Gaming laptops have become a necessity because of the popularity of modern games that you see people playing in their Youtube videos. These laptops have amazing processing power and high-quality graphics cards for providing an enjoyable gaming experience.
It is unwise to think that gaming laptops are highly expensive. You can easily find a powerful gaming laptop in just under $800 that has incredible capabilities to run all kinds of games. In this article, we have come up with a list of the best gaming laptops under $800 with a detailed review of their hardware features.
Several brands have been building quality laptops so that everyone can take advantage of the incredible features for competitive gaming. This article aims to provide you with enough knowledge so you could settle on the right gaming laptop.
- Acer Nitro 5 – Best Gaming Laptop Under $800 with Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics card
- HP Pavilion 15 – Best Budget-Friendly Laptop Under $800
- MSI GF63 – Best Gaming Laptop Under $800 for Playing Games Such as Fortnite
1. Acer Nitro 5
The Acer Nitro 5 is an extremely affordable gaming laptop with exceptional gaming features. At first glance, you know that it is a gaming laptop with its unique, eye-catching design. The body has a black color finish with red accents on the hinge, a touchpad outline, and the font of the keys. There is a cooling system at the back of the laptop with small grill-like bars on it. Overall, it has a pretty decent design for a gaming laptop.
In terms of the display screen, you get a 15.6 inches display with a maximum resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. The native resolution is quite suitable for a 15-inch screen for showing detailed images. Since it is an IPS display, you will be able to see wide viewing angles with bright colors. The Nitro 5 is equipped with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics card allowing you to play Pubg at medium settings.
With a 7th Generation Intel Core i5-7300HQ processor, this machine is capable of performing daily tasks easily. It comes with 8GB RAM for faster multitasking of basic computing tasks that requires using the internet. The Nitro 5 offers a 256GB SSD, which is faster than the traditional HDD for efficient gaming performance.
PROS
- Fast gaming performance
- Affordable
- Long battery life
- Good graphics
- No customizable RGB lighting
The Acer Nitro 5 has an average battery life of 8.5 hours. The long battery life makes it one of the best gaming laptops under $800. So, now you don’t have to worry about plugging in the charger again and again. The backlit keyboard offers red lighting, which makes the whole thing glow brightly. It does not have the fancy RGB backlighting to it, but that’s not necessary. This is a great budget-friendly laptop that needs to be considered.
2. HP Pavilion 15
The HP Pavilion 15 offers good gaming and graphics performance for a budget-friendly laptop. This laptop has a gorgeous design with a black paint job, and acid green color touches on the logo and keyboard keys. There are two vents provided at the back for amazing cooling. The vents give the laptop a gaming look. It weighs 4.9 pounds, which is a decent weight for a gaming laptop.
The display has thin black bezels, which gives you more viewing area. The screen is 15.6 inches long and has an IPS panel. The In-Plane Switching panel is more colorful as compared to other displays and has a standard refresh rate of 60hz for offering a smooth game-playing experience.
The HP Pavilion 15 is powered with a 9th generation i5-9300h processor, and the Turbo boost technology to achieve high processing speed for faster processing. The powerful processor, together with an 8GB memory, is sufficient for playing fast-paced games such as Fornite and Pubg. With an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card, you achieve smooth game playing with blazing graphics.
PROS
- Smooth gaming performance
- Fast processing
- Great battery life
- Elegant design
- The display is a bit bland
This laptop comes with the VR support for playing high-quality VR games. The battery of the HP Pavilion 15 can last for 8 hours, which is a long for doing your daily routine tasks as well as playing games. The green tint keyboard has a numeric keypad, which is rare to find in non-gaming keyboards. You can now use the comfortable keyboard to the fullest for gaming with the help of the number keys. For incredible gaming performance, this laptop is one hell of an option. However if you are a hardcore gamer, then you should check out best gaming laptops under $1500.
3. Dell Inspiron 15 7000
The Dell Inspiron 15 7000 756 series edition is an attractive gaming laptop that has been upgraded by Dell to improve its performance qualities. The laptop body has a shiny black color with red color accents in a few places. The back of the bottom deck has two vents on each side with red and black color patterns. The lid has the red Dell logo inside a circle. It feels nice to touch and does not leave finger marks. The laptop has a 15.6 inches large screen so you can watch gaming videos or movies with your friends.
The high resolution of 1080p offers sharp image quality and can also be used for photography purposes. It is equipped with Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU for smoothly playing high graphics games. The thick keyboard deck of the Inspiron 15 7000 makes it a heavy laptop, which weighs around 5.79 pounds.
