There's a moment every week where I think, "Right, that's enough games," and then the deals roll in and I immediately fold quicker than a 3DS with a broken hinge. Today’s haul had me hovering over “Buy Now” far too often. We’ve got deep discounts across every major platform, including a few titles that haven’t been this cheap since launch week. Whether you’re in the mood to sob through a bleak detective RPG, carve through horrors with a chainsword, or just punt a co-op partner off a ledge for fun, this list’s stacked.

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, I'm remembering the 16th birthday of Fat Princess, a PS3 multi-fest I spent many a hard day's knight dying in. Built for 32-player mayhem, the core gameplay revolves around kidnapping the titular monarchs in a never-ending war between the red and blue kingdoms. How was that battle waged? Hat's where it got interesting, because the capabilities of every player changed with headwear powerups (priest, warrior, mage, worker, or ranger). According to my memories, a rock solid CTF with the right crew and gory as you please.

In the world of gaming peripherals, seeing new iterations of products we've seen time and again isn't the most exciting thing. But it is a chance to see good ideas become fully formed ones. When it hit a few years ago, our BlackShark V2 Pro review said it was, "a great headset for those who care about their audio experience," and it definitely proved to be a contender among the better gaming headsets out there. With finer tuning on upgraded audio drivers for robust sound quality and a number of meaningful new features, the new BlackShark V3 Pro makes enough of a step forward to stand out in a crowded space, making it one of best high-end gaming headsets I've used in recent years.

Specifically with Razer, it also has the luxury-style line with the Kraken and a more straightforward series in the Barracuda. Having reviewed the latest in the Kraken V4 Pro, I felt its feature set to be extraneous and didn't exactly justify its ballooning price tag. Meanwhile, the Barracuda continues to be a solid choice among our recommended budget-level gaming headsets. But if you were to ask me for my full recommendation if pricing wasn't as much of a concern, Razer or otherwise, the Blackshark V3 Pro is certainly in that conversation.

Razer BlackShark V3 Pro – Design and Features

If you've seen the BlackShark before, the V3 Pro doesn't stray too far from the V2's design principles. It sports thin wire-like aluminum yokes that branch outward to also act as telescoping arms for adjusting the fit. The headband itself is a flexible aluminum wrapped in a leatherette upper stitched with a padded sports mesh cushion underneath to rest comfortably atop your head. Don't mistake its unassuming look for a lack of quality, the BlackShark V3 is among the well-built gaming headsets out there. And at 376g, it's not heavy yet still feels lighter than its listed weight because of its approach to comfort.

Along with the oval-shaped earcups, it looks a bit like a pilot's headset but with a slim-enough profile and sleek rounded edges so it's not heavy or bulky. The earpads are a major highlight, too – they're made with a dense memory foam and wrapped in a velvety sports mesh for breathability. Since the headset doesn't have a strong clamp force, the BlackShark V3 Pro's earpads provide comfort throughout five or six hour gaming sessions without fatigue. And unlike leatherette upholsteries on equally comfortable headsets, the sports mesh here kept sweat around my ears to a minimum. A small, but effective touch is that the innards where the audio drivers are have a thin padding in case your ears come in contact, which can help those with bigger ears since the earpads themselves have a somewhat lower profile.

Along the right earcup are buttons for cycling through different EQ presets, the chat volume mix wheel, and the active noise cancellation (ANC) / ambient toggle. It's a minor detail, but I appreciate how snappy the headset swaps through these settings, so you don't have to hold a button or wait for the change to kick it. On the left side is the mic mute toggle, the power button, the USB-C charging port, and the microphone jack. Master volume is controlled by a knob that protrudes out of the left earcup for easy access, which adjusts volume digitally on the platform you're using it on.

Pitched as the "esports" lineup of Razer's headsets, the BlackShark is made with competitive gaming in mind, but it's nice to see that it doesn't skimp out premium features that weren't on previous versions of the BlackShark. For one, it has a 45-degree inward swivel for the earcups, letting them sit a little more naturally around your neck when it's not in use – while it's not the full 90-degrees of most other headsets that swivel, it's nice that the V3 Pro swivels at all.

Other features new to this lineup is ANC, simultaneous audio, and wired analog input. While the natural closed-back sound isolation is solid, the V3 Pro ANC is very strong at its highest setting and gives it more versatility for noisy environments (although I wouldn't use it unless I had to since it can affect overall sound tuning). While you'll primarily use the BlackShark V3 Pro with the 2.4GHz HyperSpeed wireless dongle for a super-low 10ms latency, simultaneous Bluetooth lets you take an additional audio feed, which would typically be convenient for those who use this headset with a mobile device, too. And a USB-C to 3.5mm analog converter comes packed with the headset in case you want to plug it into a controller or directly into Switch audio port, for example.

While you'll see extravagant features like Chroma RGB lighting and Sensa haptics on the Kraken V4 Pro, the BlackShark always meant business – so there's no RGB, which is perfectly fine for a headset since I'm not seeing it anyway. And given its performance-focus, the BlackShark's customization lies in fine-tuning audio performance.

Razer BlackShark V3 Pro – Software and Battery Life

The story of Razer Synapse remains the same; a finicky software suite with too many moving parts, but works well enough to bring out the best in your peripheral. It's pretty important to have so you can make small adjustments to get the most out of the headset, and once it's working, Synapse is easy to figure out. Customization mostly lies in EQ settings, which are crucial to getting the most out of the BlackShark V3 Pro. Synapse has built-in profiles for the most popular competitive games – Counter-Strike 2, Valorant, and Call of Duty Warzone. It's not nearly as robust as SteelSeries, which has hundreds of built-in profiles for games, but it's simple enough to make your own adjustments along the 10-band frequencies. This is also where you enable THX Spatial Audio on PC, and it runs on its own set of EQ settings that you can change here. (You can also use Tempest 3D audio on PS5 and Windows Sonic with Xbox as well as Dolby Atmos, if you have a license).

