Gaming Laptop for a $850 budget?

[JuanMC45]

Hey there!

My friend has always been a console dude, but wants to take a step into PC gaming (and before everyone mentions it, no, he's not getting a desktop. I've tried to tell him a million times but he's dead set in getting a gaming laptop, I guess mainly because he also wants to upgrade from his old MacBook (and yes, I've suggested keeping the MacBook for portable stuff and get the beefier desktop for the heavy-lifting, still got a no)). He asked if an Acer Nitro 15.6" 549U (Core I5-12450H, RTX 2050 4GB GDDR6, 8GB RAM, SSD 512GB, 144hz) is a good gaming laptop for the budget (it's like $3,399,000 pesos, converted into USD is about $850). It's an ok machine imo, but I think a little overpriced. I haven't touched the laptop industry ever since I got my old laptop (like 6-7 years ago), so I have no clue on what the current standards are. 

The only games I know for sure he constantly plays are Fortnite and FIFA in his fat PS4. I'm pretty sure he plays other games but I don't really know which ones.

 

I'd appreciate suggestions, comments on the laptop he asked about, or anything else!

[filpo]

2 minutes ago, JuanMC45 said:

Hey there!

My friend has always been a console dude, but wants to take a step into PC gaming (and before everyone mentions it, no, he's not getting a desktop. I've tried to tell him a million times but he's dead set in getting a gaming laptop, I guess mainly because he also wants to upgrade from his old MacBook (and yes, I've suggested keeping the MacBook for portable stuff and get the beefier desktop for the heavy-lifting, still got a no)). He asked if an Acer Nitro 15.6" 549U (Core I5-12450H, RTX 2050 4GB GDDR6, 8GB RAM, SSD 512GB, 144hz) is a good gaming laptop for the budget (it's like $3,399,000 pesos, converted into USD is about $850). It's an ok machine imo, but I think a little overpriced. I haven't touched the laptop industry ever since I got my old laptop (like 6-7 years ago), so I have no clue on what the current standards are. 

The only games I know for sure he constantly plays are Fortnite and FIFA in his fat PS4. I'm pretty sure he plays other games but I don't really know which ones.

 

I'd appreciate suggestions, comments on the laptop he asked about, or anything else!

if you can ship from US

GIGABYTE G5 KF-E3US333SH Gaming Laptop Intel Core i5-12500H 2.50 GHz 15.6" Windows 11 Home 64-bit - Newegg.com

with more storage MSI Thin GF63 12UC-851US Gaming Laptop Intel Core i5-12450H 2.00 GHz 15.6" Windows 11 Home 64-bit - Newegg.com

Intel NUC X15 Gaming Laptop,32GB DDR5 RAM,256GB SSD,Intel Core i7-12700H 14-Core Processor,15.6" Full HD 144Hz Display,12GB Intel Arc A730M Graphics,Wifi-AX, BlueTooth,Windows 11 Pro - Newegg.com

 

otherwise, do you have any websites which you can order from?

[JuanMC45]

8 minutes ago, filpo said:

if you can ship from US

GIGABYTE G5 KF-E3US333SH Gaming Laptop Intel Core i5-12500H 2.50 GHz 15.6" Windows 11 Home 64-bit - Newegg.com

with more storage MSI Thin GF63 12UC-851US Gaming Laptop Intel Core i5-12450H 2.00 GHz 15.6" Windows 11 Home 64-bit - Newegg.com

Intel NUC X15 Gaming Laptop,32GB DDR5 RAM,256GB SSD,Intel Core i7-12700H 14-Core Processor,15.6" Full HD 144Hz Display,12GB Intel Arc A730M Graphics,Wifi-AX, BlueTooth,Windows 11 Pro - Newegg.com

 

otherwise, do you have any websites which you can order from?

Huh, so there are far better options.

Unfortunately Newegg doesn't ship to my country (Colombia, it's in South America). I checked in local shops but these models appear to not be resold here. I'd either have to use some online locker service to ship from the US (which is often really expensive for laptops), or use Amazon/Ebay since some sellers do international shipping to my country. 
However, if you don't mind translating from Spanish and doing currency conversion (Colombian Peso is COP), some local shops are MercadoLibre, Ktronix, Linio, and Falabella.

[filpo]

27 minutes ago, JuanMC45 said:

Huh, so there are far better options.

Unfortunately Newegg doesn't ship to my country (Colombia, it's in South America). I checked in local shops but these models appear to not be resold here. I'd either have to use some online locker service to ship from the US (which is often really expensive for laptops), or use Amazon/Ebay since some sellers do international shipping to my country. 
However, if you don't mind translating from Spanish and doing currency conversion (Colombian Peso is COP), some local shops are MercadoLibre, Ktronix, Linio, and Falabella.

these are among the best I could find from those websites

Portátil Lenovo ideapad gaming 3 / Amd Ryzen 5 6600H / 512G ssd / 8G Ram / RTX 3050 4GB / 15.6 FHD LENOVO | falabella.com

 

Computador Portátil Gamer ASUS TUF 15,6" Pulgadas FX506 - | Ktronix

 

Notebook Asus 15,6 512gb 16gb Gtx 1650 Fx506lhb-hn324w | Envío gratis (mercadolibre.com.co)

 

Notebook Hp Gaming Victus 15-fa1005la (i512450h/8gb/512/w11) | Envío gratis (mercadolibre.com.co)

 

if we look on amazon or ebay

Lenovo Legion 5i - 15.6" with RTX 3060, 4.50GHz, 165Hz, 16GB Ram Gaming Laptop | eBay

 

ROG Strix G513RM-DS71-CA 15.6" Gaming Laptop Computer - Eclipse Gray | eBay

 

