It is that time the year again where retailers, store outlets and online stores offer major discounts on their products and service.

It is that time of the year where we spend time finding laptop deals or even eyeing a particular laptop hoping for a discount.

You guessed right – Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The time of the year where you can get the best or great laptop deals.

But before that, there is no need to rush.

It is not a bad idea to research a product before buying, but doing it at the wrong time can cost you.

The key is Preparation.

Being prepared beforehand can save you a lot of time, stress and indecisiveness when the main event starts. That way you won’t buy something you don’t need, unnecessary spending and missing out on the best laptops deals.

In this post, we show you how to make informed decisions that will prevent you from falling into the common traps mentioned above. This will give you confidence in choosing the best laptop or gaming laptop on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Sometimes, finding the best day to make a purchase can be difficult especially if you have narrowed down a laptop.

A rule of the thumb is to purchase the laptop as soon as possible after you have verified it is legit and the discount they are offering is reasonable and within your budget.

Here’s what you need to know on how to find the best laptop deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

P.S. Don’t forget to check the list of the best laptops you can get on Black Friday/Cyber Monday.

How To Get The Best Laptop Deals On Black Friday And Cyber Monday: The Guidelines

First things first, you should know what you are looking for whether it is a gaming laptop, a laptop for work or just a general-purpose laptop.

Write a list

Writing a list of the laptops you want a week before Black Friday or Cyber Monday is a good way to start. That way you know what exactly you are looking for and you will be more successful in narrowing down the product and prevent impulse purchase, which you might regret later especially if a good deal later rolls in and you realize you are out of cash.

Another reason is that by knowing what you want in a laptop you will avoid the trap of buying laptops that seem like a good deal but maybe actually old, poor performing laptops that will not satisfy your needs.

1. Always Keep An Eye Out for Brand Names

Now you have made a list of laptops you want or specs you would like a laptop to have if you are more tech-savvy.

Next is to consider the Brand Name.

You might find some laptops that fit your specification sheet but have brand names you haven’t heard about Brand names that are not well-known or do not have any idea on their credibility should always be researched before buying their product.

Failure to do so can end up in getting an inferior product which can create problems and cost you money and time in the future. In other cases, a good product but the company is not able to follow-up on the warranty.

Although some unknown brand names offer decent products and services it doesn’t hurt to do your research beforehand.

You can also buy from establish brand names like Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, MSI, – you get the point.

Established brand names offer tech support if you buy from them so even if you buy a product that doesn’t work they can offer a replacement or repairs at no cost to you.

2. Size Matters

Are you a 17-inch screen type person or a 13 inch?

These questions are important in determining the size of the laptop you want. If you are the type who travels a lot or moves around buying a laptop that weighs almost 7 pounds doesn’t make sense.

Size Matters

You should be looking at a lightweight laptop or an ultraportable laptop. Something you can easily carry around somewhere between 2.5lb – 5.0lb.

But if you are into serious pc gaming you won’t mind the laptop being heavy or having a large size so far as it can provide the performance needed to run current, demanding games at ultra settings.

Or you might consider yourself who wants an ultraportable gaming laptop like the Razer Blade 15, MSI GS65, Gigabyte Aero 15x, etc

3. Always Check the Specifications

Always check the specs of the laptop you have narrowed down if it matches your own or is the best your budget can get.

Knowing the specs will tell you if the laptop is old or weak.

You know what you are going to use the laptop for so having a fair idea about the processing power of the laptop is a good way to quickly determine if it’s a good deal or not.

For Intel processors,

Intel i9s are the most powerful found in high-end laptops, then the i7s, i5s are next which are mid-range and i3s which are found in the lower end and budget laptops

The near Intel equivalent is the AMD Ryzen series – Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5, Ryzen 7

Always take a careful look at the specifications to give you a good idea if the deal is good or not.

4. Ram is Important Too

Along with processing power RAM counts a lot.

RAM is important

Along with processing power, RAM counts a lot.

The more the better. Keep in mind that laptops with a lot of RAM are expensive.

