Now’s not a great time to buy a gaming laptop, what with the state of the PC hardware market—memory, storage, and GPUs are extra expensive thanks to the AI-driven shortage. But if you can’t wait years for prices to drop (and there’s no guarantee they will), here’s a deal to consider: Best Buy is selling the 15.6-inch Lenovo LOQ for $650 off, bringing its price down from $1,849.99 to a more palatable $1,199.99.
That’s still a lot of dough for what you get. The Intel Core i7-13650HX is a 2023-era Raptor Lake CPU that delivers respectable upper-mid-range performance, and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 is a solid entry-level discrete GPU for 1080p gaming. It can push 144+ frames in esports games and 60+ frames in heavier triple-A titles, plus it offers DLSS features like ray tracing and multi-frame generation.
This laptop also packs 16GB of DDR5 RAM, which is about as much as you can hope for in a $1,199.99 machine right now, especially alongside a capable CPU and GPU. That’s enough to handle Windows 11 and get you through everyday tasks. Other key details include a 15.6-inch 1080p display with a 144Hz refresh rate, a 512GB SSD, and Nvidia G-Sync for smoother graphics with minimal tearing.
Who’s the wrong buyer for this laptop? Students and remote workers who want lots of on-the-go hours—the CPU and GPU on this thing drain battery fast. If you intend to hoard 4K videos and lots of other data, the SSD won’t be big enough and you’ll need external storage. Videophiles and hardcore gamers who want gorgeous visuals should look elsewhere, ideally one with an OLED screen or one that can push 4K to an external monitor.
For $1,199.99, this Lenovo LOQ is a catch given 2026’s pricing trends. If you want to shop around and see what else is out there, see PCWorld’s picks for the best gaming laptops and best laptops overall.