Talking about the performance capabilities, you get a 7th-generation Intel Quad-Core i5-7300HQ processor with a base clock frequency of 2.50 GHz for smoothly running different applications. With an 8GB RAM, you can easily play fast games and perform fast web browsing. In terms of storage, you get a 1TB HDD for storing all your large-sized games and softwares.
PROS
- Stylish design
- Amazing battery life
- Fast performance for all tasks
- Large storage capacity
- Dim display
The Dell Inspiron 15 7000 can last more than 10 hours, which is a long time for playing games and performing routine tasks. This laptop has several useful ports on either side, which includes HDMI, USB ports, card reader, and headphones jack for improved connectivity. This versatile laptop can be used for many things, such as gaming, web surfing, watching movies, and coding websites. So you should get your hands on this one.
4. Asus FX504 TUF
The Asus FX504 TUF is a budget-friendly gaming laptop that is here to give you quality performance with its powerful features. This gaming laptop has a pretty simple design with a red Asus logo at the back of the lid and a red outline on the lid’s inner edges. The keyboard also has red backlighting keys.
The screen has thick black bezels like most gaming laptops, which looks nice. With a 15.6 inches display screen, you get enough viewing space for watching movies with your friends. It is an IPS display, which offers better and larger viewing angles as compared to other TN and VA panels. With a high resolution of 1080p, you will be able to see clearer and sharper images.
It is powered with an 8th generation 6 core Intel i7-8750h processor, which offers fast processing for streaming videos, web surfing, and playing games. The Asus FX504 TUF has an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPU for playing modern games smoothly with high-quality graphics. You get an 8GB RAM for quick multitasking, which involves running several applications at the same time.
PROS
- Good performance
- Colorful IPS display
- Smooth graphics
- Small battery life
- Warms quickly
For connectivity, this laptop has several ports such as HDMI, USB, audio jack, card reader. The average battery life of the FX504 TUF is more than 4 hours, which is what you normally get in a gaming laptop. The keyboard offers a Numpad on the right side so that you can efficiently use it for gaming. The off-center touchpad has a nice feel to it and works smoothly. For incredible gaming experience under a budget, you should consider getting this laptop.
5. ASUS VivoBook S512
The ASUS VivoBook S512 is a thin laptop and has an elegant design, which also offers incredible performance for gaming as well as daily tasks. The entire body has a silver metallic color with narrow black screen bezels. It weighs only 4 pounds, which makes it extremely light and portable to carry it to your office or school.
It has a silver ASUS logo on the lid with no flashy color scheme. The display is 15.6 inches long, with a native resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. The almost borderless screen of the VivoBook S512 gives you more viewing area for enjoying films with your friends and family. The screen resolution offers a detailed image quality for playing high-quality games.
For smooth gaming, it provides an NVIDIA GeForce MX250 graphics card. You can also perform efficient photo and video editing using this laptop. The ASUS VivoBook S512 is equipped with an Intel Core i7-10510U processor, which offers higher processing speed for handling all tasks quickly. It also provides a 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD for the overall fast performance of daily tasks.
PROS
- Portable
- Sleek silver design
- Large display sue to slim bezels
- Good hardware performance for gaming
- Long battery life
- Poor sound quality
The touchpad of the VivoBook S512 is wide enough for easily moving your fingers to control the cursor. It has a fingerprint reader on the top right corner, so now you can quickly login to your system without having to remember a password. Its battery can last up to 8 hours, which is amazing quality. The full-sized keyboard of the laptop offers easy, comfortable typing. It is a great all-round laptop quite suitable for day to day tasks and gaming. We have also listed best gmaing laptops under $500 if you are looking for a low-budget gaming laptop.
6. HP Omen
HP Omen is another great mid-range laptop that is quite affordable and packs incredible gaming performance. The lid of the laptop has a red cross on it with patterned black color, and the Omen logo lies at the center. When you open the lid, the interior looks pretty smooth with a slim screen and narrow bezels. Two hinges hold the lid and the bottom deck in such a way that leaves a gap between the two.
The laptop display is 15.6 inches long, with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. The large, almost borderless screen and the high resolution offer sharp image colors and amazing viewing angles. The display has a refresh rate of 60hz, which means it refreshes the screen 60 times in one second, making it perfect for playing online games.
It has a 9th generation Intel i7-9750h processor and an 8GB RAM for faster multitasking. The processor can be overclocked to achieve enhanced gaming performance of modern games. For quality graphics, the HP Omen provides an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 GPU for smoothly playing games with blazing graphics. The battery of the laptop can last for more than 4 hours.
