We’re into the second and final day of Amazon’s (paradoxically named) Prime Day sale, and we’re still seeing a few standout deals on laptops we recommend. While Amazon isn’t the absolute best place to buy a new laptop — you can typically spec out your device more precisely if you buy directly from a manufacturer — the sale does include lower-than-usual prices on the latest MacBook Air, Alienware’s beastly m18 R2 gaming laptop and our favorite budget Chromebook. Here are the best Prime Day laptop deals we could find.
Just remember that, as with most Prime Day deals, you need to be a Prime member to access many of the discounts. The sale ends today, and we’re updating this roundup as we find more deals of note. If you’re hunting for discounts on other gadgets, be sure to check out our general roundup of the best Prime Day tech deals as well.
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The latest MacBook Air is down to $1,249 for a configuration with Apple’s M3 chip, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. That’s a new low, taking about $150 below the notebook’s typical street price in recent months and $250 off Apple’s list price. Just make sure to clip the $50 on-page coupon to see the full discount at checkout.
The M3 MacBook Air earned a score of 90 in our review earlier this year, and it’s now the top overall recommendation in our guide to the best laptops. It ticks just about all the boxes for those who prefer macOS to Windows: a thin and premium-feeling chassis, a comfortable keyboard and trackpad, a sharp and color-accurate display, more than enough battery life to get through a typical workday, good speakers and quick performance for most of the things people do with a laptop. It’s even capable of playing more involved games, albeit at lower settings most of the time. This newest model can power two external displays, too, but only when its lid is closed. We’d still like to see more than two USB-C ports, and the whole thing can still get a bit hot with especially heavy workloads. But for most people in the market for a mainstream notebook, it’s hard to do better.
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If you only need a laptop for the basics, the base model of the M3 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD is on sale for $849 after an on-page coupon. That’s $150 below the device’s typical going rate on Amazon and another new low.
This version has most of the strengths noted above, but it’ll start to feel underpowered if you multitask with any regularity. We recommend getting the higher-spec model if your budget allows it; that one should hold up much better in both the short and long term.
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The 15-inch version of the MacBook Air, meanwhile, is on sale for a new low of $1,449 after a $50 coupon. That’s a $250 drop from Apple’s list price and roughly $150 below this model’s average street price over the last few months. This discount applies to the config with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.
If you can live with less memory and storage, the base model here is on sale for $1,049. That’s another new low.
The larger Air is almost identical as the 13-inch model, with the same chip and port selection, but it has a more spacious screen and slightly more expansive speaker system. If you’re willing to trade some portability for a better media editing or video streaming experience, it might be worth the extra cost. We gave it a review score of 90 back in March.
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The last-gen MacBook Air with Apple’s M2 chip isn’t a dramatic downgrade from the newest model, so it might be a better value if you only want a MacBook for casual tasks. It’s now down to $799 for a 13-inch model with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, which is its lowest price to date and $50 below the street price we’ve seen on Amazon for most of the last few months. Compared to buying from Apple directly, it’s a $200 drop. A version with 512GB of storage is also $200 off at $999.
We gave the M2 MacBook Air a review score of 96 when it arrived in mid-2022. Its hardware is virtually identical to the M3 model, so you still get a stellar design with a comfy keyboard, crisp display and long battery life. Its chip is just a bit less powerful, particularly in terms of graphics performance, and it can’t drive two external displays. The storage drive in this M2 model is technically much slower than the one in the base M3 Air as well, so it’s less ideal if you plan on transferring large, gigabyte-sized files every so often. In general, we still recommend doubling the memory and storage space if at all possible. But if you’re on a tighter budget and don’t plan pushing your laptop too hard, this is a decent value.
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The 14-inch MacBook Pro with Apple’s M3 Pro chip, 18GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is available for $1,699. This deal has technically been live for a couple of weeks now, but it still matches the lowest price we’ve seen, and it’s $100 below the notebook’s usual going rate on Amazon. Apple normally sells this config for $1,999.
