Whether you’re on the hunt for a lightning fast gaming rig or a Chromebook with great battery life, Black Friday is the best time to look for a laptop on a sweet deal. A lot of laptops can be found at a hearty discount, but some retailers tout big savings that aren’t really savings at all.
That’s where I come in (cue the majestic trumpets)! I’ve been overseeing PCWorld’s laptop reviews operation for years, helping our team evaluate hundreds and hundreds of notebooks of all shapes, sizes, and price points. I’ve compiled a list of worthwhile laptop deals from all over the web, from laptop manufacturers like Dell and Acer, as well as sales from online retailers like Best Buy and B&H. Not all Black Friday laptop deals are truly deals, but the hand-curated ones I’ve selected below certainly are.
Sometimes all you need is a respectable, baseline-level machine. Personally, I use a low-powered laptop for writing, watching Netflix, checking email, editing reviews, and so on. I dig the simplicity. So, if you’re not a gamer and have no intention of muscling through processor-intensive programs, check out the list below.
My top pick: The Acer Aspire 3 is a great laptop for everyday tasks, office work, and Zoom calls. It has an AMD Ryzen 3 7320U CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of SSD storage. The 1920×1080 display measures 15.6 inches, which is pretty spacious. The thin, light design also makes it super travel-friendly.
Calling all gamers! There’s no better time to scoop up a blisteringly fast gaming machine. The laptops below are both powerful and reasonably priced, and should be able to blitz through most games.
My top pick: The Gigabyte Aorus 15 deserves a call-out because of its wickedly fast 360Hz refresh rate display. That’s an incredibly high number, so this display should churn out silky-smooth visuals, which is important during more intensive matches.
If you’re looking for more premium features like an OLED display or a 2-in-1 form factor, you’ve come to the right spot. Below you’ll find ultra-lightweight machines as well as laptops with high-resolution displays.
My top pick: The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro features a lightweight build, a stunning OLED display, and a good keyboard. In our review, we called it an “elegant all-rounder for business professionals” and awarded it 4.5 out of 5 stars plus an Editors’ Choice badge.
Picking up a laptop in the Black Friday sales can save you hundreds. But why stop there? You can save even more money by accessorizing your laptop with the extra things it needs while the sales last. We’ve detailed must-have laptop accessories here, but here’s a cheat sheet with three especially crucial items.
Black Friday 2024 is on Friday, November 29. But make no mistake: The laptop deals have already begun, and the sales event that used to be just a single day might as well be called “Black Week” in 2024.
Cyber Monday 2024 is on Monday, December 2. To take advantage of the best deals, we suggest logging on at midnight. This gives you the best chance to snag a deal on something you want before stock runs out.
No, there’s nothing about the laptops themselves that should suggest you’re buying a poorer quality machine. In fact, we’ve seen some really high-end laptops go on sale this year. That said, when it comes to more “commodity” tech gear—let’s say wireless earbuds—you may find so-called “deals” on low-quality no-name brands rather than the earbud models you’d really be interested in. But when it comes to laptops, we’re only recommending models from the big names like HP, Lenovo, Dell, etc.
Yes, Black Friday sales do include some great laptops at legitimate discounts. Of course, some retailers will tag a laptop as a “deal,” when in fact the selling price is no different than what the machine sold for most of the the year. But at PCWorld, we do our best to look at pricing histories and highlight the deals that have reached or dropped below all-time-low pricing.
You should definitely scope out Lenovo, HP, Dell, and other laptop manufacturers’ websites. Online retailers like Amazon, Newegg, and Best Buy will also have solid deals, no doubt, but probably not as wide a variety as you’ll find from the manufacturers themselves.
Hey, the site is called PCWorld, so we test and review an insane number of laptops. To see our top picks, you can check out our master list of the best laptops of 2024. We also have more granular selections for the best laptops under $500, and the best laptops for students. Come Black Friday, there’s a good chance that many of our picks will be discounted, so if you’re looking for something specific, check out the best-picks articles.
Check out our roundups for the best PC-related deals in a wide variety of categories!