Laptops which belong to the range of 8 GB – 16 GB ram is a much more futureproof in handle applications and gaming. These days 2 GB and 4 GB RAM are not even enough.

Smartphones even have 4 GB, 6GB and a whopping 12GB RAM.

Look around, you will hardly find a smartphone with a 2 GB on the market.

More is better if you can afford it.

5. Storage

Solid State Drives (SSDs), Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) and eMMC drives are used for storage in laptops, Chromebooks and smartphones.

At best you would want a laptop that has a Solid State Drive.

Solid-state drives are the best out of the three – very fast response, quick boot-up times, and less time opening and loading applications. Having this will greatly improve your laptop performance and user experience.

The Hard disk drives are the slowest of the three. They might not offer the best speed but they offer a lot of storage space and are cheap compared to solid-state drives. You can find up to 1 TB of storage even in a cheap laptop.

Their speed is always in RPM – the higher the RPM the faster the hard disk drives. A 7200 RPM is faster than a 5400 RPM. If you are going the hard disk route consider the RPM and the storage space.

The eMMC drives lie between the SSDs and the HDDs in terms of speed. They have the smallest storage space and are also not replaceable. Manufacturers solder them onto the motherboards making them impossible to replace. EMMC storage spaces are mostly 16 GB or 32 GB.

6. Graphics Card

Graphics card

If you are a gamer or are into video editing or graphics rendering, the graphics card is something you should keep an eye out for.

Every laptop has an integrated graphics card with some having dedicated secondary graphics cards.

The laptops with AMD have much more powerful integrated GPUs than the laptops with integrated Intel GPUs

Integrated graphic cards are good for casual games but quickly fail when it comes to demanding ones.

Dedicated graphic cards are the ones you should get if you are into heavy gaming and graphics rendering work.

The entry-level is the NVIDIA MX150 though you can get dedicated AMD GPUs they are not common in laptops.

The MX150 is only good enough to play the current demanding games on low settings – you will get smooth gameplay on FORTNITE and PUBG but not on high or ultra settings.

If you want something more powerful you should consider the GTX or RTX series – the higher, the better and also more expensive. An example is the GTX 1060 which is powerful than the GTX 1050 and more expensive.

You should get the higher ones if you are into serious gaming or graphic rendering work.

7. Display

In looking for a display you should consider the display resolution and the backlit technology.

As far as resolution is concerned the Full HD display, which is has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 can be found on most mid-range laptops.

The 4K (QHD), 3K (UHD) and 2k (QWHD) displays are found mostly on more expensive laptops.

And the cheaper laptops have the HD 1366 x 768 resolution.

All of them have their advantages and disadvantages

The higher resolution displays drain a lot of battery power and also impact performance – not always the case – but on the plus side, they offer the best image quality.

The 1080p is the best of both worlds image quality is decent, battery drain is not a lot as compared to the higher screen resolutions.

The HD resolution (1366 x 768) is also decent if the other specs are great. The display doesn’t take a lot of toll on the battery life of the machine.

For the backlit display technology, if you are into serious gaming or you find yourself playing games most of the time.

A TN display (twisted nemantic) with a high refresh rate or an IPS display with a high refresh rate is the best if it is within your budget.

Displays come at 60 Hz display refresh rate and to avoid stuttering and screen tearing during gameplay the higher the refresh rate the better.

But for everyday use and casual gaming, an IPS display with 60Hz display refresh rate will suffice because of the great viewing angles it offers compared to the TN display.

8. Purchasing the Laptop

Purchasing the laptop

Now, you know what you want and you have finally found the best deal you can get.

But before purchasing, research the website you are buying from if they are trustworthy and offer return policies.

In case, the laptop you bought starts to show some defects. This will give you peace of mind and confidence in purchasing your laptop.

And as always keep the receipt you never know what might happen.

Conclusion

Sticking to these guidelines will not only prevent you from purchasing inferior laptops.

Also, it will give you the confidence in purchasing the laptop you think is the best laptop deal on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Do not let buyer’s impulse get the better of you in purchasing a great laptop.