PROS
- Fast gaming performance
- Hardware components upgradable
- Bright screen
- Attractive design
- Small battery life
This laptop has a 256GB Solid State Drive, which may seem small at first but no need to worry, it can be easily upgraded by opening up the back panel. The HP Omen provides two vents at the back below the lid, which has a great cooling system for always keeping the machine cool. The red-backlit keyboard looks quite appealing and has comfortable keys. For amazing gaming performance under a budget, you should buy this laptop.
7. MSI GF63
The MSI GF63 offers good hardware specifications for providing a powerful gaming experience under a budget. In terms of design, this laptop is very similar to the MSI GS65 Stealth. The entire body has a black color finish with an MSI logo on the lid top. The keyboard offers red backlighting to give the laptop some color. The lid and the bottom deck has a slim design, which makes it a lightweight laptop weighing only 4 pounds.
The IPS display offers colorful image quality with wider viewing angles for editing your photos and videos. The 15.6 inches screen has thin bezels to give you larger viewing space. The MSI GF63 has an HD resolution of 1080p for offering crisp image quality. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card provides good enough performance for playing games smoothly at higher settings.
It is equipped with an Intel Core i5-9300H processor with a 2.4GHz base clock frequency. The processor, together with the 8GB RAM, can efficiently handle running several applications as well as opening up several browser tabs simultaneously. The graphics processor of the MSI GF63 generates higher frame rates when playing games such as Fortnite.
PROS
- Lightweight and portable
- Simple design
- Good enough for modern gaming
- Colorful display
- Above-average battery life
The three-cell battery of the MSI GF63 can last for more than 4 hours, which is sufficient for a gaming laptop. Apart from the thunderbolt port, this laptop offers a good selection of ports for better connectivity. The plastic touchpad is smooth enough for moving your fingers easily to control the cursor. This laptop is worth buying if you are looking for quality gaming features in a budget-friendly laptop.
8. Acer Aspire 5
The Acer Aspire 5 provides great value for a budget gaming laptop and has all the features to fulfill your gaming needs. This laptop has a sleek design with a black paint job on the entire chassis. The screen has thin bezels, and the bottom bezel carries the Acer logo. It weighs only 3.9 pounds, which makes it extremely light and easy to carry to your workplace or college.
The display screen is 15.6 inches long, like most mid-range gaming laptops, and has an HD resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. The high resolution offers better colors and sharp images when you are watching movies. It avoids the dark spots you see on the screen while watching a film. The screen has a good amount of maximum brightness for better visibility.
The Acer Aspire 5 comes powered with an 8th generation Intel Core i5-8265U processor and an 8GB memory for quickly performing your daily tasks at a fast pace. It is equipped with NVIDIA GeForce MX250 graphics card for smoothly playing games and running video/photo editing softwares. For storage, you get a 512GB SSD, which increases the overall speed of the system for faster results.
PROS
- Fast performance due to SSD
- Long battery life
- Easy on the eyes design
- Large display
- Ideal for gaming and daily use
- Noisy fans
It comes with a four-cell battery, which provides an average battery life of 9 hours, which is incredible for a gaming laptop. The Acer Aspire 5 has the Windows 10 preinstalled so that you are ready to start working when you get the laptop. The full-sized keyboard has numeric keys on the right side, which is often necessary for a gamer. This is a great affordable gaming laptop under $800 that should be considered.
9. Acer Swift 3
The Acer Swift 3 has all the capabilities you need in an affordable gaming laptop under 800$. The most noticeable thing about this laptop is its slim and lightweight design. It has a silver paint job on the entire body except for the narrow screen bezels, which are black. You can travel with it anywhere due to its lightweight of only 2.6 pounds. It has a fingerprint reader below the keyboard keys on the right side of the laptop for easy accessibility.
It has a 14 inches display screen, which is slightly smaller than the laptops reviewed above, but it still offers a wider viewing area. With a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels, you get large pixel density for viewing clear and colorful images. Watching movies on this display is quite fun.
The Acer Swift 3 has an AMD Ryzen 7 4700U Octa-Core processor, which offers fast performance for day-to-day tasks such as web browsing, writing emails, etc. With the powerful AMD processor and an 8GB memory, you can smoothly play all kinds of online games. The integrated AMD graphics card allows you to play modern games smoothly at entry-level settings.
PROS
- Powerful AMD processor
- Long battery life
- Affordable
- Good gaming performance
- Heats up quickly
This laptop has a storage capacity of 512GB Solid State Drive, which is large enough for storing heavy games. The Acer Swift 3 has an average battery life of more than 10 hours, which is a long time for gaming and getting your work done. The silver-colored keyboard keys have a white font and are curved at the edges. It offers comfortable typing as the keys are closely spaced. For incredible overall performance, you should definitely consider this portable laptop. If you are looking for a more hardcore laptop then you should check out our article best gaming laptops under $1000.
