Best Buy decided to go hard on their Memorial Day deals this year, and gamers are definitely benefiting. The ASUS TUF Gaming A16 just got a $300 price drop, making it just about the greatest gaming laptop you can get at the low, low price of $800 - and that honestly makes it hard to ignore the deal. Quick note, though, this deal is only going to be up until 5/26.

Here's the thing about gaming laptops: Most of them either cost way too much or cut so many corners that you're basically buying a regular laptop with gaming stickers slapped on it. This ASUS sits somewhere in the middle, which is exactly where most people need to be. Let's take a look at what's on our plate here.

Starting out with the basics, we're dealing with a Ryzen 7 7735HS and a Radeon RX 7700S. To give you some perspective, the RX 7700S sits somewhere between an RTX 3070 and 3070 Ti in terms of raw performance. This means that most games at 1080p ultra settings aren't going to be a problem.

The 16GB of DDR5 RAM and 512GB SSD are decent starting points, but here's where things get good - you can actually upgrade both yourself. Pop off the back panel, and you've got access to swap in more storage or bump the RAM up to 64GB if you want. Quite a few manufacturers are welding everything shut these days, so having that option is always a welcome thing.

The 165Hz display uses the full color spectrum (100% sRGB coverage), and the 16:10 aspect ratio gives you a bit more screen real estate than the usual 16:9 setup. The screen also supports Adaptive Sync and G-Sync, which cuts down on-screen tearing during intense gaming sessions.

The build quality is where things get interesting. ASUS has been pushing their TUF branding hard, and this laptop actually lives up to the MIL-STD-810H military-grade durability claims. It's tested to handle drops, vibration, humidity, and extreme temperatures. It's not going to survive a direct hit from a missile, but it should handle being stuffed in backpacks and bounced around without falling apart. At 2.2kg and just over 26mm thick, it's reasonably portable for a 16-inch gaming machine.

Battery life surprised me when I first heard about it. The 90Wh battery pushes over 9 hours of video playback, which isn't groundbreaking for ultrabooks, but for a gaming laptop? That's pretty darn impressive. Plus, the MUX switch lets you toggle between integrated graphics for battery saving and the dedicated GPU when you need the performance.

Port selection covers the basics without going overboard - a couple of USB-A and USB-C ports, HDMI 2.1 for external monitors, Ethernet for stable online gaming, and a headphone jack. The speakers are probably the weakest point. They're fine for system sounds and casual video watching, but don't expect much bass or volume. You'll want headphones or external speakers for gaming audio that doesn't sound flat.

At full price, the TUF Gaming A16 competes well in the mid-range gaming laptop space. With $300 knocked off for Memorial Day, well, it becomes a lot more compelling. If you've been waiting for gaming laptop prices to come down from their recent highs, this Memorial Day deal might be the opening you've been looking for. Just don't sleep on it because Best Buy sales don't usually get extended, and missing out on $300 savings would sting big time.

BUY IT HERE FOR $300 OFF