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Amazon Big Deal Days is coming October 7-8, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it’s over.
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New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.
I’ve spent more than a decade reviewing laptops—which has involved a lot of battery and performance benchmarking—and I’ve been digging deep into the Amazon Prime Day sales to find you the best deals on laptops. If you’re thinking of investing in an upgrade, these are the discounts I’d recommend taking advantage of.
Dell 15
Dell is always a good bet for a solid, no-nonsense laptop that can cover the basics for most users, and that’s a perfect description of the Dell 15. It’s now available for $449.99 from Amazon rather than the original list price of $599.99, which is a notable reduction of $150 or 25 percent, making this laptop well worth snapping up.
You get a spacious 15.6-inch screen, a capable Intel Core i5 processor, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage for your money. Those specs aren’t going to break any benchmarking records, but aside from high-end gaming and demanding tasks like video editing, you’re going to be well-covered.
Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge
Who says Windows users can’t have MacBook-level quality laptops? The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge begs to differ, with its polished and elegant exterior, and powerful innards—you get a Snapdragon X Plus CPU, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage and a stylish 15.6-inch screen with this model, plus Galaxy AI on board.
If you’re not already convinced, Amazon Prime Day has lowered this laptop down to $684.99 from $899.99. It’s a versatile and capable laptop—with HDMI and microSD slots included—and it also meets the criteria for Microsoft’s Copilot+ program.
M4 MacBook Air
You don’t have to wander far on the internet to find someone singing the praises of the 13-inch M4 MacBook Air: It’s fast, it’s quiet, it’s cool, it’s lightweight, and it has all the build quality and software expertise you’d expect from Apple. It’s so good that it’s probably the best laptop for most people right now.
On top of all that, it’s also $200 off at Amazon, for the entry-level configuration—a drop of 20%. It combines that M4 processor with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. If you work your way up through the specs there are deals on the more expensive models as well—all available in four colors.
Microsoft Surface Pro 2024
The Microsoft Surface Pro is the best two-in-one laptop and tablet combination you can get right now, and the 2024 Snapdragon X Elite configuration with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage is down by a huge 36 percent in the Prime Day sales: It now costs $899.99 rather than the original $1,399.99.
After several false starts, Windows 11 is now equally at home in tablet or laptop mode, and the 13-inch touchscreen OLED is superb. Do bear in mind that you’ll need to attach a keyboard cover to get the most out of this device as a laptop—which you should be able to afford from the savings you’re making on the main device.
Alienware 16 Area-51
If you’re after a gaming laptop deal, you can’t do much better than the Alienware 16 Area-51: Its original price of $2,999.99 is a testament to how powerful this beast of a machine is, but you can now get $600 (or 20%) knocked off.
That’s still a significant chunk of money, but it’s a huge savings, and this is one of the most highly rated gaming laptops on the market—from a brand you can trust. You get an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070Ti GPU on the inside, so it’s packed with power.
Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart and Best Buy have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.
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Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. ET through Oct. 12 and includes deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+.
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Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Sept. 27 through Oct. 12, and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.
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Target’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 5 through Oct. 11, and it has deals going up to 50% off. You can become a Circle member for free.