This year's Labor Day laptop sales are some of the best ever – I've picked the top 9 deals

MacBook, Samsung Galaxy Book and Chromebook on a green background

(Image credit: Future)

Even though it's not the main draw of the Labor Day sales, I've spotted dozens of laptop deals available this weekend. I've narrowed down the offers to just nine of my favorites, including some great options if you want to upgrade your device or get a new machine for school or college.

The standout when it comes to affordability is this Asus Chromebook Plus 515 at Best Buy for $279 (was $499). It's one of the more basic machines on offer but it's still well-built and perfectly capable for the price if you need something straightforward for everyday use and schoolwork. There's 8GB of RAM for decent performance and reasonable storage at 128GB, plus a useful all-day battery life thanks to the lean ChromeOS making it a good choice for those always on the go.

What if you'd prefer a Windows machine instead? Well, how about this Dell Inspiron 15 at Dell for $329.99 (was $379). This one is up there as one of the best value-for-money options in this weekend's sales, as it packs in a mid-range Intel i5 processor and masses of storage with a large 512GB SSD.

What's also clear is that this is the best time of the year so far to buy a MacBook as a couple of Apple's popular laptops are discounted for Labor Day. For starters, there's the MacBook Air (M2) at Amazon for $799 (was $999). It's a record-low price for the previous generation model that's still more than capable as a long-lasting and all-around high-performance laptop.

Meanwhile, if you want the latest tech, you can pay $100 more and get the MacBook Air (M3) at Best Buy for $899. That's just $50 more than the lowest price we've seen premium ultrabook which is powered by the impressive M3 chip that ensures fantastic battery life and terrific performance for creative and technical tasks such as coding and photo and video editing.

Check out the rest of my top picks below from all of the options I've seen in the Labor Day laptop sales. As someone who searches the web for the best laptop deals every week, know that these picks really are some of the top offers out there, including great savings on many devices we think are some of the best laptops you can buy according to our expert testers and reviewers.

Labor Day laptop sales - quick links

Amazon: cheap laptops starting at $169.99
Apple: students get a $150 gift card with MacBooks
Best Buy: save up to $500
Dell: up to $700 off Inspiron and XPS
HP: up to 75% off latest laptops
Samsung: up to $1,375 off Galaxy Book4
Walmart: Apple MacBook from $649

Labor Day laptop sales - the 9 best deals

Acer Chromebook Plus 515: was $499 now $279 at Best Buy
Display - 15.6 inches
Processor - Intel i3
RAM - 8GB
Storage - 128GB
OS - ChromeOS

This Acer Chromebook Plus is great value for money if you need a basic everyday device but don't want to compromise too heavily on performance like you would with a sub-$200 laptop. An Intel i3 processor and 8GB of RAM is a decent pairing with the lightweight ChromeOS, so it's capable of general tasks and light use, such as web browsing, sending emails, word processing and watching videos. Just be aware it's missing some advanced features of a Windows machine and has limited storage, but benefits include better performance with cheaper components and excellent battery life.

Dell Inspiron 15: was $379.99 now $329.99 at Dell
Display - 15.6 inches
Processor - Intel i5
RAM - 8GB
Storage - 512GB
OS - Windows 11

If you want a cheaper Windows option then this configuration of the Dell Inspiron 15 is an excellent buy and terrific value for money. You get an Intel i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and a large 512GB SSD to ensure good overall performance and lots of speedy storage for the price. It's a top buy right now if you're on a budget and need a laptop for general everyday use, admin tasks and light work or schoolwork.

Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5: was $499 now $369 at Best Buy
Display - 13.3 inches
Processor - Snapdragon 7c Gen 2
RAM - 8GB
Storage - 256GB
OS - ChromeOS

We're big fans of the Lenovo Chromebook Duet at TechRadar so definitely want to share this significant $130 reduction on the flexible 13.3-inch laptop. In our very positive Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5 review, we thought it offered an excellent balance between tablet portability and Chromebook flexibility. This version boasts a crisp OLED touchscreen display, 8GB of RAM for good performance and a healthy 256GB of storage. Plus, the day-long battery life, slim form factor and handy keyboard cover case are a huge boost for those who are always on the go, making it one of the best Chromebooks for students.

