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If you're looking for cheap TV sales, then you've come to the right place. We've scoured all the best retailers in the UK to bring you the hottest TV deals on everything from cheap TVs to more premium displays. That means you can relax with your favourite show in style, and your wallet can breathe a sigh of relief as well. 

We've done all the searching, so you can simply browse the TV sales below for a size and price that suits you. That means no more obscure model numbers to look up and no more wondering if you've really got the best TV deal around. We've done all that legwork and brought all the need-to-know information right here. 

We've organised all the latest cheap TV sales by size here, but it's worth checking out the prices throughout because you might be surprised how large a display you can get for your cash these days. We've also picked out a TV deal of the week, which represents the best outright value for most people.

Best TV deals by size:

TV deal of the week
40-49 inch TVs
50-59 inch TVs
60-85 inch TVs

That means all of these top brands are competing to offer the best tech for the money, so even if you're on a budget, you can still bag yourself some top-shelf features in a cheap TV. Between their powerful upscaling processors, full smart home integration, and, in some cases, Dolby Atmos support, all these 4K TV deals are fantastic value.

The best cheap smart TV deals in this week's roundup all offer awe-inspiring HDR and streamlined 4K upscaling to make everything shine. If you're looking to push the budget, you can also take a look at the best OLED TV prices and deals available right now.

The best TV deal of the week

TCL C72 55-inch 4K HDR QLED TV: £799 £519 at Amazon
Save £280 – The main advantage of choosing a QLED screen is that they offer wider viewing angles and superior brightness, so if your TV is going into a big room that receives a lot of light you will be able to get a much clearer picture. TCL has established itself as a low-cost alternative to the likes of Samsung and LG while still producing some well-made sets, so this is a more affordable way to pick up a QLED screen on a lower budget.

The best cheap TV sales available now

(Image credit: Toshiba)

32-49 inch cheap 4K TV deals

JVC 32-inch HD LED Fire TV: £249 £199 at Amazon
Save £50 - This week's cheapest TV deal is this 32-inch HD TV from JVC that's on sale for just £199. This budget set includes the Fire operating system, which allows you to seamlessly stream your favorite movies and TV shows from the home screen of your TV.

JVC 40-inch Smart Full HD Android TV: £319.99 £229.99 at Currys
Save £90 - If you're looking for a 40-inch budget set, this JVC HD TV is a fantastic option, and it's on sale for just £229 - £20 less than last week's price. The HD TV comes with smart capabilities and the Google Assistant built in so you can use your voice to control your TV.

Toshiba 43-inch 4K HDR Smart TV: £379 £249 at Very
Save £130 – This Toshiba is excellent value for money if you need a small screen on a budget. Support for 4K resolution and HDR ensures a crisp and clear picture, while access to Freeview Play and all the major streaming apps means you won't lack films and TV to watch.

65-inch version: £599 £469 at Very

Samsung 43-inch TU7020 Smart 4K UHD TV: £369 £329 at Argos
Save £20 - Argos has this Samsung 43-inch 4K TV on sale for a record-low price of £329 - $20 less than last week's deal. The 43-inch set from Samsung delivers a bright, bold picture with life-like images thanks to the Crystal processor and 4K HD resolution.

Sony 32-inch HDR TV: £449 £379 at John Lewis
Save £70 - This 32-inch HDR TV from Sony is well worth a look, especially with this £70 saving. It makes do with 720p resolution, Freeview Play, a capable Android TV platform, and support for HDR – despite the lack of 4K Ultra HD. A great buy for budget shoppers.

(Image credit: Samsung)

50-59 inch 4K TV deals

Hisense 55-inch R55A Roku 4K TV: £499 £379 at Argos
Save £120 - You can snag a £120 discount on this 55-inch Hisense TV which brings the price down to a new record-low. As far as budget 4K TVs go, Hisense still manages to create affordable sets without compromising too far on picture and audio quality – as we found in our review. It's definitely not going to compete with the high-end OLED and QLED TVs, but it'll offer a satisfactory viewing experience when streaming films, watching TV shows, and more.

