I test gaming laptops for a living — here are 7 Black Friday deals I'd buy

Alienware m18: was $2,499 now $1,949 @ Dell
Currently $550 off, this beast of an Alienware packs real grunt under the hood. While the outlay is significant, I love the specs this particular config of the Alienware m18 boasts. An impressive 12-core AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX is paired with an Nvidia RTX 4070, which is quite the knockout combo components-wise for a gaming laptop. It also boasts 32GB of DDR5 RAM, 1TB of NVMe SSD storage and a mighty 18-inch FHD screen (1920 x 1200) that can reach a ludicrous 480Hz with a response time of 3ms. If you're into competitive shooters, the m18 is a brilliant choice for your next gaming laptop.  

MSI Stealth 15M: was $1,399 now $1,128 @ Amazon
For the money, the MSI Stealth 15M laptop serves up solid components. Thanks to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU, 11-th Gen Intel Core-i7 processor and 16GB of RAM, this laptop is well equipped to run most modern games at reasonably high frame rates. Its 15.6-inch screen may only be 1080p, but its 144Hz refresh rate means games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 should feel super-responsive on the MSI Stealth's screen.

Asus TUF Gaming A16: was $1,099 now $749 @ Best Buy
I don't want to have a list that's entirely populated by laptops with Nvidia GPUs, so I'm throwing the Asus' A16 into the mix. Right now, this well-balanced gaming machine is $350 at Best Buy and it comes equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7735HS CPU, AMD Radeon RX 7600S GPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a FHD (1920 x 1200) 16-inch, 165Hz LED display. Those specs should be able to handle big PC hitters such as Starfield at frame rates above what Xbox Series X can muster up. 

Razer Blade 15: was $2,999 now $1,799 @ Amazon
The 2022 model Razer Blade 15 gaming laptop is now on sale this Black Friday season, and it remains a compelling gaming laptop. This configuration features an RTX 3070 Ti GPU, 12th Gen Intel 14-Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. Its 15.6-inch QHD display also sports a 240Hz refresh rate to ensure ultra smooth gameplay experiences.

MSI Katana 15 (RTX 4070): was £1,699 now £1,299 @ Amazon
For my money, this is one of the best Black Friday gaming laptop deals you can snag in the UK right now. The fact you get an RTX 4070 GPU, a highly performant Intel Core i9-13900H CPU, 16GB DDR5 RAM and a 1TB SSD for a shade under £1,300 really is excellent value for money. It blows my mind we're now seeing laptops capable of handling modern games with demanding ray tracing features (like Cyberpunk 2077) at these sorts of price points.

Acer Swift X 14: was £1,499 now £1,299 @ Currys
As a sucker for OLED displays, I really like this deal. With a 2.8K (2800 x 1800) OLED panel rocking a refresh rate of 120Hz refresh rate and covering 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, the screen on the Acer Swift X 14 is a little stunner. Specs-wise we’re looking at reasonable rather than class-leading components, but this OLED laptop’s Intel Core i7-13700H CPU, RTX 4050 GPU and 16GB of RAM should be able to handle most recent games at a stable 30fps at this portable PC’s native screen resolution. You also get 1TB of SSD storage, giving you the space to install plenty of the best Steam games.    

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2023): was £3,599 now £3,099 @ Overclockers UK
The latest Zephyrus G14 is hands down the best gaming laptop of the year in my book. And it's not even close. I absolutely adored this lap-friendly monster of a machine in our Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review, with its gorgeous 2K mini-LED display (2560 x 1600) flooring me. It's damn near OLED-good; the -black levels on this 165Hz display are very impressive. This top-end config of the G14 is expensive, but £500 off is quite the saving. For your money, you're getting seriously impressive specs, with AMD's R9-7940HS combining with Nvidia's mighty RTX 4090 GPU and 32GB of DDR5 RAM. Oh, and you also get a free copy of the quietly excellent Alan Wake 2.