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Received — 24 June 2026 ⏭

Forget Prime Day right now — all of my favorite Dell laptops are even cheaper directly from Dell, including $499.99 for a Ryzen 7

✇Techradar
By: desire.athow@futurenet.com (Desire Athow)
24 June 2026 at 16:24

The refreshed lineup of Dell laptops has turned out to be even better than many of us hoped for, including the return of the XPS line — and right now, Dell's 'Days of Deals' sale is offering even better pricing than the Amazon Prime Day laptop deals I've been seeing.

Right off the top, you have the new Dell 16 Laptop for $499.99 (originally $1029.99), which is a better price for a Windows 11 Home laptop than just about any other model on Amazon that doesn't come with junk hardware inside. Instead, you get an eight-core AMD Ryzen 7 250 processor, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD, far better than most sub-$500 laptops on sale for Prime Day.

The Alienware 15 gaming laptop is also just $999.99 for a decently specced sub-$1,000 laptop with updated hardware, something that is very hard to find on Amazon right now.

There's more to explore at Dell.com, and I encourage you to check out their sale if you're in the market for new computer hardware, but I've pulled together my favorite laptop picks and configurations from the sale to help make it easier to find what you're looking for.

Today's best laptop deals at Dell.com

AMD Ryzen 7 250 | 16GB DDR5 RAM | 512GB SSD

I always think of the Dell 16 Laptop as the everyday workhorse for remote and hybrid workers. Likewise, If you or your child is off to college this September, then get ahead of the curve with this outstanding deal.View Deal

AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 | 16GB DDR5 RAM | 512GB SSD

The Dell 14 Plus is one of our favorite mid-range Windows laptops thanks to its excellent design and competitive specs. If I were looking for a decent everyday laptop for everything from work to demanding productivity applications, then I'd be very tempted by this deal.View Deal

Intel Core 5 320 | 8GB DDR5 RAM | 512GB SSD

Dell's answer to the Neo comes with a touchscreen display and a special price for students (matching Apple's $599). This is the cheapest XPS 13 yet and one with a smaller-than-A4 footprint.View Deal

Intel Core Ultra 7 258V | 32GB DDR5 RAM | 1TB SSD

Dell ships 32GB of RAM with this laptop and this is the optimal amount of memory for serious productivity/business workloads. 'Between great general computing performance for any college student or executive and long-lasting battery life, it's a solid mid-tier laptop and it's even cheaper than last year!View Deal

Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 | 32GB DDR5 RAM | 512GB SSD

Dell's XPS 13 laptops are always worth keeping an eye out for during Prime Day, as we often see big price cuts for what are some of the best laptops you can currently buy. Right now, one of the biggest discounts you'll find is for this Snapdragon-equipped model, which also features an impressive 32GB of RAM. With a Snapdragon chipset, you'll get great performance and almost unbeatable battery life out of this model.View Deal

Intel Core 5 210H | 16GB DDR5 RAM | 512GB SSD | RTX4050

Save $350 on the Alienware Aurora 15 gaming laptop. This system strikes a sensible balance between gaming proficiency and affordability. For less than $1,000, it's a capable workhorse for both casual and professional tasks.View Deal

Graphics card: GeForce RTX 5060
Processor: Intel Core Ultra 7-240H
RAM: 32GB DDR5
Storage: 1TB

This Alienware Aurora 16 isn't the cheapest laptop on the market, but you're getting an Intel Core Ultra-7 240H chipset, RTX 5060 graphics card, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB SSD - superb specs for 1080p gaming. If you need a decent machine with a premium build, then this is a fantastic choice in the Dell Black Friday in July sale.View Deal

Amazon's Prime Day sale in the US - quick links

Laptop prices suck these days, but here are 25 Prime Day deals that help a little

✇The Verge - All Posts
By: Antonio G. Di Benedetto
24 June 2026 at 15:32
A rear-view of the 15-inch MacBook Air M5.

The RAM, storage, and component crunch has come for new laptop prices. Plenty of models have gone up in price after being on the market for months, and so have those that’ve been on shelves for over a year. Plus, many new models are releasing at higher prices than the previous generation. So, it really isn’t the best time to buy a new laptop. But what if you need one or really want one now, and you prefer to shop new?

