Technology

Prime Day laptop deals: Two gems aside, your shopping cart can stay empty for now

a top-down view of someone typing on an apple macbook pro

UPDATE: Jul. 9, 2024, 1:55 p.m. EDT This story has been updated to add a few new deals and reflect current pricing and availability.

The best early Prime Day laptop deals at a glance:

Best MacBook deal
Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M3 Pro)

$ 1,699 at Amazon (save $ 300)

the 14-inch apple macbook pro powered by an m3 pro chip


Best Chromebook deal
HP Chromebook Plus x360 14b-cd0010nr

$ 389.99 at Amazon (save $ 170)

the HP Chromebook Plus x360 14b-cd0010nr

On any given day, Amazon’s best laptop deals include some markdowns on Apple MacBooks… and not much else. The retail giant lists a lot of older and/or discontinued PCs that aren’t super worth it. Amazon also has a penchant for inflating sticker prices, making discounts look steeper than they really are.

Those factors, combined with the heavy presence of sketchy third-party sellers among Amazon’s laptop listings, make it one of the worst places to buy a laptop on the internet (again, unless you’re shopping for MacBooks). We usually recommend shopping at Best Buy or going directly to the manufacturer’s online store instead.

The fine print here is that Amazon usually gets its act together for major savings events, including its flagship Prime Day sale. When such sales are live, it’s way easier to find heftier discounts on new laptops shipped and sold by Amazon itself. (That said, it still behooves savvy shoppers to cross-check prices elsewhere, just in case.)

As we head into Prime Day season (it’s confirmed for July 16 and 17), I’ll be keeping track of the very best Prime Day laptop deals here. So far, I’m not seeing many worthwhile discounts aside from one upgraded MacBook Pro and a cheap new Chromebook Plus. Unless you need to replace an older device ASAP, I’d wait to add anything to your cart until Prime Day proper, as prices will surely drop further once the sale officially starts — especially with other retailers hosting competing events. I’ll update this story to let you know if/when that changes, so check back often.

Note: All newly added deals are marked with a , while deals with a 🔥 have dropped to an all-time low price. I’ve cross-checked all pricing with manufacturers’ sites to make sure the deals are legit. (If Amazon had the wrong MSRP, I corrected it and adjusted the discount accordingly.) I’ve also weeded out laptops sold by third-party sellers — if they have “Ships from/Sold by Amazon.com” underneath their “Buy Now” button, we’re cool.

Finally, it bears mentioning that these offers aren’t officially marked as “Early Prime Day Deals,” but they were all live and ready to shop on Amazon ahead of its sale at the time of writing.

Early Prime Day laptop deals to watch

Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M3 Pro) 🔥

$ 1,699.00 at Amazon
$ 1,999.00 Save $ 300.00

Why we like it

Apple’s latest MacBook Pro has a virtually unrivaled battery life, enough oomph to handle heavy tasks (like photo and video editing), and an ultra-bright Liquid Retina XDR display with an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz. This 14-inch M3 Pro configuration, a step up from the base-level M3 version (a Mashable Choice Award winner), has an ample 18GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

Amazon’s put it on sale for $ 1,699, which is $ 300 off its usual MSRP and its lowest price to date. For comparison’s sake, it’s currently marked down to $ 1,904 at Best Buy, but only for paid members of its My Best Buy program. (Amazon isn’t paywalling its deal behind a Prime membership — not yet, at least.)

More MacBook Deals

Why we like it

As one of several newer Chromebook Plus models, this hybrid HP laptop comes equipped with a slew of fresh AI tools from Google. (That includes a “Help me write” text generator, generative wallpapers and video backgrounds, and Google Photos’ Magic Editor.) Under its hood, you’ll find an Intel Core i3 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of Universal Flash Storage. It’s basic but workable.

I’d normally tell you to buy this guy from Walmart, as it retails for $ 429 at the big-box store. However, Amazon has it on sale for the new all-time low of $ 389.99 ahead of Prime Day. That’s 30% off its normal sticker price of $ 559.99 there.

Windows laptop deals

Gaming laptop deals

Mashable