Technology

The best laptop deals for January 2024, from Apple’s M3 MacBook Pro to a $480 HP gaming PC

a close-up of a woman holding a 15-inch apple macbook air while another person points at its screen

UPDATE: Jan. 20, 2024, 5:00 a.m. EST This story has been updated with the latest laptop deals, pricing, and availability.

The best laptop deals of the week at a glance:

Best laptop deal under $ 300
Dell Inspiron 15 3520

$ 279.99 at Dell (save $ 100)

the Dell Inspiron 15 3520


Best laptop deal under $ 600
HP Victus 15-fb1013dx

$ 479.99 at Best Buy (save $ 320)

the HP Victus 15-fb1013dx


Best laptop deal under $ 900
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3, 15-inch

$ 683.99 at Lenovo (save $ 416)

the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3


Best laptop deal under $ 1,200
Apple MacBook Air, 15.3-inch

$ 1,049 at Amazon and Best Buy (save $ 250)

the 15-inch apple macbook air


Best laptop deal over $ 1,200
Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (Apple M3)

$ 1,399 at Amazon (save $ 200)

the 14-inch m3 apple macbook pro

Now is a great time to upgrade your laptop: The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2024 ushered in a ton of exciting new hardware earlier this month, prompting tech retailers to slash prices on older inventory they need to clear. Whether you’re looking for an everyday workhorse, a cheap Chromebook for homework, a 2-in-1 Windows PC for drawing, or a powerful premium gaming laptop, you’ve got options at a variety of price points via Best Buy, Amazon, and beyond. Read on for a list of the best laptop deals as of Jan. 20. (And if you don’t see any models that check all the boxes on your spec wish list, come back soon — we’re adding new picks every week.)

Best laptop deals under $ 300

Why we like it

This Dell laptop features a 12th-generation (2022) Intel Core i3 CPU, 8GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, and a 15.6-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It’s nothing spectacular, but it’s a spec sheet we rarely see at this price point: Most cheap, entry-level PCs under $ 300 have dinky discontinued Intel Pentium/Celeron CPUs, 4GB of RAM, pokier eMMC flash storage that maxes out at 128GB, and 60Hz refresh rates. (Hell, even some nicer laptops don’t have 120Hz refresh rates — M2 MacBook Airs included!) It’s marked down to $ 279.99 on Dell’s website, which is an incredible deal for this configuration; it’s now $ 50 cheaper than the 256GB model.

More laptop deals under $ 300

Traditional laptops

Chromebooks

Best laptop deals under $ 600

Why we like it

The award for “cheapest gaming laptop you can snag this week” goes to the HP Victus 15, a 15.6-inch PC from 2023 with a 144Hz micro-edge display and a backlit keyboard. This particular configuration comes equipped with last year’s AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS processor, 8GB of memory, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2050 graphics, and 512GB of storage. It’s not going to be able to handle newer, graphically intensive games like CyberPunk 2077, but it’s an incredible value if you stick with titles like Minecraft, The Sims, and Grand Theft Auto V.

More laptop deals under $ 600

Traditional laptops

2-in-1 laptops

Chromebooks

Best laptop deals under $ 900

Why we like it

If you want a budget-friendly gaming laptop with a little more pep in its step, go with this 15-inch IdeaPad Gaming 3 from last year, which has an AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS CPU, 16GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 graphics, and 512GB of storage. At just $ 683.99 (a 38% savings), it’s the cheapest RTX 40 Series gaming laptop we spotted this week. It also comes with a free three-month trial of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate worth $ 51.

More laptop deals under $ 900

Traditional laptops

2-in-1 laptops

Gaming laptops

Laptop deals under $ 1,200

Our pick: Apple MacBook Air, 15.3-inch

$ 1,049 at Amazon and Best Buy (save $ 250)

Why we like it

Read Mashable’s review of the 15-inch M2 Apple MacBook Air.

Last year’s 15-inch version of the M2 MacBook Air has a slightly larger (but just as pretty) Liquid Retina display and six speakers instead of four. Best of all, it still only weighs about three pounds. Amazon and Best Buy both have the 256GB model marked down to $ 1,049, or 19% off its $ 1,299 MSRP — a pretty sweet buy if you don’t want to splurge on one of the newer M3 MacBook Pros.

More laptop deals under $ 1,200

Traditional laptops

Gaming laptops

Laptop deals over $ 1,200

Why we like it

Apple dropped its new 14-inch, M3-powered MacBook Pro last fall, and Amazon currently has the base model on sale for its lowest price to date. Compared to the older 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro, its upgrades include a brighter mini-LED Liquid Retina XDR display with ProMotion technology (i.e., a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate), a battery life of up to 22 hours, a 1080p FaceTime camera, and more ports along with that faster next-gen processor. It also has twice as much storage — 512GB instead of 256GB.

More laptop deals over $ 1,200

Traditional laptops

2-in-1 laptops

Gaming laptops

Mashable