Missed Black Friday? When to Buy Your Christmas Laptop in 2025

[Last updated: December 2025]

So Black Friday happened. You weren't ready. Maybe the kids were screaming or maybe you just couldn't face the thought of wrestling with forty browser tabs at midnight.

Whatever the reason, here you are in December without a new laptop, wondering if you've blown your one shot at a decent deal.

Deep breath. You haven't.

We've spent more hours than we'd like to admit tracking laptop prices across the year, and here's the honest truth: Black Friday gets all the glory, but it's far from your only window. Let us walk you through when laptops actually go on sale – and more importantly, whether those "sales" are even real.

First things first: the laptop price calendar

Before we get into the evidence (yes, there's actual evidence – we're not just making this up), here's the landscape. Laptop prices follow a fairly predictable rhythm throughout the year, and once you know it, you can stop feeling like you're playing some sort of retail lottery.

Late November is the big one – Black Friday and its digital sidekick, Cyber Monday. You know this bit already. What you might not know is that these two events have basically merged into one long sales blob. The old distinction – Black Friday for physical shops, Cyber Monday for online – died somewhere around 2020 when we all started buying everything in our pyjamas.

December – that's now, by the way – isn't a write-off. Retailers want your Christmas moolah, and they're still running promotions. Not as aggressive as Black Friday's headline grabbers, but solid enough if you know what you're after. There may be fewer bargains, but the one’s left may even be juicier in discount.

Boxing Day through mid-January is the sleeper hit. Honestly? Sometimes it's better than Black Friday. Shops are desperate to clear Christmas stock before the new financial quarter, which means they're motivated in a way that works in your favour. Plus, there's no countdown timer making you panic-buy at 2am.

Spring (March-April) brings what we call the "new models squeeze." All those shiny laptops announced at CES in January start landing on shelves, and last year's perfectly-good machines need to shift. Want flagship specs without flagship prices? This is your window.

Back-to-school season (August-September) is the other genuine discount period. The NPD Group – a market research firm that actually tracks this stuff – confirms it's one of only two times when laptop prices properly drop across the industry. Not marketing fluff. Actual data.

Okay but when is actually the best time?

Here's where things get spicy.

Which? – you know, the UK consumer watchdog that doesn't mess about – did some research into Black Friday 2023 deals. They looked at 227 products across eight major retailers.

Their finding? 92% of those "deals" were the same price or cheaper at other times of the year.

Ninety-two percent.

Let that sink in for a moment. All that midnight scrolling, all that "ONLY 3 LEFT!" panic, all those "Was £999, Now £649!" banners – and nine times out of ten, you could've got the same price by waiting a few weeks. Or by looking a few weeks earlier.

Now, this doesn't mean Black Friday is completely useless. That remaining 8% of genuine deals can still save you a chunk of change if you happen to want those specific products. But it does mean you can't trust the "was/now" price you see on screen. Retailers have become very skilled at making ordinary prices look like the sale of the century.

The NPD Group's data backs up what we suspected: Black Friday and back-to-school are the two genuine discount periods. But the Which? research adds an important caveat – those Black Friday discounts only count if you verify they're real.

So what's the verdict?

Joint winners: Black Friday/Cyber Monday and Back-to-School (August-September) – but only if you do your homework on price history.

Strong runners-up: January sales and spring clearance. They might not have the flashy headlines, but the lack of time pressure means you're less likely to buy something rubbish in a panic.

Consolation prize: Right now, December. Many Black Friday deals have been quietly extended, and you can still find great savings without the chaos - which also means you’re less likely to make a rushed flawed decision.

Wait, do shops actually keep Black Friday prices going?

Yes! And they're getting more shameless about it every year.

The retail industry has basically invented a new thing called "Black November" – which sounds like a particularly grim James Bond film but is actually just shops running their "Black Friday" promotions for the entire month.

John Lewis announced in 2023 they'd spread their Black Friday deals "all month long." Most major retailers have followed suit. The idea of a single frantic Friday is pretty much dead. Currys, Amazon, Argos – they typically keep discounts running well into December.

What this means for you: if you're reading this in early December, many of those Black Friday prices are probably still available. You just won't see the same hysteria in the marketing.

What about Cyber Monday? Does it still matter?

Honestly? Not really. Not as a separate thing, anyway.

Cyber Monday was invented in 2005 – back when people still had desktop computers at work with better internet than they had at home. The idea was that everyone would do their online shopping on Monday morning using their office connection.

That world doesn't exist anymore. Most of us have better WiFi at home than at work, and we definitely have fewer colleagues looking over our shoulders while we browse for laptops.

These days, treat Black Friday through Cyber Monday as one continuous sales window. Most UK retailers run identical promotions across both. Occasionally Cyber Monday will have a few extra deals on stuff that didn't sell over the weekend – so it's worth a quick look if you've been watching a specific machine – but don't expect a dramatically different experience.

Right, what should I actually do?

You've got options. Good ones, too.

Need a laptop before Christmas?
Shop now. Seriously, just do it. Many Black Friday prices have been extended, and waiting risks the thing you want going out of stock. You might not get the absolute rock-bottom price of the year, but you'll get something in the 10-20% off range, and more importantly, you'll have a laptop in time for Christmas. Sometimes good enough is genuinely good enough.

