Black Friday laptop deals 2022: our expert predictions

When it comes to Black Friday laptop deals, it's never too early to prepare - and we're here to help. We've been tracking laptop prices over the years, and we've consistently seen a pattern where laptop prices begin to drop quite significantly in the run up to November.

Black Friday 2022 officially starts on November 25, but in previous years we've seen some excellent laptop deals begin to land throughout the entirety of November. Often, these early Black Friday laptop deals are just as good as the ones that go live on the day itself, which is great news for bargain hunters, as it means you could find the perfect deal weeks ahead, meaning you don't have to scramble on Black Friday.

In fact, in a report by Adobe (opens in new tab) that looks at price changes for computers (including laptops) in 2021, prices dropped sharply at the start of November, and kept low throughout the month, before rising again during December.

So, it means that it's well worth waiting a few weeks more before you buy a laptop, as it's likely that any laptop you find right now could get a big discount when November rolls around, so holding out could save you a lot of money.

While we expect many of the best laptops to get price cuts (as well as Chromebooks), not every laptop is guaranteed to drop in price this November. Recently-released devices, such as the MacBook Air (M2, 2022) may not see any discounts considering how fresh they are.

Having said that, we were pleasantly surprised to see some rare discounts on recent Apple laptops during last year's Black Friday, so don't rule anything out.

To make sure you get the best deal as we approach November, we'll explain when the best Black Friday laptop deals will be available this year, which machines are likely to get the biggest discounts, and which retailers traditionally have the top offers. You'll find everything you need to know to grab a bargain this Black Friday.

Today's best laptop sales

If you can't wait for a Black Friday laptop deal and need to buy a new machine now, there are still some good laptop deals around. So, even though Black Friday itself is still over two months away, it doesn't mean you can't bag a bargain right now.

US laptop sales

UK laptop sales

Should you wait for a Black Friday laptop deal?

With Black Friday still around two months away, should you wait to buy a laptop? It's a tricky question, as there's no doubt that laptop prices do drop – sometimes quite dramatically – throughout November.

So, if you can go without a new laptop until then, you could end up saving a fair bit of money. You may also find that you're able to get a more powerful laptop with better specifications than the ones you can afford right now. Getting a more powerful laptop can save you money in the long run, as they should last a lot longer, so you won't have to upgrade.

However, for many people, laptops are essential parts of our lives, and if you desperately need a new laptop, waiting until the end of November may just be too long to continue struggling with an outdated device.

If that's the situation you find yourself in, then go ahead and buy a laptop right now. As we've shown above, there are still plenty of great laptop deals already, and while they may not match what we'll see on Black Friday, they will still help you save money.

Black Friday laptop deals: our predictions

(Image credit: Future)

When will the best Black Friday laptop deals start in 2022?

Black Friday falls on November 25 this year, but we expect to see some juicy discounts on laptops before then. Traditionally the biggest discounts are released on the day itself, and while that's still a good bet, in recent years we’ve seen laptop retailers increasingly launching their Black Friday pricing earlier, at the beginning of Thanksgiving week – if not earlier.

There are often always plenty of early discounts in the weeks leading up to the main event - some from as early as mid-late October. And, based on last year's deals, these are very likely to be as good as the ones we see during the week of Black Friday. That's a pattern we expect to see repeating again this year.

Plus, last year, many retailers and manufacturers, such as Dell, Amazon and Best Buy, launched early Black Friday laptop deals at the beginning of November, so we recommend keeping an eye out around then.

Where will the best Black Friday laptop deals be?

You'll find all the best Black Friday laptop deals here, of course, as soon as they drop. However, some retailers are better than others for laptop discounts, and it can be helpful to know which online stores are good for what.

We've listed the retailers we most recommend shopping at for laptop deals over Black Friday - they're worth browsing in the run-up, to get a feel for current, pre-deal pricing on any machines you're interested in.

