One of my favorite laptops to recommend, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x, is discounted by $250 to $900. This high-end configuration of the laptop has never been this cheap. That's a pleasant surprise in an industry suffering from an ongoing memory shortage without signs of slowing down.
Just look at these specs: 16 GB of memory, 512 GB of storage, a high-resolution OLED display, and the new Snapdragon X2 Plus. For $900, that's the best Windows laptop deal I've seen in a while. I tested a version with a lower-resolution display (1920 x 1200 rather than 2560 x 1600), and even the quality of that screen impressed me. As it turns out, that model is also being sold for the lowest price I've ever seen it—at Lenovo.com for just $800. Outside of the lower-resolution screen, it has all the same specs.
- Photograph: Luke Larsen
- Photograph: Luke Larsen
Lenovo
IdeaPad Slim 5x
$1,150 $900 (22% off)Amazon (2560 x 1600)
$970 $800 (18% off)Lenovo (1920 x 1200)
A year ago, it was fairly common to find excellent laptops for $900. These days, not so much. Increasing memory prices have forced laptop manufacturers to raise their own prices across the board—including Apple. It's become harder than ever to find a high-end laptop under $1,000 that doesn't have any significant compromises. That's an even bigger challenge if you're after a laptop with a larger display. For example, the Dell XPS 13 sells for $900, which is another good option around this price, but it's a tiny device focused on portability. The IdeaPad Slim 5x has a much larger 15.3-inch screen that's great for those who plan to actually sit down at a desk or table and work entirely off it without using an external monitor. At 0.61 inches thick, it's not overly chunky either—matching the thickness of the 14-inch MacBook Pro, for reference.
The chip inside, the Snapdragon X2 Plus, is another reason this laptop deal is so special. This is Qualcomm's latest PC processor, but because of how rocky pricing has been this year, it's rarely shown up in laptops you could call affordable. That's a shame, because it's a very capable processor that's in the same league as Apple's M5 in terms of CPU performance. I wouldn't buy this laptop for full-time video editors or 3D animators—or if you're a serious gamer. The graphics performance just isn't there. But in terms of everyday tasks, whether for office work or schoolwork, the X2 Plus won't skip a beat, no matter how many browser tabs, open applications, and background tasks you have going. It even has plenty of ports onboard, including two USB-C, two USB-A, HDMI, and a microSD card slot.
And last (but not least), the IdeaPad Slim 5x has a touchpad that's nice to use. I mention this because so many budget-oriented laptops cut corners on the quality of the touchpad. That might seem minor, but unless you're a mouse-only person, the touchpad is something you're constantly interacting with and goes a long way toward making a laptop feel premium. The IdeaPad Slim 5x doesn't have a haptic feedback trackpad that more expensive laptops use, so the click is a bit loud. But I can vouch that it doesn't make me feel clumsy when using it.
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