Why you should wait until Amazon Prime Day to buy a laptop

It’ll be well worth the wait

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If you’re in the market for a new laptop, you’re in luck - if you’re willing to hold out until this year’sPrime Day deals.

Set for June 21 and 22 this year,AmazonPrime Day is typically a major mid-year event that sees deep price cuts on all kinds of products from the online retailer, with incredible deals on everything from clothes to books to furniture to electronics - and even computers.

While you might spend more than $1,000 / £1,000 / AU$1,500 on a new laptop in normal times – or even more – Amazon Prime Day is the perfect opportunity to upgrade your machine without breaking the bank.

So if you’re fixing to drop some cash on one of thebest laptops, read on to find out what kind of deals to look for this Amazon Prime Day.

Laptops with eighth-generation Intel processors

With the release of 11th-generationIntelTiger LakeCPUs, major retailers are looking to clear out their existing inventory of older laptops, which are perfect opportunities to snag some incredible deals.

While you might be worried about getting a laptop with last generation’s tech - much less the generation before the last generation - 10th-generation Intel processors aren’t necessarily that much more powerful that their immediate predecessors.

WithIntel discontinuing productionon their eighth-generation CPUs last year, you can expect that any remaining inventory of these laptops to go on sale for absolutely fire sale prices during Amazon Prime Day. And with 12th-gen Intel Alder Lake coming later this year, you might even see some great deals on 10th-gen Intel laptops as well.

While Intel’s 10th-genComet LakeandIce Lakeprocessors are faster than their 8th-generationWhiskey Lakesilicon, unless you are doing a ridiculous amount of multitasking, the multiple cores on the Whiskey Lake CPUs should be more than adequate for most people. If you’re lucky enough to find a great deal on an 10th-gen Intel laptop as well, they are still some of the best performing laptops going right now.

So, unless you are a laptop enthusiast who wants the highest end hardware available, an 8th- or 10th-gen Intel laptop will still be an incredibly powerful machine at a cut rate price on Amazon Prime Day, making it well worth your time.

Still holding out on buying a Chromebook? Amazon Prime Day might be the perfect time to take the plunge

Chromebooks are still a tough sell for some people - especially those coming from more robust laptops like theDell XPS 15or anApple MacBook Air, butGoogle’s Chrome OS is the perfect lightweight OS for everyday use - usually at a much lower price than its rivals.

On Amazon Prime Day, you can expect to pay even less for some of thebest Chromebookson the market, making it a perfect opportunity for late adopters to give some of the most popular models from major manufacturers likeLenovoand Asus another look.

With access to the entire Android app ecosystem, Google productivity apps like Google Docs and Sheets, and a working Linux kernel built into Chrome OS, Chromebooks have as much utility as most people would ever really need, all without the expensive hardware overhead .

Best of all, you don’t need to sacrificeallthat powerful hardware to enjoy a Chromebook. While some models like theLenovo IdeaPad Duetare tiny wonders that are a little light on the specs, some - like theAsus Chromebook Flip- pack Intel Comet Lake and Tiger Lake processors, plenty of RAM, and PCIe NVMe M.2 SSDs.

They might not be the gaming laptop of your dreams, but for the price, they’re the perfect utility PC for basic office tasks, video streaming, and web surfing, all for a ridiculously low price. Plus, with the growth in streaming services likeGoogle StadiaandNvidia GeForce Now, so long as you have a fast internet connection, you might even be able to get some of the latest AAA games on them.

Best of all, if our experience with Amazon Prime Day in the past is any indication, these already incredibly priced systems will be even cheaper, making them a no-brainer.

Gaming laptops are prime candidates for Amazon Prime Day deals

WithNvidiarecent launch of the GeForce RTX 3000-series mobile GPUs, there’s going to be a real push to move last-gen gaming laptops to make room for more powerful refreshes.

While you shouldn’t expect laptops withGeForce RTX 2080 SuperGPUs to suddenly take major price cuts, you never know with Amazon Prime Day, but there’s almost certainly going to be some laptops with slightly less-powerful GPUs that will see some steep price cuts.

Some of thebest gaming laptopswe’ve seen lately feature the less powerful GeForce GTX 1650 Ti GPU, like theGigabyte Aorus 5, or Radeon graphics, like theDell G5 15 SE.

With a healthy mix of Intel andAMDCPUs, there were already some very affordable gaming laptops out there before Amazon Prime Day, but they should see even more drastic price cuts on October 13 – making it a perfect time to buy a laptop to game when you’re on the go.

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John (He/Him) is the Components Editor here at TechRadar and he is also a programmer, gamer, activist, and Brooklyn College alum currently living in Brooklyn, NY.

Named by the CTA as a CES 2020 Media Trailblazer for his science and technology reporting, John specializes in all areas of computer science, including industry news, hardware reviews, PC gaming, as well as general science writing and the social impact of the tech industry.

You can find him online on Threads @johnloeffler.

Currently playing: Baldur’s Gate 3 (just like everyone else).

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