College Is Expensive. Shop These Back-to-School Discounted Laptops to Save

The laptop you bring to college is important. Not only is it the device you’ll be using through some of the most formative years of your life, but it’s also often the one that you’ll take to your first job, too. The problem is that the internet is full of laptops that aren’t worth the money, especially if you’re scrolling through lists of laptops on Amazon or Best Buy.

Good news! I’ve tested each of the following laptops myself and can wholeheartedly recommend them. More than that, I’ve been digging through the deals to find the best prices on the best laptops you can buy for Back to School season. Below, you’ll find lots of good cheap laptops, as well as some great Chromebooks and gaming laptops that’ll do just as well for schoolwork. You can even find some deals on laptop accessories for good measure.

Top Back-to-School Laptop Deals

Laptop Deals

Best MacBook Deal for College

If there is a quintessential college laptop, it’s the MacBook Air M4 (9/10, WIRED Recommends). It’s been that way for many years. And even as Apple Silicon has transformed the MacBook Air into something far more capable, Apple has kept prices low enough to still make it the go-to choice. Right now, the starting configuration at Amazon is cheaper than it was on Prime Day at $800. That’s even cheaper than the student discount offered by Apple.

What makes the MacBook Air such a perfect college laptop is its long battery life and portability. It’s still one of the thinnest laptops you can buy today at 0.44 inches thick, and it weighs just 2.7 pounds. It’s the kind of device that can go with you across campus and last well into the evening of studying all on a single charge. You can choose between the 13- or 15-inch model, both of which are nearly identical, except the latter has more screen real estate and better speakers.

Best Windows Laptop Deal for College

When I initially tested the Dell 14 Plus (6/10, WIRED Review), I gave it a hard time because of the $1,100 MSRP. But over the past month or so, Dell has kept a pretty generous discount intact. Right now, the starting configuration costs $750, which might not sound that cheap at face value, but when you consider what you’re getting, you realize just how good a deal this.

First off, that $750 gets you a whopping 1 terabyte of storage and a higher-resolution display (2560 x 1600), matching the MacBook Air in sharpness. It can even match the MacBook Air’s battery life claims. And no, while it’s not as thin or sleek as the MacBook Air, in exchange, you get extra storage and more ports, making this my go-to pick for back-to-school season this year.

The Cheapest Windows Laptop Worth Buying

Photograph: Luke Larsen

Asus

Vivobook 14 (X1407QA)

The Asus Vivobook 14 (6/10, WIRED Review) has been my favorite budget laptop to come out this year, namely because it solves one of the main problems with laptops in this price range: battery life. It runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chips, bringing fantastic efficiency to devices as affordable as the Vivobook 14.

It’s not a perfect laptop. The display isn’t too bright, and the colors look off on it. I also wish the touchpad were a bit more precise. But at this price, you won’t find a better Windows laptop, especially since it comes with 512 GB of storage. I will say—if you can afford the extra cash for the Dell 14 Plus listed above, it’s worth it for the improved display and bump in storage.

A Great Deal on a 2-in-1 Laptop

Photograph: Luke Larsen

2-in-1 laptops (otherwise known as detachables) are a great option for college. They’re the lightest devices you can carry around that still give you access to a full version of Windows. The 2025 12-inch model of the Surface Pro makes this benefit even stronger, shrinking the screen down, but without losing performance or battery life. Due to its size, the Surface Pro 12 (6/10, WIRED Review) is a pure joy to use.

When it came out, it was too expensive compared to the larger 13-inch model, but on sale, it makes for an ideal college companion for note-taking in class and studying on the go. Just remember: you’ll need to buy the keyboard, as it doesn’t come bundled in.

A Rare Discount on the Best Gaming Laptop

Photograph: Luke Larsen

The Razer Blade 16 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is my favorite gaming laptop, and it’d be a fantastic pick for college students, if only it weren’t so incredibly expensive. Normally, it starts at $2,400 for the RTX 5060 model, but Razer has a $400 discount for Back to School, meaning you can pick one up for as low as $2,000. I know that’s not cheap, especially for this graphics card, but for a Razer Blade, it’s a rare discount. This is certainly the lowest price I’ve seen since the 2025 model came out. The 5070 GPU model is also on sale.

The draw to something like the Razer Blade 16 is that it can function as both your laptop for college work and a gaming device with your friends in the dorm. While you could buy just about any gaming laptop and pretend it’s a school device, lugging that thing to class will be a nuisance, and once you get there, the design might be a distraction. The latest Razer Blade 16 is just 0.58 inches thick, making it surprisingly portable for a 16-inch gaming laptop. Outside of the Razer logo on the lid, you might not guess that it’s even a gaming laptop. It goes without saying that because it has a discrete GPU, it’ll serve as a good option for STEM students who need more performance.

