If you need a gaming laptop but are working with a moderate budget, we’ve rated & reviewed seven of the best gaming laptops under $1,000 to help you find the right option for your needs.
Gaming laptops are always going to be outperformed by custom-built and pre-built gaming desktops on a dollar-for-dollar basis. However, desktops aren’t viable options for gamers who need a more portable option. And, fortunately, there are decent gaming laptops out there in the ~$500-$1,000 price range.
In this guide, we’re going to take a look at seven of the best gaming laptops under $1,000 that are currently available. We’ve rated the seven laptops below based on their gaming performance and the price tags they come in at to give you a good idea of what kind of value they offer. So, if you’ve got a moderate budget and you’re looking for a solid gaming laptop, one of the options listed below should work for you.
Table of Contents
1. Quick-Look: Top Gaming Laptops Under $1,000
2. Top Pick: Dell Inspiron 15.6″
3. Runner-Up: Acer Predator Helios 300
A Quick Look at the Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,000
In order to simplify finding a solid option for your needs, we’ve provided a quick-look table below that showcases our picks for the best gaming laptops under $1,000 in a few different categories. We’ve selected our picks for the best option under $1,000 overall, the runner-up, and the best value gaming laptop under $1,000, as well as listed the cheapest option on this list.
| NAME | SPECS | RATING | |||
TOP PICK |  | Dell Inspiron |
| /10 | |
RUNNER-UP |  | Acer Helios 300 |
| /10 | |
VALUE |  | HP Omen 15 |
| /10 | |
BUDGET |  | Dell Inspiron 15 5000 |
| /10 |
*If you click on the “Read Review »” links you will jump to our overview on that specific laptop. You can also keep scrolling down see our thoughts on our Honorable Mention picks.
Best Gaming Laptop Under $1,000:
Dell Inspiron 15.6″
In our opinion, the best gaming laptop under $1,000 right now is the Dell Inspiron 15.6″ gaming laptop. Gaming performance is going to mainly come down to the graphics card that the laptop comes with. And, Dell’s Inspiron 15.6″ is one of only two options under $1,000 that comes with a GTX 1060 6GB graphics card in it.
The other option is the Acer Predator Helios 300 laptop that is listed below. But, while both laptops have a GTX 1060 6GB graphics card in them, the Dell Inspiron comes with a slightly better processor (a six-core i5-8300) and more storage (a 128GB SSD and 1TB hard drive) as well. And, most importantly, the Dell Inspiron comes in at ~$50 cheaper than the Helios 300, too.
The Helios does come with 16GB of RAM, but considering how easy it is to add additional memory, and the fact that most games still don’t use more than 8GB anyway, in our opinions, saving $50 and getting the better processor is the better deal.
The bottom line, though, is that for the price you pay and the laptop you get, this Dell Inspiron is likely the best gaming laptop under $1,000 right now.
Our Runner-Up Pick:
Acer Predator Helios 300 15.6″
The Acer Predator Helios 300 is a solid gaming laptop for under $1,000 and closely rivals the Dell Inspiron listed above in terms of overall performance. In fact, in gaming performance alone, the Helios 300 will perform at a pretty much identical level to the Dell Inspiron.
And, while the Helios 300 does come with a larger SSD (256GB for the Helios 300 compared to 128GB for the Dell Inspiron) and more memory, too (16GB compared to 8GB), the Inspiron has the better-performing processor and it has a lot more storage capacity with its secondary 1TB hard drive, too.
But both the Helios 300 and the Dell Inspiron both come with a GTX 1060 6GB graphics card and in terms of gaming performance, that is as good as you’re going to get for a laptop under $1,000. In fact, you can expect both the Helios 300 and Inspiron to run today’s top games on medium-to-higher settings with high framerates.
So, while we think the Dell Inspiron offers slightly better value, the reality is that both will serve you well. So, if this laptop goes on sale, or if you prefer having more memory now and a larger SSD now, then it might be worth it to choose over the Dell Inspiron.
Best Value Gaming Laptop:
HP Omen 15
In terms of the best value option under $1,000, the HP Omen 15 might be the best option on this list. It doesn’t come with a GTX 1060 6GB graphics card in it, but the GTX 1050 Ti 4GB graphics card that it does come with is no slouch in 1080P gaming.
In fact, with a 1050 Ti, you can expect to play pretty much any modern AAA title on medium (or higher) settings with good framerates.
The HP Omen 15 also comes with the same Intel Core i5-8300H that is found in the Dell Inspiron 15.6″ laptop that we chose as our top overall option. And, it has 12GB of DDR4 RAM, a 128GB NVME SSD, and a 1TB hard drive. It sports a 15.6″ 1080P IPS display, too.