US:
Amazon: hand-picked laptop deals starting at $129.99 (opens in new tab)
Best Buy: save up to $300 on selected Intel-powered laptops (opens in new tab)
Dell: save up to $1,000 on Vostro laptops alongside big XPS savings (opens in new tab)
HP: save up to $300 on Spectre, Pavilion and more laptops (opens in new tab)
Newegg: up to $750 off a range of great laptops (opens in new tab)
Walmart: record-low prices from $98 on Chromebooks and Windows laptops (opens in new tab)

UK:
Amazon: up to 47% off laptops (opens in new tab)
Argos: budget laptops starting from just £199 (opens in new tab)
Currys: save up to £200 on laptops from HP, Asus, Acer and Microsoft (opens in new tab)
Dell: up to £300 off Inspiron and XPS laptops (opens in new tab)
Laptops Direct: specialist retailer with discounts of up to 20% on laptops (opens in new tab)

What Black Friday laptop deals do we expect in 2022?

We're in an interesting time for laptops, and that will have an influence on what kind of deals we can expect during Black Friday 2022. With 12th generation Intel Core processors becoming more popular in laptops, we're seeing an influx of new models sporting the CPUs, and this could mean laptops with 11th generation or older processors will get some tasty price cuts as retailers make way for newer models.

This is good news for consumers, as while 12th gen CPUs are certainly very good, 11th and 10th CPUs were no slouches either, so you could pick up an excellent laptop for a great price.

Meanwhile, Apple has taken the rare step of continuing to sell the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) alongside the newer MacBook Air (M2, 2022). Apple usually discontinues the older model when a newer one is launched, but it's keeping the M1 version as a more affordable alternative to the M2 model. So, we're hoping that we'll see plenty of Black Friday MacBook Air deals for the M1 model, which remains an excellent laptop.

Nvidia has also announced new desktop graphics cards, the RTX 4090 and two versions of the RTX 4080. While these are only for desktop gaming PCs, it does suggest that we may see RTX 4000 laptop graphics cards soon - and that could mean existing gaming laptops could get price cuts on Black Friday.

Last year's best Black Friday laptop deals

One of the most effective ways to get a feel for which laptops will be discounted this year is to look back at the best Black Friday laptop deals from last year. So what did we see?

Here you'll find a roundup of last year's most exciting Black Friday laptop deals. On each one, we've left the price, as well as our opinions on the deal at the time. Use it to build a clear picture of the sorts of products that are discounted over Black Friday, and which retailers were leading the charge.

US: The best Black Friday laptop deals last year

UK: The best Black Friday laptop deals last year

How can I get the best laptop Black Friday deals?

(Image credit: Future)

What specs should I look for when buying a laptop on Black Friday?

When you're browsing through Black Friday laptop deals, be aware that a lot of laptop manufacturers and retailers are trying to get rid of old stock. You'll see a laptop deal that cuts a huge chunk off the original price, only to find that it has a processor that's three years old. That's not necessarily a deal-breaker – even with an Intel Core i7-8500U, you should be able to get some work done.

But keep in mind the current generations of laptop hardware. Intel processors should have either a 10 or an 11 in front of their model number – like the Intel Core i7-10710U. That said, 9th-generation processors should still be able to get the job done. Don't buy an 8th-generation or older Intel Core processor unless it's a seriously deep discount, though, because that will massively hurt any resale value the machine will have, plus can potentially mean sluggish performance, depending on what you use it for.

Things are fairly stable in the realm of Black Friday MacBook deals. Essentially, the biggest choice you'll need to make is what size hard drive to go for. The smallest options are usually more than enough for general use but definitely look for an offer on the larger sizes that could double your storage for very little extra money.

Finally, a lot of Black Friday laptop deals will try to sell you a laptop without enough RAM. As a general rule of thumb, you should shoot for at least 8GB of RAM on a Windows laptop, and 16GB if you plan on doing any heavy work on it. If you're buying a Black Friday Chromebook deal, you can get away with 4GB, but 8GB is definitely a boon. 

What about Black Friday gaming laptop deals?

