Hoping to bag one of the best cheap laptop deals to start the year? Thankfully, retailers have a number of New Year’s sales available to kickstart 2022 with offers across inexpensive Chromebooks, budget-friendly mid-range machines or powerful ultrabooks. We’ve scoured through many of the offers that are now live to bring you just the very best deals available right now.
While there may be some reductions that aren’t as large as we saw back in November, there are still some terrific laptop deals to be found – especially at the budget end of the scale. Those with under $200 to spend will be very happy with the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 4 for $179.99 – it’s our favourite deal of the week.
Those with a little more to spend will want to check out this incredible value Lenovo IdeaPad 3i for $449 at Walmart. Nothing else within that price range comes close to beating it if you need a powerful and high-performance all-around machine. There’s also a huge $300 discount on this Surface Pro 7 at Best Buy for $599.99. It’s the best price today for Microsoft’s hybrid machine.
We are expecting the discounts to fade away as the month goes on as the biggest sales events of the year are now behind us. With that in mind, you might want to take advantage of one of these great offers today. Of course, there will still be laptop deals in the months ahead – they just might not be as good as these ones.
For now, many of this week’s top picks feature laptops and Chromebooks at excellent prices. We’ve got a few that are available from major retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart. Going direct to a manufacturer like HP or Dell can also get you a better deal, with the added bonus of some extra discounts on accessories, too.
If you’re after more web-based machines, check out even more Chromebook deals. If you’re a gamer, you’d be better suited to check out our selection of gaming laptop deals as the models on this page are not usually built with gaming in mind.
This week’s best cheap laptop deals
Cheap laptop deal of the week
More cheap laptop deals
Cheap laptop deals under $200
Cheap laptop deals under $400
Cheap laptop deals under $600
The best laptop deals over $600
This week’s best store-wide laptop sales
Which stores have cheap laptop sales?
If you’re looking for the best budget laptop to see you through everyday browsing, we’d recommend heading over to the generalist retailers – Walmart, Best Buy, and Amazon, for example. If you’re after something a little more specialist, Dell, Lenovo and HP will offer far more configuration options with their own discounts as well.
The best cheap laptops
The best cheap laptops of 2021
The best budget laptops are usually the ones offering decent entry level specs (32 or 64GB of storage in a Chromebook or a 4GB / 8GB RAM, i3 processor, 128GB storage in a Windows machine) at a reduced price. However, you’ll sometimes find mid-range specs offering a step up at similar prices on cheaper machines. Below you’ll find our top picks of cheap laptops that do exactly that during busy sales periods.
If you’re shopping for cheap laptops, chances are you’re not going to be spending too long poring over spec sheets or looking forward to splashing out on the latest processors and graphics. You might be looking for a simple every day web browsing machine light enough to throw into a backpack and flexible enough for comfortable streaming. That’s where the Lenovo Duet comes in – a Chromebook that’s technically a tablet, but far more powerful than you’d expect it to be.
With its slick lines and a slim silhouette, the Acer Chromebook 14 makes for a subtle, snazzy laptop. Although its display isn’t the most attractive we’ve seen, it’s still acceptable for full HD. On top of that, the keyboard and trackpad adhere to the principle of ‘it just works.’ The battery life is satisfactory as well despite falling a bit south of Acer’s 12-hour claim in real-world use.
Read the full review: Acer Chromebook 14
You’re shopping in the $399 – $599 range when looking at an Asus Vivobook, with entry level specs outperforming the vast majority of Chromebooks you’d usually find at this price. Plus, you’re getting some pretty premium features in this cheap laptop. A Nano-Edge display keeps everything looking sharp, the option for Intel Optane memory makes sure all your most-used programs and files are well within reach, and a 1.6kg weight on a full sized 15.6-inch laptop is nothing to sniff at either.
Here we have one of the few budget laptops with a processor nearly equivalent to a MacBook Pro from a couple of years back, that is if you opt for the Intel Core i5 configuration. The best part? Among the best Acer laptops right now, it’s roughly half the cost of its Apple-branded rival. Now given that it sells at a range of different prices, the Acer Swift 3 can be an obtuse purchase, but lucky for you, the midrange model will get you by just fine. There are often plenty of cheap laptop deals on Acer products so you’ll always be in a good position to grab a discount.
Read the full review: Acer Swift 3
Cheap laptops: Spotting the best laptop deals under $200
One of the first things we often check when shopping for cheap laptops is the amount of storage on offer. As shoppers, we’ve become accustomed to comparing prices and models based on the number of gigabytes next to the model name. However, there may be more to it than that, especially when you’re browsing the cheaper shelves. You may also need to pay attention to your operating system when picking up a budget laptop deal under $200.
Some cheap laptops are more worthy of your cash than others, and many simply need to be avoided. For example, you’ll easily find a Windows machine that offers just 16 or 32GB of storage, but with update file and software sizes increasing, you may quickly find that insufficient. However, finding a Chromebook with 16 or 32GB of storage for under $200 makes for a great cheap laptop deal. That’s because these machines run on Chrome OS which doesn’t require updates and operates largely through your browser.
Similarly, a lot of laptops hold incredibly low price tags because they are labelled as ‘FreeDOS’. This means they don’t have an operating system on them already, so you will need to buy Windows 10 to get them set up.
How much are the best laptop deals?
Shopping for the best budget laptop deals between $50 and $200 will usually have you looking at the excellent range of Chromebooks on sale right now. Running Chrome OS, these budget laptop deals will see you through everyday web browsing, emails, and some light streaming for eye wateringly low prices. You’ll be picking up anything from a 16GB SSD to a 64GB hard drive, but you’ll also be looking to utilize the cloud for more storage.
If you’re punting a bit higher than $200, you’ll be opening yourself up to more RAM, moving from 4GB to 8GB in most models, meaning your cheap laptop will be able to open programs faster, generally retrieving information and multi-task in a more streamlined manner. You’ll also be picking up far more storage for your cash, with prices this week including either a 128GB or 256GB SSD. This SSD further streamlines your storage, acting as a lightning-fast drive to keep everything you need instantly attainable.
Once you search for laptop deals above $400, you may well start to find 16GB of RAM on offer as well as a few models with a 512GB SSD. Along with improved processors, that means exceedingly fast storage potential, keeping your cheap laptop zippy however many programs you have open. Laptops above this price range are also better suited to media editing than cheaper models.
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