Other settings include ANC / ambient noise control strength, simultaneous audio mix, audio enhancements (like bass boost and vocal clarity outside of EQ), and a slew of microphone tweaks. Features like sidetone to hear your own voice and noise gate levels are here in addition to adjusting the microphones 10-band EQ. All settings are saved onto the headset itself so you'll have your preferences even if you don't have Synapse running or use it on a different platform.

Battery life remains solid with the BlackShark V3 Pro, rated for 70 hours like the previous iterations. Many factors feed into the actual battery life you get, like how much you use ANC, HyperSpeed ultra-low latency, or simultaneous audio. From my experience, I got about 50 hours of total usage from a full charge over the course of a full week before it dipped below 20% (according to Synapse). Considering I used HyperSpeed anytime I was playing games and used ANC sparingly during the workday, this is more than sufficient in my book and not too far off Razer's own claims.

Razer BlackShark V3 Pro – Sound Quality and Performance

A gaming headset is nothing without proper sound performance, and from using the BlackShark V3 Pro across different applications, I'm happy to report that sound quality is one of the clear highlights of the headset. Such is expected for a premium-level headset in the $250 range, but even then I was impressed with its punchy, yet balanced sound and its spatial audio performance.

The BlackShark V3 Pro isn't exactly bass-heavy like the Kraken V4 Pro or Audeze Maxwell, but it's a well-balanced headset on the default EQ settings that still has good bass response. It gives a bit more wiggle room for the audiophile types to tweak it to their liking, offering flexibility for specific games. Personally, I took the bass up a little bit and treble down since I wasn't too hot on the slight harshness and found a good universal profile for music and games.

I played several rounds of Call of Duty: Warzone on PlayStation 5 and swapped between the profile specifically made for Call of Duty and my own EQ tuning – regardless, I felt like I had a wider soundstage, helping certain audio cues stand out more prominently. Sure, this might provide a competitive edge, but for me, the more enjoyable audio experience was more important for a game that can get audibly cluttered and busy.

In Counter-Strike 2 on PC, I bounced between the custom-made profile and my own and felt very competitive in both modes. My own EQ gave a more natural sound while still letting me pinpoint footsteps, gunshots, and enemy actions like reloading to give me the edge when making crucial tactical decisions in ranked matches. In a complete 180-turn, playing something like Deltarune on the Nintendo Switch 2 is a much different kind of experience where the layered soundtrack came through beautifully even with the high-pitch of its chiptune-esque soundfonts.

That positional audio and overall sound quality speaks to the adjustments Razer made to the design of its 50mm audio drivers, which sanded off distortion and brought out the finer details in both games and music – and I'm not sure if I was able to fully say that about previous Razer headsets.

Having reviewed so many headsets at this point, the microphone sometimes feels like an afterthought. Given that being able to communicate clearly through in-game chat, you don't necessarily need standalone mic quality, but it's nice that the BlackShark V3 Pro's is better than most even at the premium level. In Audacity recordings, my voice came through fairly clean and warm without much of that "digitization" you hear on lesser mics, rivaling the Audeze Maxwell and SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro, two of which we often recommend. Oddly, though, the BlackShark V2 Pro's mic was noticeably closer to the quality of a standalone mic, so while I'd call the V3 Pro's a slight downgrade, it's still no slouch – a minor disappointment, if anything.

Not everyone is the DIY type. If you're in the market for a prebuilt gaming PC, Dell is one of the best brands we'd recommend. Alienware desktops and laptops feature solid build quality, top-of-the-line gaming performance, excellent cooling (further improved on the newer models), aggressive styling, and pricing that is very competitive with other pre-built options. Best of all, there are plenty of sales that happen throughout the year, so it's not difficult to grab one of these computers at considerably less than their retail price. Right now there's a Dell Back to School Sale going on that takes up to $1,200 off select Alienware gaming configs. This page includes all of the best deals that are currently available.

Dell and Alienware Coupons

Alienware Gaming PC Deals

Alienware Gaming Laptop Deals

You can quickly browse through all of the listed products on sale above. See below for our favorite picks.

Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5080 Gaming PC

Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5070 Ti Gaming PC

Alienware Area-51 RTX 5090 Gaming PC

New Alienware Aurora 16X Laptop

Area-51 Gaming Laptops: New Style, More Power, Better Cooling

New for 2025, the Alienware Area-51 gaming laptop features a magnesium alloy chassis with upgraded cooling to tackle the latest and greatest heat generating components. This includes more fans and bigger cutouts enabling greater airflow, more generous use of copper, and a new thermal interface material to better transfer heat away from the core components. Dell claims that the laptop can handle a higher power ceiling of up to 240W TDP without raising acoustics.

Design-wise, the Area 51 accentuates its smooth contours, with rounded edges and soft corners replacing the squared off design you'd see in most other laptops. The hinges are also mostly internally positioned so that they're near invisible. As befits an Alienware laptop, there are ample customization options for RGB LED lighting.

Why pick a Dell or Alienware gaming PC?

If you're in the market for a prebuilt gaming PC, Dell is one of best gaming brands we'd recommend. The Alienware gaming desktops offer a staggering array of options, all built into a custom chassis that's both easy on the eyes and easy on the wallet. Alienware gaming laptops in recent years have been redesigned to be thinner and lighter while still offering the same immense power under the hood. Consistent build quality, available inventory, frequent sales, and solid customer service are the main reasons why Dell is at the top of our buying list for gaming laptops and PCs.

Some other resources you might be interested in:

• Best gaming laptop deals of 2024
• Best gaming PC deals of 2024

Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

Every car absolutely needs a tire inflator as part of an emergency kit to be readily available at any time. If the only reason stopping you is the cost, then this deal should give you no more excuse. Amazon is offering the Jusuox cordless tire inflator and air compressor for just $14.99 after you apply $15 off coupon code "2NYD2URT" during checkout. You do not need to be an Amazon Prime member to get this deal. Any brand of tire inflator you find on Amazon at around this price point was probably made from the one of few overseas factories. They might not have as many fancy features as other more expensive models, but they get the job done and that's what matters.

