Per Tom's Hardware, Best Buy is running a Memorial Day promotion that cuts roughly $1,000 off select RTX 5070 OLED gaming laptops paired with the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX. If you've been holding out on a 16-inch OLED gaming laptop with current-gen NVIDIA mobile silicon, this is the steepest discount on the configuration so far in 2026.
What's being discounted
Per Tom's Hardware's deal coverage, the specific configurations targeted by the promotion are 16-inch OLED panels (typically 2560×1600 at 240Hz or 4K at 120Hz depending on SKU), paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU and Intel's Core Ultra 9 275HX (Arrow Lake-HX, 24 cores: 8P + 16E). Most listed builds ship 32GB DDR5 and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD; some configurations go to 64GB and 2TB.
The headline price drop is about $1,000 off MSRP — roughly the difference between $2,599 sticker and ~$1,599–$1,699 on the discounted variants. Specific OEM configurations (ASUS ROG, MSI Stealth, Lenovo Legion Pro lines) vary; check Best Buy's live listing for the SKU that matches the screen and SSD tier you want.
Why this matters
The RTX 5070 Laptop GPU sits in the middle of the current-gen Blackwell mobile stack — above the 5060 Laptop (mid-range) and below the 5080/5090 Laptop (flagship). It's the smallest current-gen mobile chip that gives you DLSS 4 frame generation with full Ray Reconstruction support and meaningful CUDA performance for local AI workloads.
The Core Ultra 9 275HX is Intel's flagship mobile chip for 2026 — Arrow Lake-HX cores with redesigned P-core / E-core scheduling and an integrated NPU for sustained background AI tasks. It's overkill for pure gaming workloads but pulls its weight on creator workflows and multi-instance dev environments.
OLED at 16 inches is the configuration most aggressive enthusiasts have been waiting on. Per-pixel response times, true blacks, and HDR1000-class peak brightness are now standard on the 2026 OLED panels. The catch (every year, every brand): OLED burn-in over multi-year use is still a real concern, especially with Windows taskbars or persistent IDE panels at high brightness.
Direct-answer summary
If the laptop you've been eyeing is a 16-inch OLED build with the RTX 5070 Laptop GPU and a Core Ultra 9 275HX, this Best Buy Memorial Day deal cuts ~$1,000 off MSRP and is the largest cut on this exact configuration in 2026 so far. Worth pulling the trigger if your current laptop is two or more generations behind. Worth waiting if you already own an RTX 40-series mobile build that runs your current games well.
What you actually get with an RTX 5070 mobile
The 5070 Laptop GPU is not the same chip as the desktop RTX 5070. NVIDIA's mobile naming has been a long-running source of customer confusion, and the 5070 Laptop is closer in raw throughput to a desktop RTX 5060 or 5060 Ti than to a desktop 5070. What it does ship:
- 8GB GDDR7 VRAM (some 12GB configurations exist at the top end of OEM listings)
- DLSS 4 with multi-frame generation
- Ray Reconstruction for cleaner ray-traced output at low base frame rates
- AV1 encode for streaming and capture workflows
- A TGP range of 80–115W depending on the OEM chassis cooling design
The 80W vs 115W TGP variation matters enormously. The same GPU SKU in a thin-and-light chassis at 80W is meaningfully slower than the same SKU in a 16-inch chassis at 115W. When evaluating any specific listing in the Best Buy promotion, look at the documented TGP — OEMs disclose it now after years of pressure from reviewers.
For pure gaming at 1440p (the native panel resolution most 16-inch OLEDs ship), an RTX 5070 Laptop GPU at 115W lands roughly between a desktop RTX 4060 Ti and a desktop RTX 4070 in raw performance. Add DLSS 4 frame generation and most current AAA titles will sustain 90–120 fps at 1440p with high settings.
What you get with Core Ultra 9 275HX
Intel's flagship mobile chip for 2026 ships 24 hybrid cores (8 Performance + 16 Efficient), a 32MB L3 shared cache, an integrated NPU rated at ~13 TOPS for low-power AI workloads, and the now-standard Thunderbolt 5 controller in the platform PCH.
