Here at WIRED, we test a lot of laptops. We know how hard it is to spot a genuinely good deal on them. To help, we’ve sifted through the web to find the best laptop deals available. Be sure to check out our Best Laptops, Best Gaming Laptops, and Best Cheap Laptops guides to see more of our top recommendations.
Updated July 2022: We’ve added new devices from Dell, Asus, and Razer.
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Best Budget Laptop Deals
Cheap laptops come in many forms, from budget Chromebooks to kid-friendly, entry-level Windows laptops, all for $700 or less. You can find more of our favorite cheap laptops here.
In our Best Chromebooks guide, this Asus machine leads the way, and it’s made even better with this discount. This is a nicely balanced laptop, with plenty of battery life, a pleasing screen, and solid performance. The 360-hinge also makes it friendly for watching movies and videos.
When it comes to cheap laptops, Acer is one of the most prolific brands. The Aspire 5 is an enhanced—but slightly pricier—version of one of our favorites, the Aspire 3. This model offers a great 11th-gen Intel Core i5 and 8 GB of RAM for under $400. A 256-GB SSD isn’t a massive amount of storage, but it should suffice unless you’re a file hoarder. (If you are, you can always pair it with an external SSD).
Best Gaming Laptop Deals
Gaming laptops generally don’t come cheap, so it’s always nice to buy them on sale. Below are some powerhouse and value machines.
The Nitro 5 range is one of our favorite budget gaming laptops and, while this isn’t the latest model, it remains one of the lower-cost ways to get into high-fps gaming, currently with almost $100 off. Along with a 10th-gen Intel CPU, you get 8 GB of RAM, a 15.6-inch 144-Hz display, and an Nvidia RTX 3050 GPU.
If you’re after an entry-level gaming laptop, then a machine with an Nvidia RTX 3050 GPU is what you want. For less than $700, you still get a 144-Hz panel, 11th-gen Intel Core i5 CPU, 8 GB of RAM, and a 256-GB SSD. It’s a combo to facilitate basic gaming needs, and MSI is a typically trustworthy brand that’ll get the job done.
Best Laptop Deals
You may have come here looking for an outright bargain, but these are decent deals on some more luxe machines.
This is a hefty discount on a just-released machine, though only Costco subscribers can take advantage of the deal. It’s so new we haven’t tested this model yet, but its predecessors have offered a remarkable combination of a large screen and featherlike weight. The Gram doesn’t use the most luxurious of build materials, but its unique portability for such a sizable device—as well as good specs including a 12th-gen Intel Core i7—make it well worth considering.
The new Galaxy Book 2 range has just landed, but the previous iterations are still great—especially at these newly discounted prices. The regular Galaxy Book Pro model offers an AMOLED display (beautiful color and deep blacks), 11th-gen Intel Core i5 CPU, and 8 GB of RAM in a well-built, stylish design.
Best Laptop Accessory Deals
Working on the sofa is all well and good, but there’s plenty of room to make your desk setup more comfortable and simply better. Here are a few deals on top accessories, from monitors for a second screen to a quality webcam for Zoom meetings.
Razer’s Viper Ultimate is our favorite wireless gaming mouse that comes with a dock, making it extremely easy to top up when it eventually comes time to recharge it. Alongside this level of convenience, this mouse is really responsive, with a 20,000 dots-per-inch optical sensor, eight programmable buttons, and 70 hours of battery life.
Gaming monitors with high refresh rates used to be prohibitively expensive—especially with boosted 1440p resolutions. Thankfully, they’ve begun to drop in price over the past couple of years. We typically like Asus’ TUF gaming brand, and this monitor nets you a speedy 144-Hz refresh rate, 1440p resolution, 1-millisecond response time, and FreeSync Premium, making it ideal for anyone with an AMD graphics card. At 32 inches, it a good size for a bedroom desk setup.
How to Buy a Refurbished Laptop
Buying refurbished is relatively straightforward, with retailers and manufacturers offering restored devices at attractive prices. Retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg, and Walmart sell these laptops. Brands like Apple, Dell, and Lenovo also sell refurbished models in their own stores.
The key is to figure out what “refurbished” means on each of these websites, so you know exactly what you’re getting. First, refurbished can often mean a device that’s been tested to still be in good working order or restored to meet certain standards, along with a new warranty.
For example, this is an excerpt from Best Buy’s refurbished laptop policy: “A refurbished item has been inspected, repaired, and restored to like-new, clean, working condition and includes all parts and accessories. These are generally electronics that have been returned for some reason … Because they’ve been through a careful inspection process to ensure they’re working as good as new, the best-refurbished laptop is actually less likely to have defects or issues than one that comes from the factory … Most refurbished items are covered by the Best Buy Return & Exchange Promise and come with a minimum 90-day warranty.”
Policies differ between retailers, so it’s worth checking whether there is a thorough testing process and whether these devices are refurbished to a “good as new” standard (and if they come with a new warranty). It’s also worth checking the refund and return policies in your state or country to see what recourse you may have should you run into any issues outside of the warranty.
