The best cheap touchscreen laptop deals and sales for September 2021

Touchscreens proliferate in the modern world of mobile devices, and today, even laptops are frequently sporting these handy and versatile displays. If you want to give a touchscreen laptop a spin but the cost and complexity of a 2-in-1 doesn’t appeal to you, then you’ve still got a lot of options to choose from — so many that it can quickly cause choice paralysis when you’re shopping around online. Let us save you some time as well as money: We’ve already rounded up all the best touchscreen laptop deals that are on tap right now from all the big retailers across the web.

If you like touchscreens and want some extra versatility, then check out these 2-in-1 laptop deals once you’re done perusing these offerings.

Today’s best touchscreen laptop deals

How to choose a touchscreen laptop

Touch displays are hardly bleeding-edge technology in 2021, and both laptops and some all-in-one desktops are increasingly sporting these panels. There are even a few gaming laptops with touch displays (although they’re still pretty rare); the only place you won’t find touchscreens is on MacBooks. For whatever reason, Apple — usually no stranger to innovation — has declined to add touch displays to its iconic laptops. That, unfortunately, means that Mac OS fans are out of luck in terms of touchscreen laptop deals, but if you’re happy with Windows or Chrome OS, you’ve got plenty to choose from.

Before you dive into any of these touchscreen laptop sales in search of a new machine, however, you should do some pre-shopping research and planning. First, set a budget. There are plenty of good, cheap touchscreen laptops out there today, so don’t assume you have to spend a huge premium to get this feature. There are even some very affordable 2-in-1 touchscreen laptop deals if you want a convertible. The cheapest, and some of the best 2-in-1 laptops, are still Chromebooks, but you can find some budget-friendly Windows models, too.

Your budget will be the obvious limiting factor for what features and specs you get, but before you worry about bells and whistles like fold-flat displays or higher screen resolutions, remember that the hardware under the hood is what counts the most. The CPU and RAM, in particular, are the components that actually perform the computing tasks you need a PC to do. In general, we recommend the latest 10th- and 11th-gen Intel Core processors, as well as AMD Ryzen CPUs, along with at least 8GB of RAM. Those are solid specs for basic work tasks and general everyday use.

If you’re on a really tight budget or really only need a super-cheap laptop, then Chromebook deals are probably a better bet than Windows machines. Chrome OS software is largely cloud-based and less of a resource hog than other operating systems. Mobile CPUs (such as Celeron, Pentium, AMD A-series, and MediaTek) along with 4GB and pared-down flash storage are common on cheap Chromebooks and are OK so long as you understand that these computers aren’t made for anything other than basic use. If that’s all you need, though, then there will be plenty of touchscreen laptop deals in this bracket.

If you can stretch your budget, then stronger hardware is always going to translate to better performance as well as additional future-proofing. Intel Core i5, i7, and even i9 processors, as well as AMD Ryzen 5, 7, and 9 CPUs, are what we recommend, and 16GB RAM is arguably the sweet spot when it comes to memory. You’ll also find larger 512GB to 1TB solid-state drives once you move past the $600 to $700 price range for touchscreen laptop deals, entering the upper echelon of the best touchscreen laptops.

Moving past the $1,000 mark gets you into the high-end touchscreen laptop sales, where you’ll find some of our own favorite models like the Dell XPS, HP Spectre, and Lenovo ThinkPad X series of ultrabooks and 2-in-1s. These typically boast better displays and improved build quality over their competitors, and you will pay a premium for that. Some, like the Dell XPS 15, may even sport discrete Nvidia GeForce GPUs, making them suitable for gaming and for graphically demanding jobs like video rendering. Core i7, Core i9, Ryzen 7, and Ryzen 9 CPUs paired with 16GB to 32GB of RAM are what you should look for at these prices.

If the sky’s the limit and you want one of the best laptops on the shelves, then it’s time to start looking for value-added features beyond simple hardware upgrades (as important as they are). Consider upgrading to a QHD or 4K touch display, for example, and you’ll see at least a few of those when shopping through touchscreen laptop sales from top brands like Dell and HP. The aforementioned Dell XPS and HP Spectre lines often feature these Ultra HD panels, to name just two. Some other extras to look for are included stylus pens or even completely detachable keyboards, as in the case of certain Microsoft Surface models.

Finally, a note on size: Touchscreen laptop deals range in size from 11-inch Chromebooks to beefy 17-inch desktop replacements, so pay attention to weight and dimensions when shopping. Chances are good that you already have a laptop size you feel comfortable with, but if you find standard 15.6-inch screens too bulky, now might be a fine time to move down to 14 or even 13 inches. Some makers like Microsoft and Acer have also been introducing smaller laptops with 3:2 screens (instead of the standard 16:9 aspect ratio), giving you more vertical screen real estate that is great for productivity.

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