Sustained multi-threaded performance is competitive with desktop Ryzen 7 7700X for short bursts and lands a bit lower for hour-long workloads as the laptop chassis thermal-throttles. For gaming, this is overkill — most games are GPU-bound at 1440p+ and saturate maybe 6–8 P-cores at most. For development workflows, Docker containers, and parallel build pipelines, the 16 efficient cores earn their keep.
The NPU is interesting but underused. Windows 11's Copilot+ stack uses it for transcription and basic image tasks; the rest of the time it sits idle. None of the local-LLM tooling (llama.cpp, ollama, vLLM) currently targets the Intel NPU in any meaningful way — those workloads still go to the discrete GPU.
OLED at 16 inches — what to know
OLED's pros and cons haven't changed for 2026, just the panel quality:
- Pros: per-pixel response (sub-1ms), perfect blacks, true HDR with peak brightness now hitting 1000 nits in highlights, viewing angles essentially unlimited.
- Cons: static-element burn-in remains a 3–5 year concern with heavy Windows-taskbar exposure, max sustained full-screen brightness is ~400 nits (lower than equivalent mini-LED IPS), and OLED panels still cost a meaningful premium that the discount partly absorbs.
The 2026 panels add improvements that matter for real-world use: better pixel-shift / panel-refresh algorithms for burn-in mitigation, less aggressive ABL (auto brightness limiter), and matte-finish coatings on some SKUs that finally don't destroy contrast. Match the listing carefully — glossy OLED is gorgeous in the showroom and frustrating in a sunlit room.
How this compares to building a desktop with similar parts
Honest comparison: the same money buys a meaningfully faster desktop. A $1,599 budget for a 1440p gaming desktop in 2026 gets you a RTX 5070 desktop GPU, a Ryzen 7 5800X or current-gen equivalent, 32GB DDR5, 1TB NVMe, a 1440p 240Hz IPS or OLED monitor, and a quality case — with budget left over.
The laptop tradeoff is portability, integrated battery, and the OLED panel. If you genuinely commute with the machine or work from coffee shops, that tradeoff is real. If the laptop will sit on a desk 95% of the time, build the desktop instead.
The middle path some builders take: pair this deal-priced laptop with a desktop monitor like the ASUS TUF VG27AQ when at home. You get the OLED panel for travel and a larger / brighter desktop panel for stationary work. That stretches the laptop's useful life by avoiding OLED burn-in on the integrated panel during long work sessions.
Spec snapshot — what's in the discounted SKUs
| Component | Typical config in this promotion |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX (24C / 32T, 8P+16E) |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop (8–12GB GDDR7, 80–115W TGP) |
| RAM | 32GB DDR5-5600 (some 64GB SKUs) |
| Storage | 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe (some 2TB SKUs) |
| Display | 16" OLED, 2560×1600 240Hz typical |
| Battery | 90–99 Wh (largest legal for air travel) |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 7 / Bluetooth 5.4 |
| Ports | 1× Thunderbolt 5, 2× USB-A, HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm |
| MSRP | ~$2,599 |
| Promo price | ~$1,599–$1,699 |
Common pitfalls — buying gaming laptops
Five things that bite buyers on a deal-priced laptop:
- TGP not listed. Some OEM listings hide the GPU TGP. If the spec sheet doesn't disclose it, assume it's at the low end (80W). Reviewer benchmarks for the specific OEM chassis are essential.
- OLED burn-in policy. OEM warranty on OLED burn-in varies. Some cover it for one year; some don't cover it at all. Read the fine print before buying.
- Memory configuration. Some thin chassis solder RAM and ship single-channel modules. Avoid those — single-channel DDR5 on a current-gen mobile platform costs you 5–15% gaming throughput.
- Storage swap difficulty. Same chassis-design issue. Some 16-inch laptops require full bottom-cover removal and have only one M.2 slot. Look up the iFixit or service-manual breakdown before assuming you can upgrade later.
- Speaker quality. OEMs cut costs here predictably. If you care about laptop speakers for movies or screen sharing, check reviews — most thin chassis ship speakers that are functional but unimpressive.