And, the best part about this laptop is the price it comes in at. You can grab the HP Omen for just under ~$830, which makes it over ~$100 less than our top pick, and over ~$160 less than our runner-up pick.
Ultimately, if you don’t mind playing some more-demanding games on a little bit lower settings, or if you mainly play non-demanding titles (like Fortnite, Rocket League, Overwatch, etc.) and you want to save some money, the HP Omen 15 is probably your best bet.
Our Budget Pick:
Dell Inspiron 15 5000
The cheapest option that we’ve chosen to list in this guide is another Dell Inspiron laptop. However, unlike our top overall pick listed above, this Dell Inspiron model comes with hardware that isn’t quite as powerful—but it does come in at a lot lower of a cost.
For just a little over $650, this Dell Inspiron model is affordable and it will offer anyone who is playing non-demanding esports titles (Fortnite, Overwatch, Rocket League, League of Legends, etc.) with enough performance to run them at max settings with ease.
This Inspiron comes with a quad-core Intel Core i5-7300HQ, 8GB of DDR4 memory, a 1TB hard drive, and a 1080P display. And, for ~$650 that is a pretty good value in terms of what you pay versus what you get. Of course, it won’t come anywhere near matching the performance of a $600 desktop gaming PC, but in comparison to other similarly-priced laptops, this Inspiron is a pretty good deal.
Honorable Mention #1:
MSI GL62M 7REX
The MSI GL62M 7REX is another solid gaming laptop under $1,000. However, for the price, it comes in at, it’s not really a great option.
The MSI GL62M comes with an Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor, a GTX 1050 Ti 4GB graphics card, and 8GB of DDR4 memory. It also comes with a 128GB SSD and a secondary 1TB hard drive.
While the specs are decent, the price is what kills the value of this laptop. It comes in at $1,000 total. As a comparison, our top overall pick, the Dell Inspiron 15.6″, comes in at $50 less and has a better graphics card and processor.
Or, our best value option, the HP Omen 15, comes in at ~$170 less and has the same graphics card and a better processor.
So, while the specs on this MSI gaming laptop are good enough to have you playing most games on medium-or-higher settings with high framerates, the price that it comes in at makes it a tough sell.
Honorable Mention #2:
Lenovo Legion Y520
The Lenovo Legion Y520 is a solid alternative to the HP Omen 15. The Y250 doesn’t come with as good of a processor as the HP Omen 15 does as it holds the older quad-core Intel Core i5-7300HQ instead of the newer six-core Intel Core i5-8300H.
But it does come with the same GTX 1050 Ti 4gb graphics card that the HP Omen 15 does and so, for the most part, it will perform similarly in most games. It’s also ~$15 cheaper, too, so if you want to save a little bit of money, the Y250 will put a little back in your pockets.
The other main difference to note, though, is that the Y250 comes with a single 256GB SSD, which may or may not be a better option for you. We prefer the 128GB SSD and 1TB hard drive combination, but the larger SSD isn’t a bad alternative, especially because you can always add a secondary hard drive in the future.
Overall, though, we’d recommend choosing the HP Omen 15 over this Lenovo Legion Y250 as the Omen 15 is only a few bucks more.
Honorable Mention #3:
ASUS ROG Strix
Finally, we have this ASUS ROG Strix gaming laptop. While this gaming laptop from ASUS will be fine for running games like League of Legends, Rocket League, Dota 2, etc., for the price it comes in at, you could get a much better-performing laptop.
It comes in at just under $1,000, putting it at a price that is more expensive than our top pick, the Dell Inspiron 15.6″ and at the same price as our runner-up pick, the Acer Predator Helios 300.
The problem is that, while those two laptops come with GTX 1060 6GB graphics cards, this ASUS ROG Strix only comes with a much weaker GTX 1050 4GB graphics card. Where the GTX 1060 6GB can run more demanding games on higher settings, the GTX 1050 4GB will have to run them on lower-to-medium settings instead.
The ASUS ROG Strix isn’t without its perks, though. ASUS’s ROG Strix laptop does come with the best storage configuration (a 256GB SSD and a secondary 1TB hard drive) when compared the other options on this list and it does have 16GB of RAM, too.
In our opinion, though, those additions don’t quite make up for the lower-end graphics card, as that is going to have a bigger impact on in-game performance.
Need A Solid Gaming Laptop Under $1,000?
While we always recommend that gamers build their own gaming computers so that they can get the most performance out of their budgets, we also realize that certain users will need the mobility that a laptop offers. If you are interested in building your own PC, check out our guide on the Best Cheap Gaming PC Builds Under $1,000 to see the difference in hardware you can get. And, if not, and you absolutely need a gaming laptop instead, one of the affordable gaming laptops listed above should work for you
If you want to look at more affordable options, you can also check out our guide on the Best Budget Gaming Laptops (Under $500).
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