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5 Best Gaming Laptop Under $800 Reviews in 2023 | For an Affordable But Decent Gameplay!

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Spending hours searching for the best gaming laptops under 800 makes you exhausted? Still wondering which is the best choice? If you are getting stuck in an endless consideration, no worries, we are here to help!

We have listed the top 5 best affordable gaming laptops to help you easily choose the most suitable one. Here is the list you are longing for. Check them out now!

3 Top Gaming Laptop Under $800

 Lenovo IdeaPad 3

 

5/5

Can a laptop that is typically designed for playing games, but still comes with a really reasonable price? Sure, it can! Lenovo Ideapad L340 is exactly the perfect answer for that.


Weighing 2.1 kg, the IdeaPad L340 is one of the lightest devices in our review list. It is featured an IPS full HD screen (15.6 inches) which provides you with a vivid display for playing games in high definition.

  • Come with IPS FULL HD Screen
  • Run well with multitasks
  • Strong Intel i5 4 core processor

 Acer Nitro 5

4.9/5

Nitro 5 is said to be one of the few AMD versions which is listed in affordable laptops. Overall, this laptop can run well with most games.


Weighing 5.1 lbs, Acer Nitro 5 is convenient if you put it on the table. However, it is a great laptop for gaming when featured with an 8GB of RAM and AMD Ryzen 5 2500U.

  • Comfortable keyboard
  • Lots of ports
  • Affordable

 HP Pavilion Gaming 15.6

3. [Best For The Great Battery Life]

HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop 15.6"

4.8/5

HP Pavilion gaming laptop is a well-balanced laptop for all your needs like gaming, office work, or schoolwork. Thanks to its powerful hardware, this laptop can handle almost all modern games with ease on its 1080p display.


The HP Pavilion has a great number of ports, with four USB 3.2 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, an HDMI 2.0 port, a combined headphone, and microphone jack, and also a cable port.

  • Play most games in high image-quality settings.

  • Include Wi-Fi 6
  • Great battery life.

Best Gaming Laptop Under $800 Reviews

Can a laptop that is typically designed for playing games, but still comes with a really reasonable price? Sure, it can! Lenovo Ideapad L340 is exactly the perfect answer for that.

Weighing 2.1 kg, the IdeaPad L340 is one of the lightest devices in our review list. It is featured a 15.6-inch IPS full HD screen which provides you with a vivid display for playing games in high definition.

One of the plus points of this laptop is its keyboard design. It goes well with other parts of the laptop and you can even easily change the settings for the backlit keyboard. This will surely have a great look at night.

Although the laptop is made mostly of plastic, it still looks great. The only limitation is the susceptibility of fingerprints. However, it has no bad effect on the entire operation of a true gaming laptop.

Are you a real fan of Age of Empires? You are fond of watching game streams every day? Then never miss this IdeaPad L340 because the i5 will allow you to work well with multitasking like gaming and viewing streams.

Furthermore, with a battery life of around 5 to 6 hours, you can play your favorite games without worrying about plugging in when your game is in a climax.

 

 Lenovo IdeaPad 3

Pros

  • Come with IPS FULL HD Screen
  • Run well with multitasks
  • Strong Intel i5 4 core processor
  • Fashional backlit keyboard

Cons

  • No memory card reader

The Lenovo Ideapad L340 is definitely a good choice for gamers who are looking for powerful gaming machines. CPU is good enough for HD gaming while the IPS screen will give you great graphics of most games. However, you may tolerate the lack of a memory card reader.

4.9/5

Nitro 5 is said to be one of the few AMD versions which is listed in affordable laptops. Overall, this laptop can run well with most games.

Weighing 5.1 lbs, Acer Nitro 5 is convenient if you put it on the table. However, it is a great laptop for gaming when featured with an 8GB of RAM and AMD Ryzen 5 2500U.

What’s more, the 1920 x 1080 display is relatively bright and colorful which allows you to play any games with the most vivid images.

