit for this $730 machine with its 4-core, 8-thread CPU, 256GB NVMe SSD, 12GB RAM, and 16-inch IPS screen. It's a whole lot of laptop for not a whole lot of cash.View Deal
HP Pavilion | Intel i5 | RTX 2060 | $1,119.99 $869.99 at HP (save $250)
There have been a host of HP gaming laptop deals going down in the last couple of weeks, but this is a bit of a standout. When Nvidia promised RTX 2060 notebooks under $1,000 it took a while to become a reality, but here we have an $870 machine with just that, plus a 4-core, 8-thread CPU, 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM, and an IPS display. Sweet.View Deal
Non-gaming laptops
Lenovo Flex 14 | Intel i5/i7 | Intel HD | $749.99-$969.99 $549.99-$749.99 (save $200)
This is an excellent laptop for as little as $550, complete with 8GB RAM, a 256GB SSD, a new 10th-gen Intel Core i5 processor, and a 14-inch touchscreen. An upgraded configuration is available for $749.99 with 16GB RAM, a 512GB SSD, and an Intel Core i7 CPU.View Deal
ASUS Vivobook Flip | Intel i5 | Intel HD | $749.99 $599.99 (save $150)
Here's another great option for a productivity laptop. It has a new 10th-gen Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 1080p touchscreen.View Deal
What to look out for in a Cyber Monday gaming laptop
The best Cyber Monday deals on cheap gaming laptops will give you good enough performance to game on at 1080p without cutting too many corners. That means including an SSD and a dedicated GPU. 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 the games you intend to play.
This won't be where you find the most cutting edge parts or the slimmest design. There are some powerful brand new components hitting the PC hardware scene right now, but they're mostly in the desktop space. In 2021, expect to see that new hardware filter over to laptops.
That means companies want to sell laptops with older hardware now. Which means deals—but don't be fooled into parting with money for anything beyond the last generation of GPUs.
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.