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We’re in the thick of the back-to-school season, and retailers are offering up some of their best deals since Black Friday. That makes this the perfect time to pick up a new laptop.
Some of our top college laptop picks are discounted right now. The 2018 MacBook Air is selling for $850. The even newer 2019 MacBook Air has been marked down to $900. You can pick up the Microsoft Surface Pro 6 for $799, Type Cover included. And there are good deals to be had on some higher-powered gaming machines from Acer and Asus.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The 15.6-inch Dell G5 15 is a super solid entry-level gaming laptop. Amazon’s configuration comes equipped with an eighth-gen Intel Core i5-8300H CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 4GB Nvidia GeForceGTX 1060 Ti GPU. It also serves up a tandem storage solution with a speedy 256GB SSD and a roomy 1TB hard drive.
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This is a monster discount on the 2018 version of the MacBook Air. The model on sale 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 the markdown is substantial: For $850, you get an Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of memory and a 128GB SSD that’s faster than the one in the newer model.
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This is a $200 discount on the brand-new MacBook Air — the one with the Retina True Tone display — that Apple released a few weeks ago. This matches the lowest price we’ve seen, and it likely won’t last for long.
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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.
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This is the 2019 version of Dell’s XPS 13, marked down about $100. As the review states, “it’s nearly impossible to find anything to dislike about this 13-inch slim powerhouse.” And this configuration is pretty future-proof: You get an eighth-gen Intel Core i7-8550U processor, 4K Ultra HD InfinityEdge Touch display, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB PCIe SSD.
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I 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.
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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, is powered by Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 GPU.