It's been [redacted] years since I've personally geared up for a new semester, but I still get excited for the back-to-school shopping season. That's because part of my job here at Mashable entails hunting down great laptop deals — and after Black Friday, now is the time when I see the most discounts on new and popular models across major retailers. (Even the Apple Store joins the fray: As part of its back-to-school sale, one of its rare direct savings events, every MacBook purchased there through Sept. 30 comes with a $100 discount and a free Apple accessory worth up to $199.)
Below, I've compiled a list of the best back-to-school laptop deals on MacBooks, Windows laptops, and a couple of Chromebooks, which I'll continue to update throughout the season; the discounts should stay deep and plentiful up until around Labor Day on Sept. 1. Of note, Mashable's three favorite laptops of 2025 (so far) were all sitting at record-low prices at the time of writing, and a bunch of gaming laptops with new Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series graphics were anywhere from $280 to $450 off. At+ work, everyone.
Best MacBook deal
Why we like it
Apple's new M4 MacBook Air is a Mashable Choice Award winner and one of the easiest laptops to recommend for students. It's gorgeous, powerful, portable, quiet, equipped with a nice 12MP FaceTime camera, and priced super competitively. Better yet, it's also been incredibly easy to find on sale pretty much since launch. As of late July, Amazon and Best Buy have the base configuration of the 13-inch model marked down to just $799 (normally $999). That's a 20% savings and its lowest price yet, beating its Prime Day discount by $50. If you'd prefer a bigger display, the 15-inch version has fallen to $999 at both retailers (another $200 off). It has two extra speakers compared to the 13-incher.
For comparison's sake, the Apple Store is only offering a $100 student discount on both sizes of the M4 MacBook Air. However, it throws in your pick of a free accessory worth up to $199: AirPods 4 with ANC, AirPods Pro 2, a Magic Mouse, a Magic Trackpad, or a Magic Keyboard with a numeric keypad. Some shoppers will prefer the $200 straight-up discount that Amazon and Best Buy are offering, but if you go the Apple Store freebie route, you can technically save even more.
More MacBook deals
Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M1, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $599 $649 (save $150)
Apple MacBook Air, 15-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $999 $1,199 (save $200)
Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,299 $1,599 (save $300)
Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M4 Pro, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,799 $1,999 (save $200)
Best Windows laptop deal
Why we like it
The Mashable Choice Award-winning Asus Zenbook A14 is an ultrathin 14-inch laptop featuring a unique matte-textured "Ceraluminum" chassis, which makes it durable, scratch-resistant, and incredibly lightweight. Altogether, this thing weighs only 2.4 pounds, or 0.3 pounds less than the 13-inch M4 MacBook Air. (Most textbooks will probably dwarf it.) In our benchmarks, the Snapdragon X Plus model was almost as fast as an M3 MacBook Pro and lasted longer than any other sub-$1,000 laptop we've tried: almost 22 hours on a single charge. I will warn you that its speakers are horrible, so make sure you have a good pair of headphones on hand. It usually retails for $999.99 at Best Buy, but right now it's on sale there for just $599.99 — an unprecedented 40% discount.
One important aside: That Snapdragon processor makes the Zenbook A14 an ARM-based laptop, which means it won't work with certain specialty apps, the biggest one being AutoCAD. If you have compatibility concerns, opt for an Intel-powered (x86-based) laptop like the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition, below.
More Windows laptop deals
Acer Swift 14 AI (Snapdragon X Elite, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $729.99 $1,199.99 (save $470)
Microsoft Surface Laptop, 13-inch (Snapdragon X Plus, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $799.99 $899.99 (save $100)
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x (Snapdragon X Elite, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $799.99 $1,199.99 (save $400)
Asus Zenbook 14 (Intel Core Ultra 9 285H, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $899.99 $1,299.99 (save $400)
Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge, 14-inch (Snapdragon X Elite, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $999.99 $1,349.99 (save $350)
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, 13.8-inch (Snapdragon X Elite, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $999.99 $1,399.99 (save $400)
Asus Vivobook S16 (AMD Ryzen AI 7 350, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,049.99 $1,199.99 (save $150)
Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge, 16-inch (Snapdragon X Elite, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,099.99 $1,149.99 (save $350)
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, 15-inch (Snapdragon X Elite, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,199.99 $1,499.99 (save $300)
Asus Zenbook S 14 (Intel Core Ultra 7, 258V 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,249.99 $1,599.99 (save $350)
Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro, 14-inch (Intel Core Ultra 7 256V, 32GB RAM 1TB SSD) — $1,299.99 $1,649.99 (save $350)
Dell XPS 16 9640 (Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,399.99 $2,199.99 (save $800)
Best 2-in-1 laptop deal
$1,749.99 Save $350
Why we like it
Oh look, another Mashable Choice Award winner. The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition is a sleek 14-inch hybrid with a beautiful 2.8K OLED touchscreen display, some neat exclusive AI features, a satisfyingly clackety keyboard, and a battery life of 23 hours and 34 minutes. That makes it the longest-lasting laptop we've ever tried. Potential buyers should know that there is a bit of a performance trade-off: its new Intel Core Ultra 7 258V is about 33% slower than the 15-inch MacBook Air's 10-core M4 chip in multi-core tasks, according to our testing. (It's definitely not sluggish, but it runs like a previous-gen CPU.) That said, it's still a solid buy; our reviewer recommends it for those in search of "a premium, convertible Windows laptop to handle simple productivity tasks." Best Buy just put the 32GB RAM/1TB SSD model on sale for $1,399.99 (down 20% from $1,749.99), which is the first and only discount we've seen it get.
