The best cheap laptop deals in the January sales: prices start at £168

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If you're looking for the best cheap laptop deals, then you've come to the right place, especially as the January sales bargain season is in full swing. Many retailers are slashing prices in their laptop sales at numerous points of the year and our dedicated team of deal hunters are on the lookout to find the best laptop deals from the most reliable stores. So, for the best value cheap laptops, with genuine discounts over the trumped up fake 'deals' take a look below.

• Check out even more tech deals in our January sales roundup.

If you're after a cheap laptop for web browsing and other simple tasks, or you need a new laptop for school or work, or you simply need a really powerful laptop for as little money as possible, we've got you covered.

At the top of the page you'll find our selection of the latest and best cheap laptop deals of the week followed by a selection of popular quality laptops that retailers like to discount on a regular basis. Underneath those laptop deals you'll find our pick of the latest best laptops and the best available prices. If you're an Apple fan, be sure to take a look at our cheap MacBook deals page too.

If you're from the States or Down Under, be sure to check out our selection of the top laptop deals in the US or in Australia in our always-updated guides.

The best cheap laptop deal of the week

Other brilliant laptop deals this week

• Here's a larger selection of cheap gaming laptop deals

We'll continue adding the best laptop deals in the latest sales as we find them. Up next, you'll find the latest prices on some of the most popular laptops around, followed by the best deals on TechRadar's favourite laptops.

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Where to find more cheap laptop sales:

• Amazon: retail giant is often the cheapest in the UK.
• AO: lots of cheap laptops at this growing electronics specialist.
• Argos: home delivery or pick up a cheap laptop locally today.
• John Lewis: models come with at least two-year guarantee.
• Very: often has plenty of voucher codes or 'buy now pay later' options.
• ebuyer: the UK computing specialists have some great promotions.
• Laptops Direct: specialist UK store has a huge selection of laptop deals.
• Dell: get a great laptop deal direct from Dell.
• Currys: the retailer that's seemingly always having a sale.

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Popular cheap laptop deals

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There have been some generous offers lately for this popular Lenovo laptop series. Any choice between the 4GB and 12GB RAM options should run multiple applications at once. Hard drive sizes vary from 256GB SSD to 1TB in regular form. Some options also include dedicated Nvidia GeForce GTX 940MX graphics.

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At around £200, the HP Stream 14 is decent value if you're after something to cover the basics like web browsing or document editing. It's competitively priced again the cheaper Chromebooks out there despite the 14-inch screen and Windows 10 operating system.

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As one of the cheapest gaming laptops that will still run games at decent settings, the Acer Nitro 5 is well worth a look if you're wanting to get into PC gaming and play modern games too (just don't expect to be running Battlefield V on ultra settings ok?). The design is a bit plasticy and there's no SSD on the cheapest models, but given the low price and the power of the internal spec inside we're more than willing to look past that to get our gaming fix on the go.

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A sturdy choice for a study laptop for school/college/uni. The HP Pavilion 15 has more power that the average pupil needs while keeping the costs sensible. If you're not needing extra power of an expensive laptop for video/photo editing, this is more than enough for web browsing, playing some tunes on Spotify and editing coursework.

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From afar, this laptop might be mistaken for a MacBook Pro which tells you a lot about its level of quality. Don't expect a full metal chassis at this price, but this is probably one of the best looking plastic bodies in its category. There are plenty of ports (old and new), 4GB of RAM and a massive 1TB hard drive. The cheapest models have a respectable i3 processor, but you can get the more powerful i5 versions for not much more if you need that extra kick. Asus saw it fit to include a DVD writer as well as a 15.6-inch full HD screen. Despite this large display and the presence of a numeric keypad, it's just a tad thicker and heavier than an Ultrabook.

Why not upgrade your storage with a cheap hard drive or SSD? See the best hard drive and SSD deals. 

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This is the newer version of the Asus Transformer Mini series. This upgrade includes a fingerprint sensor and double the RAM at 4GB for speedier performance. For your money, this is one of the most impressive two-in-one transformer models out there.

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This is one of the larger Chromebook experience out there for someone looking for a full-sized laptop with an excellent screen at a super low cost. The 4GB of RAM running the Chrome OS is super fast and will allow you to really pile up tabs and apps without slowing down. The battery will easily last the best part of a day for most users too.

The best deals on our favourite laptops

We've reviewed loads of laptops over the years: we've seen the good ones, the great ones and the ones to avoid. Sometimes the best laptops pop up online at some truly deal-tastic prices. So in this section, we list the very best laptops out there and the best deals on each one.

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The Dell XPS 13 is, bar none, the best laptop you can buy today. It features a revolutionary design that's astonishingly thin and light. Fitting a 13.3-inch screen into such a small frame means Dell has created a nearly borderless Infinity display. It's a powerful and long lasting machine even by today's Ultrabook standards. The XPS 13 comes outfitted with Intel's latest Skylake processors plus lighting, quick storage and memory, all while coming in at a very affordable starting price. For these reasons, it easily takes the top slot as the best Ultrabook, the best Windows laptop and the best overall laptop.

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Looking for a quality gaming laptop but want to keep things under that unappealing £1000 mark? Then Dell has you covered with the Inspiron 15 Gaming range.

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The Asus Chromebook Flip isn't perfect, but it's an impressive little piece of kit. Plus, it's so affordable that you might want to pick one up just to have a Chromebook on hand – even if you already own a MacBook or Windows laptop. Aside from the budget price tag, the Flip is one of the best-built Chromebooks to blaze the trail onward for more convertibles. Touchscreen functionality feels more logical, with a screen that actually rotates. The Flip meets all the core tenants of an ideal Chrome OS device.

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This 10-inch hybrid comes packing a surprising amount of goods considering its small size. It's outfitted with an HD screen and more than enough power to get you through a simple day of web browsing and even image editing. When you're ready kick back with some media streaming, you can pop off the 10-inch tablet.

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The Asus Strix GL502 is undoubtedly one of the best gaming laptops around for gaming in 1080p. It'll run with the settings cranked with games like Overwatch not dipping below 60fps. The battery life isn't the best, but the display, performance and built-in sound system more than make up for it.

Lenovo has crafted a brilliant, forward-thinking device that could very well create a subcategory in computing all of its own. The modest specs hold it back from taking on the big boys in terms of raw power, but the innovative digital touchpad keyboard and drawing surface look like trendsetters to us. The Android version is currently about £100 cheaper than the Windows one.

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Can a tablet really replace your laptop or home PC? That's still up for debate, but the best tablet trying to make that happen is the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 - and it does a fine job with the full blown version of Windows 10, an integrated kickstand and optional keyboard attachment. Great for for creative professionals, students and everyday folks alike - it's only the premium price that push it down the list, but if you're willing to pay for it, you're getting a lot of power. A LOT.

• Best Laptop 2017: our pick of the 15 best laptops this year

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