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I track laptop deals for a living. These are the 4 Cyber Monday sales I cant stop thinking about.

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the microsoft surface laptop 7 against a pink and orange gradient background with faint line art. there's a black friday/cyber monday logo in the lower right corner

UPDATE: Dec. 1, 2024, 1:59 p.m. EST I’ve added one new deal on a Lenovo LOQ from Best Buy’s Cyber Monday sale. It’s the cheapest gaming laptop I’ve spotted so far.

The best early Cyber Monday laptop deals at a glance:
Best MacBook deal
Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M3, 16GB RAM, 256GB)

$ 844 at Amazon (save $ 255)

the 13-inch m3 apple macbook air

Best Windows laptop deal
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, 13-inch (Snapdragon X Elite, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD)

$ 1,499 at Amazon and the Microsoft Store (save $ 500.99)

the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7

Best gaming laptop deal
Alienware m16 R2 (Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD)

$ 1,299.99 (save $ 400 at Dell.com)

the Alienware m16 R2

Best Chromebook deal
Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus (Intel Core 3 100U, 8GB RAM, 256GB UFS)

$ 599.99 (save $ 100)

the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus

I’m Haley, a Senior Shopping Reporter at Mashable who tracks laptop deals on a constant basis. When Cyber Weekend rolls around, my job gets incredibly easy.

Major tech retailers and brands like Amazon, Best Buy, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, and Samsung took full advantage of Black Friday’s unusually late timing this year, offering deep discounts on flagship laptops all November long. With Cyber Monday now nearly upon us, all-time lows on some of Mashable’s best-reviewed machines are still up for grabs.

Cyber Weekend laptop deals are so competitive that even the famously stingy Apple Store gets involved. This year, it’s doling out gift cards worth up to $ 200 with the purchase of select M2 and M3 MacBook Airs through Dec. 2 (aka Cyber Monday proper). I think most shoppers will prefer the “save money and go” approach of regular dollars-off discounts elsewhere, but this could be an option for someone who’s deep in the Apple ecosystem or planning to buy other Apple gadgets.

SEE ALSO: The Cyber Monday deals we’re already obsessing over

I realize that a new laptop is one of the biggest one-off purchases someone can make all year, even if they score a great deal, so I spend hours researching and vetting discounts. (I’ll sometimes list different MSRPs than major retailers if I find different numbers on manufacturers’ or brands’ direct websites.) I steer clear of models that aren’t reasonably future-proofed, as well as laptop deals that from third-party sellers at Amazon or Walmart. They may use different customer service or have different return policies than the sites they sell on, and I don’t think expensive purchases mesh well with riskiness.

Read on for a closer look at four of the best early Cyber Monday laptop deals I wouldn’t pass up, plus more options across the MacBook, Windows, gaming, and Chromebook categories. Bookmark this page and come back later if you don’t see any models with the specs you need, as I’ll be updating the list continuously with new deals and price checks as sales continue.

Note: All newly added or updated deals have been marked with a ✨, while struck-through deals were either sold out or expired at the time of writing.

Best MacBook deal

the 13-inch m3 apple macbook air

Credit: Apple

Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M3, 16GB RAM, 256GB)

$ 844.00 at Amazon
$ 1,099.00 Save $ 255.00

Why we like it

Read Mashable’s full review of the M3 Apple MacBook Air.

Mashable Tech Editor Kim Gedeon was impressed by the M3 Air’s peppy performance, satisfying keyboard, vivid webcam, and dual-display support (if you close its lid), rating it a 4.3/5. It may not look all that different from its older M-series predecessors — there is a new midnight finish option — but we think it’s the best MacBook for most people, especially now that Apple’s bumped its base RAM from 8GB to 16GB.

The starting configuration with 256GB of storage is on sale on Amazon for only $ 844, which is 23% off its $ 1,099 MSRP, its biggest discount ever, and $ 5 better than Best Buy‘s Black Friday deal on the exact same MacBook. (It’s now $ 899 there.) This also puts less than $ 100 between it and the M2 Air, so opting for the current-gen model over the cheapest model out there feels like an easier, more obvious choice.