Jusuox Cordless Tire Inflator and Air Compressor for $15

It only took one match of Wildgate to see the potential in its spacefaring PvPvE mayhem. The intensely cooperative chaos of managing a spacecraft, delving into PvE dungeons for loot, and fending off rival crews makes for complex and exciting contests of teamwork and communication. After dozens of matches and more than 20 hours of playtime, though, it’s also become clear that there’s plenty of room left to build on that compelling concept. There are only a small number of characters, ships, and weapons to bring into battle, and once you’ve trekked across a few matches worth of dungeons, you’ll likely have seen all the different enemies to fight and areas to explore, which limits the longevity of these cosmic bouts. But when a good crew comes together, Wildgate’s simple but solid gunplay and multifaceted ship-to-ship combat gives Sea of Thieves a run for its money.

Wildgate is a unique multiplayer shooter that sends five teams of four players out into the most dangerous section of the galaxy, called the Reach, to battle it out for loot and glory. Their ultimate goal is to find the all-important Artifact hidden somewhere in space and escape with it out of the Wildgate, but since there’s the little issue of only being one to go around, a clash of crews in tumultuous FPS combat is all but inevitable. To improve your chances of survival (and search for the Artifact along the way), you’ll want to hurriedly touch down on various asteroids and planetoids to enter as many of the small PvE dungeons as possible, killing enemies and solving simple puzzles to claim whatever loot they’re hiding.

Upgrading your spacecraft with better shields, weapons, defensive measures, and stat improvements (like improved turning speed) can make all the difference when an enemy vessel nears and all hell breaks loose, which make for Wildgate’s tensest moments. I especially enjoy picking my favorite cannons for my ship, as there are some really neat options, like the sniper cannon that can cause a whole lot of trouble for enemies even when they’re far away, or the bomb cannon that attaches bombs to whatever they hit and can be exploded when shot by another cannon. If you’re able to find and escape with the Artifact, or simply murder all the enemy crews before they’re able to extract it themselves, then victory is yours – and in matches that can run over 40 minutes each, the taste of triumph is one of the sweetest there is.

Unfortunately, the level of coordination required doesn’t always lead to great outcomes when matchmaking with random crewmates, where silent players or, worse yet, insanely toxic personalities can make for a bad time. I found the vast majority of my matchmade experiences resulted in catastrophically bad showcasings of Wildgate’s potential, as you really need a full team communicating and firing on all cylinders to have any hope of beating your opponents. But when I got lucky with matchmade teams or brought my own friends to the party, working together to take down dungeons and outplay rival squads made for some incredibly memorable matches.

There’s no story to be found in Wildgate, or at least not one outside of little snippets you can read from a menu between matches, but the world definitely has a distinct and endearing personality to it. That could be in the baddies like raiders and alien life forms who look like booger people, or the playable characters, called Prospectors, who span from a big dog-looking alien to an aquatic creature in a mecha fishbowl. Each Prospector has their own interesting set of traits and abilities they can use to contribute to the team’s success (or demise). A four-armed alien named Ion, for example, can use his brawn to damage the hulls of ships just by smacking them with his fists, while Venture the robot serves as a great starter character since they don’t require oxygen to survive, regenerate health faster, and get warned when enemies are behind them.

I had a lot of fun trying each one out to see which suits my playstyle, with my favorite being Sal, an aquatic engineer who is an expert at healing the ship and can turn unwanted loot into useful items by rerolling it – a frankly overpowered ability in a game where your luck with loot drops is often the difference between life and death. There seems to be a little bit of imbalance with the characters in that regard, as Prospectors like Kae, whose teleport and telekinesis abilities makes her amazing at boarding ships without notice, even stealing items off their hull without ever entering the vessel, can seem quite busted at times. On the other hand, characters like Adrian, who can mostly just move through space extremely quickly, feel woefully underpowered by comparison. And, as is the case with lots of stuff in Wildgate, the biggest issue is simply a scarcity of options, because it doesn’t take long to unlock all seven Prospectors and decide on the winners. Seeing the same handful of familiar characters aboard each ship just feels a bit underwhelming in what’s supposed to be a galaxy of possibilities.

There are also several ships to unlock, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Your starter ship, the Hunter, is reliable all around, with three front-facing cannons and increased speed when you elect to drop your shields that make it well-suited for getting in and out of skirmishes quickly, but the other three are more interesting in their tradeoffs. My favorite, The Bastion, has a special feature that makes it much more difficult to board by rival players, with doors that lock down tight (if your knucklehead teammates remember to close them) and the ability to detect intruders by default – plus it has more health and defensive capabilities than other ships to offset its modest cannons and speed. This allowed me to play it slow in matches, building up defenses and resources while outlasting my opponents like a balled up hedgehog waiting to prick would-be predators.

There’s also the Privateer, a warship with eight cannon slots that fire faster and do more damage than other ships, which all but mandates an extremely aggressive playstyle that either proved immediately effective or resulted in the shortest matches imaginable. Finally, there’s the Scout: a tiny little ship with low health and offense that’s more than made whole by insane maneuverability and speed, and which I must admit that I won the most matches with just because being able to more easily find or steal the artifact, then outrun my opponents for a quick extraction, is pretty hard to beat. Unfortunately, these were also some of the less interesting games I played since ship-to-ship combat is so much fun and it’s tough to set that aside in the name of victory.