The latest MacBook Pros are more laptop than most people need, but they should be worthwhile for media editors, 3D designers or other professional types who are willing to trade the MacBook Air’s svelteness for more power, a richer and faster mini-LED display and extra ports. They’re heavier — this 14-inch version checks in at 3.5 pounds — but they’re still exceptionally well-built, and they can handle just about any workload you throw at it. We gave the both 14- and 16-inch versions a review score of 90 late last year. Note that we specifically recommend the configs with an M3 Pro (or M3 Max) chip; there’s a lower-cost 14-inch model that uses the standard M3, but that one is hard to justify over the Air.
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The 16-inch MacBook Pro is bigger and heftier (4.7 pounds) than its 14-inch counterpart, but its battery lasts a bit longer, and some will always prefer the extra screen space.
Right now a config with an M3 Pro chip, 18GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is on sale for $1,999. This model was briefly available for $100 less on Tuesday, but this is the largest discount we’ve seen outside of that. For reference, it costs $2,499 from Apple direct, though it’s typically retailed for $200 to $300 less on Amazon over the past few months. Amazon currently lists the notebook as temporarily out of stock, but you can still lock in the discount if you’re willing to deal with a minor shipping delay. (Alternatively, you can grab the deal at B&H or Best Buy.)
With all of these MacBook deals, it’s worth remembering that Apple has already released its new M4 series of chips, so it’s only a matter of time until we see updated Macs. According to a report earlier this year from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, new MacBook Pros could arrive by the end of 2024 or early 2025, while new MacBook Airs could hit sometime next spring. If you’re not in a rush to buy a new Pro, it might be worth waiting. But the current models won’t feel slow anytime soon, so these are still solid deals if you’re looking to upgrade now.
Acer
A version of the Acer Aspire 5 15 Slim with a 15.6-inch 1080p display, an Intel Core i5-13420H processor, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is down to $450 for Prime Day. That’s $80 off this model’s standard going rate and the lowest historical price we could find.
Full disclosure: We haven’t reviewed this specific variant, but it’s an upgraded version of the top pick in our guide to the best cheap Windows laptops. Don’t expect an especially vibrant display or premium hardware (it’s mostly plastic), but we’ve found the Aspire 5 line to be reasonably well-made in the past, and the internals here should deliver steady performance for everyday fare. You also get a protective sleeve thrown in. While it’s hard to get excited over any cheap laptop, this one should be OK if you absolutely can’t go beyond $500.
The biggest potential dealbreaker with this configuration is that it lacks a USB-C port; instead, it uses a DC jack alongside two USB-A ports and an HDMI port. If you need that, another Aspire 5 variant with an Intel Core i7-1355U processor looks like a decent value at $570. That’s roughly $180 off. This model also includes a 1080p webcam and Wi-Fi 6E support, whereas the cheaper version is limited to a 720p cam and Wi-Fi 6. You may have to put up with some pre-installed bloatware on either device, though.
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The newest Acer Chromebook Plus 514 is down to $300, which is $80 off Acer’s list price and $30 off the device’s street price on Amazon over the past month. This configuration includes an Intel Core i3-N305 processor, a 14-inch 1080p IPS display, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage and a 1080p webcam.
This is the top budget pick in our guide to the best Chromebooks. It’s a basic one, neither overly thin (0.81 inches) nor light (3.15 pounds), but it’s quick enough for the simple, largely web-based tasks you’d do with a Chrome OS device. Acer rates its battery life at a decent 11 hours per charge, and its keyboard and trackpad should yield few complaints for the money. (The former isn’t backlit, though.) Lenovo’s Chromebook Flex 5i Plus, our top overall pick, remains a clear upgrade, but it costs $200 more as of this writing. If you don’t need Windows and just want an acceptable notebook for as little as possible, this model should do the job.
