Black Friday 2026 is on Friday, November 27, with Cyber Monday on November 30, and this year the laptop deals need reading more carefully than usual. Memory chips have become so expensive that Apple raised the MacBook Air by $200 in June, and the big Windows makers have raised prices too. So a "20% off" sticker this November may only bring a laptop back to what it cost a year ago. This guide gives you the prices to beat, the laptops reviewers and deal trackers point to, and the doorbusters to walk past.
Hitechreports does not test laptops. Every price below is one the linked outlet reported, on the date given. We will update this page as retailers announce their Black Friday events and as prices land.
Why laptop deals look bigger than they are in 2026
The memory makers have moved their factories to the high-bandwidth memory that AI data centres buy. Tom's Hardware found 16GB of DDR5 that cost under $100 a year earlier selling for upwards of $240, and reported SK hynix's warning that the constraints will last through 2030.
The laptop makers have passed it on:
- Apple raised the 512GB MacBook Air from $1,099 to $1,299, the 1TB MacBook Pro from $1,699 to $1,999 and the entry MacBook Neo from $599 to $699 on June 25, citing memory and storage costs, according to Memeburn's account of Fox Business's report.
- Dell said in December 2025 that prices would rise by at least 15% to 20%, Memeburn reports, and Gartner forecast in March that average PC prices would rise 17% in 2026 while shipments fall 10.4%.
- IDC is more cautious, predicting that average PC prices rise by up to 8% in 2026, but quotes Lenovo, Dell, HP, Acer and Asus "confirming 15–20% hikes", according to PCWorld.
The result, in Memeburn's comparison: the cheapest new MacBook Air last Black Friday was the 13-inch M4 with 16GB and 256GB at $749; the cheapest MacBook Air in October 2026 was the M5 at $1,099, 47% more, though with 512GB of storage. A Lenovo LOQ 15 gaming laptop with an RTX 5060 that sold for $899.99 last December was listed at $1,249 in late September, 39% more.
Waiting for next year will not help, either. Gartner calls the shortage structural rather than cyclical and expects it to last well into 2027, Memeburn notes, and Kingston's Cameron Crandall told PCWorld that anyone upgrading should "do it now and not wait because prices are going to continue to go up".
The prices to beat
Judge a Black Friday 2026 laptop deal against this autumn's lowest prices, not last year's. These are the October lows the outlets below recorded.
| Laptop | Configuration | Price to beat | Reported by |
|---|
| MacBook Air 13 (M5) | 16GB, 512GB | $1,099 at Amazon, October Prime Day | Gizmodo, Memeburn |
| MacBook Air 13 (M5) | 16GB, 1TB | $1,449 (list $1,599), October 23 | Macworld |
| MacBook Air 15 (M5) | 16GB, 512GB | $1,299 | Memeburn |
| MacBook Neo | A18 Pro, 8GB, 512GB | $689 (list $699) | Memeburn |
| Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 | Snapdragon X2 Plus, 16GB, 512GB | $1,099 (list $1,599), late September | Memeburn |
| Acer Aspire 14 AI | Core Ultra 7 256V, 16GB, 1TB | $630, late September | Memeburn |
| HP OmniBook X Flip 14 | Ryzen AI 5 430, 16GB, 512GB | $699 (list $1,299) | Memeburn |
| HP HyperX Omen 15 | Ryzen 7 8745HX, RTX 5060, 1TB | $1,199, late September | Memeburn |
| Lenovo LOQ 15 | Ryzen 7 250, RTX 5060, 16GB, 512GB | $1,249, late September | Memeburn |
For comparison, last Black Friday's MacBook prices, as TechRadar recorded them: the 14-inch MacBook Pro M5 with 16GB and 1TB at $1,642 (was $1,799), the 512GB version at $1,444, the 15-inch MacBook Air M4 $250 off and under $1,000, and the 13-inch M4 Air at $749.99.
Which laptops to buy on Black Friday 2026
For most people: MacBook Air 13 with M5. Memeburn calls it "the safest Black Friday laptop for most people", because 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage are standard, it has no fan and it runs all day. Gizmodo's write-up of the October deal lists up to 18 hours of battery, two Thunderbolt 4 ports and Wi-Fi 7. The M5 Air with 16GB and 512GB is the configuration to track: anything under $1,099 beats the October low.
