It's that time of the year. Amazon Prime Day is upon us, and with it, some of the best laptop deals of the year.
I test laptops all year, so that when it comes to these big sales events, I can recommend devices I've personally tested. The last thing you want to do is make a spur-of-the-moment decision on a particularly cheap laptop that you'll regret in a week. These are all fantastic laptops for their price, and in many cases, they're at significant discounts.
If you haven't found the deal you want yet, browse our roundup of the Absolute Best Prime Day Deals and our Amazon Prime Day Liveblog for of our latest updates.
Updated Wednesday, June 24: I've added more laptop deals, including the HP OmniBook 3 and Asus Chromebook CX15.
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Photograph: Brenda Stolyar
Microsoft
The Surface Laptop has been one of my favorite laptops since its relaunch in 2024. Lately, though, it's seen some untimely price hikes, which has made it harder to recommend. But here comes Prime Day to save the day with what is easily the best laptop deal of the week so far. The 2024 Surface Laptop is down 37 percent, dropping the price to $835. That puts its price below the starting configuration of the MacBook Air.
And what you get in exchange is a beautifully-made, portable and high-end Windows laptop that feels every bit as sturdy as a MacBook. The keyboard is top-notch, and the trackpad uses a haptic feedback engine, just like the MacBook Air. If you haven't used a Windows laptop in a while, you'll be blown away by how closely laptops like the Surface Laptop compare with the modern MacBook, even when it comes to performance and battery life. And in my experience, the Surface Laptop even has a couple of features that make it superior to the MacBook Air. The 3:2 aspect ratio of the display is glorious, which is my favorite feature. That taller screen size gives you more vertical space to work with, which I find both enjoyable while browsing the web and useful for work.
There's one important caveat, though. This configuration only comes with 256 GB of storage. Microsoft no longer technically sells this model, which is partially why prices have risen on the base configurations. There's also a new (much more expensive) model that just became available with the Snapdragon X2 chip inside. But when it comes to a fantastic deal on a laptop, this is easily the best I've found so far.
Apple
The prices of laptops in 2026 have been rising. But not the MacBook Air. Despite being the best overall laptop in its own right, it's also consistently been priced lower than the competition. This is the latest model with the M5 chip, which was launched earlier this year. At $950 over at Amazon, it's $150 off the retail price, which is good deal but not anything too out of the ordinary. Most people are already familiar with the MacBook Air, and it hasn't changed much on the outside since 2022. But the 2026 model has two important upgrades: highly improved graphics performance thanks to the M5 chip, and also the graphics performance thanks to the M5 chip, and also support for up to two external monitors.
There's also a much larger 15-inch model, which is every bit as thin and powerful. Other than the size difference, it comes with a clearer and bassier speaker setup that's on par with the MacBook Pro.
Laptops under $750 have a bad reputation, and for the most part, they've earned it themselves. But there are some standouts, the most notable being the HP OmniBook 3. It's on sale for under $550, despite being a laptop with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. Those are incredible specs for laptop at this price. To put things in perspective, that's double the memory and storage you get in the more expensive MacBook Neo.
Of course, there are a number of compromises, where the HP OmniBook 3 doesn't measure up to something like the MacBook Neo. The screen is nowhere near as sharp, especially since the this is a larger, 16-inch display. Then, there's the touchpad. It feels cheap and clumsy to use. But when it comes to battery life and performance, the OmniBook 3 is really impressive for a laptop of this price.
HP
The OmniBook 5 comes with a brilliant OLED display that have far better color performance and a much wider range of contrast. Not only that, but the OmniBook 5 is a beautiful laptop in its own right, which is nearly as thin as the MacBook Air and comes with an equal configuration. Like the OmniBook 3, though, the OmniBook 5 also has a lame touchpad.
Asus
Look, if you're shopping under $300 for a laptop, you can't expect anything too special. But the Asus Chromebook CX15 might be the best Chromebook I've tested around this price. It has a relatively modern design, and although the screen isn't the best quality, it can work for a student or as a secondary computer to occasionally use.
Photograph: Christopher Null
Photograph: Christopher Null
Microsoft
As an iPad rival, the Surface Pro is really solid. It's compact, powerful, and is every bit as premium. As an alternative to carrying a conventional laptop, the Surface Pro makes a strong case. I should note that a new generation of Surface Pro was announced recently, the 8th Edition, and thanks to the switch to Qualcomm's Snapdragon X chips, it really shines. The performance has always been there, but it finally has the incredible all-day battery life (and standby battery life) to make it worthy of carrying around with you throughout your day.
It remains a niche product in some sense, but in the world of Windows, it's one of the very best devices to travel with. And thanks to this great discount, it's almost never been cheaper. Just remember: you need to buy the Surface Keyboard separate.
This gaming laptop has a big advantage over many other gaming laptops at this price. Yes, it's thick. And yes, the aesthetic isn't for everyone. But the display, build quality, keyboard, and touchpad are a solid step up over even some of my favorite budget gaming laptops, like the Lenovo LOQ 15. The display in particular is very pretty, being sharper with its 2560 x 1600 resolution and more colorful than typical gaming laptops at that price. That makes it a joy to use, both in and out of games.
The problem is that the Alienware 16X Aurora is typically priced hundreds of dollars over other cheap gaming laptops. But for Prime Day, it's come down to a much more attractive price, making it one of the very best laptop deals I've found this year.
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