Why You Can Trust CNET The best back-to-school laptop deals
Major discounts on eight great laptops for students.
- Coauthor of Uninvested (Random House, 2015)
With Labor Day behind us, we're in the thick of back-to-school season -- and retailers are offering up some of their best deals since Black Friday. This is a great time to pick up a new laptop.
Some of our top college laptop picks are discounted right now. Best Buy has the 2018 MacBook Air for $950. You can currently pick up the Microsoft Surface Pro 6 for less than $800, Type Cover included. Best Buy is selling the Razer Blade Stealth -- our top Windows alternative to the MacBook Pro -- for $500 off. And there are good deals to be had on some higher-powered machines from Lenovo, Acer and Asus.
We've rounded up some of the best deals below. Check them out.
Note that CNET may get a share of revenue from the sale of the products featured on this page.
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I'm liking the look of this higher-end configuration of the Plus V2: You get the faster Core m3 processor, 64GB of hard drive space and the 12-inch HD display that can be used in laptop or tablet mode.
This is a solid Lenovo laptop chock full of higher-end components. For under $700, you get a massive 17.3-inch HD display, an Intel Core i7-8550U CPU and Nvidia GeForce MX150 graphics chip, 16GB of RAM and a huge 1TB hard drive.
The king of the Windows tablets, heavily discounted. For just under $800, you get a solid array of components -- an Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage capacity -- plus the Type Cover, which normally costs an additional $89. This is a solid Prime Day-caliber deal that's still in full effect.
The 2018 version of the MacBook Air is nearly identical to the brand-new one that debuted in July -- except that it doesn't have Apple's True Tone display technology. And you get an Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of memory and a 128GB SSD that's faster than the one in the newer model.
For less than $1,100, you get a 15.6-inch FHD display, an Intel Core i7-8750H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU, 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a 256GB SSD. It's a good deal on some entry-level gaming hardware.
Straight up, this laptop is among the best Windows alternatives to a MacBook Pro. Best Buy's $500 discount makes it a certified bargain. Note that the step-up version, with the 512GB SSD, is also on sale for $1,500.
The Alienware 17 is built like a tank and comes equipped with well-designed lighting scheme and controls. This configuration, which includes a newer eighth-gen Intel Core i7-8750H processor, 8GB of DDR4 SDRAM and a 1TB hard drive (plus a 256GB SSD), is powered by Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1060 GPU.
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I reviewed the Asus Zephyrus S last year and loved its 15.6-inch HD display and backlit keyboard. And the GeForce GTX 1070 GPU is potent enough to handle just about any contemporary game. At this price, it's an absolute no-brainer for anyone looking for a powerful machine with a super sleek profile.
Originally posted earlier, updated to verify that sales are still in effect at time of last publication.
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