Once again, Best Buy is going head-to-head with Amazon to compete on Prime Day — and this year’s top deals were all placed right where it seems like consumers want them: laptops, phones and headphones. If you’re looking to save up to $300 on everyday tech — or even more for a few select models — this is a wise window in which to buy; there are strong picks here for students, commuters and the home office.
What’s noteworthy this cycle is a combination of rare Apple discounts and even more price-slashing on Windows machines. Throw in fast in-store pickup, easy returns and the occasional member-exclusive price, and Best Buy becomes an undeniable alternative to scrolling a giant market squall of lightning deals.
Laptops up to $300 off at Best Buy for Prime Day
If you have been waiting for a Mac notebook, the MacBook Air with the M3 chip (which is also what goes by now as newish) landing at around $1,099 is definitely appealing — this price drops us into the $300-to-$400-off range depending on configuration. For the vast majority of us, the Air’s battery life and performance per watt are hard to beat for everyday workloads, and with unified memory at 8GB said to feel snappier than 8GB elsewhere in the ultrabook world.
Windows-wise, the Microsoft Surface Laptop is about $250 off, and that gets you a nice, expensive-feeling keyboard and color-accurate screen plus a clean software experience (for now at least) that power users tend to prefer. If value is what’s most important, the Acer Aspire Go 15 often falls to as low as $300, an uncommon 1:1 price-to-discount situation that makes it a standout for basic productivity and streaming.
Deal seekers will also want to note the Samsung Galaxy Book4, which comes at several hundred dollars off, and the ASUS Vivobook 14 has been discounted by just over $250. Each comes with a current Intel chip, solid enough battery life and plenty of RAM for a browser weighed down by tabs. A simple buying rule: Go for 16GB of memory and 512GB storage when you can — particularly if you multitask or use your device to store a lot of media locally.
Big-picture context is key here: Adobe Analytics tracking October electronics promotions as falling around the mid-teens to 20% off range on average in the past, so anything above that — especially hardware from this generation — is worth a closer look. Just make sure you confirm it’s a discount on the config you actually want, not just one colorway.
Phones And Tablets That Are Worth The Activation Savings
Best Buy’s most reliable stream of phone savings are available when you activate with a carrier. You can expect to save between $200 and $300 in instant discounts or bill credits on top-tier Android phones when you activate them with a major carrier, especially with trade-in bonus layers upping the limits even more. Gotcha in fine print: bill credits chisel away your monthly payment over time, while instant savings slash the price right then at the register.
For tablets, perhaps the best is Apple’s now-$299 11-inch iPad powered by the A16 chip — a good entry point for taking notes and playing casual games. Content creators and professional power users ought to be eyeing the iPad Pro with M4 chip, usually $100 off at these events, taking desktop-class performance down to a featherweight slate.
If you desire an Android tablet for media and multitasking with multiple user profiles, at a discount on the midrange models that come bundled with accessories. Going for in-store pickup can be a smart play here because inventory on the best colors and storage tiers may move fast when bundle pricing hits.
Headphones and earbuds at rare lows during Prime Day
Apple’s AirPods Pro (second generation), our perennial favorite at about $200, offer best-in-class active noise cancellation, very good transparency mode and smooth operation between different Apple devices. For over-ears, cuts on Apple’s AirPods Max can be found more frequently than less expensive models, but if you’re waiting for a big one, the Beats Studio Pro — at around $170, it stands out as one of the top-value ANC plays currently with an extra-deep sub-$200 price and spatial audio support.
If sound quality is your lodestar, compare third-party measurements from sources like RTINGS and independent audio labs to verify noise reduction claims and frequency response graphs. Today many models do offer multipoint Bluetooth and USB-C wired audio; both are handy features for office setups, as well as for frequent flyers who go back and forth between their laptops and phones.
How To Tell A Real Deal And Keep FOMO At Bay
Start with historical pricing. Price trackers and retailer apps can be useful to verify whether a discount really is truly great or it’s just being passed off as an old sale. Even if doorbuster-style markdowns are limited in number and time, industry researchers at Circana say, the best way to tortoise the race is to decide on must-have specs before anything goes on sale, then pounce when the right configuration comes into view.
Leverage Best Buy’s strengths. Same-day store pickup can circumvent shipping delays, open-box listings might scrape a few extra dollars off already low prices, and membership tiers may even grant you access to special prices or extended return periods. If a rival cuts you at the last minute, inquire about price matching — policies can differ across product categories, but it never hurts to ask.
Just be sure that if you save money, you do not generate new bottlenecks.
Match a new laptop to something like a Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 router when it will bring meaningful improvements to your home network, and don’t forget about essentials such as external SSDs or a USB-C hub. Smart, focused add-ons have a way of transforming an all right hardware deal into excellent satisfaction for daily use.
