Best Time to Buy a Laptop in 2026

Every laptop buyer gets the same advice: wait for Black Friday. It's not wrong, but it's incomplete. Laptop prices move on their own schedule, and Black Friday is just one stop on the route.

Here's what the price data actually shows.

The Laptop Release Cycle Controls Everything

Laptop manufacturers follow a loose annual cadence. Intel and AMD push new processor generations in late winter or early spring. Apple refreshes MacBooks at least once a year, sometimes twice. When new models ship, the previous generation drops in price. Not after Black Friday. Right when the new model launches.

If you're buying a MacBook Air, the best time is the week after Apple announces an upgrade. If you're buying a Windows laptop with the latest Intel chip, the previous-gen models get discounted the moment new stock appears.

Retailers don't hold onto old inventory. They clear it out.

Month-by-Month Breakdown

January to February: Post-holiday clearance. Retailers dump leftover holiday inventory. You'll find legitimate discounts on models from the previous fall cycle. Good time to buy if you need something now.

March to April: New Intel and AMD platforms launch. This is when the previous generation becomes "old." Prices fall 10-20% on solid mid-range laptops. Often the best non-holiday time to buy.

May to June: Prices stabilize. New models are still at launch pricing. The deals from March dry up unless a retailer has excess stock.

July to August: Back-to-school season. Best Buy, Amazon, and Costco all run promotions. Good for mainstream student laptops (HP, Dell, Lenovo in the $400-$900 range). Less useful for premium models.

September to October: Quiet period. No major launches, no major sales. Avoid buying here unless you need to.

November: Black Friday. Real discounts exist, but most are on last year's entry-level models. Premium laptops rarely get deep cuts. If you want a Surface Pro or MacBook at a meaningful discount, you may still be disappointed.

December: Post-Cyber Monday clearance continues. Similar to November but with less selection.

Which Laptops Drop the Most

Windows mainstream (HP, Dell, Lenovo): These drop frequently and predictably. Back-to-school and post-holiday clearance hit hardest. Discounts of 20-30% are common.

MacBooks: Discounts are smaller and less frequent. Apple never discounts directly. Best Buy and Amazon offer $100-$200 off around launch cycles and Black Friday. The bigger play is buying a refurbished model from Apple's refurb store, which runs 15-20% below retail year-round.

Gaming laptops (ASUS ROG, Razer, MSI): These follow GPU release cycles. When Nvidia releases a new GPU generation, the laptops with the previous GPU drop fast. Watch for this more than calendar events.

Chromebooks: Rarely worth tracking. They're already cheap, and the discounts are thin. Just buy when you need one.

The Refurbished Angle

Certified refurbished laptops from Apple, Dell, and Lenovo are priced 15-25% below retail every day of the year. If you're buying for productivity, not gaming, the refurbished route beats waiting for a sale.

The only catch: limited stock and no choice of color or spec. If you need something specific, you'll wait.

How to Know When a Price Is Actually Good

The problem with laptop shopping is that "was $999, now $749" is meaningless without price history. Retailers inflate original prices to make discounts look bigger.

The only way to know if a laptop price is genuinely good is to track it. Paste the URL into Slasher and watch the price for a few weeks before buying. The chart will tell you if $749 is a real discount or the baseline the laptop has sat at for six months.

For a broader view of when electronics categories drop, see Best Time to Buy Electronics, Backed by Real Price Data. And if you want to understand the full playbook, the Ultimate Guide to Price Tracking in 2026 covers the whole picture.