Back To School Laptop Deals Include A Great HP Ryzen Machine For Just $399

It's a new school year, and chances are good that the old Windows 7-based 2012-vintage laptop you were planning to give to the kid is really on its last legs. Grab something new with a fresh version of Windows and all of the accoutrements you expect from a brand-new laptop, like a modern screen in high resolution, a reasonable amount of RAM, and a battery that actually charges to full capacity.

You don't have to spend a lot of money to grab something capable. We've picked out seven systems for you that span the range from entry-level thin & light all the way up to an MSI Katana gaming machine with a great price. Let's not waste any more time and get right to the deals:


First up, we have a 15.6" mid-sized laptop with a Ryzen 3 7330U processor, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 1TB SSD. Most unusually, it comes with Windows 11 Pro. There's no doubt that the quad-core Zen 3 CPU is middling, but it'll be plenty fast for browsing as well as common productivity apps like Office and Lightroom. The 1920×1080 display is an IPS-type, and the machine includes physical Ethernet, HDMI, and headphone ports alongside multiple USB connections and a DC barrel jack for charging. It's a steal at $399.


If you'd rather, you can trade half of the SSD capacity for a bit more CPU horsepower with this HP 250 G9. This is very similar to the 255 G10 machine above, but with a 512GB SSD and a Core i5-1235U CPU. That chip has two Golden Cove P-cores and eight Gracemont E-cores, giving it twelve threads and a peak clock rate of 4.4 GHz. It comes with the same 1080p screen and 16GB of RAM, although it has Windows 11 Home, not Pro. Pick it up for just $460, 34% off the $699 list price.


Folks concerned about Chrome eating up all their memory can opt for this HP Essential machine, which is once again 15.6". This system boasts a full 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, while the HD display supports touch functionality. The CPU takes a small hit; it's a Core i3-1215U with two P-cores and four E-cores. That's still plenty of processor for basic computing, though, and HP claims you can get 8 hours of battery life out of this system. It's just $519 on discount, and it comes with a voucher for a free 250GB P500 external SSD. Not bad.


Folks after a system with more performance potential should check out this Lenovo V15 Gen 4 that is marked down to just $512 right now, yet comes with a relatively potent Core i5-13420H CPU. That chip has four Raptor Cove P-cores, four Gracemont Plus E-cores, and clocks all the way to 4.6 GHz, with a higher power limit than "U" parts, allowing to maintain boost speeds even longer. This machine has a 15.6" 1080p display, a full array of ports, and comes with 16GB of RAM as well as a 512GB NVMe SSD. This is a great price on a speedy system for students.


Of course, style-conscious students won't be satisfied with a Windows machine; some students simply must have a Macbook. Well, you don't have panic; MacBook Air systems with powerful M2 chips inside are marked down and going for just $849 right now. These machines have 8GB of RAM, which Apple says is like having 16GB on a Windows system. You also get 256GB of storage and likely a superior display to anything else on this list. Apple says you can enjoy 18 hours of battery life and a pair of Thunderbolt ports, another exclusive to this system.


In case you want the best of both worlds, with a large-screen laptop that's light enough to remain comfortable in even the smallest student's backpack, here's a 17" LG Gram that is phenomenally thin. It still offers a powerful Core i7-1360P CPU with four P-cores and eight E-cores, 16GB of LPDDR5 memory, and a 512GB NVMe SSD. The screen is a gorgeous 2560×1600 anti-glare IPS LCD, and the machine features Dolby Atmos suround sound. Pick up this premium machine for $1049 after a 30% discount.


Finally, the system your kid really wants: an MSI Katana A17 AI 17.3" gaming laptop. This machine is powerful, with a top-end AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS CPU and a GeForce RTX 4070 GPU backed by 64GB of DDR5 memory and 2TB of NVMe storage. Obviously, it's a potent gaming machine, but this could be a legitimate scholastic purchase for a student that's studying AI, high-performance computing, or game development. $1699 isn't cheap, but it's $300 off the list price, and not bad considering the 240-Hz QHD screen and the massive 64GB of RAM.

Let us know if one of these deals whet your fancy, and if not, tell us about the better deal you found in the comments below.