This budget gaming laptop is actually a damned good deal right now

This budget gaming laptop is actually a damned good deal right now

(Image credit: Future)

Given the sometimes iffy quality of gaming laptops in the budget segment of the market, it's reasonable to be skeptical when you see one on sale, since the laptop might be a joke at just about any price. That's not the case with the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 gaming laptop, now on sale at Amazon for just $681 (opens in new tab).

As far as gaming laptops go, this is one of the better deals we've seen ahead of the Prime Day deals we'll see next week. That said, the specs are lower than most, so some compromises have been made to get it under $700. But, fortunately, this model doesn't scrimp on the CPU and GPU, so it will be powerful enough to run some of the best PC games around at good frame rates with modest quality settings.

The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 gaming laptop could go on sale next week for lower than its current $681 sale price, but if it does, it won't be that much lower than it is right now, so if you're looking for one of the best cheap gaming laptops that can actually play games at a decent frame rate, then give this one a good long look. 

Today's best Lenovo IdeaPad 3 gaming laptop deal

The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 gaming laptop currently on sale at Amazon come with a 15.6-inch full HD display, an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H processor, an Nvidia GTX 1650 GPU, 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD storage. 

It's these latter two that really underspecced compared to the best gaming laptops, but fortunately these are the two specs on a gaming laptop that you are able to upgrade later, with a maximum of 32GB DDR4 RAM and up to 2TB total storage from a 2.5-inch 1TB HDD/SSD, a 512GB max M.2 2242 slot and another 512GB max M.2 2280 PCIe SSD slot.

Lenovo IdeaPad 3 gaming laptop (15.6-inch, Ryzen 5-5600H, GTX 1650, 8GB, 256GB) $739 $681 at Amazon
Save 8% - This Lenovo IdeaPad 3 gaming laptop is a great deal since the purchase price is going almost entirely into getting the best CPU and GPU you can at this price point, leaving you the option to upgrade the underspecced components later on, if necessary.

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That means you are spending all your money upfront on the two real options on a gaming laptop that you cannot change, so the money is very well spent here. If you need more RAM or storage down the road, you can always pick those up and really make this gaming laptop shine – especially if you can get them on sale during Amazon Prime Day next week.

More Lenovo IdeaPad 3 gaming laptop deals

Just because you're not in the US doesn't mean that you can't get the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 gaming laptop for a steal, no matter where you are in the world. Check out the deals below for the latest savings from your region.