Hisense 58-inch 4K UHD Smart TV: £549 £399 at Very
Save £150 - Very has this Hisense set on sale for just £399 which is the lowest price we've seen and a fantastic deal for a feature-rich 58-inch 4K TV. You're getting 4K HD resolution, DTS Studio Sound, Freeview Play, and Amazon Alexa built in for hands-free control.

Samsung TU7020 50-inch 4K Crystal UHD Smart TV: £549 £389 at Very
Save £160 - This stunning Samsung 50-inch 4K TV is on sale for just £389 at Very. That's the best price you'll find for the 4K set that delivers bright, bold colors thanks to the powerful Dynamic Crystal technology and works with Amazon Alexa and the Google Assistant for hands-free control.

LG 55-inch 4K UHD HDR Smart LED TV: £459 £429 at Amazon
Save £30 - Amazon has this 2021 LG 55-inch 4K smart TV on sale for £429 at Amazon. You're getting 4K Ultra HD resolution, AI Sound, smart capabilities for seamless streaming, and voice control with Amazon Alexa and the Google Assistant. 

Philips 50-inch 4K UHD Smart TV: £749 £604.22 at Amazon
Save £144.78 - You can snag this 50-inch 4K smart TV from Philips on sale for £604.22 at Amazon. This Android TV packs smart capabilities with Amazon Alexa and the Google Assistant built-in, plus HDR 10+, Dolby Vision, and Atmos Sound.

TCL C72 55-inch 4K HDR QLED TV: £799 £519 at Amazon
Save £280 – The main advantage of choosing a QLED screen is that they offer wider viewing angles and superior brightness, so if your TV is going into a big room that receives a lot of light you will be able to get a much clearer picture. TCL has established itself as a low-cost alternative to the likes of Samsung and LG while still producing some well-made sets, so this is a more affordable way to pick up a QLED screen on a lower budget.

LG NanoCell 816PA 50-inch Smart 4K UHD TV: £649 £578 at Currys
Save £71 - Currys has this LG 50-inch 4K smart TV on sale for just £578 at today's sale. LG's NanoCell display delivers bold, bright colours thanks to the quad-Core 4K processor, and the ThinQ AI technology allows your TV to become a smart home hub.

Sony Bravia X85JU 55-inch 4K UHD Smart TV: £799 £749 at Currys
Save £50 - You can score a £50 price cut on Sony's Bravia 65-inch 4K TV at Currys' latest sale. That's the lowest price we've seen for this 2021 set that features Sony's powerful X1 processor and Dolby Atmos for a cinema-like picture experience. You're also getting smart capabilities with the Google Assistant built-in for hands-free control.

(Image credit: LG)

60-85 inch 4K TV deals

JVC 65-inch 4K Ultra HD Fire TV: £599.99 £449 at Currys
Save £150 - If you're looking for a big-screen budget display in today's TV deals, Currys has this 65-inch 4K TV on sale for just £449. The 4K Ultra HD TV comes with the Fire operating system for seamless streaming and works with Amazon Alexa for hands-free control.

LG UP75 65-inch 4K UHD Smart TV: £749 £529 at Amazon
Save £210 - Amazon has this 65-inch 4K smart TV from LG on sale for £529. That's the lowest price we've ever seen and an incredible deal for a big-screen 4K TV. The 65-inch display features 4K HD resolution and smart capabilities and works with Amazon Alex and the Google Assistant for hands-free control.

Hisense 65-inch QLED TV: £999 £679 at Very
Save £325 – Hisense has established itself as a maker of quality TVs for budget prices - and that also extends to its range of high-end QLED sets. This TV tech delivers bright and pristine picture quality that is better suited to lighter rooms in the house. This latest discount may be £25 off the record low, but it's up to £1000 less than TVs of a similar size and power from the likes of LG and Samsung, so the saving is considerable.

