Black Friday 2025: top gaming laptop deals handpicked by Windows Central (and why you should act now before prices go up)

It might be tempting to nab the cheapest gaming laptop possible, but an attractive price tag doesn't necessarily mean it's a great deal.

Some discounted PCs might be older models that struggle to keep up with your favorite games, or they might be missing a crucial feature that you need for everyday use.

Finding a discounted laptop with the latest hardware from Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA isn't too difficult, if you know where to look. And if you'd rather not scour the internet, you can leave it up to us to find the best deals on gaming laptops.

For gamers, the minimum amount of RAM I suggest is 16GB. For high-performance systems that run demanding titles, 32GB should be the sweet spot.

In terms of VRAM, an 8GB GPU is a bit of a contentious subject. It's enough to handle most games, albeit with in-game settings turned down and upscaling enabled. But if you want to make your games look as good as possible, a GPU with 12GB or more of VRAM will do the trick.

More is always better when it comes to storage. SSDs fill up quickly with games — believe me, I know. Gaming laptops usually let you get inside to upgrade the SSD; if you're comfortable with that, you can buy less storage at checkout and perform the swap yourself. Otherwise, try to get as much storage as possible from the factory.

Most laptop brands try to balance performance hardware and display, but that doesn't mean you won't sometimes come across skewed specs.

When it comes to display resolution in your laptop, you should consider the size of the screen. A larger screen, say between 16 and 18 inches, might not be crisp enough for your liking if it has a 1080p resolution. On the other hand, you might find that 1440p is overkill for a 14-inch gaming laptop. Finding a happy medium is crucial.

Then there's performance to consider. The higher the display resolution, the more your PC will have to work. If you plan on playing competitive titles, try to focus on a higher refresh rate for smoother action.

And if you're only interested in lightweight indie games, you can always get a higher resolution without really worrying about performance issues.

Black Friday officially begins on November 28, 2025. However, Black Friday is no longer contained to one day. Significant deals are already live (as you can see from the gaming laptop discounts above), and I don't expect them to slow down until Cyber Monday is through.

Cyber Monday lands on December 1, 2025, just a few days after Black Friday. The deals traditionally carry through the weekend, and there are indeed some new deals that drop on Monday.