For a bigger screen: MacBook Air 15 with M5. Same logic, $1,299 to beat, per Memeburn. Amazon's listings are the place to check.
The cheapest Mac: MacBook Neo. Apple's new entry laptop runs the iPhone's A18 Pro chip. Memeburn's price to beat is $689, and a return to its $599 launch price would be a real deal. The catch, Memeburn warns, is 8GB of memory that cannot be upgraded later: fine for browsing, documents and school work, not for dozens of tabs and creative apps. Best Buy says it has the Neo in stores this holiday.
The premium Windows pick: Surface Laptop 8. With a Snapdragon X2 Plus, 16GB and 512GB, it was listed at $1,099 against a $1,599 list price in late September, Memeburn's strongest premium Windows deal on paper. It is a Copilot+ PC with the long battery life of Arm chips, but check that your older Windows software, peripherals and anti-cheat games run on Arm first. Surface Laptop listings on Amazon.
The budget Windows pick: Acer Aspire 14 AI. A Core Ultra 7 256V, 16GB and a 1TB SSD for $630 in late September is "unusually generous storage for the price in 2026", says Memeburn. It is a 2025 model, which does not matter at this price. Acer Aspire 14 AI on Amazon.
The 2-in-1: HP OmniBook X Flip 14. $699 against a $1,299 list, which Memeburn uses to show how little HP's list prices mean. Compare any Black Friday price with $699, not with the 46% sticker. HP OmniBook X Flip 14 on Amazon.
The gaming pick: an RTX 5060 machine. Memeburn calls the RTX 5060 "the sensible floor for 1080p gaming in 2026" and found the HP HyperX Omen 15 at $1,199 better value than the Lenovo LOQ 15 at $1,249 in late September. For more, see our reviewer-sourced list of the best gaming laptops of 2026, led by the Razer Blade 18 and the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, with the Acer Nitro V as the budget pick. RTX 5060 gaming laptops on Amazon.
Black Friday laptop doorbusters to avoid
Memeburn's three warnings, which match what Gartner's Rishi Padhi told Computerworld about memory downgrades in entry-level machines:
- Windows laptops with 8GB of RAM sold as doorbusters. 8GB rules out Copilot+ features and leaves little room for Windows 11 and a modern browser. 16GB is the floor for Windows this year.
- Discounts measured from inflated list prices, such as a $1,299 list on a laptop that normally sells near $700. The dollar price is what matters.
- Older gaming laptops with RTX 3050 or RTX 4050 graphics near $700. They look cheap against 2026 prices but trail the RTX 5060 machines that cost a few hundred dollars more, and will age quickly.
When Black Friday laptop sales start
Memeburn's rule is the one to follow: buy when a laptop returns to its October low, rather than holding out for Cyber Monday.
Black Friday laptop questions
When is Black Friday 2026? Friday, November 27, 2026. Cyber Monday is November 30.
Will laptops be cheaper than last Black Friday? Probably not. Memeburn found the cheapest MacBook Air 47% dearer in October 2026 than at Black Friday 2025, and an RTX 5060 Lenovo LOQ 39% dearer, because of the memory shortage.
Is the MacBook Air cheaper on Black Friday than on Prime Day? The M5 Air fell to $1,099 in October's Prime Day sale, which only matched its pre-June list price. A Black Friday price below $1,099 beats it.
How much RAM does a Black Friday laptop need in 2026? 16GB for Windows, which is also the Copilot+ requirement. An 8GB MacBook Neo is fine for light use, but its memory cannot be upgraded.
Should I wait until 2027? Gartner expects the memory shortage to last well into 2027, so list prices are more likely to stay high than fall back.
More Black Friday guides from Hitechreports
Published October 26, 2026. Prices are those reported by the linked outlets on the dates stated, not current Amazon prices; check the retailer for today's price. Hitechreports does not test laptops. As an Amazon Associate, Hitechreports earns from qualifying purchases.
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