Samsung 65-inch Q80A QLED 4K Smart TV: £1,399 £1,165 at Amazon
Save £239 - If you're looking for a premium display, you can get this stunning Samsung 65-inch QLED TV on sale for £1,165, thanks to today's massive £200+ discount at Amazon. You're getting a premium viewing experience thanks to the QLED display coupled with the Object Tracking Sound for an immersive audio experience.

Sony Bravia A84J 65-inch Smart 4K UHD OLED TV: £2,199.99 £1,799 at Currys
Save £400 - Sony's brilliant Bravia XR OLED TV gets a massive £400 price cut at Currys - $100 less than last week's price. That's the lowest price we've found for the Sony set that packs a 65-inch OLED panel, Dolby Vision, HDR10 and works with the Google Assistant for hands-free control.

LG AI OLED 65-inch 4K UHD HDR Smart TV: £2,199 £1,198 at Amazon
Save £1,000 - If you're looking for a premium display, Amazon has a massive £1,000 discount on the LG A1 OLED TV. That's the best price we've seen for the 4K OLED TV that packs an α7 Gen4 AI processor 4K, Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Atmos, and the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa for hands-free control.

More cheap TV sales from your favourite retailers

Not found the right cheap TV today? Or maybe you'd prefer to directly browse the offers at your favourite retailers instead of our highlights of the best smart TV deals? We're updating this page on a regular basis, so you may have better luck another day. If you want to take a look for yourself now though, here are the direct links to a the full collection of TV sales at multiple stores. 

• John Lewis - offers excellent warranty guarantees 
• Very - perfect for 43 - 65-inch TV deals
• Currys - offers both cheaper and more premium brands
• Amazon - a massive range of cheap smart TVs on offer
• ebuyer - big savings available on more expensive models
• AO.com - mid-range TV deals available frequently
• Argos - the best place for cheap TVs but regionalised stock

Large screen smart TV deals

If you're after larger smart TV deals, we should warn you, they don't come cheap. However, if you're after 65 to 85-inch TVs- we'd recommend heading over to John Lewis, Currys and Amazon as they seem to stock more models than most UK retailers.

If you'd like a headstart on some of the very finest TVs money can buy, be sure to take a look at our guides for the best 55-inch TV or if you're going large we've got the best 65-inch TV models covered too.

How to tell if cheap TVs are worth it

Cheap TVs can often wow with price tags but disappoint once they're at home and plugged in, however there are ways to find 4K TV deals that bring premium experiences down to lower price ranges. Sacrificing a few features you won't use to prioritise the ones you will is an easy way to get started, but finding that perfect mix might prove difficult. 

On the other hand, even displays costing between £300 and £400 are often considered to be cheap TVs, so you'll want to make sure you're getting your money's worth with your new setup. That's where these TV deals come in handy - you can easily get features well above your price range included in your new cheap smart TV if you know when and where to deal hunt. 

Nowadays, you'll want to be picking up a 4K TV if you're looking to spend within this price range. Straight HD and HD-ready TV deals are still kicking around some retailers and, for the price you're paying for the previous wave of technology, you could well be picking up a 4K display instead. As the price scale rises, you'll be picking up higher pixel density, better colour differentiation, deeper dynamic range, and better upscaling from pricier units. It's worth checking out the various display specifications to make sure your cheap TV matches up to what others are offering at that particular price point. 

Or, you could let us do all of that for you with the 4K TV deals listed here. 

(Image credit: Hisense)

Are 4K TV deals getting cheaper?

As the technology progresses, and even leaps into the world of 8K, 4K TV deals are getting cheaper and cheaper, meaning more households than ever are able to afford premium displays like the ones highlighted here. Not only does that show just how cheap these 4K TV deals have become in recent years, but it also means there's more content being made to be displayed on these 4K TVs available as well. So, not only are these sets getting cheaper, but there's also plenty more to watch on them as well. 

How to find the best TV deals

We've found that the best TV deals usually come from a few retailers in particular - Very regularly discounts their cheaper models, Currys holds excellent prices on Philips Ambilight displays, and John Lewis can offer up invaluable peace of mind with their extensive warranty guarantees. 

