This Alienware Laptop Is the Best Gaming Laptop Deal Going Right Now

i’m sorting Through Black Friday laptop deals all week long, including discounts on gaming laptops. There are plenty of good options out there, but when it comes to the best value for your money, this $300 discount on the Alienware 16X Aurora has to be the best one. This is the closest laptop with an Nvidia RTX 5060 graphics card I’ve seen for under $1,000. For $1,100, you get 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and the aforementioned RTX 5060.

In contrast, another gaming laptop I like, the Razer Blade 14, has an RTX 5060 configuration on sale for $1,450. Same specifications for a lot more money. However, it’s a much thinner and more portable laptop, so it’s not exactly a fair comparison.

I’m also keeping an eye on the current deal on the Asus ROG Strix G16, which is as close to a 1:1 match with the Aurora as you’ll find. This is another gaming laptop that I like, at almost the same thickness and weight, and the model that is on sale for Black Friday comes with very similar specifications. The price difference between the two machines is only $100, which doesn’t seem like a huge difference, but the Alienware 16X Aurora also comes with a higher-resolution, 2560 x 1600 display. This goes a long way toward making the laptop feel more premium, especially outside of your gaming sessions. With the RTX 5060, you probably won’t be able to do much gaming at native resolution, but if you also want to use your laptop for watching videos, studying, or working, the Alienware laptop’s sharp display is a nice upgrade. I should note that the configuration I tested was also very bright, going up to 557 nits, while this model says it only goes up to 300 nits.

But the thing is: When I reviewed the Alienware 16X Aurora, I was criticizing it for comparing a similarly powered laptop over a hundred percent cheaper, resulting in similar performance in games. This made it difficult to justify. However, at $1,100, it is quite the opposite.

If you’re looking for a really cheap option, though, under the $1,000 mark, you have some good options right now. First, you can configure the Alienware 16X Aurora with an RTX 5050, bringing the price down to $900. He is solid. You still get the high-resolution screen and extra storage. The performance of any laptop with an RTX 5050 won’t blow you away, but it handles lighter games surprisingly well, and can access upscaling and even multi-frame generation to increase frame rates when needed.

But I would also recommend checking out the Acer Nitro V16. This is one of the cheapest gaming laptops you can buy right now and it’s really worth the buy, on sale for $629. Same RTX 5050 and performance for $271 less.

However, there are some compromises. Obviously, the display is worse and you get half the storage compared to the Aurora. But it also comes with an oddly small 135-watt power supply. This doesn’t provide enough power to keep the laptop running at high levels, and there’s no way around it at the present time. So, if you are gaming in turbo mode, you may see the battery draining while plugged in. The system eventually switches to Balanced Mode automatically once the battery reaches a certain level. To me, this is a shameful and frustrating issue that Acer should resolve – although it’s not the end of the world for a laptop at this price.

However, the happy medium between these options is actually the RTX 5060 version of the Alienware 16X Aurora.

For more deal-hunting recommendations, check out our handpicked lists of the best Black Friday deals, best Black Friday laptop deals and best Black Friday tech deals.