Both of these $1,000 RTX 5060 gaming laptops are worth considering this Black Friday, but there’s only one I’d be paying my own money for right now
As the Black Friday gaming laptop deals roll in, a word of caution—be careful to research the specs sheet carefully before you lay down your cash. Many manufacturers are less than forthcoming about the power rating of the GPUs inside their mobile machines, and it can make a significant difference to your gaming performance.
I’ve placed it in here for your consideration—but I’ve also found a Lenovo machine with a 115 W RTX 5060 for $1,000 as a comparison, and it’s even got an OLED display.
While the Alienware is still a deal worth talking about, when it comes to my cash? It’s the second machine I’d be buying with my own money. Let’s have a compare and contrast session, shall we?
The contender
Phew, you wouldn’t believe the time I’d had trying to confirm the exact TGP figures for this laptop since its release, as many different outlets say many different things and we haven’t had one in to test ourselves.
The consensus, however, seems to be that the RTX 5060 mobile here is limited to 80-85 W at top whack, which puts it significantly under the 115 W top rating for this particular mobile graphics chip.
On a sub-$1,000 lappy? That’s not really a bad thing, as the RTX 5060 is still capable of decent performance even with the power turned down. What gives me pause, though, is the 1600p display.
That’s quite a lot of pixels for any RTX 5060 to push, especially one that’s been power limited. Now, that’s not to say this isn’t a good deal. With DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation being very well supported these days, you’ll still be able to push the frame rates up to reasonable levels in most games if you don’t mind some heavy upscaling involvement. Plus, you’re getting 32 GB of DDR5, which is darn expensive in its own right these days, along with a 1 TB SSD.
However, despite the value on offer here, the real fly in the ointment comes in the form of the Lenovo Legion 5 below…
The one I’d rather have
Yep, it’s still a machine with an RTX 5060 mobile, paired with a 1600p display. This one’s got a proper OLED panel, though, which is pretty astonishing to find for $1,000 at Walmart. And the RTX 5060 is the full 115 W variant, which is better equipped to take advantage of that lovely screen and its 165 Hz refresh rate.
OLED screen tech is pretty much the best you can find in a gaming laptop at the moment, and the difference is pretty massive when you put it side by side with even a good IPS display, like the one in the Alienware above.
There are caveats to be aware of compared to the Alienware lappy, though. For a start, this Lenovo has 16 GB of DDR5, not 32. That’s still a fine amount for gaming, but it does mean you’ll need to keep an eye on your background apps if you’re going to play something really demanding.
Plus, it’s got a 512 GB SSD. That is, if I’m honest, far too small for most gamers, as it’ll only take a few big games to max it out alongside a Windows 11 install and a smattering of productivity apps. Thankfully, the Legion 5 has a second M.2 slot, which means sticking a cheap SSD drive in alongside the existing one is child’s play.
If you’re the sort of child that knows which end of a screwdriver to hold, anyway. Still, despite the lower RAM and the smaller SSD, I’d opt for the more powerful GPU and the OLED display of the Legion over the Alienware. Should the Lenovo rise in price again, it might swing things back in the Alienware’s favor—but for now, I’d say the second machine is more worthy of your cash.
