Introduction
Our specialty here is in the laptop space, and we've tested hundreds of them! One thing we notice every holiday season is that stores claim that they are giving you huge deals, but they often aren't any better than you'd see throughout the year. So, we're here to go over our top 10 deals we are seeing for Black Friday, and then tell you what to look out for when shopping.
Top 10 Deals Right Now
This laptop gives you not only a 4070 but also a newer 13th gen processor than the next one on our list that only comes with Zen 3. We enjoyed the TUF a ton when we did our budget gaming roundup. It was comfortable with a nice screen, and ASUS almost always puts out a quality product.
The LOQ has a great keyboard and performs very well for a budget gaming laptop. You also get a 4070 for an awesome price here. Our main issue with this one when we did our budget roundup was the fact that it has pretty loud fan noise during gaming. If you wear headphones anyway, you're unlikely to notice or care about this. It's a solid, enjoyable laptop for the budget gamer.
For light users, this is an awesome laptop. It offers solid integrated graphics for light gaming, and snappy single core performance for basic tasks. This is one of the only Lunar Lake laptops on sale for Black Friday, so it's certainly nice to see. It has a solid build quality, comfortable keyboard, and nice bright IPS screen.
A Gaming laptop for under $500 is truly insane, but it's important to remember this one only includes a Radeon graphics card, so it won't perform as well as some other ones on this list. We like the Victus' understated design, but do be aware that the colors on its screen were a little more off than we traditionally like which may affect you if you do any creative work on the side.
If you don't need all the power that comes with a MacBook Pro, but you still love MacOS, this is the best deal we are seeing. The M2 and M3 Machines with 8GB of RAM are heavily discounted now that the Airs start standard with 16GB. This is an awesome deal for a reliable, snappy laptop with super premium features like you can always expect from Apple.
MacBooks are incredibly reliable and hold their value very well. So, if you planned to buy the new M4 one for someone (or yourself) for Christmas this year, you can save $2-300 during the Black Friday period. Brand new MacBooks rarely go on sale, so this is a great find. The two we recommend the most are the base model and the M4 Pro 14-core.
If you're more of a performance user, but you're not into the gamer aesthetic, this is the perfect laptop for you. The Yoga Pro 9i is an incredible buy for anybody who is looking for a portable and powerful laptop that can do editing, programming, rendering, or other high-performing tasks while doing some AAA gaming on the side. At this price, it's a steal.
If just plan to do basic tasks on your laptop, this laptop is a premium pick. The Samsung feels nice, has a great screen, a sleek look, and is super portable. Our biggest downside with this one is its trackpad feeling a bit cheap, but at this price it's still a good deal.
This one is one of Josh's daily drivers. He absolutely loves how premium this laptop feels in comparison to many windows competitors. It offers a great screen, keyboard, and trackpad. Its main negative is its snapdragon processor.
The HP OmniBook Ultra 14 is a little powerhouse with its updated Ryzen 9 365 AMD processor. We think this is a great pick for students and programmers who need a little more performance but don't necessarily need to go so far as having integrated graphics.
What To Look Out For
Alright, so what if none of these sound like the one for you?
First, we'd recommend figuring out what you're looking for. Which processor, which screen size, or do you want dedicated graphics, etc.? Check out our buying guide below if you aren't sure on what you want yet.
Once you figure out what you want, here's a general warning. The biggest red flag for a laptop on a huge sale during Black Friday is if you can't find any reviews for it. This means it may be a bit of a "Frankenstein" laptop full of parts the manufacturers were trying to get rid of. If there is no model name, or it doesn't have any specs you recognize, we'd heavily recommend skipping it, no matter how cheap it is.
Lastly, you may see a laptop you're interested in on a big sale. Before buying just because it says "50% OFF", we think you should check out our price tracker to see if the deal it's on is comparable to its normal price, or if it's actually a good deal. Our tracker lists the most common price as well, so if it's always on sale throughout the year this will give you some insight. Here's an example of what it looks like. You can see it on any specific laptop you search in the top right corner.
Price Tracker Example - Legion Pro 7i
