AM EDT This post has been updated with more info on Best Buy's fall deals schedule, as well as the best deals from some of our favorite categories the week before Amazon's October Prime Day. Best Buy is having several fall sales to compete with Prime Big Deal Days — check out our favorite deals on TVs,

Not all gaming laptop deals are built the same - and you can easily cheapen your way out of a playable system by shopping in the budget category and not paying attention to your spec sheet. While this most frequently happens with older RTX 3050 systems these days, it's more often the RAM that you need to watch out for.

In the lead-up to Prime Big Deal Days, Amazon's " October Prime Day " sale on Oct. 8 and 9, the retail giant isn't offering a ton of great deals on 2-in-1 machines — but that's no surprise. During such sitewide sales, Amazon usually saves its best laptop deals for the exact windows of the event, forcing eager shoppers to be patient.