Suggestions please….
Looking to get my son a College/ Gaming Laptop. I don’t have a clue what I’m looking for.
I would really like to find a Black Friday Deal.
My son will be going to the CIA Culinary Institute of America next fall. I think he needs something lite weight and portable. It seems the gaming laptops are quite large.
I would really like to find something in the $500.00 range.
Any suggestions and links will be great guys.
Thank you for your help.
This is quite literally a superb laptop for the price, and since it has an recent AMD APU, it will be decent for gaming and productivity work:
https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Convertible-Touchscreen-Processor-81SS000DUS/dp/B07TWHYTSQ/
Review of the laptop:
Thank you blue, looking into it.
I’m not sure that ‘decent’ for gaming is a fair description. Sorry BlueSwordM 
Playing modern titles on low/medium is not really desirable, the game I play most for example has 6 levels of quality (which makes this just barely capable) then there’s all the other settings like bloom, texture quality, shadows, render distance etc etc. Start playing with those and you will have to use low, maybe even reduce the resolution.
If you want something that is going to run modern games, which if your son is going to college (he’s older) is going to want to, at any half decent enjoyable level this is not the right choice.
This will be fantastic for working on no doubt, watching videos, or light video editing and probably most other things - but I wouldn’t buy it thinking it’s going to ‘game’ because in my opinion it isn’t, and your son will be disappointed and no doubt want another one. Nobody wants to play laggy, stuttery games at reduced resolution.
I found this on laptop suggest, which backs this up - LINK
‘However, you won’t be able to play many games using it. If gaming is part of your routine, I’d advise against this notebook. Perhaps a 15″ 2-in-1 Lenovo Yoga 730 will suit your needs better with its dedicated GeForce GTX 1050 GPU.’
Or, LINK
‘As for gaming, only lighter game titles will work decently smooth, since the integrated Radeon Vega 8 graphics is generally a basic graphics processor’
Remember that reviewer on the youtube link is likely biased, he’s been given the thing for free so he’s going to big it up. We have enough complaints about biased reviews on here for flashlights, the same applies here.
My advice would be like the links above, get something with a dedicated GPU, at least then he will have a half decent gaming experience. The downside is obviously it will cost more.
Buying laptops is a minefield, and the last thing you want is to buy one that doesn’t fit all your needs.
This - LINK Acer Aspire E 15 E5-576G-5762 may be a better choice for the gaming side, but it’s still not ‘up there’ really - at any given price point, especially a budget one to gain one thing, you probably will lose another, it’s a minefield. Though this one at least , according to PC Gamer ‘easily outclasses all laptops with integrated graphics.’
This is a tad more expensive again (sorry) LINK but apparently is much better than the E 15 (but it’s dearer lol) If it were me , that’s the one I’d go for. :) (AN515-42-R5ED) $576 at amazon link
I would definitely suggest not buying an Intel, but an AMD Ryzen 5 or Ryzen 7 laptop.
Especially the newer ones, Ryzen 7 4700u or 4800U
or the Ryzen 5 4500u or 4600u.
They have 6 (for the ryzen 5) and 8 cores (ryzen 7) and are very powerful. Much better than you can get an Intel for.