When fighting on foot, you’ll use a small handful of weapons and gadgets to ward off NPC monsters, and occasionally other players when boarding or being boarded by the enemy. With only nine weapons currently available, there’s not a lot of different playstyles to choose from. That’s especially true when some options like the Sidelong launcher, a weird, horizontally-firing blaster that pierces through the environment, didn’t really connect with me and gathered dust on the shelf, making my viable pool of options that much smaller. Still, there are a few that stole my heart, like the goo-firing gatling gun or the powerful anti-ship rocket launcher that lets you tear through enemy vessels without needing to be mounted on a turret. You’ll also pick two gadgets to keep in your toolbelt, which allow you to do things like toss a drill onto the side of a ship to damage it over time, or a tool that automatically reloads all your weapons whenever you teleport back to your ship. My personal favorite is the rock, which is, well, a rock. You throw it at people and it does enormous damage – I just really appreciate that they could have made it a throwing dagger, but they chose the funniest possible option instead. There are few better feelings than bringing down a rampaging enemy who is carrying a massive weapon with a regular ol’ rock.

Although matches can be a ton of fun and you can definitely develop a “just one more match” mindset early on, with only one game mode and such limited character and ship options, it all feels a tad thin at the moment. Wildgate could have some real legs with regular content updates, and it’s nice that developer Moonshot Games has already put out a roadmap that promises three new characters or ships per year, because what’s here at the moment feels like just a taste of what will hopefully be a game with a lot more variety down the road. I’m not quite sure that update cadence will be fast enough to sustain my short attention span, but it’s at least a good sign there’s a plan in place that has the potential to keep me coming back to this weird galaxy. There’s still a ton of fun to be found in getting better at winning, and knowing what I know now about the types of dungeons to be found and loot to be claimed has made me a lot more strategic with how I play, but I stopped being surprised by things I saw out in the Reach pretty quickly.

One thing that does help keep games fresh is the fact that there are randomly generated modifiers injected into each match that require you to adapt if you want a chance at winning. One game might feature energy-devouring leeches floating out in the void that attach to your ship as you go and need to be shot off, while another might be filled with an abundance of asteroids that make traveling especially dangerous, or a cosmic storm that sweeps through large swathes of the map and will destroy your ship unless you’re able to loot a special shield to defend against it. These are a really clever way to make every match not feel like a carbon copy of the last, but once again, there just aren’t that many of them yet, and I started seeing repeat modifiers in pretty short order – definitely one of the areas where a bit more variety would go quite a long way, especially if they have live events that impact the world in some way to shake things up.

Last weekend, a global beta test began for Where Winds Meet, the open-world game published by NetEase that is already available in China. This free-to-play game takes place around the year 1000 between the great Tang and Song dynasties during what's known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. In it, players take the role of a lone wandering hero during this time of upheaval where one's own strength matters more than the rules of society. IGN readers may not be too familiar with the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, but don’t worry – the same even seems to apply to players in China.

We know that the game takes some influence from Ghost of Tsushima and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild thanks to a past interview with lead designer Chris Lyu, but it can be difficult to imagine exactly what the gameplay will be like. According to Lyu, it is "the world's first wuxia-themed open-world" game. Once I got my hands on the game, I found Where Winds Meet was indeed a wuxia game through-and-through, with the strength of the concept bringing together a variety of elements seen in games today.

Once you're finished with character creation and begin playing the game, you're first met with a graceful man with flowing hair resting in a bamboo grove while holding a baby to his chest, almost like Zhao Yun from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Then, another handsome and long-haired man comes to talk to him, and it seems that this man with a baby has betrayed his school. He hops on a white horse then gallops through the bamboo while avoiding his pursuer's weapons, at times in slow motion. All of these shots are reminiscent of famous scenes from various Chinese movies of the past, making it clear from the start that this game is closely linked to the wuxia tradition.

A sense of "wuxia-ness" oozes out of this game at every turn even after this opening scene ends and you take control of the character you've created – whether that's through its gameplay in general, its systems and graphics, or its dialogue. A few minutes after I started walking freely through its world, I spoke to an old man on the side of the road who asked me to repel a bear who's been after honey. It seems that the protagonist is able to learn techniques from the movements of the bear, as pressing buttons at the right time according to icons that pop up caused him to learn tai chi from the beast, incredibly enough.

All of this serves as a tutorial for the Mystic Arts that make up part of your arsenal, but more importantly, this process of observing familiar objects and nature to learn abilities and grow stronger gives the player a strong sense of the game's wuxia flavor. It seems there are other abilities that come from nature, like Lion's Roar and the venomous Toad Style, so I'm sure there will be many other techniques the protagonist learns from all the creatures of the game’s world. Just as you might expect to be able to use magic to create fire in a game with a fantasy setting, the player in this game's wuxia world is able to master strange powers of their own. It's also interesting to note that these abilities can be used outside of combat as well. For example, nearby fish are caught up in tai chi when it's used by the water's surface, making for efficient fishing.

One of the most notable things about this thoroughly wuxia game is its inclusion of many elements we've come to expect from combat systems and exploration in action games today. For example, pressing the correct button just before an enemy's attack lands will parry it, creating a back-and-forth tempo during action segments.

While equivalent to the kinds of parry systems that have become a staple in recent action games, this game goes into slow motion when it's time to parry an enemy attack and displays an icon telling you what button to press (though it is possible to turn this icon off in the options). While similar to Final Fantasy XVI's Story-Focused mode, these icons deplete an Insight Points meter when they're displayed and won't show up if you run out, so you can't recklessly fend off every single enemy attack.

There are currently seven weapon types that a player can use (with plans to add more). In addition to standard swords and spears, there are also more unusual weapons like umbrellas and folding fans. Each weapon provides for its own unique gameplay, such as the umbrella's skill that temporarily stuns an enemy, or the fan's ability to create a zone that heals the player and their allies.

