Laptop prices have risen significantly over the past six months, thanks to a memory shortage that even forced Apple to hike prices in June. This makes deals on major shopping events like Amazon Prime Day all the more crucial. For the retailer's Prime Big Deal Days fall sale, a number of favourite laptops have been spotted among the dozens already tested this year.
Whether you're looking for a new MacBook or a budget Windows device, there are some excellent picks below. In addition, check out more deals in our roundup of the Absolute Prime Day Deals and Best Apple Prime Day Deals.
The MacBook Air (M5) is $200 off, bringing it down to $1,099 – the cheapest it's been since June. This is the MacBook I recommend for most people and it's also the best laptop deal this week. Neither the MacBook Neo nor the MacBook Pro are being discounted by anything out of the ordinary.
The Microsoft Surface Laptop 13.8 is the best price on the latest version since it launched. This discount, which is $500 off the retail price and $70 cheaper than it's ever been, brings it close enough to the price of the 2024 model to justify itself. The Snapdragon X2 Elite's GPU performance compared to the X1 model is significant enough to justify the extra money.
The HP OmniBook 5 has been my favorite budget laptop for a while now. It avoids many of the pitfalls of cheap Windows devices, including typical low-end screens, thick chassis, and poor battery life. The one compromise is the touchpad, which still isn't very good. HP.com typically has the lowest price, which is $780 right now. But Amazon has that beat during Prime Day, at only $750 for the 16-inch model. Not only is it cheaper, but it also comes with 512 GB of storage, twice the amount as the discounted HP.com model.
The Lenovo LOQ 15 has long been one of my go-to affordable gaming laptops to recommend for two reasons. First, most budget gaming laptops have terrible screens. But the LOQ 15 display has good color coverage, so greens and reds don't look oversaturated. With that benefit, the LOQ 15 still tends to cost less than its alternatives, and for Prime Day, the RTX 5050 configuration is as cheap as I've seen it in many months. If you can increase your budget, the $1,499 RTX 5060 model at Walmart will deliver much better gaming performance, and I'd recommend it too.
The Asus ZenBook A14 is known for being super light. It weighs only 2.16 pounds, about half a pound lighter than the MacBook Air. The difference is really noticeable, both in the hand and when toting it around in a bag. It also comes with an OLED display, a great touchpad, and a decent assortment of ports. But like the Surface Laptop, the 2026 Zenbook A14 is too expensive. Unlike the Surface Laptop, it's not on sale for Prime Day. That's why I'd recommend picking up the previous model, which comes with a Snapdragon X Plus, 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of storage. The 2026 model offers more storage options, but it also has a much higher starting price. A slightly cheaper model is also available with the Snapdragon X, but the Snapdragon X Plus offers better multicore CPU and GPU performance.
