Finding the best deal on an HP laptop can be a challenging experience. There are many different models and configurations to choose from, including a large variety of features, sizes, prices, and other options. There is also the question of when to buy them so that you ensure you’re getting the best available deals at the right time. If you’re looking for the best deals on HP laptops, we’re here to help.
Read on to find out how to find the right time and place for the best price on an HP laptop.
First, decide what kind of laptop you need or want
To find the best deals on HP laptops, you’ll likely want to shop around at first. However, before you do that, it will help to determine what features you’re looking for to focus on specific usage or brands. Once you’ve figured that out, you’ll be better equipped to find the best values during your shopping experience.
1. Usage
An important factor to consider is what you’ll be using the laptop for primarily. Uses include:
Business – Work anywhere with laptops that offer solid security, durability, mobility, style, and ultra-slim designs. From budget-conscious to high-end creative professionals, HP EliteBook, HP ProBook, and HP ZBook laptops all offer excellent options for business usage.
Home – Find powerful, flexible, and cost-effective options designed to adapt to your needs, whether it’s for creativity, learning, work, or gaming. HP OmniBook, HP Spectre, and HP ENVY laptops include a variety of powerful, yet sleekly designed models for home and cross-functional usage.
School – Look for easy-to-use, secure, go-to devices for not only school, but also work and play. You’ll use your laptop for studying, projects, social media, gaming, and entertainment. HP Chromebook laptops are ideal for students and parents as well as for secondary computer use.
Gaming – Play at your best wherever you are with desktop-class power and graphics performance, immersive displays, and edgy designs. HP OMEN and HP Victus laptops both offer great options for your gaming needs.
Premium – Get creative with stunning designs that are crafted from fine materials, with performance, speed, adaptability, and refined features for work and play. HP Spectre, HP EliteBook, HP ZBook, and others provide several superb options that include standard laptops, 2-in-1, and convertible models.
2. Budget
Knowing your budget will help a lot when you’re looking for the best deals on HP laptops.
$250 to $500: Within this entry-level range, you’ll find functional models that run many basic programs and productivity applications. While they won’t be equipped with the levels of processing power that the higher tiers can provide, they offer the ability to check email, surf the internet, and engage in social media. They usually boast longer battery life and connectivity options, too. HP Chromebooks are ideal for this range and offer the intuitive, easy-to-use Chrome OS to which you can add applications via the Google Play Store.
$500 to $800: There are some excellent options within this budget-friendly range that include laptops that are lightweight, portable, compact, and efficient, with a long battery life and great connectivity options. Many of them have moderately powerful processors such as an Intel® Core™ Ultra or AMD Ryzen™ AI series, integrated or entry-level discrete graphics, at least 8GB to 16GB RAM, and 256GB to 512GB solid-state drives (SSD).
$800 to $1,200: When you move to this mid-tier range, you’ll find more models with more powerful processors, dedicated GPUs, faster performance, increased memory and storage, and more stylish designs. You’ll also find higher-resolution displays with larger screen sizes, OLED panels, and different form factors such as convertibles and 2-in-1s. HP OmniBook, HP ENVY, and HP Spectre models feature a range of excellent options in this tier.
$1,200 and above: In this premium tier, you can find very powerful, high-performing, portable, and durable models with plenty of memory (starting at 16GB and going up to 32GB or more) and terabytes of SSD storage. They also feature high-resolution OLED or 4K displays, touch screens, and AI-powered features with dedicated NPUs. The highest-end mobile workstations and gaming laptops are packed with additional features such as more ports, enhanced thermal cooling, customized lighting, and much more.
3. Form factor
Another important consideration for deciding on the type of laptop you want is the form factor. These include:
Standard – Traditional, clamshell-design laptops with a variety of performance levels, display options, and eye-catching styles.
Detachable (or 2-in-1) – Hybrid laptops that either detach to use as a tablet or flexibly bend backward with hinges that rotate 360 degrees to enable multiple uses.
Convertible – Laptops featuring innovatively engineered, 360-degree-rotating hinges that protect the display and keyboard across four distinct modes: laptop, tablet, stand, and tent. Each mode offers a unique advantage for working, watching, presenting, or gaming.
Mobile workstation – Laptops that include powerful mobile processors and graphics, stunning displays, large amounts of memory and storage, lots of ports, and rugged designs. These are ideal for creative and technical professionals who need workstation-level processing power and professional-grade performance on the go.
4. Size
Depending on your preferred usage, the size of the display may or may not matter. But if it does, here’s a bit of guidance about what each sizing entails.
13 to 14-inch screens – These compact displays are highly portable, usually weighing under 4 pounds, and offer excellent productivity and performance features. There are a number of 2-in-1s and convertibles available in this size, providing more choices for usability than traditional laptops.
15 to 16-inch screens – This is the most popular display range. They’re still portable, and the larger screen real estate affords the ability to get more work done or immerse yourself in the crisp details of your content. The 16-inch size with a 16:10 aspect ratio has become the sweet spot for many users.
17 to 18-inch screens – These laptops boast the largest displays and the perfect amount of screen size to display crisp, beautifully rendered graphics for work or gaming at maximum capacity. Their large size also enables powerful processing hardware. What you gain in screen size and processing muscle, you may sacrifice in portability and battery life.
