The best early laptop deals in the Black Friday 2024 sales, chosen by a tech expert

I’m rounding up the best deals on everything from gaming laptops to Chromebooks

Steve Hogarty
Tech writer
Tuesday 12 November 2024 07:47 EST
The sale is a few weeks away, but you can already find discounts on top-rated laptops
The sale is a few weeks away, but you can already find discounts on top-rated laptops (The Independent)

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Time to upgrade your old laptop? You’re in luck. Black Friday is your best chance to find great deals on laptops from top brands such as Apple, Microsoft, Dell and Asus – and I’ve already found some enticing early discounts.

Whether you’re after the latest MacBook, a portable gaming powerhouse or a deal on a cheap Chromebook, the Black Friday sales see prices drop on laptops across every price bracket and to suit every need.

Read more: Black Friday 2024 shopping guide

As IndyBest’s resident laptop nerd, I’ve been covering the Black Friday sale for years. I only recommend laptops I’ve tested from the brands I trust, so you can be sure that these savings are genuine. Our expert shoppers are also busily rounding up discounts on everything from TVs and iPads to electric toothbrushes, mattresses and more – so, be sure to check back in with us as the sale approaches, for all the best deals.

In the meantime, keep reading to find out everything you need to know about this year’s Black Friday sale event, the laptop discounts I’m expecting to see, plus offers you can snap up right now.

What are the best laptop deals to shop now?

Wondering what the best laptop deals are at the moment? These are the biggest discounts I’ve found online so far.

Dell XPS 13: Was £1,249, now £999, Dell.com

(Dell)

Right now, you can save £250 on this 512GB Dell laptop. When our reviewer put it to the test, they said: “The Dell XPS 13 is a brilliant little laptop. It’s thin, portable and lightweight.” They also praised the Snapdragon X Elite chip, saying: “The new chip delivers truly impressive battery life and performance.” They added: “The minimalist flat keyboard, haptic function row and invisible trackpad might split opinion, but we think it’s a striking piece of design.”

Samsung Galaxy Book 4 FE: Was £749.99, now £449.99, Box.co.uk

(Samsung)

Samsung’s Galaxy Book range of laptops usually come in a little too expensive to recommend, but this deal price on the more affordable ‘FE’ edition makes it a great choice. You get an all-day battery life, fast charging and impressive all-round performance for productivity and creative tasks, while the premium build quality, lightweight materials and generous port selection put more expensive laptops to shame.

MacBook Air (13.6in, M2, 2022): Was £899, now £799.97, Amazon.co.uk

(Amazon)

Here’s a £100 saving on the previous generation MacBook Air, which launched in 2022 with then-latest M2 processor. Still a blisteringly fast machine, the thin, lightweight, 13in laptop is now the cheapest device in the MacBook Air range.

MSI Katana A15 gaming laptop: Was £1,299, now £899, Currys.co.uk

(MSI)

The Katana A15 is a blisteringly fast laptop, and chews through the latest games at high frame rates and with the visual settings cranked all the way up. It’s powered by the RTX 4060, one of the best mobile GPUs you’ll find, as well as the powerful AMD Ryzen 7 processor. For less than £900, this is a bargain gaming laptop.

Lenovo IdeaPad 5: Was £749.99, now £399.99, Box.co.uk

(Lenovo)

There’s £350 off the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5, a thin and lightweight mid-range Windows laptop running on a decently powerful 13th generation Intel processor. The 16in screen is great for working with multiple windows, while the thin bezels and raised webcam gives you plenty of screen space to play around with.

Asus Vivobook 14: Was £249.99, now £179.99, Amazon.co.uk

Asus Vivobook 14 E410KA
Asus Vivobook 14 E410KA (AsusS)

The affordable but well-designed Asus Vivobook 14 has £70 off at Amazon. The 14in is perfect for light office work, a school laptop and basic tasks, and the battery-efficient Intel Celeron chip gives it enough performance for streaming entertainment. You get a year of Microsoft 365 included, too.

Apple MacBook Pro (M3, 2023): Was £1,749 now £1,599.97, Laptopsdirect.co.uk

(Apple)

Apple has just announced an updated MacBook Pro range running on the new M4 chipset, so, we’re seeing prices falling on the still-excellent 2023 models. In our MacBook Pro M3 review, our tester called Apple’s premium laptop “staggeringly fast and future-proof”. Here’s a £150 saving on the entry-level 14in MacBook Pro with an expanded 1TB of storage.

Asus Zenbook 14 UX3405MA: Was £1,299, now £849, Currys.co.uk

(Asus)

Asus makes some of the smartest-looking Windows laptops around, and the Zenbook 14 OLED is no exception. We rated the pro edition of this laptop as one of the best laptops of 2024, but the standard edition is similarly impressive, ditching the expensive dedicated GPU but retaining its luscious 4K OLED display and fast Intel Core i7 processor. Right now, you can save an impressive £450 on the device at Currys.

Surface Laptop 4: Was £1,999, now £699.97, Laptopsdirect.co.uk

(Microsoft)

The Surface Laptop 4 range is now two generations old, but this clearance deal on the top-spec configuration of Microsoft’s 2021 laptop still offers excellent performance thanks to a powerful Intel Core i7 chip and 16GB of RAM. Priced at £2,000 when it launched, it’s now cheaper than the entry level version of the most recent Surface Laptop devices.

Asus Chromebook plus CX34: Was £429, now £269, Very.co.uk

(Asus)

Our top pick of the Chromebooks, the CX34 features in our round-up of the best laptops of 2024. This model is one of the better examples of the form, pairing a sleek minimalist design with sensible specifications. Developed in partnership with Google, it’s specced to match a decent entry-level Windows laptop with an Intel Core i3 processor backed up by 8GB of RAM. Higher configurations are available, if you want even better performance.

What laptop deals can we expect to see this Black Friday?

Based on previous sales, I’m expected to see all of the usual major retailers like Amazon, Currys, Argos, John Lewis and Very offering discounts on a wide range of devices.

In my experience the best Black Friday laptop deals tend to be on older models, so, if you don’t need the very latest tech, you can save a bundle by opting for devices released earlier this year.

Last year’s Black Friday laptop deals saw discounts of up to 50 per cent on certain models, including top-selling devices such as the Dell XPS 15. I’ve already seen a similar deal on the Dell XPS 13 above – the smaller, newer edition of the laptop.

If you’re looking for a cheap laptop deal, I’d recommend a Chromebook. These lightweight and affordable laptops are ideal for students and casual users, and you can usually find them for less than £200 on Black Friday. For gamers, Black Friday is a great opportunity to pick up a powerful gaming laptop at a discount. Keep an eye on brands such as Razer and MSI for big savings.

Why you can trust IndyBest to find the best laptop deals

Our team of shopping experts have been covering Black Friday and other online sales for years. As well as tracking prices and knowing how to spot a good deal from a bad one, we spend all year testing and reviewing new and existing products, to bring you recommendations on tech we think you’ll love.

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Find out everything you need to know about Black Friday 2024, with our expert guide

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