Black Friday 2018: The Best Laptop Deals

Laptops are always a popular pick on Black Friday, if only because they’re so expensive at the best of times. This year Microsoft is having an absolute blitz of deals on its Surface devices, but options from other sellers are available too.

Note: Like all the Black Friday deals we’re posting over the week, some of these deals are live now and some of them are won’t be live until the day of Black Friday proper.

Microsoft Surface Deals

Microsoft is running some rather generous discounts on its self-branded Surface line. There are good deals on the new Surface Pro 6, but if you’re looking for something even cheaper, the 2017 model will be just $599 with a keyboard (normally a $130 add-on).

Details are scarce, but that’s presumably the entry model, with a Core m3 processor and 4GB of RAM. That would mean a total discount of $330 off the retail price. If your budget will stretch a little further, and you also have access to a Costco, you can pick up a new Surface Pro 6 with a keyboard and a stylus pen for $800—the same $330 discount on newer hardware with an extra accessory.

• Best Deal: Surface Pro 5 with keyboard | $930 $600 | Microsoft Store
• Best Deal: Surface Pro 6 with keyboard and stylus | $1130 $800 | Costco
• Surface Pro 6 with keyboard | $930 $600| Best Buy 
• Surface Laptop 2 | $300 off some models | Microsoft Store
• Surface Go | $50 off some models | Microsoft Store

Budget Laptop Deals

Those who are hoping to score a laptop for the lowest price possible can’t do better than Lenovo this year. It’s offering the Ideapad 130s, a 14-inch laptop with a Celeron processor and more or less the lowest specs capable of running Windows, for just $100. That’s $200 off, and as much as Windows costs on its own. For more general users, Walmart and Best Buy are offering excellent bargains on laptops with more power from HP and Dell, respectively.

• Best Deal: Lenovo Ideapad 130s | $300 $100 | Lenovo
• Hp Pavilion 15.6-inch gaming laptop (GTX 1050ti card) | $800 $600 | Walmart
• Dell Inspiron 3000 15.6-inch (touchscreen) | $600 $400 | Best Buy

Premium Laptop Deals

The always-popular XPS 13 from Dell is getting a significant discount at Costco if you’re a member. The $2000 model, with the latest and greatest 8th-gen Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, a roomy 512GB SSD, and a 4K touchscreen, will be just $1500 on Black Friday. Apple deals are hard to come by even during an orgy of consumerism, but Best buy is offering $200 off of the (now replaced) MacBook Air.

• Best Deal: Dell XPS 13 (4K touch model) | $2000 $1500 | Costco
• Apple MacBook Air 13″ (last-gen) | $1000 $800 | Best Buy
• Dell XPS 15 (GTX 1050 card) | $1600 $1084 | Amazon
• Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon | $2500 $1187 | Amazon

Best Chromebook Deals

Chromebooks are generally viewed as budget alternatives to Windows machines, but Google makes a solid case for Chrome OS on premium hardware with its Pixelbook. At the moment it’s $300 off for the entry-level model, down to just $700 (with Google’s financing available too). If you have no reservations about using a Chromebook as your primary laptop, it’s an amazing deal.

• Best Deal: Google Pixelbook | $1000 $700 | Google Store
• Acer Chromebook 11 | $220 $120 | Amazon
• Samsung Chromebook Pro V2 | $600 $450 | Samsung
• Samsung Chromebook Pro (with backlit keyboard) | $600 $500 | Samsung