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Best Back to School deals: laptops, Chromebooks, monitors, and more

Back-to-school sales are in full swing! Here are the products worth buying.
Mark Hachman
By Mark Hachman
Senior Editor, PCWorld
PCW back-to-school deals art
Rob Schultz / Foundry

Back to school deals on laptops, Chromebooks, MacBooks, and more are moving into their second phase, as students go back to class and learn what they need for school. We’re still seeing some great back-to-school sales, however.

We’ve examined and selected the best back-to-school deals at online retailers, with the best available deals on Chromebooks, laptops, MacBooks, iPads and tablets, plus monitors and displays. We’ve taken our extensive laptop reviews coverage and applied that to help you make the best decision on what to buy.

Back to school laptop deals

Some great deals are on right now! Our back-to-school laptop deals focus mainly on productivity, generally emphasizing 1080p displays and long battery life. Students can add an external hard drive or SSD as well as cloud storage to add storage, too. Some of our recommended laptops aren’t new, but they’re all recent, with either Windows 10 or Windows 11. Consult our list of the best laptops for more ideas.

  • HP 15 Laptop, Core i5-1135G7, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 15.6-inch 1080p, $471.00 at Amazon (29% off)
  • Acer Swift 3, Core i7-1165G7, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 14-inch 1080p, $578.00 at Amazon (32% off)
  • Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3: Core i5-11300H / RTX 3050, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 15.6-inch 1080p, $579.99 at Best Buy (38% off)
  • Gateway Creator Notebook, Core i7-11800H / RTX 3050 Ti, 16GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, 17.3-inch 1080p 120Hz, $949.00 at Walmart (32% off)
  • Dell Inspiron 7000, Ryzen 5500U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 14-inch 1080p, $599.99 at Best Buy (25% off)
  • Samsung Galaxy Book Odyssey, Core i7-11600H / RTX 3050Ti, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, 15.6-inch 1080p display, $1,159.99 at Microsoft (23% off)
  • HP Pavilion 15t-eg100, Core i7-1195G7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, 15.6-inch 1080p, $639.99 at HP.com (34% off)

We had some issues with Acer’s earlier Swift 3, but the 11th-gen Swift 3 improves. HP’s laptop looks pretty solid, though average. There are a couple of gaming laptops that might double as productivity machines, too. Other laptop back-to-school deals that feature Intel Celeron processors and 4GB of RAM are too underpowered for us to recommend. If you buy the HP.com (-15t-dw300) deal, double-check that it has the 1080p display option checked!

Back to school Chromebook deals

These back-to-school Chromebook deals are just as good or better than Prime Day deals. We’ve picked the best Chromebook deals for you, not shying away from some older models. The latest gear doesn’t matter as much, compared to laptops. Want more ideas? Start with PCWorld’s list of the best Chromebooks.

College life generally runs on laptops, and not Chromebooks, but Chromebooks are still useful for elementary and even middle-school students, especially as secondary machines. If you can, prioritize a 1080p screen and 8GB of RAM when you buy a Chromebook. (Don’t worry about MediaTek’s Arm chip; it’s about as powerful as an Intel Celeron N4020.) We’ve factored in the dates at which these Chromebooks will fall out of Google’s support window, too.

Back to school MacBook deals

Apple is reluctant to discount MacBooks that much, but there are still back-to-school MacBook discounts out there. The MacBook back-to-school sales just aren’t as appealing as in Windows laptops.

MacBooks rarely carry heavy discounts, unfortunately.

Back to school iPad and tablet deals

If students need a tablet for when they go back to school, we think that these suggestions offer the best deals. Retailers discounted tablets and iPads a bit more earlier in the back-to-school season, but not so much now.

Amazon has some small discounts available for back-to-school tablets. We’ve shied away from Amazon’s own Fire tablets only because students will need flexibility to add apps that they may use in school.

Back to school monitor deals

College dorm rooms and lecture halls don’t offer an enormous amount of space for additional monitors, so there aren’t as many back-to-school monitor deals as you otherwise might expect. Samsung, though, appears to be having a sale.

We’re going to assume that you’re not going to college to game, so we’ve (mostly) emphasized 60Hz displays, with a mix of 1080p and 4K. (The Sceptre at the top offers 75Hz, which should be slightly more relaxing to work with over long periods of time.) Why do we add a monitor mount or two at the end of the list? Well, since dorm rooms don’t often have a lot of desk space, a mount allows you to add an extra display by mounting it on an adjustable arm, via a desk clamp. Just pay attention to the weight of the monitor you’re attaching.

