Discounts on machines from Apple, Lenovo, Dell, HP and more

So you need a new laptop — now’s the time of year to look out for one on sale. October Prime Day, as has been in years past, offers a ton of laptop deals to consider. All kinds of devices are on sale this year for Big Deal Days, from refreshed MacBooks to high-end gaming machines to already affordable notebooks. But sussing out a good deal from a just-ok deal (or even worse, a bad deal all together), can be a challenge. Laptop prices for machines from Lenovo, Dell, Acer and others on Amazon are all over the place even when it’s not Prime Day depending on the configuration of the notebook, the seller and a bunch of other factors.

This is where Engadget can help. We’ve poured over the Prime Day laptop deals available this year to pick out the best ones you can get across all kinds of computers. As always, if you’re super particular about the display panel you want in your next laptop, or you know you want to get as much RAM as possible, we recommend going straight to manufacturers to customize your next PC. But if you’re willing to work with premade models, October Prime Day deals could help you save some cash on your next laptop.

Best Prime Day laptop deals: MacBooks

Apple’s latest laptops are the MacBook Air M4 and the MacBook Pro M4, and we recommend getting those if you want a device that’s as future-proof as possible at the moment. You’ll find decent MacBook deals on Amazon throughout the year, and most of them will be on the base configurations. In a welcomed update earlier this year, Apple recently made all base models of the MacBook Air M4 have 16GB of RAM by default (which is the same as you’ll find on the base-level Pros).

Best Prime day laptop deals: Windows laptops

You’ve got a lot of variety to choose from when it comes to Windows laptops, and that can be a blessing or a curse. We recommend looking for a laptop from a reputable brand (i.e. Microsoft, Dell, Acer, Lenovo and others like them), and one that can handle daily work or play pressures. That means at least 16GB of RAM and 245GB of SSD storage, plus the latest Intel or AMD CPUs. If you’re looking for a new gaming laptop, you’ll need a bit more power and a dedicated graphics card to boot.

Best Prime Day laptop deals: Chromebooks

Most Chromebooks are already pretty cheap, but that just means you can get them for even less during an event like Prime Day. However, there are a ton of premium Chromebooks available today that didn’t exist even three years ago, so now is a great time to look out for discounts on those models. In general, we recommend looking for at least 4 to 8GB of RAM and at least 128GB of SDD storage in a Chromebook that you plan on using as your daily driver.