Tariffs Are Here. What's Still A Good Deal?

Introduction

Look, other countries have had to deal with inflated laptop prices for some time now, but this price creep is beyond out-of-control. The good news is that you don’t have to put up with it. There are a ton of laptops out there from last year that will give you 90% of what these new ones do for half the price. So, today we're going to go through the laptops from 2024 that are still best in class and regularly go on massive sales. Check out our price tracker when you click on the laptop name and you can tell whether it's a good time to buy.

Thin & Light Laptops

HP Pavilion Aero 13

The HP Pavilion Aero 13 is a consistent favorite of ours. It's a very light and portable 13-inch laptop for a phenomenal price. It can regularly be found on sale for around $600. Unlike most laptops at this price point, it gets the basics right. Its keyboard is comfortable, its screen is good enough, and its processor has plenty of power for basic home and office use. You get an ample 16g of memory and 512g of storage. This laptop’s only real downsides are that it looks plain and feels a little cheap.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x

Now, if you are sticking to basic office applications and web browsing the Slim 7x is a pretty great option. It’s a good-looking laptop that feels premium, it performs really well, has a fantastic keyboard, has great battery life, and it has a large 14.5-inch display. In fact, its display happens to be the best OLED we've ever tested. Bright, high resolution, fast refresh rate, and no screen door effect. The Slim 7x can regularly be found for $799 and on occasion $749 which makes it one of the best deals of this entire video.

So, what’s the catch? Firstly, it’s a Qualcomm laptop that requires the ARM version of Windows. Several specialist applications and many games won’t run. Secondly its trackpad isn’t great. It requires a lot of force to click and that click is really loud. Honestly, its trackpad just cheapens the experience of this otherwise premium laptop. But, if you aren’t picky about trackpads, and you know you are sticking to apps like Microsoft Office, Zoom, web browsing, and that sort of thing? You are going to love this laptop.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 13

As Josh is fussy about trackpads, this one has a fantastic one and he even bought it for himself. It looks stunning, its screen is bright with a high enough resolution, its keyboard is one of the most comfortable out there, it feels well built, it is light and portable, and as we said, it has an excellent haptic trackpad. It can regularly be found on sale for $950 for the X Plus version. This is the one we recommend you get. We bought all of them and consider it the best value. For the ideal buyer of this laptop, you don’t need the extra performance of the X Elite version, and it just drains this laptop’s small battery faster, which leads me to its negatives.

Its battery life is a bit short even with the X Plus chip. It uses a Qualcomm processor that, like the Slim 7x, requires the ARM version of Windows. That is the main reason Josh can’t switch to the Surface Laptop 7 as his primary device. He plays League of Legends and it doesn't work on this laptop. Lastly, the Surface Laptop 7 can get warm to the touch.

By the way there is an Intel Lunar Lake version of this laptop that solves all 3 of the issues of the Qualcomm one. Unfortunately, though, it costs at least $300 more, likely more when this Qualcomm one is on such frequent sales, so we couldn't feature it in today’s article. Anyway, same deal as the Slim 7x: if you are sticking to basic office applications and web browsing, the Surface Laptop 7 is a premium laptop for a reasonable price.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition

So, what about if you want to avoid Qualcomm laptops? You just want a good Windows laptop for light use where everything works, and you don’t want to pay the ridiculous sticker price of the Surface Laptop 7 with Lunar Lake? Josh's favorite one is Lenovo’s Yoga Slim 7i, Aura edition. It is a larger 15.3-inch laptop but it gives you everything you want with no material issues. Its screen is great, it's bright, high resolution, with a fast refresh rate. Its trackpad is a bit better than the Slim 7x’s, and its keyboard is of a similar comfort level to that laptop. It uses Intel’s Lunar Lake processor, which is our favorite chip for thin and light laptops. It gives you long battery life, no heat or fan noise, all applications run, and it is snappy enough for these sort of buyers. Its main downside is its larger size and that it looks boring. But at $999 when on sale, it’s hard to pass this one up for what you get.

