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For just $550 you can snag this entry-level gaming laptop with an RTX 3050

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The Lenovo LOQ 16-inch gaming laptop at a side angle.
Lenovo

While gaming laptops used to be quite big, bulky, and expensive, the past few years have seen a big jump in technology, and now most gaming laptops tend to be quite thin and easy to carry around. Not only that, but there are some nice budget-oriented options as well, such as this configuration of the Lenovo LOQ. What makes it impressive is that it’s been discounted at Best Buy down to $550 and yet comes with an entry-level RTX 30-series GPU, which is rare at this price bracket. In fact, this laptop usually goes for $800, so you’re getting a whopping $250 discount in the process.

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Why you should buy the Lenovo LOQ 15.6-inch gaming laptop

The beating heart of any gaming laptop is its GPU, and in this case, you get yourself an RTX 3050, which admittedly is an entry-level graphics card, but for the $550 price tag, it’s actually really impressive to see. In terms of gaming, you’re going to easily be able to play casual and indie games, as well as older games from the last few years. You can also get away with playing some free-to-play games, and with the screen’s FHD resolution and 144Hz refresh rate, you can actually optimize your settings for better framerate, which is a nice addition.

As for processing power, you get a mid-range AMD Ryzen 5 7235HS processor that should be enough for most gaming and day-to-day tasks. The slightly more efficient AMD CPU will also help extend the battery’s lifetime. Equally impressive at this price point is 12GB of RAM, and while we would have preferred 16GB for a gaming laptop, it’s a lot better than having 8GB of RAM. The 512Gb of storage is also pretty solid, especially if you aren’t going to be playing the latest games that are often 60-100GB each, although you may want to supplement it with one of these external hard drive deals or an M.2 SSD deal if you’re a bit more tech-savvy.

All in all, while this Lenovo LOQ might not win any awards for best laptop, it’s easily one of the best deals on a budget gaming laptop you’re likely to see in a while, especially with Best Buy’s $250 discount that brings it down to $550. That said, if you’d still like to explore a few more options, be sure to check out these other great gaming laptop deals.

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Albert Bassili
Albert Bassili
Former Deals Writer
Albert’s been a tech and gaming writer for over a decade, writing for websites such as CNET, PopSci, and How-To-Geek, and…
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