Players can equip both a main weapon and a sub-weapon, each enabling a variety of martial techniques. What techniques are available to you will also change based on the school you study under, with a total of eleven available schools. The game's combat style changes quite a bit depending on the combination of mystic and martial skills you use, allowing for a wide degree of customization. Between all of the different attacks, the balance between offense and defense enabled by parries, and the overall voracious approach to combat elements, it felt like the game had taken a menu of popular modern features and ordered one of everything.

The bow and arrow is treated differently whether it's being used as a main or a sub-weapon, capable of attacking enemies from afar while also solving puzzles by burning through vines to open up pathways. The way it's positioned shows the influence of another game that was previously mentioned, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

The game's core of open world exploration and progression has also been extravagantly created. During the preview, I was able to visit Kaifeng, one of China's eight ancient capitals located in Heinan province that flourished at the time as one of the world's largest cities. Despite the war-ravaged world, the city in the game was open and lively, with its residents chatting away like it was Cyberpunk 2077 after just a short walk through its streets. It sounds like upwards of a thousand NPCs have reputation levels, allowing you to befriend them on an individual basis.

It's not hard to imagine how people live in the game's detailed streets of Kaifeng, apparently recreated by referring to historical remains that still exist today. Walk down the big street that cuts through it all and eventually you'll find a large arching bridge. A beautiful palace with towering defenses awaits you on the other side, making it clear just how prosperous this Chinese capital was at the time. From there the player will be able to dig into the secrets around their own birth as a wandering hero.

After only about three hours of gameplay, I could tell that Where Winds Meet is packed full of elements that players have experienced before in open-world games. But what shocked me most of all is that while you could call this a mishmash of features, the key concept of wuxia along with the way those elements are presented worked to bring all of them together in a natural way. Perhaps you could say that what best defines Where Winds Meet is this coexistence of the past decade of what has made open-world and action games fun alongside its Chinese creators' love for the genre of wuxia.

These days, laptops are all but required for college, whether you’re an engineering student that needs GPU horsepower for complex models, or an English major that just needs a decent keyboard and a screen. With how far they’ve come in the last few years, the best laptops for school can go a long way in aiding your success in the classroom (or, at the very least, not make your life any harder than it needs to be).

TL;DR: These Are the Best Laptops for Students:

Some schools have strict laptop requirements, and you should follow those if your college has them. For most people, though, the best laptop for college will look similar to what anyone would look for in a laptop. You want a comfortable keyboard, along with a display that doesn’t hurt your eyes to look at for too long. Under the surface, you also need a powerful processor and enough RAM to effectively multitask. After a few hours of grinding away at a paper, even Microsoft Office is going to start eating up any and all resources it can get its hands on, after all.

Engineering and creative students, or anyone who needs to run complex models or software on their computer, are especially going to need CPUs and GPUs that can keep up with them. If this sounds like you, I’d actually recommend going all-out for a gaming laptop like the Razer Blade 16 or the TUF A14, because their powerful GPUs can easily keep up with any complex software like MATLAB or AutoCAD. Plus, you’ll be able to play your favorite PC games in your downtime.

1. MacBook Pro 16

Best Laptop for College

2. MacBook Air M4

Best Writing Laptop for College

3. Surface Laptop (Copilot+)

Best AI Laptop for College

4. Razer Blade 16 (2025)

Best Gaming Laptop for College

5. Asus TUF A14

Best Gaming Laptop for Students Who Don't Have Razer Blade Money

6. Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus

Best Chromebook for College

What to Look for in a Laptop for College

When you’re setting out to buy a laptop, especially for college, the most important thing you can possibly do is figure out what you’re going to do with it, and I don’t just mean "school work." These days, your field of study drastically affects what you’re going to need from a laptop. If you’re an English major, for example, you can probably get away with a Chromebook, as it’ll allow you to view texts online and write all your papers in Google Docs.

However, if you need to do heavy workloads like video editing or 3D modeling, you’re going to need a laptop with significantly more horsepower. Even computer science majors need to make sure they have a laptop with plenty of RAM that won’t crash when trying to compile projects.

Then, you’re going to need to make sure you stick to a budget that makes sense for you. If you have extra funds from your student aid that you can put toward your laptop, you need to set aside a clear budget and keep that in mind. If you don’t have thousands of dollars to spare, there are a ton of budget laptops available, but you need to have a clear picture of what you need before you start shopping for laptops.

A laptop’s CPU is probably the clearest picture you’re going to get about what it’s capable of at first glance. Intel Core and AMD Ryzen processors are probably the most complicated chips to look at, but it’s easy to figure out where they stand. Generally, Intel Core i3 processors are reserved for low-power laptops that are only good for light word processing and web browsing. Core i5 processors are more of a middle ground and are easily able to get most people through light photo work or Excel. Intel Core i7 and Core i9 processors are reserved for high-end devices, and are what you should keep an eye out for if you need a lot of computing power. Luckily AMD Ryzen processors are branded similarly, with Ryzen 3, 5, 7, and 9 processors following the same logic as their Intel counterparts.

You’re going to need to also make sure you get enough RAM. It used to be that 8GB was more than enough for most people, but those days are over. Unless you’re going for a low-power Chromebook, you should shoot for 16GB. If you’re going to be doing a lot of video editing or scientific modeling, you should aim for at least 32GB.

Unless you specifically need a discrete GPU, you can get away with whatever integrated graphics come with a laptop’s CPU. However, if you do need the GPU horsepower, finding a laptop with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 should be a sweet spot for most people. These laptops won’t be quite as expensive as something with an RTX 4090, but will still be able to get through any workload, albeit a little slower.

Picking the right amount of storage depends entirely on how you use your laptop. For instance, I rely on Google Drive for work, so I can easily get by with a 512GB SSD. However, if you like to save all of your work locally, you’re going to want to beef up your SSD, especially if you get something like a MacBook, as Apple stopped letting users upgrade SSDs years ago.

Best Laptops for Students FAQ

What does a university student need in a laptop?