5. Processor
Something to consider when looking for the best deals on laptops is the processor or central processing unit (CPU), since it’s an essential component of the system. The CPU processes, receives, and directs your laptop’s data and executes its program’s instructions.
CPUs with more cores are more powerful than those with fewer, and they range from dual-core processors to processors with 12 or more cores. Both AMD and Intel offer a host of choices when it comes to CPUs in laptops. Today’s laptops also feature processors from Qualcomm®, especially in AI-focused models. Here is a brief rundown of some of the common processors you’ll come across:
Intel®: Intel Core™ Ultra Series (Series 1 and Series 2), Intel Core™ i5/i7/i9, Intel Xeon®
AMD: AMD Ryzen™ AI 300 Series, AMD Ryzen™ 5/7/9
Qualcomm®: Snapdragon® X Series (X Elite, X Plus)
Keep in mind that the strength of the processor also depends on both the number of cores as well as the clock speed, which is measured in GHz. Many modern processors also include a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for handling AI workloads efficiently, which powers features like Copilot+ PC experiences, real-time translation, and intelligent noise cancellation.
6. Graphics
The graphics processing unit (GPU), also called the graphics or video card, is a single-chip processor that manages and speeds the processing of video and graphics. It’s as important as the CPU for most performance requirements and, in fact, aids the CPU by enabling it to perform other tasks. There are two kinds of GPUs: integrated (or embedded), which shares memory with the CPU, and discrete, which has its own card and memory. Discrete GPUs are faster than integrated GPUs.
Here are a few popular GPU families you’ll find in today’s laptops:
Intel®: Intel® Graphics, Intel® Arc™ Graphics
AMD: AMD Radeon™ 800M Series, AMD Radeon™ RX Series
Qualcomm®: Qualcomm® Adreno™ GPU
NVIDIA®: NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 40 Series, NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 50 Series
When comparing graphics cards, be sure to only compare within the same manufacturer’s family, as NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm use different architectures and therefore have different performance characteristics and memory bandwidth requirements.
7. Memory and storage
Both memory and storage are important factors to consider when looking for the best deals on laptops. Like the CPU and GPU, you’ll want enough memory (or RAM) and storage to ensure the appropriate amount of performance for your laptop, whether you’re using it for work, school, or gaming.
Look for a minimum of 8GB of RAM to run your laptop’s programs smoothly. For most users, 16GB is now considered the sweet spot for comfortable multitasking and future-proofing. And if you’re a power user, creative professional, or gamer, you’ll want 32GB or more.
For storage, today’s laptops primarily use fast PCIe® NVMe™ solid-state drives (SSDs). Consider getting at least 256GB, though 512GB is a better baseline for most users. If you work with large files, games, or creative projects, look for 1TB or 2TB options.
Buy during annual sales
Once you’ve narrowed down the factors that you’re looking for in your laptop, it’s time to start shopping for the best deals. Timing is everything. One of the best strategies for buying an HP laptop is checking out the annual sales pages. There are several opportunities throughout the year to take advantage of major sales events, including:
• Black Friday
• Cyber Monday
• Holiday Sale
• Red Tag Sale
• President’s Day Sale
• Memorial Day Sale
• Back to School Sale
• HP Days Sale
Sales update and change all the time, so the best way to stay up-to-date is to sign up to receive HP emails and notifications. You’ll save a decent amount—usually at least 20% to 30% (and often more)—and enjoy free shipping during these events.
Check out the HP weekly deals pages
One of the easiest ways to find HP laptop deals is to check out the HP weekly deals pages. These pages are updated regularly with the latest discounts across every laptop category. Once you’re there, you’ll be able to search for HP laptops using filters such as product options, brand, operating system, processor, screen size, form factor, price range, and more. For select products, you can save up to 60% in addition to getting free shipping and easy returns.
Here are the key deals pages to bookmark:
If you find a laptop that you like but you’re not ready to buy, be sure to bookmark the page so that you can come back and monitor it later.
Buy older models
Technology moves at an incredibly fast pace. And the technology that goes into HP laptops is consistently being upgraded with the latest and greatest across features that include processors, graphics, storage, memory, battery, and more. So it makes sense to take a look at some of the “older” models that may be just a generation or two behind the most recent CPU or GPU. You can often find significant discounts on last-generation hardware that still delivers excellent performance for everyday tasks.
Take advantage of bundles
Why stop at buying a new HP laptop only? If you expand your search a little further, you can save a bundle on an actual bundle, such as a laptop combined with a mouse, external keyboard, monitor, or headset. HP frequently offers accessory bundles at a discount when purchased alongside a new laptop. Check the recommended accessories section on any laptop product page to see current bundle savings.
Ready for the best deals
Discovering a good deal on an HP laptop involves knowing what you want combined with finding it at the right time. As long as you approach the search for deals armed with a bit of research, you’ll be better equipped to get the best possible deals for the specs that you’re looking for. Sign up for HP emails, bookmark the weekly deals pages, and keep an eye out for seasonal sales to make sure you never miss a great opportunity.
About the Author
Jolene Dobbin is a contributing writer for HP® Tech Takes. Jolene is an East Coast-based writer with experience creating strategic messaging, marketing, and sales content for companies in the high-tech industry.