Laptop deals: Best early October Prime Day discounts

If you’re in the market for a new laptop, and you missed finding a deal during July’s Prime Day event, you’re in luck. Amazon is running a new sales event called Prime Early Access Sale that will run between Oct 11 and 12. This low-key version of Prime Day should include great deals on laptops from Dell, Microsoft, and other top brands.

The deals have already begun and we’ve sifted through all of the humdrum sales to pinpoint only the very best leading up to what some are calling “Prime Day 2.” You’ll need to be a Prime member to take advantage of these steep discounts. Not a Prime member? Not a problem. By signing up for the 30-day trial, you can get Amazon Prime for free.

As we curate the best discounts, we’re also including deals from other retailers like Best Buy and Walmart. Below we highlight laptops that offer strong processing and graphics performance, and also take battery life, form factor, budget, and display size/quality into consideration. Whether you’re a hardcore gamer or a college freshman on a budget, we’re here to help you every step of the way.

Best Prime Early Access Sale laptop deals

We’ve done our best to include only laptops offering excellent value leading up to, and during, the Prime Early Access Sales event. We lead our list with the sleek, premium Dell XPS 13, on sale for almost 40 percent off, directly from Dell. It’s a great mainstream laptop for students. The HP Victus 15 (19 percent off on Amazon) is a strong mid-range gaming laptop. But splurge on the MSI GP66 (23 percent off from Walmart) if you need more gaming performance.

Best productivity and everyday laptop deals:

• Dell XPS 13, Core i5/Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics/8GB RAM/512GB SSD, 13.3-inch 3840x2160p touchscreen display, $899.99 (38% off on Dell)
• Lenovo Ideapad 1, Ryzen 7 5700U/AMD integrated graphics/12GB RAM/512GB SSD/15.6-inch 1080p touchscreen display, $529.99 (32% off on BestBuy)
• Acer Aspire 5, Core i5/Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics/12GB RAM/512GB SSD, 14-inch 1080p display, $499.99 (23% off on Newegg)
• Acer Swift 3, Core i7/Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics/8GB RAM/256GB SSD, 14-inch 1080p display, $582.99 (31% off on Amazon)
• Asus VivoBook Pro 16X, Core i7/RTX 3050/16GB RAM/1TB SSD, 16-inch OLED 3840x2400p display, $1099.99 (21% off on Newegg)

Best gaming laptop deals:

• MSI GP66 Leopard, Core i7/RTX 3080/16GB RAM/512GB SSD, 15.6-inch 1080p display, $1,849.00 (23% off on Walmart)
• Gigabyte G5 KD, Core i5/RTX 3060/16GB RAM/512GB SSD, 15.6-inch 1080p 144Hz display, $1,199.00 (8% off on Amazon)
• HP Victus 15, Core i5/RTX 3050/8GB RAM/512GB SSD, 15.6-inch 1080p display, $800.94 (18% off on Amazon)
• Razer Blade 14, Ryzen 9/RTX 3080/16GM RAM/1TB SSD, 14-inch 1440p 165Hz display, $2,353.25 (16% off on Amazon)
• Acer Nitro 5, Core i5/RTX 3050/8GB RAM/256GB SSD, 15.6-inch 1080p 144Hz display, $760.00 (10% off on Amazon)
• Gigabyte A7 K1, Ryzen 7/RTX 3060/16GB RAM/512GB SSD, 17.3-inch 1080p display, $1,053.46 (19% off on Amazon)
• MSI Pulse GL66, Core i7/RTX 3070/16GB RAM/512GB SSD, 15.6-inch 1080p display, $1,399.00 (7% off on Amazon)

What to look for when buying a laptop

Laptops come in all shapes and sizes, each with myriad features. All of these options can leave your head spinning. But to before you dive into the deep end of laptop shopping, there are a few things you should consider first to help get you started.

The very first thing you should think about is what type of laptop will be best for you. There are traditional clamshells, 2-in-1’s, and even Chromebooks. If you want something that is portable and can work as both a laptop and tablet, then a 2-in-1 is a good choice. Traditional clamshells can offer better hardware and often are the way to go for professionals and gamers who require strong performance.

For hardware, there are a few things to consider first. If you need a lot of processing power for gaming or work tasks, then a higher number processor such as an Intel Core i5 or Ryzen 5 is a minimum requirement. You can generally stick with integrated graphics unless you intend to game or do graphically demanding tasks such as 3D rendering. Memory is important and no matter what your intended uses are for a laptop, you should try to aim for at least 8GB of RAM, with 16GB the optimal amount for gaming and productivity work.

Finally, there are two additional things you should consider before buying your new laptop: display size and battery life. Display size is dependent upon your personal preference. A smaller display will allow for your laptop to be more portable, but if you need to do multimedia work, you may want something bigger. As for battery life, look for something in the 10 to 12 hour range on a single charge as this should be enough to get you through a full work day before recharging.