Alienware
Moving over to gaming laptops, the Alienware m18 R2 is available for $2,380 for a config with a 165Hz QHD+ (2,560 x 1,600) display, an Intel Core i9-14900HX chip, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 GPU. That’s not cheap, but it’s $420 off the device’s standard price and the first major discount we could find for this model.
The m18 R2 is the 2024 version of the top 18-inch pick in our guide to the best gaming laptops. As the phrase “18-inch gaming laptop” would imply, this is a big boy, measuring about 1.05 inches thick and weighing nearly nine pounds. Combined with a battery that lasts about 4-5 hours when you aren’t gaming, it’s much more of a desktop replacement than something truly portable. That said, it’s built well for what it is, with a sturdy aluminum lid, a smooth hinge and a wide port selection. Most importantly, it can easily run modern AAA games at higher settings in 1080p or 1440p. Its memory and storage are both user-upgradeable, too, though its display could stand to be a bit brighter. Just note that this config has a membrane keyboard — Dell also sells a version with low-profile mechanical keys — and, like most notebooks in this class, it can get fairly hot and loud when stressed.
If you want to spend a little less, another config with a Core i7-14700HX chip, 16GB of RAM and an RTX 4070 GPU is on sale for $1,880. That’s another all-time low and about $385 below the device’s average street price as of late. This version will have a harder time with more demanding fare than the 4080 model, though, particularly when playing in 1440p. So, you may need to tone down the graphical settings in certain games to reach a consistently high frame rate. It technically has fewer storage upgrade slots as well.
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The 256GB version of the latest 11-inch iPad Pro is $100 off and down to $899, which is the lowest price we’ve seen. Just clip the $30 on-page coupon to see the full discount at checkout.
Before you say it, yes, we realize an iPad can’t truly replace a laptop for most people. iPadOS remains far more limiting than macOS, particularly when it comes to multitasking and file management. You also need to add a keyboard case and possibly a stylus to get the most out of a device like this, tacking hundreds onto the already high cost. Simply getting a MacBook is the more prudent play most of the time.
All that said, not everyone uses a computer the same way, and plenty of people can get certain creative work done with an iPad. And if money is no object, the new Pro is the most premium iPad there is, with a class-leading OLED display, a wonderfully thin frame and an M4 chip that’s complete overkill for just about any task. The iPad Air is a better value for most, but that tablet isn’t much cheaper than usual right now, and the Pro is a marked step up for those with cash to burn. We gave the M4 iPad Pro a score of 84 this past May.
If you need more screen space, the 13-inch iPad Pro is technically on sale at $1,198 for a 256GB model, but we’ve seen that price for most of the past month.
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Expired Prime Day laptop deals
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The Razer Blade 15 with an Intel Core i7-13800H processor, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPU is on sale for $1,600. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen for this config and $100 less than its street price over the past couple of months. This model includes a 15.6-inch, 16:9 display with 1440p resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate.
The Blade 15 is the “premium” recommendation in our gaming laptop buying guide. It’s more than a year old at this point, and even with this discount, it’s not as good of a value as our overall top pick (the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14, which isn’t a part of Amazon’s sale). Instead, you’d get a Blade for its design, which is marked by clean lines and a sturdy, all-black aluminum finish. (It is a fingerprint magnet, though.)
This config is powerful enough to play modern AAA games in 1080p or 1440p beyond that — again, the latter may require you to tune down settings in certain games to see very high frame rates — and it comes with a healthy array of ports. You can also upgrade its storage and memory. It can get hot, and its battery life isn’t great, but it’s at least a little more appealing at this price if you want a 15-inch gaming machine and are particular about your notebook’s look and feel.
Several other Razer Blade models are on sale as well, though they aren’t cheap. A version of the 2024 Blade 14 with a Ryzen 9 8945HS chip and 32GB of RAM is $200 off, for instance, but that only brings it down to $2,500. The latest iteration of the Blade 16 is “down” to $2,599, while the 18-inch Blade 18 still costs a whopping $2,800 after a Prime Day discount.
Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.