AI-enhanced Windows laptops are already getting big Black Friday discounts – as a laptop expert, these are my 3 favourites

Want to upgrade to a cutting-edge, AI-enhanced Windows laptop this Black Friday? The latest models feature brand-new CPUs from AMD, Intel and Qualcomm that enable Microsoft’s Copilot+ AI assistant and generally help accelerate AI workloads. They also tend to have the latest features, such as infrared webcams for facial recognition logins, Thunderbolt 4 or USB 4 that can support multiple monitors, plus Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

The secret sauce in these new AI-focused devices is the NPU – a special processor that can very efficiently handle certain workloads. Microsoft’s Copilot+ AI assistant is one good example of those, and as well as having ChatGPT built in, it includes other great features like live translation, and there are many updates coming in the near future that will make it much more useful. NPUs are handy for other tasks too, like efficiently tackling the background blurring when on a video chat, so your laptop battery lasts longer when unplugged and runs cooler and quieter when plugged in.

Most of the AI-focused Windows laptops are only newly launched, and so far haven’t seen much in the way of price reductions. But now we’re in the final week of Black Friday sales, some great Copilot+ laptop deals have finally dropped. For example, my favourite laptop using the very new Intel Ultra 7 (Series 2) CPU is the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura. I was just at the Australian launch (and our review is still in progress), but I was very impressed during testing, and it’s currently a bargain thanks to an early 28% discount from Lenovo.

If that Lenovo doesn’t suit your particular needs, I have a couple of other favourites that are also on special.

Those aren’t the only AI-ready models discounted either – there’s a whole heap of major retailers offering big discounts on 2024 Copilot+ laptops, including:

Not enough? For even more laptop deals, check out our dedicated Black Friday laptop deals page, where I’m adding fresh bargains every day. Or browse the best MacBook deals, and take a look at our main Black Friday deals page for everything else.