Well, I’m not here to tell you that Amazon’s Prime Day makes everything better. But the discounts certainly don’t hurt.

As usual, we’re doing our best to surface the best Prime Day tech deals. And here, we’ve pulled together the biggest discounts happening not just on laptops, but also on keyboards, mice, webcams, or other worthwhile PC accessories. And since Prime Day has counter-deals running at other retailers like Best Buy (and its Tech Fest Sale), there are also laptop deals for non-Amazon shoppers alike.

The best deals on MacBooks

  • The days of multi-hundred-dollar discounts on MacBooks are behind us for now, but the base 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 chip for $1,549 ($150 off) at Amazon and Best Buy is still a solid deal. It’s powerful enough for the average content creator, comes with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, and has lots of ports. Read our review.

Apple MacBook Air (M5)

Apple’s 2026 MacBook Air has an M5 chip and starts with 512GB of storage that’s significantly faster than previous generations. It’s still as excellent as ever despite a higher base price. Read our review.

Where to Buy:

  • The 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro chip (15-core CPU / 16-core GPU), 24GB of memory, and 1TB of storage is $2,034 (around $165 off) at Amazon and $2,049 at Best Buy. It’s a pretty nice step-up model from the standard M5 MacBook Pro, with a bit more RAM, a more powerful chip, and faster Thunderbolt 5 ports.

The best deals on Windows laptops

Microsoft Surface Laptop, 13-inch

Microsoft’s slightly smaller, entry-level Surface Laptop trims some of the size and a few features from its bigger 13.8-inch counterpart, but it maintains excellent battery life and solid performance. It’s just a shame it’s price went up. Read our review.

Where to Buy:

Microsoft Surface Pro 12-inch

Microsoft’s latest Surface Pro is smaller, with a new design and updated keyboard. It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Arm64 Snapdragon X Plus chip. Read our review.

Where to Buy:

  • The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x was one of the laptops I tested against the MacBook Neo and… it got smoked. But a 512GB config for $449 ($251 off) at Walmart? Not bad. The speakers are an assault on your ears and the trackpad ain’t great, but if you can live with those shortcomings, you get a decent laptop with a competent Snapdragon X processor and marathon battery life. Just read our review and be aware of its shortcomings.
  • Like the Lenovo above, the Acer Aspire 14 AI is another MacBook Neo contender I tested that’s on sale. It’s $589.99 (about $288 off) at Amazon, exclusively for Prime members. Best Buy has it for anyone, sold via Acer, for $599.99. Let me set your expectations: The screen on this laptop is pretty washed out, the speakers are tinny, and the build quality feels cheap. But what you’re getting a deal on is a great Intel Core Ultra 7 256V “Lunar Lake” processor that’s a solid performer while also being quite power efficient. It also has plenty of ports (including Thunderbolt 4) and can even do some light gaming.
  • For a higher-end Acer offering, the Swift X 14 AI is selling for a new low of $1,559.99 ($140 off) at Amazon for Prime members. The 14-inch laptop has a 2880 x 1800 / 120Hz OLED, AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 CPU, RTX 5060 discreet graphics, 32GB of RAM and 1TB SSD. It even has a haptic trackpad that should be a nice upgrade over Acer’s mechanical ones that can be a bit basic.

Asus Zenbook A14

Asus’s Zenbook A14 is a bit of a MacBook Air wannabe, but it’s a compelling alternative if you value a superlight Windows laptop with long battery life. The last-gen 2025 model sports an Arm-based Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chip, a nice 14-inch OLED display, and a sleek textured beige finish.

Where to Buy:

The best deals on gaming laptops

2025 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14

Asus’ ROG Zephyrus G14 is the go-to choice for a portable gaming machine that’s great at regular laptop duties. It’s got a lovely OLED display, great keyboard and trackpad, and solid battery life. There’s a new Intel model that’s much pricier, but the 2025 version with AMD chips is still a great choice.