A plus point of this product is its responsive keyboard. If you find the Nitro 5's keyboard is beyond your expectation as it has a less attractive look, then the comfortable feeling of typing may make you think again.

Like most AMD Ryzen laptops, the only disadvantage is Nitro 5's battery life can only last for around 4 hours. Therefore, this is suitable with a mid-range gaming laptop.

 

 Acer Nitro 5

Pros

  • Comfortable keyboard
  • Lots of ports
  • Affordable

Cons

  • Slow graphics and performance

The Nitro 5 offers a 1920x1080 IPS display, which is great to see. Of course, it features a comfortable keyboard and a lot of ports, but its performance is yet to be fast. If your need is just to play light games, then this laptop is good for you.

[Best For The Great Battery Life]

4.8/5

HP Pavilion gaming laptop is a well-balanced laptop for all your needs like gaming, office work, or schoolwork. Thanks to its powerful hardware, this laptop can handle almost all modern games with ease on its 1080p display.

The HP Pavilion has a great number of ports, with four USB 3.2 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, an HDMI 2.0 port, a combined headphone, and microphone jack, and also a cable port. Although all of these ports are set on the sides instead of on the rear of the laptop, you can find no inconvenience when you get all the wires in your desk view.

The IPS panel looks good at 1920x1080 pixels and offers short response times, which will completely please gamers like you, we bet!

With Hexa-core CPU, powerful GPU, and dual-channel RAM, the device performs comparatively well. Overall, the HP Pavilion will play most games on maximum graphics and it would be great for playing 3D games.

In terms of battery life, the HP Pavilion will not make you disappointed when achieving around 8 hours for web browsing in 150 cd/m² of brightness. It is not bad, right?

 

 HP Pavilion Gaming 15.6

Pros

  • Great battery life.
  • Play most games in high image-quality settings.
  • Include Wi-Fi 6

Cons

  • No Thunderbolt 3 port.

The HP Gaming Pavilion runs all modern triple-A games smoothly with the 1080p display. The Core i7-9750H proved to be a powerful system for gamers. More importantly, the Pavilion runs comparatively quietly. Spending a reasonable amount of money to get such a great gaming laptop! Why not?

In the battle of the best budget-friendly gaming laptops, the Asus TUF FX505DY-ES51 will be a great candidate. It can run smoothly most of what you are playing in medium settings.

To make the Asus TUF affordable for most gamers, Asus has made some cut-off on the display. However, no worries, because the screen is still sharp, and it is definitely good for a daily use laptop.

How about the keyboard? On the Asus TUF, the keys are well placed, but you might find that they are slightly bouncy. However, it is just initial feelings, you can totally get used to it after sometimes. And when you get control of it, you will surely like it!

Overall, the Asus TUF may not be the most powerful gaming laptop, but it is a feasible competitor to most GTX 1050 laptops on the market. Of course, as a budget gaming laptop, this Asus TUF will never let you down.

 

 ASUS TUF Gaming

Pros

  • Reasonable price tag
  • Intel's 8th Gen CPU onboard
  • Many color scheme options
  • Good gaming performance
  • Solid audio

Cons

  • Bland display

In some respects, the Asus TUF FX505DY-ES51 is worth owning. It has a decent 60Hz display and a well-organized backlit keyboard. But somehow, it is similar to a mobile desktop. Maybe, if you are on a strict budget, this will not make you disappointed.

While budget gaming laptops often pose difficulties playing most of the modern games at the best display, MSI's GF63 Thin 9SC is a fairly affordable laptop of this spec.

You need a laptop that is easy to bring out for a meeting or group streaming? This slim laptop will be a very suitable choice for you when coming with only 2.2 cm in thickness and 1.8 kg in weight. Surely, with such a lightweight laptop, you can easily bring it anywhere you want.

Furthermore, like most budget gamers, the laptop’s display has a Full-HD resolution and 60 Hz panels. This ensures that you have a better view of your favorite games. Although the limit of response time of MSI's GF63 Thin 9SC may cause some ghosting during faster games, it doesn’t last long. Therefore, for smooth productivity, you can choose to play medium games with this laptop.

