Gaming laptop that plays VR games... buy now or later?

Bob Dole

Hi.

I'm looking for suggestions for gaming laptops, and the ideal time to buy one.

Budget is €800-€1,600 (not including extras like MS Office and antivirus).

My most important requirement is that the laptop is powerful enough to handle VR games, in particular Half-Life: Alyx and Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin. Wanting to play these games is the only reason I'm getting a laptop instead of Steam Deck (I know the ROG Ally is VR-compatible, but I'm not a fan of its design).

(I don't own any VR headset right now; if I get a cheaper laptop I might buy a more expensive headset, and vice versa.)

The most intensive other games I'm interested in playing are Resident Evil 4 Remake, Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War and Hogwarts Legacy (Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077 and Starfield are nice-to-haves). I'm one of those people who struggles to see the difference between 30fps and 60fps, so as long as a game isn't unplayable on low settings, I'm happy.

Finally, is Black Friday/Cyber Monday the best time to buy a laptop? And is it worthwhile looking beyond Currys and Amazon?

Thanks for any help.

Nowso

cyber monday still on try the lenovo site , on gaming style laptops you will save hundreds online over currys.

a legion 5 with a 4060/ 4070 maybe

for today prices would still be on sale

Plasmoid

If you want to play VR games now, the best time to buy is now. If you wait sure, things will change but only you know if you'll have the time, if it's value for you to do something else with your time for now.

There might be good sales in January, but on the other hand it seems like there's some depseration now.

Do look beyond Curry's and Amazon. Currys can't stock everything, and good value VR capable laptop is a bit niche. Amazon UK also is just the UK market, and given their currency/inflation story, it can be better to look in EU - but watch out for German/French keyboard layouts!

Laptops for VR... hopefully you know that is a compromise generally, if not in terms of price to performance than at least in terms of upgradeability later. Most folks would recommend a Desktop for that,

Maybe have a look at this: https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/lenovo-legion-slim-5-16-wqxga-165hz-100srgb-350nit-amd-7-7840hs-rtx-4070-16gb-ram-512gb-ssd-no-os-laptop-wcode-4251331#comments

It's details for the UK Lenovo website - but this particular one gets something simialr on https://www.lenovo.com/ie

A Lenovo Legion Slim 5 16" laptop with an RTX 4070, upgradeable ram. It's a gaming laptop so it should have enough cooling while gaming, although a non-Slim gaming laptop might do even better.

It has a 2560x1600 resoltuion display. You mentioned Microsoft Office - you might benefit from the large resolution display outside of games in MS Office vs a 1080p gaming orientated display.

I've left out Operating System and Office and Antivirus.

Antivirus - i'd peronsally say save your money and use built-in Windows Defender.

Windows - It might be cheaper seperate.

Office - The subscription is probably the way to go, also maybe seperate if you can find a discount.