Most college students can get away with mid-range laptops. Aim for something like an Intel Core i5 processor, 16GB of RAM and enough storage to keep their work. However, if you’re studying a field that requires powerful hardware, like video editing or engineering, a gaming laptop with a discrete GPU like an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 will get the job done.

Do college students get discounts on laptops?

Not all college students will get a discount on a laptop. As a general rule, you should check with your school’s Financial Aid department to see what laptop discounts (if any) you can take advantage of. Beyond that, some manufacturers offer special discounts on select hardware if you’re a student. Apple, for one, offers discounts on a wide range of hardware for any student that can prove they are enrolled in school.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. She's been writing about gaming PCs for almost a decade and has been building them even longer. You can follow her @Jackiecobra.

USB Type-C has become the standard for charging and data cables alike, so it's good to have extra on hand. Here's a great back to school deal where you can get some quality cables at a throwaway price. Amazon is offering a two-pack of Lisen 6.6ft 240W USB Type-C cables for just $5.31 after you apply coupon code "JHCR87FA". That averages out to $2.66 per cable. USB Type-C cables typically go for about $10 per cable or more at your local big box store. These can charge nearly any device with a USB-C port, including your Nintendo Switch 2, iPhone 16, or even the new M4 MacBook.

2-Pack of Lisen 6.6ft 240W USB Type-C Cables for $5.31

The CEO of Electronic Arts is teasing the return of EA College Basketball, just one month after a cryptic EA Sports tweet put the idea back into the heads of video game basketball fans.

Bring the Madness. Let’s run it back. #CBB #ItsInTheGame pic.twitter.com/iBNhGxn2yj

— EA SPORTS (@EASPORTS) June 30, 2025

During today's Q1 earnings call, CEO Andrew Wilson was asked about the potential return of College Basketball, likely in response to the above tweet. Per reports back in June and the above clever tease, College Basketball is indeed slated to return from EA, though it will be a while yet before we see it - it's not expected until 2028.

Here's Wilson's vague, yet promising, response in full:

We can't say too much about it yet, but if I think about the opportunity, going back to where we are on College Football, college sport has one of the most vibrant fanbase in the world. And that trickles over to basketball certainly. We're seeing momentum of fandom in college basketball also continue to grow. Fans, athletes, universities pour their passion into these sports. And it is that passion that makes it special, that makes the games different.

But with that comes high expectations, and a demand for deeply authentic experiences: capturing the action on the field or the court, representing the energy, pagentry, the traditions, and celebrating the unique sights and sounds and stories of every school and rivalry. We feel like we deliver that incredibly well with College Football...we'd love to do the same for basketball. All 350 programs, men's and women's teams, the iconic traditions and rivalries, and of course, March Madness.

So for us, college sports broadly is an exciting opportunity. We feel like we've done a really strong job, and remain committed to doing that in the context of college football. We believe that with what we've done with the teams, the technology, and our commitment around College Football, we'd have a great ability to do the same for college basketball, and as we look to try and activate against that opportunity, we'll be able to share more.

Per reporting from The Athletic, EA Sports' proposal for a College Basketball game, which was recommended for acceptance by the Collegiate Licensing Company, would include all Division I men's and women's teams (730 in total). The games, of which there would be six in total with releases beginning in 2028, would have similar features to College Football such as Dynasty Mode, Team Builder, Road to Glory, and Ultimate Team.

EA last produced a College Basketball game back in 2009, but the series was discontinued amid disputes over its use of college athletes' likenesses, and declining sales compared to the College Football series. However, the success of College Football seems to have sparked a new interest in Basketball from EA...though it may be facing competition from 2K Sports, if this NBA 2K official Twitter/X post is any indication.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

I’ve always been hesitant to buy anything used or refurbished – the last thing I want is to spend thousands of dollars on a laptop only to learn that someone really doesn’t know how to take care of their things.

But how often do you buy something new, open it, and return it because it wasn’t what you expected? I’ve done that plenty of times. Is it really that used if you touch it for just a moment? Another person’s buyer’s remorse can easily save you hundreds of dollars. Of course, not every laptop will be “like new,” but laptops have higher refurbishing standards than your average sub-$20 Amazon gadget.

Is It Worth Buying a Used/Refurbished Laptop?

This is a case of risk versus reward.

The worst example would be this M4 MacBook Air 13 available for $849 at Amazon. It’s brand new, but you can buy the “like new” model for $840. Saving $10 is not worth the risk of whatever condition Amazon thinks “like new” is.

A good example would be this Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 16 for $851 at Best Buy that originalyl goes for $1,049 – this is in excellent condition, and you save $198. That’s quite the discount for a laptop that “works and looks like new,” according to Best Buy.

So, in theory, yes: It’s definitely worth buying a used or refurbished laptop. You just need to know how to navigate the wild judgements and rating systems each vendor has.

How to Buy a Used/Refurbished Laptop at Best Buy

Best Buy has a few categories to explore in the refurbished space. You can choose between Open-Box, Refurbished, and Pre-Owned.

Open-Box refers to products that were returned to Best Buy, were factory reset, and then judged to be either Excellent (like new), Good (minor scratches and/or missing items), or Fair (major dents and/or missing parts). Refurbished refers to products that were sent back to the manufacturer and repaired and then sent back to Best Buy, so ideally they’re like new. Meanwhile, Pre-Owned refers to a laptop that’s been owned for weeks or months before being returned to Best Buy.

So with Best Buy, if you’re trying to maximize quality while saving money, shoot for the Refurbished and Excellent Open-Box laptops. As I pointed out earlier, you can save hundreds of dollars just going this route. Under Best Buy’s return policy, you’ll have 15 days to return the laptop if it’s not up to snuff.

How to Buy a Used/Refurbished Laptop at Amazon

Amazon has two categories: Renewed and Used. The latter simply refers to any seller posting a product as used, including Amazon itself. However, Amazon Renewed is a program that handles professionally refurbishing products, either through Amazon or third-party refurbishers.

