Best laptop deals: Top picks from budget to extreme

If you’ve been perusing the world wide web for a stellar laptop deal, you’ve come to the right place. Whether you’re looking for a proper gaming rig or something more budget-friendly like a Chromebook, we’ve got a wide variety of devices on this list. The folks over here at PCWorld has been combing through all the major retailers to find the best laptop deals available today. If you’re not sure where to start, don’t sweat it. We’ve got you covered.

Right now, we’re seeing awesome discounts on gaming machines, Chromebooks, and Acer Aspire laptops. To better guide you in your search, we’ve also included a shopping section at the end of this article. If you wind up buying one of the laptops below, we’d highly recommend checking out our article on how to to get ready for that new PC before it arrives.

The best laptop deals in 2022

Lenovo Legion 5

From: eBay

Was: $899.99

Now: $589.99 ($310 off)

The Lenovo Legion 5 is an excellent laptop for the budget-conscious gamer, and you almost never see gaming laptops going this cheap. It has an AMD Ryzen 5 4600H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti GPU, 8GB of DDR4 RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage. The display has a resolution of 1920×1080 and a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz. Given the entry-level GPU, you may want to scale the graphics back to medium or high on newer titles. That said, this laptop shouldn’t have any trouble running older games. For ports, it has one HDMI, one USB Type-C, one DisplayPort, and one headphone/microphone combo. This laptop will likely sell out fast, as it’s a killer deal. Make sure you take advantage of this opportunity and buy now.

See the Lenovo Legion 5 at eBay

Acer Chromebook 315

From: Best Buy

Was: $249

Now: $169 ($80 off)

The Acer Chromebook 315 should be a decent laptop for everyday tasks like browsing the web, listening to music, and so on. It has an Intel Celeron N4000 CPU, Intel UHD graphics, 4GB of RAM, and 32GB of eMMC storage. The display is 15.6-inches and has a resolution of 1366×768. It’s not the most powerful laptop around, but that’s totally fine, so long as you use it as intended. This machine is really only designed for lightweight tasks. If you just need the basics, then the Acer Chromebook 315 is fantastic choice. You really can’t beat the $129 price tag, either.

See the Acer Chromebook 315 at Best Buy

Samsung Chromebook Plus

From: Amazon

Was: $500

Now: $339 ($160.99 off)

The Samsung Chromebook Plus is a good option for someone who needs a lightweight convertible. It has an Intel Celeron processor, 4GB of memory, and 32GB of eMMC storage. It’s a little light on storage and memory, but this shouldn’t be a problem if you store most of your stuff in the cloud. The 11-inch touchscreen display has a resolution of 1900×1200, and the Chromebook has two USB-C ports. It’s powerful enough for everyday browser tasks like checking e-mail, writing papers, listening to music, and so on. The 2-in-1 also weighs a little under three pounds, making it a capable travel companion. Plus, it comes with a stylus for doodling or note taking.

See the Samsung Chromebook Plus at Amazon

Dell Inspiron 7506

From: Best Buy

Was: $899.99

Now: $649.99 ($250 off)

The Dell Inspiron 7506 is a good laptop for productivity. It features an Intel Core i5 1135G7 CPU, Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics, 8GB of DDR4 RAM, and 256GB of SSD storage. The 15.6-inch display has a resolution of 1920×1080, which is perfectly fine for working on spreadsheets and writing e-mail’s. This laptop also happens to be a 2-in-1. That means you can prop it up like a painter’s easel for sharing information or swing the screen all the way around for when you want to use it like a tablet. It’s a really nice, versatile device. It’s definitely a solid option for business professionals or college students.

See the Dell Inspiron 7506 at Best Buy

Asus Vivobook Pro 14 K3400

From: Walmart

Was: $749

Now: $599 ($150 off)

If you’re into creative work, the Asus Vivobook Pro 14 is a fantastic option. This laptop has a 14-inch 2880-by-1800 OLED display with a 16:10 aspect ratio. OLED screens are great, so you can expect a sharper, more vibrant image. The Vivobook is also packing a Core i5-1330H, a Tiger Lake CPU with four cores, eight threads, and a boost to 4.4GHz. There’s even 8GB of RAM, which is a good amount for some video editing. Onboard storage is a 256GB NVMe SSD, and you’re getting Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.0.

