Best Black Friday Deals on Laptops, Desktops, Tablets, and Routers

The 13-inch MacBook Air with an M4 chip continues Apple’s streak of making truly compelling laptops. We tested the 15-inch model, and we expect this 13-inch version to deliver the same top-tier performance and all-day battery life. It’s an ideal choice for travelers or students who need power in a significantly smaller package. You might miss having the extra screen real estate of its big brother, but the speed of the M4 chip and the sharp Retina display make this a standout deal all the same.

If you’re looking for a low-cost Mac, it’s hard to top this deal. The model is a few generations old, but it features the ground-breaking Apple M1 chip that delivers fast, efficient processing power within the company’s sturdy, thin, light shell. The M1 won’t out-duel today’s M5 chip, but for the average user, that’s splitting hairs. As long as you’re not regularly editing high-res photos or videos, you won’t likely notice a difference.

At nearly 45 percent off at select retailers, this Asus Vivobook is one of the strongest value propositions we’ve seen this Black Friday. It runs on the new Qualcomm Snapdragon X platform, which is designed to offer the kind of all-day battery life usually reserved for more expensive devices. With a 16-inch display and 512GB of storage, it’s a solid workhorse for students or home office users who need a big screen for multitasking but don’t want to be tethered to a power outlet all day.

The newest Microsoft Surface Laptop is widely considered the Windows equivalent of the MacBook Air, and this deal brings it down to a much more approachable price point. This 13.8-inch Copilot+ model features a touchscreen display and Microsoft’s latest AI integration. If you want a premium Windows experience it’s hard to go wrong with this model.

This 14-inch Lenovo laptop weighs next to nothing (2.9 pounds to be precise) and delivers nearly 19 hours’ worth of battery life per charge. Our testers note that it’s not the fastest Chromebook you’ll see, but if you’re just doing typical Chromebook-y tasks, that shouldn’t be much of an issue.

If you are curious about switching to a Mac, or perhaps just tired of Windows, the 2024 Mac Mini is a great entry point into the Apple ecosystem, provided you already have a monitor, mouse, and keyboard handy (or are prepared to buy them). It is also a fantastic, low-stakes machine for anyone looking to get their feet wet with iOS programming; it runs Xcode (Apple’s app development software) beautifully, making it a great gift for a budding developer or a student.

If you’re looking for something not-too-expensive that offers Google Play access (unlike Amazon Fire tablets), you can consider the Lenovo Tab Plus. It earns only middling scores in our performance and camera tests, but does a decent job with basic browsing, apps, and multimedia (though the display isn’t particularly impressive). It also excels in terms of battery life, lasting 14.2 hours browsing the web and 13.8 hours watching videos.

The iPad Air is the model to get if you don’t want to "settle" for the entry-level model (which is simply called "iPad") nor need the full power afforded by the iPad Pro. The result is a happy medium ground: Powerful enough for everyday tasks like browsing the web and reading books and magazines while offering nearly 12 hours of battery life and weighing an air-like 1 pound on the dot. Pairs nicely with popular subscriptions like DC Universe Unlimited (for comic book lovers) and Apple News+ that includes dozens of magazines like Wired, Outside, and Food Network Magazine.

If you’re looking for a versatile printer for your home office, the HP Smart Tank 7602 ticks a lot of boxes: It’s an all-in-one model, which means it can handle copying and scanning, too. It delivers high-quality text and graphics, though at a slightly slower rate than some other options. And, because you refill the “tanks” with bottled ink instead of pricey cartridges, ongoing ink costs remain super low.

The Netgear Orbi 770 is a top-performing WiFi 7 router. It delivers excellent speeds in our tests, even at longer ranges, and setup is refreshingly simple. Security protections are solid, but privacy settings could be better.

You don’t need to spend a fortune on the latest tech for a huge WiFi upgrade, and the TP-Link Archer AX72 Pro is proof. A solid performer in our testing, this WiFi 6 router delivers speeds that are more than fast enough for most families, easily handling multiple video streams, online gaming, and a house full of connected devices. For anyone still using the basic router provided by an internet service provider, this is a sensible, low-cost upgrade.

Mesh systems are the best way to banish WiFi dead zones forever, and the Deco XE75 Pro is a fine example of just such a system. This 2-pack system uses the newer WiFi 6E standard, which opens up a “fast lane” for compatible devices, reducing interference from your neighbors’ networks. With coverage up to 5,500 square feet, it can blanket a large home in reliable signal. Getting a high-performance 6E mesh system for under $150 is a rare find, making this one of the standout networking deals of the week