There are actually quite a few contenders here, but we’ve narrowed it down to seven of our absolute favourites - and shared what we think you should know about each. We’ll start with the most affordable options and slowly ratchet up the price to the proper top-end stuff, so there should be something to suit all budgets here. Let’s get started!
MSI GF63
The MSI GF63 is the most affordable gaming laptop in our round-up, costing less than £600 after a healthy £200 discount. This 15" thin-and-light notebook is all about balancing power and portability, with an over-engineered cooling system to keep thermals in check despite the super-slim chassis. This particular unit comes with good entry-level specs, including a GTX 1650 Ti graphics card with 4GB of VRAM and a Core i7 9750H six-core processor. That’s enough power to deliver a solid 1080p 60fps experience in many titles with some settings turned down, and you can take advantage of Nvidia’s Turing-era media encoder for streaming. The other specs, 256GB of NVMe storage and 8GB of RAM, will suffice for now but could stand to be upgraded down the road. Still, for £600, this is an absolute bargain.
MSI GF63 - £599 (was £800)
HP Pavilion 15-dk1007na
HP’s catchily titled Pavilion 15-dk1007na has the same GTX 1650 Ti as the MSI laptop we looked at earlier, but comes with a more modern Core i5 10300H, a four-core CPU that offers better single-core performance than the GF63. The HP also includes double the amount of storage, with an ample 512GB SSD, and a more modern design with thinner bezels. It’s a sensible upgrade that remains competitive on price.
HP Pavilion 15-dk1007na - £730 (was £799)
Asus TUF FA506
The Asus TUF FA506 marks a big step up from the first two laptops we saw, as it’s the first to boast RTX 2060 graphics, a Ryzen 7 4800H CPU and a 144Hz refresh rate on its 15" screen. Taken together, that means a big uptick in performance, especially in games that support DLSS. The design is again quite modern, with slim bezels and a backlit keyboard, but inside you’ll only find a 256GB SSD - something you’d probably want to upgrade down the road. Still, upgrading storage is pretty cheap and easy, and if I had to buy one of these laptops I’d probably go for this one as I think it offers the best value. However, there are a few close competitors in the sub-£900 price point you should also consider.
Asus TUF FA506 - £870 (was £950)
Dell G5
Dell’s G5 is a classic gaming laptop workhorse, and this 2020 model includes a design refresh that ticks a lot of boxes including cool lighting, a better keyboard and upgraded connectivity. That’s good, because this G5 is a step backwards in terms of the graphics card, with only a GTX 1660 Ti on board - so no RT games for you. However, the CPU is the capable Core i5 10300H and there’s still a 144Hz screen, and the storage solution here is greater than on the Asus laptop with a 512GB SSD. Depending on your preferences, this may well be a better pick, but I’ll go Ryzen every day of the week!
Dell G5 - £879 (was £1099)
Acer Nitro 5
The Acer Nitro 5 is another perennial 15" favourite, and this formerly-four-figure model is well-reviewed. It comes with a GTX 1660 Ti graphics card and 144Hz screen once again, putting it level with the Dell G5, but pulls ahead with a Core i7 10750H processor that will perform better in CPU-limited scenarios like 1080p gaming or content creation. There’s not much extra to this keyboard, just reasonably good specs at this £100 off price.
Acer Nitro 5 - £899 (was £1055)
HP Pavilion 150dk1019na
Our final model in the popular £900 class is this HP Pavilion 15-dk1019na. It looks very similar to the previous HP model we looked at, and indeed appears identical in the flesh, but comes with higher-class components including a 144Hz screen, Core i7 10750H CPU, GTX 1660 Ti graphics and 512GB SSD, equalling the Nitro 5 in pretty much every respect. I personally prefer HP’s design language to Acer’s at this level of the market, but either should make a performant laptop that costs less than £1000.
HP Pavilion 15-dk1019na - £900 (was £1150)
Asus ROG Zephyrus S15
Finally we have the Asus ROG Zephyrus S15, the company’s top-tier laptop for creators and gamers, available today with a massive £400 discount. The S15 unsurprisingly offers some specs and features that we haven’t seen in laptops at half the price, including a 300Hz screen perfect for competitive gaming, a top of the line Core i7 10875H processor and RTX 2080 Super graphics card. That’s pretty much the fastest spec you could get until a few months ago! These core specs are also backed by a gargantuan 1TB NVMe SSD and 32GB of RAM, alongside such niceties as per-key RGB backlighting and a tremendously slim design given the power on offer here. Given that faster RTX 30-series laptops won’t be discounted until Black Friday in six months, this is perhaps the best deal on a high-end gaming laptop you’re going to find anytime soon.
Asus ROG Zephyrus S15 GX502LXS - £2000 (was £2400)
Alright, that’s it for now. Stay tuned for more PC gaming deals as we find them!
