Best Black Friday laptop deals

It’s time to armor up, laptop buyers. Black Friday is fast approaching, which means there are a lot of awesome laptop deals popping up like wildflowers. Are you ready for the chaos? Whether you’re fully prepared or running around in circles, it’s important to shop smart ahead of the event.

We’ve done the heavy lifting for you by hand-picking the best laptop deals we could find. We’re including everything from day-to-day machines to lightning fast gaming rigs. Looking for more juicy tech deals in other categories? Check out PCWorld’s complete Black Friday deals coverage.

Best Black Friday mainstream laptop deals

Sometimes all you need is a barebones machine for web surfing and checking e-mail. Personally, I use a low-powered Chromebook for writing and editing and I couldn’t be happier. I dig the simplicity of it. But if you’re looking for a straightforward Windows laptop for productivity of personal use, check out these deals.

• HP Pavilion Aero, AMD Ryzen 5/AMD Radeon graphics/16GB RAM/13.3-inch 1200p display, $529.99 (34% off at HP)
• Dell Inspiron 15, Intel Core i5/Intel UHD graphics/8GB RAM/15.6-inch 1080p display, $349.99 (42% off at Dell)
• Lenovo ThinkPad E15 Gen 4 AMD, AMD Ryzen 3/Integrated AMD Radeon graphics/8GB RAM/15.6-inch 1080p display, $525.60 (40% off at Lenovo)
• Acer Aspire Vero 14, Intel Core i7/Intel Iris Xe graphics/16GB RAM/14-inch 1080p display,$599.99 (34% off at Costco)

The HP Pavilion Aero is plenty fast for general-use tasks, and the silver exterior is both swanky and eye-catching. It also weighs a little over two pounds, making it travel-friendly. The Acer Aspire Vero 14 also deserves its own call-out, as it’s made out of recycled materials for eco-friendliness

Best Black Friday content-creation laptop deals

If power is a top priority, you should consider getting a content-creation laptop. These machines are typically paired with roomy, high-resolution displays and powerful internal components. In other words, they’re designed to chew through most resource-intensive tasks like video and photo editing.

• Dell XPS 17, Intel Core i7/RTX 3050 GPU/16GB RAM/17.3-inch 2400p display, $2,139 (12% off at Amazon)
• Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold, Intel Core i5/Integrated UHD graphics/8GB RAM/13.3-inch 2048p touchscreen, $999 (65% off at Lenovo)

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold is unique because the OLED touchscreen folds like a book. This gives you more screen to work with. The $999 price tag isn’t bad for an OLED touchscreen, either.

Best Black Friday gaming laptop deals

Listen up, gamers. There’s no better time to score a screaming fast rig for those late night gaming sessions. The laptops below are both powerful and reasonably priced, and should be able to run most games on high graphics. The ones with higher-end GPUs can even handle more demanding titles on ultra graphics.

• Alienware x17 R2, Intel Core i9/RTX 3080 Ti/32GB RAM/17.3-inch 2160p display, $3,499.99 (17% off)
• HP Omen, AMD Ryzen 5/RTX 3050/16GB RAM/16.1-inch 1080p display, $929.99 (29% off at HP)
• Gigabyte Aorus, Intel Core i7/RTX 3070 GPU/16GB RAM/15.6-inch 1080p display, $1,099.99 (33% off at eBay)
• Lenovo Legion 5 Pro, AMD Ryzen 7/RTX 3060/16GB RAM/16-inch 1600p display, $1,099 (30% off at Walmart)
• Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3, AMD Ryzen 5/RTX 3050/8GB RAM/15.6-inch 1080p display, $599.99 (33% off at Amazon)
• Acer Predator Helios, Intel Core i7/RTX 3050/16GB RAM/15.6-inch 1080p display, $1,174 (10% off at Amazon)

The Gigabyte Aorus is a real standout, as the combination of an RTX 3070 GPU and an Intel Core i7 CPU is fantastic for the price.

If you want to see which gaming laptops PCWorld rate the highest, see our top picks of 2022.