MSI's GF63 Thin 9SC is also highly recommended due to its battery life. Thanks to graphics switching, the laptop can last up to 8.5 hours on medium performance. This is the best number on our review list.

 

MSI GF63 Thin 9SC

Pros

  • Slick and compact design.
  • Super Graphics card
  • Well-organized backlit keyboard

Cons

  • Slow and dark display

The MSI's GF63 Thin 9SC is definitely compact with lightweight and good battery life. This will please gamers who are looking for both affordable and portable laptops. Considering its overall value and performance, it certainly is a good deal for you.

How to Get the Best Gaming Laptop Under $800?

When you are buying a gaming laptop, the first thing you should do is to write down all the specs and features that you need for your laptop. And from then, you can do quick research to choose the most suitable one. When all of your needed specs are contained in it, then it is the best laptop. The $800 range is good enough for most casual gamers, but if your games require very little resources you can spend less, even under $600 for a laptop, depending on the game you play.

For those on a real budget you may be able to get a solid option at $300 or under depending on what games you are playing.

FAQ

Do I need a portable laptop?

If you plan to keep your laptop at home and leave it on your desk, a 17-inch laptop will be a good choice. However, if you need to carry your laptop around more often, a smaller model will be better.

What GPU do I need?

If you normally play games on medium or low performance, you can buy a gaming laptop with a GTX 1650. On the contrary, when you want to play games on the highest settings, you can choose a laptop with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2060 or RTX 2070.

a person playing a game on laptop

What CPU do I need?

Depending on how much you are willing to spend, you can get a powerful Core i7 laptop, or perhaps Core i5 processor for regular games

How should I choose a display?

Take a good consideration for the purchase for laptops with a low display which is less than 1920 x 1080 pixels. If your laptop goes with an RTX 2070 or more, you may want to get a 2560 x 1440 display or even a 4K screen.

How about the battery?

Normally, you will need to keep your laptop plugged in when playing games to get the full performance. And if you don’t, a laptop with long battery life is all you need.

Is it advisable to buy a gaming laptop with a touch screen?

Well, a touch screen may be considered for gaming laptops because they may affect the battery life.

Long battery life

Can an 8GB of Ram be enough for a gaming laptop?

Normally, 8GB of Ram is what we recommend for an average gaming task. However, if you can afford it, you should purchase a gaming laptop with 16GB of Ram. In case you can’t afford now, no worries, you can totally consider upgrading it in the near future. There are many gaming laptops coming with an upgradeable memory out there for you to choose from.

Should I buy an i3 Core laptop for gaming?

When you are looking for a new gaming laptop, you should consider buying one which goes with an Intel Core i5 at least. Of course, if you can afford an i7 model, it would be the best.

Can a budget gaming laptop come with both hard drive and SSD?

Yes, but not many budget gaming laptops come with both. Some laptops will only come with a hard drive which is usually 1TB. The loading times will be faster if your laptop has a larger SSD, but it will also be more expensive. However, like memory, storage can be upgradeable in most gaming laptops. So, you can upgrade to a larger SSD or 2TB hard drive anytime for more space.

Under Under $800 Gaming Laptops Wrap Up

Well, it is not difficult to get the best gaming experience with a budget gaming laptop, right? If you are on a strict budget, the aforementioned laptops will be great choices.

Of course, if you have a higher budget, you can even get a better choice. But somehow, these best gaming laptops under $800 are enough for most gamers. Anyway, it is your choice. We hope that with our suggestions, you can choose for yourself the most suitable gaming laptop.

About Dusan Stanar

I'm the founder of VSS Monitoring. I have been both writing and working in technology in a number of roles for dozens of years and wanted to bring my experience online to make it publicly available. Visit https://www.vssmonitoring.com/about-us/ to read more about myself and the rest of the team.