Amazon Renewed dishes out four grades: Premium (like new), Excellent (like new with more than 80% of original battery life), Good (light scratches with more than 80% battery), and Acceptable (scratches on screen and body with more than 80% battery).

If you are shopping for refurbished laptops at Amazon, I recommend going for the Premium grade ones. They’re not just better – they’re the only ones with a one-year warranty from Amazon. You get only 90 days with the other grades.

How to Buy a Used/Refurbished Laptop at Newegg

For better or worse, Newegg is simple. There’s Refurbished and Newegg Refreshed. The former was refurbished by any seller, whereas a Newegg Refreshed product is refurbished by Newegg or a vetted supplier.

It’s unclear what you’ll get with the generic Refurbished label, but Newegg Refreshed products feature at least 80% battery life, no dead pixels, and no heavy damage or wear. They’re also cleaned and repackaged with the original or equivalent accessories.

If it isn’t obvious, go for the Newegg Refreshed laptops. You can also return them within 90 days for a full refund.

How to Buy a Used/Refurbished Laptop at Walmart

Yes, even Walmart has a refurbished program, called Walmart Restored.

There are four grades: Premium (light scratches with at least 90% of original battery life), Like New (light scratches with more than 80% battery), Good (slight wear and tear with more than 80% battery), and Fair (significant wear and tear with more than 80% battery). It’s very similar to Amazon’s standards. There’s a 90-day return policy barring Premium products, which offer 30 days of free returns and replacements. Premium products are sold specifically from manufacturers or manufacturer-authorized sellers, which is why the warranty is different.

There are also Open Box items, which defines items that are in excellent condition with no signs of use. Then there are Pre-Owned items, labeled Like New, Good, and Fair. They operate like the aforementioned grades except the battery life standard is dropped to 60%. More importantly, they don’t offer a 90-day return policy.

You’d be safer going with a Like New laptop from the Walmart Restored category – that way you get the full 90 days.

How to Buy a Used/Refurbished Laptop at Dell and Lenovo

You can also buy refurbished laptops directly from manufacturers like Dell and Lenovo.

Dell only has two grades: A and B. Simple yet weird. These grades refer to the cosmetic quality of the laptops and assumes that the refurbished products function like new. Grade A refurbished products are in good cosmetic condition, ranging from pristine to light scratches. Grade B refurbished products feature scratches, imperfections, or discolorations. The neat part is that these refurbished devices come with the same one-year limited warranty as new laptops do.

Lenovo doesn’t feature any grades but instead labels its laptops as Certified Refurbished. What does that mean? Honestly, I have no idea. Lenovo’s website answers that question with a relatively generic answer about ensuring the product meets “Lenovo’s high standards of quality, performance, and reliability.” Similar to Dell, Lenovo offers the same one-year limited warranty as its new laptops, which can be upgraded to three years.

Which Used/Refurbished Laptop Should You Buy?

I recommend looking for laptops that have recently launched, ones that didn’t even get enough time to earn the wear and tear you might expect from a used laptop. That’ll net you a nice discount and a like-new device.

I would advise against purchasing older refurbished laptops. You can still find new old laptops available that simply haven’t run out of their stock yet, especially on sites like Newegg. Those laptops will get significant discounts, so you don’t need to worry about saving money on that front.

If you want to know which are the best laptops, the Apple MacBook Air (M4, Early 2025) is currently at the top of our list. And you can technically get a discount on it at Best Buy for $35 off as refurbished. Like I said earlier, I wouldn’t jump for deals like that, but if you’re pinching pennies over a MacBook, then go for it. Meanwhile, the Asus Zenbook S 16, our best laptop for work, is $162 off at Best Buy in an Excellent Open-Box.

When Should You Buy New?

You should buy new laptops when the refurbished game for the product you're looking for is questionable. If there’s a particular accessory or state that you need the product to be in, then I wouldn’t risk buying anything used.

Buying used still probably isn’t for me, though. While I can see the benefits of buying refurbished products, even ones that were opened for a moment and then tossed, there is still an inherent risk. All of these grading systems sound fine in theory, but we don’t really know what kind of testing goes into ensuring these products are refurbished. Maybe that’s just my mistrust in the industry, and maybe I’m falling into the trap of spending more to buy new. But I’d rather wait for a sale.

For those stronger of will, I recommend shopping used when you can and abusing return policies to ensure you’re getting as close to a new product as you can.

Rami Tabari is a contributing writer at IGN with over 9 years of experience in the tech and gaming industry. You can find his bylines at Laptop Mag and Tom's Guide (and on a random Predator review at Space.com). When Rami isn't wading through a sea of the latest gaming tech, he's agonizing over the worldbuilding in his upcoming novella.

As Nintendo takes the first step toward selling full-priced, AAA games at $80 and Xbox starts to follow suit but backs off, EA has now also made its position clear: no $80 games...for now.

"We're not looking to make any changes on pricing at this stage," said CEO Andrew Wilson during today's Q1 earnings call. He said this in response to an investor question regarding publishing competitors beginning to release $80 games, and where EA sees itself in relation to them.

Wilson continued:

That's in the construct of, we already offer a fairly broad pricing scheme across our various products. When you think about everything from free-to-play through to our premium products and deluxe editions, our orientation is always to capture the full spectrum of pricing so that we can serve players in the best way possible and offer them the greatest value. We'll continue to look at opportunities to deliver great value to our players thorugh various pricing schemes over the course of time, but no dramatic changes planned yet.

EA also confirmed on the call that it hadn't factored in any changes to its existing pricing schemes to its expectations for the current fiscal year earnings guidance. The current fiscal year ends in March of 2026, so don't expect any $80 EA games between now and then. That means games like Madden NFL 26, EA Sports FC 26, and seemingly Battlefield 6 won't be $80, despite one leaker suggesting the contrary.