So, you know where to shop but if you're not seeing any particularly enticing offers -you might be searching at the wrong time. The best TV deals are usually between November and January, when Black Friday and holiday sales are discounting premium displays left and right. However, you'll also find the summer sales fruitful as well. 

What to look for in smart TV deals

The vast majority of TV deals on offer right now will offer Smart TV functionality. It's now become the norm for your TV to offer at least a limited selection of streaming and on demand apps, but the quality of this experience will vary between models. Cheap smart TVs will typically send you home with preset apps like Netflix, YouTube, BBC iPlayer, All 4, and UK TV Play among other everyday streamers. 

However, if you spend a little more you'll start finding Alexa compatibility, more niche app options like Disney Plus, CrunchyRoll, and NowTV, and a faster, slicker operating system. You'll find more options for connecting extra services on more premium smart TV deals. 

Need something to watch on your new 4K TV? Check out the latest Amazon Fire Stick prices and deals, or shop the cheapest Roku prices and sales available now. 

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Welcome to the liminal space between where we know the date, time, and place of an Apple event and have almost no confirmed information about its content. The most obvious response is to fill that gap with musings about the possibilities, especially those surrounding what we think will be our first glimpse of Apple’s AR Glasses.

To refresh your memory, many of us now believe Apple gave us a barely concealed hint in its March Event invite and an executive tweet that it’s bringing the AR wearables.

Apple Glass, as the rumor mill likes to call them, should lean heavily on Apple’s already significant augmented reality skills. Owners of modern iPhones and iPads have seen how they can while looking through the device’s cameras, see virtual sneakers that they can walk around, a full-scale augmented LEGO creation that they can play with, and virtually dissect a woe begotten frog.

Thanks to powerful sensors, on-board processing, and ARKit 2, the effects are impressively realistic and get even better when you pair the iPhone 13 Pro and iPad Pro’s Lidar scanners, which can create a 3D mesh of the environment and let your AR creations interact more naturally with the real world.

Apple’s ability to transfer all that AR hardware and software expertise is not in question. Its ability to squeeze it into eyeglasses is more of an open one.

It’s coming

We know that the possibility of Apple revealing its AR glasses still lives in the realm of maybe, but since the assumption is we’re seeing the first working concept and not the final product on March 8, there’s still time to offer some important product development advice.

Don’t look ridiculous

Apple’s legendary industrial design will be put to the test with Apple Glass. We’ve worn their unusual and initially rejected AirPods in our ears (now we love them in all forms), and the elegant Apple Watch on our wrist, but something on our face, under our eyebrows, and over our eyes, is something else entirely.

To make Apple Glass, even if Apple puts much of the processing responsibility on your iPhone, means finding aesthetically pleasing places to put cameras, sensors (maybe LiDAR), transparent screens, and batteries.

The last is where virtually every smart glass manufacturer has struggled. You can’t really hide the bulk of a battery, though most give it their best shot by stuffing them into the stems.

For Apple, I suggest they find a way to spread the battery load throughout the frames and hide camera lenses and sensors behind one-way-mirrored glass or plastic.

Don’t require cables, even to charge

I don’t want to see a single port on my Apple Glass. Obviously, the glasses will connect to your iPhone via Bluetooth, but we still have to charge them. I don’t even want to see visible, copper connectors on Apple Glass. Qi, MagSafe-based charging is what I want.

Don’t give us a narrow field of vision

In the Apple Event invite tweet Apple’s Global Head of Marketing Greg Joswiak shared, the video appears to be a demonstration of the new Apple Glass AR viewport. 

It looks immersive, but that might be misleading. So many previous AR glasses have offered a tiny field of view. The early Microsoft Holo Lens viewport looked like a 42-inch TV floating in front of you. Google Glass's viewport looked like a tiny TV set that you had to look up at to catch a glimpse.

