Gaming Laptop Recommendations - Budget ~ $1,800

Thank you for stopping by your quarterly OzB gaming laptop recommendation forum post

In the market for a new gaming laptop, I've done some research already and narrowed it down to a few, though more than open to others' suggestions and thoughts. Budget is up to $1.8K or so, so looking at a RTX 4060 as the main contending GPU. Laptops with RTX 4070s seem to push the $2K+ price bracket, which is a bit too much for me. At least 15.6", not moving the laptop around a lot so doesn't need to be exceptionally portable. Not a competitive sweaty FPS gamer, so don't need a crazy fast and responsive display.

Some notable options:

I have my eyes set on the first option, the Acer Nitro 5, though not 100% sure yet. Am waiting around just in case a crazy deal like this $1,800 HP Omen 17 i7-12700H, 16GB DDR5, 1TB SSD, RTX 3080 Ti pops up again… bummed I missed that one.

Open to recommendations! Cheers.

Poll Options

  • 2
    Acer Nitro 5 15.6-inch i5-12450H/16GB/512GB SSD/RTX4060 8GB Gaming Laptop
  • 16
    Dell G15 AMD Gaming Laptop (Ryzen™7 7840HS, RTX™ 4060, 16GB DDR5)
  • 4
    One of the Lenovo Legion Pro Laptops
  • 1
    One of the MSI Laptops
  • 1
    Other (please recommend in comments!)

Comments

  • +3

    Was also tempted on the legion pro but after my metabox gaming laptop I’m really not keen to go laptop format for gaming again tbh

    • +2

      In the past months I've gone from considering a Steam Deck ($600), the ROG Ally ($1,300), then to a NUC 11 RTX w/ RTX 2060 ($930) to now a gaming laptop pushing $2K

      As much better value gaming PCs are then laptops and all the rest, I do need some degree of mobility and portability with this gaming device so regrettably desktops are not an option!

      • -1

        I considered gpd win max 2 with an egpu setup at one point too. Business during the day, party at night… in the end got an iPad Pro and a steam deck lmao

    • When you say you aren't keen on a laptop again, do you mean you want smaller or to go back to a desktop?

      • Planning to go back to Desktop. Don’t need a laptop now. Too used to rdp on iPad Pro now.

        • Did you build desktops or buy ready-made? I used to enjoy building desktops but I don't find them interesting anymore with the lack of 5.25" expansion bays.

          • @Guybrush57: Yeah I built 7 rigs before last build was 2017. I honestly cbf anymore. Not sure if I’m just too old now, or work a ft job and have two kids or both.

  • +1
  • Thoughts on this?

    https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/gigabyte-a…

    With discounted gift cards, might be alright. Cheers

    • How often will you be taking it around I guess? Even 15-16 inch laptops these days I feel are way too bulky

      Could be good if you had the 15% off ultimate cards?

      • +1

        Not too fussed about portability as it won't move much from the house

        With the gift cards I would effectively be $1550 or so out of pocket, so not completely terrible for a 17.3" 4060 laptop.

        Will wait a day before the 15% discounted gift card deal expires, which is soon, and if no good deals pop up I might bite on this one then

    • +2

      You'll need to upgrade to at least 16gb ram

  • +1

    Check the Dell outlet store

  • Have you considered a Gameboy?

    • The Micro was is fun but looking for something with a slightly larger display :)

  • What about a steam deck for local/remote play and a desktop? XD

  • +2

    I’ve gone for a GPD Win Max 2 2023 (10.1-inch bezel-less display, R7 7840U Processor, 32GB RAM (LPDDR5x-7500 MT/s), 2TB NVMe SSD. It ended up being $1,560. Only issue - I’m still waiting for it.

    • How did you get that price? From which website?

    • Enjoy. I have a GPD WIN 2. The WIN MAX 2 2023 looks enticing indeed.

  • I would wait for the Ryzen Nitro 16 to go on sale.

    The Intel's are slightly older.

    Or just get the Dell now.

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