This afternoon, in my search for an inexpensive RTX 4050 gaming laptop, I stumbled across a deal on this Lenovo Legion Slim 5 laptop. First it was the price that caught my attention, then the graphics chip; an "RTX 4060" for only $850 certainly wouldn't.

Naturally, I thought it would be a low power version, like 75W, but according to Lenovo's spec sheet (pdf warning), it is a full 140W. This is the highest level of any laptop with this chip, so perfect 1080p gaming is guaranteed.

Additionally, it has an AMD Ryzen 5 7640HS processor. This is a Zen 4-powered CPU with 6 cores, 12 threads, and a boost clock of 5 GHz. This is enough performance for almost any game, and with a maximum power consumption of 54W, it is much easier to cool than a laptop with more CPU cores.

At this stage, I was convinced that there must be something wrong with this hardware to be much less than $1,000. Well, the SSD is only 512 GB in size, so it would fill up quickly with games. However, if you remove the laptop's chassis cover, you will find a second M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 slot, where you can stick a fast gaming SSD, and you won't have to worry about storage.

The real downside would be subjective. Even though it is a slim model, the 16-inch screen is a fairly large laptop. Weighing less than 2.4 kg (5.29 lbs.), it's not super heavy, but the panel is large enough that playing games on the go won't be easy. At least Lenovo was able to fit a large 80Wh battery into the chassis thanks to its size.

Also, the resolution is 1920 x 1200 (16:10 aspect ratio), which may be a bit low for such a large display. However, it is fine for gaming, and with a peak brightness of 300 nits, it would not need to be hidden away in a dark room.

But these are very minor things in the grand scheme of things, and no one will be disappointed with the screen or storage size; you can get a great 1080p gaming rig for very little outlay.

Perhaps the only real downside to this lovely laptop is knowing that it will eventually get even cheaper once all the top vendors' new models are released, but that's a story as old as the humble PC itself.