Dell Inspiron 15: was $699.99 now $499.99 at Dell
Display - 15.6 inches
Processor - Intel i7
RAM - 16GB
Storage - 1TB
OS - Windows 11

Dell's latest set of laptop deals feature this slightly older but excellent value all-around device. With an Intel i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a large 1TB, it's a terrific buy if you have a reasonable budget and need a device that will comfortably handle your day-to-day computing jobs and general work. Expect solid performance, good multitasking capabilities, and speedy load times, but be aware of the bulky 15.6-inch size and battery life of around 6-8 hours that hamper its portability. Altogether, though, this is an impressive laptop for the price.

Samsung Galaxy Book4: was $899.99 now $549.99 at Samsung
Display - 15.6 inches
Processor - Intel Core 7
RAM - 16GB
Storage - 512GB
OS - Windows 11

The standard configuration of the Samsung Galaxy Book4 is one of the best laptop deals in Samsung's Labor Day sale. It’s already $350 off as standard, but you can get a further discount of up to $450 when you trade in your current device. That means you could get a laptop with a powerful Intel Core 7 processor, a considerable 16GB of memory, and a reasonable 512GB SSD for under $100. The Galaxy Book4 looks great, too, with a long-lasting battery that makes it ideal for taking from the coffee shop, to class, to your dorm and back again. You can check the full list of laptops, mobiles and tablets accepted for this trade-in offer at Samsung.

MacBook Air 13-inch (M2, 2022): was $999 now $799 at Amazon
Display - 13.6 inches
Processor - Apple M2
RAM - 8GB
Storage - 256GB
OS - macOS

Amazon has the MacBook Air M2 for its lowest-ever price right now. Even though a newer M3 version is available, we concluded that this is still one of the best laptops you can buy in our MacBook Air M2 review, thanks to the stylish design, clear display, impressive performance, and long 18-hour battery life. For those needing a premium powerhouse for creative apps such as photo editing, video editing and more intense workloads, this is worth the investment.

MacBook Air 13-inch (M3): was $1,099 now $899 at Best Buy
Display: 13 inches
Processor: Apple M1
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 256GB
OS: MacOS

The latest MacBook Air is down to $899 at Best Buy – that's just $50 more than the historic low price. The brand-new model was released earlier this year and runs on the powerful M3 chipset, making it a great buy for creatives and anyone after a high-end device. Our five-star MacBook Air 13-inch M3 review praised its excellent performance, lengthy 18 hours of battery life and slick fan-less design. We think it's the best laptop you can buy right now if you've got a decent budget for a portable and powerful machine.

Dell XPS 13: was $1,299 now $999.99 at Dell
Display - 13.4 inches
Processor - Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite
RAM - 16GB
Storage - 512GB
OS - Windows 11

This is the biggest discount yet on one of the brand-new Dell XPS 13 models. As a Copilot Plus PC, it comes with one of the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon processors that boast fantastic all-around performance and exceptional battery life of around 17 hours. These are things we called out as the main positives in our Dell XPS 13 review, alongside the gorgeous OLED display and sleek overall design. It's a high-end premium device for users who need speed, performance, and responsiveness for coding, multitasking, and creative tasks.

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: was $1,349.99 now $999.99 at Samsung
Display - 14 inches
Processor - Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite
RAM - 16GB
Storage - 512GB
OS - Windows 11

A new Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge is $350 off in the Labor Day sales event at Samsung. Even better news, those with a device to trade in could save up to an extra $500 on top, too. The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge uses a Snapdragon X Elite 3.4GHz processor with 12 cores, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. It has a great-looking 14-inch Dynamic 3K AMOLED 2X touchscreen which is also small enough to ensure this laptop is incredibly lightweight and slim. The battery life of up to 18 hours easily puts this on par with MacBooks, and its AI-powered features like automatic Live Captions and search tools via Recall make this a delight to use.

See more Laptop Deals

James Pickard is a Deals Editor at TechRadar. After many years of scouring the net for the cheapest games and tech for his personal use, he decided to make it his job to share all the best bargains and coupon codes with you. James also has almost a decade of experience covering some of the biggest sales events of the year at Eurogamer and VG247, including Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Amazon Prime Day. When not deals hunting or stacking coupon codes to get the biggest savings, James can be found on the PS5, watching a classic film noir or cheering on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.