A Discount on a Dirt-Cheap Chromebook

Cheap Chromebooks should not be discounted as solid student laptops, and not all of them are as shoddy as their reputation has earned them. Despite its low price, the Asus Chromebook CX14 (6/10, WIRED Review) isn’t half bad. It has a 1080p screen, even if it’s not the best one I’ve tested, and there are lots of ports. It’s reasonably portable with a solid keyboard to type on, too.

As usual with cheap laptops, the touchpad isn’t the best, and battery life won’t get you through a full day. But compared to the Chromebooks selling at this price in the past, the Asus Chromebook CX14 is a big step in the right direction. If your budget is under $300, look no further.

A Thin, OLED Chromebook

Photograph: Daniel Thorp-Lancaster

Samsung

Galaxy Chromebook Plus

Now, if you want a more elevated Chromebook experience, you’ll have to pay a little more. But as the price of the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus (8/10, WIRED Recommends) proves, there are plenty of great deals to be found. The Galaxy Chromebook Plus has a superb OLED screen, something that’s not common in Chromebooks, even those with the “Chromebook Plus” designation.

The Galaxy Chromebook Plus not only has a bright, 15.6-inch OLED display, but also the kind of high-end specs you’ll most likely need for college. That includes 256 GB of storage, 8 GB of RAM, and an Intel Core 3 processor. Perhaps its most attractive quality, however, is its portability. It’s the thinnest Chromebook you can buy at 0.46 inches thick—only a hair thicker than the MacBook Air.

A Cheaper Gaming Laptop

Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft

If you want the sleek and minimalist design of the Razer Blade at a lower price, take a look at the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (9/10, WIRED Recommends). It’s just as gorgeous and thin and doubles every bit as well as a study laptop. The RTX 4060 configuration is what’s cheap, which, admittedly, isn’t the most impressive gaming GPU at the moment. Alternatively, you can also pick up a slightly older Intel model that comes with a more powerful RTX 4070 for the same price.

Either way, what you’re getting is an extremely capable laptop with some extra performance behind it for those who need it. And yeah, it’s also a killer gaming laptop in your downtime.

A Fantastic MacBook Air Alternative

This was my favorite new laptop of 2024, and almost a year later, it’s still without a doubt one of the best laptops you could bring to school with you. The Surface Laptop 7th Edition (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is light and portable, has a fantastic screen, and an excellent touchpad. My favorite feature is the 3:2 aspect ratio display, which means it has a taller shape, giving you more vertical screen space to work with than most other laptops out there.

The cheapest version you can buy is over on Amazon, where you can pick up the 1-TB model. It’s $999 right now, and it will get you great performance with the Snapdragon X Elite chipset and all-day battery life.

Great Deals on Laptop Accessories

A Laptop Stand

Photograph: Luke Larsen

AmazonBasics

Ergonomic Laptop Stand

I get it. You’re a college student, and you’re not worried about your posture. But trust me, your future self will thank you if you start using proper ergonomics earlier on in life, such as a laptop stand. This simple, cheap laptop stand is perfect for your dorm room and can fold down when you don’t need it. Just know that you’ll need to pair it with a good mouse and keyboard once you’ve raised the laptop to proper eye level.

A Laptop Backpack

Photograph: The North Face

There are tons of great laptop bags for lugging your new laptop around campus with you, and it’s a great time to upgrade from whatever you were using in high school. This backpack is a common sight in schools for good reason. It’s versatile for school and for day hikes or weekend trips. It comes in several colors, and has a 28-liter capacity—more than enough for a 13-inch laptop, jacket, snacks, and a water bottle.

A USB Hub

Photograph: Luke Larsen

Plugable

USB-C 9-in-1 Hub (USBC-9IN1E)

Many of the laptops above don’t include a full selection of ports, which you may need from time to time as a student. That’s why everyone likely needs some kind of USB-C hub. I like this 9-port hub from Plugable because it supports USB-C power delivery, despite being relatively cheap. If you need something more powerful, consider the Satechi 8-in-1 Multiport Adapter or this 5-in-1 option from Anker, which is a more budget-friendly and basic alternative.

Affordable Earbuds

Photograph: Amazon

You can’t go off to college without a decent pair of earbuds, especially since you’ll be needing to focus in public places many times. Sure, a pair of AirPods works just fine, but if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, our audiophiles have tested dozens of pairs of budget earbuds to recommend the SoundPEATS Capsule3 Pro+ (10/10, WIRED Recommends) as the way to go. Despite the price of under $100, our reviewers say it has “some of the best sound in the middle and treble registers I’ve heard from earbuds at any price.”