You asked for a Laptop costing under £800.
You told me that you needed a light gaming laptop for casual games such as Roblox or Rocket League. You also added the following additional information: I won’t be doing a huge amount of gaming on it, I’d rather it was portable. But it would be nice to be able to game on it when I can. Also I’m talking about good games, not rubbish ones.
You’ve given me a lot to think about! From your additional information, it sounds like you want to do a bit more than just casual gaming. At your price point, if you want to do this with the fewest compromises, choose option 1. Option 2 will let you game but at much lower settings. However, it is much cheaper and potentially more portable, based on my estimates of what the battery life might be. Option 3 is a good compromise – the OLED (lower refresh rate) screen might make the battery last longer and it has more storage than choice 2.
I searched a range of different shops for something that would suit your needs. I have chosen the three options below as the best ones to suit your requirements. However, we all have our own tastes (and of course, prices can change), so I have also included search links for each shop at the bottom of this page in case you’d like to browse further.
I always choose three options – the best performing option within your budget (i.e. best suited to meet your needs for the longest possible time), the cheapest option that still meets your needs effectively and a third option which is usually a compromise between the two, although it may be a wildcard pick that I think would suit your specific need. If you are able to, I would usually recommend the first option as it is likely to be powerful enough to meet your needs for the longest before it needs replacing. However, I specify three choices so that you can pick the one that best suits your circumstances.
Prices correct as of 26th Jan 2022
1. Best overall performance: MSI Katana GF66 Intel Core i7 8GB RAM 512GB SSD Nvidia RT…
£749.97
Key features:
CPU: Intel Core i7-11800H Octa Core Processor
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 512GB
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050Ti 4GB Graphics
This choice represents the best overall performance I could get from your budget. I chose it primarily based on its CPU and GPU, both of which are very good.
2. Cheapest option: Lenovo ideaPad 5 AMD Ryzen 5 8GB RAM 256GB SSD 15.6″…
£479.97
Key features:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500U Hexa Core Processor
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 256GB
Graphics: Integrated AMD Radeon Vega Graphics
This choice represents the cheapest device I could find that still meets your needs. I chose it primarily based on its value for money, which is good.
3. Third option: ASUS Vivobook AMD Ryzen 5-5500U 8GB RAM 512GB SSD 15.6&qu…
£589.98
Key features:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5-5500U
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 512GB
Graphics: AMD RAdeon
This choice represents the third option – cheaper than choice 1 but more powerful than choice 2. I chose it primarily based on its CPU, storage and screen.
Why did I choose these for you?
It is important that you understand what the components of a laptop do so that you can make an informed choice. Here is my very basic explanation for each:
- CPU: The brain of your laptop. A better one makes your laptop faster.
- RAM: Your laptop’s short term memory – more of this means it can cope well with doing more things at once.
- Storage: How much space your laptop has to store files, photos, apps etc. More storage means you can store more stuff.
- Graphics: Your laptop has a graphics processor (GPU) responsible for how things appear on the screen. A better GPU will mean your device will cope better with more complicated graphics, such as in 3D games.
If you would like to browse the shops I searched for yourself, here are some links that will take you directly to the search results you require:
Some of the links on this page are affiliate links – that means if you go on to buy after clicking one of them, I may receive a small payment. This is how I am able to provide this service for free. It does not affect the price you pay, nor does it affect the recommendations I make – I will always recommend the best I can find to fit your usage, regardless of what shop it is from or any affiliation.
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