What a 16-inch OLED gaming laptop actually does well
The 16-inch OLED + RTX 50-series mobile + Core Ultra HX combo is, in 2026, the most capable single-machine portable PC you can buy without going to a workstation tier. Three concrete workloads where this configuration shines:
1. AAA gaming at 1440p with DLSS. Native 2560×1600 panel resolution scales cleanly to 1440p game engines. With DLSS 4 frame generation and Ray Reconstruction, current AAA titles (Forza Horizon 6, Stellar Blade PC, Cyberpunk 2077 2.0, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle) hit 90–120 fps with high or ultra settings. The OLED panel's per-pixel response and HDR1000 highlights make these titles look better than on most desktop monitors.
2. Creator workflows. The Core Ultra 9 275HX's 24 cores are useful for video encoding, 3D rendering, large IDE workspaces, and parallel Docker builds. The RTX 5070 mobile GPU has the AV1 encode hardware needed for streaming and capture. 32GB RAM (or 64GB on top SKUs) is enough for serious creator work.
3. Local AI experimentation. While the 5070 Laptop's 8GB VRAM isn't enough for serious 13B+ LLM work, it handles 7B-class models comfortably at q4_K_M and 8K context. For someone who travels and wants to keep their dev workflow with them — including small-model local inference — this configuration is workable. (For serious local-LLM work, the desktop path with a RTX 3060 12GB or better remains the better answer.)
4. Color-critical photo and video work. The 2026 OLED panels ship 100% DCI-P3 color coverage with factory calibration that's typically Delta-E < 2 out of the box. For editing photos and video on the move, that's professional-grade.
The configuration doesn't shine for: dedicated competitive shooter rigs (240Hz IPS at 1080p remains the dominant configuration for tournament play), creator workstations running Resolve at 4K (where the OLED's 400 nits sustained brightness becomes a constraint for long color sessions), and budget-bounded buyers (a desktop build is still meaningfully cheaper for equivalent performance).
When to grab this deal
- Your current laptop is RTX 30-series mobile or older. The generational jump is meaningful — DLSS 4, AV1 encode, much better thermals.
- You actually commute with the machine. OLED + 16-inch + 90Wh battery is a genuinely good portable workstation.
- You're a Windows 11 Copilot+ user who'd benefit from the NPU. Niche but real.
When to skip it
- You game at a desk. Build a desktop with equivalent parts for less money and more performance.
- You own an RTX 40-series mobile build. The upgrade isn't large enough to justify a $1,600+ outlay.
- You're committed to Linux as your daily driver. Intel Arrow Lake-HX + RTX 50 mobile is now well-supported on Linux but the polish lags Windows by 6–12 months.
- Battery life is your top priority. Even at 99 Wh, an RTX 5070 mobile chassis runs 3–5 hours of light use; gaming on battery drains in under an hour.
Bottom line
This Best Buy Memorial Day promotion is a genuine $1,000 cut on a current-gen OLED gaming laptop with the RTX 5070 Laptop GPU and Core Ultra 9 275HX. If the form factor matches your real use case (commuting, travel, multi-room work), the discount makes it competitive with a built desktop on price for the first time this cycle. If the laptop will live at a desk, build the desktop instead.
Check the live Best Buy listing for the exact SKU, screen variant (240Hz QHD vs 120Hz 4K), and SSD tier. Pricing on individual configurations shifts daily during Memorial Day promotions.
Related guides
- Best Budget GPU for Local LLM Inference in 2026
- Best GPU for Forza Horizon 6 at 1080p & 1440p in 2026
- Best SSD for a 1TB+ Steam Library in 2026: SATA vs NVMe Showdown
- Best Wireless Controller for PC Gaming in 2026
- Best CPU for Local LLM Inference in 2026: Ryzen 7 5800X vs 5700X vs 5600G
Citations and sources
- Tom's Hardware — Memorial Day RTX 5070 laptop deal coverage
- Best Buy — gaming laptops landing page
- NVIDIA — GeForce RTX 50 Series Laptop GPUs
This piece is editorial synthesis based on publicly available information. No independent first-party benchmarking is reported. Prices may vary; check the retailer listing for current availability.