I want Apple Glass to feel as immersive as that short video made it look. To do so, Apple must figure out how to marry tiny-screen projection or display technology with a design that wraps around your face instead of sitting in front of it. I mean, Apple Glasses should have the look of a cool set of modern shades, not old-school black-framed eyeglasses (not even the nicer Ray-Ban Stories Facebook is hawking).

Don’t skimp on resolution

Our eyes will be close to whatever screen technology Apple plans to use. Assuming it’s OLED (which nicely supports transparency), I hope it’s HD or higher. Anything lower and we’ll see every pixel. I fully expect Apple, the King of Super Retina displays, to get this right. If they don’t, Apple Glass will be a disaster.

Don’t launch without Prescription support

This one is personal. I cannot use or even properly test smart glasses without prescription lens support. Say what you will about Google Glass, but the lack of lenses on the base system made it possible for me to wear my prescription frames along with it (yes, I looked ridiculous).

Apple has an opportunity to get this right out of the box. Making sure you can order Apple Glasses with your prescription and the built-in displays will make them more expensive (I’m guessing $999 to start), but I think it will be worth it.

Bonus don’t

Don’t skimp on memory and storage. It’s a bonus thought because I think it will only matter if Apple doesn’t pair Apple Glasses with your iPhone. If they do, all the CPU, memory, and storage load will be on the phone, not the glasses. If they do not, Apple Glass must start with some sort of new Apple Silicon (could it fit an M1, maybe an M1 mini?), 8GB of RAM, and at least 128 GB of storage.

There is the chance that we won’t see Apple’s AR glasses next week. If that happens, Apple can just keep this advice in its back pocket for when it is finally ready to introduce Apple Glass to the world.

• Check out the best iPhones and iPads while we wait to hear more about Apple Glass

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Semiconductor industry titans like Intel, AMD, Samsung, TSMC, and Arm have all come together to announce a new universal chiplet interface which they hope will accelerate chiplet innovation in the future.

The new consortium is called Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe), and it's purpose is to standardize die-to-die interconnects for chipset designs in the future with an open-source approach that any industry player can use.

Absent from the consortium, notably, was Nvidia, but that might not matter much since all three of the world's leading semiconductor foundries (Intel, TSMC, and Samsung) are participating.

What this means for processor design will ultimately be up to engineers, but in short, this will allow better integration of chiplets, which are smaller processor components that take some of the load off of the central processing cores, which themselves could also be designed as chiplets.

Part of the appeal of UCIe is that it gives the industry more flexibility in processor design in a way that allows it to interface with other components on a motherboard through PCIe and other connections.

---

Analysis: it's chiplets all the way down

Chiplet design offers all kinds of advantages over the existing all-in-one-component paradigm.

For one, chiplets do not all need to use the same processor node, so you can have a mix of 5nm chiplets that handle the high-performance tasks alongside 12nm and 14nm chiplets that focus more on less rigorous tasks.

If that sounds a lot like Arm's big.LITTLE architecture design, you're not wrong. Chiplets essentially take the advantages of Arm's design and expands it beyond just the central processing cores.

Another advantage that UCIe brings is the flexibility to adopt more 2.5D and 3D chiplet technology, as our buddies over at Tom's Hardware explain.

With the new open chiplet standard, industry has an important new tool at its disposal as it grapples with the scaling challenges presented by physics and the coming end of Moore's Law

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Did we just see a micro-mini demo of Apple's rumored AR Glasses?

When Apple's head of global marketing Greg Joswiak tweeted on Wednesday the announcement of Apple's March 8 product event, he used the word "Peek," which is obviously about seeing something, and may have been our first hint.

However, if you turn down the music (Wonder by Yung Bae) and focus on the 15-second video, you'll notice something else.

Apple March 2022 Event

Apple’s March Event is official – here’s what to expect, including iPhone SE 3 

The video opens with a shot of the Apple Theater stage at Apple Park in Cupertino, California. We've seen that stage in person, and it's clearly the real place. Floating above the stage is a translucent, 3D Apple logo that appears almost lit from above.

