Why You Can Trust CNET HP spring sale: Save $300 on laptops and get 20% off accessories
Get a 15-inch Pavilion or a 17-inch Omen laptop at a deep discount, and save on a dock and other accessories.
Best Buy currently is running a number of discounts on midrange laptops, but HP has a deal on mainstream Pavilion laptop that's better than anything you'll find at Best Buy. And if you want to use your current self-quarantine situation as a reason to pick up a gaming laptop, I also found a great deal on an HP Omen system. In addition to laptop deals, HP is offering a 20% discount on accessories with a PC purchase. Let's dive in.
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The AMD-based Pavilion 15z is priced to move and much lower in cost than its Intel-based cousin, the Pavilion 15t. The baseline Pavilion 15z is only $590 right now and features an AMD Ryzen 7 3700U, 12GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. The Ryzen 7 is on par with the Intel Core i7, and you'll typically find Core i5-based systems at this price. You'll also find similarly priced laptops with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, so getting 12GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage is a boon. This model is customizable, and I would spend $60 to upgrade the resolution of the 15.6-inch display from 1,366x768 to 1,920x1,080 pixels, which would bring the price to a still very reasonable $650. With the coronavirus outbreak disrupting normal life and shipping times, the Pavilion 15z currently has a ship date of May 22.
The baseline configuration of HP's 17.3-inch gaming laptop costs $1,300 and supplies a ninth-gen Intel Core i7-9750H CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics. That's a good price for that component lineup, but I'd humbly suggest one upgrade -- ditching the previous-generation GeForce GTX graphics in favor of current-gen GeForce RTX graphics. Specifically, I'd outfit the Omen 17t with the GeForce RTX 2060, the entry-level GPU in the RTX line, which adds only $130 to the bill for a total of $1,430. HP currently estimates the Omen 17T will ship on May 20.
This compact dock connects to your laptop's USB-C port and supplies all the connectivity your home office needs: HDMI and DisplayPort ports, an Ethernet jack and four USB Type A ports. With it, you can connect to multiple displays, keep a keyboard and mouse connected and trade your weak Wi-Fi signal for a wired network connection. Along with other HP accessories, it is 20% off with the purchase of a PC or another accessory.