Save $1300 on this RTX 2080-powered Asus gaming laptop
Down from $3000.There have been a spate of pretty good deals on Asus gaming laptops over the past few months, and this latest one from Newegg is well worth a look if you're after an RTX 2080 powered laptop on the cheap. The laptop in question is the super slim Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX531, and one of my biggest complaints when I reviewed it last year was its sky-high price. Fortunately, though, you can get a Core i7 / RTX 2080 model for just $1700 at the moment, which is just a shade cheaper than its regular price of $3000.
Part of the reason it's going cheap is because it only has an 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8750H processor inside it, which is getting on a bit now we're on Intel's 10th Gen of laptop CPUs. Still, as you'll be able to see in my GX531 review, the Core i7-8750H still provides plenty of processing power for playing games and desktop applications, so you shouldn't be caught short even if it's getting on a bit now.
Elsewhere, the GX531 has a very good spec indeed, offering up 16GB of RAM, a 512GB NVMe SSD and the aforementioned RTX 2080 Max-Q graphics chip. The 15.6in display also has a 1920x1080 resolution and 144Hz refresh rate, and its IPS panel produces lovely accurate colours that really ping off the screen.
The keyboard takes a little bit of getting used to, having been shunted down from its usual position to the very bottom of the keyboard tray, but I found it didn't take long to adapt to it when I had it in for testing. Plus, its metal chassis is super slim and light, making it very easy to pop in a bag and carry around with you on the move.
Indeed, $1700 is a much better price for an RTX 2080 laptop than its usual $3000, although if your budget doesn't quite stretch that far, Newegg have also sliced $350 off the GTX 1660 Ti-powered Asus ROG Strix GL531, taking it down to $950.
This laptop only has an Intel Core i5-9300H processor and 8GB of RAM, but you still get a 512GB SSD, and a 120Hz 1920x1080 resolution display. Alternatively, you can find lots of other sub-$1000 gaming laptops in our regularly updated budget gaming laptop deals hub, so why not have a read and see what you can find.