My 9 year old wants a gaming laptop and my laptop spec knowledge is minimal. He wants to play Fortnite and Minecraft and the like, nothing fancy. Any ideas re good laptops to buy, or good places to look? I’m in the UK and my budget is 300 quid tops, ideally less.
For a 9-year-old wanting to play games like Fortnite and Minecraft, finding a gaming laptop within a £300 budget can be challenging but not impossible. At this price, refurbished laptops are your best bet, so check reputable retailers like Vibox, Laptops Direct, or Amazon Renewed. Aim for models with at least an Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and some form of dedicated graphics, such as NVIDIA MX series or AMD Vega graphics. Refurbished options like the HP Pavilion, Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming, or Acer Aspire might suit your needs. However, if you can stretch your budget slightly to £400–£500, a pre-built gaming PC could be a better option. Desktops in this range generally offer more performance for the money, and brands like Vibox or PCSpecialist are worth considering. Before purchasing, check the game requirements for Fortnite and Minecraft here to ensure the device can handle them. https://vibox.co.uk/shop-by-game/pc-requirements
You can also shop during sales or explore bundle deals with budget monitors and peripherals if you go the desktop route. Refurbished systems are an excellent way to balance cost and quality for this use case!
Only Fortnite and Minecraft? Rather than a gaming laptop, you can buy him the ROG Ally handheld instead and save some money. Even the Steam Deck will do the job (make sure you get the 512 GB or 1 TB version, 64 and 256 GB are limited)
You can’t play fortnite directly on a steam deck, only stream it from somewhere else.