Can you wait until January?
Mark Boxing Day in your calendar and use the next few weeks to research. The January sales regularly match or beat Black Friday prices, and you'll have time to actually think about what you're buying rather than panic-clicking at midnight.

Got your eye on something specific?
Set a price alert and wait. Tools like CamelCamelCamel (for Amazon) or PriceSpy (for broader UK retail) let you track price history and get notified when something drops. This approach takes patience, but it's basically free money if you're not in a rush.

How do I know if a deal is actually real?

After reading that Which? stat, you're right to be suspicious.

Here's the thing: retailers are legally required to have sold something at the "was" price for a reasonable period before advertising it as reduced. But "reasonable" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence, and enforcement is… patchy.

Signs of a genuine deal:

• The price history confirms it. If the laptop has been bouncing between £600 and £700 for six months and suddenly it's £500, that's probably real. If the "was £900" price only existed for three days in August, that's creative accounting.
• The "was" price matches other retailers. If Currys is claiming it was £800 but John Lewis and Amazon have been selling it at £650 all year, something's off.
• It's a current or recent model. Genuine sales happen on laptops retailers actually want to shift. If something's three generations old and they're finally discounting it, that's not a sale – that's stock clearance.

Red flags:

• Dramatic drops that seem too good to be true. "Was £1,499, now £799" is the classic. Sometimes these are real. Often they're calculated against a fantasy price.
• Vague specs. "Intel processor" instead of "Intel Core i5-1335U" suggests someone doesn't want you looking too closely. Specificity builds trust; vagueness hides mediocrity.
• Pressure tactics. Countdown timers, "only 2 left" warnings, emails screaming about "LAST CHANCE" – these are designed to make you buy before you think. Good retailers don't need to panic you into a purchase.

What a discount actually buys you

Here's the thing about finding a good deal: you have a choice to make.

Option one: pocket the savings. If you were planning to spend £600 and you find a solid laptop for £480, that's £120 back in your pocket. Job done.

Option two: spend your original budget but get more laptop. That same £600 could now stretch to a machine that would normally cost £750. Better processor, more RAM, nicer screen – specs that'll keep the laptop feeling snappy for longer.

Neither choice is wrong. But to make it, you need to know what specs actually matter. So let's demystify this quickly – no jargon headaches, just what you need to know.

The specs that actually affect your life

Processor (the brain): Look for AMD Ryzen 5 or Intel Core i5. Anything below this – Ryzen 3, Core i3, Celeron, Pentium – will feel sluggish within a year or two. The numbers after the name (like "1335U") indicate generation; higher is generally newer. But honestly, any current Ryzen 5 or Core i5 will handle normal life without drama.

RAM (short-term memory): 8GB is the minimum for comfortable daily use – browser tabs, documents, video calls. 16GB gives you breathing room and future-proofing. If you're choosing between two similar laptops and one has 16GB, that's the one to pick.

Storage: 256GB SSD minimum. SSDs (Solid State Drives) are standard now – if anyone tries to sell you a traditional spinning hard drive in 2025, back away slowly. 256GB works if you use cloud storage; 512GB is more comfortable for most people.

So what does this mean for your deal-hunting?

Under £500: You're in the "perfectly sensible" zone. At this price, aim for Ryzen 5/Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD. You'll probably compromise on screen quality or build materials – that's fine. The laptop will work.

£500-£800: This is where discounts get interesting. A laptop that normally sits at £750 dropping to £600 means you're getting 16GB RAM, 512GB storage, and a noticeably better screen for mid-range money. Last year's mid-range often beats this year's budget model.

Above £800: Hunt for previous-generation flagships at 20-30% off. A top-tier 2024 machine discounted beats a mid-tier 2025 machine at full price. Business-class laptops (ThinkPads, Latitudes, EliteBooks) sometimes appear at this price point – they're built to survive actual life.

A few things people forget

Battery life claims are optimistic. "Up to 12 hours" means 12 hours if you dim the screen and disable WiFi. In real use, halve whatever they claim.

Webcams matter now. Thanks to remote work, that tiny camera affects your professional life. Most are still mediocre, but some manufacturers have finally started trying.

USB-C is essential. One cable for charging, displays, and data. If a laptop only has old-style USB-A ports, it's either ancient or extremely budget.

Right then, what now?

Here's the thing to remember: you don't need to find the best deal of the year. You don't need to hunt down the lowest price ever recorded on a spreadsheet somewhere. You just need one laptop that meets your needs, at a price you're comfortable with.

And that deal could be sitting on a retailer's website right now.

If you need a laptop before Christmas, go buy one. The prices are decent, the stock is still available, and a laptop in your hands beats a theoretical better deal in January. You're not competing against every bargain hunter in the country – you're just looking for the one machine that fits your life.

If you can wait, do your research over the next few weeks and pounce on Boxing Day or the January sales. Set alerts. Compare prices. Take your time.

Either way, stop feeling guilty about missing Black Friday. The evidence suggests most of those "deals" weren't real anyway. And honestly? The best time to buy a laptop isn't a magic date on the calendar – it's whenever you find something that does what you need, at a price that doesn't sting.

That moment could be today. It's always worth looking.

You've got this.

Last updated: December 2025