As a brief aside, the Apple Store's usual Black Friday gift card offer will be live starting Nov. 29; M2 and M3 MacBooks will come with free vouchers worth up to $200. That doesn't beat any of the dollars-off discounts available elsewhere, but it could be a practical option for those enmeshed in the Apple ecosystem.

One huge highlight is the latest Microsoft Surface Laptop at Amazon for $1,099.99 (was $1,299.99). That's a $200 saving off the regular price, but crucially, this is an all-time low for the laptop. Since its launch earlier this year, the laptop has rarely dipped in price until the last few weeks.

Target Black Friday laptop deals include some of the best discounts I've seen. The best laptop deal I found at Target for Black Friday is the HP Essential laptop for just $499 ($350 off). For the average user who needs a laptop to work on cloud-based documents,