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The best back-to-school laptop deals

Major discounts on eight great laptops for students.

Justin Jaffe Managing editor
Justin Jaffe is the Managing Editor for CNET Money. He has more than 20 years of experience publishing books, articles and research on finance and technology for Wired, IDC and others. He is the coauthor of Uninvested (Random House, 2015), which reveals how financial services companies take advantage of customers -- and how to protect yourself. He graduated from Skidmore College with a B.A. in English Literature, spent 10 years in San Francisco and now lives in Portland, Maine.
Expertise Credit cards, Loans, Banking, Mortgages, Taxes, Cryptocurrency, Insurance, Investing. Credentials
  • Coauthor of Uninvested (Random House, 2015)
Justin Jaffe
3 min read
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Óscar Gutiérrez/CNET

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 LenovoAcer and Asus

Watch this: Back-to-school MacBooks get faster, cheaper

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.

Sarah Tew/CNET

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. 

Read the Samsung Chromebook Plus V2 review.

Sarah Tew/CNET

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.

Read the Lenovo Ideapad 330 preview.

Sarah Tew/CNET

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.

Read the Surface Pro 6 review.

Óscar Gutiérrez/CNET

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

Read the MacBook Air (2018) review.

Sarah Tew/CNET

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.

Read the Acer Predator Helios 300 review.

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. 

Read the Razer Blade Stealth review.

Sarah Tew/CNET

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.

Read the Alienware 17 R4 review.

Read more: Best resume builder of 2020

Sarah Tew/CNET

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. 

Read the Asus Zephyrus S review.

Originally posted earlier, updated to verify that sales are still in effect at time of last publication.