The best laptop deals ahead of October Prime Day — save up to $900 on MacBooks and PCs

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No pressure, Amazon, but I have high hopes for Prime Big Deal Days. The retailer's upcoming "October Prime Day" sale (set for Oct. 6 and 7) will be an opportunity to get the ball rolling on holiday tech deals that erase the steep price hikes we've seen so far this year amid the ongoing memory crisis. Laptops have been hit especially hard: Many of the models I've tested in the past nine months have gotten anywhere from $100 to $950 more expensive due to increased component costs.

With less than a week left before the sale, I'm not seeing a ton of noteworthy laptop deals on Amazon just yet (aside from some so-so MacBook discounts). Most of them involve no-name brands and third-party sellers that you should avoid. Fortunately, other retailers like Best Buy and Walmart are picking up the slack with savings of up to $900 on top Windows laptops and gaming PCs.

Below, I'm keeping a running list of the best early October Prime Day laptop deals I can find across the web. They'll probably get even better once the sale actually starts, but if you need to upgrade sooner rather than later, you've got a bunch of options already.

Best MacBook deal (for now)

The M5 MacBook Air is a fabulous all-rounder with incredibly fast performance, a premium haptic touchpad, a vibrant display, and a polished design. I like the 13-inch size for college students, in particular, because it's slightly cheaper and more portable than its 15-inch sibling. This upgraded model with 1TB of storage is $150 off on Amazon ahead of Prime Day. I think it could see a $200 discount once Prime Big Deal Days starts, based on its predecessor's pricing history, but this is still a solid deal in the age of RAMageddon. (If you need more memory, a 24GB RAM/1TB model is also $150 off right now.)

Read Mashable's full review of the Apple MacBook Air (M5).

Mashable Deals

More MacBook deals

• Apple MacBook Neo (A18 Pro, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $689 $699 (save $10)

• Apple MacBook Air, 15-inch (M5, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,727 $1,799 (save $72)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M5, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,839 $1,999 (save $160)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 16-inch (M5 Pro, 24GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $2,814 $2,999 (save $185)

Best Windows laptop deal (for now)

Truth be told, this 16-inch MSI laptop is a great deal even at full price. It has a super sharp (2.8K) OLED touchscreen, a healthy 32GB of RAM, and a beefy Intel Core Ultra X7 358H processor with Intel Arc B390 graphics. The latter is an iGPU that performs on par with an entry-level dedicated GPU, meaning you can play AAA games on this thing. It's of average weight for a 16-inch PC, but it's exceptionally sleek for its size (more than a 10th of an inch thinner than a 16-inch MacBook Pro). Costco's $400 discount on it brings it to the lowest price I've ever seen, and better yet, it's not restricted to Costco members.

More Windows laptop deals

• HP OmniBook 3 16 (Snapdragon X, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $699.99 $1,149.99 (save $450)

• LG gram Max 17 (Intel Core Ultra 7 355, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,099.99 $1,749.99 (save $650)

• Microsoft Surface Laptop, 13.8-inch (Snapdragon X2 Plus, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,399.99 $1,599.99 (save $200)

• Asus Zenbook A16 (Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, 48GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,499.99 $1,899.99 (save $400)

Best gaming laptop deal (for now)

The Lenovo Legion Pro 7, with a high-end 2024 AMD CPU and an RTX 5080 GPU, is $1,025 off at Best Buy right now. The 16-inch 3K OLED display has a refresh rate of 240Hz with max brightness of 500 nits. Measuring about an inch in height, the Lenovo weighs about 5.6 pounds, making it an option that can come with you on trips or to a friend's house.

More gaming laptop deals

• Alienware Aurora 16 (Intel Core 7 240H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,099 $1,639.99 (save $540.99)

• HyperX Omen 15 (AMD Ryzen 7 8745HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,199 $1,899 (save $700)

• Asus ROG Strix G16 (AMD Ryzen 9 8940HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,749.99 $1,999.99 (save $349.99)

• Asus ROG Strix G18 (AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,849 $2,699.99 (save $850.99)

• Lenovo Legion Pro 5i 16 (Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,999.99 $2,649.99 (save $550)

• Acer Predator Neo 16 (Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $2,599.99 $3,199.99 (save $600)

• Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (Intel Core Ultra 9 Series 3, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080, 32GB RAM, 1TB) — $3,649.99 $4,399.99 (save $750)