Where to Buy:

  • The 2025 Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 is $1,574.99 ($575 off) at Best Buy. The larger version of the Zephyrus twins sports a 240Hz OLED display and a thin profile to make it travel friendly. This configuration includes an Intel Core Ultra 9 285H CPU, RTX 5070 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB SSD.
  • HP’s Omen 16 gaming laptop from last year is $1,619.99 ($600 off) at Best Buy through a third-party seller. The 16-inch laptop is configured with an AMD Ryzen 9 8940HX processor, RTX 5060 graphics, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB SSD. Not bad for around $1,500, but while its screen’s 144Hz refresh is nice, the resolution is only 1920 x 1200.
  • For a little more money, you can get a Lenovo Legion 5i at Walmart for $1,589 ($261 off). This 15-inch Legion has an Intel Core i9 14900HX CPU, RTX 5070 GPU (the 8GB VRAM version), 16GB of RAM, and 1TB SSD. You’re getting less RAM than the HP Omen deal, but in exchange it’s got a better GPU and 2560 x 1600 OLED display with 165Hz refresh rate.

Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 AI (2025)

An affordable mid-ranger from Acer running RTX 5070 or 5070 Ti graphics, a 16-inch 240Hz display, and lots of ports.

Where to Buy:

  • Acer’s Nitro V 16S AI gaming laptop is selling for $1,099.99 ($300 off) at Amazon, exclusively for Prime members. It’s got an AMD Ryzen 7 260 CPU, RTX 5060 GPU, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB SSD. The specs are close to the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 deal above, but it’s much chunkier, has more RAM, and its display is larger but a lower-res LCD.

The best deals on keyboards, mice, and other PC peripherals

  • Moft has a variety of deals on its origami-style cases and stands. You can get its folding 2-in-1 Laptop Carry Sleeve, a sleek laptop case that doubles as a portable stand, for $51.96 ($13 off) at Amazon in four sizes and up to 11 different colors. Or, if you don’t mind some adhesive, the Moft Laptop Stand in select colors is $19.99 ($5 off) at Amazon. The super thin attachment sticks to the bottom of your laptop to give you a fold-out stand anywhere you go.

Logitech MX Master 3S

The MX Master 3S is a favorite among many Verge staff members because of its comfort and customization. It can connect via Bluetooth, via its included 2.4GHz receiver, or wired with its USB-C cable.

Where to Buy:

  • The fairly new Keychron V5 Ultra mechanical keyboard with Silk POM red linear switches is $107.99 ($12 off) at Amazon. The near-full-size 96-percent layout board has an incredibly long battery life thanks to its ZMK-based firmware, and it supports a fast 8,000Hz polling rate via its 2.4GHz wireless connection. Its plastic case isn’t as nice as ones with a metal chassis, but it’s a great no-nonsense keyboard for the money. Read our review.
  • Ugreen’s Dock and Stand for the Mac Mini M4 / M4 Pro is $49.99 ($40 off) at Amazon, exclusively for Prime members. The dock sits below your Mac Mini and plugs in to a rear USB-C port, dramatically expanding the port offerings of your tiny desktop and making your power button more accessible with a tiny lever. It has SD / microSD card slots and two USB-A ports on the front, and three USB-C and three USB-A ports on the rear. Plus, inside is an M.2 SSD slot for extra built-in storage. (You’ll have to BYO SSD.)
  • LG’s 32-inch UltraGear 32GX850A-B OLED gaming monitor is $684.50 ($600 off MSRP) at Amazon, exclusively for Prime members. LG also has it for anyone for a slightly higher $699.99. The dual mode 4K OLED supports a fairly high 165Hz refresh rate but can dip down to 1920 x 1080 resolution to output a super fast 330Hz for specialized uses like competitive gaming.
  • For a much more affordable and down to Earth OLED, check out the 27-inch Acer Predator Gaming Monitor X27U, selling for $314.99 ($235 off) at Amazon, exclusively for Prime members. It’s a sweet spot of 2560 x 1440 resolution that isn’t as demanding on games while supporting a high 240Hz refresh.

Elgato Stream Deck MK. 2

The MK.2 version of the standard Stream Deck comes with 15 programmable buttons, a swappable faceplate, and a detachable stand.