This is a nice laptop with a very good display, but for storage you’ll likely have to rely mostly on the cloud. Speaking of which, you also get a free three month subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud as part of the package.

See the Asus Vivobook Pro 14 K3400 at Walmart

Acer Aspire A5 (Intel)

From: Amazon

Was: $389.99

Now: $328.87 ($61.12 off)

We already have a similar model from the same series available in this roundup, but this one is a little cheaper and swaps a Ryzen 3 APU for an Intel Core i3 processor. This version of the Acer Aspire A5 still has a 15.6-inch 1080p display, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of onboard NVMe storage. It’s also rocking Windows 11 Home in S Mode. You can do a one-way switch to regular Windows 11 Home if you prefer, but you may not want to given the CPU.

The big difference is the processor. This model has the Intel “Tiger Lake” Core i3-1115G4, which has two cores, four threads, and a boost to 4.1GHz. That’s good enough for casual uses like web browsing, video streaming, and so on. It would likely struggle as a productivity laptop, but for someone with light computing requirements, it offers a nice size screen at a solid price.

See the Acer Aspire A5-515-56-36UT at Amazon

Acer Aspire 3

From: Walmart

Was: $549

Now: $479 ($70 off)

You don’t often find a laptop deal with an Intel Alder Lake CPU, which is why we decided to highlight this specific sale. The Acer Aspire 3 features Intel’s Core i5-1235U with eight efficiency cores and two performance cores with HyperThreading for a total of 12 threads and a maximum boost to 4.4GHz. It also has 8GB of RAM, a 15.6-inch display with 1080p resolution, 256GB of onboard storage, Intel Iris Xe graphics, and it’s running Windows 11 Home.

See the Acer Aspire 3 at Walmart

Acer Aspire 5 A515

From: Amazon

Was: $399.99

Now: $335.99 ($64 off)

If you’re looking for a solid everyday laptop, you’ve come to the right place. The Acer Aspire 5 features a 15.6-inch 1080p display, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of onboard SSD storage. The processor is a Ryzen 3 3350U, which has four cores, four threads, and a maximum boost to 3.5GHz. It’s packed with modern features like Wi-Fi 6, a backlit keyboard, and a fingerprint reader for biometric logins. Acer starts this laptop off with Windows 11 in S mode, but there’s no reason not to do a one-way upgrade to full Windows 11. This is being sold by a third-party retailer, but Amazon is handling shipping, which means it falls under the company’s return policy.

See the Acer Aspire 5 A515 at Amazon

HP Victus 15

From: Amazon

Was: $979.99

Now: $851.47 ($128.52 off)

If you’re in the market for a reasonably priced gaming laptop, then you’ve come to the right place. The HP Victus 15 is affordable and has decent specs. It’s rocking an Intel Core i5 12500H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage. It should run most older games on high or very high, but you’ll want to scale back the graphics on AAA titles. The 15.6-inch display is a good size and the 1920×1080 resolution is fine for most games. This is a good deal, but it’s not going to last very long. It’s part of Amazon’s gaming week sale, which runs until September 9th.

See the HP Victus 15 at Amazon

Gigabyte Aorus

From: Best Buy

Was: $1,499.99

Now: $1,249.99 ($250 off)

The Gigabyte Aorus has a lot to offer. This gaming laptop is rocking an Intel i7-12700H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage. This machine should be able to handle most newer titles on high or ultra. The display has a resolution of 1920×1080 and is rather large at 15.6-inches. It also has a front-facing camera, a built-in microphone, and a backlit keyboard. This is a good deal, so you’ll want to nab it before it expires.