Just note that shipping times for all four finishes are pushed into December and January. I think it’s worth the wait at this price.

More MacBook deals

Best Windows laptop deal

the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7

Credit: Microsoft

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, 13-inch (Snapdragon X Elite, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD)

$ 1,499.00 at Amazon and the Microsoft Store
$ 1,999.99 Save $ 500.99

Why we like it

Read Mashable’s full review of the 13-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 7.

Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC has an even longer battery life than the new M4 MacBook Pros — it lasted nearly 23 hours in our testing — and it comes with AI features that “make Windows fun again,” Gedeon wrote. She gave it a 4.8/5; it’s a Mashable Choice Award winner and our current favorite Windows laptop for most people, barring any ARM-related app compatibility issues.

The upgraded configuration that Gedeon tested is a 13-inch model featuring a Snapdragon X Elite processor, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage, and its price fell several times throughout the month before it settled on a new record low last week. I’m calling this one the “Stop! He’s already dead!” special.

In early November, Amazon put this Surface Laptop 7 back on sale at its October Prime Day price of $ 1,699.99. A week before Black Friday, Best Buy decided to match that deal — only for it to immediately drop by an extra $ 100 at Amazon and the Microsoft Store. A few days later, Amazon added $ 50 to its discount, which Microsoft eventually matched. Finally, on Black Friday proper, Amazon and Microsoft hammered the last nail in the coffin by bringing it down to an unprecedented $ 1,499 (or 25% off). It was still stuck at $ 1,699.99 at Best Buy the last time I checked. Poor guy.

For what it’s worth, the Microsoft Store offers price protection if you bought the Surface Laptop 7 there at one of its previous sale prices. Amazon does not, but you do have the option of returning it and rebuying it for cheaper. The retailer’s extended holiday return policy applies to most purchases made between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31.

More Windows laptop deals

2-in-1 laptops

Best gaming laptop deal

the Alienware m16 R2

Credit: Alienware

Alienware m16 R2 (Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD)

$ 1,299.99 at Dell.com
$ 1,699.99 Save $ 400.00

Why we like it

Read Mashable’s full review of the Alienware m16 R2.

This premium 16-incher is the best gaming laptop we tried in 2024 (and another Mashable Choice Award winner), earning a score of 4.5/5 from Gedeon. She was impressed by its ample mid-range power, its “springy” keyboard, and its solid build quality, as well as its “seamless” support of Nvidia’s Advanced Optimus feature. That lets it switch between its discrete and integrated GPUs “to handle both play and work,” she wrote.

Our testing configuration featured an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU, GeForce RTX 4070 graphics, 16GB of memory, and a terabyte of storage. It’s back at full price at Best Buy after dropping to $ 1,299.99 there on Black Friday (or $ 600 off), a popular deal that sold out several times over the weekend. However, another model with a slightly better processor and a slightly worse GPU is on sale for the same price on Dell’s website during its Cyber Monday sale — a $ 400 savings.

More gaming laptop deals

Best Chromebook deal

the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus

Credit: Samsung

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus (Intel Core 3 100U, 8GB RAM, 256GB UFS)

$ 599.99 at Best Buy
$ 699.99 Save $ 100.00

Why we like it

Announced in October, this 15.6-inch Samsung Galaxy machine is the thinnest, lightest Chromebook Plus model on the market and the only one with an AMOLED display. (Translation: It’s super vibrant.) “As someone who got a chance to get some hands-on experience with the Galaxy Chromebook Plus, I can confirm that it is razor thin,” Gedeon wrote. “I don’t even know how they managed to pack any internals inside.” It has an Intel Core 3 100U processor, 8GB of memory, and 256GB of UFS storage, and supports newer Gemini AI features like Live Translate.

Typically $ 699.99, Best Buy currently has it on sale for $ 100 off — its first-ever discount.

More Chromebook deals

Mashable

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