Where to Buy:

Asus ROG Falcata

A unique Hall effect gaming keyboard that actually takes ergonomics into account. Read our review.

Where to Buy:

8BitDo Retro 87 Mechanical Keyboard (Xbox Edition)

This mechanical keyboard is inspired by the original Xbox, with a translucent green color scheme and two large customizable buttons. Along with Bluetooth support, it offers a standard tenkeyless layout with clicky hot-swappable Kailh Jellyfish X switches.
8BitDo’s green Xbox-themed Retro 87 Mechanical Keyboard in front of a matching green Xbox console.

Where to Buy:

Update, June 24th: Updated current deals and added new ones for the Microsoft Surface Pro 12-inch and Moft accessories.

Received — 19 June 2026 ⏭
Received — 18 June 2026 ⏭
Received — 17 June 2026 ⏭
Received — 16 June 2026 ⏭

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 and Surface Pro 12 now come with Snapdragon X2 chips

✇The Verge - All Posts
By: Antonio G. Di Benedetto
16 June 2026 at 14:00
Isometric rear views of the jade colored Microsoft Surface Laptop 8th Edition and dune colored Surface Pro 12th Edition.

Microsoft is launching new Surface Laptops and a Surface Pro with Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 processors. These are direct follow-ups to the Surface Laptops and Surface Pro from 2024 that launched with Snapdragon X1 chips and jumpstarted Microsoft's Copilot Plus PC initiative with Windows on Arm.

The new X2 Surfaces are available today. The Surface Pro 12th Edition convertible tablet comes in a 13-inch size with 10-core X2 Plus and 12-core X2 Elite chips, while the Surface Laptop 8th Edition is available in 13.8-inch and 15-inch sizes, each offering the same X2 Plus / X2 Elite configurations. The Pro starts at $1,499 with 256GB of storage (befo …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Received — 15 June 2026 ⏭
Received — 13 June 2026 ⏭

My first 24 hours with Siri AI on the Mac

✇The Verge - All Posts
By: Antonio G. Di Benedetto
13 June 2026 at 16:00
A MacBook Pro resting on a couch with Siri AI running on the macOS 27 Golden Gate developer beta.

I turned off Siri on the Mac years ago and never looked back. Similarly, I found Apple Intelligence so fruitless I never engage with it. But the new Siri AI coming to macOS 27 Golden Gate has at least got me slightly rethinking things.

I'm still early in testing Siri AI, as I've only had access to it in the macOS 27 developer beta for little more than 24 hours. It's also in an early preview state on the dev beta, so there should be lots of runway for improvements before it releases later this year. I don't even know if it's done indexing my files and folders on our review unit M5 MacBook Air and M5 Max MacBook Pro. Unlike on the iOS 27 dev …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Received — 11 June 2026 ⏭

Framework delays its first Laptop 13 Pro shipments by a month

✇The Verge - All Posts
By: Antonio G. Di Benedetto
11 June 2026 at 00:12
A person using a Framework Laptop 13 Pro on a workbench.

The Framework Laptop 13 Pro is delayed. The new 13-inch Framework flagship was set to launch in June, but shipments from the first batch are now expected in July - and there's still a chance some shipments could slip to early August. If you're not in the first batch, your Laptop 13 Pro shifts from a July shipment to August, though some could be as late as early September.

Framework informed customers who preordered a Laptop 13 Pro of the delay via email, outlining the reasons for the extra wait. The main culprits are the new haptic trackpad and custom display. Mainboard preorders and any orders that didn't include these components are sti …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Received — 8 June 2026 ⏭
Received — 4 June 2026 ⏭

Google brings local AI agents to laptops with Gemma 4 12B

✇Computerworld
4 June 2026 at 11:06

Google has released new tools that allow developers to run agentic AI workflows locally using Gemma 4 12B, a 12-billion-parameter model from Google DeepMind.

In a blog post, the company said the model, combined with the Google AI Edge stack, can be used to build and test applications on everyday machines. The model-runtime combination supports capabilities such as autonomous data processing, visual insight generation, webpage creation, and tool use.