ASUS Zenbook S 14

If you do want something smaller that has that same Intel Lunar Lake processor, ASUS's Zenbook S 14 is the one to get. It’s extremely compact and lightweight, it looks stunning, it has fantastic battery life, and it has an OLED fast refresh rate display. It can regularly be found for $1100. Its main downside is that its display is very glossy and reflective, and its brightness just isn’t enough to combat this. So, this pick is one for someone who is primarily working in a darker environment.

HP OmniBook Ultra Flip

For light users, and especially students, we have the OmniBook Ultra Flip. It also includes an Intel Lunar Lake Processor. Compared to the Zenbook S 14 the Flip’s screen is a tad brighter, it has a haptic trackpad, and it is a 2-in-1 with touch and pen support. The Zenbook S 14 though is slighlty smaller and lighter, and does have longer battery life. Overall, the Flip is a really safe pick as it has minimal downsides, and it can regularly be found for around $1,000.

MacBook Air 13 M3

Before we move on from laptops for light users, we have to touch on the MacBook Air. The new M4 version was just announced. Overall, pretty disappointing update. It’s the same MacBook Air we’ve had for years, and they haven’t addressed its shortcomings: 60Hz display, low travel keyboard, pitiful starting storage at 256GB, lack of ports and their placement. But, what they did do is lower the price by $100. This has had the effect of making the older MacBook Air M3 a very good value pick. We’re seeing it for $300 off now, $800 for the 16GB RAM/256GB storage version, and $1,000 for the version with 512GB of storage. At those prices, it is a really reliable all-round premium laptop, with excellent integrated graphics. You’re going to be very happy with it, and we are willing to bet that those with light computing needs will notice no difference between the M3 and new M4 version. The M3 chip is already fast enough for light use, and it is built on TSMC 3nm just like the M4 chip. So, it will likely offer similar power efficiency and battery life. In fact, Apple even lists the battery life as the same as the prior version. What you will notice, though? The difference in their price.

Performance On-The-Go

HP OmniBook Ultra

This is a laptop we took a while to warm up to, as we initially preferred the 2-in-1 Flip version more. This one just didn't feel special by comparison. But, at its frequent sale price of $999 or even $899, we did a complete 180 on it. What this price gets you is mind-blowing. A powerful AMD Ryzen 9 Zen 5 processor and 32GB of memory. The performance of this laptop completely blows other small portable ones out of the water, and because its got an AMD chip all applications work. Its trade-offs are that it is heavy for a laptop with a 14-inch screen, its display only refreshes at 60Hz, and its keyboard feels a bit low travel. That being said, this is a great laptop for someone like a programmer or audio engineer who wants something very powerful, high quality, and is looking to spend around $1,000 or less.

Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5/5i 16

Now, if you want a laptop with dedicated graphics but are shopping on a tighter budget, we do like the 16-inch IdeaPad Pro 5 or 5i. The "i" indicates Intel and the other version is AMD. While certainly not a premium laptop, everything is good enough, and it comes with low end dedicated graphics for around $800-$900.

Zephyrus G14/G16

Next up is Asus’s Zephyrus G14 and G16 from 2024. Two very famous portable gaming laptops. They were completely redesigned last year and are now super compact, very light and feel very premium. Both have OLED screens and are powerful with dedicated graphics. The G14 with an RTX 4060 can be found for around $1,100 and the G16 with an RTX 4070 can be found for around $1,400. The biggest issue with both these laptops is their processors. The G14 from 2024 has an older Zen 4 processor, which isn’t as powerful and as efficient as the latest Zen 5 chips. This and how tiny the G14 is with its metallic heat conductive chassis means it feels very warm even in light use. When it comes to the G16 the cheaper models all have an older Intel Core Ultra Series 1, a.k.a. "Meteor Lake" chip in them. This chip is powerful, but it is inefficient. This means a little more heat and fan noise, and less battery life than newer processors from Intel or AMD. On that note, there are newer versions of both these laptops with better processors and even better graphics, but their pricing is nowhere near as good. Like all the laptops in this article, we feel you are getting 90% of those newer ones for a fraction of the price.

Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i

Next up is the Yoga Pro 9i, probably our favorite do-it-all performance laptop from 2024. It is larger and heavier than the G16 I just mentioned, the Yoga Pro looks dated by comparison, and its battery life is not great. But, when it comes to actually using the laptop? Boy, does it have a lot of pros. It has a fast refresh rate mini-led display, which looks crisp and stunning. Small text and code is just a joy to look at. Its keyboard is amazingly comfortable to type on, and it is very powerful. You can regularly find the RTX 4050 version on sale for $1,300 with 32GB of memory. The RTX 4060 version goes on sale for $1,500. If you are a programmer, a content creator, or someone who likes to game on the side, this is a really good option.

Acer Predator Helios Neo 14

If you want a bit more graphics performance and you are shopping around the $1,300 price point, a little hidden gem is the Predator Helios Neo 14. This is a high performance laptop with an RTX 4070, a Core Ultra 9 Series 1 processor, and 32GB of memory. It’s very well built, its 14.5-inch display is good with a fast refresh rate, high resolution, it's bright enough, and its keyboard is comfortable. Its main downsides are that it gets quite warm under load and it is very heavy. Its keyboard also has an odd layout that takes time to get used to and its display doesn’t have the widest color gamut. That all being said, we still feel it delivers a lot for the money.

Apple M4 MacBook Pro

Alright, this may come as a surprise but we actually feel that the MacBook Pros, when on sale for $200 off or more, can provide tremendous value. These are Josh's favorite laptops right now and we feel that you can't go wrong here. Whether buying a 14-inch or 16-inch, one with an M4, M4 Pro, or M4 Max chip, all are fantastic options. These M4 series processors offer insane performance and unparalleled power efficiency. These are the only laptops you can reliably do performance tasks on while unplugged. Their processors’ efficiency also leads to very little heat and fan noise when compared to Windows alternatives. As per usual with Apple, the entire experience of these laptops is premium. From the chassis to the screen. Plus, unlike with other manufacturer’s they haven’t forgotten about the little things. Its speakers, trackpad, webcam, and ports are all great. Given how well-built MacBooks are and their breakthrough processors, these laptops tend to last longer and hold their value much better than Windows ones. So that’s something to factor in when you consider the higher cost.

Big & Powerful

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i

Alright, if you want even more power out of a Windows laptop, unfortunately a lot of the large powerful ones just don’t go on regular big sales and they aren’t good value picks. But, there is one exception that we’ve seen: Lenovo's Legion Pro 7i. This laptop can be had with either an RTX 4080 or 4090 and Intel’s 14th gen HX processor- a very powerful combination. It has upgradeable memory, a fantastic display with a wide color gamut, it's bright, fast refresh rate, high enough resolution. It also has a comfortable keyboard, and it regularly goes on sale for around $2,200 for the 4080 version and $2,500 for the 4090 version. Its main downsides are that it’s a heavy and thick laptop, so its edge may cut a little into your wrist a little. It also, like most Windows gaming laptops, has loud fan noise during performance tasks, and its ports are bit dated. Only 1 Thunderbolt 4 port and no 2.5G ethernet.

Conclusion

Stating the obvious (but sometimes on the internet it needs to be stated) we can’t predict what prices are like in every location, nor can we predict how they may change with tariffs. That being said, these are the laptops that we have seen regularly seen on sale, and consistently offer the best value. So, check them out by clicking on the laptop name. The price tracker will be there on the page so you can make sure you're getting a good deal. We would not recommend buying any of these laptops at their full price. Thanks for reading, and we hope you have an awesome day!