EA isn't the only publisher who isn't quite ready to follow suit with Nintendo's Mario Kart World on $80 games. Xbox recently announced The Outer Worlds 2 would be $80 alongside some other unknown holiday game releases, only to reverse that decision after it sparked criticism. And while Randy Pitchford defended a potential $80 price point for Borderlands 4, it turned out to only be $70 after all. Apart from that, it's unclear what other games will aim for that higher number in the future, though one likely contender that many are watching is Grand Theft Auto 6.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

After last week’s explosive Season 27 premiere, South Park will skip this week — but according to a new trailer, when the show returns next week it will take on President Trump once again.

The trailer confirms Season 27 continues with a new episode on Wednesday, August 6 on Comedy Central and the next day on Paramount+, which means South Park unexpectedly skips this week.

South Park's epic season continues on Wednesday, August 6 at 10/9c on Comedy Central and next day on Paramount+. pic.twitter.com/zLMHM9J4aP

— South Park (@SouthPark) July 29, 2025

Neither Comedy Central nor South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have explained the skip, but it’s worth noting that during their San Diego Comic-Con 2025 panel last week, which took place the day after the Trump-skewering episode aired, Parker said they were unsure what the next episode would be, revealing the decision was “super stressful.”

Parker and Stone create each episode of South Park week by week, which makes for a chaotic production, but topical shows.

It’s also worth noting that the creators recently admitted that the Season 27 trailer that came out in April included footage made just for that trailer, and not from the episodes. “You seriously think we went and made a bunch of shows ahead of time and we’re banking them for later?” they said. “We just made something up and we’re like, this is what we’re doing! And we’re not doing any of that.”

South Park creators reveal that none of the footage in the season 27 teaser were from real episodes:

"You seriously think we went and made a bunch of shows ahead of time?"#SDCC pic.twitter.com/GAVIsnmTl2

— IGN (@IGN) July 26, 2025

All eyes are on South Park after its Season 27 premiere went so hard on Trump that the White House issued a statement in response.

The teaser shows Trump groping Satan’s leg under a table during a public dinner event. Satan doesn’t look like he’s having a great time. The Season 27 premiere showed Trump lying in bed with Satan, so it looks like their relationship will be a running theme during the show.

But that scene wasn’t the main talking point coming out of the premiere. Rather, it was a scene showing a live-action Trump shuffling through the desert before removing all of his clothes. “His penis is teeny tiny, but his love for us is large,” a “South Park Pro-Trump” PSA voiceover says.

During the Comic-Con panel, Parker revealed the creative duo insisted Trump’s penis was shown in all its glory, even though they received a note from the network asking for it to be blurred. “They were like, okay, but we're gonna blur the penis. And I'm like, no, you’re not going to blur it."

Parker and Stone dodged blurring Trump's penis by adding little eyes and turning it into a character. But even doing that "was a whole conversation with a lot of grown up people for about four f***ing days. It's a character!"

Parker and Stone were then jokingly warned that there was a subpoena waiting for them among the cards containing panel questions. The response: "That's fine man, I'm ready."

In a new tweet, below, South Park revealed behind-the-scenes photos of the Trump desert scene, which confirms it was filmed on location rather than generated with AI, as some had thought.

A little behind the scenes. pic.twitter.com/M25RjoRooE

— South Park (@SouthPark) July 29, 2025

The F.C.C. recently approved Skydance’s $8 billion merger with Paramount, which had needed Trump administration approval. Neither Parker nor Stone addressed the merger, which they had criticized for delaying South Park Season 27's release date, during the panel, nor did they respond to the White House's statement.

However, Parker and Stone have a big-money deal of their own: a reported $1.5 billion contract to make 50 episodes of South Park over five years for Paramount.

Image credit: Comedy Central / YouTube.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Dell just launched one of the best laptop deals I've seen for students, road warriors, or pretty much anyone who's looking for a mobile workhorse. As part of the Dell Back to School Sale, the new-for-2025 Dell Plus 16 laptop is on sale for $999.99 after a $450 instant discount. Free shipping is included. This laptop is chock full of high-end upgrades you wouldn't expect to find in a laptop at this price point, including mostly metal construction, a gorgeous display, the newest Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, and a generous amount of memory and high-speed storage.

Save $450 Off the Dell 16 Plus Laptop, Now Just $999.99

Bose just activated a 10% off coupon code "REFURB10" that works on select refurbished products from its official eBay store. One of the best deals currently running is on its flagship Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar, it's biggest and most impressive soundbar speaker with Dolby Atmos and Bose TrueSpace Technology. You can get it on sale for just $501.30 after coupon. That's 50% off the $999 retail price and it even comes with an extended 2 year AllState warranty.

Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar for $501.30 (was $999)

Certified Refurbished

For all you students, road warriors, and people who have to work on the move, here's a fantastic deal on one of the nicest ultra-portable laptops out there. As part of the Dell Back to School Sale, the Dell XPS 13 13" Snapdragon X Elite laptop is on clearance for just $749.99 with free delivery. For 2025, Dell discontinued most of its named laptop models - including the Inspiron, XPS, and G-series (gaming) - which means this is a perfect opportunity to pick one up at a huge discount.

Dell XPS 13 Ultraportable Laptop for $750

28 Years Later is now available to watch online through digital marketplaces like Prime Video. If you missed this one in theaters, now’s your chance to get spooked in the comfort of your own home.

Set (you guessed it) 28 years after the original outbreak, 28 Years Later features a new cast, including Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who travels with his son to mainland Britain, where the Rage Virus has continued to thrive since being quarantined from the rest of Europe. Tom Jorgenson’s review of the movie for IGN says it's “as potent and timely an exploration of cultural strife as the original, and Danny Boyle and Alex Garland tug at the heartstrings with bloody, deadly skill.”

28 Years Later Now Available on Digital, Up for Preorder on Blu-ray