Laptops are expensive, and theres no way around that, but you can lessen the financial impact by picking up the best laptop or gaming laptop at the right time. While there are always new laptops coming out, there are several times during the year when buying a laptop is quite a bit more affordable, even if you want the latest and greatest in 2025. With President's Day sales on the horizon, we've broken down some of the best times to buy a new laptop every year.For the Best Time to Buy a Laptop in 2025, Keep in Mind:Big Sales Events: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Prime DayBack to School TimingNew Hardware ReleasesBlack Friday / Cyber MondayBlack Friday and Cyber Monday DealsBlack Friday and Cyber Monday sales are obviously a good time to buy a laptop, but its more than just the doorbusters. New laptop hardware usually launches either at the beginning of the year or around October, depending on the manufacturer. This means all the laptops that are either one generation old, or are became one generation old after CES (the Consumer Electronics Show), are going to be seeing deep discounts. We've seen this to be true for Macbooks, for example, which recently had new models revealed.This is because retailers like Amazon and Best Buy want to clear their shelves to make room for newer products when they arrive. So, yeah, this might mean youre not getting the fanciest laptop possible, but when you can save a solid 20-30% off the sticker price, does that even matter? Couple this with retailers using huge Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals to grab your attention, and you can get an extremely affordable laptop. Ive seen Black Friday deals cut the price of a MacBook Air a couple of weeks after it came out, and Apples laptops are usually the last to see any kind of discount, especially when theyre new. Black Friday will be on November 28 in 2025, but the deals season will likely kick off in late October. If you want to buy a laptop during Black Friday, you can expect to start seeing the deals shortly after Amazon's October Prime Day event.Amazon Prime DayAmazon Prime DayJust like Black Friday, Amazon holds its own deals event each year. In my experience, Prime Day laptop deals are never great, but that doesnt mean they dont exist. As long as youre not too picky, you can find a solid laptop at an affordable price, but it probably wont be a flashy top-end device. Instead, Amazon Prime Day is one of the best times of the year to grab one of the best Chromebooks. These are already super affordable laptops, and Amazon cuts the prices even further on Prime Day. The best part about this is you dont have to worry too much about what hardware youre getting with a Chromebook, as pretty much everything youll be doing on the device is tied to a web browser anyway.We expect Prime Day 2025 to take place around the same time as last year in mid-July.October Prime DayAmazon also started having a Prime Day 2 of sorts in October. The October Prime Day sale is a lot like the summer version, with many similar discounts appearing before the holiday season. You won't find nearly as many laptop deals compared to Black Friday, but it's still worth mentioning if you need to find a laptop for cheap in the fall.Other Sales EventsWhile Black Friday and Prime Day are the big sales events pretty much everyone knows about, retailers will often discount big tech items for holidays as well. Coming up this weekend is President's Day, and Best Buy has already announced a big sale for it. Memorial Day, Labor Day, and the Fourth of July are also a great time to check out laptop deals. If You Want the New HotnessIf youre not necessarily interested in getting a great deal on a laptop, but instead want the best laptop possible at any given moment, youre going to want to wait for Nvidia, Intel or AMD to announce new laptop hardware. This year, a new generation of laptops was announced alongside CES 2025, with a particular emphasis on AI assistants and Mini-LED displays. We've broken down the main gaming laptop trends we noticed at the event, and of course all eyes are on next-generation graphics. We got a particularly good look at Razer's new lineup of RTX 5090 laptops. Intel Announces 13th Gen Raptor Lake Mobile Processors at CES 2023If you're wanting to browse deals right now or want a place to check back periodically, we've got you covered on the best gaming laptop deals year-round.Ultrabooks are always getting upgrades, though Intel's less-powerful U-series processors tend to release at kind of random times of the year. This is where it pays off to keep an eye on tech news and rumors. Laptop hardware has a tendency to just show up out of nowhere, so if you want to grab the new hotness when it comes out, youre going to have to keep an eye out.New Hardware Can Lower Prices, Kind ofOne of the other benefits of waiting for new laptop hardware to come out is that it will immediately cut the prices of last-gen hardware. It might sting a little to spend a thousand bucks on a year-old laptop, but let me assure you that laptop generations are extremely incremental. You dont need to worry too much about a 13th-gen Intel laptop now that 14th-gen Intel laptops have come out, because the 13th-gen chips are only a few percentage points behind the 14th-gen ones. And even then, its not like the difference is going to be noticeable in every day computing tasks. Trust me, one CPU generation isnt going to speed Photoshop up that much.Keeping an eye on new laptop hardware and then snagging an excellent deal on a last-gen laptop is easily one of the best ways to buy a laptop, and this goes for the best MacBooks too. When a new MacBook comes out, you can open any used marketplace and see hundreds of year-old MacBooks at a deep discount because their owners want to buy the new one. If you want to be savvy when buying a new laptop, no matter the time of year, this is the way to do it.Top Affordable Laptops to Choose From Right NowIf you're not wanting to wait for an upcoming sale event or for any new models to be released, here are some top budget laptops to browse from our laptop buying guides:Dell Dell XPS 13If you don't want to splurge on a MacBook, a top MacBook alternative is the Dell XPS 13 laptop.ASUS Asus TUF Dash 15If you need a good gaming laptop under $2,000, this is a great choice on a budget.Microsoft Surface Pro 9One of the best detachable laptops out there. We recommend the model offering up Microsofts ARM-based processor, the SQ 3.Apple Apple MacBook Air M2The Apple MacBook Air (2022) is one of the best laptops for everyday use.Jackie Thomas is IGN's tech and buying guides editor, specializing in hardware reviews and features.