Best Buy's Black Friday Laptop Deals

14-Inch Lenovo IdeaPad
The deal: $130 at Best Buy
This computer usually sells for around $230, which is already a very low price for a laptop, especially one this size. We haven’t tested this specific model, but can infer from the specs (an AMD A6 processor, 4 gigabytes of memory, and 32GB of flash storage) that it’s best suited for lightweight tasks, such as browsing the web and word processing.

14-Inch HP 14
The deal: $200 at Best Buy
That’s roughly $100 less than the laptop ordinarily sells for. Here again, we’re looking at a model with modest specs: an AMD A9 processor, 4GB of memory, and 128GB of solid state storage. We evaluated a similar HP 14 model and it did okay in our tests—which is about what you’d expect from a laptop this cheap.

15-Inch Dell Inspiron
The deal: $280 at Best Buy
CR’s test results: Dell Inspiron 15.6
That’s around $170 less than the usual price. It’s a decent laptop, with an Intel Core i3 processor, 8GB of memory, and 128GB of solid state storage. Those specs are good for lighter tasks, such as browsing the web, watching streaming video on YouTube, and using office productivity apps, but you probably don’t want to edit photos or videos on the machine. Our testers gave it okay marks—nothing remarkable but nothing too bad, either, with battery life clocking in at around 6 hours.

12.3-Inch Microsoft Surface Pro 7
The deal: $600 at Best Buy
This 2-in-1 detachable is the newest laptop on this list—so new, in fact, that we only finished testing it this week. (Spoiler: It did well.) This is a good deal because it includes a Microsoft keyboard, which doubles as a cover; it’s usually sold separately and generally brings the price up to nearly $1,000. The model has an Intel Core i3 processor, 4GB of memory, and 128GB of solid state storage; Best Buy also includes a higher-end model with an Intel i5 processor in the holiday sale for $800 (down from $1,050). The i3 model is good for most everyday tasks—think web browsing and editing text documents—and there’s something to be said about the versatility of being able to remove the keyboard to use it like a tablet.

15.6-Inch HP Envy x360
The deal: $750 at Best Buy
This 2-in-1 convertible is usually priced right around $1,000. With a 2-in-1 convertible, you can bend the keyboard behind the display to use the laptop more like a tablet or prop it up like a tent to more easily share the screen with people nearby. This is a higher-end model with an Intel Core i7 processor, 12GB of memory, and 512GB of solid state storage, which means it’s suited for most any task, with the exception of gaming. We tested a similar model (with an AMD processor) and uncovered no major issues.

13.3-Inch Apple MacBook Air
The deal: $900 at Best Buy
CR’s test results: Apple MacBook Air
The MacBook Air is Apple’s entry-level laptop for mainstream consumers, and it’s usually available for around $1,100. This model has an Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of memory, and 128GB of solid storage space—more than enough to get “real” work done in apps such as Microsoft Office, Google Docs, and Apple’s own iWork, but perhaps not enough to edit high-resolution video or play graphics-heavy games.

27-Inch Apple iMac Desktop Computer
The deal: $1,000 at Best Buy
CR’s test results: Apple iMac 27-inch
This all-in-one desktop computer (meaning the display’s included) usually goes for $1,800, so you’re saving a lot here. The unit features an Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of memory, and a 1-terabyte “Fusion Drive,” which is part solid state storage and part traditional hard drive. (Click here for more on the difference between a solid state drive and a hard drive.) The 27-inch, 5K display, is very good for editing large photos because you spend less time panning around the image than you would with a lower-resolution display. Macs aren’t known for their gaming prowess, but the included dedicated graphics card means you can play the odd round of Fortnite on this device, too, if you want to.