Does such a thing exist? One of my kids wants a laptop and with birthday and Christmas conveniently close together I thought it may be worth getting him a gaming laptop (because I am sure as soon as he gets one he will want to play games on it).

I was hoping to spend no more than £500 but this looks increasingly unlikely.

Anyone on here know their stuff on this kind of thing?

Any recommendations?

depends how up to date and demanding the stuff is he wants to be playing. most kids i expect want to be playing the latest.
the difficulty is that laptops tend to favour efficiency and space saving. these two are at odds with high performance graphics, because that inevitably demands power consumption and heat dissipation.
your best bet might just be to do some googling and post up what you come with.

It is unlikely. Pick a price and and PC will still eclipse a laptop for gaming performance. This is especially true if you save money on secondhand peripherals for the desktop.

Does such a thing exist?

Yes, look at Alienware, for example.

Now have a nice sit down, a cup of tea with 3 sugars in it and catch your breath.

It depends on what games your son is into – from Solitaire to the latest, greatest shoot ’em up. £500 will give you a considerably better laptop than one costing £300, but not something that will be great for graphics intensive modern games. A chat and some reined-in expectations ( him power, you what you are going to spend ) might be a good idea.

There’s games and games.

“Gaming” stuff is for people who want the absolute best peformance. The laptop equivalent of one of those bonkers 700bhp AMG Mercedes. A £5-600 laptop is going to be like driving a BMW 330d. Pretty rapid in practical terms but nothing like the top stuff. The budget range these days from the main manufacturers are like say a Golf 1.2, the 85bhp. Still sorted, nice to use and fine for everyday use.

The £5-600 is mid range, and it will probably play most games (provided it has enough RAM, some need lots, so get an upgradeable one) but the graphical effects won’t be as fancy.

It is a bit like buying a car, you start off with a budget and before you know it you are looking at something twice the price!

It looks like 8gb ram and a dedicated graphics card are key. There are a couple around £500-600.