I've long been singing Lenovo's praises. The 10th generation Legion 5 offered an OLED display and excellent performance for a fantastic price point, but it looks like that rig might be on its way out. While it can sometimes be found on the shelves for a decent rate things seem to be shifting in the last few weeks and this gaming laptop deal from Best Buy is another nail in the Legion's coffin.
The Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S AI was always jostling with Lenovo's mid-ranger. At a similar price, and still sporting an impressive OLED display, it meets the same needs of the budget-conscious player while offering a slightly wider range of components. It just never managed to stay consistently cheaper on the shelves.
That's all changed this week. While the Legion 5 is in the awkward process of being replaced by a newer (more expensive) generation, the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S AI is taking a $400 discount at Best Buy, dropping it all the way down to $1,199.99 this week.
So how does the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S AI stack up against the best gaming laptops on the market? I tested an RTX 5070 Ti configuration in my review - a beefier configuration with more VRAM to play with. Still, it managed to perform better than RTX 5080 configurations of more compact machines like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 and managed to post sturdy 60fps+ framerates in everything but Cyberpunk 2077 at QHD.
That's not going to be the case with this cheaper RTX 5060 model but, as I found when I tallied up exactly what the best mobile GPU is for a gaming laptop upgrade, the RTX 5060 can still hold its own across FHD benchmarks. This is a rig that's going to see you through a wide range of games with that resolution bumped down, and plenty of lighter titles in QHD with some settings tweaks.
That's just under the hood, though. It's rare to find an OLED panel on a gaming laptop this cheap - so far only this rig and the Legion 5 have pulled it off. Not only that, but this is a particularly strong example of inky blacks, high contrast, and powerful vibrancy. There's a little more glare than you'll find further up the price range, but if you typically play in darker environments you won't even notice.
- See all gaming laptop deals at Best Buy
I've also been testing all the best Asus gaming laptops and the best Alienware laptops available. Or check out the best Razer laptops for something a little more compact.