More 2-in-1 laptop deals
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (AMD Ryzen AI 5 340, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $549.99 $849.99 (save $300)
HP OmniBook X Flip 14 (Intel Core Ultra 5 226V, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $579.99 $849.99 (save $270)
Lenovo Yoga 7 2-in-1 14 (AMD Ryzen AI 5 340, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $599.99 $999.99 (save $400)
Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 16 (Intel Core Ultra 7 256V, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $749.99 $1,199.99 (save $450)
Microsoft Surface Pro 11, 13-inch (Snapdragon X Plus, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $999.99 $1,199.99 (save $200)
Samsung Galaxy Book5 360 (Intel Core Ultra 7 256V, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,149.99 $1,349.99 (save $200)
Microsoft Surface Pro 11, 13-inch (Snapdragon X Elite, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,199.99 $1,499.99 (save $300)
Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 (Intel Core Ultra 7 256V, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,399.99 $1,699.99 (save $300)
HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 (Intel Core Ultra 9 288V, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD) — $1,399.99 $1,899.99 (save $500)
Asus Zenbook Duo (Intel Core Ultra 7 255H, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,599.99 $1,699.99 (save $100)
Best gaming laptop deal
$1,799.99 Save $450
Why we like it
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is a 14-inch gaming laptop that doesn't scream "I'm a gaming laptop": It features a demure, MacBook-y design that won't look out of place in a lecture hall. After class, it can handle triple-A titles with ease; we tried a 2024 model with 4060 graphics, and it had no trouble running Cyberpunk 2077 (though it did get a bit hot underneath). Best Buy has a 2025 version with 5060 graphics, an AMD Ryzen 9 270 CPU, and a different thermal system on sale for just $1,349.99 — a 25% discount on its $1,799.99 MSRP. It's currently $250 cheaper than last year's model.
More gaming laptop deals
Asus TUF Gaming F16 (Intel Core 5 210H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $892.49 $1,099.99 (save $207.50)
Asus TUF Gaming F16 (Intel Core i7-14650HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060, 32GB RAM 1TB SSD) — $1,239.99 $1,539.99 (save $300)
MSI Vector 16 HX AI (Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, Nvidia Geforce RTX 5080, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $2,174.99 $2,499.99 (save $325)
MSI Stealth 18 AI Studio (Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $2,499.99 $3,299.99 (save $800)
MSI Stealth A16 AI+ (AMD Ryzen AI 9 365, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $2,649.99 $2,929.99 (save $280)
Asus ROG Strix G18 (Intel Core Ultra 9 HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD) — $2,679.99 $3,059.99 (save $380)
HP Omen Max 16 (Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD) — $2,749.99 $3,159.99 (save $410)
Best Chromebook deal
$749.99 Save $150
Why we like it
A fall 2024 release, this 16-inch Samsung machine is the thinnest and lightest Chromebook Plus on the market. (That "Plus" just means it has certain standardized specs and support for a couple of Gemini-powered AI features.) Our sister site PCMag praised its sleek metal design, pretty AMOLED screen, and long battery life in a hands-on review earlier this spring, deeming it "the best big-screen Chromebook." It's a bit expensive for a Chromebook, but Best Buy's current 20% discount remedies that somewhat — you'll only pay $599.99.
More Chromebook deals
Acer Chromebook Plus 516 (Intel i3-1315U, 8GB RAM, 128GB UFS) — $379 $479 (save $100)
Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 (Intel Core i5-1335U, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) — $479 $599 (save $120)