The logo is interesting because it appears to have a presence, like a physical object hovering where Apple CEO Tim Cook might normally stand (and probably will on March 8).

Peek performance. March 8th. See you there. #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/cEKMq7BuBhMarch 2, 2022

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The camera pans and turns to keep the Apple Logo center frame. Unlike smooth, 3D render movement, there's almost a slight, human wobble. As the camera rotates more waves of logo graphics float forward and past the camera. If you look closely at the stage edge, you can see that the camera is not going into the logo. Instead, the imagery is coming toward it.

Finally, the camera moves forward past the edge of the stage and the imagery grows brighter and more intense, with different colored logos sliding past the viewer. Once the logo stops changing, it's clearly still on stage.

Is it Apple Glass?

What it all looks like, though, is a viewport from augmented reality glasses, more precisely, Apple Glasses.

Apple has never confirmed the long-rumored project, but we've had plenty of rumors over the years to whet our interest.

The key points are they could be lightweight and look a lot like normal eyeglasses, a feat only possible because the digital eyewear would push most processing off onto the iPhone in your pocket.

Assuming this video is a feed from the transparent OLED lenses we might expect to see in Apple Glasses, the video makes sense. You wouldn't see frames or feel like your field of view is narrowed.

There is also the possibility that this is a view feed from the more involved and rumored Apple Mixed Reality headgear. That headset might be a bit more like Microsoft HoloLens and put more of the components in the headset as opposed to an iPhone.

It's true, this is a big leap to take from a 15-second video, but Apple doesn't do anything by accident. The use of the work "Peek" in "Peek Performance" is intentional, as is every single frame of this video.

As if you needed more evidence, visit The Apple Events page using Safari on your iPhone or iPad. If you tap on the logo, you'll gain access to that same AR logo object and can view it floating in space in your home or office.

It's time to get very excited about Apple's March Event

Apple's March Event Easter Egg is an AR object. (Image credit: Future)

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The Ukrainian government confirmed on Tuesday that it had received a shipment of Starlink satellite internet terminals less than two days after Starlink CEO Elon Musk responded to a plea for support on Twitter.

Starlink — here. Thanks, @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/dZbaYqWYCfFebruary 28, 2022

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The Starlink dishes were sent in response to a February 26 tweet by the Ukrainian vice prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, directly asking Musk for help securing Starlink equipment.

Starlink satellites provide relatively fast internet service for residential customers, but generally don't serve as the primary connection point for the kind of sprawling IT infrastructure needed by large organizations and government agencies to operate.

But with the threat of Russian forces cutting off access to landline internet connections, any internet at this point is probably sorely needed.

---

Analysis: It's a good gesture on Starlink's part, but it could do more harm than good

Given the state of things in Ukraine at the moment, any relief is likely welcome, especially when so much of our modern communications infrastructure is built on internet connections that are prime targets for hostile forces.

As Reuters reports, though, internet security pros are wary that the new Starlink terminals could be dangerous.

Re: @elonmusk's starlink donation.Good to see.But remember: if #Putin controls the air above #Ukraine, users' uplink transmissions become beacons... for airstrikes. Some background 1/ pic.twitter.com/0p6J87TtUFFebruary 27, 2022

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Others note that since Starlink dishes need a clear view of the sky to function, they need to be placed on the roofs of tall buildings in urban environments, which is a particularly vulnerable position when the airspace over a city is contested.

Still, you can't expect to avoid risk when your country is being invaded, and being cut off from the world completely is a far greater risk than having satellite dishes targeted by aircraft.

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We've followed the graphics card shortage for over a year now at TechRadar, and we're just as disgusted as anyone at the state of the market. 

It's understandable that demand for the best graphics cards is naturally going to be high, but when even last-gen and even last-last-gen graphics cards are selling for a sharp premium over their MSRP, the market is simply broken. And there's no easy or quick fix.

Considering that Nvidia Lovelace and AMD RDNA 3 will soon arrive, it's time we faced up to a hard truth: Nvidia Ampere and AMD RDNA 2 might just be a lost generation of graphics cards.