If you're buying a gaming laptop, aim for one with a current-generation Nvidia GPU, too. The Nvidia GeForce 30-series graphics chips are the current top-end, and will let you power ray-tracing in games. However, there is the older RTX 2060, GTX 1660 Ti, and even cheaper GPUs like the GTX 1650, which will still happily chug along quite nicely at 1080p gaming, albeit at lower settings.

Some of the heftiest price cuts may be on machines with these specs, so they could be more than worth it - just remember they aren't quite the latest models though. As with normal laptops, generous helpings on RAM and SSD capacities are also very useful for gaming laptops - especially if you're planning on having multiple games installed at once. For more advice, take a look at our Black Friday gaming laptop deals page.

The 3 best laptops to look out for on Black Friday

(Image credit: Apple)

As we had hoped, the new Apple MacBook Air (M2, 2022) is the best laptop you can currently buy, improving on Apple's previous model (which is still on this list), in a range of important ways.

It's got a brand-new design that gives it a more modern feel, while making it thinner and lighter, and in our review, we loved the fact that it also features a larger, brighter, screen.

There's even more good additions with this new model, including a larger Touch ID sensor for logging in with your fingerprint, and a 1080p webcam, which makes the new MacBook Air a brilliant laptop for people who make a lot of video calls - and these days, that's most of us. Meanwhile, the new MagSafe charging port makes topping up the battery of the new MacBook Air easy, safe and fast.

The insides of the MacBook Air are just as revolutionary as the outside, with the powerful new M2 chip offering excellent performance for a range of tasks such as 4K video editing. The MacBook Air (M2, 2022)'s battery life is also absolutely fantastic, lasting over 16 hours in our tests.

However, it is more expensive than the previous model - by quite a bit, so if you're looking for something more affordable, consider the still-excellent MacBook Air (M1, 2020), which will likely come down in price for Black Friday 2022.

Make sure you check out all the best MacBook Air deals and sales available now before you buy.

Read the full review: MacBook Air (M2, 2022)

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The brilliant Lenovo IdeaPad Duet Chromebook proves how good modern Chromebooks are these days. It can be used as a laptop or a tablet, and it's backed up by some very impressive specs.

Is it a Chromebook or is it a tablet? Well, luckily, you won’t have to decide with the brilliant Lenovo IdeaPad Duet Chromebook. True to its name, this Chromebook delivers two form factors in one, while utilizing the versatility of the Chrome OS and setting you back much less than many of the top Windows tablets out there. 

Like all the best Chromebooks, its battery packs an incredibly long life of almost 22 hours – so you could pull an all-nighter, work through the day and mid-afternoon, and you’ll still pass out before it runs out of juice. Chromebooks usually drop in price during Black Friday, so this is definitely a laptop that's worth keeping an eye on.

Read the full review: Lenovo IdeaPad Duet Chromebook 

(Image credit: Apple)

The Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) remains easily the best value laptop money can buy right now. Thanks to the revolutionary ARM-based Apple M1 chip that powers the MacBook Air, this is a stunning achievement: a thin and light laptop that offers great performance, even with 4K video editing, while also offering incredible battery life. 

Prices for the MacBook Air have stabilised around the $900 / £900 mark over recent months, though it has dipped below this by $50 / £50 for short periods of time. With the newer, more expensive, MacBook Air (M2, 2022) now out, we're keeping an eye out for even bigger discounts on one of our favorite laptops over Black Friday.

Read the full review: MacBook Air (M1, 2020)

• This year’s Black Friday laptop deals have officially finished. Black Friday 2022 (opens in new tab) doesn't start until November 25, but there are still plenty of discounts to be found now. We’ve got today’s lowest prices here, and we’re expecting more offers in the Boxing Day sales (opens in new tab) (or after Christmas sales (opens in new tab) if you’re in the US).Stay tuned for our pro predictions for the best Black Friday laptop deals in 2022 - they'll be coming in the new year. In the meantime, here's a recap of what happened this year...