Whens the best time to buy a laptop? If youre looking for a deal, were entering peak season.

A laptop doesn't make a great impulse buy, like a pack of gum in the checkout line or a weird thingamajig you saw in a TikTok livestream .

Of course, if the computer you depend on for work, school, or entertainment randomly decides to kick the bucket, it likely requires immediate replacement ( after recycling or repurposing it ).

Most people, however, can and should strategize before investing in a new machine they hope to use for years to come.

First, decide what's most important to you: a laptop with minty-fresh specs, or a laptop that costs less than usual? From there, I can point you to several key times to buy, based on my historical knowledge of laptop launches and deals .

With the holiday shopping season approaching, I'll tell you upfront that we're heading into the best time to buy a laptop if you want the best bang for your buck.

But if you're not quite ready to lock in, Black Friday isn't the only time to shop.

If you want the latest specs For future-proofers and shoppers with cash to spare, splurging on the laptop of the moment can be more appealing than buying an older model at a discount.

Best time to buy: At launch The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) , a tech industry trade show that happens every year in January, is basically ground zero for next-generation Windows laptops .

Major manufacturers like Asus, Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, MSI, and Razer treat their booths as runways for new computers with the latest processors, graphics cards, and/or cutting-edge features.

Think rollable displays , weird lid attachments , and touchpads with built-in media controls.

While some of the laptops showcased at CES are just prototypes, many are fully fleshed-out devices, and a batch of them are available for preorder or purchase shortly after the event wraps.

The rest typically hit the market by March or April .

Billed as "the world's first rollable display AI PC," Lenovo's ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 made a splash at CES 2025.

Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable There are two lone alpha wolves who don't make appearances at CES, one being Apple , which is known to take a couple of different approaches to new laptop launches.