Laptops are expensive, there’s no getting around that, but you can reduce the financial impact by choosing the best laptop at the right time. While new laptops are always coming out, there are times of the year when it’s a lot cheaper to buy a laptop, even if you want the latest and greatest.
To determine the best time to buy a laptop, consider the following:
- Big sale events: Black Friday, Cyber ​​Monday, Prime Day
- Timing for the start of school
- New hardware releases
Black Friday / Cyber ​​Monday
Black Friday is obviously a good time to buy a laptop, but it’s more than just a door opener. Depending on the manufacturer, new laptop hardware usually hits the market either early in the year or around October. This means that all laptops that are either a generation old or will soon be a generation old after CES or the Consumer Electronics Show will receive significant discounts.
That’s because retailers like Amazon and Best Buy are looking to clear their shelves to make room for newer products when they arrive. That might mean you’re not getting the fanciest laptop around, but when you can save a whopping 20-30% off the standard price, does it even matter?
Combine that with these retailers who are using huge Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday deals to grab your attention and you could have yourself an extremely affordable laptop. I’ve seen Black Friday deals drop the price of a MacBook Air a few weeks after it’s released, and that’s usually the case with Apple laptops last to see any kind of discount, especially if they are new.
Black Friday is November 23rd this year, but the deal season is getting longer. If you’re looking to buy a laptop during Black Friday, expect to see the deals around October.
Amazon Prime Day
Just like Black Friday, Amazon holds its own deal event every year. In my experience, there are never any deals on Prime Day laptops Great, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. As long as you’re not too picky, you can find a solid laptop at an affordable price, but it probably won’t be a flashy top-end device.
Instead, Amazon Prime Day is one of the best times of the year to snag one of the best Chromebooks around. These are already super cheap laptops, and Amazon is cutting prices even further on Prime Day. Best of all, with a Chromebook, you don’t have to worry too much about what hardware you’re getting, as pretty much everything you do on the device is tied to a web browser anyway.
We don’t know when Amazon Prime Day will happen this year, but it usually happens in the middle of summer, making it a good time to buy a laptop if you’re a student or laptop parent.
If you want the new sharpness
If you’re not necessarily interested in getting a great deal on a laptop, but instead want the best possible laptop at all times, you should wait for Nvidia, Intel, or AMD to announce new laptop hardware. This year it happened at CES: Nvidia, AMD and Intel released brand new laptop hardware, marking a whole new generation of laptops. However, at Intel and Nvidia launches, only gaming laptops were affected.
If you want a high-performing Ultrabook, it’s a bit harder to pinpoint when you’ll get it. Typically, Intel releases its lower-performing U-series processors at a seemingly random time. For example, Intel’s 13th Gen processors are currently available in both gaming laptops and desktops, but no 13th Gen U-series processor is currently on sale. These laptops will likely appear soon, but we may have to wait a while.
This is where it pays to keep an eye on tech news and rumours. Laptop hardware tends to just appear out of nowhere. So if you want to catch the new novelty when it comes out, you need to keep your eyes peeled.
New hardware can reduce prices to a certain extent
Another benefit of waiting for new laptop hardware to be released is that it immediately lowers the prices of last generation hardware. It can hurt a bit to spend a thousand dollars on a year old laptop, but I can assure you that there are generations of laptops extremely incremental.
When 13th Gen Intel laptops come out, you don’t have to worry too much about a 12th Gen Intel laptop as the 12th Gen chips will only lag behind the 13th Gen by a few percentage points . And even then, it’s not as if the difference will be noticeable in everyday computing tasks. Believe me, one CPU generation will not speed up Photoshop so much.
Keeping an eye out for new laptop hardware and then securing an excellent deal on a latest generation laptop is easily one of the best ways to buy a laptop, and the same goes for the best MacBooks. When a new MacBook comes out, you can open any used market and see hundreds of years old MacBooks at a significant discount because their owners want to buy the new one. If you want to be on the safe side when buying a new laptop no matter the time of year, this is the way to go.
The current best affordable laptops to choose from
If you don’t want to wait for a sale or new model release, here are some budget laptops in our laptop buying guides:
Dell
Dell XPS 13
If you don’t want to spend money on a MacBook, the Dell XPS 13 laptop is a top MacBook alternative.
ASUS
Asus TUF Dash 15
If you need a good gaming laptop under $2,000, this is a solid choice on a budget.
Microsoft
Surface Pro 9
One of the best detachable laptops on the market. We recommend the model with Microsoft’s ARM-based processor, the SQ 3.
Apple
Apple MacBook Air M2
The Apple MacBook Air (2022) is one of the best laptops for everyday use.
Jackie Thomas is the Technology and Buying Guide Editor at IGN, specializing in hardware reviews and features.
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