The release includes Google AI Edge Gallery for macOS, where developers can use Gemma 4 12B to generate and run scripts for tasks such as data analysis. Google also said its Eloquent voice dictation and editing app now runs fully on-device on macOS, with support for local transcription and voice-driven text editing.

Google has also expanded LiteRT-LM, its lightweight command-line tool for running language models locally, with a new serve command. The company said this allows the CLI to act as a local LLM server and lets developers connect Gemma 4 12B to standard tools, SDKs, and frameworks through a local endpoint.

“Your data stays on your device while maintaining reliable responsiveness, utility, and cost efficiency,” the company said in the blog post.

The announcement comes as enterprises are looking beyond large, general-purpose models for some AI workloads. Gartner predicted that by 2027, organizations will use small, task-specific AI models at least three times more than general-purpose large language models, citing demand for more contextualized and cost-effective AI systems.

Challenges to overcome

But running agents on employee devices brings a number of problems. Companies must work within the limits of endpoint hardware, which can restrict the size of models that run effectively and the number of model instances that can operate at one time.

“While the AI can now fit on a laptop, enterprise IT infrastructure is largely unprepared to manage it,” said Rishi Padhi, principal analyst at Gartner. “Even highly optimized models like the Gemma 4 12B require around 16GB of unified memory or VRAM to run alongside standard applications. Many standard-issue enterprise laptops lack the memory bandwidth and NPUs/GPUs required for fluid, multi-turn agentic execution.”

Anand Joshi, AI analyst at TechInsights, said local deployment also changes the nature of the workloads. On a PC, search may mean finding information across internal folders and files. In a data center, the same function could involve searching the internet or querying a large database such as SQL.

“The framework for local deployment of agentic AI is different from that of a data center,” Joshi said. “The models are smaller; you can run only one instance of a large model at a time. You are limited by memory, CPU, and so on.”

Security and governance are also likely to become bigger concerns as AI agents move closer to enterprise endpoints. Agentic AI is designed to take actions, creating new security risks when local models are given access to employee files or allowed to interact directly with applications and scripts.

“Sandboxing these agents without breaking their utility is still a major operational challenge,” Padhi added. “And all this while enterprises need to audit AI usage for compliance and security. When inference happens entirely offline, capturing logs, tracking model drift, and ensuring employees are using the approved, compliant ways for a model becomes incredibly difficult.”

The cost tradeoff

Running AI agents locally could reduce some cloud inference costs, but the savings may be offset in the near term by higher spending on endpoint hardware and management.

“First and foremost, it is an OpEx-to-CapEx shift, as it shifts that financial burden by forcing accelerated hardware refresh cycles for premium PCs or edge devices,” Padhi said. “It would require buying expensive, high-memory laptops for employees at a time when memflation in the hardware industry is already driving up end-user average selling prices for laptops.”

Many enterprises refreshed PCs in 2025 to support Windows 11, but at that point, most AI inference still ran in the cloud, and the case for on-device AI remained unclear, Padhi said.

Enterprises may therefore move cautiously, buying AI-capable PCs only where local inference has a clear business case.

Over time, however, on-device AI could make enterprise AI spending more predictable by reducing exposure to variable cloud inference bills. The tradeoff is that companies may face a higher baseline cost for equipping and managing employees’ devices.

Complementing cloud AI

For enterprises, local AI is unlikely to replace cloud-based AI outright. Analysts said local AI is more likely to be used for workloads that benefit from endpoint processing, especially when applications must operate offline or when privacy and response times are critical.

“For local agentic AI to proliferate, the use cases on edge will have to complement data center/cloud use cases,” Joshi said. “I don’t expect local agentic AI to replace cloud AI, but it has potential to take a slice away from the cloud, and models like Gemma are significant steps towards enabling that.”

The market, Joshi added, is still determining where local AI fits best. “I estimate that use cases that require privacy or have strict latency needs will move to local node first, with further migration of others in the next 2-3 years,” he said.

Padhi said model placement will depend on the privacy requirements of a workload, the computing power it needs, and where the relevant data resides. Tasks such as code generation or analysis of local files could increasingly run on employee devices, while enterprise-wide RAG systems and more complex AI workflows are likely to remain cloud-based.

The article originally appeared on InfoWorld.

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