Presidents’ Day Weekend is Here, With Historic Desktop and Laptop Deals

This Presidents’ Day weekend is a great time to take advantage of sales, as every major store is participating in the fun. If you really want to chop hundreds or even thousands of dollars off retail, the biggest discounts are going to come from a new laptop or desktop. With component prices skyrocketing, there’s no time to wait, and we’ve found solid deals on top-reviewed machines from Apple, HP, Dell, and other leading brands.

Laptop Deals

There’s a reason that Apple has been the platform of choice for creatives for generations. Its hardware is tuned around excellent displays, friction-free performance, and gorgeous build quality. The latest MacBook Pro is a spectacular content-creation laptop, with the M4 processor delivering some of the best benchmarking results we’ve seen. In our review, we gave it an “Excellent” rating for its exceptionally long battery life, fast performance, and robust port selection. A new M5 MacBook Pro just dropped, so this model is seeing a $200 discount.

Gaming laptops are notorious for high prices, so being able to carve $800 off of this excellent portable is a treat. The component loadout of the Omen Max is unrivaled in this range, with an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor for speedy and efficient operation, along with the RTX 5080 graphics card that is our pick for most users in the new generation of Intel GPUs. We reviewed this build and raved about it, with writer Charles Jefferies saying it “surprises with its all-around utility,” noting that it works just as well for content creation and productivity as it does for current-generation games. We docked it a few points for battery life, so keep a cord handy for epic sessions. An $800 price drop slaps.”

Power isn’t just for gaming laptops. Lenovo’s mobile workstations are notorious for packing in outrageous components into ultra-rugged machines that can tackle anything a desktop can on the go. We’re huge fans of the versatile ThinkPad P1, giving it an Editors’ Choice award in our review for its responsive and tactile keyboard, great display and best-in-class performance thanks to a potent Core Ultra 7 processor and 32GB of system RAM. The all-black aluminum panel construction is luxurious and resilient, and you get tons of ports on both sides, including dual Thunderbolt 5 , HDMI, and a full-sized SD card reader. Taking a 35% discount brings it down into a much more reasonable price range.

If money’s tight this year, the best budget option is the Acer Aspire 14 AI, which delivers reliable performance and useful added features in a lightweight, well-designed chassis. In our review, writer Brian Westover said this portable “delivers Copilot+ smarts and surprising stamina,” noting that most of the AI-optimized Windows 11 laptops we’ve seen to date cost more than $1,000. You do make a few compromises at this price, including an underwhelming display and a keyboard that, while backlit, is somewhat difficult to read. However, the partially metal build, good connectivity, and solid benchmarking results more than make up for it. A 45% discount on the already low retail price is pretty sweet, too.

We review a lot of Dell products around here, and we put together a rundown of the best devices they offer. At the top of the list was the Dell 14 Plus, not because it excelled in one specific area but because it worked for so many different uses. Students love its sleek appearance and premium metal build, while business users are happy with the good port selection, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. And everybody loves the battery life, which lets you run nearly all day on a single charge. You can dive deep into our full review to learn more, but the thesis statement is that this is a very solid loadout at a deep Presidents’ Day discount.

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Desktop Deals

HP’s desktops are reliable performers that prioritize security. This significant price cut delivers a workstation that’ll produce solid results for years, backed by a three-year manufacturer’s warranty and Wolf Pro to keep your files safe. We reviewed a previous generation of the Z2 desktop, and were impressed enough by its versatility, quiet operation, and ease of expansion and repair that we gave it an Editors’ Choice award. This configuration is designed for basic productivity and entertainment, with a decent Intel i5 processor. With the money you save, you can easily boost its storage and RAM.

Alienware desktops are designed for gamers who want to push the envelope on a decent budget, and for a top-of-the-line battlestation with the latest silicon, this is a really solid deal. In our review of the latest Aurora, evaluator Charles Jefferies said the machine’s “strong gaming performance, flexible configurations, and distinctive design make it a worthy midrange gaming desktop.”

There are many configurations available, but our focus is on the one with the RTX 5080 GPU, which delivers significant power for demanding 4K at high frame rates, along with ample RAM and storage. You also get a free download code for Resident Evil: Requiem with purchase.

All-in-ones are great for less tech-savvy households that don’t want to deal with cable management, as well as more limited space, but don’t think they’re inferior to traditional towers. The HP OmniStudio X took home an Editors’ Choice award in our review, boasting a lovely IMAX-certified 4K display with great brightness and color, along with a height-adjustable stand. When compared to Apple’s pricier iMac, this PC stands as a totally solid alternative in terms of performance. We’d have liked to see Thunderbolt ports included, but aside from that it’s a winner, and you can snag a $540 discount.

Want to save even more on all the best hardware? Our deals page is unbeatable.

About Our Expert

K. Thor Jensen

Contributing Writer

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Experience

K. Thor Jensen is a writer and cartoonist living in the Pacific Northwest. He has contributed to dozens of prestigious outlets, including PCMag, Tested, Clickhole, and Newsweek. His second graphic novel, Cloud Stories, was released in 2017.

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