See the Gigabyte Aorus at Best Buy

Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition

From: Best Buy

Was: $1,699.99

Now: $1,399.99 ($300 off)

The Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition is powerful, chic, and $400 off. It’s packing an AMD Ryzen 9 5980HX CPU, an AMD Radeon RX 6800M GPU, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage. The processor is incredibly powerful, especially for gaming. You can probably run most newer games on high or ultra. The 15.6-inch display has a resolution of 2560×1440 and a refresh rate of 165Hz. This laptop also has a backlit keyboard and a chic aesthetic. This is an awesome deal, so don’t miss out. We expect this deal to expire sooner rather than later.

See the Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition at Best Buy

Lenovo Legion 5i

From: Walmart

Was: $1,029.99

Now: $749 ($280.99 off)

This is a nice gaming laptop at a solid price. It’s packing the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050, a 1080p graphics card. With this you should be able to play most games on medium to high with a jump to ultra on older games.

The processor is the Intel “Comet Lake” Core i5-10500H, which has six cores, twelve threads, and a boost to 4.5GHz. It’s an older processor, but still fast enough for gaming. As for RAM, it’s 8GB and onboard storage is 256GB. This is still considered a budget gaming rig, but for $100 extra you get an upgraded GPU.

See the LG Lenovo Legion 5i at Walmart

Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming

From: Microcenter

Was: $1,009.99

Now: $749.99 ($260 off)

If you’re looking for an entry-level gaming laptop, the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming is a solid pick. It features a Ryzen 7 6800H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU, 16GB of DDR5 memory, and 512GB of SSD storage. That’s fast enough to run most older titles on high graphics. However, when it comes to newer games, you may want to scale things back to medium. The 15.6-inch display has a resolution of 1920×1080 and a refresh rate of 120Hz. For ports, it has two USB Type-A, one USB Type-C, one HDMI, and one Ethernet port. The keyboard also has backlighting and the 720p webcam has a physical privacy shutter.

See the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming at Microcenter

Laptop deal buying tips

If you’ve shopped online before for laptop deals you’re probably aware that there’s a vast range of laptop configurations available.

A good place to start is with the processor. Buy laptops with Intel 10-series Core chips or higher, such as the Core i5-10510U, or the Core i7-11800H (for even more details see our Intel 10th-gen mobile CPU buying guide); or go with an AMD Ryzen processor (but not an AMD Athlon or A-series chip). Avoid laptops with Pentium or Celeron processors unless it’s a Chromebook (running Chrome OS). You’re going to need to pay attention with gaming laptops, too, as some GPUs, like the RTX 3050 Ti, don’t offer much boost over their RTX 2xxx-series cousins, and Nvidia has dropped the Max-Q designation on certain low-power options. Our laptop CPU and GPU cheat sheet can help you shop smart.

Display resolution is a gotcha. If you see a laptop labeled as “HD” resolution that means 1366-by-768 and often isn’t worth your time for a laptop under 13 inches unless the deal is absolutely standout. What you want is “Full HD” or “FHD,” which means 1080p.

Don’t buy laptops with under 4GB of RAM or 128GB of SSD storage—though on a Chromebook, this configuration is acceptable. We have more explanation in our laptops versus Chromebooks buying guide, as well as in our primer on how to buy a budget laptop without getting screwed. Also watch out for eMMC storage, which is something we don’t recommend for a Windows laptop but works fine for a Chromebook.

Reviews can be helpful. Even if you can’t find a review of a specific configuration, try related models. They’ll often give you a good idea of the build quality and performance. Also buy from brands you trust. Amazon’s daily laptop deals right now are full of brands we’ve never tested or talked to (Broage, Teclast, DaySky, Jumper) and it’s just a good idea to be wary.

Most older laptops will run Windows 10, and that’s fine—there’s no rush to upgrade. Windows 10 in S Mode, though annoying, can be switched out of easily if you find it on a budget laptop. If you want to buy a Windows 10 PC with the intent of upgrading it to Windows 11, we recommend you start here with a list of older laptops that are Windows 11-eligible.

Updated on September 12 with new pricing and to remove expired deals.