FAQ

1.

When do back to school sales begin?

Back-to-school sales have already begun, in part because retailers cater to those parents who prep early. You can shop back-to-school sales at Amazon’s back-to-school page, Best Buy’s back-to-school page (catering to college students), Newegg’s back to school page, Target’s back-to-school page for kids’ electronics, and Walmart’s back-to-school page, too.

2.

When will back-to-school sales end?

Retailers often won’t tell you when these sales end, though it’s likely they’ll be available throughout most of August. Students may go back to school and find they have the wrong equipment. Prices may change as retailer stock fluctuates.

Remember, the pandemic is still affecting the supply chain, especially electronics from Asia. It may make sense to figure out what you want and buy early, if possible. The laptop, Chromebook, or MacBook you want may not be available later in the month. Our deals reflect what’s still being sold.

3.

When are tax free weekends scheduled?

Tax-free weekends are run by some U.S. states to encourage shopping, especially for items like back-to-school purchases. Five states—Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon—never charge sales tax. We’ve listed the states that are scheduling tax-free weekends, as well as a link to the fine print, as compiled by RetailMeNot.

For example, if you live in Arkansas and buy a laptop from Amazon on August 7, you won’t pay sales tax. There are some exceptions that vary by state: In New Mexico, retailers aren’t required to participate. Each state has different exemptions that apply to different products at different price ranges, and these discounts (generally) apply to national retailers. Check the details!

Alabama: July 15-July 17, at midnight. Details.

Arkansas: Aug. 6-Aug. 7, at midnight. Details.

Connecticut: Aug. 21- Aug. 27. Details.

Florida: July 25-Aug. 7. Details.

Iowa: Aug. 5- Aug. 6, at midnight. Details.

Maryland: Aug. 14- Aug. 20, at midnight. Details.

Massachusetts: Aug. 13- Aug. 14. Details.

Mississippi: July 29-July 30, at midnight. Details.

Missouri: Aug. 5 – Aug. 7 at midnight. Details.

New Jersey: Aug. 27-Sept. 5. Details.

New Mexico: Aug. 5-Aug. 7, at midnight. Details.

Ohio: Aug. 5- Aug. 7, at midnight. Details.

Oklahoma: Aug. 6-Aug. 8. Details.

South Carolina: Aug. 5-Aug. 7, at midnight. Details.

Tennessee: Back-to-school tax-free weekend runs July 29-31 at midnight. Details.

Texas: Aug. 5-Aug. 7. Details.

Virginia: Aug. 5- Aug. 7, at midnight. Details.

4.

Will schools go back to virtual classrooms in 2022?

No, it certainly doesn’t seem so. At this point, schools aren’t in session, and school districts are still preparing for the fall 2022 school term. But we haven’t seen any mention about a return to virtual classrooms as a result of the pandemic or monkeypox.

5.

PCs vs Chromebooks: Which is better for school?

We have a lengthy overview of the advantages of Chromebooks versus laptops, but the simple answer to this question is: whatever your school district tells you.

A Chromebook is better for school if your child will be working “online,” meaning in the classroom but on a Web site that’s authorized by the teacher. A PC is more useful if your child will be using apps, such as Minecraft for Education, or transitioning from elementary school to middle school, or from middle school to high school. The extra flexibility to run apps (and, yes, games) will be appreciated by your child. Colleges and universities almost always ask their students to bring PCs or Macs with them, so a laptop is most appropriate.

6.

What should I look for in a monitor for dorm rooms?

Dorm rooms typically prioritize the efficient use of space, so laptops will be the most typical. Any way that you can use the extra space, though, is useful. A high-resolution display may mean that you can more effectively “fit” more information into the space with smaller fonts. But a monitor mount, like we’ve included in our list of monitors, can clamp on to a desk and allow for a second display, which vastly increases productivity and can also be used to stream video for friends, too. Our back-to-school list of monitors and displays includes both cheap 1080p options as well as 4K displays and even gaming displays for after hours.

Updated at 10:52 AM PT on August 15 to remove expired deals and add new ones.

, Senior Editor

As PCWorld's senior editor, Mark focuses on Microsoft news and chip technology, among other beats. He has formerly written for PCMag, BYTE, Slashdot, eWEEK, and ReadWrite.

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