Summer is a fantastic time to replace your current machine, not only are back to school options on the shelves but Amazon Prime Day laptop deals can save you plenty on a new browser. However, the best deals aren't always the ones that save you the most, or offer the lowest prices. Finding the best value over Prime Day is a whole other skill - and it's based on working out exactly what you should be paying for a new laptop during this year's sale event. Thankfully, we've been covering these offers for years and we know exactly what a truly good discount looks like.
We've broken down our guide to exactly what you should be paying based on use-case. If you're just looking for a casual web browser, word processor, and streaming device you'll want to check out our tips for buying an 'everyday' laptop on Prime Day. If you need to take more notes, multi-task between more demanding programs, and run more complex software, you'll find our guide to 2024's work / study laptops just below. Of course, we're also helping you work out how much you should be paying for a gaming laptop this Prime Day based on your needs as well.
Balancing specs, use-case, features, and price is a tricky act. You'll need to have a few models in mind to get a head start on this year's laptop deals, but it's also important to remain flexible. You could spot an even better on a machine you had never considered before, or there may be better value in jumping slightly above or below your budget.
We're helping you work out exactly how much you should be paying for a laptop (or gaming laptop) on Prime Day right here, weighing up common use-cases with specs and features to make sure you're getting the right machine at the right price in July.
Everyday use
If you're buying a laptop for everyday home use - browsing the web, streaming entertainment, replying to emails, then you really don't need to spend more than $300 / £300 during larger sales events. You will be looking for a laptop or Chromebook with an Intel Celeron, Intel Pentium Silver, MediaTek, AMD A4, or AMD A6 processor, 4GB RAM, and between 64GB and 128GB of storage (though you'll likely be able to find a 128GB SSD in this price range during sales).
At the top end of that spectrum, and on particularly strong discounts, you may find a laptop with an Intel Core i3 or Ryzen 3 processor and 8GB RAM. It's also worth noting that you'll be able to get away with less storage if you opt for a Chromebook, as Google's machines are built to run from the Cloud first and foremost - you'll be storing the majority of your files online.
You'll spot a lot of 11-inch laptops running for super low prices over Prime Day, but we'd recommend being wary. You can often pick up a 14-inch model for around $30 - $40 / £30 - £40 more and if you're going to be spending a lot of time on your computer, going for the extra display space is going to be well worth it.
Which budget laptops should you buy on Prime Day?
We'd recommend keeping a close eye on the Acer Chromebook Spin 11, HP Stream (14-inch), and Dell Inspiron 15 3000 over Prime Day this year. All of these laptops have a long history of taking some serious price cuts during larger sales events and we expect them all to be available for under $300 / £300 (considerably under in some cases). You'll find all of today's latest prices just below.
Work / Study
If you're hunting for a new work or study laptop this Prime Day, we'd recommend spending between $300 and $500 / £300 and £500. That will get you a solid processor (Intel Core i3 / i5 or Ryzen 5), 8GB RAM, and 256GB to 512GB of SSD storage space. If you're going to be multi-tasking between more demanding programs, we'd recommend spending a little more and opting for 16GB RAM, but for the vast majority of users these specs will comfortably see you through.
The specs on offer will vary across this price range - at $300 / £300 you'll be lucky to find 8GB RAM with a 256GB SSD, though you might be able to sacrifice storage space and opt for 128GB to keep that price low. This is a very mix and match category - if you'll need a particularly speedy machine you might be able to upgrade to a higher quality processor by dropping fancier features like a fingerprint reader or a larger display, for example. However, a stock i3 / i5 processor, 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD laptop shouldn't cost you more than $400 / £400 on Prime Day and will see you through note-taking, a hefty consortium of Chrome tabs, and offer long-lasting battery life.
We also start to see 2-in-1 designs entering the shelves at this price range. It's worth considering these laptop-tablet hybrids if you're looking to work or study. The additional flexibility offered by the touchscreen tablet design can come in particularly handy for certain web applications and offers a great form factor for a Netflix binge as well. You will likely be dropping a few specs we would regularly expect to see at this price point for this luxury, though.
Which work / study laptops should you buy on Prime Day?
The Acer Aspire 5, HP Pavilion 14, Asus Vivobook 15, and Lenovo IdeaPad 3 regularly offer the best value for those after a mid-range laptop for work or study. These machines often do away with more premium features like fingerprint scanners or high refresh rate / resolution displays to concentrate more on internal components. As a result, we regularly see them below $500 / £500 during sales.
Gaming
If you're interested in taking advantage of this year's Prime Day gaming laptop deals, it's worth taking stock of what kinds of games you're looking to play. If your library is full of older, less demanding games or indie titles, then you won't need much more than an RTX 4060 mobile GPU. However, if you're going to be using your gaming laptop as your main driver for the latest and greatest games, it's worth investing a little more in your choice of graphics card by moving up to an RTX 4070 or even RTX 4080 device, and boosting your RAM.
It's also worth noting that 2024's 14th generation Intel processors aren't offering too much of a performance boost over last year's 13th generation models. That means you'll find more discounts on 2023 devices, only running at very marginally lower performance thresholds than their 2024 counterparts.
If you're after a budget rig you should aim to spend between $600 and $800 / £600 and £800 - we see RTX 4060 machines in this price range regularly - though you will be picking up an i5 or Ryzen 5 processor at the cheaper end of this price scale. These days you'll find 16GB RAM as standard this far down the price range, but you could still find smaller 512GB SSDs installed.
Mid-range gaming laptop deals can sit from $1,000 to $2,000 / £1,000 to £2,000 - and this is where we're starting to see more and more RTX 4070 devices falling. A strong rig in this price range will offer an i7 or Ryzen 7 processor, 16GB RAM, and 512GB - 2TB SSDs for this price point.
The upper mid-range category bumps us up to not just high-end RTX 40-Series graphics cards (RTX 4080 and RTX 4090), but also introduces new features like vibrant Mini LED or OLED displays and boosted thermal tech. These rigs are usually found on sale for between $2,000 and $3,500 / £2,000 and £3,500. You should be aiming for around 32GB RAM and at least 1TB or 2TB SSDs here - as well as a high refresh rate display to really let that graphics card shine.
Which gaming laptops should you buy on Prime Day?
The Gigabyte G5, Asus TUF Dash F15, Acer Nitro 5, Dell G15, and Lenovo Legion 5 Pro have been mainstays on the discounts shelf for a while now, so we would recommend keeping a close eye on these cheaper / mid-range models during this year's Prime Day sales. However, if you're looking to up your budget a little more, we'd recommend watching out for savings on the MSI GP66 Leopard and Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 as well.
We're also getting you prepped for all the Prime Day PC deals coming our way, as well as Prime Day iPad deals if you're after something a little more flexible. However, if you're in the market for a much bigger screen, we'd also recommend keeping an eye on upcoming Prime Day TV deals as well.
