If you're looking to pick up a new laptop for gaming on the go this Black Friday, you may want to consider this sweet deal on an Acer Nitro V from Amazon for just $600.
That price tag puts the Acer Nitro V in the same budgeting bracket as many gaming handheld consoles, like the ROG Ally and the Steam Deck. While handhelds have become increasingly popular for gaming on the go, there are still plenty of benefits to choosing one of the best gaming laptops to take with you instead.
🔥The hottest Black Friday deals🔥
- 🎮ASUS ROG Ally (Ryzen Z1) | $349.99 at Best Buy (Save $150!)
- 💽MSI GeForce RTX 4070 + free game + Uber gift card | $479.99 at Newegg (Save $60!)
- 💻Surface Pro 11 (X Plus) | $899.99 at Best Buy (Save $300!)
- 💽AMD Ryzen 5 7600X + free SSD (1TB) | $194.99 at Newegg (Save $74!)
- 📺HP Curved Ultrawide (34-inches) | $299.99 at Best Buy (Save $180!)
- 💾WD_Black Xbox Series X|S Card (1TB) | $99.99 at Best Buy (Save $50!)
Budget gaming laptop vs a handheld gaming console?
The Acer Nitro V pairs a 13th gen Intel Core i5-13420H laptop processor and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050. The hardware specs include 8 GB of DDR5 RAM, a 512 GB Gen 4 SSD, and Acer's dual fan and exhaust system to keep it all cool. It's wrapped in a simple, minimalist-friendly black casing, topped off with a 15.6-inch Full HD display with a 144 Hz refresh rate. The display offers an 82.64% screen-to-body ratio, so you're really getting some display real estate here for just $600.
In comparison, a ROG Ally is only going to have a 7-inch Full HD screen with a 120 Hz refresh rate to work with, while its GPU power is hamstrung with just 4 GB of VRAM compared to the 6 GB the 4050 offers. You're going to get better visuals overall, though a game like Cyberpunk 2077 may need to be locked down to 30FPS to make it happen. If you're hopping into this year's Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 or looking to pick up Indiana Jones and the Great Circle when it releases on PC Game Pass in December, the Acer Nitro V certainly has the specs necessary to get you in those games with medium settings.
There's also the whole multitasking element to a gaming laptop that a ROG Ally or Steam Deck just can't compare to— though, that hasn't stopped our own Richard Devine from figuring out how to kit out a Steam Deck for work and play. If you're like me and prefer to be able to use your gaming PC for more than just gaming out of the box without any extra hassle, the Acer Nitro V is just a better fit.
An upgraded handheld gaming console could potentially come with more storage than the Acer Nitro V out of the box. So if you're a single-issue customer who only cares about how much space you have for that gaming catalog, then the Nitro falls apart with its paltry 512 GB SSD. However, there are so many great Black Friday deals on SSDs that it's easy enough to tack on extra storage.
At the end of the day, the choice between a gaming console and a gaming laptop boils down to how portable you need to be, how much you care about the graphic output, and your budget. If you are looking for light gaming and additional functionality without breaking the bank, the Acer Nitro V certainly ticks all the boxes.
🍁More great Black Friday deals🦃
- Best Buy: Big savings on video games, accessories, and more
- Amazon: Constantly rotating sales on everything you can imagine
- Walmart: Early savings on practically everything
- Target: Live deals on a huge range of products
- Dell: Top deals on laptops, gaming PCs, accessories, and more
- HP: Save big on laptops, desktops, accessories, and more
- Lenovo: Doorbuster deals on all Lenovo PCs, monitors, accessories, and more
- Newegg: Save on PC gaming accessories, components, and more
- Razer: Take advantage of free shipping for a limited time
- Samsung: Holiday deals on laptops, TVs, phones, and more are live
