Best gaming laptop under $700: 5 budget gaming laptops for 2023

At the time of writing the MSI GF75 17.3 inch version is out of the price range of this guide, however, we have seen it reduced to around the $700 level and if you can catch it at this price it is by far the best laptop listed on this page for fast-paced online gaming. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card is not as good as the GTX 1650 Ti listed on some of the 60Hz laptops on this page, however, combined with the Intel Core i5-10300H CPU it still does the job on most games, provided you don’t mind playing on medium-low settings.

There are however three big selling points to this laptop. Firstly, the 120Hz screen means for competitive shooters it has the capability to actually display the higher FPS needed. Secondly, the 17” screen is a rarity on this budget, and if you desire the extra real estate on your screen this is a great budget option. Thirdly, the 512GB SSD is again something you are unlikely to see come as standard on most sub-$700 gaming laptop. As we typically recommend upgrading any laptop that comes with a 256GB SSD, buying this admittedly more expensive laptop becomes a bit more cost-effective when you consider you don’t have to pick up another SSD separately.

The laptop has a narrow color gamut, but that is to be expected at this price range. If you want to upgrade the 8GB of RAM (something we generally recommend), be advised that this will void the warranty. The MSI GF75 does however have relatively quiet fans for a gaming laptop, and is also lightweight considering its larger display. All-in-all, if you can get this laptop for a price around the $700 mark, we cannot recommend it enough.

As mentioned, 120Hz displays are hard to come by in gaming laptops at this price range, and if you can’t afford the MSI GF75 17.3”, then this ASUS TUF Gaming Laptop is a great alternative. The high refresh rate display also comes with a decent max brightness, although the color gamut of the screen could be wider. This makes it unsuitable for any graphic design work but for gaming purposes however, the color replication is perfectly serviceable.

Power-wise the Nvidia GTX 1650 GPU is the best you can expect at this budget. In terms of the CPU the AMD Ryzen 5 R5-3550H processor is of an older generation compared to others listed here; although the performance reduction is not significant, it is noticeable on CPU-intensive tasks – nevertheless, for games the graphics card will do most of the heavy lifting.

Portability and fan noise are around what you’d expect for this budget, though the battery life lags beyond some of the other competitors. The 256GB SSD and 8GB RAM aren’t ideal but again, to be expected on this budget, and both features are upgradable. All told, this 120Hz laptop is a good deal for gaming on a budget.

This 60Hz iteration of the ASUS TUF Gaming Laptop obviously suffers from being capped to an effective 60 FPS, making it unsuitable for fast-paced online competitive gaming, first-person-shooters in particular. Nevertheless the beneficial trade-off is that for this low price you get a more powerful GPU and CPU than the 120Hz examples on this page. The Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti graphics card and the Intel Core i5-10300H processor mean you will be better able to play games on higher settings at a consistent 60 FPS than on the 120Hz versions, so if your interests are limited mostly to RPG/strategy titles and the like, you will be able to get console-level performance out of this machine.

In terms of the display, the color gamut could certainly be wider, however, it does have a good contrast ratio – ultimately it will definitely suffice for playing games. The size, weight, and ports and sockets on this machine are all typical of what you’d expect at this price, although the battery life is not the best out there.

The 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD are standard for this budget, though we would recommend upgrading them Ultimately this is a solid 60Hz gaming laptop.

The HP Pavillion Gaming Laptop with the AMD Ryzen 5 4600H CPU is a decent choice for those who want a bit of multi-core power for low-level workstation tasks alongside their gaming. The 60Hz display does cap performance to 60FPS, so for online competitive shooters it probably isn’t the best choice, but for those who want a budget machine with the power to play less demanding games at a solid 60FPS then this HP Pavillion can do the job with its Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 GPU.

The laptop is about the size and weight you’d expect and comes with the usual limited array of ports you get at this price point, but the battery life is definitely above average and you can expect to get around 7 hours of strenuous, non-gaming usage out of it. The color gamut of the screen is fairly narrow, however, the contrast is fairly decent.

As per usual, we’d advise upgrading the 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM you get which comes with the laptop as standard. Besides this though, the HP Pavillion is a cheap but solid option for a budget gaming laptop.

There are better options in terms of straight performance than this Acer Nitro AN515 on this list, but in its favor, it can be found cheaper than all the other alternatives here.

The Intel i5-10300H CPU and Nvidia GTX 1650 GPU are solid performers for the price and will manage decent FPS in less demanding games, or in moderately demanding games when the graphics settings are turned down low. The 60Hz screen isn’t anything to write home about, but does the job for games where fast reaction times aren’t paramount – color replication and brightness is about middling. The 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM are not ideal but these can always be upgraded further.

Port coverage on the laptop is also about average, and it’s by no means the lightest on this list either, but for this price ultimately what you’re paying for is the two main core components, and if you can find this laptop sufficiently below $700, we’d certainly consider it as an option.