Amazon.com: MSI GF65 Thin 3060 Gaming Laptop, 15.6" FHD 144Hz Display, Core i5-10500H 6-Core, GeForce RTX 3060 6GB, 16GB RAM 3200MHz, 512GB PCIe SSD, USB-C, WiFi 6, Ethernet, HDMI, Backlit, Win 10 : Electronics

[JuanMC45]

27 minutes ago, filpo said:

these are among the best I could find from those websites

Portátil Lenovo ideapad gaming 3 / Amd Ryzen 5 6600H / 512G ssd / 8G Ram / RTX 3050 4GB / 15.6 FHD LENOVO | falabella.com

 

Computador Portátil Gamer ASUS TUF 15,6" Pulgadas FX506 - | Ktronix

 

Notebook Asus 15,6 512gb 16gb Gtx 1650 Fx506lhb-hn324w | Envío gratis (mercadolibre.com.co)

 

Notebook Hp Gaming Victus 15-fa1005la (i512450h/8gb/512/w11) | Envío gratis (mercadolibre.com.co)

 

if we look on amazon or ebay

Lenovo Legion 5i - 15.6" with RTX 3060, 4.50GHz, 165Hz, 16GB Ram Gaming Laptop | eBay

 

ROG Strix G513RM-DS71-CA 15.6" Gaming Laptop Computer - Eclipse Gray | eBay

 

Amazon.com: MSI GF65 Thin 3060 Gaming Laptop, 15.6" FHD 144Hz Display, Core i5-10500H 6-Core, GeForce RTX 3060 6GB, 16GB RAM 3200MHz, 512GB PCIe SSD, USB-C, WiFi 6, Ethernet, HDMI, Backlit, Win 10 : Electronics

Those are a lot of good listings, thanks a lot!

The used eBay listings are the best value out of every listing I've seen so far, but unfortunately they don't ship to Colombia, or the shipping would make it go over-budget.

 

However, I found this listing in Amazon: Acer Nitro V Gaming Laptop | Intel Core i5-13420H Processor | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU | 15.6" FHD IPS 144Hz Display | 8GB DDR5 | 512GB Gen 4 SSD | WiFi 6 | Backlit KB | ANV15-51-532J

It's USD $699.99 + $168.82 import fees + FREE shipping to Colombia ($868.81 in total). Sure, it's only got 8GB of ram, but it's got a better (than the average I find in the listings you've given, and the ones I've searched) CPU and has 6GB of vram for the RTX 3050. I believe sacrificing some ram (which can be upgraded down the line) is worth it for 2 more GB of vram than the other 3050s (besides the newer CPU). 

What do you think? The only downside I see is that it's most likely got an English keyboard variant rather than Spanish. Might be a deal-breaker for my friend.

[filpo]

4 minutes ago, JuanMC45 said:

What do you think? The only downside I see is that it's most likely got an English keyboard variant rather than Spanish. Might be a deal-breaker for my friend.

I think that's a dealbreaker for any person. Definitely would be for me

 

4 minutes ago, JuanMC45 said:

However, I found this listing in Amazon: Acer Nitro V Gaming Laptop | Intel Core i5-13420H Processor | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU | 15.6" FHD IPS 144Hz Display | 8GB DDR5 | 512GB Gen 4 SSD | WiFi 6 | Backlit KB | ANV15-51-532J

It's USD $699.99 + $168.82 import fees + FREE shipping to Colombia ($868.81 in total). Sure, it's only got 8GB of ram, but it's got a better (than the average I find in the listings you've given, and the ones I've searched) CPU and has 6GB of vram for the RTX 3050. I believe sacrificing some ram (which can be upgraded down the line) is worth it for 2 more GB of vram than the other 3050s (besides the newer CPU). 

not bad but also not great. I'd actually rather go for one of the listings above from the websites you linked. Those aren't too bad

[JuanMC45]

1 hour ago, filpo said:

not bad but also not great. I'd actually rather go for one of the listings above from the websites you linked. Those aren't too bad

Yeah I kind of agree. 

 

Also, turns out my friend has a little over a thousand USD budget. You have anything better than what we've seen with that budget? 
I've found this laptop which is a slightly better version than one you found Portátil Lenovo Amd Ryzen 5 16gb 512gb Ideapad Gaming 3 15.6 (mercadolibre) for ~$932 US. 16GB ram, 6GB RTX 3050, seems like a good-ish deal compared to what we've seen.

 

I've already bothered you with searching on these local store sites, but could you do it with the ~$1000 budget? I just want to make sure I'm not missing a better deal.

[filpo]

13 minutes ago, JuanMC45 said:

Yeah I kind of agree. 

 

Also, turns out my friend has a little over a thousand USD budget. You have anything better than what we've seen with that budget? 
I've found this laptop which is a slightly better version than one you found Portátil Lenovo Amd Ryzen 5 16gb 512gb Ideapad Gaming 3 15.6 (mercadolibre) for ~$932 US. 16GB ram, 6GB RTX 3050, seems like a good-ish deal compared to what we've seen.

 

I've already bothered you with searching on these local store sites, but could you do it with the ~$1000 budget? I just want to make sure I'm not missing a better deal.

this was the next best thing I could find, but I think that lenovo would be the best deal Portátil Gamer HP Victus 15 | Geforce RTX 3050 | Intel Core i5 | 16GB de RAM | 512GB SSD de Almacenamiento | Windows 11 | Pantalla 15.6 pulgadas | 15-fa0000la HP | falabella.com 

[JuanMC45]

Thanks a lot for the help @filpo

I'll take into consideration all of the systems, but will mainly push the Lenovo. It's up to my friend after all lol