There's something liberating in acknowledging that though, and even as plenty of us want to play the best PC games on the best hardware available, I think it's high time we shift our emphasis from best to available.

The graphics card shortage is real, but gaming laptops are easy to find

Maybe it's because gaming laptops make terrible Ethereum mining rigs or the delicate maximization formulas used by miners to squeeze the most profit out of a GPU cut against laptops with powerful GPUs, but whatever the reason, the best gaming laptops have been pretty much unscathed by supply shortages.

That's not to say they don't exist – they do – but they are much more run-of-the-mill supply chain hiccups that everything from toilet paper to auto parts have been suffering from in recent months.

It was telling that during last year's Black Friday weekend you couldn't find graphics cards at any price, but the best RTX 3080 laptops were both cheap and in stock.

At the end of the day, if you are upgrading your gaming rig from an older graphics card like the Nvidia GTX 1060, you're going to see a huge performance boost just with an RTX 3050 gaming laptop, much less an RTX 3080 laptop.

And – we really can't emphasize this enough – you can actually buy one right now. Without having to submit to the RNG of the NewEgg Shuffle or wait for hours in online queues. 

This gaming laptop costs less than $1,000, and it will do just fine for years to come. (Image credit: Acer)

Honestly, you're not missing out on that much by going with a gaming laptop

I've tested and reviewed many different computers in my time with TechRadar, and I'll be honest, an RTX 3090 at peak performance is a thing to behold, but so is a Delacroix in the Louvre, and not everybody is meant to pick one up at auction and hang in their own private gallery.

My all-time favorite gaming PC has been a mid-range gaming laptop with an RTX 3070 that you could have purchased on sale over Christmas for about $1,000. With Nvidia DLSS turned on, I was able to comfortably play Icarus at 60 FPS with high, but not max, settings, and I barely noticed the difference.

What I did notice was the crisp, speedy 1440p display running at 165Hz, something that would have cost me an extra $400 as an external gaming monitor. That display was more than enough to keep me engaged, even though it was just a 15.6-inch screen, and I honestly felt relieved when I was able to clear a bulky space-hogging gaming monitor off my desk.

And this is coming from someone who's played Cyberpunk 2077 for 40-plus hours at 4K@60 with an RTX 3090 review unit. Was it gorgeous? Sure. Was it worth the $7,000 in parts? Not when I could get more or less the same experience for $1,199 and be able to take it with me when I went to visit family out of state.

For some, nothing can replace the experience of playing on the best hardware, and I wish them all the luck in the world. They are going to need it, given the state of the market.

For the rest of us, there really is no other way to say it: a good gaming laptop, not even the best one out there, is probably more than you're going to really need for the next five years. It's okay to admit that. Embrace it, and actually get back to enjoying the experience of gaming rather than wishing you could crank up the texture detail or shadows one level higher. 

(Image credit: Future)

Sometimes moving on means letting go

I definitely get it that PC builds are a sacred thing for a lot of gamers out there. Fine-tuning your rig to squeeze the best possible performance from overclocked hardware is often the end goal, while gaming is pretty much a secondary concern.

I really have nothing to offer if you're that person. TechRadar's own computer queen Jackie Thomas is that person as well, and the RTX 3050 broke her heart once she realized that building a budget PC gaming rig like we've always been able to do is now all but impossible.

The days of a $500/£500/AU$800 custom-built gaming PC are gone, especially now that consoles are both competitive in price and greatly outperform a similarly priced PC.

They have almost all of the same games on them as you'll find on Steam, and almost all AAA games are now optimized for consoles rather than PCs, so games like Elden Ring actually play better on consoles.

PCs still have one major advantage that no console, not even the Steam Deck, can match though: they are working computers that can do a lot of other things other than play games, and their hardware offers some perks that you still can't get elsewhere.

