I just got one.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D3VST87Z?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1
HP Newest Victus 16.1 Ryzen 7 RTX 4070 Extreme Gaming Laptop, 16.1" FHD 144Hz, AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (Beats i7-1355U), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, 32GB DDR5 RAM, 1TB SSD, HDMI, Wi-Fi 6, Windows 11 Home
OK for MSFS 2020? Should be fine.
Thatās what itās for. Just getting started so Iāll play with MSFS 2020 for a good while before I upgrade to 2024. I donāt know a lot about computer specs and the like just what Iāve read here and a few different places. Iām hoping this will allow me to try a VR headset in the future also.
My budget was $1000 but I blew it by about 20%. Hopefully this computer is worth it. This sure is an expensive hobby once you go down that rabbit holeā¦ 
The 4070 card it comes with only has 8GB VRAM, which is fine for the 1080p resolution of the laptopās screen but will struggle with the higher resolution and VRAM that VR demands. Also, since the laptop doesnāt have a display port, youāll be limited to a USB-C or WiFi VR solution, such as the Quest 3 or 3S.
If you really want to do VR right, get a desktop system with an AMD X3D CPU, 32GB+ RAM, SSD and a GPU with 16GB+ VRAM.
Also, donāt wait too long for the jump to MSFS 2024. From my experience with the Alpha on 2 different systems, it looks and performs better than MSFS 2020 does with similar settings.
Money, Money, Money. Iād better keep saving. 
You mean you better keep SPENDING! Most of us can relate, been there, done that, itās like owning a boat - āa hole in the water you throw money into.ā Fortunately, less hassle to go for a quick fly-by than to take a boat out for a spin.
Boy Iām beginning to understand. Still a lot of fun though. Might as well spend it on something we enjoy. Canāt take it with us when we die.
It seems like youāve learned the first lesson of this hobby early on 
What concerns me is not your PC spec (which is fine for decent, if not highest-possible, results), itās your internet connection.
Is your internet speed fixed? Do you have other choices with more bandwidth? 10Mbps will work, I think the required minimum is 5Mbps, but the recommended bandwidth for MSFS 2020 is 50Mbps, it can use a lot more than that if you have it, and with MSFS 2024 streaming a lot more stuff that is held locally now, the bandwidth requirements will only go up. That said, you can download most assets locally in 2024, from what I understand, so if youāre willing to wait an aeon or so for stuff to download you can reduce your reliance on the internet.
Is your broadband capped? MSFS uses a LOT of data.
The specs are fine however If I was you - I would save up bit more and get full desktop PC rather then laptop. Laptop is not end of the world - With PC however it opens up wider spectrum and generally speaking PC is better for gaming rather then Laptop.
Do you really need a laptop?
If so, theres not much options.
But if you dont really need a laptop, then get a fullsize desktop PC.
Even if the specs say ā4070ā its not comparable to a ārealā desktop 4070 GPU.
You can see this already by the 8GB VRAM, which isnt enough these days, or lets say, way below the general recommendations, while the Desktop 4070 has 12GB VRAM. Also the specs are lower, a Laptop 4070 wont have same performance as a desktop one. So all the benchmarks you might have seen, dont apply to a laptop. Same for the CPU.
I once had MSFS running fine on a 8mbps connection, which roughly equates to 1 megabyte per second transfer speed. Iād taken my PC to my brothers house who lives in a backwater village in the North of England. Broadband just about exists there.
Itāll be things like VFR flights round photogrammetry areas thatāll struggle, just donāt let anyone do Netflixāing while flying and youāll be ok. 
I have to say, I just donāt understand the whole gaming laptop thing. Unless you must have a portable PC and you can only have a single machine for gaming and other work, I donāt see why people are willing to make the compromises - like you said, the CPU and GPU in a laptop will not perform to the same level as the same notional model on the desktop.
As a portable PC for general work, a gaming laptop is a poor choice too. Itās going to be bulky and heavy even compared to equivalent non-gaming ultrabooks. Itās really not a great form factor for anything at all.
But from the OP it seems like this machine is already bought, not thinking about buying, so OP has a gaming laptop and wants to make the most of it. I suppose in theory they could return it and get a desktop (and for the same budget youād get a better-spec desktop, I imagine), but that might not be on the cards.
A āgaming laptopā is just a marketing gimmick. Any serious flight simmer or gamer knows that thereās no such thing as a true gaming laptop because, even with the same components, a laptop will lose out to a desktop every time. Laptops simply canāt match the cooling, power, and performance that a proper gaming desktop can deliver.
Better off buying a cheap tablet and decent desktop. Cheap tablet ($200 max) does email, web surfing, video calls, etc., and the battery lasts all day.
The desktop is a real computer, and can be easily upgraded from ājust a desktopā to a sim monster as time and funds allow.
Yeah, I would generally agree.
A laptop is great for real work when you do need to move around a lot - in a hotdesking office, for example, where people bring their machine with them into meetings etc, and need the power to be able to write and debug code, say. My work machines for the last several jobs have been laptops and itās the best use-case for it. For those who absolutely must write their screenplay from the coffee shop, I guess itās a good form factor, too.
For gaming, not so much. And for me at home, for my main machine where I work all day, write code etc, I would not trade my desktop for a laptop. But I never need to take that power anywhere else, nor would I countenance swapping my dedicated space for a table in a cafƩ.
Some people seem to be into the whole āit doesnāt take much space, I can game on the couch with my significant other, otherwise Iād never see themā thing, and I get that, but flight simming isnāt ānormalā gaming, at least not how I do it. I guess other peoplesā milage may vary
My internet is definitely slow, by todays means, but Iāve been having a lot of fun with my older laptop with a RTX3050 with 500 ssd memory and 8GB RAM. I have 500GB Speed at work so I originally set up there for the first big download But it does fine at home on the slow speeds. Details Iām sure are not what you guys are used to but for me I love it.
Theyāre (Frontier) are installing fiber all around me now and are saying theyāll be up my road in a few months. With that I should Have at least 200GB speed.
I looked at both and for the money I could part with and my usage I decided the laptop would suffice. Iām not really going to be a big āgo all inā simmer. I just enjoy learning about flying and getting acquainted with it. I know a hopped up desktop would be the best. I canāt just unplug it an pack it with me like a laptop. Believe me if I could afford it I would go all out with everyoneās recommendations here but. I was just wondering if what I did get would work fine for moderate use. Especially when I get the fibernet to the house. 1080p is just fine for me. I may not even try the VR as I mentioned earlier but if I do It would probably just be the Quest 3.
Iāve been building my own PCās since the mid 80ās. Everyone in my house had one and I used to play LAN games with my kids.
What I have learned through the years of fighting to keep up with the upgrades, which were getting more and more expensive, was to get a PC that helped me get by until I could afford to buy the most powerful system at the time and that system would take years to become obsolete for games.
To do that, I bought a console. I used it till I was ready to purchase the best money could buy at the time. That PC, which has an i9-9900K all cores at 5Ghz and a 3090 OC still runs MSFS decently after all this years, and it will get better with MSFS 2024. That PC is now several years old and I gave it to my son in law. I purchased an i9-14900k with an RTX 4090. I had enough time to save for this PC.
The point it, if you want to play MSFS and save $$$ to buy the BEST PC, buy an XBOX. Once you can afford the better PC, everything you bought through the XBOX will still be there.
Good Advice OldGamer5356
One thing to note with xbox is you are limited in terms of what additional content you can install - Many of the freeware mods/addons donāt work on xbox. Also some complex addons are not available on xbox.