Early Black Friday Discounts: The Best Laptop Deals You Can Get Now

Black Friday is the time to buy tech, whether you’re looking for a TV, new appliances, a fancy camera, or a laptop. It’s the time of year when retailers go all out on their deals, so break out your wallet, but stay on budget with PCMag’s helpful shopping guide.

“But wait,” you say. “It’s not even November yet!” Many retailers have products marked down to the same price they will be during Black Friday, so you can start your shopping early, in advance of the holiday rush. 

What Laptop Specs Are Most Important in a Black Friday Deal?

Not sure what to look for when buying a laptop? When it comes to picking a laptop that’s best for you, some important factors include the operating system, size and weight, CPU, memory and storage, available ports, and battery life. If you’d like some help making your decision, we’ve definitely got you covered:

Alienware m15 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070

The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 gaming laptop is Dell’s first 15-inch notebook with an optional 360Hz refresh rate. Many would argue that 120Hz is sufficient enough for heavy-duty gaming, so that’s an impressive number of refreshes per second. You’ll need it to take full advantage of the powerful RTX 3070 graphics card, which will be able to run any modern-day game on ultra settings. The 1TB SDD is ample space for all your games and video and screen captures.

Apple MacBook Air M1 13” Laptop

The 2020 13-inch MacBook Air features the Apple M1 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU chip, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of solid-state storage. If you’re an Apple aficionado, you’ll be able to connect your current devices—your iPad, for example—in order to extend your workspace. This iteration of the Apple MacBook Air was rated “the best value among macOS laptops” at its retail price of $999 by PCMag, so its current sale price is a steal.

Acer Nitro 5 Ryzen 5 RTX 3060 144Hz

The Acer Nitro 5 has a powerful RTX 3060 GPU, powered by its Ampere architecture with cutting-edge ray tracing Cores, Tensor Cores, and streaming multiprocessors. In other words, its performance will impress gamers and content creators alike. With all that power beneath the hood, this laptop also has four exhaust ports and CoolBoost to keep things running smoothly even when you’re pushing your machine to the limit. The 15.6-inch screen has FullHD resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate for a beautiful and lag-free display.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Intel i5 13.3″ Foldable Laptop

I’ve heard of foldable phones, but foldable laptops? This Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold does away with a keyboard and is instead like a giant tablet that folds in the middle. The Lenovo Mode Switcher app enables you to split the screen in two to multitask like a champ, and the built-in stand brings the laptop to a comfortable angle for viewing when you’re streaming a video.