Laptop deals for May 2017

Dell XPS 13: Get Dell’s flagship laptop with high-end performance for less than £1,000. £979 from Amazon

Macbook Air: Prices have dropped on Apple’s Air for this 2015 model. £849 from BT Shop

What do I want my laptop for?

If you only want a quick stand-in or portable device you can easily pick up a Windows laptop or Chromebook for £250 or even less. There are plenty of brands out there built for those who just want something simple, and cut price Dell, Acer and Lenovo laptops can all be found for just a couple of hundred pounds.

If you want a device that is a little more powerful for running run several programs without feelings the heat you will need to spend a bit more. You can find good deals on laptops with slightly cheaper Intel or AMD processors. Often last year’s models will still be highly viable everyday laptops, and you can find a decent machine for around £500.

Even for gaming laptops there are plenty of deals. While you are unlikely to see many going for less than £750, you can still find models that have had their prices slashed and will still perform well on the latest games.

For all the details on the kind of things you should be looking for when buying a new laptop, take a look at our best laptops to buy article for a full buying guide.

Where can I get a good laptop deal?

Most major retailers will offer deals around the year. One-off events such as the January sales, Amazon Prime Day in July or Black Friday can also be the answer to securing a great deal.

UK retailers such as John Lewis, Currys, PC World, Argos and Tesco all offer deals and discounts on laptops, often with options to throw in cases, hardware, security systems and programs such as Microsoft Office.

Several of the main manufacturers have their own websites offering outlet price models at a discount and online retailers such as Amazon, Very and AO all have discounted deals and bundles.

What are the best laptop deals for students?

Many major laptop providers offer an education discount for students buying a laptop. This can help save you around 10% or better on even high-end models.

While you may be tempted to just go for the cheapest model, even top of the range Apple products offer a 10% discount to students, as does Microsoft for its Surface Book and Surface Laptop. Other manufacturers including Dell, Lenovo and HP all offer chunky savings if you buy using an education discount.

Should I buy a new or refurbished model?

Buying a new model is the safest bet to get decent performance and specs up to the level of what the developer called for.

However, it is easy to pick up a refurbished model online. Generally these will be memory wiped, cleaned and factory reset, but there is no clear standard for buying a refurbished laptop.

Some major suppliers such as Dell will resell their own refurbished models in outlet stores or online. With a major developer you can have some guarantee of quality, but you should always check what warranty the model comes with and what operating system will be installed.

Under £250

Cheapest Windows laptop: Lenovo Ideapad 100s

Screen size: 11.6 inches

Weight: 998g

Battery life: 8 hours

This little laptop is not going to blow anyone away in terms of power, but for price and size it is designed to compete against Chromebooks and you can pick up a used one in white now for less than £100.

For a new one, the asking price online is currently starting out at around £170. If you want a Windows laptop for the lowest price, this is your starting point.

Best Chromebook deal: Acer Chromebook 11

Screen: 11.6 inches

Weight: 1.25 kg

Battery life: 9 hours

One of the best budget Chromebooks you can buy, the Acer 11 has now dropped under £200 from some retailers. While this version lacks the flexible flip screen of its big brother the Acer R11, it runs on the same processor so will deliver similar results.

It’s not very powerful and uses Chrome OS, meaning limited storage, but for simple web-based tasks and portability it is a bargain.

Best big Chromebook deal: Acer Chromebook 15

Screen: 15.6 inches

Weight: 2.2kg

Battery life: 9 hours

While it is large and chunky for a Chromebook, this Acer is a bargain if you want a bigger screen but only want a budget model.

Asking prices have now fallen to around £190 on some major retailers for a new model, making this 15 inch Chromebook a bargain if you just need a stopgap laptop for simple tasks.

Under £500

Best everyday deal: Asus X555YA

Screen size: 15.6 inches

Weight: 2.3kg

Battery life: 6 hours

Grab a cheap deal with £30 off on this Asus X555 for under £300. This model features an AMD A6 Quad Core processor which will be ample for everyday needs and comes with a 15.6 inch screen and 1TB of hard drive capacity.

While big laptops at this price won’t excel at every task, and the screen resolution on this one could be said to be on the cheaper side, this is definitely a deal if you need a cheap model now.

Best deal for practicality: HP Pavilion 15

Screen size: 15.6 inches

Weight: 2.3kg

Battery life: 9.5 hours

You can now save £150 on this HP Pavilion 15, which is a bargain for a decent laptop with a large screen size. Designed for everyday tasks with a 9 hour battery life and large enough that you could watch films or Youtube videos with ease and with three USB slots, an HDMI connector and a SD card reader it is fairly connective.

The new base price has now dropped to around £350, down from around £150 at the start of this year, which makes this a good time to pick up this still fairly recent release.

Best deal for a hybrid: Lenovo Yoga 510 14

Screen size: 14 inches

Weight: 1.75kg

Battery life: 5 to 6 hours

This two-in-one laptop has now dropped well below £500 in its most basic form, which uses a Intel Pentium 4405U processor for managing most simple tasks. With a 128GB SSD it will run smoothly, although this version only features 4GB of RAM may mean the laptop lacks power for some people.

Prices on this model have now fallen to £399, making this a cheap tablet/laptop convertible you can pick up which will still deliver decent performance.

Under £1,000

Best deal for gaming: Asus ROG GL552VX

Screen size: 15.6 inches

Weight: 2.4kg

Battery life: up to 6 hours

A gaming laptop for less, this Asus Republic of Gamers (ROG) model is now down below £700. A highly respectable build, this model has a 15.6 inch screen and a 6th generation Intel Core i5 processor and a 128 SSD.

This heavy beast is highly connective for gaming headphones and gaming mouse, but white it has the specs to perform as a decent mid-range gaming laptop, the only drawback here is the battery life, unlikely to push more than 6 hours or so.

Best deal for performance: Dell XPS 13

Screen: 13.3 inches

Weight: 1.29kg

Battery life: 13 hours

By shopping around you can now find almost £200 off the brilliant XPS 13 laptop, considered one of the main current challengers to Apple’s Mac range. The XPS 13 features a virtually borderless 13.3 inch Infinity Edge display, which is available with touch.

Dell also claims the laptop offers up to 22 hours of battery life, although in practice this is more like 12 to 13 hours when streaming video. This latest model runs on Kaby Lake processors, Intel’s newest and more powerful seventh generation processor.

Best deal for Apple: Macbook Air

Screen: 13.3 inch

Weight: 1.35 kg

Battery life: 12 hours

Apple’s highly successful Air has just had a price cut in the UK, bringing it down to around £850, perhaps in anticipation of the launch of Microsoft’s competitor laptop the new Surface Laptop in June. This does, however, only bring the price of the Air closer in line with what it was on release date, with Apple having since hiked up prices in the UK. You can also get Apple products from the Apple Store with a 10% discount for students.

[“Source-ndtv”]