By that, I'm talking about overclocking and AI-processing in the form of DLSS and FSR. This super sampling tech will eventually make its way to consoles, but for now, you can still make an RTX 3050 perform like an RTX 3060 Ti with the right settings tweaks, and there are a few titles that remain PC exclusives.

The best thing about it is you can get all of it in a gaming laptop and even treat yourself to some features you might not have enjoyed before, like a high-refresh display or splurge on RAM. 

I can tell you from personal experience that even with an RTX 3080 graphics card, you're still going to need DLSS if you want 4K ray tracing for a lot of games, but you can get the same performance out of an RTX 3070 mobile at 1440p, and you can't even tell the difference. 

Folks, high-end graphics cards simply aren't worth the trouble anymore, and it's about time we all admit that and set ourselves free.

• Check out the best cheap gaming laptops and see what you can get for under $1,000

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Latest Tech News

Lenovo has lifted the lid on the latest addition to its portfolio of ThinkPad business laptops, the X13s.

Launched at MWC 2022, the ThinkPad X13s is the first ever laptop powered by Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 chipset - and also the first ever ThinkPad powered by an Arm-based chip.

The new laptop supposedly offers a whopping 28-hour battery life, courtesy of a few clever optimizations at the SoC level, and also benefits from 5G mmWave connectivity for rapid speeds when working on the move.

Lenovo doesn’t have a presence at MWC this year due to the pandemic, but we got hands on with the new machine at the Qualcomm booth.

(Image credit: Future)

First impressions: Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

We only had a few minutes with the ThinkPad X13s, so bear that in mind. But that said, it didn’t take long for the quality of the device to become apparent.

This laptop is extremely light and thin, weighing in at just over 1kg, but at the same time feels sturdy in the hands. It’s also fanless, which means the machine should be practically silent, even under load.

Almost everything about the build feels premium, from the recycled magnesium shell to the matt finish that prevents the hands slipping as you type. And although the keyboard is perhaps no nicer than any other, the touchpad is lovely and smooth and the mouse buttons deliver a satisfying thunk.

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(Image credit: Future)

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(Image credit: Future)

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(Image credit: Future)

SPECS

Display: 13.3-inch 1920 x 1200 IPS
Screen brightness: 300 nits
Processor: Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3
Memory: Up to 32GB LPDDR4x RAM
Storage: Up to 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD
Battery life: Up to 28 hours (of 1080p video playback)
I/O: 2x USB-C 3.2, headphone jack, SIM slot
Webcam: 5MP RGB
Weight: 1.06kg
Dimensions: 13.4mm x 298.7mm x 206.4mm

Long-time ThinkPad fans will be relieved to hear the TrackPoint nipple has made it into the X13s, so look forward to using that once for the novelty and never again.

The so-called communications bar protrudes slightly at the top of the screen, but not in an unattractive way, housing a 5MP webcam that supports Windows Hello and intelligent framing.

And the low-power screen seemed plenty bright too, even in the harsh lighting conditions of the Fira exhibition center in Barcelona.

Naturally, the small footprint necessitates compromises, particularly from a ports perspective. The X13s features two USB-C ports, a SIM slot and a headphone jack, but nothing else; there’s no USB-A, HDMI, or storage expansion ports. It’s clearly designed to be used in combination with a docking station, and without any peripherals when on the move, so maybe the lack of ports will only be an issue for some.

Long story short, we wouldn’t mind one ourselves. For anyone that can convince their IT department to shell out, the X13s will no doubt be an attractive option.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X13s will hit the shelves in May, starting at $1,100/€1,399, and TechRadar Pro will publish a full review at a later date.

MWC (Mobile World Congress) is the world's largest showcase for the mobile industry, stuffed full of the newest phones, tablets, wearables and more. TechRadar is reporting on the show all week. Follow our MWC 2022 live blog for the very latest news as it happens and visit our dedicated MWC 2022 hub for a round-up of the biggest announcements.

• Also check out our lists of the best mobile workstations and best rugged laptops

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Disclaimer: Our flights and accommodation for MWC 2022 were funded by Huawei, but the organization had no editorial control over the content of this article.

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