10. HP 17
The HP 17 is a large-screen laptop with good enough performance for gaming and daily tasks. It has a simple design with a matte black paint job and has the HP log at the center of the lid. The laptop has a full-sized keyboard with the numeric keys located on the right side next to the arrow keys.
The screen has thick bezels on all sides but still offers enough viewing area. This laptop has a 17.3 inches screen, so now you can enjoy playing games and watching movies on a large screen. The IPS display panel offers better viewing angles with good colors and contrast ratio values for an incredible viewing experience.
The HP 17 is powered with an AMD Ryzen 5 3500U processor with 12GB RAM and a 256GB SSD storage capacity. The AMD processor is powerful enough to handle routine computing tasks efficiently. The large RAM provides fast-speed multitasking. It comes with an integrated Radeon Vega 8 graphics processor for smoothly playing fast-paced games.
PROS
- Large viewing angles.
- Perfect for online gaming
- Elegant design
- Fast processing
- Average battery life
The keyboard keys are made of quality material for offering comfortable strain-free typing. The wide touchpad allows for smooth tapping gestures when controlling the cursor movements. The average battery life of the HP 17 is 4 hours, which is fairly decent for a gaming laptop. You should consider this affordable laptop for fast gaming performance.
Conclusion
So, now you know that you can easily find a good gaming laptop under the $800 budget. You just have to have a closer look at its hardware specifications and preferable design to get the right machine.
Take a look at these products from the same price range, that are available right now on Amazon:
- 8GB RAM | 256GB SSD
- Equipped With The Latest and Powerful Enough 10th Generation Intel Core i5 Processors, Intel Quad-Core i5-10300H (Beats i7-8850H), (2.5 GHz base frequency, up to 4.5 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost...
- 15.6 inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) 120Hz In-plane Switching (IPS) Technology LED Backlight Display, Dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB GDDR6
- 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C, 2 x USB 3.0, 1 x RJ-45, 1 x HDMI 2.0, 1 x Headphone-out/microphone-in combo jack
- Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit), Integrated 720p HD Webcam with Privacy Shutter, Backlit Keyboard, Bluetooth, Dolby Audio, 3-cell 45 Wh Lithium-polymer, up to 9 hours battery life : 【HDMI Cable...
- 【Upgraded】Seal is opened for upgrade only, 1-Year warranty on Upgraded RAM/SSD from SnowBell, and original 1-Year Manufacture warranty on remaining components.【15.6" FHD 120Hz Display】1920 x...
- 【AMD Ryzen 5-4600H Processor】Ultra-low-voltage platform. 6-core, 12-way processing provides maximum high-efficiency power to go. Dolby Atmos, 2x 2W Stereo Speakers & 720p HD camera with Privacy...
- 【8GB DDR4 RAM】Plenty of high-bandwidth RAM to smoothly run your games as well as multiple programs. 【512GB PCIe SSD】Save files fast and store more data. With plenty amounts of storage and...
- 【Backlit Keyboard】Allows you to enjoy comfortable and accurate typing, even in dim lighting.【NVIDIA GeForce RTX 1660Ti Graphics】with 6GB GDDR6 video memory provide solid image quality for...
- 【Windows 10 included】4-cell Lithium- Polymer battery. 10.22 x 14.3 x 0.87, 5.5 lbs. Ports: 4x USB Type-A, 1x USB Type-C, 1x Headset, 1x HDMI, 1x RJ-45. Wireless-AX + Bluetooth, Black. Bonus 32GB...
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti 4GB GDDR6 Graphics (Base: 1350MHz, Boost: 1485MHz, TDP: 55W)
- AMD Ryzen 5 4600H Processor
- 15.6” 144Hz FHD (1920x1080) IPS-Type display
- 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD | 8GB DDR4 3200MHz RAM | Windows 10 Home
- Durable MIL-STD-810H military standard construction
- 15.6-inch Full HD IPS LCD with LED backlight anti-glare display (1980 x 1080), Latest and Powerful 9th Generation Intel Quad-Core i5-9300H Processor, 2.40GHz Base Frequency, up to 4.10GHz, 8 MB...
- 256GB PCIe Solid State Drive, 8GB 2400MHz DDR4 SDRAM Memory
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 with 4GB shared graphics memory, 2 USB 3.0 1 USB Type-C HDMI 10/100/1000 LAN Mic input/headphone output combo jack
- 720p webcam with built-in privacy shutter, Full-size Island-style Backlit Keyboard with Numeric Keypad, Bluetooth 4.2, 802.11ac
- Up to 9 hours battery life, Windows 10 Home 64bit
